We’ve all heard variations of the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” Regardless of the wording, the message is clear: embrace the enduring value of enabling self-sufficiency. Not to mention keeping your own fish stockpile intact.
The beauty of leveraging teachable moments came early in the career of Steve Sharkey. Blessed with 36 years of technical proficiency experience, Sharkey has carved out an impressive career in, among other things, mentoring and teaching entry-level technicians and service managers alike. So used to taking a hands-on approach to solving technical issues, Sharkey came to the realization early in his managerial career that there was more value in taking advantage of the teaching/coaching moment. Enabling the self-sufficiency also freed Sharkey up to solve other issues.
“Going back to my days in the dealer side of the business, the big payoff for me has always been teaching,” said Sharkey, a 2020 ENX Magazine Difference Maker. “Helping someone learn more and enhance their skill set has always been the big payoff for me. Thinking back to before I even got into the industry, I think I have always had that trait.”
Currently a performance analyst for NEXERA, Sharkey is merely paying forward gratitude for those who took the time to coach and mentor him in the years since he completed his course work at Electronics Institute in 1984. He now aims to help others advance in their proficiencies. But he cautions that experience and knowledge don’t necessarily equate becoming irreplaceable, and those who assure themselves by thinking “no one else can do what I do” are often unpleasantly surprised.
“My old boss always told me you can’t move up in an organization until you’ve trained your replacement,” he said. “I’ve always taken that to heart.”
Winning Combination
Sharkey was also fortunate earlier in his career to work under an owner who had a service background as opposed to sales and marketing, a mentor who showed him the nuances of running a service department. Thus, when he joined NEXERA in 2005, Sharkey was able to combine those skills with a deeper understanding of the data and numbers that drive business. Sharkey has been blessed to work alongside, and be mentored by some of the brightest individuals in the industry.
Navigating the business landscape has been particularly challenging in light of coronavirus, and both Sharkey and NEXERA have focused their efforts on providing the dealer community with new reports and solutions to carry them through the pandemic period and beyond. It has produced change on an unprecedented scale.
The path to growth, Sharkey believes, begins with keeping an open mind. “We all can learn something new,” he said. “Don’t disregard a new idea because it comes from someone younger or perhaps less experienced in a given field. There are great ideas everywhere if you’re willing to listen.”
Steve and Denise Sharkey have been together 40 years, 38 of them as husband and wife. They have a son, David, who is 27. Sharkey enjoys golfing, target shooting and working in the yard. When the skies are blue and free of rain clouds, he likes to drop the top of his 1968 Pontiac Firebird and take a road trip for tacos and Margaritas.
