Last weekend, during a team meeting, my manager asked me a simple question: whether there were any skills I felt I needed to improve. If so, I could consider and propose a course, the team still had a budget set aside for that.
It reminded me of my early days at work, when I first got my hands on a professional camera from the company. I wasn’t familiar with the equipment, so I left everything on auto - the camera’s default setting, and still ended up with underexposed images.
My manager asked me: Where exactly was the problem? Was it because I didn’t know how to adjust the settings, or did we need additional equipment like a flash? If needed, I could take a photography course.
True strength is lifting others up and helping them take flight.
That moment brought back a story I once came across online - a conversation between two managers:
“What if we train them and they leave?”
“What if we don’t train them, and they stay?”
I know there are people who believe that you shouldn’t teach employees too much. Because once they become capable, they might outgrow you, replace you, or simply leave, along with many other fears.
But I see it differently.
True strength lies in being able to lift others onto your shoulders and help them take flight.
Because the world is not a zero-sum game. It is not that if you gain, I must lose. There is enough room for both of us, for all of us, to grow, succeed, and thrive.
There is a concept from The Diamond Cutter that has always stayed with me: “Give what you want.”
If you want to become something, help others become it first.
If you want success, help others succeed.
If you want strong people around you, help them become strong.
If you want to move forward, help others move forward first.
A recent work trip. My manager had been there many times before, enough for it to feel routine, yet she went again so I could experience it.
I believe in that. So in my work, I try to be a steady support for my manager, someone they can rely on so they can focus on moving forward with confidence.
I try to show up with enough commitment for them to know they are not alone, and that there will always be someone who quietly shares in their pride and joy when things go well.
In the spirit of paying it forward, I hope to pass on what I have been given to those who come after me.
And I hope that one day, I will also have people around me who make me feel just as grounded and supported as I do now with my current manager.
Going back to that conversation between the two managers, it ended with a simple but powerful line:
“Train them well enough so they can leave. And treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”