Living Things Grow and Leaders are Learners.
Look around in nature. One thing you’ll notice is a lot of living things. Just outside my window right now I see hedges, plants, an oak tree, a brown squirrel scampers down the tree, black birds jet by, a butterfly flutters along – all very alive. Such beauty. Such life. One of the things these living things have in common is they are all growing.
That’s the nature of living things. They grow.
It’s the same way with human beings. We are alive and we grow, we regenerate, we progress, until, well until we are not alive anymore. But while we are alive, we not only grow in a physical sense but we also grow mentally, emotionally, spiritually – all the ways that make us human.
For some, growth is a passive process that happens despite any intentionality or actual effort. For these, the growth can be slow, ineffective, excruciating. For others, growth comes from a commitment to a life-long, daily process of intentional actions leading to growth that is vibrant, dynamic and life-giving.
That’s what Leaders do. They grow.
Leaders grow not by accident but by choice. Leaders are committed to learning and growing as a life-long process. It’s foundational to effective leadership. Leaders choose to be learners.
In a Harvard Business Review article, “The Making of an Expert,” K. Anders Ericsson say it takes 2.7 hours of practice per day to really improve at a skill – whether playing tennis, honing your golf swing or learning keys on the piano – or becoming a better leader. The key the article says is, “you will need to invest that time wisely, by engaging in deliberate practice.”
Research shows that those leaders who engage in learning are more effective as leaders. So, what does this look like in practice?
- They spend more time in learning activities by reading, talking with others, observing, and reflecting on their own leadership behaviors.
- They ask more questions. Then they listen.
- They don’t assume they know everything.
- They aren’t afraid to admit mistakes.
- They ask for feedback and accept it as a gift by taking it seriously, whether the feedback is positive or negative, always asking, “What can I learn?”
- They encourage others to take risks and accept failure by asking, “What can we learn?”
How do you fit 2.7 hours of deliberate practice on your leadership skills every day? It’s likely you already spend significant time each day doing many of these learning activities already. But there is always a need for being more deliberate, of being more committed as a learner. There is always room for growth. Because leaders never stop growing, never stop learning.
In what areas of your leadership do you have room to grow? Are you committed to being a learner? What activities do you do regularly to deliberately practice and improve your leadership skills? Read a good book this week?
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About Jason Young. Author, speaker and consultant. Jason Young has been called a “rare breed” when it comes to developing leaders, teams and customer service initiatives. As a former senior-level manager at Southwest Airlines, Jason learned the value of a successful workplace culture. During his 10-years with the airline consistently rated No. 1 in customer service and employee satisfaction, he was a key driver in creating and developing the company’s innovative training programs for its successful leadership and customer service culture that have become renowned in the business world. Today, Jason shares his vision in developing successful corporate cultures and workplace environments with forward-thinking companies, including Starbucks, Coca Cola, Radio Shack and Tyson Foods, to name a few. He has even captured his philosophy of creating high performance cultures in his new book, The Culturetopia Effect. Find out more at www.culturetopia.com