Lead by Learning

Leadership isn’t just about teaching, guiding, and empowering—it’s also about listening, observing, and learning.

Too often, we assume growth only comes from above us—from those who have already been there.

However, our leadership evolves to a higher capacity when we realize that equally powerful lessons can be learned from those we work alongside and lead.

Learning from those ahead of us provides vision.

Learning from those beside us offers perspective.

Learning from those we lead grounds us in reality.

If we’ve built our team well, everyone contributes something unique, regardless of role, title, or experience.

Skills, insights, and strengths of others can offer perspectives we might not have considered and truths we haven’t noticed.

To lead is to teach is to learn. One without the other creates an imbalance.

Teaching without learning leads to arrogance, while learning without teaching leads to isolated, untranslated knowledge without an impact.

Effective leadership requires both.

The Cost of NOT Learning From the Team

When leaders stop learning from their teams, intentionally or inadvertently, they create a culture where employees feel unheard, potential goes untapped, and decisions are made in isolation.

In other words, trust is an exception, not a first principle.

The result?

• Missed Opportunity—The best ideas often come from those closest to the action. Ignoring or suppressing them stifles creativity and problem-solving.
• Uninformed Decisions—The best information also comes from those closest to the action. Sound decisions cannot be made without understanding reality.
• Disengaged Employees—When people don’t feel valued for their perspectives, they disengage and stop caring. They become employees instead of a team.
• Blind Spots in Leadership—Without feedback from every level, leaders risk grounding the organization in assumptions rather than facts.
• Self-Inflicted Isolation—The further we move up, the easier it is to believe that we must carry the weight alone. But leadership isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about making decisions with the team, not just for them. The more we separate ourselves, the lonelier leadership becomes. A considerable portion of the “leadership is lonely” sentiment is avoidable.

The Collective Benefit

One of the most significant leadership pitfalls is believing we need to have all the answers. Again, it’s self-inflicted and unnecessary isolation.

The best teams are built and thrive on leveraging complementary strengths.

Effective leadership isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about leveraging the collective knowledge and capabilities of the team.

When this is done well—information is free-flowing, there’s healthy debate and conflict, accountability is instilled, decisions are made quickly, and everyone has a clear role in what they uniquely contribute.

Oh, and the results are better.

Yes, the output level becomes a by-product of building a team where the leading-teaching-learning loops exist with trust as the input.

As a leader, this means:

• Delegating not just to offload work but to create development opportunities.
• Stepping back to let others take ownership, even when it’s easier to do it ourselves.
• Encouraging feedback in all directions, not just top-down.

The Individual Benefit

When we open ourselves to learning from the team, our decisions, actions, and behaviors are directly reflected in them.

This highlights where there’s an opportunity to become the version of ourselves we say we want to be.

I’ll admit that I’m not inherently competent at delegation. My default is jumping in and doing things myself, especially when the timing is tight. But my team reminds me repeatedly to trust, step back, and create space for others to grow.

When I do, I always learn something—not just about my team’s capabilities but also about my tendencies and blind spots.

Leadership isn’t just about leading others—it’s about continuously evolving alongside the people you work with so that you can better lead yourself.

We can talk about self-awareness all day, but it means nothing unless we embrace the discomfort of addressing the areas we want or need to improve.

We often think of leadership as guiding, advising, and directing.

But what if the most effective leaders aren’t those who teach the most but those who learn from those they teach the most?

Where can you shift from teaching to learning this week?

• Where can you ask a question instead of providing an answer?
• Is there a challenge that you can observe behaviors before intervening?
• Can a team member offer perspective you haven’t considered?

We create a culture of curiosity, trust, and shared ownership by opening ourselves to learning from every team level.

Because leadership isn’t a one-way transfer of knowledge—it’s a continuous loop.

The more we teach, the more we learn. And the more we learn, the better we lead.

"In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn." -Phil Collins

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I also offer leadership coaching, helping people align their decisions, actions, and behaviors with values and principles. You can schedule a free consultation here.

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