Thought of the Week:

If you are going to lead well, you better learn well. 

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

-John F. Kennedy

Too many leaders simply stop learning. Instead of seeing themselves as a student, they see themselves as an instructor. You may be or need to instruct others in your role, but great leaders continue to see themselves as a student and apply themselves to learning. 

A good student knows they don’t have all the answers. A bad student thinks they have all the answers. A good student prepares for questions that may be asked. A poor student shows up and isn’t ready when asked a question. A good student stays humble–humble enough to learn.

Learning focuses forward, yet glances back. 

You don’t want to be so focused forward as a learner you lose sight of where you have come from. Simultaneously, you don’t want to get stuck looking back thinking “Look how far I’ve come.” Instead it’s a glance back. The glance back helps you remember when you were further back in the learning curve and reminds you others are there right now. You don’t glance back to pat yourself on the back. You glance back to see who is coming along and learning from you. The glance back also gives you a quick measurement of the progress you are making. But as long as you are living, you need to be learning.

Learners share what they’ve learned with others. 

This process of sharing what you’ve learned is different from passing information. Passing information costs very little. Sharing information comes at a cost. The best learning often has the highest cost—not price. Be willing to suffer in order that you might learn all that there is to learn. Then use what you have suffered through or struggled through to make the path easier or more fluid for others. 

Great leaders have great discussions.

Sharing what you’ve learned is the basis for a great discussion. Don’t fall into the trap of just passing and collecting information. Learners develop the art and skill of the great discussion. This is more than a text message or a quick phone call. This is a prolonged discussion that engages your mind, heart and soul with the presence of another. This is truly where learning often formulates or takes shape. 

There is a verse in the Bible that highlights this principle, “Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor“ (Galatians 6:6). As you have opportunity to share, share with the one you are learning from. This does two things: (1) forces you to articulate what you say you’ve learned and  (2) encourages the one who you’ve learned from. 

You wont lead very effectively for very long once you’ve stopped learning. Therefore, use every activity, task, assignment and interaction as an opportunity to learn.

(c) Alex Vann