Educators Are the Best Leaders

Last week, I was at a dinner with more than a dozen leaders in education in DC. It was organized as a salon, meaning that we were put into small groups and had deep and meaningful questions to discuss during the event.

The last question was, “What strengths do you see in everyone at the table?” 

Here is what I shared: 

I find that, on average, educators are better leaders than any other group of people I see.

That was a spontaneous response to the question, but when I went home that evening, I thought more about what had formed that belief, and two thoughts quickly came to mind.

Educators understand that everyone thinks differently 

I’ve never been a teacher, but during my masters in education program, I did take what amounted to Teaching 101. My main takeaway was that it’s super helpful to start a class by articulating what the learning goal is and the activities needed to get there.

In other words: You need an agenda.  

But beyond that, a good teacher doesn’t just think about what people need to know about a topic and give a speech on it (like the worst lecture courses we experienced in college). Instead, they ask themselves questions like: 

What baseline knowledge is required to grasp this lesson?

How can I help them see the lesson’s relevance to their own lives?

People are different. What are all the ways they are going to interpret what I’m planning to say? What are the best methods for them to see, hear, and experience it so that they really get it? 

Beyond having a good plan, good teaching requires presence and agility. One education leader at the dinner framed teaching as an exercise in seeing how other humans are responding, and then adjusting to meet their needs.

Obviously, those questions and skills can apply to most interactions we have in the workplace. And I’m sure we’ve all experienced what happens when leaders don’t have these tools!

For the educator leaders I’ve worked with, the above thought patterns remain in their leadership practice. For example, I once helped a leadership team think about a change to the organization's values. When we brought the individual school principals into the conversation, they immediately started talking about how to help their teams understand and navigate the proposed change.

I’d bet any amount of money that none of them had gone through a professional development course on change management, but they instantly understood the steps required for human beings to take in new information and successfully integrate it into their behaviors. And I think that’s because they were all teachers previously.

It’s not that change is any easier in education organizations, but educator leaders at least go into the process with a fighting chance!

They’re empathetic and oriented toward others

I recently attended a virtual roundtable about restorative justice in schools. Because the roundtable happened the day after the Uvalde, TX school shooting, we started with a discussion about how school principals that day had to stand outside of their schools and hug parents and caregivers, knowing how difficult it was for them to drop their kids off at school that day.

But the thing that’s always inspiring to me about educators is that instincts like those are so normal to them. At times, it’s almost absurdly comical. 

At the dinner, someone shared a story that included tales of teenage parties and college, but then, seemingly out of nowhere they said, “... and that’s when I decided to dedicate my life to serving others.”

I giggled to myself because a statement that profound was communicated in such a plain, matter-of-fact way. 

And in contrast, when I observe leaders in other sectors, moments of vulnerability, empathy, and inspiration are usually impactful because they’re counter to how those individuals normally show up.  

When dropping off my daughter at school last week, the school principal was standing outside, warmly welcoming students. But I did a double-take because also, somehow, the principal was standing in a way that could serve as the model for a dominant, I’m-in-control power pose. 

I’d never seen those two things present in combination, and it struck me as the kind of thing people pay thousands of dollars to learn in executive presence workshops. 

Finally, it’s not lost on me that the leaders who’ve driven this reflection for me were mostly women, while the most famous models of leadership we have are men in business, political, and military fields.

Perhaps we should be looking elsewhere!