“The greatest teacher, failure is.”
– Yoda
The best teachers aren’t the ones who stay safely within their expertise – they’re the ones brave enough to stumble, struggle and grow in front of their students.
Every teacher has that lesson plan they could deliver in their sleep. The one that’s been refined over years, always gets decent results, and requires minimal mental energy. There’s genuine comfort in mastery, in knowing exactly how the next hour will unfold. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: that comfort zone might be the biggest barrier between you and becoming the teacher your students actually need.
Adam Grant’s research in ‘Hidden Potential’ challenges everything we assume about excellence. The myth that great teachers are born, not made, is exactly that – a myth. What separates good teachers from transformational ones isn’t natural talent or charisma. It’s their willingness to regularly step into discomfort and embrace the struggle of learning something new. Oh, and they own their mistakes as well.
The Hidden Cost of Playing it Safe
Consider what happens when teachers entrench themselves in safe territory. Year after year, the same lessons, the same classroom management strategies, the same responses to student challenges. It feels efficient. It feels professional. But students notice when their teacher has stopped growing, and it sends a powerful message: learning has an endpoint.
Grant emphasises that growth happens at the edge of our abilities, where mistakes are inevitable, but learning is maximised. This is ‘deliberate practice’ – working just beyond your comfort zone, where real development occurs. For teachers, this might mean facilitating a lesson that doesn’t go perfectly, incorporating restorative circles when punitive responses feel more familiar, or learning educational technology (AI) that initially seems baffling.
The Power of Visible Struggle
Here’s where it gets interesting: your students need to see you struggle. When you attempt something new and it doesn’t go smoothly, you’re teaching something far more valuable than curriculum content. You’re demonstrating that intelligent, capable people take risks, make mistakes and persist anyway.
This visible vulnerability gives students permission to be vulnerable in their own learning. They discover that confusion isn’t failure – it’s the starting point of understanding. The teacher who admits they’re experimenting with a new approach, who demonstrates resilience when lessons don’t land perfectly – that teacher is building a classroom culture where growth becomes the new normal.
Grant’s research shows that growth-oriented behaviour is contagious. When teachers step outside their comfort zones, they create a ‘culture of challenge,’ where continuous improvement becomes expected rather than exceptional. The colleague who experiments with differentiated instruction inspires another to try flexible seating. The veteran teacher who openly struggles with a new behaviour management approach but gives it a go anyway, creates space for honest professional dialogue. Schools improve through shared learning, not isolated excellence.
Unlocking Student Potential
Your students benefit directly when you expand your teaching repertoire. Grant points out that hidden potential often remains dormant because people lack access to the right systems and opportunities. By constantly updating your teaching strategies, you’re more likely to discover approaches that unlock learning for students who haven’t thrived with traditional methods.
That disengaged student might flourish with hands-on projects. The quiet learner might find their voice through digital platforms. Your discomfort with trying new approaches creates new pathways for student success.
When you embrace discomfort, you develop deeper empathy for your students’ daily experience. Learning is inherently uncomfortable – it requires confronting what we don’t know and persisting through confusion. Teachers who regularly put themselves in learning situations where they feel like beginners understand the emotional landscape their students navigate every day. This empathy translates into more patient instruction, more encouraging feedback and more realistic expectations.
Grant also emphasises ‘scaffolding’ the support systems that allow people to stretch beyond their current capabilities. As you push your own boundaries, you become better at identifying and providing the scaffolding your students need.
Making it Real
The path forward isn’t about constant discomfort or abandoning everything that works. It’s about identifying areas where you’ve plateaued and making intentional choices to grow. This requires the ‘Consistent, Persistent and Insistent’ approach that works with both student behaviour and professional development.
Make your commitment visible. Like the ‘Commitment to Action’ approach, tell your colleagues what you’re attempting. You’ll be surprised how much support comes your way when you’re honest about stretching yourself. This is the village approach applied to professional growth – we get better together.
The Mirror Your Students See
Your students are watching. They’re learning not just from what you teach but from who you are as a learner. When you step beyond your comfort zone, you demonstrate that growth never stops, that expertise is earned through effort, and that the most important quality an educator can possess isn’t knowing all the answers – it’s remaining curious enough to keep asking better questions.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. If you accept stagnation in your own practice, you implicitly accept it in your students. But when you model genuine learning – complete with struggle, setbacks, and perseverance – you raise expectations for everyone in your classroom.
Your willingness to be uncomfortable, to try new things, to occasionally fall short and keep going anyway – that’s the curriculum your students need most. The days might feel long when you’re learning new systems or trying unfamiliar approaches. But the years are short, and the impact you make by continuing to grow will extend far beyond what you can measure in a single semester or school year.
So what will you try this term that scares you a little? Your students deserve a teacher who’s still growing, not one who’s done with growth.
