Throughout my leadership learning journey at University, we were encouraged (and marked) to keep a learning leadership log. We were encouraged to keep notes on the things we said, the questions we asked and the answers both given and taken. In and amongst all the information we collected we were instructed to reflect on the spoken and unspoken emotion, things we might do differently, and of course to reflect on what leadership literature had to say about our journeys. I found the impact of doing this allowed me to not only retrieve my true self but helped me to truly see, hear and feel those that reported to me.
As my reach in my business grows, I find my notes deepening and my responses to my client’s learning needs strengthening.
There is plenty of literature to substantiate the benefit of putting into practice quickly what you learn. The image above comes from information in a short article in the Havard Business Review on the implementation of new learning and the benefits of documenting and reflecting. It only takes a short 21 days for most of what you read, heard or saw to fade away. You have probably heard about “Lean” philosophies in operations. In his article, Steve Glaveski, the author applies it to learning.
https://hbr.org/2019/10/where-companies-go-wrong-with-learning-and-development
Lean learning is about:
- Learning the core of what you need to learn
- Applying it to real-world situations immediately
- Receiving immediate feedback and refining your understanding
- Repeating the cycle
Leadership Learning is no different to technical learning.
