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Rutendo Gwatidzo, Changing Perspectives
The Bible in Proverbs 27 v 17 says “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” I really like this scripture because it forces me to introspect often times especially before offering any mentorship, coaching or teaching in general.
It takes iron to sharpen iron. In other words, it takes experience to be able to teach others well. Experience can be found in many forms; it can be positive or negative. Experience can be in doing or not doing. Whichever way one gets experience is good enough to assist in sharing life lessons with others.
The interesting part though, is that of having many teachers who like teaching yet not liking learning. Often times, teaching others is easy but, teaching self is usually such a mission if accomplished.
One author once said, “everyone can make an error but, that error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” Being open to correction is not easy as it makes one vulnerable. For that reason, a good number of people do not like to be corrected because they feel like they are showing signs of weakness.
Many people view corrections negatively yet these are the growth points that are supposed to take us to another level better. I remember growing up, I used to hate school work corrections a lot. Doing corrections sounded like a very bad thing because those who offered the corrections would make me together and others feel less superior and dull. The situation created unhealthy competition where other students would cheat and get to copy others or copy from the unauthorized material which would make the situation worse upon being caught. The effort in doing all that was towards avoiding doing corrections.
In most cases, the teachers would ask those who would have passed well to teach others on how to get it right. Frequent times, it was the same people who used to do better than others and because of that, they became familiar with teaching others. The challenge would come on a day that the smart guys would miss it and then the teachers would still ask those who would have done well to teach others.
On a number of occasions, some of the smart guys would then find it very difficult to listen to those they deemed dull. The smart guys were usually those that would fall in the top 5 and top 10 as well. Their attitude of not wanting to learn from others continued to grow and to make it worse they would not study together with others.
I remember when grade 7 results came out, we were so surprise to learn that 6 of the students who used to be in the top 10 had been overtaken. That is when I learnt a valuable lesson that no matter how good you are at doing something, you need others to challenge what you do for the better. We all need continuous growth and it comes as a result of continuous learning.
Continuous learning and transforming yourself gives light to the whole world around you. You need to constantly check on who taught you what you get to teach others. If you find yourself referring to yourself all the time, then you definitely need to correct some errors. For many, teaching others sound easier than being a student yet the opposite is true because as a teacher you will be hold accountable and responsible.
Many employees long to be managers so that they get to lead, control, guide and direct others because from the terraces, leading seems so easy and attractive. Yet, things are not always what they seem. According to the research I did with five organisations this past week, most of the managers wish to turn back the hands of time so that they undo the management positions that they have. When I asked the reasons why, interestingly the one that was mentioned the most is the pain of being responsible and accountable for a team that does not comply with the teachings given.
When I dug deep, I realized that most of the long serving managers had become redundant over years, they constantly dish out while training others and leading others without receiving the same.
I would like to challenge company owners to invest in leadership development programs so that managers do not wear out. The same way they teach others, they need to be taught also. The same way they guide others, they need to be guided as well. It takes iron to sharpen iron. For them to produce quality, they have to be quality themselves.
In order to be more effective in what you do whether as a leader or not, selfintrospection is good. Before dishing out anything to anyone, self-check and ask yourself who is dishing towards you also. Be inspired to make it a daily habit to ask yourself questions like where do I need to improve and who can help me to improve.
The question applies in every aspect of your life and it comes along with continuous development. People who self-correct grow faster than those that wait for others to discover that they need to be corrected.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is the managing consultant at The HUB HR Consultancy – as a Culture and Change Management Specialist. She is a multi-award winning leader, consultant, speaker and coach. She is also an Author of Born to Fight and Breaking the Silence books. Contact detail – 0714575805/ [email protected]/ Rutendo Gwatidzo_Official fb public page
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