9 Learning Habits Shared By Top Business Leaders

As a business consultant and a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I am convinced that continuous learning is a mindset and a skill that defines the most successful business leaders. When you put learning at the center of everything you do, you validate your relationships, encourage improved engagement from your team, grow your career, and enjoy greater fulfillment and job satisfaction.

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I’ve never been able to put together a definitive list of learning habits required to be one of those leadership superstars, so I was pleased to see the case studies and work detailed in a new book, “How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People ,” by David Novak.

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Novak comes with great credentials from leading one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, to managing his own organization for developing leaders at every stage of life. I outline here his nine recommended learning habits, with my own insights added, for your own leadership and business career aspirations:

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1.???? Strive to listen well to people before responding. When people are brave enough to share their ideas, passion, and insights, the very least you can do is listen. Active listening produces clearer thinking, better ideas, and greater motivation for action. This dramatically expands what you will learn and what all of you can achieve in results.

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2.???? Ask what if, how could, and why questions. Active learners make the effort to stay curious first and dole out advice second. Redirect your energy to keep exploring and discovering. Use questions to get past your own blocks and biases, and help team members generate better thinking, better ideas, and improve their own learning.

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3.???? Develop but challenge your own judgments. Recognize that everyone has biases and prejudices, so don’t blindly accept data and opinions from anyone, no matter what their position is in the organization. Similarly, for yourself, seek to recognize any unconscious assumptions, blanket categorizations, and limiting templates which taint your decisions.

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4.???? Strive to get to the root cause of every issue. When information seems to be missing, or does not meet expectations in any given problem, the brain fills in the gaps or defaults to choices about what information to use or discard. Thus you need to more actively hunt for the truth, or invite more truth-tellers into your life, who will keep orienting you to reality.

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5.???? Look for patterns or ideas from other disciplines. Active learners expose themselves to as many patterns as they can from other cultures and different industries. They look for inspiration and innovation to create something by pairing things that aren’t obviously related. It pays to keep up on your reading and travel to get new insights and see trends.

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6.???? Take the time to reflect on what you have heard. In this complex world today, it helps to step away from the daily information overload to give your mind quiet time to put things in order and consider alternative solutions.? Consider your personal values, your purpose in life, think about how you are giving back to the world, and living a productive life.

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7.???? Practice humility and confidence, minimizing ego. People with swollen egos can’t be active learners because they don’t have much to learn. Humility is the recognition that you can’t do everything by yourself, and confidence is the expectation that you will always find a way to win. Stay focused on “we” since none of us can ever do it all alone.

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8.???? Celebrate the unique ideas of others on the team. This will bring more new ideas your way, which accelerates your learning and expands the possibilities for everyone. You must stay accountable for what goes wrong but give credit for what goes right. This will incent continuous engagement and more loyalty to keep innovating and sharing.

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9.???? Trust in the positive intentions of your best people. Maximum learning requires trust and reliance on each other. Being fearful of negative intent reduces trust and thus cuts you off from many positive experiences and possibilities. Team members must be willing to speak up, share ideas, break inertia, build momentum, and learn from each other.

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Overall, I’m convinced that a learning mindset and habits outlined here are not just nice to have, but are essential to real leadership, advancement, and fulfillment. It is never too late to adjust your own focus and start reaping the rewards. You too can be the leader superstar you always envisioned and help bring the rest of us up to that level.

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*** First published on Forbes on 06-05-2024 ***