For the past few Septembers, it has been my good fortune to remake a journey of my youth in pursuit of education. My role is different now as the teacher instead of student, but the excitement that I have for the experience is the same.
I love the nervous energy that surrounds starting a new class. New faces and voices…an engaging topic and a fresh start for everyone.
From the moment that I step off of the train and start the mile or so walk from the station to DePaul’s downtown Chicago campus at State and Jackson, I can feel the adrenaline start to kick in. It’s partly excitement over the upcoming class and just a bit of the joy of a momentary return to my youth. I’m very aware that I trudged these same steps as a graduate student a quarter of a century ago. They feel familiar and there’s some comfort in that familiarity. Fortunately, our minds struggle with time gaps…and to me those mad dashes across the loop to make class on time were just yesterday. Weren’t they?
I teach because I love learning…and believe me, if you take your job as a teacher seriously, you learn a great deal in the process.
In particular, if you pay attention to your students, you learn a remarkable amount about the times we are living in, about current culture and you learn from the creativity that comes from fresh minds unbiased by decades of experience. Their perspectives are “Why Not?” instead of those scarred by time that say, “You can’t” or “Watch out.”
I’ll opt for the endless possibilities of youth versus the countless limitations learned through experience.
I also teach because I feel a need to pay forward the many great lessons and experiences that I gained from the leaders in my world.
I’ve long believed that the best leaders are teachers. Not lecturers, but teachers. As teachers, they challenge us to think, to explore, to experiment, to learn and to keep trying.
Good leaders encourage us to find joy and energy in the journey of discovery and they remind us that the satisfaction from finding the answer is momentary and should quickly be replaced with more searching and more learning.
The best leaders…like teachers let us fail to learn. They offer encouragement when needed and tough-love when it the situation demands it. They teach us to be accountable to ourselves…and to set exceeding high standards for our own performance.
Great teachers and great leaders challenge us to reach and strive. They might step in if we’re about to fall off a cliff or to cross the street without looking, but they’ll wince and stand by as we fall and skin our knees or as we settle out our playground disputes.
Leaders teach and someday in the future, the student becomes the teacher and the cycle starts anew.
Are you a teacher?
I enjoyed the post. I wish all teachers allowed themselves to learn from their students. A strong interaction between student, teacher, and class allows for a more developed learning environment that benefits everyone.
Right on, Art! So true – I learn new things *every* semester I teach – even course I have been teaching for 10 years. There is always something new to learn. Attitude is key – expect to learn, desire to learn, and you will. Keep up the good work! Bret
Sometimes I think the language we use creates problems. “Teaching” brings to mind the great gray lady of a third grade teacher that I had. She was great for the third grade, but she was definitely old school even then. Strict discipline was the rule. When she asked a question you could be sure she already knew the answer. We call the study of teaching “pedagogy,” from the great “to lead the child.” Is it any wonder we see the process as a top-down process. That was good for the Industrial Age. For the Age of the Knowledge Worker, not so much.
I’ve seen comments from some of your students, Art, where they call what you do “Socratic.” That’s a great term. I also like the Eastern sense of “master” where both master and student are expected to learn and the Native American “Spirit Guide” where the guide shows you the territory and helps you make sense of it.
Art, as usual a great post—made all that much better by the quality of the comments. As I was reading the post, I reflected on the unfortunate old maxim on teachers. Decided to rewrite it:
Those who can, lead
Those who can lead, teach
Those who can’t lead……..(frankly, I’m stuck—I’ll let others complete this.)
Anyway, thanks for a great post and thanks to the great commenters.
Great post,
Reminds me of when I was a green belt in my dojo, and I had to start teaching. I thought it was to”share my gifts” in reality it was to make me stronger.
I discuss this in my blog at : 12 Mentor Moments to help leaders grow their businesses profitably http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/12-mentor-moments-to-help-leaders-grow-their-businesses-profitably/
great job Art!
Mark Allen Roberts
This post has made me realize the fact that, indeed, every person I have come to recognize as a leader has taught me valuable lessons in life. We look upon leaders to show the way. They always seem to know the answer and what path to take… Though sometimes, they err too, and their decision will prove to be wrong in the end. Nevertheless, we still learn from them — We learn to not repeat the same mistake.
Leaders are always ahead of us. Consequentially, as mere followers who look ahead and observe their every move, we learn what works and what doesn’t. This enhanced knowledge, in turn, is what could potentially make the follower a great leader AND teacher someday.
Thanks for reminding me that leaders teach!
Well said. I think back on all the people I either consinder a romodel or have a huge amount of respect for, both in my personal and profesional life, and it is those individuals that have been nothing but encouraging and full of “tough-love”. I recently had a former manager tell me, “Kim, when you find the job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” That quote gave me a whole new outlook on my professional life and encouraged me to begin making changes immediately.
I think that any teacher that teaches in a professional degree program is put in a situation to not only be a great leader (and teacher), but also a great student to those of us who hope to be future leaders (and teachers). The level of respect exchanged between us as students and you as teachers at that level of coursework is a priceless opportunity.
