One day the lion in the neighbouring forest invited all inhabitants of adjacent jungle across the river to a dinner. Participation was mandatory. Both hare and tortoise knew their strengths and weaknesses and also challenges and chances. Hare was lightning fast on the ground but dreaded the sea; turtle was slow but steady and could swim well.
Both of them disliked each other. Tortoise had beaten hare in a forest race through consistency and steadfastness; hare soon took the revenge through sheer speed; tortoise went one up again through strategically selecting a finish line beyond a river. Poor hare couldn’t cross it and lost again despite winning on the ground comfortably.
They both decided to join hands together to reach the lion’s dinner in time. As the hare and tortoise began, we started to witness a remarkable display of teamwork and collaboration. On the ground, rabbit carried the turtle on his back and on the waters, vice versa. By pooling their strengths, they exemplify the impact of synergy in achieving shared goals.
Their triumphant arrival at the party, met with admiration from the lion. The hare and tortoise’s newfound friendship serves as a testament to the power of teamwork, demonstrating that by embracing diversity and working together, remarkable achievements can be realized.
As sales engineers and entrepreneurs, let us heed the lessons of the hare and the tortoise, embracing collaboration, leveraging strengths, and fostering a culture of teamwork that propels us towards excellence. Together, we can overcome challenges, seize chances, and attain success that surpasses individual capabilities.
Joe Girard was Guinness Salesman of the year for many years; it is said, Joe used to sell over ten thousand cars in a year i.e. more than thirty cars every day. How did he achieve it? Unlike all other contemporary sales persons, he had great camaraderie and teamwork with everyone who mattered (or even didn’t). He had great relationships not only with customers, automakers and dealers but people and departments within his own organization. People from Design and Development, Supply Chain Management, Finance and Accounting, Engineering and Services, Corporate & IT; peons and gatekeepers etc. were his greatest friends and supporters. It was a team work par excellence. This team work resulted in a great bunch of very loyal and delighted customers who readily and happily referred their families, friends and acquaintances to Joe Gerard. If Joe can do it, we can too!
THE MORAL OF THE STORY:
It is good to be individually brilliant and have strong core competencies but unless you are able to work as a team and harness each other’s capabilities you will always perform below par because there will always be situations in which you do poorly and someone else does well. Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership letting the person with relevant core competency take charge of the situation as a leader.
