Learning to effectively lead; means leadership through learning.

I recently read something that said; "managing is harder than creating" which struck me as interesting. Managing is a job function, leadership is about "creating" environments that help people be successful in their roles in contributing to the greater set of goals and objectives of any team or organization. Many leaders often have the benefit of past experiences that helped them achieve their current level of authority and influence in their careers. Developing patience and soft skills, to convey this knowledge to direct reports is a continued growth opportunity, that all leaders must embrace to lead effectively.

Sharing information is an important part of any relationship, the ability to communicate in a manner that allows room for multiple voices and perspectives to be heard is an invaluable skill that all leaders must learn to understand and master. Anyone that has had the opportunity to lead through coaching, can understand this distinction very well. Simply telling your players what to do, will only get you so far. It’s when we take the time to coach them through examples and give them the opportunity to practice what they have been taught that skill development, enrichment, and mastery takes place.

The same can be said for the workplace, no one comes into the start of their career, fully equipped to perform at a high level on their first day. This is why proper onboarding, learning, development, and training are so important to their future success and the company's ability to retain their top talent. This is extremely crucial for startups and early-stage growth companies, hiring highly-skilled and motivated people is one part, but the most important aspect is teaching them the what, how, why and when. By using "creative thinking" to develop more shared context and identity; leaders can help develop frameworks that lead to more meaningful interactions and exchanges, that fosters bi-directional learning.

Empowering internal stakeholders to increase their capacity for learning while allowing senior leaders to expand their knowledge bases. "By having a better understanding of what motivates our peers and colleagues, we can identify ways to connect with them personally and professionally to help build trust that will reinforce our working relationships in a positive way." (Krause, J. 2022) By more proactively participating and witnessing the growth and development of their internal stakeholders. As highly technical entrepreneurs, founders, or experienced leaders, it is easy to assume that individuals have all the knowledge and skills required to perform at their jobs. We often take it for granted that they know, what they don’t know.

With all the challenges that come with business, growing a startup or early-stage venture. It doesn’t always allow the time to build relationships through meaningful dialogue; right behind running out of capital, and losing talent through high turnover; is where most companies fail, because a lack of engagement, does not allow for the ability to create a cohesive working environment and culture.?Learning to teach, through patient considerate dialogue, much like coaching a team, is more impactful than simply barking orders, and telling people what to do.

Whenever possible, demonstrating and partnering in learning helps with skill development, enrichment, and retention. Explaining what to do, offering suggestions on how to do it, then observing how the information is processed and applied. Following up and asking, how they felt about their work performance; gives more clarity and insight into their thought process and working style. Garnering similar feedback from multiple stakeholders is much more effective, and increases opportunities for alignment and better future collaboration.

By establishing a framework for shared learning, discovery, and skill enhancement and working through the four levels of competence in skill development:

Unconscious incompetence: we don’t know what we don’t know.

Conscious incompetence: where we know, there are things we should know but don’t understand.

Unconscious competence: where we have developed skills, that we can recall when needed but may still need some practice and reinforcement.

Conscious competence: where we become aware of our knowledge base and can effectively leverage it.?

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