What do fishing and leadership have to do with each other? Maybe you think that fishing is something you do after you have retired from leadership, but not so. In this piece written by Monte Burke and posted on Forbes, we see how we can get leadership skills from a fishing guide – someone who is dealing with a wide variety of people and personalities on a daily basis.
Leadership Skills from a Fishing Guide
Guiding is an unusual job. These small business owners–entrepreneurs, really–work in an office that’s as unpredictable as it is beautiful, in close and constant contact with their often demanding clients for a full day and sometimes even longer. Perhaps only golf caddies come close to having the demands put upon a fishing guide. A guide is, simultaneously, a coach, a temporary employee, a therapist and even a doctor. We pay them to show us where the fish are and how to catch them. They soothe our bruised egos when we miss that shot at a big fish. They occasionally have to pull hooks out of our heads.
Legendary Everglades fishing guide, Steve Huff, once told me that his job is, simply, to “make an angler’s dream come true.” That’s a decent amount of pressure to put on oneself.
I’ve found that fishing guides, because of the many hats they are forced to wear, and the multitude of personalities they are forced to deal with, tend to have a great perspective on the way the world works. Recently, I asked four of the best fishing guides in the business to tell me the best leadership lessons they’ve learned from guiding, advice that is applicable to many different jobs, both on and off the water.
If you would have never dreamed that you can learn leadership skills from a fishing guide, then perhaps you have missed other opportunities to learn from the unexpected. Always keep your eyes open for opportunities to learn and become better.
