If You Want to Be an Expert at Something, Teach It to Someone Else.
It seems natural to assume that learning a skill means learning everything about it first. However, often the best teachers don’t stop learning on their own.
As SWAT Lt. Col. Mike Kenny explains, the ability to teach isn’t just for teachers. Being able to understand an idea well enough to communicate it to others will help you internalize it yourself. Moreover, it will make you more effective as a leader and a team player at the same time:
We will tell the guys in advance: “Hey, your main job is a teacher, an instructor.” Our bread and butter mission is unconventional warfare. Part of our Surgical Strike portfolio is undoubtedly important, but part of this Special Warfare portfolio is what people need to understand. It is assumed that we will work through a proxy. This means that I have to be able to teach. I need to be able to convey information. I need to be able to influence diplomatically, because these are partners. They are not subordinate when I say, “Do it.” You must conquer them. You have to be able to convince them, so if you can’t instruct, if you can’t work through a confidant, through the other side, and you have to do it all unilaterally on your own, like a science fiction guy, I don’t mean to say that you are worthless, but you are not so valuable.
You don’t have to get a job at a university, and depending on how eclectic the skill is, you may run into trouble finding willing students. However, the Internet is always a good place to start learning, and at least you can always practice on your own. The important thing is that you approach teaching the skill with the mentality of teaching it to others.
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