Why Continuous Learning Is a Leadership Requirement

Research & Sources / Personal & Career Development

Imagine driving with a road map from twenty years ago. Most roads are still there. But new motorways have been built, some bridges have closed, and whole new districts have appeared. The map is not wrong exactly. It is just quietly out of date, and you only notice when you are stuck in a field. Leaders who stop learning drive with an old map.

Experience can become a trap

Experience is valuable. It gives judgement, pattern recognition and calm. But experience is also based on the past. When markets, technologies and teams change, what worked before can quietly stop working, and experienced leaders are often the last to notice, because their old map has served them so well.

Expertise needs ongoing practice

Anders Ericsson’s research showed that expert performance is built and maintained through deliberate practice: focused effort on improving specific skills, with feedback.¹ Experts who stop practising do not simply stay at their level. Their skills slowly drift.

A later meta-analysis by Brooke Macnamara and colleagues found that practice matters but explains less of the differences between people in professions than in games or music.² In leadership, learning is not only about practice hours. It is also about staying curious, seeking feedback and updating your view of the world.

Why it matters more for leaders

Leaders set the example. If the boss stops learning, the team learns that learning is for juniors.

Leaders make the big calls. Decisions based on an outdated picture of the market are expensive.

Leaders shape the culture. Amy Edmondson’s research shows that teams learn more when people feel safe to ask questions and admit mistakes.³ Leaders who openly learn make that safety visible.

Learning in a busy role

• Learn from people, not only books. Ask younger colleagues, clients and people in other industries what they see.
• Reflect regularly. Fifteen minutes of writing about what you learned can improve performance, as research by Di Stefano and colleagues suggests.⁴
• Seek feedback on your own leadership at least twice a year.
• Do one new thing each quarter: a new skill, a new tool, a new type of project.
• Work with a mentor or thinking partner who challenges your assumptions.

What this means for you this week

• Write down three beliefs about your market or team that you have not questioned in years.
• Test one of them by asking three people who see things differently.
• Choose one skill to learn this quarter.
• Tell your team what you are currently learning.

Your map got you here. Keep updating it.

Sources

1. Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T. & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-406. doi.orgExpert performance grows through deliberate practice: focused work on specific weaknesses with feedback.
2. Macnamara, B. N., Hambrick, D. Z. & Oswald, F. L. (2014). Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education, and Professions: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Science, 25(8), 1608-1618. doi.orgPractice matters, but explains less of the differences between people than often claimed, and less in professions than in games or music.
3. Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. doi.orgPsychological safety supports learning behaviour and performance in teams.
4. Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P. & Staats, B. R. Making Experience Count: The Role of Reflection in Individual Learning. HEC Paris / Harvard Business School working paper. ebslgwp.hhs.seEmployees who spent 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting on what they learned performed better than those who kept working. The full paper is also on SSRN (abstract 2414478).