The Stockbroker and the Socratic Method

by Raymond T. Multerer

At one point I mentioned to Dean Mitchell that I found that some of the skills from my first master's degree in Curriculum Instruction were skills that not only furthered my academic career but later were useful in my administrative work, even as a stockbroker.

To be a good teacher, according to the lights that we were provided through our studies here, one of the basic teaching methods is the Socratic method. Essential to the Socratic method of having discussion, intercourse, exchange, is to listen.

What you want to do is to find out what the student thinks, so you can then play off of that. And today, as a stockbroker, that's a primary skill in dealing with my clients. It was a primary skill when I was in administration.

The ability to listen, to empathize, and to then tailor what you're going to do or say to what your listener tells you about themselves is a very fundamental and important feature in developing relationships with my investment clients. Primarily, I have to find out what they want before I can help them.

The whole process of instruction, preparing lessons as I give seminars in my business today, is just like preparing for a class. You have to think very carefully about what you're going to try to accomplish.

You can't deal effectively with more than two or three ideas in an hour. So when you consider talking to an individual or a group, you have to think carefully what the important things are and what you want to get across. That's what you emphasize.

Finally, it's very important to look at the end of the instructional process, the evaluation. Did you accomplish what you set out to do? If you didn't, how can you critique yourself, so that the next time you're always improving yourself? Those are basic skills that can be widely applicable.