It would happen every time: A guest speaker from the worlds of business, politics, even some branch of public service invited to speak to one of my classes would comment as he or she left the classroom: “You mean you do this for five hours a day for 190 days each year?”
That question emphasizes the complexity of a situation in which a single adult provides a practical and demanding form of leadership to 25 or 30 sometimes resistant, even marginally interested clients.
And hundreds of times each year.
Teaching is a form of leadership that requires an understanding and practice of the very same characteristics of successful governance described in a 2016 issue of the magazine Entrepreneur.
Those same characteristics describe why the presence or the absence of effective leadership in a business environment, political environment and, by implication, classroom environment equates with the success or failure of the enterprise.
The anthology of leadership characteristics assembled by Adam and Jordan Bornstein identifies focus, confidence and transparency as some of the influential features of successful leadership. Young teachers quickly learn, sometimes the hard way, that students can spot a fraud in an instant. The same applies, although apparently only some of the time, to voters.
As Kerri Potts, senior director of ESPN public relations, advises: “I’ve never bought into the concept of ‘wearing the mask.’ As a leader, the only way I know how to engender trust and buy-in from my team and with my colleagues is to be 100 per cent, authentically me.”
While there are undergraduate and post-graduate courses in leadership, the deeply personal features of a leader or a teacher are not “skills” that can be taught. That’s why I have always advised young teacher trainees to give some serious thought, before stepping into a classroom, as to who they are and whether or not they will be able to embrace the responsibilities of teaching for the next 35 years.
“If you suspect that you might not be a teacher, please, please, please, find something else to do,” I tell them.
Successful teachers, like successful leaders in other environments such as business and politics, also demonstrate a capacity for patience, open-mindedness and decisiveness — again essentials of leadership.
Daymond John, CEO of Shark Branding and FUBU, the American clothing company, is quoted by the Bornsteins: “The truth is, leaders need to keep an open mind while being flexible, and adjust if necessary. ... Your commitment should be to invest, develop and maintain great relationships.”
There is an ability the Bornstein article defines as “personableness” — a word that awkwardly trips over itself but one that Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author of The School of Greatness uses when he advises: “We all provide something unique to this world … . The more you focus on genuine connections with people, and look for ways to help them — rather than just focus on what they can do for you — while this isn’t required to be a great leader, it is essential to be a respected leader, which can make all the difference.”
The same could be said of certain folks who, while successful in a variety of private-enterprise fields, turn out to be clearly ill-suited to political or classroom leadership.
According to Christopher Perilli, CEO of Pixel Mobb, a post-production company that specializes in digital colour grading, visual effects, motion graphics and animation, “generosity of intention” is a key aspect of business and political leadership, and especially teaching.
“My main goal has always been to offer the best of myself. We all grow — as a collective whole — when I’m able to build up others and help them grow as individuals.”
Perhaps this cannot be taught.
“Insight” is a feature of an individual’s makeup, as described by Raj Bhakta, founder of WhistlePig Whiskey.
“Insight,” says Bhakta, “enables a person to be able to separate that which is really important from all the incoming fire. It’s like wisdom — it can be improved with time if you’re paying attention, but it has to exist in your character. It’s inherent.
“When your insight is right, you look like a genius. And when your insight is wrong, you look like an idiot.”
Young teachers and, as an election looms, would-be politicians, please take note.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
