Since the first post in this website I’ve been trying to make a case. Leaders are learners, constant learners.
When I became interested in leadership I understood that learning has a flip side, and that is teaching.
You can call it, coaching, mentoring, or whatever. In essence is showing others (your followers) what you know and let them know it too. That my friends, is not only a matter of sharing a couple of documents, books or slides. Is more than that.
Leadership is about learning and teaching.
According to Sharon Bowman in her book How To Give It So They Get It
There are basically four stages that the teaching process should follow in order to make the most out of it.
1. Getting Connected. At this stage you want the people to connect among them and to share what they know about the subject you’re about to teach. You make them feel like a learning community. In essence, take some time with the people before giving the information and make them feel comfortable.
2. Sharing the Wealth. In this stage you actually give the people the information you want to share, facts and everything you need them to know. Pretty much the same way you’ve always done it. But, with a minor difference, be open to receive questions and make it more like a dialogue than a monologue.
3. Making it Happen. This stage has to do with real world applications. That is, what all this information is useful for? When you prepare your material try to include real life applications of the information your sharing.
4. Celebrating Success. Once you’ve completed the first three stages of the teaching process, you can go to the next level. Encourage your team/students to use what they’ve learned, and most important to share that with others as well. That is, to show they know, doing so will prove they truly learned.
Next time you prepare material to share with your coworkers or team, take into account these four stages in your presentation. Keep the information as easy as you can in order to help the people get the most out of it.
LEADERSHIP ACTIONS
- Read the four steps again and see if you can apply them in your next meeting or presentation.
- Connect with people, share the information, show examples, ask them to share the information.
Remember, Be Alert, Be A Leader 
Leadership
4 comments
Good!!
Step 3 is the Critical One!!
We can gain strength for taking decisions only after we go through Real Problem Solving . Learning to identify the Problems
in our area of concern and control.
Team work follows .
Acceptance of Solution by all is another critical step!!
Manoj Bhardwaj
In fact i have really have a change of thought and way i teaching my students in class. Because am a teacher in my country Nigeria. Kith&kin Int’l college Ikorodu, Lagos.
All four steps are important. In the book, Bowman, proposes all 4 steps, because each step matches one way of learning. That is, in your audiencie you’ll probably find people that needs to be connected with before learning, you’ll find people that needs the facts (more than anything), you’ll find people that requires real world applications of what you’re saying, and you’ll find people that most of all needs to express themselves telling each other.
Bowman argues that we all have a unique blend of all learning styles and we require varying degrees of the steps in order for us to learn well.
Thanks for your comments and keep reading…
Be Alert, Be A Leader
I must say that I have been applying/practising these four steps as a trainer/facilitator. If you want buy-in, acceptance and learning to take place, it is necessary to follow these steps. Thanks for the reinforcement.
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