Are You A Teacher?

This is a recurring theme in my executive coaching: are you a "problem solver" or are you a "teacher?"

Executives who see themselves as problem solvers fix things but can't scale their efforts. There are always more problems to solve in the world than what you can get to. Some see that as job security, but that's elusive: your security and productivity go up exponentially when you can teach people how to solve problems, or even better, teach people how to teach others to make decisions and solve problems. Be a builder of systems, not just immediate solutions.

You'd be surprised how many executives with classroom type leadership training or year of experience think they know this when they actually don't. The art of converting moments of interaction with direct reports into teaching opportunities is too little studied and deployed. It takes a real knack for understanding your people, how they learn, how they feel, who they are. Any number of leaders are, truth me told, more interested in themselves than others.

So, what do you do?