One thing that I have learned in life is that you never stop learning. Just when you finish college, there are advanced degrees that beckon. And just when you finish an advanced degree, there’s books, articles speeches, etc. talking about “What They Don’t Teach You at _______.” Well, I fundamentally believe in what John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” What this means to me is that leaders understand the value of continuous learning.
And to be clear, learning is not about reading books, taking classes, attending seminars and the like. But rather, it is a combination of all of these plus surrounding yourself with bright people who offer differing perspectives on topics we must deal with in the course of our lives – be it professional or personal. Leaders, at least the best of them, know what they know and more importantly, they know what they don’t know. Surrounding themselves with people who know what they don’t know is critical for continuous learning.
In my role, I have had the great fortune to work with some people for many years, through roles at more than one company. These individuals, like me, realize that we are able to continue learning from each other and push one another to higher levels. This has afforded me the opportunity to learn from them each and every day. Of course, we are also fortunate that new people have joined our team and infused new perspectives, new experiences and new networks. This allows the team to continuously learn and, ultimately, to achieve higher levels of performance.
One very important point to keep in mind is that learning can occur from all sides and all directions. Don’t presume that if someone has a position lower on the totem pole that they have nothing valuable to offer – just the opposite. In many cases these people are closer to the customers and/or the details of your business. I believe wholeheartedly that there is a lesson in every individual. It is ours for the taking so long as we suspend any judgments, biases or prejudices and go into each human interaction with an open mind…one open to hearing and learning something new.
So, whether you have a college degree from a world class college, an advanced degree from a leading university or a hard fought-for degree in life from good old experience, don’t rest on your laurels as far as learning goes. Rather, wake up each day and ask yourself, “what am I going to learn today?” Trust me when I say, lessons are available in all shapes and sizes and just waiting for someone to grab a hold. As Carol Hymowitz noted in a piece from 2006 posted on CareerJournal.com, “what counts most, CEOs say, is a person’s capacity to seize opportunities.” So, my advice, carpe opportunitas!
Nina nets it out: Learning never ceases and leaders know better than most that each and every day brings a new opportunity to enhance their knowledge. Furthermore, they know, without doubt, that lessons can come from anywhere. We’ve all learned things in our lives that came from unexpected sources. I’d love to hear about the valuable lessons you’ve picked up and where you learned them.
Congratulations, Nina! This post was selected as one of the five best business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2008/04/23/42308-a-midweek-look-at-the-business-blogs.aspx
Wally Bock
Wally,
MANY thanks for your comment and selection of this entry!! Truly appreciate your support.
Regards,
Nina
Nina —
Great post. I concur — leaders must be committed to a lifetime of learning.
I learn by reading (business books, biographies, history, blogs like this one!) and writing. The former provides various perspectives on leadership. The latter helps me make sense of all of it — connecting the dots in my mind and allowing me to share them with others.
I also agree that we do well to learn from everyone, especially those “troopers” closer to the ground. They know what is happening, how to solve problems, how to better use resources. We do well to listen — and learn — from them. Thanks for the reminder. Hooah!
Tom,
Thanks for your comment. I most definitely learn many things from those on the “front line” within my organization. I will look forward to learning even more from this new blog called “Leader Business” that I just became aware of!
Nina –
Great article! Lominger did some research on learning agility and leadership potential. They say leaders who rank in the upper portion of success (they are more effective than other top leaders) are the more learning-agile, which Bennis calls “adaptive capacity”, the hallmark of effective leadership. Lombardo and Eichinger have shown that it is associated with being a high potential learner; these learners perform much better after promotion than do the average and low learning-agile. Sternberg reports that LQ has a higher correlation (relationship) to success than IQ.
What this means is that effective leaders are lifelong learners. Learners of the soft stuff. Learning agility relates to learning to think, feel, act, and believe differently based upon experience and changing circumstances. Unfortunately, probably only one-third of people who get to the top are learning-agile. Studies of why people fail all include some version of the lack of willingness and ability to adapt and learn from experience.
Dan,
I love the references to “learning agility” and “adaptive capacity”. These phrases really highlight the necessity for leaders to be flexible in one’s ability to take in new information. There is a great quote about having an open mind that comes to mind. “Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier.” Charles F. Kettering, US electrical engineer & inventor (1876 – 1958).
I firmly believe in lifetime learning for individuals as I do in the lifetime value of customers. Like viewing customers from the “relationship” perspective vs. the “transaction” perspective, learning must be viewed as an “ongoing process” and not an “event”.
Thanks so much for sharing this great research/information!
Nina I so enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work!
Back in the 1950s I had a restaurant “Lum Fong” on 150 West 52nd and it was the hot Chinese restaurant.
Most people credit me with popularizing won-ton soup and egg and shrimp rolls in this country.
According to Tips on Tables, Robert Dana said in a July 1943 New York Herald Tribune piece that Lum Fong’s was one of two of “the Chinese restaurants best known in the city….”
In “New York City – Around The World In 80 Dinners,” Antiques Digest says that Lum Fong was “where Americans were first initiated in such Chinese classics as egg roll, lobster roll, won ton soup and chow yock soong.”
Thanks for your kind words, Lum. Having grown up around NY, I think I owe you a thanks for your popularizing efforts of foods that I so enjoy!!
Hi All,
Here’s a quote on leadership which I’d like to share with you
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to go to the forest to gather wood, saw it and nail the planks together.
Instead, teach him the desire for the sea !”
– Antonie de Saint Exupery
Hi CK,
Here’s one that is similar that I have always liked:
“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”
- Author unknown
One of my favorites is the Chinese proverb – Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.
Great Post! Keep it up.
- Nitin
Nitin,
Great proverb! Thanks for sharing!
[...] Both of these sites have some excellent leadership writers onboard. Do yourself a favor and spend some time there. After all, leaders never stop learning! [...]
Great!
Absolutely!
We all have to learn from others no matter who they are.
Indeed we do Hoang! Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
[...] personal and professional challenges. However, as I have stated on many occasions, for the leader, learning never ends — hence the never-ending line of business and leadership books populating the shelves of [...]
how important is experimenting ? how long one should keep on experimenting in business .
Hi Umesh,
Experimenting is very useful as a learning tool be it for individuals or organizations. Very few things can serve as good a teacher as experience and experimentation offers just that. As for how long one ought to experiment, I don’t believe there can be any “one size fits all” answers to this question. Each circumstance will surely warrant individualized timelines in accordance with the desired lesson or outcome.
[...] Nets It Out: As leaders we can learn things from just about anywhere. If we simply accept that even the youngest amongst our society have plenty to offer us in this [...]