Many leaders pride themselves on their commitment to personal growth. The varying leadership coaching clients I have worked with, recognise the link between personal growth and organisational growth, and they understand the importance of learning and developing new methods, embracing appropriate strategies, and staying up to date with best practices. In a word, they might describe themselves as “teachable.”
That would be an accurate description. But over some time, I have come to realise that teachability has three features to it. If you are going to become the most effective leader, you have to espouse all three modes of teachability.
The first mode of teachability is self-directed curiosity. Curiosity manifests itself as a deep desire and commitment to acquire knowledge. Curious people are never satisfied with what they know. They have an insatiable appetite to learn more and expand the width and depth of their knowledge. If you want to evaluate how curious you are, ask yourself these questions:
- What have I learned since I graduated from university?
- Do I regularly read books, go to conferences, listen to podcasts, and participate in webinars where I will stretch my thinking, learn new ideas, and acquire fresh insights?
- Am I personally motivated to learn, or do others have to continually push my development?
- Do I have a plan for personal growth?
This mode of teachability focuses on the acquisition of information. It may be likened to adding files to your file cabinet of wisdom. While self-directed curiosity is essential to a growing leader, it is also the easiest form of teachability. By easy, I do not mean that it does not require effort, discipline, or commitment. I mean it is contained within the mind of the leader, and therefore is usually void of dialogue or accountability. Basically, the learner decides if they will do anything with what they have learned. There is nobody to push back, challenge thinking, or confront assumptions. The individual ultimately decides if they like what they have heard, read, or watched.
Without the “curiosity” mode of teachability, leaders will get trapped in old paradigms, become lazy, and slide into ruts that inhibit personal and organisational progress. At the same time, if the only mode of teachability a leader embraces is curiosity, they will fail to mine the gold and confront the gaps that the other two modes of teachability offer. Curiosity is an essential starting point, but there is more.
The second mode of teachability is the willingness to be coached by others. Intensive coaching is critical in facilitating accountability on the part of the leader to do what they learn. The aim is not to simply acquire more knowledge. That knowledge has to be translated into action. In my coaching practice, I have come to recognise that some people are not coachable, even those who are highly curious.
Some time ago I was in a meeting with a group of leaders who were seeking to learn, grow, and improve their personal leadership and organisational effectiveness. I noticed one particular leader was continually resistant to new ideas. When others would recommend she try something different, she always had a reason why it would not work, or why someone else in the organisation would resist it.
This leader was very “curious.” She was well-read and well-educated. But she was not coachable. She could not see past her own well of knowledge. She could not accept valuable ideas from others in the group. In her mind, she already had the answers.
If you want to assess whether or not you’re coachable, ask yourself these questions:
- Do I consciously place myself in environments where I’m not the smartest person in the room?
- Do I intentionally seek out coaching and mentoring relationships?
- Do I listen more than I talk?
- Can I readily receive ideas, insights, and feedback from people “above” me and “beneath” me?
Being coachable introduces the dialogue that is often missing at the curiosity stage of teachability. It combines insight with interaction. It welcomes the input of a coach when they facilitate an assessment of the leader’s performance, character, skills, strengths, and weaknesses; provide valuable insights that will help the person grow, improve, and accelerate – typically through the use of powerful questions; and motivating the individual as they implement new ideas and pursue growth in essential areas of their life. If you fail to receive their (the on-the-job coaches) input, they will look for somebody else to invest in.
The third mode of teachability is the toughest. It is the willingness to let others correct you. While this is the least enjoyable of the teachability modes, it is the one that has the potential to reveal your greatest gaps and biggest blind spots.
As a young leader, it took me a while to embrace this form of teachability. Needless to say, my first performance review did not go so well. When my gaps were confronted, I was quite defensive. Over time, I came to realise that when somebody who cares about me chooses to correct me, they are doing me a favour. They are saving me a lot of future heartaches if I will simply receive what they have to say. It requires humility!
If you are wondering how correctable you are, ask yourself these questions:
- How do I respond when my boss gives me a low score in my performance review?
- How do I respond when my spouse addresses an area of concern in my life?
- How do I respond when a friend tells me I’m wrong?
- How do I respond when a professor gives me a low mark?
- How do I respond when a peer points out holes in my ideas?
Do you justify your behaviour? Do you try to convince the other person that they are not seeing things properly? Do you try to correct your corrector? The inability to receive correction constructively is nothing more than a debilitating posture of pride. If you cannot be corrected, you are not as teachable as you think you are. It requires you to adopt a posture of humility!
These three modes of teachability provide a comprehensive picture of what it means to be teachable. All three are crucial to your growth. Without curiosity, you will never get started. Without coaching, you will never live up to your full potential. And if you are not correctable, you will never address the gaps and the blind spots that everybody (but you) sees in your life.
So, take the test. On a scale from one to ten, score yourself:
- How Curious am I?
- How Coachable am I?
- How Correctable am I?
Which area did you score the lowest in? What can you do to improve by two points?
Need support in assessing your teachability – someone to provide insight and perspective on what your self-assessment is revealing, and ultimately act as a motivator as you begin to implement new ideas and pursue growth in essential areas of your life? If YES – then contact me for a free coaching session at www.quintuswealth.co.za
I am passionate about helping leaders achieve their ambitions in the right way.