Page 217 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

206 HBR Leader’s Handbook

Throughout your career, you will constantly be engaging with
employees, customers, board members, partners, and other stake-
holders. See each as a source of potential learning about trends,
innovations, and problems to fix and about ways of working as a
leader where you’ve excelled or fallen short. You will hear chal-
lenges to how you work, critiques of how you think, and a steady
stream of suggestions for why and how you can do better. See those
discussions as a resource, not an attack on your prestige.

• Practice the traditional learning cycle. We stress again that time-
tested research has shown that people learn and develop by follow-
ing an iterative cycle of acting, then assessing the results, reflecting
on why those happened, and then taking steps to improve from the
learning. Whenever you are trying to develop new skills or knowl-
edge, structure a process that honors the cycle.

• Match the learning opportunity to the need and to your learning
style. Different programs and experiences are suited to different
professional challenges, as we’ve described. But as you engage in
any opportunity, be mindful of your own learning preferences.
People with more introverted personalities often prefer to read
or study on their own; extroverts enjoy group conversation and
engagement. Visual tools and experiences are very important to
some people, less to others. You may insist on analytical presenta-
tion or prefer more experiential or intuitive learning. Know what
works and doesn’t work for you, and make that part of your devel-
opment planning.

• Prefer learning and development that pertain to real work and
your current challenges. As a general rule, learning that is more
directly relevant to the actual work you are doing and satisfies
immediate skill or knowledge needs will be more meaningful and
impactful for you. And it’s the kind of learning that most leaders
make time for.