I once hired a smart and confident-looking sales head in one of my previous companies. But when I showed him some basic data analysis/tracking that he had to do using Excel, he seemed uncomfortable.
So I asked him point blank, “Do you know how to use Excel?”
He said, “Yes, kind of. I am not an expert but I can manage.”
But I later discovered that he knew nothing about Excel — he could not even add two cells. Anyway, no big deal since his core job was sales.
So I told him to learn Excel quickly. However, two weeks later, I found him just as clueless. Every time I reminded him, he would give vague assurances, but he never learnt it.
In the end, he quit for other reasons.
What surprised me is that he was a reasonably smart guy. Then what came in his way?
I think it was his lack of self-belief — he assumed that Excel was too complicated for him. And when you believe you can’t do something, it becomes real.
And here is the biggest irony — had he invested half the time he wasted dodging me, he would have learned Excel reasonably well.
Dodging and shortcut-seeking take much longer than facing a problem head-on.
All you need is to get started. And the self-belief that you can do it.
– Rajan