Leading is Teaching

by Andrew Downing

Photo: American Board Blog

At the heart of every great leader there's a teacher.

One of the greatest achievements for any leader is turning raw potential into a team asset. Many leaders today are managers, hiring only the most experienced employees with the best skills. This practice requires them to invest very little time into training and mentoring. They hire employees to fill a position, point them to their work area, and tell them to go. Employees are then molded into who they need to be through manuals, videos, standard operating procedures, and quarterly reviews - never receiving personal attention.

By focusing on hiring employees with growth potential and using extensive one-on-one mentoring, leaders can make a real impact on their team members. This is more than job training and helping them navigate the workplace. This is about teaching and how personalized instruction leads to mastery, creating competence and creativity. That's the goal!

Leaders should want employees to grow under their tutelage, becoming masters of their tasks, able to solve problems using unique methods. Standard operating procedures should be considered relics of the past and only used when necessary. Employees today don't want to follow detailed processes. They want to focus on objectives, not details. Teach towards objectives and use those moments to expand into more important subjects. Leaders that give their lessons a business context are good, but great leaders connect development to a greater context, everything from motivation and life skills to purpose and meaning.

Think about some of the best teachers you had growing up: how they helped you discover your passions and talents; how they understood you; how they connected with you; and how they gave purpose and meaning to their lessons, inspiring you to work harder. These are the marks of a great leader. Teaching and mentoring give us the opportunity to make a lasting impact on someone else, to show them, not just what they can do, but also, who they can become. When you get the chance to be a mentor, don't squander the opportunity. 

Be the leader-teacher you never had. Develop individualized growth plans. Model integrity. Build trust. Create relationships based on giving and receiving honest feedback. Believe in your team. And seek out opportunities to practice and improve your coaching skills.