My military service helped make me a good teacher. I remember being a teacher in every position, unit and deployment during my 20-year career. I taught mission planning, map reading, radio systems and various forms of marksmanship to groups, from officers to foreign military forces and new enlisted personnel. The dual teaching-and-learning process is a fundamental aspect of military leadership. It is also a fundamental aspect of business leadership.
My best memories from the military center around teaching. When I was a junior officer stationed on the De-Militarized Zone in Korea, I remembered when two experienced sergeants spent their evenings with me to teach me 4.2-inch mortar gunnery. The 4.2-inch mortar was a beast of a weapon. It was based on an early World War II design, weighed hundreds of pounds and it was very hard to master. Yet, as a weapon, it was very dependable and effective. These two sergeants, who reported to me, knew it was an incumbent part of their duties to teach their new leader skills I needed to be proficient in my job.
Business leaders have a duty to teach. Business leaders view their responsibility to deliver financial results as their No. 1 accountability. Business leaders define their responsibilities in the form of revenue, new customers, cost savings, process improvements and product development. Business leaders must deliver the financial results their boards and shareholders, customers and employees demand. Results are a key requirement of a business, but they are not the only requirement of a business leader.
A common shortcoming of business leaders is they omit the development of business talent and the improvement of their team. Business leaders must see through the constant demand of immediate business results and ensure they pay equal, if not more, attention to the long-term strategic well-being of their company by growing and developing talent. The business leader must not only be a business leader, but also a business teacher.
Teaching in business can take many forms. Business leaders can teach traditional classes in their organizations, in the community, at high schools, or at local colleges where they pass the knowledge of their experience and passion on to a generation of future workers and employees.
Teaching by walking around. A second form of business-leader teaching is the “Teaching by Walking Around,” a modification of the famed “Management by Walking Around.” TBWA involves visiting with subordinates, understanding their workplace challenges and teaching them one or several of your problem-solving skill sets to help them create an effective solution. TBWA teaches new methodologies and leadership techniques, but it does not teach enforced top-down solutions. Business leaders need to teach new methods and improvements to processes that lower-level business leaders can then attack with their own initiative and motivation.
Business leaders who teach have a huge impact on careers and results. One of the best ways to be promoted in business is to train your own replacement(s) so they continue the business results and improvements you and your team created. Teaching is one of the most unselfish ways a business leader can demonstrate the threefold importance of achieving business results, improving an organization and the vital importance of developing junior business leaders. As you look for a new position or a promotion in your own organization, look and see how much you are teaching others in your organization to succeed. A great business leader delivers results and teaches others how to deliver great results.
Chad Storlie is an adjunct professor of marketing at Creighton University and a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer.