Leaders are learners. A leader who doesn’t learn has a short shelf life. Ideas like these have shown up on nearly every single episode of this podcast. Learning is so important for leaders that our very first question for all our guests is “Who are you learning from?” So in this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins and I sit down with Brad Lomenick to talk about what it takes to be a leader who learns. We ask the following questions.
* Why is being a learner so important in the current leadership environment versus how things used to be?
* What are the consequences if a leader is not a learner?
* What are 2-3 habits someone can work on to develop as a learner?
* How can someone learn to ask better questions?
* How does someone take the information they’ve gathered and determine what to apply and how to apply it?
BEST QUOTES
“In the old days you didn’t necessarily have to be a learner; you could just know more.”
“Things are progressing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up, to specialize in something.”
“Anybody knows what you know because they can Google it.”
“It’s not about having knowledge. It’s about have experience and applying it.”
“Even if you are a specialist you have to keep learning.”
“A degree proves what you learned a long time ago. It does not prove where you are right now.”
“What got you here isn’t going to get you where you need to go.”
“The more you climb the ladder the more potential there is that your curiosity and learning quotient goes down.”
“I’m convinced a lot of people are done with active learning after college.”
“You don’t have to force yourself to learn in a way that doesn’t work.”
“Leaders who stop learning frustrate those under them.”
“Learning can help a leader be more humble.”
“If you’re not a learner don’t expect your team to be that.”
“Set goals as a learner and hold yourself accountable.”
“You will never learn so well as if you have to teach something.”
“Set realistic goals and then increase them.”
“Build learning into the day and rhythm of your week.”
“The best way to break out of creative fog is to get outside the norm.”
“Collect influencers.”
“Don’t discount anybody.”
“The best mentoring relationships I’ve had have been symbiotic.”
“Write it down. Take notes.”
“We vastly over estimate our ability to remember things.”
“Most people are not very good question askers.”
“Don’t ask questions to set yourself up to be the expert.”
“You elevate yourself by asking a good question.”
“A good question shows that you have really good observations.”
“An enormous amount of learning is not done in isolation.”
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Evernote
H3 Leadership by Brad Lomenick
Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Ted Tripp
View all episodes
