Teaching as a petri dish for effective leadership
Finding leadership lessons in unexpected places
Next week marks the end of the semester for my Business Law class. For those of you who are longtime readers, you know that this was my first undergraduate teaching adventure.
The end, as most ends are, is bittersweet. There are so many exciting adventures awaiting my students - going on to four year universities, having babies, starting businesses, or getting a jump on the competition by taking their two year degrees and setting out to start their careers now. I am so excited for what their futures hold for them and I am confident they can be anything they want to be.
But I am also sad, really sad.
I have spent the past four months getting to know them, and hearing lots about their “outside of school” lives through one-on-one interactions as well as what comes out organically in classroom conversation. And though none of them are anything alike, they are some of the most intelligent and likable people I have ever met.
As I was reflecting on the end of this inaugural class, I also realized how much great leadership insight has been hidden under the disguise of morning class at a college in Tennessee.
Listen just to listen…and let go of the need to “record” everything.
In all of the corporate training I have attended, a common theme emerges about two kinds of listening: “listening for understanding” and “listening to talk.”
And, as you can imagine, listening to understand is good, listening just to find a way to talk is bad. Then there is “active listening” which is “a key communication skill that involves absorbing the information someone shares with you, and reflecting back—through questions and your body language—that you heard them.”
Regardless of what type of listening we are engaged in, or how much training we receive about listening, research shows that only about 10 percent of us listen effectively.
When I arrived at class my first day, I noticed that hardly any of the students take notes. They did not even have pens out, and most had no paper in sight. And before you think “they are taking notes on their phones,” no one had those “distraction demons” out either. I went through the usual theories “it’s the first day,” or “this is just an introduction.” But as classes passed, the phenomenon continued. I had a new theory - maybe they had never been taught cursive and it’s too difficult to take notes by printing. That had to be it. But then I surveyed the class, and no, they all had learned cursive in elementary school.
I continued to watch their behavior, where they made eye contact and leaned to the side to read something written on the board. They asked questions…A LOT of questions. They spoke up and gave their thoughts on how they would handle situations. They even came up with their own hypothetical situations to test rules and drive conversation.
Then I realized, they already knew what it has taken me a lifetime to learn - notetaking can impede listening and ensure that the “listener” is not present in the conversation. Instead of trying to write down the random thoughts delivered at blistering speed, the students were focused exclusively on absorbing information - what was being discussed, what they were seeing on the slides, and what their peers were saying or asking about.
It’s amazing what just being present without distraction does for the ability to listen - and this deep listening allows us all to understand, doesn’t inhibit our ability to share our own thoughts, and is a retention superpower.
The best way to learn is by teaching.
“While we teach, we learn.” Roman philosopher, Seneca
I started in the communications arts (speechwriting, copywriting and public relations) and it was clear to me early on that the best way to learn something complex, gain a deeper understanding of something you already “get,” or to figure out how you feel about an issue is to explain it to someone else. It is a rewarding scenario where everyone gets a chance to learn and understand.
The “learning by teaching” effect is the result of 3 primary forces: preparation, retrieval, and feedback and is often called the “Protégé effect.” And, #LearnByTeaching is one of the hashtags in the description for this Substack for a reason.
Throughout the course of the semester, there were topics that I handled professionally for many years. What was most fascinating was that when I sat down to prepare and figure out how to explain it to someone who didn’t have the day-to-day professional context (and even more when I tried to think of interesting real world examples and applications) my understanding deepened. On occasion, my viewpoints changed entirely.
How does this apply to business?
Leaders are often most effective if they spend the majority of their time developing the team around them. But we get distracted by the responsibilities of the day, the issues that arise, and the planned and unplanned “emergencies” that sabotage the best laid plans.
I think the number one objective of leadership is this: We all need to keep our sites on developing those around us, as it is one of the few acts that benefits the organization, each other, and ourselves.
Engagement with the content facilitates understanding.
