Leaders Never Graduate
There are many responsibilities in leadership, but one that can never be overlooked is that of continuous learning. This commitment to development shapes our evolution and adaptability as leaders and plays a major role in the success of our organizations and the people we lead.
A lot of what we discuss in leadership circles refers to our ability to identify gaps. The same process applies when reflecting on our own areas of opportunity. Questions we need to ask ourselves include:
How impactful is my coaching?
Do I communicate with conviction?
Have I created a collaborative environment, and what have I done to grow as a leader?
There are an endless number of questions we could ask, but ultimately, they prove the same point—leaders never stop learning.
Thankfully, we live in an era where access to information and resources is not a true barrier. There are many directions we can take this, but for this edition, we're going to narrow it down to three learning tools:
Success and Failures
Feedback
Former Leaders
One of the most powerful lessons in life—leadership or otherwise-- is learning from your mistakes. It is humbling to fail, but the true value of failure as a learning tool lies in what happens after.
Do you take that failure, accept where you missed the mark and make the necessary adjustments? Or do you chalk it up to bad luck and fault those who did not execute your plan?
I am a strong advocate for celebrating all wins, big or small. The impact is measured by the reinforcement applied at the leadership level. Amplifying small wins and driving consistency behind them will build sustainable results. Recognizing the efforts behind a big win demonstrates our team's ability to adapt and transform. Either way, we learn something of substance that will undoubtably help us going forward.
Once you’ve done that honest reflection, the next step in growing as a leader is opening the door to hear from others, and this is where feedback comes in.
Harvard Business Review has an article I keep coming back to in my own leadership. (Link here for easy reading.) Gotian’s article on leadership power skills highlights what she calls “Reverse Mentoring,” or the process of identifying people whose experiences differ from your own, who can help surface perspectives you may not naturally see across culture, religion, gender, generational, or workplace dynamics. Establishing this type of connection with your frontline provides invaluable insight and perspective. These mentoring sessions can take any form, but the value lies in the consistency and intention behind them. Are we doing this for a shout out and photo op? Or are we embracing this mentorship as an opportunity to be coached? Knowing that you have as much to learn from your team as they do from you is a key part of leadership.
External perspectives from your current team are a powerful learning tool, but there’s one more source we’ll discuss here that we sometimes forget to tap into: the leaders who came before us.
Something I’ve personally drawn from in my own leadership journey is this: I have learned just as much, if not more, from poor leadership as I have from great leaders. Those experiences marked by a lack of direction, absent genuine connection, feeling undervalued, and little to no collaboration—those are the moments I embrace. The point is to avoid repeating the behaviors that led to those feelings. More importantly, to adopt the perspective of those we lead, so that they don’t have to share those experiences. But poor leadership is only half the lesson—great leaders also provide plenty to work with.
Great leaders help us reinforce what works and the impact that has on culture and ultimately overall performance. We are all unique-- attempting to mimic what others have successfully done will not always work in our respective organizations. We need to take fragments from all those leaders and design an approach that makes our process feel organic and genuine.
We know that impactful leaders invest in their people’s development, but that same commitment needs to be applied to personal growth too. Great leaders never graduate. They continue to learn and evolve with their teams to remain in the best position to lead.