Leading Lessons: LEARN To Lead

Good leadership requires constant learning.

Reading and listening about leadership, watching and speaking to others who lead, are all are good sources for inspiration and education.

These “formal” avenues of knowledge are not the only ways, however. Much more can be learned from our own life-experiences.

Whether it is observing someone making a mess of it, or watching one do a sterling job, seeing is a good source of learning.

The key is to be alert to opportunities that can contribute to our leadership learning potential: we just need to identify the lessons worth learning. 

Those lessons surround us: every day there are so many events that demonstrate leadership. Little snippets from the news, behaviours at home, conversations with friends, events at work, experiences in our social life. We may hear something: a quote or an anecdote, or the way someone speaks to another; we may see something done: an excellent example or demonstration of disaster: lessons as literally, everywhere!

So, here is my model to help us LEARN from any experience we have, example we see, or event that we incur:

• Look: The first step is to Look for them. Be alert. When you notice one, focus on it and think about it. Then evaluate it by asking four simple questions:

• Enforce: Was it a good example? Does it Enforce a good principle previously learned

• Avoid: Was it a bad example? Does it provide an example of something to be Avoided?

• Revise: Does it challenge something previously thought, thus providing an opportunity to Revise or review the way you do something?

• New: Is it completely New? Something worth adding to your way of doing or understanding.

Events, examples and experiences pass us every day! By using the LEARN model, we can turn every one of them into a life lesson that will help us grow as a leader and develop our leadership skills.

Look, Enforce, Avoid, Revise, add something New, and be prepared to LEARN!