While they had never done it before, the excited CEO thought it was a good idea, and his savvy senior management team played along. When I got the call to help out, I knew it was going to be quite a learning experience.

The notion? Replace the faculty of our proven executive development courses with our own senior officers. This was during my days at GE Crotonville, long before leaders teaching leaders became popular. Then CEO Jack Welch was convinced that early internal efforts by Pepsi and other companies would prove to be a superior way of grooming future stars.

The benefits? For students, they were credible lessons learned from successful leaders inside the organization, and it was a rare chance to interact with a senior leader in a mostly open forum to exchange ideas and hear entertaining stories from an executive.

For executives, it was the opportunity to deliver a message and a lesson they passionately believed mattered for the organization and future executives. It was also a chance to hear directly from an important talent layer whose feedback under normal circumstances would be filtered through the chain of command. The teaching executive would also learn different ways to influence and about the practical application of the subject matter.

This was a chance to transform an executive development course into a dynamic forum in which all the potential benefits for students and executives would be realized. To make it all happen, first I had to learn about tailoring.

In the month leading up to the first program, I spent a good deal of time helping the half-dozen senior executives designated by the CEO to be the inaugural faculty. Some saw the benefits early and enthusiastically dove into the task of preparing their material and method for the course. Others proved to be more challenging. Their schedules were demanding, and their interest in the new classroom assignment was questionable.

The lessons I learned helping the first six executives become valued teachers have been repeated in the following years, as leaders teaching leaders became a proven development method. The most important lesson was to manage the fit between the purpose of the course, the assets and the executive’s preferences.