I think about the years of my life spent in work meetings: staff meetings, board meetings, strategy meetings, “issue focused” meetings, and so on. Usually, someone in the room has information that they want to share, and even if they invite questions, the flow of information tends to be primarily one-directional.
How often have you watched someone click through slide after slide of details, lulling you into a yawn or causing you to make your grocery shopping list in your head?
I watched the students’ reactions to the material each week. When it was complex information like the different types and processes of bankruptcies, or the types of legal entities, their body language sagged and the normally outspoken group went quiet. But as soon as I changed gears, giving them a few foundational concepts and then opening the floor to their thoughts on “how would you handle this?” or “think of a business you are interested in having, which structure do you think makes sense?” the entire dynamic changed. The discussion got lively, everyone wanted to share a thought, and great ideas and insights were developed on the spot. As an added confirmation that the more interactive the conversation, with less fact based repetition, the better the retention of the audience: I noticed that when test time came around, the interactive discussions that applied concepts from the text to real world scenarios were always the areas where students scored the highest.
Bringing student interaction models to your next meeting
In the boardroom, executives are often asked to present information on a regularly scheduled basis to a group of professionals that are not necessarily thinking about or talking about the company every day. Often, financial, market, risk, and product information is complicated and dry, but we read it to the directors anyway. The same unfortunate pattern typically emerges in internal meetings with peers, direct reports, fellow leadership, and even large enterprise gatherings. We know better but we keep doing it.
Instead, shouldn’t we be viewing the data (provided well in advance to attendees for review) as an opportunity to say to the seasoned leaders we’ve probably put on our Board, or hired into our leadership team:
“What are you most worried about?”
“What are you seeing that we aren’t?”
“How would you handle this situation differently?”
“What opportunities do you see that we aren’t capitalizing on?”
“What risks do you see in this strategy?”
“Where are we overconfident? Where are we underconfident?”
And, are we offering a thread of connection between interactions and prior topics? In class, we would continually refer back to prior concepts like how law is created or other competing legal issues, all with the goal of building a contextual worldview of business law.
With meetings, especially those not happening on a frequent basis, are we reminding participants of what we learned before, the larger context, and how this new piece of information fits in to the big picture? Or are we just continuing to cram complex data into a small space where it will be forgotten or never “heard” in the first place?
This past weekend, CBS Sunday Morning had a segment on meetings and how to cut down on them due to their low value. Check the full segment out here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-to-cut-down-on-meetings/
There is almost always a hidden “user experience” that should be considered.
In the technology world, user experience is defined as “a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations.” The next step is considering how the user context influences the goals of the product or service. For me, thinking about how the students “consume” education has helped me to figure out ways to help them achieve their unique goals.
But what about your professional relationships? Have you considered what the user experience is for your staff, your peers, or the directors in your organization when they interact with you or your team (or see you speak in a meeting)?
So take a moment to consider those “hidden users” that are critical to your company’s success. Are they getting the context and information they need, in a way that they like to receive it? Is it the right information to lead, make decisions, empower exponential growth, and even in the case of directors and officers, discharge their fiduciary duties?
There is nothing wrong with really getting to know the people around you, caring about them, and occasionally putting your foot in your mouth.
The workplace is a strange world filled with dynamics we don’t always understand, people who are more divided than ever, training that makes us afraid to do anything for fear we will do it wrong, and is increasingly asynchronous - not to mention many of us perform roles where independence from others is desirable and necessary. This is especially true in certain departments like legal, HR and compliance. The result of this complex fabric is that we are losing the ability to build community and get to know our peers in the “work neighborhood” as people.
Imagine trying to discuss extreme cases of discrimination or harassment with a group of twenty year olds. The details are often scandalous, with facts and circumstances ripe with offensive concepts like racial slurs or other shocking behaviors that we all wish did not happen in the world (but do). Even when discussing protected classes, the discussion moved like a freight train to other ways that people could be discriminated against that are not currently protected under federal law, like obesity - with an array of arguments from medical causes of obesity to “personal responsibility,” and the differences between outwardly visible and private disabilities.
