Frank, a woodcutter, applied for a job with a timber merchant. And he got it! The job was a really good one, so Frank was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area to work in. The first day, Frank brought 21 trees back to the factory.
“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Keep it up!”
Very motivated by the boss’s words, Frank tried harder the next day. But he only brought back 17 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he only brought back 10 trees. He went to the boss and apologized. “I don’t understand what is going on.”
“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?”, asked the boss.
“Sharpen? I have had no time to sharpen my axe. I’ve been too busy cutting down trees.”
[…]
The truth is, we live in a society that values skills, but everyone is obsessed with results. If you are a HR manager, you know that when employees spend time away from their jobs for training that productivity suffers, and quality training programs are expensive. You can easily get bogged down by focusing on results, when you should really be building skills. At eSkill, we help you identify who needs training in which specific skills in a way that doesn’t waste your resources, and provides focused training with guaranteed results.
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3 Comments
I loved your story about Frank and his boss. So many of us forget we need to sharpen our skills, no matter what our job position. How can we evolve if we don’t pay attention to our own needs first?
I hate when bosses expect workers to work smarter and achieve great results quickly and yet they haven’t invested in training. Thank you for your story. I will show it to my boss. I have more courage to ask my boss for training with this as evidence.
Skills training helped me come a long way. I’ve never stopped learning, and I went from an employee to having my own business in just 3 years.