Lead like a Teacher - Find the Right Role

In previous posts, I drew parallels between leadership and teaching. I have deep regard for the skills of a good teacher and good leaders seem to naturally apply their critcal skills.

Here are the five critical behaviors of a teacher and the same behaviors applied to leadership as originally cited in Great Leaders Should Behave Like a Teacher

Five Critical Behaviors of a Teacher	Five Critical Behaviors of a Leader
Teach to an objective	Lead to an objective. Have clarity in your misison.
SELECT an objective at the appropriate level of difficulty.	Put people in a position and role where they can succeed.Pursue clarity in roles.
MAINTAIN the focus of the learner on the learning.	MAINTAIN the focus on the follower.
USE without abuse the Principles of Learning (Active Participation, Motivation, Closure, Reinforcement)	USE without abuse the Principles of leadership (Active Participation, Motivation, Engagement, Trust)
MONITOR and adjust.	MONITOR and adjust.

In this post, I focus on the the second critical behavior of teachers and leaders.

The concept for a teacher is simple. A good teacher teaches at the appropriate level of difficulty. A third grader who is just learning his/her multiplication facts isn't ready to receive a lesson on quantum physics. Of course, a good teach constantly monitors and adjusts (this is another key behavior that I want to explore later) in order to get to the right level of difficulty.

As a leader/manager, I try to use a parallel concept with two tenents:

1. Put people in a position and role where they can succeed.
2. Pursue clarity in roles.

The Tom Kelly Approach

I refer to the challenge of putting people in a role where they can succeed as the "Tom Kelly Approach." For years, I have attributed my discovery of this concept to Tom Kelly, the former manager of the Minnesota Twins. Hence I think of it as the Tom Kelly Approach even when many of my colleagues don't recognize or remember who Tom Kelly is.

This concept came to me during Kelly's weekly radio show in his response to a call-in listener who was insisting that Kelly should be starting the backup catcher who was hitting over .300 at the time. Kelly responded to the caller by proposing that this was a bad idea. In his own direct language, he declared that one of his roles as the manager of the team was to put his players in a role where they can succeed. In this case, he clearly stated his opinion that the backup catcher would fail in a role as the every day starter.

It is one of those conversations that lit a bulb for me and stayed with me, well after most people have forgotten who Tom Kelly is. Like a teacher needs to teach to the right level of difficulty, as a leader/manager I try to put people in roles where they can succeed.

The second tenent of this concept refers to the need to communicate so that people are clear in their roles. This is a concept that I discovered while teaching for the University of Phoenix while pursuing information that would help student groups. I have written about this before in Manifest Team 1: Characteristics of High Performance Teams where I discussed the need for clarity in writing:

Clear roles: Team members need to understand their roles and assignments. And it's better when the understanding includes the big picture, task interdependence, and how one members work affects other members.

Just like a great teacher who is able to provide the perfect lesson at the right level of difficulty for a learner, a great leader/manager needs to be able to place a team member in a perfect and clear role to be successful. It is just another example of parallel critical behaviors between teachers and leaders.

In my own quiet fashion, I continue to show respect for the skills of a good teacher. My series also includes:

Great Leaders Should Behave Like a Teacher

Great Leaders Act Like a Teacher - Lead to an Objective

Great Leaders Act Like a Teacher - Master the Art of Skillful Questioning

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly and like a teacher.

don