Leaders Never Stop Growing
If I distilled the key things that helped me to grow rapidly over the years, what would they be?
I’ve often said that leaders are learners, but you could spend a lot of time consuming information, without necessarily getting traction: and by traction, I mean gaining the wisdom and insight that would differentiate you as a leader.
What are the things that I look back on as being critical to my career growth and success?
In today’s world, knowledge is a commodity. At the touch of a button, you have access to pretty much all of the information that’s ever been produced. Despite all of this information, though, we don’t seem to be getting any smarter.
That’s because the power doesn’t come from the information, it comes from knowing how to apply it. A great analogy you’ll hear occasionally is: Knowing that a tomato is a fruit? Well, that’s knowledge… Knowing not to put it in a fruit salad? That’s wisdom!
Which is why timing is important… you might read something today, and discard it as being irrelevant. But in 10 year’s time, you could read exactly the same, and find that it’s the most important breakthrough of your life.
Without context your knowledge is useless, so bear this in mind when you’re deciding where to focus your energy.
My path to leadership learning was reasonably structured. My big chunks of formal education were:
- A technical qualification in software development in 1985
- An MBA in 2003
- A shot of business acumen steroids from Harvard Business School in 2007
- And the Australian Institute of Company Directors diploma in 2012
Interestingly, none of these formal education accomplishments gave me the practical tools I needed to be a great leader, so I had to rely on my own hard-fought experience – which is how Em and I came to create our Leadership Beyond the Theory program.
I had to work out what I needed to do to supplement these big chunks of formal learning. What were my critical areas for development?
As a senior leader, I chose to focus on business trends… Understanding the dynamics of the industry my company was competing in … Becoming more knowledgeable about things like macroeconomics, and how businesses interface with government policy and global trade.
I searched for credible, high quality sources of information that would help me to constantly grow in the areas I was passionate about – leadership, strategy, and business. I found the proliferation of low-cost, readily accessible information to be quite staggering!
Podcasts, books, blogs, research reports, articles from the most respected organizations on the planet – all there for the taking. I cherry picked these to make sure I absorbed the things that were relevant contextually – that I could apply instantly, if they made sense.
This was a huge career accelerator for me!
But there’s one thing I did (and still do) that I don’t think is very common. I go out of my way to seek alternative views, especially ones that don’t align with my own belief system.
These days, ignorance is less about lack of exposure to information, and more about exposure to only one source of information… In my view, ignorance is now a symptom of insularity, not neglect.
🎯 Pro tip: force yourself to consume information that doesn’t accord with your world view. At worst, it will make you more tolerant of others (which every leader could benefit from), and at best, you might learn something remarkable that you may never have thought possible!