Page 209 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

198 HBR Leader’s Handbook

innovation approach, and what it takes to implement them and make them
real and understood across a large organization. And only through actual
practice can you make abstract theories and ideas of cutting-edge business
part of how you think—for example, what a platform strategy really looks
like, how to develop a product co-created with customers, how a work-
force diversified in its thinking can really perform better. Similarly, only
through actual practice can you build the judgment of decision making or
develop the emotional intelligence of hearing and accommodating tough
feedback about what you do. Only through practice can you develop re-
silience and grit when you are forced to overcome failure. The daily work
you do is a living laboratory that teaches you who you are and who you are
trying to become.

What and where to learn on the job
Because on-the-job learning is such a powerful opportunity to grow your
leadership capability, you need to leverage that experience intentionally.
By simply doing whatever job you have, you are acquiring new insights
about yourself and what you need to perform better, but the learning is
most effective if you can be conscious about that and not simply accept it
as a background benefit of drawing a paycheck.
To be more intentional and productive about on-the-job learning, con-
sider first the “what” and “where” of the experience you are building up:
what you need to learn and where you plan to learn it. In terms of the
“where,” consider two types of arenas: when you are stretching yourself in
your current job and then also when you take on different or new re-
sponsibilities, whether in your current organization or somewhere new.
Such opportunities, properly embraced, can stretch you even further and
build deeper and broader skills as you face unfamiliar and more difficult
challenges.

LEARNING IN YOUR CURRENT JOB. Every role has the potential to teach you
new things. If you’re a midlevel manager or rising executive, take full ad-
vantage of what you can learn from your boss or supervisor (even the neg-
ative lessons or tough feedback about how you performed). Do the same