LEARNING TO LEARN

?There's no denying it, the speed of change seems to be ever increasing. Present in all economic sectors and consolidating many others, changes have also generated new business models and alterations in consumer behavior that are undergoing significant transformation, especially with the evolution and emergence of new technologies.

Indeed, there is an imperative pressure on entrepreneurs, who have been increasingly feeling pressured to understand and rapidly respond to these changes, which range from management models to how work is done, forcing them to experience continuous learning.

For this very reason, there is no room for resistance, nor bias against doing new things; rather, organizations need to move towards the horizon in search of growth opportunities, and it is part of this process for professionals to acquire new capabilities while simultaneously performing their own work. This requires a willingness to experiment, being open to always be a learner in constant renewal - an extremely uncomfortable notion for most of us.

It was while working as a coach and consultant with hundreds of executives in different areas that I had the opportunity to be with successful people in this type of learning. One of the points that becomes very clear when analyzing the profile of these executives is that they have no hesitation in exposing their lack of mastery of certain issues; in fact, they have a very clear view of themselves, which is why they are always wanting to truly understand and master new skills. Another point that draws a lot of attention is that they are routinely asking pointed questions. They understand the dynamics of learning, which makes them completely open to exploring issues and implementing innovative actions precisely because they understand the importance of their own mistakes, which enhances their learning curve. Obviously, these items appear more naturally in some people than in others.

In this sense, observing them made it possible to summarize their differences based on some very simple mental skills that anyone can use to develop. So I will explore here the four fundamental attributes mapped out with these executives and how to expand them into our daily lives in order to develop them as abilities and thus experience the power of the art of learning to learn:

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Ambition, Self-awareness, Curiosity, and Vulnerability

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Ambition

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We hardly ever ask ourselves this question: Am I ambitious or not? Of course, it's important to remember that ambition is not greed. Be careful! The word ambition comes from the Latin ambire, "to move freely." Greed, on the other hand, comes from ganatum, "gain." That is, the ambitious person is one who moves from their place of comfort, seeks what they desire, takes risks, strives, dedicates themselves, while the greedy person is paralyzed in their desire for excessive gains; greed, covetousness, cupidity, and thus caught in their own greed, retaining everything they receive for themselves. The greedy person is selfish and does not hesitate to do whatever it takes to achieve what they want without caring about the means to do so. Ambition is about a conquest that is beyond the obvious, the common, in which the means to achieve them matter. A corrupt person is greedy, whereas an entrepreneur is ambitious.

Explaining this difference, we can now move on to the practical aspect. It's easy to find out if there is ambition in you or not: do you want to make an effort to learn a new skill or not? Are you courageous or not? Great learners tend to always increase their level of ambition, you know why? Because it's addictive. Yes, knowledge is something that motivates. Learning naturally triggers the reward system, and this is very important since, generally, the blame for resisting to undertake the necessary changes to achieve professional success lies entirely with us.

Now, let's expand this analysis to the work environment. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where the company you work for decided to embrace a new approach like updating the reporting system, or replacing the ERP platform, or restructuring management processes and defining new KPIs? When something like this happens, were you eager to put it all into practice? Really? I doubt it. Probably your first reaction is to want to find reasons to justify not wanting to take on this challenge and learn something new. Like: "It will take too long." "The old way works fine." "I bet it's just fuss and won't improve anything." From an early age, we learn to live a life of routines where we were taught to maintain certain standards within what is most obvious. That's why the first obstacle usually arises when we are confronted with new teachings: we focus on the negative side and unconsciously reinforce our lack of ambition with justifications.

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However, when we allow ourselves to reframe this type of belief, we can precisely benefit from a natural condition of the human being, which is to stimulate the desire to learn new things. For this, we have to start from the principle that we really want to learn something, and thus focus on the positive side, on the gains that learning will bring to your personal and professional life - and envision a contemplative future in which you will reap the rewards. Simply shifting from a negative to a positive perspective helps drive action. Behavioral researchers have found that shifting focus from challenges to visualizing the advantages is a great way to improve initial ambition to perform activities that were previously seen as unattractive.

Many of my clients seek the coaching process to try to rediscover themselves within their professional lives and seek something new to breathe new life into their ambitions. New knowledge is essential for them to generate not only new opportunities but also motivation for new achievements. In this sense, a few years ago - together with a client who marked me a lot for his evolution and achievements, I developed with him a whole new career strategy, outlining step by step what knowledge would be necessary to be acquired, and from them, generate new market possibilities and thereby achieve another desired professional level. Interestingly, even though he was fully involved in the strategy development, he hesitated continuously to acquire knowledge in agile management. Even though most of his colleagues were moving in that direction, he was convinced that he wouldn't have time to dedicate to these learnings and that it wouldn't be important for his career. Finally, I realized that this was a problem of ambition and encouraged him to think about how familiarizing himself with the world of agile management could help him personally.

