Shut up and stop teaching.

Jules Pfeiffer wrote and illustrated a short, simple, whimsical children’s picture book in 2014. It’s called Rudolph the Cat, and it should be not only required reading for every parent, teacher, manager, and leader, but should be canon in the literature of leadership and motivational resources.

Basically Rudolph is a cat who only dances at night. In secret. Except one night, he’s caught. His friend, the girl whose bedroom he lives in, is excited because now she can teach him all her favorite dance moves Except…

…except now he doesn’t want to dance any more. It’s not fun. The joy is gone. He’s done dancing. Until…

…until the girl, the girl so anxious to teach him her dance moves, has an epiphany. She stops offering to teach him…

…and asks him to teach her. She asks him to help her. He does, and…spoiler alert there’s a very happy ending.

To ram this idea home and make it universally relevant and clear, let me phrase what I get from this:

No matter how great your skills or knowledge or aptitude or wisdom is about something, if you’re trying to teach or convey it to an unwilling, unengaged audience, then you’re ineffective.

It means you’re failing.

So you gotta sometimes get outta the way. Stop teaching. Flip roles. And be the student. Not in a cutesy, condescending way that’s transparent in its manipulation and conceit. In a genuine, sincere, internal commitment to being The Learner in that scenario and actually learning. Letting go of your knowledge, skills, aptitudes, and wisdoms enough to defer to the leadership and guidance of another.

So. Practice how to stop teaching. Shut up. And dance. Or listen.

Everyone will learn better.