Learning is how we grow and evolve at any level. And for business leaders in today’s constantly evolving business environment, it’s never been more important. Learning can also be a source of deep joy and fulfilment personally and professionally – it has certainly kept me interested and alert throughout my career.
Anticipating changes. Seizing opportunities. Leading organisations through uncertainty. These are the big challenges we all now face.
To meet these challenges and opportunities, businesses must keep evolving and adapting to new situations to maintain momentum, effectiveness and relevance. And so, in turn, must the individuals that lead them.
This can feel overwhelming and it’s easy to feel ill-equipped. But, if we are to do our jobs well, we need to embrace every challenge and experience as an opportunity to learn and master the practices involved in learning well.
Targeted learning
This is a great focus for career progression, as investing time and energy in learning that builds business knowledge and skills can be invaluable to your current situation or for a new one in the future.
I’ve never left the direction of my learning to others. I prefer to take a more proactive approach to understanding where my gaps and growth opportunities are, based on where I’d like to get to next or simply things I enjoy. It can be hit and miss to let others guess what will be useful on my behalf, although I’ve always benefited and been appreciative of recommendations.
Lifelong learning
This kind of learning deepens your understanding of the world around you, keeps your brain active and keeps you interested in life beyond the confines of what you understand today. This can come from failing at something or being challenged – as with most things in life, the only way to make progress is to test yourself, fall over and keep getting back up until you reach some level of mastery.
I went back to school in my forties, part-time, and one of my many adjustments was learning to embrace ‘the valley of doom’ – that inevitable period when you set out to learn something new and feel completely out of your depth to the point you want to give up. If you stick with it, all of a sudden you’re coming out the other side and so glad you persevered.
A growth mindset
To learn effectively, it’s advantageous to start with a ‘growth mindset’. Rather than assuming the only valuable learning is formal, regard every experience as a learning opportunity. Be curious. Ask questions. Seek out new information and situations. This makes work and life a whole lot more interesting.
Regularly discuss challenges and exchange ideas with others. These could be mentors, peers or simply people with more experience or different expertise from you, both in and outside your business. This is a great way to expose yourself to new strategies, perspectives and solutions that you may not have considered.
Actively pursue new knowledge, whether through books, podcasts or learning from others. See mistakes and failures as learning experiences that can guide future decisions rather than capability flaws.
Choosing to adopt a growth mindset is one of my key principles for effective learning. Be self-motivated, take the initiative and view yourself as a constant work-in-progress with the potential to keep developing, no matter your age or circumstances.
Building the case
When starting out in my career at Wolff Olins I had no specific promotion career trajectory in mind, I just wanted to be good at what I did and continue learning to stay stimulated.
When I got to a point when clients or colleagues asked me things I lacked the knowledge or confidence to answer, I went off to learn to build both. Sometimes off my own back and other times by working in partnership with my managers to align my learning agenda with the results it will bring to the company.
As a result, I’ve done big things – such as going to business school to round out my business acumen or getting a Masters degree in digital sociology to make sense of how technology is changing the world around us. I’ve done targeted things like learning to negotiate, present and read a balance sheet. But I’ve also done a lot of informal things for pleasure and have come to learn that new perspectives and the people you meet broaden your horizons and network in ways that are joyful in life and valuable in business.
Finally, when learning involves new skills, put that new knowledge into practice as soon as you can. Force yourself to share what you’ve learned with someone else – just as you would if learning to drive or speak another language. It’s a proven technique to embed what you’ve learned and a generosity to others that may ignite a spark for their own learning journey.
As a business leader, you’re never too successful or experienced to enjoy learning something new.
Sairah Ashman is global CEO of brand consultancy Wolff Olins.