After a series of questions in which I instructed him to do with himself, he realized that it would be useful to better understand how current project management models were responding to the market, so he started to explore this topic with his colleagues and his team. Then I suggested that he imagine the situation he would be in next year if he mastered these new models. He began to get excited and observed: "We would try different approaches in development teams. We would have agility within reliable processes and a clearer view of project progress and customer satisfaction. And we would save time and money by quickly discarding less efficient approaches." I could almost feel his aspiration growing. In a few months, he had enrolled in the scheduled courses and soon was obtaining his certifications, becoming a continuous hub of learning. He then began to rethink his most important and challenging professional strategies in light of the new perspective and new skills.

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Self-Awareness

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The self-help world spared no effort on this thing called self-awareness. It seems it became the solution for everything and everyone, but of course, it's not quite like that, because before talking about self-awareness, it's necessary to understand what we're talking about, after all, we are unique individuals living a unique life every fraction of time. Therefore, I want to make it clear that the proposal here goes a little beyond, and the intention is to become more familiar with the concept of self-awareness in which I propose that it has to do with feedback, discovering how others see us. When it comes to learning, our self-assessments - what we know or don't know, the skills we have or don't have - are almost always extremely inaccurate. In my work, I found that in people who self-assess more accurately, the process begins within their own minds: they are clear and understand that their perspective usually contains biases and imperfections, and therefore strive for greater objectivity, which makes them much more open to listening to and following others' opinions. The secret is to pay attention to how you talk to yourself about yourself, and then question the validity of this "self-talk." Think now, for a moment, and consider that your boss has just walked into the room and already starts shooting that your team is not fully capable and that you need to improve your evaluation regarding talent development. What will your reaction be? "What? You're wrong. My team is strong." Most of us, when pressured and our capabilities are questioned, tend to respond emotionally in a defensive manner. We have a lot of difficulty with criticism.

For this, there is a very useful exercise that focuses on realizing the situation and asking yourself: Is the criticism true? Do I have facts to defend myself, or should I sustain it? In the process of self-reflection, it is possible to discover lucidly that you are wrong and your boss is right, or that the truth lies somewhere in between - to cover some of your subordinates you ended up doing some things yourself, and one of them is inconsistent with meeting the deadline; however, two others are extremely important. The secret is to learn to listen to yourself, in a way that makes the moment a useful learning experience, and this tends to lead to a situation in a balanced way. What I mean is that self-reflection should function as an "impartial witness" so that you can be open to seeing the areas where you could improve and from there instigate the ambitious side of achievement by drawing strategies on how to do this.

I had a client who had a myopic view of himself and spared no effort to convince himself that he was a great leader and executive. Yes, it's true that he was an exceptional technocrat. He knew everything in his field and had a very high work critical sense, as well as a great instinct for how to solve things, and the company's top management recognized all these strengths. The problem is that he always tended to pay attention only to people who confirmed his view of himself and could not, in any way, deal with inputs about his weaknesses.

His manager hired me for a coaching process to help this client better deal with his team since he himself couldn't perceive that his own team didn't feel committed or inspired. When I finally got him to allow himself to question his assumptions, like: "In my team, is everyone focused and productive? If not, is there anything that can be done differently?", he soon realized the need to talk to the team, and that's when it hit him. He became much more aware of his development needs and open to feedback. He realized that it was not enough to have strategic insights if he himself could not see the reality around him. He started to share them with his subordinates, discuss them with them, and then establish clear priorities - supported by quarterly goals and individual team goals, regular progress checks, and problem-solving sessions.

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Curiosity

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In John Medina's book, "Brain Rules," he describes the importance of learning in people's lives, as well as how much children are insatiable in their continuous quest to learn and understand. According to him, "this need for explanation is so deeply ingrained in their experience that some scientists describe it as an instinctive need, just like hunger, thirst, and sex." This continuous need for learning is also motivating, as mentioned earlier. The brain craves knowledge; anything new tends to capture mental focus precisely because it activates the reward system, and this natural condition cannot be subdued when not stimulated or when we are overwhelmed with responsibilities and concerns. Therefore, instead of succumbing to the natural temptation to live in sameness and turn life into a bubble within the comfort zone, thus reinforcing the initial disinterest in a new subject, one must learn to question oneself with curious, intriguing, and challenging questions. Nourishing our sense of curiosity for something new that challenges our own beliefs programs us to take actions according to them.

There is no shortage of studies in behavioral psychology that have shown, for example, that people can improve their willingness to deal with necessary tasks by thinking of a different way to accomplish them and thus make them more interesting. The strategy lies in constructing a challenging vision. In other words, creating self-talk to motivate change from "this is boring" to "what if I could...?"

