Leaders: Get The Rude Out

Given my love of words, I subscribe to Thinkmap’s Visual Thesaurus. Each day, I look forward to an email from Thinkmap’s Word of the Day. (Yes, I’m that geeky.) Today’s word is “erudite”.  It means “having or showing profound knowledge”. Don’t you just love how it trips off your tongue? Say it with me: erudite.

Beyond being fun to say, the roots of this word are cool too. The word erudite is related to the word “rude”.  My Word of the Day email informed, “erudite is from a Latin verb that means instruct, which is, in essence, to get the rudeness out”.

I love this! As a corporate trainer, my goal is to help facilitate learning rather than be a Sage on the Stage, offering up my volumes of wisdom.  In an adult learning environment, there’s nothing ruder than an arrogant person at the front of the room, pontificating. The same goes for leadership.  People learn a lot from their leaders, whether the leaders is conscious of doing the “teaching” or not. Every day, leaders have the opportunity to instruct their employees, whether in a coaching role, or as a role model demonstrating the company values. It’s up to the leader in how he or she wants to teach: with humility or with arrogance.

I’m going to turn the “word of the day” into a “thought for the day”— at work, would someone describe you as “erudite”? Are you seen as someone who is constantly striving to help others learn, while keeping the rudeness out?