And so we've come to the end of a long and winding class, and we now invite you to think back – and map – how you found your way here, to this conclusion.

Did you scan the images in a deliberate way? Did you read only those callouts that related to your particular area of interest? Or did you read every word, stopping to puzzle over those aspects of the text that were unclear to you?

Next layer of questions: Why did you choose to scan or skim or read the way you did? What motivated you on your path through the book? Were you trying to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible? Were you stubbornly committed to reading every word, regardless of your level of interest or the return on your attentional investment? Were you reading the book haphazardly only to be able to mention something at a training or in a meeting or when you next grab a coffee with the person who gave it to you?

Final questions: How did you learn to learn the way you do? Was it intentional or just something that you fell into and then formed a habit around? How did you learn what was good enough for you? For others? For your job?

Think Like a Teacher

We are asking these questions not because we're judging you, and not because we have a specific “best” answer in mind. We are asking in order to make you aware of your own learning preference, to make you aware that such a thing exists and can be unpacked.

Because, if you have a learning preference, if you have a preferred manner of moving through material designed to teach you something and inspire you to act, and if you expect your preferred mode to be respected and trusted, then it's only fair to recognize that other people, all other people, have their own learning preferences, as well, and that these preferences sometimes shift due to circumstance.

If you can hold onto that point, then you can exist at the intersection of business and teaching. It's a good place to be. From that perch, you will improve your chances of being understood, and you will alter the direction of your work and possibly your business by better understanding the people you serve. Helping others learn, too, you will become a trusted advisor. As they improve, you will improve. And as you both improve, your industry will become more vital, more necessary. These are broad aspirations, of course, but they are neither unreasonable nor unseemly. Society has always needed teachers. There's no reason that they should only exist and flourish in the classroom.

There's more room for more flourishing. By listening carefully, by slowing down to make room for others' reflection and learning, by observing carefully, by offering feedback, by providing insight or information or praise – or pause – at the right time, and by really paying attention, you can make progress by instilling understanding and making meaning in the admittedly complicated, complex, difficult environment in which we all seek to do business.

All humans, not just young humans, deserve to be seen as learners, as full of the possibility that such a name implies. It takes only a teacher's eye to see them, a teacher's voice to name them.

Make Yourself Clear

The irony of ironies is that, often, people (including us) who are most urgently trying to communicate, most urgently trying to build understanding in others, work against our own message because we stand in our own way. Either our ego or our default mode of communicating is actually preventing us from communicating.

We do not tell enough stories; or we tell too many without providing appropriate data.

We raise our voices when we seek to convince, creating defensiveness in others, instead of listening to understand.

We write in lists without ever providing vivid images to connect ideas.

We offer text when a picture would be more memorable, or ask people to discuss a picture when they would be better off quietly reading something so as to arrive at the same starting point before a meeting begins.

Making yourself clear, as a teacher, is about all the things you can do to communicate, but it is also a constant reminder not to get in your own way. We tell people this all the time. Sometimes the best way to help people grow or help people learn is to remove yourself as much as possible from the equation so that they have to confront directly what you are selling, what you are saying, and then have an experience. Off to the side, you can then be there as counsel or as coach or as extra set of eyes or as extra set of hands.

Put it this way (or these ways):

If you sell people something that they did not really want, then sure, maybe you made a commission, but you will not have lifetime clients. Make yourself clear. Help them see the product or solution that they really need.

If you train people in a way that gets them to a certificate but that does not help them to really own the knowledge or skills, then they will never take full responsibility for that training or knowledge. They will never absorb it in a way that allows them to use it – to serve others – in a seamless and fluent way. Make yourself clear. Help them to connect directly to the knowledge or skills so that they become second nature for them.

If you service the problems of others and they remain dependent on you, they may call you back annually or as needed, but you'll be utterly replaceable at some point, able to be swapped out for the first service provider who undercuts your price. Make yourself clear. Help your clients to see rudimentary solutions without you so that they call you when they need your unique perspective, your creativity, your temperament.

If you lead others in such a way that they rush back to you whenever they meet a new challenge or they crumble whenever someone or something challenges them, they will always be followers. Make yourself clear. Empower those you lead to lead others, even if that means they need to leave your team or company.

Teach

Let's end with a little thought experiment.

You are asleep and you're dreaming. In the dream, it is 7:55 a.m. and you are fast‐walking across a crowded building filled with people. You are trying not to spill your coffee. You are hoping that you have remembered to bring your notes to help you remember the finer points of what you need to deliver.

When you finally get to the room where you're going, you realize that 18 15‐year‐olds are waiting for you, and they are in various states of unpreparedness. Several of them look like they just woke up and are definitely going to go back to sleep within the next five minutes. Several of them simply scowl. They have not spoken to you in weeks. A few of them are laughing and giggling. A few are on their phones. As you turn to face the board and write something down, hoping to gain some control, a paper airplane crashes into it. The class erupts in laughter. You turn to face them. You wake up.

In that moment of waking, most of you, not being teachers by profession, would feel greatly relieved. You would look around your room and smile. It was just a dream. A bad dream. “Thank goodness that did not really happen,” you might say to your husband or wife or just out loud. “Thank goodness I do not have to stare down a group of students today.”

But, if we were to take your next 18 clients, customers, or colleagues and put all of them in a room, you would be facing a very similar circumstance. The 18 people could be a mix of people who were bored or agitated, or not paying attention, or doing something else. The 18 people that you were trying to lead on a team could be joking around or making their own version of a paper airplane or half paying attention. The 18 people could be ornery, could be mad, could feel like they already knew what you were going to say next. The 18 people could wonder why the heck they have to be there and what they have to gain and when you are going to check the homework that they forgot to do.

We're sorry to break it to you, but you may not be that different from the teacher in your dream. The only real question is, what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to embrace your role as a teacher and realize that, when students in a classroom are ornery or angry or joking, sometimes they simply do not feel engaged or they simply misunderstand the assignment and are deflecting? Are you going to own the fact that they may not see the point or the relevancy of what you are offering? Are you going to take responsibility for the fact that you may not be telling a compelling enough story?

We are here to help. Simply. This book is here to help. Again and again – that is why we designed so many pathways through it.

And here is the last evidence of our intentions, the last secret we will share. At the end of the day, classes are terrible or extraordinary for one simple reason: a teacher has either figured out a way to make understanding accessible and exciting to his or her students or a teacher is being gravely misunderstood, is not able to break into his or her students' understandings, and so is not captivating them and engaging them.

At the end of the day, both teachers and businesspeople suffer or thrive to the extent that they are able to be understood by, and to understand, others.

You're carrying around all the tools you need to make a difference – to teach.