Every year on Teachers’ Day, Singapore pauses to acknowledge the people who shaped us — the educators who saw something in us that we hadn’t yet seen in ourselves, who made a subject come alive, who stayed after class when it was easier to leave, who asked the right question at the right moment.
The best leaders do exactly the same things. The skills that define extraordinary teaching and extraordinary leadership are, at their core, the same skills. And yet most leadership development programmes focus on strategy, performance management, and operational execution — while the fundamentally human capacities that make teachers great go largely untrained.
What Great Teachers Actually Do
Research on teacher effectiveness consistently identifies a handful of behaviours that distinguish transformative teachers from merely competent ones. They believe in the potential of the people in front of them — genuinely, not performatively. They ask questions that develop thinking rather than just testing knowledge. They create environments where making mistakes is safe enough to be instructive. They notice the individual within the group.
These behaviours are not pedagogical techniques. They are human capacities: belief, curiosity, patience, and care. They work in classrooms and they work in boardrooms — for the same reasons.
The Leaders Who Changed Something
When people describe leaders who made a significant difference in their careers, the language they use is almost always the language of teaching. ‘She believed I could do more than I thought I could.’ ‘He asked me questions nobody had asked before.’ ‘She created space for me to fail, which is how I learned to try harder things.’ ‘He remembered details about my life that told me he was paying attention.’
These leaders are not necessarily the most technically brilliant people in their organisations. They are the people who make others more capable — which is, in the end, the most valuable thing any leader can do.
A Question Worth Asking
As we mark Teachers’ Day this week, it is worth asking: who in your professional life showed up for you the way a great teacher does? And more pointedly: are you showing up that way for the people who look to you?
Leadership, like teaching, is ultimately a practice of service. The most effective version of it is oriented not toward the leader’s performance, but toward what the people around them become.
Our Supportive Conversations for Leaders at Work course helps leaders develop the skills that great teachers have always had: the ability to show up fully, listen deeply, and support growth rather than just direct performance. Supportive Conversations for Leaders at Work.
