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The Learner Leader – some personal reflections

Many of the leaders I work with recognise that in order to fulfil their roles guiding and inspiring emerging leaders, remain competitive in the talent market place themselves, as continue to drive their businesses through uncertain market conditions, they need to invest in continually developing. As a leader fighting the constant battle to do more, seemingly across an endless span of time zones, geographies and markets, how do you choose what to work on what it comes to improving yourself as a leader?

To me the best answer I have found has come in learning.  But not what I’m learning, to be selective there is of course important, but not my primary concern.  Firstly, I’ve focused on how I learn, and why. 

How

Learning that in order to develop by acquiring more knowledge of leadership, I must recognise learning itself as a both a skill and task.  Taking courses on memory and speed reading have allowed me to improve the quantity of content I can review, and the quality of the key elements I can recall, and both deploy myself, and refer to others who lead.  Diarising time to read, research and recount (as a form of teaching to further embed recall) the broadest range of high quality content has become habitual – a book a fortnight, quarterly HBR’s cover to cover and various other sources have become regular inputs.

Why

In order to lead as best I can (especially leading a leadership development consulting business!) I am continually challenging myself to refine my craft.  This is why I learn.  I will never be the finished article, the perfect leader, the exemplar to be aspired to.  I will however, relentlessly pursue the goal of being the optimal leader I can each day, and each day to improve, learn from the mistakes of the previous day, and pledge to make the next one better.

What

The latest, the hottest, the freshest – I’m sorry to say that I’m an immediate cynic when it comes to these categories.  If it is that I come to something that’s hot off the press, it’s often only having been referred by another established author or publishing platform I have drawn from over time.  What’s trending is so often I’ve found just a revision of what’s already been said but not popularised.  Sticking to the foundation of quality, academically researched and practically proven material has served me well so far. Also seeking out a diverse range of content, both in medium and mode has helped me learn more effectively, and expanded both my own frame of reference, and ability to engage with the perspectives of a broader audience in my work and leadership. My current challenge is to bring more fiction back into my reading list, having focused almost entirely on non-fiction (leadership content yes but also historical, environmental, cultural & political), having found when researching for a program I am building that not only is fiction entertaining, it’s consumption actively develops EQ – a vital component of leadership of course – but engaging our empathy and sense skills in perceiving the emotions of others, even characters on a page.

I hope that some of these personal experiences and reflections may be aligned to some of your own experiences and challenges with learning as a leader, and I’d certainly love to hear from you if you’ve found novel modes to learn yourself.

All the best to you on your leadership journey,

Tim