Edupreneur
Why being an entrepreneur can make you a better teacher
Watching ‘The Secret Teacher’ on Channel 4; where millionaires and entrepreneurs go undercover as teaching staff in a state school for a few months; has helped me reflect on how the skills I’ve acquired from starting my own business, can also be valuable in supporting my students. Here are three ways in which being an entrepreneur can improve your teaching:
Innovative
Entrepreneurs are in the business of creating solutions to problems and the education sector is rife with them at the moment. Between behaviour and recruitment, the issues within education are well documented. However, finding creative solutions to problems your students have is useful for two reasons:
1 — You can share your approach to helping them with their academic or behaviour problems.
2 — You can explore finding a solution together, that can also help other people in the future.
Value for customers (clients)
Teachers only have jobs because students turn up to learn. Even the challenging ones have travelled, dressed and equipped themselves to learn, even if they don’t appear to behave like it. I reflect upon something my lecturer told me on my teacher training course, “students are our clients because we are providing a service to them.” This got me thinking, how do I engage potential clients in using my service and then continuing to use it?
- Be interested and interesting. Showing an interest in your students and acknowledging their existence as people with passions, perspectives and problems; whilst safely sharing your experiences; is a useful way to build trust and connect with them.
- Opportunities. Often, my clients have ambitions or lack of direction, either way, they require resources to plan their journey. Creating those resources or holding events where people can take practical tools or connect with others who can help them is the best way for them to achieve their goals. It’s easy to become disillusioned with learning when you have neither the means to reach your targets or even a target itself.
Taking care of people — Staff welfare
Steve Bartlett, the founder of Social Chain, discusses how having a ‘Director of Happiness’ ensures that his staff are happy at work. This is ironically laughed off and dismissed as an idea from the Headteacher. Regardless, Steve invests in a happiness scheme for the staff and a mental health officer to help the students.
Being a teacher is often a thankless task which can make it easy to focus on the negatives. Being forced to recognise the positives in our students, colleagues and clients and sharing our observations and appreciations with them is a good way to make people feel valued at work or whilst they are learning. Entrepreneurs are also prone to depression and anxiety, often unseen or unheard. Therapy helped me to manage spells of anxiety and depression, as well as my team members. Prioritising the person and not the position is a small but meaningful way to let staff and students know you care. Carlo Ancelotti has the best quote for why this is so important, especially as educators; it’s because “people [or students] don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
