Meet the Educator

I very much enjoy my engagements in the arena of executive education. In fact, I believe in the value of teaching so strongly that I wrote an article on the subject entitled ‘Every Leader Should Teach!’ Not only is teaching worthwhile to help others grow, but it is also extraordinarily effective in developing yourself.

I experienced the transformational effects of teaching first-hand. Some years ago, a colleague asked me to step in and run a day session for him in a leadership program at a renowned business school because he would not be able to make the date. Flattered by the opportunity, I somewhat impulsively agreed on the spot. Weeks later, as the day neared, I caught up with him to ask for his materials. He told me he had none. He just improvised. Now, he had twenty-five years of experience in leadership development to fall back on, and would be able to speak passionately and charismatically about the topic for days. I, on the other hand, would not. I did have some materials, but not a full-fledged eight hour educational experience, and I could definitely not ‘just improvise’ myself through the day.

So I was forced to figure out a way to prepare a full-day program for an eager audience of twenty or so seasoned leaders who had paid good money to learn something—from me. It was one of those nerve-racking opportunities life throws at you every once in a while. In retrospect, they not only make great anecdotes, but also prove to be transformational in your own development.

Three life-enriching things happen when you recast yourself as an educator and step up to the challenge to teach:

• You will need to take some time to reflect on and structure what exactly it is you think you know a lot about;

• Your audience will bring up questions that might reveal your blind spots—so, by exposing yourself, you will actually challenge yourself to dig deeper into the subjects you care about;

• And let’s not forget the platform experience you gain by presenting to and interacting with an audience, a crucial factor in your leadership journey.

My executive education journey allowed me to establish relationships with renowned business schools such as the Wharton Business School (Philadelphia, USA), Thunderbird School of Global Management (Phoenix, AZ, USA), Nyenrode Business Unversity (The Netherlands), Sabanci Business University (Istanbul, Turkey) and Skolkovo School of Management (Moscow, Russia). I also teach in in-house corporate leadership programs.

For the kind of programs and subjects I teach on, see Speaking – Workshops.