Page 210 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Leading Yourself 199

with peers, customers, and people who report to you. If you are a CEO or
are already a senior leader, look to your company’s board or other external
partners who work with you for constructive feedback about what you do.
Use performance reviews to keep assessing where you need to improve,
and always discuss how you might work on what the findings report. In
general, you should make a habit of seeking opportunities to collect feed-
back from a wide range of people you work for and work with about your
performance, style, strengths, and gaps, and generally how you can be
more effective as a leader. Listening and keeping yourself open to feedback
are your most precious learning tools.
Look also for opportunities to gain specialized learning from, for ex-
ample, high-profile company initiatives that you have a chance to join in
your current functional capacity. Work with your manager to be placed on,
say, a new strategic problem-solving task force or a board-sponsored ini-
tiative to open up a new market or product development process. If there’s
some particular knowledge or skill you want to get better in, reach for the
appropriate team assignment. Similarly, if you become involved in setting
a vision and developing strategy for your company, see that as an opportu-
nity to get smarter about industry trends, changes in the operating envi-
ronment, market and customer shifts, and so forth. Your time is precious,
but don’t outsource all that learning to the consultants. Doing some of the
research and trend analysis yourself will only add to your own professional
knowledge and insights.
Take advantage also of any broader organizational learning initiatives
in your company, for example, after-action reviews staged at the end of a
major initiative, product launch, or merger. If you’ve been a decision maker
in some corporate initiative under review, have the courage to hear and
learn from what you yourself might have done better.
Sometimes learning experiences find you, whether or not you’re ready
for them. Facing and handling a crisis that comes your way can become
what Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas describe in their 2002 HBR ar-
ticle “Crucibles of Leadership” as a “crucible experience”—a major shock,
an external catastrophe, or a plunge into bankruptcy, or similar—where a
leader must rapidly acquire the knowledge and skills to conquer adversity.