ABSTRACT
Tacked to the cork bulletin board in my office is a faded handwritten quote given to me by a student over 25 years ago, stating that “a great teacher is not one who imparts knowledge to students, but one who awakens their interest in it and makes them eager to pursue it for themselves.”1 I have been a teacher for over 30 years and have tried to live by this philosophy. I am often asked how I came to my philosophy and style as a teacher and I immediately respond that I did not learn to teach through my college or graduate school curricula. My graduate training prepared me to be a scholar in my field, but the inspiration to teach was something that was planted in me through a variety of experiences dating back to my early childhood. I grew up in a small town in North Carolina and many of my earliest memories involve my family’s business, a men’s clothing store that was established by my Russian immigrant grandfather in the early 1900s, and continued by my father and uncle for many years. They had a particularly personal way of interacting with their customers, long preceding current interests in customer-focused management that was an embodiment of small town life. Many of the southern gentlemen in our town knew my father and uncle well for many years, some since childhood, and enjoyed their humor and stories as much as the merchandise. They came for the human experience, knowing that their tastes and preferences would be honored, and that the selling would never be rushed or pushed. Occasionally my uncle would introduce a new color or style, but always in keeping with the customer’s
general outlook and sensibility. As a young boy I was often perplexed about why these men would drop in on a regular basis just to talk, exchange jokes, stories, and news of the town; but I grew to realize that it was all about the relationships that encompassed the sales. Something meaningful transpired in that small corner of the world. Though lacking in formal education themselves, in their own unique way, my father and uncle were teachers who educated their customers as they developed and nurtured a regular and loyal clientele. Selling was a persuasive performance as they engaged in a very human exchange with their clients, who walked away with more than merchandise. They felt valued as human beings. As a result my family seldom formally advertised as customers knew where to go for clothing and the welcoming atmosphere. Their particular interpersonal style and under lying values enhanced and reinforced by my mother’s value of formal education, and the behavior of influential teachers from elementary school on through my doctoral program, contributed greatly to my desire to teach and eventual approach and style of teaching. The study documented in the previous chapter highlighted the fact that managers who served a teaching and developmental role for their employees were most highly regarded. Management scholars have noted that there is a signi fic ant teaching role in managing. Recalling that the original Mentor was the trusted advisor to the classical figures Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, Harry Levinson identifies the “mentor alliance” in which the manager as teacher serves as a role model who shapes his/her protégé by following the grain of their strengths and talents in the manner of a sculptor, rather than forcing them into a preconceived model.2 As in the best teaching relationships, the learning is mutual. Mentoring follows a developmental progression. We take on different mentors as we move through life and career stages, ideally forming a network of mentors that can function like a personal board of directors.3 However it occurs, the most important aspect is the learning relationship that touches the core of who we are and where we want to go in our careers and life. Parker Palmer states that the power of the teacher as a mentor is in his or her capacity to awaken a truth within us that can be recalled years later, just as I remembered my early experiences with my father and uncle.4 This kind of mentoring relationship is based on two inter-related processes:
1 identification – absorbing and internalizing the characteristics, values, and behavior of key figures in our lives; and
2 integrity – integrating the various experiences into a meaningful whole to form a distinct understanding of the self.
