Humility improves results

Guest blog by Rob Jutras

Education Consultant

This book’s presentation of the 6 Virtues has opened new levels of understanding for me. When I think about my interactions with teachers and their interactions with students and their content, I now look through a new set of lenses. The biggest differences are in my new views on understanding and humility.

In my work I am regarded as an expert on matters of instruction and education. When I exercise my humility (with my new understanding), I feel a difference in how I am perceived by my teacher-clients.  Many days I have been humbled by the care I witness, and by the preparation teachers put into the lessons we do in my training sessions. I am now coaching teachers in a different way.

Take for example, Franklin High School in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). This is a tough school with dedicated teachers. I enter as a complete stranger with a set of credentials that nobody really cares about. All they know is they work really hard, which is rarely recognized by “the experts” that are hired to support teaching and learning. I started working with them in January and have been back to their school 11 times.

In January, I was re-reading TSVOTEP and I kept getting drawn to humility. I decided to purposefully use the words “humility” and “humbled” when I addressed them in regards to their work.

I have been coaching teachers for almost 11 years in some form or another, but this particular school responds differently. I have received dozens of thank you notes, invitations to family dinners while I am in LA, and even a few gifts. Why are they responding differently? Is it a unique skill set, or is it approaching them with a newly discovered understanding of humility? I truly am humbled by their hard work, I am not sure that I was when I started.