Teachability and Leadership
One of the most important characteristics of a leader is teachability. People often say “leaders are learners” and “leaders are readers.” Less commonly does anyone say, “leaders are correctable.” Or even “leaders are humble.” But being teachable, correctable, and humble offers enormous benefits to leaders and their communities of influence.
I recently sent a blog entry to our senior director of marketing. A terrific writer, he formerly served as the chief copy writer at Nordstrom. He also served a stint in marketing at Microsoft. He often enjoys my first drafts, but he very professionally pointed out very significant weaknesses in that one. I deeply appreciated his corrections, and he commented back that he appreciated my openness to correction. The piece got better!
Having written ten books (nine of them published) with seven foreign language versions, plus literally hundreds of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles, I have a long sheet of publications. I write with a great deal of confidence but always say, “There is no such thing as a great writer—only great editors.” Unless writers polish their own material almost endlessly and submit it to outside critique before publishing, they can never achieve consistent, high-quality writing. The opposite approach we could call “Pontius Pilate Syndrome”: “What I have written, I have written.” (In his case, at least what he wrote stood the test of time: “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum.”)
If writers need to submit themselves to critique—showing teachability—how much more do leaders need to consult with others? Writing takes time and attention, as authors need the opportunity to consider and reconsider their ideas over time. In contrast, so much of leadership happens in the hot press of the moment. Listening to the people we lead before the moment of crisis can do a lot to avoid mistakes under pressure. And occasionally, changing one’s mind (or admitting to an error) after an unfortunate hot decision or statement can increase confidence among followers.
The problem comes when so many hot mistakes have occurred that followers no longer trust the leader. Even the most inspiring leaders have to get things right more often than not. Too many corrections erode confidence for the leader and for the community. The fear of corrections can impede teachability, creating more and more distrust. The leader can feel and appear unstable.
A habit of private teachability, consultation, and humility—along with public decisiveness, confidence, courage, and resolute faithfulness to vision and mission—can help leaders avoid the humiliation of public correction and private fear of losing the confidence of their teams and communities.