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Step Up to the Podium

Teach a Course Inside Your Company

IT’S OBVIOUS THAT PART of what you bring to your leadership role is a deep well of knowledge and experience. You’ve cultivated a deep understanding of your chosen profession, and you’ve experienced a lot in your career. It all adds up to a tremendous store of information and wisdom, and because you’re a dedicated professional, you probably share those insights with others. If you coach your direct reports or mentor other colleagues, you’re giving away that knowledge and expertise one person at a time. That’s great; coaching and mentoring are reminiscent of the apprentice model in which a single student studies with a trusted master. But there’s a larger role for you to play when it comes to sharing your experiences. You need to become a “leader as teacher” within your organization.

If you work in a large organization, this may be a lot easier than you think. Most large corporate universities welcome leaders who want to join the “faculty” and teach a few courses. Just contact your learning and development consultant and ask to get involved. They’ll help you create content, give you feedback about your teaching style, and help schedule the classes. They’ll even do the marketing for you, so people know when and where to find you on the training curriculum. Once you join the teaching staff, you’ll probably meet other leaders who have already blazed a trail to the podium.

However, not everyone works in a big company and has these kinds of resources. If your company doesn’t have a formal learning center, this process just takes a little bit more perseverance and ingenuity. Once your program is designed, look for various opportunities to teach the class, either by pitching it as a special event for individual departments or by offering your program to leaders who organize off-site meetings. Regardless of whether you have the infrastructure or support, here’s how to become a “leader as teacher” in your organization and start delivering those valuable lessons to larger groups of people.

Develop Your Teachable Point of View

Outlined below are five basic questions to answer when you create your teaching platform.

1. What are you good at? The answer to this involves figuring out what you know that others could benefit from; in other words, in what areas are you a subject matter expert? If you’re not an electrical engineer, you probably shouldn’t teach that subject to the engineers in your company. Likewise, if you’re a poor communicator, don’t try to tackle the subject of effective communications. Maintain your credibility by identifying a subject that you’re passionate about, know deeply, and actually have a reputation for being good at (otherwise, you’ll be teaching to an empty room, won’t you?).

2. What is your teachable point of view? Develop what Noel Tichy calls a “teachable point of view.”¹⁸ This means you need to find your voice: What do you want to say about this topic, and how will you say it? Will you share certain models or frameworks? Will you be espousing one particular theory over another? Do you hold opinions or viewpoints that are controversial? In other words, what are you interested in sharing with others? Your teachable point of view probably needs to be vetted inside the organization. If your company is trying to reinforce a certain process and you believe it ought to be doing just the opposite, that’s an obvious misalignment that probably won’t be received well. This is the most important step in the process, so spend the time to ensure that your teachable point of view is meaningful, relevant, and aligned.

3. How are you going to share your knowledge? You must create a learning outline for the material. How are you going to share your expertise? Is it best delivered in a lecture format or through a lot of small-group work? Does it require experiential learning or passive learning, where the participants sit in a classroom and learn concepts through lectures? Do you request that the participants complete any preliminary work or reading? Develop a crisp delivery style, and by all means, make the course interactive—no matter how charismatic you are, no one wants to hear you lecture for two hours straight. A good rule of thumb is to follow this sequence of content, practice, and application: 1) present the theory, research, or best practices (content), 2) create exercises so that people may apply what they’ve just learned (practice), and 3) close by discussing practical ways to best use these skills back on the job (application). Include in the learning outline the length of the course or program: Is this a two-, four-, or eight-hour gig? Is it a single course, or do you have enough content to merit a multi-module approach? Figure out how best to share your teachable point of view, the optimal time for the course, and how it all makes for a compelling learning experience for the participants. Don’t be shy about getting some help with this step from a teaching professional; there is an art to teaching, and you should strive for optimal impact.

4. Who’s the target audience? Who should attend your class? Who will benefit from this information? That you have some expertise to share is all well and good. But does anyone really want (or need) to hear it? Is this must-have knowledge or skills content that is critical to operations, or is it information that’s simply “nice to have”? Along with the question of who should sit in the classroom, determine the optimum number to share this experience with at any one time. Is it better to keep the group small (ten to twenty-five people) or does your message translate well to large groups (fifty to seventy-five people) who can easily absorb and use the content?

5. What’s your commitment? Give some thought to your long-term commitment to teaching the course. If it makes sense to run two hundred managers through the program (twenty at a time), then you’re signing up for ten events. Do you have the stamina for that? In my career, I have had the privilege of starting and running several corporate universities, and I’ve seen leaders begin with the best intentions but quit after delivering the course only once or twice. They simply gave up and backed out of their commitment when they got too busy or grew bored with the process. Needless to say, such actions neither benefit your reputation nor satisfy the needs of the people you had intended to take through the course. Decide ahead of time how often you want to teach the program, and then adhere to your commitment.

Teaching a course is one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do as a leader, and it truly represents a “give back” to the organization in terms of sharing your time, knowledge, and experience. Whether you take advantage of a large training infrastructure or chart new territory as a leader as teacher, you should enjoy this role. I always feel I’ve done something meaningful when I share my experiences with an audience. I feel like I’ve made a larger contribution that day—that I’ve helped a few light bulbs go on around the room about how to improve as a leader. I think you’ll have the same experience. For starters, it sharpens your own knowledge and skills, because to teach something, you really have to know the content. But it’s much more than that. This really isn’t about you; it’s about your audience. Just think of the number of people you can impact in this role. Find something you’re passionate about and have a flair for teaching. Then step to the front of the room, grab the chalk, and make a difference.

Bootstrap Takeaways

Teach a Course Inside Your Company

1. Figure out what you’re good at—what can you teach with undeniable credibility?

2. Design the course with the participants in mind—what kind of experience is the most beneficial and enjoyable?

3. Make a commitment. Before you even design the course, be honest with yourself about your ability and willingness to sustain the process.