How to Be a Compelling Teacher or Life Coach

The thing about teaching, an essential quality of life coaching and healing, is that we can not give what we don't have. Often the desire to give something is acted upon without having mastery of the given art, skill, etc. The treacherous flaw of this approach lies in underestimating the roles emulation and absorption play in the learning process, where it later reveals its poison as a student's need to unlearn what is "not quite right" or flat out, wrong.

What is Pure Lesson Delivery?

I like how the Montessori Method makes this point integral in the training of Montessori teachers. Montessori teachers are trained to hone their observational skills and to expect precision in all their lesson presentations.

This includes the mandate that lessons are to be presented sitting next to the child using the dominant hand of the child, not that of the teacher. This practice is to avoid the child's mind from having to compensate for a left to right (or vice versa) orientation shift when replicating the lesson back to the teacher.

This is pure delivery, meeting the child as he is, without saddling the child's brain with translating pointless information. Clearly, this method is not oriented to the teacher's comfort when it yokes the child with compromised input. The result is crystallized clarity of the learning process.

What is the Key to Enhanced Learning and Healing Outcomes?

When a student/client is poised in the learning/healing mode, they areopen to receiving. This attitude is initially not one of analyzing for accuracy or the like, rather it is focused ontaking in the entirely of what is being presented.

Initially, the wholism[1] of what is being taught/given is absorbed by the brain without discerning its correctness or not. Thus, the brain is taking in what is there, in the presentation of the lesson, whether all the elements of presentation are desirable or flawed. Simply, everything is absorbed like a sponge without sorting or sifting through its content. Thus, "the good, the bad, the ugly," you get it all, "for better or for worse"!

This awareness gave me great pause. Consequently, I decided to engage in an in depth consideration of the meaning this impact was having on the process of learning itself.

This awareness had the influence of deepening my understandings and sense of accountability, as well as my responsibilities, when donning a facilitating or teaching role/mantle. Thus, my approach to teaching/healing/helping others became altered in profound ways putting a greater onus upon me for the part I play in any given teaching process, including the importance of my "emulation data" impact.

Applying This Insight Will Make You a Better Teacher or Coach

Once I realized that my presentations could burden a learner with the gruesome and time consuming tasks of unlearning, (Yikes!) I knew I could lighten their learning load by being consciously cognizant and attentive to all the details of lesson delivery, especially noting its impact on the quality of what they'd be receiving.

Thus, I rose to the challenges of presenting lessons, artfully and masterfully, because it was crystal clear to me, pure transmission of information was a duty, not an option, and I disciplined myself accordingly. Delightfully, I discovered something exciting - my gratification of teaching and learning were notably enhanced.

More so, I began to "come from the hip," enjoying the ability to spontaneously connect, in present time, with people's unique learning needs.

Of course, this means a motivation to do more and be more reenters the teaching-learning equation! Wouldn't you agree, this a very good thing!?

I think realizing the onus was on me as a teacher was a good thing, because I became much more realistic about what I bring to any given process, and what I do not bring.

I became profoundly aware of the information and gifts I could bring to the learning process as well as information and gifts I had not yet mastered and thus couldn't share.

An Ultimate Win-Win for Teachers/Coaches and Their Students/Clients

My capacity to be honest about my gifts as well as my limits and to not feel diminished by this awareness, has increased my value since I am now able to be un-conflicted about recognizing ways in which I naturally hinder or expand a learning environment.

By clearly knowing what I am bringing to the learning table, pros and cons, I am emotionally and mentally free to be a transparent contributor bringing greater value to the learning feast.

This yin/yang view is a real quality boost for the learning side, and it satisfies wholism[2] over fragmentation nicely.

Remember, that exceptional growth is an outcome of disciplining ourselves, and making an extraordinary impact upon others, is our resulting 'gift' to others.

[2] I purposefully use this spelling, adding the "w" to the word holism, because I want to make a point. Specifically, wholism spelled as holism, when signifying something that is whole, is rooted in the word hole or gap and belies the intended meaning! My spelling is not an indication of a misspelled word; it is a mechanism of emphasis. This is one of my "signature" points engendering greater mindfulness. I consider this one of many drunken-consciousness spelling errors accepted by a mindless populace not paying attention to details nor noticing Soulful/Cosmic clues strewn all about our landscape pointing to The TRUTH that sets us free. I am prodding people to THINK! (OK, off my soapbox.)