I can Teach it to You, but I cannot Understand it for You
One of the biggest frustrations you will have as a consultant will be in trying to explain a concept or an idea to another and them not being able to grasp it. You may even be reminded of the quote, “if you cannot teach it, you probably do not understand it well enough”, but that quote does not always hold true. Some of us are not good teachers or explainers by nature, which is why we never choose teaching as a career. There are some basic skills you can brush up on to assist with the art of teaching:
- Always start at the beginning of the subject and define what it is. Even if the audience is familiar with the topic, setting a baseline of basic understanding is a good idea. Remember to be respectful and do not be condescending as there are many things in life you do not know and will need to be taught.
- Give examples and use the white board to illustrate when you can. A lot of people are natural visual learners. Helping draw out examples and concepts will help with comprehension and will facilitate the listeners to ask counter questions that will aid them in connecting the dots.
- Switch gears if you get stuck. There is nothing more frustrating than not understanding something and having the teacher just repeat the same thing over and over, hoping it just clicks. Sometimes a fresh approach or analogy will help do the trick.
- Assist with analogies outside of the subject area. Bringing in outside references that the listener may be familiar with could help. They do not even need to be directly related to the topic. If you can explain half the idea using a baseball comparison and the second half using football rules, combining the two into some new magical sport, there is nothing wrong with that as long as you can pull the tangent back to the original topic and assist with comprehension.
Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure do read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.