With a changing world that includes changing language and how we describe circumstances, it’s difficult not to make a comment that, in a vacuum, might be offensive. However, if we have a strong relationship with the people around us built through respectful conversation and a common ribbon of connection through our various interactions, we are more likely to trust each other’s intentions and offer a bit of grace when the words we use aren’t perfect.
It was refreshing to watch the students interact, figuring out ways to share comments without hurting anyone else, asking the occasional inartful question, and expressing opinions not shared by others in the room. They were always respectful and encouraging of each other, even though they represented the entire political spectrum, varied in their views of the role of religion in everyday life, and had lived through a multitude of complicated life experiences that informed who they are today. I even had the honor of watching them change each other’s minds, sometimes arguing a particular position about the role of government or other issues and then realizing it was the exact opposite of the one they thought they actually believed.
They taught each other more than I ever taught them just by being open and creating a safe space for everyone’s thoughts and opinions in their tiny little windowless classroom community in only three hours a week.
Imagine what you could do with a full 40-hour workweek?
Just because you’ve never done something doesn’t mean you won’t be great at it.
One of the most inspiring things about the undergraduates is how smart they are, even about topics they have not previously considered. From creative arguments during “moot courts” to the ability to apply previously unrelated concepts in new ways, and insightful approaches when we played “You are the HR person, what do you do?” or “You are the Department of Labor auditor, what is your finding?”
They have never been HR people, or regulatory auditors, or lawyers, yet many of the insights they provided showed that they could gracefully enter these fields and provide immediate value.
The rigorous structure and legal risks of hiring have driven many of us to select based only on degrees, experience, testing, and defined aptitudes - or just forgo selecting candidates ourselves by allowing artificial intelligence tools to make the decision for us.
What we often lose in that process is the ability to interview and hire based on critical thinking skills, curiosity, enthusiasm for learning new things, resilience, and creativity - which are often better indicators of career success than any particular experience, educational major, or technical skillset.
And, as a reassurance to all the Boomer, GenX and Millennial PrepOverCoffee readers: Contrary to what I used to believe, or how much prior generations tend to view the generations that follow negatively, don’t panic. I am pretty sure Gen Z is probably going to save us all.
And as for this first class of students, I am not sure I will ever get over them.
Yup, that’s Colin Hay of Men at Work.
Welcome to all the new subscribers in recent weeks! Thank you so much for subscribing.
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ESPRESSO SHOTS:
As you clicked each song above, were you thinking “these all remind me of a certain rainy movie from 2004?” If so, you were right! All of the music today is from the Garden State soundtrack - a collection of songs that has withstood the test of time. I watched A Good Person last weekend, a new film also written and directed by Zach Braff. Disregard the lukewarm reviews and get a Kleenex. As an added bonus, you will get a whole new crop of sad, shoegazer songs to listen to.
Another movie where the law and “games” collide (like last week’s recommendation, Tetris), with some great advice for living thrown in. Watch Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game.
“Life is defined by risk; those you take and those you don’t. The ball is gonna drain no matter what, so find what you want and take a shot.”
Cat Daddy and I both prefer to eat dinner really early - like MCL Cafeteria early, or “it’s really lunch time” early. I recently rediscovered, “The Underrated Pleasures of Eating Dinner Early” from The New Yorker.
In preparing for a recent class on discrimination, I was reminded of the most perplexing decision I can remember: Court reaffirms dentist’s firing of a woman he found too attractive. In this case, an “all-male court found that bosses can fire employees that they and their spouses see as threats to their marriages.” In the court’s opinion, because the termination was guided by feelings and not gender, it was just an “at will” employment decision. Nope, almost a decade later, I still don’t see it.