Thanks everyone for your various comments, examples and anecdotes! And Wally, it doesn’t sound like you like the word “teacher” in this instance. I’m kind of partial to it…view it as a high honor to be reference respectfully as such.
Dave, I’m still thinking on the “Those who can’t.” Something about really mucking things up!
Best regards to all! -Art
Art,
Great post, it was very inspirational and actually got me excited to go to class later this afternoon… as a student. I have always found that when studying a topic if I approach it as if I have to teach it to someone I become much more involved.
Question: Dose that gap in perspective and experience between teacher and student ever become too great to teach effectively?
Art;
I must say, some of the most influential people I have come across during my short 24 year existence on this planet have been teachers. I would like to think that many of my most influential teachers have had a hand in making me into who I am today. Where as many just saw me as another student going through the assembly line known as education, those whom I consider special took that extra effort to get to know me as person. Not only did their good nature help to improve my overall comfort with their class, but it also helped to facilitate my learning process.
I read in a political journal sometime ago that modern politicians are no longer strictly made up of lawyers and business people, but rather educators and historians. If what you are saying is correct about educators being the best leaders (which I agree with), this could be a positive trend for Washington.
What is your opinion on teachers who teach at some of the larger Universities in the United States? Being a UCLA Alum (go bruins), I was used to having classes well over 300 people. This being the case, it took great strides by myself to form any kind of relationship with my professors. This is not to say they were bad professors, but it seems to daunting of a task to reach some type of personal relationship with your entire class if that consists of three to four hundred students. What would be suggestion to teacher at this level? I may be misunderstanding what you are saying, but it seems like to attain the teacher-student bond relationship you are describing, it would require a certain degree of intimacy that cannot be achieved in a large class.
Anyways, that is all I got for tonight Art. Have a good one!
-Zack
Reading this article immediately reminded my of my undergraduate Feedback Control Systems professor. He was both the best and worst professor I have ever had. The best because he was very effective. His lectures and homework (and in turn, exams) were only linked in principle and, quite often, you would have to teach yourself 50% to 90% of what was necessary to complete the assignments. This caused the material to be engraved in your mind and thouroughly learned. Needless to say, he was notoriously the most difficult professor in the college. Nonetheless, I still retain a great deal from that course. He was the worst professor I have had because of the disassociation his style created with students. In essence, his course consisted of receiving homework, and questioning him during his few office hours on the concepts and tricks (I genuinely believe he enjoyed torturing students) required to succeed.
Bottom line: he was very effective at teaching, and I use that term loosely here, the 40% of the students that passed his class. I would have greatly preferred someone that espoused more communication, a personal touch, and a semblance of the excitement you mention here. His redeeming quality was his personality and sense of humor, which made the hell that was his class, endurable. And even sometimes, fun. And I do think that he wanted us to succeed, he just demanded twice as much as any other professor, and did half as much.
This post and all the comments just open up more comments and topics on the subject. It’s important to note that if you aren’t “teaching” in some way, it might be beneficial to look at whether you are really leading. I believe that in order to lead people effectively, you must be able to teach and add value to those who are “following” you. If you have nothing to impart then you will find yourselves without much influence and leadership without influence is really nothing at all.
I would like to comment on this question that was posed in one of the responses… Does that gap in perspective and experience between teacher and student ever become too great to teach effectively?
The answer to this question has more to do with the student than the teacher. As somebody eager to learn and extremely teachable, if I had an opportunity to meet with some of the greatest leaders of our time- I guarantee I would learn. In fact, I would learn more than if you put me with somebody more on “my level” because the higher level of leadership they are at, the more they have to impart. The key is that as a student, I am teachable and willing to learn. If the student is at a point or level where they simply do not want to learn anything, there is nothing that can be done. I think this has more to do with attitude than with gaps in perspective and/or experience. Anybody else have comments on this idea?
This is why I teach…I am constantly learning, honing my skills and enjoy the challenge of being in the spotlight when questions I may not have answers to come up. Great post.
Very true! I have found that some of my most challenging teachers have been the most influential. They know when to step in but also allow the individual to make their mistakes and figure out the resolution. Teaching definitely allows you to really evaluate all aspects of a topic and analyze the cracks in the solution. I have a lot of respect for people that can teach, I definitely lack these skills but they are getting better.
Best wishes on your new journey, Art. The challenge is to be a good teacher. Good teachers change the world. They are the ones that inspire you and function as good role models of learning. I was just sitting in my MBA class the other night after the professor had effectively gotten his message across and was thinking how hearing this information from such a teacher would be so beneficial to business leaders in my city and state. With that knowledge and inspiration some will then go out and turn their bad companies around and make a difference. So good teachers really can change our world for the better.
Art, total agreement. I also think teaching serves as a great motivation to learn. With all the bus-y-ness we need any nudges we can get. If I “have” to teach it, I “have” to learn it. This is a great development tool too for more junior leaders – ask them to teach something.
Here’s a post we did on the value to leaders of stories for teaching purposes – http://elcircle.com/2009/08/20/the-leader-as-teacher-tell-a-story/