Teaching Others Strengthens Your Skills

You would be surprised how much more you learn as a teacher of the craft than just a student. Often we end up learning more than the students we aim to teach… if we are pushing the limits of possibility.

Be a mentor. Be what you needed.

Are you a professional in the Dallas or Fort Worth area and looking to improve your communication skills? Want to learn how to make some awesome videos? If so, you may want to consider dedicating yourself to teaching others. As peculiar as that sounds, it is a wonderful way to build your skills and strengthen everything from your leadership and teamwork skills to your abilities in collaboration and other types of production. We can’t do anything on our own. We need each other. A good team is gold.

Of course, you cannot just decide that teaching is what you would like to do and start doing it immediately. Instead, you have to understand that there are many different teaching styles. To understand the right one for your efforts, you have to first uncover your own learning style.

Just as the now famous bestseller talks about “love languages” that empower romantic relationships, there are also learning languages that we each rely on in order to access information.

According to the experts, you will tend to be either a visual learner, an aural learner, a verbal learner, a physical learner, a logical learner, a social learner, or a solitary learner. (Learning Styles, 2014) The definitions of each style are quite complex, but you can probably estimate which styles define your own. For instance, do you learn best when listening to lectures and discussing topics with others? Maybe you prefer to read and study alone? Maybe you learn best when you use hands-on experiences and verbal exchanges? Take the time to recognize how you learn best, and note that it can be a blend of a few styles.

When you begin to make plans for teaching others, whether it is in a formal classroom, a seminar, or even volunteering in the workplace, be sure that you teach in the same way that you learn best. Do understand this is your style, and that you cannot be everything to all of the people you to teach.

Communicate in fundamentals that transcend learning style and make sure you aim to give away for free what others would pay to get.

As in everything else in life, you will have to do your best and be flexible when getting feedback or criticism.

Of course, for the modern professional, this is the exact reason to teach – to learn from the experience. If you are someone who wants to be a success, you have to be great at collaboration and teamwork. One key way to do this is to be able to communicate (which is informing and teaching) with others about your ideas. Whether you want to work as a director in Dallas, a development professional in Texas, or someone in design or development in collaboration, you must communicate well.

You don’t even have to teach to use the lessons given here. Just approach collaboration and teamwork as if you were a teacher and you will discover that your communication is inspiring and that your results a true success.