Never stop learning – and do it your way

Being true to the motto of this space, today we’ll cover an important aspect of being a leader. And that is the fact that the best leaders never stop learning. Moreover, they own their learning.

Let’s dive in.

“I think I know everything now…”

No you don’t. Promise yourself that you will never reach that conclusion.

The best leaders – whether they are at the start of their career and journey, or way into it – never stop learning.

The best leaders explore new trends. They learn from others. They know that there is always something to work on or discover, and have a curious mindset.

Such leaders recognise that the world around them is constantly changing and that means they need to adapt to the changes. Otherwise, they will be left behind.

(you can show off with a Latin phrase that is about just that next time you speak with someone – “Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis”. It means ‘Times change, and we change with them’ :))

Photo credit by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

Own your learning journey

“Ok, fine, the company I’m working for have some training courses – I’ll just attend these”. That’s definitely a good start. Make sure the courses meet your requirements, i.e. they cover what you want to learn. Or they help you fill in your skills or knowledge gap. But don’t stop there.

The best leaders go beyond the obvious sources of a learning material. What does it mean?

• Such leaders find a coach or mentor to help them uncover areas that need addressing in any way. This often leads to finding books, articles, or people who are sources of inspiration or information to fill in an identified gap.

• Learning leaders subscribe to publications or websites (like this one!) to continuously be abreast with emerging ideas or suggestions for different ways of thinking. I subscribe to Harvard Business Review, and McKinsey publications (here’s a great article by McKinsey as an example – on helping your team find purpose )

• Cursious leaders follow people they find inspiring, and actively implement what they learn from them. I mention some great thinkers and inspiring people in my guide for learning leaders – have a look,

I am the master of my … bookshelf and podcasts

Being in charge of your own learning gives you infinite power to decide what you want to explore. No one can take it away from you. It shows that you are humble enough to recognise you always have something to learn.

Additionally, you learning demonstrates you have a curious mindset – one of the most sought after quality of a leader.

A little tip: if you talk about all the learning you do, but it doesn’t translate into actions and demonstrable improvement, all you do is brag. Don’t fall down that trap.

I love learning. Personally, I wish I had another 24hours added to a week just to read and watch everything I want to, and attend every webinar I sign up for. I hope you find yourself in a similar situation – it’s definitely better to have too much to explore than have nothing to at all!

Happy learning!

Feature image by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash