Leadership Thought: Every leader must be a teacher.

Your job as a leader is to first be a teacher.

Before you are a commander, be a teacher. A commander who never teaches is simply a tyrant. A commander who first teaches, and second commands, becomes an instructor.  Remember, a principal doesn’t teach students; the teacher does! The best principals/commanders are those who taught first and never stopped teaching.  Every leader needs to be teaching every team member as much as possible, whenever possible.

Teaching takes time.

Make time to teach. Plan time to teach. This is why many leaders aren’t effective as teachers. Teaching is hard work and often slow work. There is often little recognition for the teacher. But, the most successful students had the most effective teachers. A leader who teaches must make the time and take the time to teach. A leader cannot pass by someone who is in need of education. But, this takes something else that is costly and time-consuming: discipline.

Teaching takes discipline. 

In order to teach you have to stop. This means you have to stop what you are doing, and make what you are doing the actual teaching. Teaching does not happening by osmosis–that’s called modeling. Teaching is disciplined, intentional instruction with accountability.

Teachers must give tests.

If you think you are “teaching,” but never give a test, then you have taught nothing. All teaching requires a test. Without a test, all you have done is transmit information or attempt to pass on information. This is called a download or really, an information dump. People don’t retain what is dumped on them. The test is part of the teaching process. And the test divides what has been dumped and what has been retained.  It takes discipline, discomfort and the willingness to be unpopular to check for understanding–to dig through the information dump. Lazy leaders dump information on their followers. Diligent leaders teach and test their followers retention of that information.

Teachers check for understanding.

One of the best teachers I have ever met is Jay Entlich. He leads a perennial national powerhouse Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.  He has been to the D2 Women’s Soccer National Championship two consecutive seasons. Jay is a great coach, but really, he is a phenomenal teacher. My daughters have attended Coach Jay’s soccer camps for years and one thing that I have always observed Coach Jay doing is something I heard him call, “checking for understanding.” He, literally, would in the middle of whatever he was doing and stop the instruction, stop the drill and call everyone together to “check for understanding.” It is a test of sorts. He tests to see if the players understood what he and his coaching staff were trying to implement–if they got it. If the players weren’t getting it, Coach Jay didn’t get frustrated, he just went back and explained it again or demonstrated it himself. Once he had ascertained that the group at large had the concept, he would then blow the whistle for the drill or scrimmage to continue. There’s no teaching without a test. Don’t download information and disappear: Check for understanding!

Follow the leader, follow the teacher.

If you want followers, start teaching others. People follow  the one who teaches them. If you wonder why people aren’t following you, it’s most likely because you’ve never taught them anything. Because, teaching takes time, you end up spending time with those you are teaching. This helps bond you with those you are trying to lead.

Leaders can’t stop learning.

Leaders have to keep learning themselves. The appetite to learn keeps you from every feeling like you have arrived. When a leader arrives, the leader relaxes. They want someone else to teach. The best leaders have the best material. Others benefit when you share your material, your experience and your life with them.

Leaders that don’t teach have a short life span and little legacy. Leaders that teach lengthen their life span and strengthen their legacy.

(c) Alex Vann