Page 113 - How to Create a Winning Organization

PRAY FOR PATIENCE Call Yourself a Teacher 95
Initially, my athletic experience and knowledge of basketball
worked against me as a teacher and leader. As an athlete, I was a
quick learner. When my high school or college coach told me to do
something in a specific way, I was able to do it almost immediately.
Things had come very easy for me on the court. I concluded, in-
correctly, that’s how things were taught; specifically, tell somebody
to do it and he will do it, immediately, just as I had in high school
and college. For the most part, that’s exactly how teaching is not
done.
Most often the leader is required to do more than just “tell.”
Many leaders don’t fully appreciate the fact that before telling
someone what to do you must teach him how to do it. And this
process requires patience. It is also important to note that this ap-
plies not only to an individual’s execution of a specific task but also
to his or her adoption of your organization’s philosophy, its culture
of expectations, norms of behavior, and more. Imparting all this
knowledge requires good teaching.
As an impatient first-year coach, I lacked these skills and became
quickly frustrated at the slow learning curve exhibited by the bas-
ketball players on the Dayton Greendevils team. In fact, I’m not
sure I understood there was such a thing as a learning curve. I
pushed harder and talked louder. Harder and louder were my
teaching techniques. When that didn’t work, I started complain-
ing to others about the players’ problems, lack of progress, and in-
ability to learn what I was teaching.
But the problem was with me rather than the athletes. My im-
patience precluded good teaching. I am embarrassed to say that
during my second week of practice as Dayton’s football coach, I got
involved in a fracas with one of the players, a fight, because my
teaching skills were so green and my fuse—my patience—so short.
I’m a believer in the laws of learning: explanation, demonstra-