Leaders are Learners! Agree? Any aspiring leader or entrepreneur should recognize the competitive edge being a growth-minded person gives you in your specialized area of attention. It used to be said often that “Leaders are readers,” but the evolution of technology forces a pivot to a new phrase…Leaders are Learners. But with so many tools for learning, where do you begin? There are books, websites, subscriptions, videos, courses, Masterminds, podcasts and more. And then, inside of each one of those, the choices are in the hundreds and thousands. Here’s an I.D.E.A. for narrowing your search for the best tools to help you learn to be the best at what you do.
Identify Tendencies: I love to read and I’m a visual processor. Yet, even as someone with a slight hearing impairment, I love my podcasts. In fact, podcasts are my primary tool. Take an objective survey on how you tend to learn best.
Determine the Most Effective Medium: Not everyone loves a good book, nor a podcast or ten. Is there a “Best Practice” for learning? I think not. There’s YOUR way for learning. I love podcasts and books for learning specialized content. The two subscription-based SAS (software as a solution) tools I use shape my core thinking in those areas. Once you know your tendencies, go hard with the top mediums.
Establish a Flow, Not a Discipline: I’m not one of these who blows through a book a week. I just choose books over TV. And I keep books just about everywhere I might be sitting. In fact, I will have multiple books “going” at the same time. I don’t have a rigid schedule for podcasts. I just choose them over the radio 10 times out of 10. My “flow” is simply use my time wisely to learn and not be leisurely.
Associate with Co-learners: Find like-minded people who also want to learn and make time for them. Schedule time to engage around what you’re learning. The ideal scenario is to be learning the same things together. The collective focus on the same content is valuable and the accountability is priceless.**
As growth-minded people, our goal is to not be the same person tomorrow we are today. We should be giving people a river of fresh water (content) to drink from, not pond water that has been sitting for years collecting algae.
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