The 15 Skills of Leadership and Management: Teaching

To teach properly, the leader must be aware of the four elements of teaching. First, the leader must prepare his learning objectives. The leader must consider the skill or topic he would like to teach and then ask himself, “By the end of this session, what do I want my group to know and be able to do?” It works best if the leader makes a bulleted list and presents it to his group in the beginning of the lecture, this way he has an agenda that will guide his presentation and the group has something they can follow along with as he explains each point.

Second, is the teaching/learning phase where the leader uses the five senses to convey his knowledge to each member of the group. Most commonly the three senses of hearing (lecture, discussion, conversation), seeing (reading, displays, visual aids, demonstrations), and touching/doing (simulations, experimenting, practice) are the ways through which people learn the most, but smell and taste still add to the over all experience and are closely linked to memory.

The third element is review. Once the leader has fully explained all of his learning objectives, he allows the group to ask questions for clarification. When they are through, he will reiterate the points that are most important and ask them questions about what he just taught to see how much they’ve learned. If they have not learned to the leader’s satisfaction, he will have to ask more detailed questions to isolate where their confusion lies and then he will re-teach that part.

The fourth element is application. When the leader is satisfied with his group’s understanding of the information, he will place them in a situation where they can use it. Depending on what the group is being called to do; the leader may want them to start with a practice situation, or he may possess enough confidence in them to let them take on the task right away.

Finally, regardless of what the leader is teaching, he must try to make it fun and interesting for the group. He should be enthusiastic about the topic and do his best to hold the group’s attention. Bored group members don’t learn – they daydream and take naps.

As a group supervisor, I trained people almost every day. My training responsibilities included teaching temporary crew members how to work on my ride or retraining my crew in operations procedures. At every ride there was a training checklist that was specific to that ride. I would begin training my temporary crew members by handing each a checklist and proceeding through each section. Section 1 and 2 were the same for each ride, except for the height requirement, so I would mention that and skip ahead to section 4. I skipped section 3 because I expected that everyone should know their way around the park and I didn’t want to waste the limited training time I had on things that they already knew or could ask a fellow crew member for help with later. Section 4 was also similar to other rides but it was important enough to repeat every time. Up until now, all I had done was some quick lecture. To teach the other sections (control panel procedures and attendant procedures); I would take the trainees to all the positions on the ride and teach by example. I would sit or stand where they would sit or stand and go through all the motions and use all the tools (radio, boats, control panel, phone) at each position that they would have to do and use. By implementing this method of training I became a living, moving visual aid for them while I lectured at the same time. Once I finished my demonstration, I placed each trainee in the position and allowed them to become familiar with the movements and get accustomed to using the tools. Once they adapted to the position, we would move on to the next until they had experienced all the positions on the ride. Next, each trainee and I would initial, sign, and date the checklists and these would be put in their personnel files as proof for auditors that they were properly trained and are fully capable of performing all the duties required of them on that ride.

As a final step, I would allow fro a question and answer period followed by a brief quiz to see if they were paying attention. Once I was satisfied with their understanding of the operations and procedures, I would allow them to pick the position they wanted to start off in and place them in rotation.