Experiencing Euphoria

Experiencing Euphoria—Legally
By Sean Alexander

She was only five years old, and she was scared to death. I was 21 years old, and I was scared to death. Her fear was water. My fear was her. Well, not really her, but the fact that her mother had practically begged me to teach her how to swim. How do you teach a child to swim when she’s afraid of water? I had no clue at all.

Nearly 40 years later, I still find teaching to be the most challenging of tasks. Some of it is rote, some mundane. How could it not be? Then there are those moments when I know I have helped someone gain a new perspective, or experience a new insight. I have never been able to predict those moments. They tend to sneak up on me. One second I’m reciting some fact, or figure, or other pearl of wisdom; the next I’m seeing a spark in someone’s eye that wasn’t there before. That spark of comprehension is about as precious a sight as there is.

Other than being a parent or guiding a classroom full of students for a living, there are few opportunities as rich in teaching moments as there are in the fine art of management. Whether it’s guiding a team through a tough-as-nails strategy session, or coaching a promising young team member on how to get the most out of a meeting, or creating a procedure for a critical process; teaching calls upon our best, true self.

There are those who believe that in the teaching/learning dynamic it is the teacher who has the preponderance of responsibility to ensure success. Others believe the burden of success is upon the shoulders of the student. I think this dynamic changes with the age and experience of the student.* When very young, students not only don’t know what they don’t know, they don’t even know that they should or must know something. This places a huge responsibility on the teacher to not only provide an environment for learning, but also a reason for learning. On the other hand, young students, especially the very young, are natural learning machines. If it interests them, they learn. Sometimes it seems like you can just open the tops of their heads and pour the information in. The trick for the teacher—and, of course, it’s not a trick, but a competency—is to make it all interesting. The teacher of the young among us must accept the preponderance of the responsibility for the teaching/learning dynamic.

* Of course, it was Oscar Wilde who said, "Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching."

Older students, especially adults, are actually a tougher lot. They come to the subject matter with biases, points of view, and experiences. Additionally, they normally want very specific information about a very specific subject. The motivation for learning is—or should be—within the student. They show up with a purpose, a goal, an intended result. Unlike children, they don’t want to learn everything; they want to learn one specific something. The teacher’s job actually becomes both easier and more stressful. On the one hand, the teacher knows exactly what to focus on. On the other hand, the students require hooks upon which to hang the new learnings; that is, things and experiences known to the student to which they can relate the new information. The stress for the teacher of adults is to find those hooks.

The leader who seeks to improve an organization’s chances of survival and success must assume the mantle of teacher. The teachings need not be blindingly inspirational or deeply moving. They need simply to be meaningful, understandable and actionable. There is an old saying, of Chinese origin I believe, that states, “To know and not to do, is not to know.” Within any organizational structure there is a reason for existence, and that reason is not to simply exist. It is to accomplish something. Thus, all teachings and all learnings within that organization must lead to that accomplishment.

Forty years ago, it took me five weeks of daily effort to teach a five year old girl—her name was Leah, who massively feared water, how to swim. It was the most difficult experience of my own young life, and, of course, the most rewarding. Those who teach—really and truly teach—know a euphoria that can only be experienced while teaching. The thoughtful leader seeks a constant supply of that euphoria, and thereby skillfully guides the organization along The Vital Edge.

To Your Vital Success,

Sean Alexander

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Sean Alexander is President of VitalThought, a boutique consulting company that focuses on Results-Based Management. His monthly ezine, The Vital Edge, helps executives, project managers and team members discover project and personal success with results-based strategies and tactics. If you're ready to energize your projects and yourself, investigate the possibilities at www.vitalthought.com.