Agile Learner/Leader

This week, my focus is on leadership and learning. My exploration is on what makes leaders agile, what makes leaders successful and how do they sustain their growth trajectory.

McCall and Lombardo (1983) researched both success and failure?and came up with the finding that leaders derail when they block new learning. When they think that they are infallible and that they know exactly how things are done. Leaders derail when they completely trust in their past experiences and don't make the effort to question each situation.?

They get locked into ways of thinking and being and this hurts immensely especially in a world where things are becoming more and more unpredictable. Current times have proven that there almost seem to be no "known ways" of doing things or solving problems.?

There is significant research that points out the link between the continuous process of interaction or feedback between the individual leader and the situational opportunities and constraints they are placed under.?Hence, lot of leadership development takes place in the roles assigned to leaders and how these roles are defined. How the outcomes of these roles are defined and the mechanisms that help an organisation to measure the quality of outcomes produced by the leader. How much of the decision making and execution is driven by innovative thinking and problem solving.?

In this context of leadership development, the only differentiator between a "learning leader" and others is their ability to demonstrate the courage to try out new experiments, fail and reflect on how to avoid those mistakes. These are people, willing to embrace the new, deal with the ambiguity and come up with innovative ideas and solutions. In doing so, also have the ability to build more insights into future attempts and in the process expand their repertoire and are able to?consolidate their learning and its application.?

To simplify, according to Lombardo and Eichinger, In contrast to those with similar experiences who derailed, successful leaders were different or were helped to become different in several ways:

1.) They sought and got more feedback (from self or others) on how they came across to others and what they needed to do to improve and perform better.

2.) They had roughly twice the variety (but sometimes the same number) in the “on the job” leadership challenges they faced.

3.) They responded to this newness and adversity by learning new skills and additional ways of thinking?

In summary, these leaders are agile learners. They are willing to seek new experiences, they enjoy complex first time problems and challenges associated with their new experiences. They are willing to engage in the learning process to create new insights and meanings. Above all, they are willing to apply the new skills to their problem solving tool box.?