I love teaching people. There’s something exciting about passing on insights from my own experience and watching somebody take it, internalize it, and accomplish a goal.
It’s validating. It shows you that what you’ve done not only worked for you, but will prove valuable as a story and example for others.
Watching somebody accomplish a goal as a result of your teachings builds confidence, which turns you into a better leader. You’re able to own your process, and people notice that demeanor.
Most people wait until they’re an expert before they teach. Which means they never become a leader because it takes a long time to become an expert – sometimes longer to consider yourself an expert.
Here’s my principle:
You don’t have to be an expert before you teach something.
You just have to know more than average.
The best leaders learn as they teach. It keeps their perspectives open, updated and fresh. It helps them connect with their students because they understand the problems they’re going through on a very close and personal level – because they just figured out how to solve them.
For example, I recently picked up photography. I don’t have much experience with it, but about a month in, I have more experience than somebody who is just starting now.
This actually gives me an advantage over people with years of experience. Somebody who is just picking up photography is about to go through the same thing I went through in the past month. The experience is fresh in my mind, and while I may not have all the answers, I have highly recent and relevant insights into the specific struggles they may encounter.
Learning and teaching simultaneously is powerful. Teaching somebody else accelerates your own learning because it forces you to review what you learned in new ways, and articulate it in a way that makes sense to someone else.
Don’t wait to be an expert. Don’t be afraid to teach people what you know.