The leadership development to-do list includes a variety of difficulties now, perhaps more than in the past:
- Learning the technical abilities needed for the job you want to do
- Learning the ability to create and preserve trust
- Learning persuasive communication skills (including active listening)
- Learning conflict management skills Building successful teams
- Learning a strategic mindset
- Gaining insight into people’s thoughts, feelings, and hopes
Are you noticing a trend here? Learning!
In his book How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World’s Most Successful People, David Novak tackles this topic.
Before attending high school, he lived in 23 states as a child growing up in a trailer park. He rose quickly through the ranks of PepsiCo to become co-founder and CEO of Yum! Brands, one of the biggest companies in the world and the parent company of popular fast food chains including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and others, with over 55,000 locations and a million employees. He attributes his success to active learning.
Peter Drucker once said, “The most pressing task is teaching people how to learn,” which Novak quotes. What then can firms do to incorporate ongoing learning into their corporate cultures?
According to Novak, he used three habits in every leadership capacity to motivate his colleagues to advance and develop.
“We employed procedures to unearth objective reality—to perceive the world as it existed, rather than as we desired it to be,” he claims. “Teams with delusions don’t learn well, so we gathered detailed information about our competitors, our performance, and the areas where our customers weren’t happy.”
He also put a lot of effort into eradicating the prejudice against ideas that weren’t created by the team, or “not invented here,” with his coworkers. They would go around the room when debating a new proposal, recognizing its potential benefits before addressing any possible drawbacks.
According to him, acknowledging individuals for their contributions to the learning environment was the most important thing they did. They received recognition for coming up with creative solutions to issues, sharing their expertise with groups and individuals, and expanding upon the ideas of others.
Novak’s area of expertise was assisting individuals in discovering the lessons inherent in their upbringing, including their blind spots, strengths, and flaws.
You must be purposeful and deliberate, he explains, as with other active learning practices. He stated that drawing his lifeline and taking notes on the important events is the method he has employed. The guided autobiography is what psychologist Dan McAdams refers to it as. You examine significant occurrences in your life.
What do they say about your potential and identity? What impact have they had on your thoughts and actions?
The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey staff employed Novak’s father. Before turning 13, he moved every few months and resided in 23 states. “I am aware that this has helped me accept change better than many others,” he states. “I know that it has made me more outgoing. And I know that my parents were the two most important influences in my life, teaching me the values of hard work, kindness, and fun.”
How does self-awareness affect a person’s capacity to question their own assumptions and sincerely examine alternative viewpoints?
We must battle the preconceptions, biases, and assumptions we all harbor in order to be excellent learners, claims Novak. They obstruct the flow of insightful and creative ideas. Recognizing our prejudices and how they affect us is the first step in changing ourselves. The next step is to develop thought-expanding habits. Spending time in conversation with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints is critically important. The more experiences you have, the fewer constrained decisions your brain will make.
Vigilance is required of those who are committed to guiding their careers toward continuous progress. What then is the secret to evaluating the learning opportunities in your present position and determining when it’s time to leave?
Furthermore, how can someone evaluate the educational options in a new work setting while contemplating a change of career?
Most people aren’t very comfortable with change since our brains want security and predictability, according to Novak. “But to advance, you must seek out new situations, roles, and experiences.”
When atrophy started to set in, according to Novak, he felt it was time to try something different. He offers three contemplative queries:
- Where you now are, are you still learning?
- Are you beginning to grow weary?
- Are you more thrilled about a new opportunity’s potential for growth than you are about the possible risks involved in making the move?
He counsels saying that if you feel the time is right, seek out a chance that will expose you to fresh perspectives, ideas, skills, knowledge, and positive influences. Additionally, confirm that the setting you select is appropriate for you. Consider carefully the surroundings or teams that have supported your success and those that have caused you so much discomfort that it has been difficult for you to concentrate on your studies.
Naturally, leaders have to learn from their mistakes.
Novak admits, “I’ve had some major failures in my career.” “One—Crystal Pepsi—was so large-scale that it was parodied by Saturday Night Live and featured alongside hydrogen-filled blimps and spray-on hair on Time magazine’s list of ‘The 100 Worst Ideas of the Century.”
Advice for us
Novak emphasizes that while you can’t change the past, you can change how you move forward. He advises using failures as learning opportunities by honestly evaluating your role and identifying mistakes to avoid in the future. Listening to learn, rather than to rebut, is crucial for effective leadership. Insightful questions like “What could we do?” and “What if?” help generate ideas and overcome cognitive biases.
Trusting in people’s positive intentions fosters collaboration and innovation, even in adversarial situations. Novak believes in continuous learning, viewing life as a masterpiece in progress that becomes more exciting as you learn.
(Tashia Bernardus)