We who Come to Teach are the Ones who Learn

Abstract

This is a personal account of what can be learned from asking students to write a sentence or two—no more than a paragraph—on the person they most admire. As management educators strive to bridge the gap between the realities of the workplace and the often sterile world of management texts and classrooms, perhaps the greatest lesson learned from this reflective experience is not to gear up for expected results, but try, as in life, to leave ourselves open to the humanity of others. In fact, the lessons gleaned could become countless as evidenced by the responses generated and reported in this article.