Best Practices

AshleyEaglesonPhotography

By Will Hall

Executive Summary:

I can’t give what I don’t possess, but through learning I can possess endless possibilities.

William R. Hall III is Chief Executive Officer for Beacon Partners Consulting in southwest Roanoke County. Reach him at will.hall@ partnerwithbeacon.com

How can learning, impact your business?

Henry Ford may have said it best, “Surround yourself with people that know more than you. One does not need to be able to do it all- one does need to know how to get the task at hand accomplished.” As a consultant, I spend a lot of time being the one that “knows how to get the task at hand accomplished.” However, I’m always trying to learn and surround myself with people that know more than me. I’d like to think that in doing that on occasion I learn something that I can apply or keep, to use down the road.

Recently, I attended the Roanoke Leadership Breakfast at Hotel Roanoke. There the guest speaker was Jeremie Kubicek. He spoke on building better leaders and likened it to the Sherpa, genetically predestined to be able to operate in extreme altitude situations [most notably as guides in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal] that most humans can’t sustainably function in for longer periods of time.

I found the analogy very interesting personally and in reading the room, found that most people did as well. I spoke with Jeremie afterwards and discussed how our business could begin to offer their leadership training as part of our offerings. He said they had a certification process for partners and that would certainly be open to having a further conversation about what that might look like for us. After LEARNING about how they thought about things, did business and the tools and resources they were able to provide, it was a natural fit. These past few weeks as I have worked through the certification process (still not quite done). I’ve learned an enormous amount about myself, my interactions in relationships and with my team.

Two key takeaways I’ve had so far: one, you can’t give what you don’t possess. Second is that having impact is about multiplication. They use it in a leadership setting but for me personally, I see it across more than just that. By being able to learn and possess something and then teach it to someone you are in a sense multiplying your success. As the adage says, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” That’s ultimately what my goal is in any client interaction and what I feel like makes us good at what we do. Anyone can be told what to do, but teaching someone how and the WHY is super important to sustained success. And in business, isn’t that what we want, to make an impact and have sustainable success?