Teaching from a Map

 

I like teaching, most of the time.  

But a few nights ago, as I walked into the first session of the MBA class I teach on “Managing Career Risk,” I wondered why.  I don’t like being the center of attention.  My sense of humor is not the sort that puts an audience at ease and I fear being struck by lightening if I dare to tell a joke.  I much prefer to ask probing questions than to offer solutions.

So why, for the fourth year in a row, was I standing at the front of a lecture room, urging ambitious young professionals to re-think their career choices?  As if I knew what choices they should make.  As if . . .   

Something like an answer came to me a few days later, during a presentation by author Christina Baldwin entitled “Leading Change through Story.”  Her message was that the stories we use to make sense of our lives are, metaphorically, maps for those who follow in our footsteps. 

And I have lots of stories.  Six or seven career changes, depending on how you count. Some remarkable successes and two very painful failures. A history of “dropping out” (three years on a sailboat, two years managing the finances of a non-profit that serves the mentally ill) and then returning to the work-a-day world, each time in a better job than when I left.  

Those stories give shape and color to themes that might be considered banal or trite.  The growth that comes when you step outside your comfort zone.  That most aspects of life—including one’s career progress—depend on factors outside of your control.  That a decision to not take a particular career risk is a decision to take a risk of a different sort.  The odds that you will be more successful if you love what you do.

Using Baldwin’s frame, the shape and color of my stories allow me to recast these banalities as a roadmap for young professionals peering nervously into the future.  After a 40-year career, I have a pretty good idea where the main road is likely to take you … and first hand experience with some of the alternatives that are available if you decide to veer off.

In Baldwin’s frame, my teaching role is not about giving advice or offering solutions.  It is about providing a well-drawn roadmap that my students can use to plot their route.

This is why I like teaching.  Because I keep learning!

 

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