After walking about ½ a mile
I saw Lee looking around for the training site and getting noticeably anxious
when he couldn’t locate it. He stopped
the group, sought me out and asked if I knew where we were. I reminded him that as a future officer it
was his responsibility to know his location.
Lee gave me the 1,000 yard stare and was clearly confused about what he
should do next.
After a couple of minutes I began
to coach Lee by asking him what aids he had to help him find his location. He pulled out his map. When I asked him about his compass, Lee
responded he hadn’t brought it along.
The group looking to him to figure out what to do was getting him more
rattled by the moment.
As adults we learn by trial
and error and this means being unsuccessful at times. In order to develop employees they need to be
given the opportunity to grow using this method of trial and error and to be
allowed to fail. This process is not without costs. It is hard to stand by and watch someone go
down the wrong road and be willing to pay the consequences. However, giving someone the opportunity to be
unsuccessful will reimburse itself many times over as employees enhance their
skills and return even greater value to the company.
Lee figured out where he was
and moved the group to the training site.
After that incident he could be seen rehearsing the next route with map
and compass in hand. I doubt as an Army
Officer Lee ever went to the field without making sure he knew where he was
going.
