What makes teachers such good leaders?
Integrity
In his online discussions around successful leadership, Schwantes quotes Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, who states that all of his most successful hiring decisions were based on values, the most important of which was ‘integrity’. “Integrity is what makes it hard to question a person’s decisions. His or her actions are open for everyone to see and you can rest assured that he or she will use good judgement”.
In tight, collaborative spaces, colleagues of such hires will quickly see them as dependable and accountable for their actions, which is a laser path to developing team trust.
Integrity is also the key value driver in teacher education programmes the world over.
Dedication
If there’s one descriptor that epitomises the lay perception of a teacher, it would have to be ‘dedication’. Teaching in South Africa requires study over four years towards a qualification like a Bachelor of Education degree. The degree also incorporates months and months of integrated training in live classrooms where students perfect their craft long before they’re given carte blanche to manage a classroom of some 30-strong 10-year-olds.
Teachers then spend hours and hours each evening preparing for the next day’s lessons, marking homework from the previous day’s efforts and still finding time to spend with their own priorities and loved ones.
In dedicating themselves to their task, teachers shape the leaders of tomorrow. They do this by training these young minds to solve problems, inspire them to become the best version of themselves and, most importantly, equip them to become future entrepreneurs with the core thinking skills requisite for careers that have yet to be invented.
‘Dedication’, then, is the pivot on which the career decision to become a teacher swings and is the key value driver that sustains teachers throughout their lives, even when they opt to change professions.
Caring
There’s probably no more than a handful of professions that train for ‘caring’. Much like their counterparts in the health profession and, of course, across most service-oriented industries, teachers are trained to carry-out their daily tasks with care as a natural and organic part of service delivery.
The Post-Matric Study Decision
Students have more options than ever before. A teaching qualification, although geared towards a respected and value-driven profession, opens many other doors as the skills learned are easily transferable across sectors. In fact, many teaching graduates go on to successful careers in both the entrepreneurial and corporate spaces. Some choose to position themselves in corporate training, communications and skills development project work, while others choose to use their youth travelling and to use their teaching qualification much like an international visa to secure short-term work during their journey.
Most importantly, the hidden value of a teaching qualification is the way in which it creates leaders who then go on to shape other leaders.
Few other qualifications pay it forward like a teaching qualification does.
By Dr Naresh Veeran, Chief Commercial Officer of the Embury Institute for Higher Education.