Sidebar: The Business of Teaching

Craig E. Weatherup has about 40,000 employees, which means that he has about 40,000 students. As chairman and CEO of the Pepsi Bottling Group, he believes in trying to teach every chance he gets. "I don't know if it's my number-one job, but it's pretty close," says Weatherup. "I could talk about this for days." In his job, teaching is vital, he says, because 25,000 of his employees work unsupervised while delivering or selling Pepsi products. If they don't understand what's important to PBG's executive team, the strategy won't drive the front line.

As well as attending meetings with the company's 25-member operating council, Weatherup squeezes in informal one-on-one sessions with employees in the field, something he learned from former PepsiCo president Andy Pearson after joining the company in 1974. "You can't teach unless people believe you care about them," Weatherup says.

Clearly, his most challenging teaching opportunity occurred when PBG split off from PepsiCo in 1998 and then went public the following year. He knew that changes of this magnitude could cause widespread confusion. The newly formed company needed a mission statement. In record time, he and the management team crafted a new set of operating principles, dubbed the "rules of the road."

On April 7, 1999, Weatherup assembled all 400 location managers. He explained the importance of these rules, along with PBG's to-the-point new mission statement, "We sell soda." One week later, those 400 managers taught the remaining 39,600 or so employees. Each location had a poster featuring the mission statement, and each employee in attendance "enrolled" in the new PBG by signing the poster. "When you're teaching something this important, it has to be personal and public," Weatherup says.

Sidebar: The Keys to Good Teaching

How do you help rising superstars fulfill their potential? That's the challenge facing Yoheved Kaplinsky, chair of the piano department at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. She teaches some of the most talented young musicians in the country.

For Kaplinsky, the key is relating to her students as individuals, not simply as prodigies. "Talent is often coupled with a high level of sensitivity," she says. "You need a varied vocabulary to express the same ideas with different students." As a result, she is as interested in her students' psychology as in their music. "You're teaching them to become comfortable with themselves and to express what they feel," she says.

Kaplinsky encourages students to critically evaluate their own playing and to maintain high standards while avoiding a perfectionism that can never be satisfied. She knows that this is tricky. The solution, she suggests, is inspiring them to be lifelong students, ever curious, always striving, never complacent. Such students are eager to improve, rather than discouraged. "I tell my students, 'Judge yourself by two standards: where you are today compared with last week and where you want to be next week.' "

Kaplinsky is particularly aware of her students' perspective, because she was a prodigy herself. Born in Israel, she began playing as a 5-year-old and later studied with an instructor who was considered to be one of the best in the country. At 16, Kaplinsky left home for Juilliard, where she earned her doctorate. She has been teaching there for eight years. "What it takes to be a good teacher is what it takes to be a good artist: creativity and the ability to express yourself and your emotions," she says. "Some people have a wonderful artistic sense, but they can't communicate it. Some teachers have a huge amount of knowledge, but they can't express it or create the spark in their students to learn."

Sidebar: Teacher With Heart

Levi Watkins teaches all day, every day. He is a cardiac surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which is a teaching hospital. Residents there learn by working alongside veteran physicians like Watkins as they diagnose and treat patients.

Watkins, who also lectures at Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he is associate dean, takes particular pride in "teaching by example." As the poem on the wall of his office says, "I'd rather see a sermon than hear one." He understands that what he does is just as important as what he says. "If I had to prioritize what I teach, I'd say that caring is the most important thing," he says. "Any fine program can teach you surgical procedure."

In addition to showing residents his habit of triple-checking in the OR, Watkins demonstrates what it means to be close. "I sit down on the bed with my patients, like an old family doctor," says Watkins. "My residents see me touch someone's hand or cheek. Those are reassuring things. You can't be emotionally close unless you're physically close."

His residents also see him teaching his patients and their families about heart surgery, the potential risks, and his backup plans (another Watkins rule: Have more than one plan). Watkins attributes his empathy to growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, where as a boy he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil-rights movement. In the 1960s, Watkins became the first black student at and first black graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. "You have to struggle a little bit to appreciate other people's struggles," he says. Or at the very least, you need a strong role model. When he came to Hopkins as a resident, Watkins worked alongside Vincent Gott, the chief cardiac surgeon at the time. "Dr. Gott taught me how to show compassion for patients," says Watkins. "He was a sermon that I enjoyed seeing."