The Heart of a Teacher (and a Learner)

In my professional life, I often find myself in the role of a learner and that of a teacher – quite often at the same time. In the corporate environment, I work with many disparate groups from those leading manufacturing areas to (of course) those in marketing. The times I find most rewarding are those when I can sit down with a group of people and help them find solutions to business challenges they face. This involves learning from them and teaching them based on what I they tell me and the knowledge I can contribute.

Getting The Most Out of It
If you are working with people and you want to get the most out of your efforts, you need to have the heart of a teacher – which I fully believe involves being a learner, too. I’m not saying you need to set up a classroom somewhere and show endless Power Point presentations which tell everyone how smart and wonderful you are. No, that’s not it at all.

To be most effective you need to connect with people and help them to see things from your perspective. I don’t mean argue and get people to “do things your way.” You need to help them see things from where you sit – and help them discover new ways of tackling the challenges they face. By sharing freely from your experience and expertise you can offer unique solutions which, perhaps, no one else could come up with.

The idea here is to show that you know what you’re talking about and you’re willing to jump into the fray and add value to the enterprise. Your ability to teach and add value to those around you helps them do their jobs better – and vice versa.

My Story
I was fortunate to have had some excellent leaders during my early years in the Army. There were four or five people in particular who were able to teach me some basic concepts of leadership and the particular field I was in. Because I was willing to learn, those people were able to invest their knowledge and experience in me. This helped lay the foundation for me to have a very successful career for the next dozen or so years.

In the military one generally moves every 3 or so years. Every move brings new challenges, new things to learn and different cultures and ways of doing things. Because I picked up early on how to learn and to teach what I already knew, I was able to make some very positive contributions to the to the people with whom I worked. The things I learned from the people at every duty station to which I was assigned, added to my own experiences and the formal training I received, allowed me to leave a positive imprint on each unit to which I was assigned. By being willing to learn and to teach I was able to contribute a lot of value to the people around me.

Those same lessons helped me to my job better in my first civilian gig. I was hired on to do PC and network tech support for a manufacturing company. Since I had little knowledge of the intricacies of the processes the company used, I spent a lot of time talking with the people I found myself in contact with and asked a lot of questions. I certainly did not learn enough to be an expert in each manufacturing department, but by talking to the people working in the plant I was able to understand enough about the challenges they faced and how technology might help them. When I was brought into a meeting to help work out solutions to problems I could make a positive contribution and help the group come up with excellent ideas.

It’s Not About Me
Now, I’m certainly not the first person to do these things nor will I be the last. My intention in telling you all this is not to brag on myself, but to illustrate some things I think are essential for you to understand if you are going to make the most positive impact on your organization’s efforts.

I want to challenge you to be two things: teachable and a teacher.
Everyone has something to contribute. As many people much smarter than me stress, the first part of connecting with others is listening. Listen to those you come in contact with. Learn what they know and figure out how it applies to what you do. Don’t look down on others just because they aren’t “technical” or “artistic” or whatever. Remember, the basis for being valuable to others is to value them first.

Being a teacher is really more of a lifestyle choice. The natural inclination for most of us is to keep what we know to ourselves. Like the Wizard of Oz, we believe our power is in the mystery (“Ignore the man behind the curtain!”). Really, though, the Wizard was pretty useless to Dorothy and the others until the charade was stripped away and he was exposed. Only then did he share what he knew and really try to help solve the issues at hand. Even though he wasn’t able to help Dorothy, he certainly added value to the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow.

What’s your story? How has having the heart of a teacher and learner helped you and those around you? Please share in the comments.

photo credit: HikingArtist.com

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