How to be a teacher.

The first thing you need to do in order to teach something to someone is to listen to them. Deeply, and attentively. Regardless the setting, you need to listen to what they know, what they’re interested in, what they’d like to learn, and if you’re in a really good place, what they’re asking you to teach them.

When you’ve listened, you need to ask them if they’re willing to listen to you, and if they’d like to hear your point of view. It’s just like helping someone out in that aspect, you need to know whether or not they’re in a place where they’re accepting you as a teacher.

That second step might be hard, and will take time to learn. It’s really important to take that time. When asking you’re ensuring that the thing you think you heard was what they were actually trying to say. It might be that what you heard wasn’t a cry for complaint but rather a ventilation. If you start teaching in that state it’s really to fall in to the “mansplaining”-trap, to start talking about things you have no idea about.

When you’ve listened, asked and the person has agreed to be taught, that’s when you can start teaching. It might take some relationship-building at first but you’ll get there with some patience.