Leaders are lifelong learners. This is not news but a fact of life in leadership. The fact that leaders are also teachers may be a new idea to some. The December issue of Fast Company arrived last week and has an interesting article on “16 Ways to Be a Smarter Teacher.” The magazine gave us permission to include the following excerpts and we’ve picked 10 points that seem especially appropriate for EXPLORER readers. An essential part of being a leader is being a good teacher. How else do you persuade everyone in an organization to move in the same direction? How do you ensure that people at every level understand the priorities of the moment? How do you develop the leaders of tomorrow? You teach. Good teaching, it turns out, is universal. Whether the topic is a new product launch, social studies, or triple bypass, the same principles and many of the same techniques apply. What do great teachers do that you should be doing in your role as a leader? Read on.

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU; IT’S ABOUT THEM. Some teachers see themselves as the designated expert whose role is to impart their knowledge to students who are empty vessels. The best instructors see themselves as guides. They share what they know, but they understand that their students are the focus.

STUDENTS TAKE RISKS WHEN TEACHERS CREATE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT. Learning requires vulnerability, says Michele Forman, the 2001 National Teacher of the Year. Students have to acknowledge what they don’t know, take risks, and re-think what they thought they knew. That can be an uncomfortable -or even scary- situation for anyone.

GREAT TEACHERS EXUDE PASSION AS WELL AS PURPOSE. The difference between a good teacher and a great one isn’t expertise. It comes down to passion. Passion for the material. Passion for teaching. If the teacher has it, the students will most likely catch it.

KEEP IT CLEAR EVEN IF YOU CAN’T KEEP IT SIMPLE. One of the chief attributes of a great teacher is the ability to break down complex ideas and make them understandable. These days, the same can be said for business leaders, says Gary Grates, executive director of internal communications at General Motors. In fact, he says the essence of teaching -and learning- is communications. “The biggest issue that leaders face is whether people understand them,” says Grates. “Whether you’re talking about Wall Street, partners, customers, or employees, people must understand the organization’s story–where it’s headed, why you’re making these changes, how you work, and how you think. That’s why teaching is important.”

PRACTICE VULNERABILITY WITHOUT SACRIFICING CREDIBILITY. To some people, being a teacher -or a leader- means appearing as though you have all the answers. Any sign of vulnerability or ignorance is seen as a sign of weakness. Those people can make the worst teachers, says Parker Palmer, a longtime instructor and author of THE COURAGE TO TEACH. Sometimes the best answer a teacher can give is “I don’t know.” Instead of losing credibility, the teacher gains students’ trust, and that trust is the basis of a productive relationship. “We all know that perfection is a mask,” says Palmer, “So we don’t trust the people behind the know-it-all masks. They’re not being honest with us. The people with whom we have the deepest connections are those who acknowledge their struggles to us.” Acknowledging what you don’t know shows that you are still learning, that the teacher is, in fact, still a student. For the leader of an organization, this is a delicate balancing act.

TEACH FROM THE HEART. The best teaching is not formulae; it’s personal. The act of teaching requires the courage to explore one’s sense of identity. “If you don’t fully know yourself,” Palmer says, “You can’t fully know your students, and therefore, you can’t connect with them.” Maybe the jazz musician Charlie Parker put it best: “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”

REPEAT THE IMPORTANT POINTS. If you want the employees to remember the new mission statement or market strategy, you need to give it to them more than once. “The first time you say something, it’s heard,” says William Rastetter, the CEO of Idec Pharamaceuticals. “The second time, it’s recognized, and the third time, it’s learned.” The challenge is to become consistent without being predictable or boring. The best teachers keep it fresh by finding new ways to express the same points.

GOOD TEACHERS ASK GOOD QUESTIONS. Effective teachers understand that learning is about exploring the unknown and that such exploration begins with questions. Not questions that are simply lectures in disguise. Not yes-or-no questions that don’t spark lively discussion. But questions that open a door to deeper understanding, such as “How does that work?” and “What does that mean?” Grates’ favorite question is “Why?” If you want to get to the heart of something, ask ‘why’ five times,” he says. Teaching executives ask their colleagues, “What if we did the opposite of what you are suggesting?” The idea is not to undermine a decision but to bolster it through a thorough examination of the options – even the outlandish ones.

YOU’RE NOT PASSING OUT INFORMATION. YOU’RE TEACHING PEOPLE HOW TO THINK. The best instructors are less interested in the answers than the thinking behind them. What leaders have to offer is a “teachable point of view” says author and business school professor Noel Tichy, “The best teaching leaders help people learn how to think on their own rather than telling them what to think.”

STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING. When it comes to teaching, what you do is nearly as important as what you say. After all, your students are watching you. One way to show that you care about them, and are interested in them, is by listening. Effective learning is a two-way street: It’s a dialogue, not a monologue.

“Used with permission of Leadership Network, 800-765-5323, http://www.leadnet.org”

Reprinted from the December 2001 issue of Fast Company magazine. All rights reserved. To subscribe, please call 800-542-6029 or visit http://www.fastcompany.com

You cannot lead people if you need people A co-dependent relationship seldom goes forward. If you need people’s acceptance and approval you will never successfully lead them. The moment I need your affirmation and approval I will not make a decision as a leader for fear it may jeopardise my relationship with you. Nothing is more unhealthy than as co-dependent marriage in which there cannot be honest disagreement and differences. There is nothing worse than a person in leadership who so desperately needs the people they lead that they cannot make the right decisions because of their need of constant approval and acceptance. I have known wonderful leaders who had great potential but because of their co-dependent relationship with people when they started to climb and go forward and see their goals begin to be realised they would allow someone else who was never going to get there, who never even wanted to get there, to reach up and pull them back down and reduce them to average and mundaneness. John Maxwell.

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