How Teaching Made Me a Better Leader

Leadership lessons from the classroom to the workplace

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

I haven’t always worked in Tech. I was a teacher in my first career. I taught high school and college courses, ranging from Spanish I to AP Spanish. At the time, I didn’t think I was learning much about leadership, but I realize now how much teaching shaped how I lead today.

When I transitioned into engineering leadership roles, I didn’t think I had any experience. But the truth is, the years I spent as a foreign language teacher were invaluable in shaping my leadership skills.

This week I want to share some lessons I learned as a teacher. And how they’ve influenced my leadership style.

Personalize your leadership

It didn’t take long for me to realize that every student is different. They have various skill levels and ways of learning. This revelation changed the way I approached teaching and now perceive leadership.

Not everyone learns the same way or has an equal level of knowledge in a subject. This proves the need to diversify lessons and get to know your students individually.

In a software engineering team, there can be a wide range of levels and roles. Some engineers might learn more from pair programming than from solo coding sessions. Other engineers prefer greenfield projects with many unknowns. While certain developers enjoy refactoring old code and fixing bugs where the outcome is anticipated.

That’s why engineering leaders need to spend time getting to know their team. When you understand how someone likes to work and what excites them, you can create an environment that supports their success and allows them to safely fail.

Here are two ways to do this:

1. Help engineers embrace variety in their work. This can mean working on a different part of the codebase or learning a new technology. Or it can happen by letting engineers lead projects, write proposals, and improve team rituals. This spotlights the unique value each engineer brings to the team. And it uncovers their passions.

2. Schedule regular 1:1s with your team. And no, you don’t need a special job title to do this. Talking with someone privately allows you to get to know them personally. You learn how they tick and what they appreciate most about their job and career. Over time you can foster a trusting relationship that enables candid feedback and meaningful support to take root.

The intangibles of leadership

On the surface, it might seem like teachers just stand in front of a classroom and teach. But once you become a teacher, especially of high school students, you realize you have to do a whole lot more.

There’s a great deal of preparation and anticipation when it comes to teaching. You have to plan lessons and grade assignments. You need to keep extra copies of textbooks in the classroom in case someone forgets theirs. And you have to endlessly remind students about due dates.

When I look back on my career as a teacher, I realize that actual teaching made up only a small percentage of my time. I had faculty meetings. I attended school events. I hosted one-on-one and small-group extra help sessions.

Similarly, engineering leaders don’t just show up to meetings and lead. Rather, they track down answers and collect information. And this usually happens behind the scenes.

Here are some ways that you can be prepared and proactive as a leader:

1. Prepare for all meetings you are hosting or participating in. Whether it’s a 1:1, a team stand-up, or a department-wide meeting, spend at least 15 minutes reviewing the agenda and gathering information.

2. Anticipate questions and find answers. Engineering leaders are like cell phone towers. They receive information. And they broadcast information. You should know what your team is working on and what’s blocking them. You should also know what projects are coming up this quarter and the next.

3. Promote knowledge sharing. Limited access to information is a perennial blocker for teams. People get sick and take vacations. Don’t let someone turn into a gatekeeper of knowledge. Document important information like how to set up your dev environment or how to add a new package to the repo. If more than one person on your team needs to know something, it should probably live in a document.

Leaving a lasting impact

When you think about it, teachers don’t spend much time with their students. A high school teacher might have one year with them. And a college professor just one semester.

I witnessed this seasonal change when I taught high school and college students. And it made me wonder.

What will my students remember more? How I taught a lesson or how I treated them?

Am I teaching my students just so they can pass an exam? Or is there a greater purpose?

Your team is no different. The average tenure for a tech employee is 2-3 years. The time you have with your teammates is short-lived. And once you realize this, it can radically change how you work with and treat them.

Great leaders don’t give you all the answers. They guide you to solve problems on your own. They help enhance your skills for both your current role and the one you'll have in five years.

Here’s what that looks like in action:

1. Being kind, empathetic, and helpful towards your teammates, or direct reports if you're a manager. People remember how you made them feel more than any word or action.

2. Learning about and supporting their long-term goals and life dreams. It’s not just about what they do next, but also what comes after that. And how you can help them be successful beyond your time together.

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Leadership doesn’t always shine in the spotlight. It’s also found in quieter moments and even during darker times. It’s less about the impact of one moment, but instead the totality of events.

This human-centric approach to leadership is the best of both worlds. You can positively influence someone's present and their future. You can give them the tools to achieve success today and tomorrow. And if you're lucky, you can help them find purpose beyond their current role.