Be the CEO of your learning
Jim Livingstone
ICF Professional Certified Coach, Team Coach & Leadership Facilitator | Passionate About Leadership & Learning | Empowering Leaders to Ignite Change
The world is changing a pace never before seen, and the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn is now more valuable than ever. Relying on your formal education and whatever learning opportunities your employer presents is not enough. You need to take control and be the CEO of your learning.
In this article, we will explore what it means to be the CEO of your learning and provide practical strategies for personal growth.
Understanding the Role of the CEO
Just like the CEO of a company, you are responsible for defining the brand, crafting the strategy, setting goals, making decisions and ensuring the overall success of your learning journey. Here's a breakdown of these responsibilities:
Define your Brand: When you're out of the room, what would you like people to say about you? Put aside time to craft out your personal brand. It will probably change over time, but at least you will have a North Star to work towards.
Set Learning Goals: Define meaningful learning objectives and outcomes. Identify the knowledge and skills you need or want to acquire. The more meaningful they are the better!
Make Decisions: Everyone has a preference for how they like to learn. Choose the most suitable learning methods for you. Decide how much time, energy and resources you want to allocate to learning different subjects or skills.
Develop a Learning Plan: Not unlike a business plan, a learning plan will help to guide your learning journey.
Prioritise Learning: Budget time for learning. Block out time slots in your calendar for learning. Eliminate distractions and stay focused during these learning moments.
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Seek out Feedback: Don't wait for feedback. Make a conscious effort to seek it out on a frequent basis. Feedback is the breakfast of champions, the more you get the more you can improve.
Reflect Regularly: Take time out on a regular basis to reflect on what you are learning and how you are feeling. Reflection helps us to collect out thoughts on what we know and don't know.
Embrace a Growth Mindset: You can do anything you put your mind to. Embrace and tackle challenges head on, when the going gets tough - get going, actively seek feedback and learn from others.
Embrace Productive Failure: Its important to recognise that failure is part of the learning process. Build experimentation into your learning. Reflect on these experiments and consolidate what you learned into refined experiments.
Build in Accountability Loops: Share your learning goals and commit to learning deliverables with others who can help to hold you accountable. Agree on how they will hold you accountable.
Share Your Learning: Share what knowledge or skills you have acquired with others. This simple act of sharing helps to reinforce what you have learned. It also helps others to learn in the process.
Monitor & Reward Progress: Continuously assess your progress and adjust your learning strategies. Embrace self-directed learning. Prioritise and celebrate progress over perfection.
Conclusion
Taking control and being the CEO of your learning will help you to thrive in today's rapidly changing landscape. Embracing a Growth mindset, self-directed learning, setting clear goals and having a learning plan will help you to learn, unlearn and relearn when you need it most.
Learning is a journey - not a destination! As for me, I've taken another step in that journey by signing up for The Coach Partnership Team Coaching program.