You can use the same strategy in your professional life by observing the language you use when thinking about activities that are already of interest to you — How...? Why...? Would...? — and resort to it when you need to be challenging. Then, take another step to answer the question you posed to yourself: read an article, ask an expert, find a teacher, join a group, research — whatever is easiest.

I recently worked with a client who had just received an excellent job offer from a company that had offered her a prominent position but required knowledge of a very specific technical area — an area that, for her, was "the most boring part of engineering." Despite dealing with it very well, she hated any highly technical area, having a much more managerial than technocratic outlook. Given her discomfort, I persuaded her otherwise and asked her what area she was most interested in and why: "project management," she replied. "I'm fascinated by project development, managing on a macro level, talking to the team, always seeking to find solutions, analyzing numbers, analyzing KPIs; for my professional life to be perfect, I need to have constant challenges. I imagine being in charge of various projects, multidisciplinary teams — it's a noble way to engage with other professionals, think, always be in action. It's not a question of power, although I love that, but of feeling empowered by having to be strategic, experiencing challenges all the time."

I explained that her "challenging language" could be applied within the responsibilities being offered. "Is it surprising that someone might find you interesting?" she replied jokingly when she realized that she was facing an opportunity where she could really make a difference if she used all her management skills with the teams she had the opportunity to lead.

Like a game of back and forth, I began to motivate her to think in a hypothetical world within the role she was about to assume, how it would ideally be, something she needed to describe to me as a perfect starting point. She began to think aloud about possible answers and then asked other curious questions. Immediately, she became very interested and realized her power to deal with challenges far beyond what she had imagined herself capable of, and she soon decided to accept the challenge. Days later, she called me to tell me that she had had a conversation with the executive in charge of her hiring, and he loved her ideas and gave her carte blanche to take over the area and make the changes they deemed important to improve results as well as the quality of the work environment. In the following months, she learned what she needed to know to feel ready to perform her new role. Simple as that — breaking beliefs!

The next time you're asked to learn something new at work, or you realize you should learn something because it will help you perform better in your activities, summon the courage to formulate curious and challenging questions about the subject — Why do others know about this and I don't? How would this learning facilitate my work? How can I make a difference? — and then seek the answers, put them on paper, relate them to the evolution of your professional skills, and specify the gains you will have with this knowledge. You will only discover one thing: what seems to be a "boring" topic may be the trigger you've been waiting for to awaken your desire to go much further, to challenge yourself, and above all, to feed your curiosity.

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Vulnerability

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As we evolve in our professional careers, naturally with experience, we also build a sense of empowerment that gives us the illusion that we have become good or even excellent at some things, and we hardly want to lose this status of not being good at others. It's also part of this professional evolution to learn to adopt justifications, often somewhat creative, when "quick failures" happen at work. This creates an illusion that we know more than we do, mainly because over time we come to believe that what we know is more important than other matters or thoughts; in fact, it's also part of the human psyche to learn to value our strengths. So, the idea of not doing something well for weeks or months, of feeling incapable and slow, of asking "dumb" questions – "I don't know what you're talking about" – of needing step-by-step guidance continuously, or even having to go back to a classroom to learn or relearn is extremely frightening.

Here is where the power of vulnerability comes in. In Brené Brown's book, "The Power of Vulnerability," she highlights that "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." And this can become a great trap for us. If you truly want to grow and become a great professional and reach new challenging heights, you must allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to accept that there is a beginner status within you that needs to stay alive. When we try something new and do it poorly, terrible thoughts usually occur to us: I hate this. I'm incompetent. I'll never get this right. This is so frustrating! This pulsating noise in our brains leaves little room for learning. But when we adopt the beginner mindset, the ideal way to think is both vulnerable and balanced: To begin with, I won't be good at this because I've never done it before. And I know I can learn over time. You see, being vulnerable doesn't mean being weak or incapable. In fact, it should be seen as a condition in which you're not sure how to act or what to do, but you still seek ways to address it.

It's like saying to your team in response to a question: "I don't know what to do right now, but I'll seek an answer to this as soon as possible." This leads to the main positive aspect of the power of vulnerability, which is fostering continuous learning about subjects and issues we don't master. And this brings us to another advantage, which is stepping out of the comfort zone. The biggest mistake you can make in your personal or professional life, but mainly as a leader, is to deceive yourself by demonstrating all the time, like someone who has all the answers. What margin are you opening up for yourself to learn something new? If you have a solution for everything, there's no need to broaden your horizons, right? How will you feel motivated to go beyond?

Vulnerability is an act of resilience, which can be defined as the ability of a person to deal with problems, overcome obstacles, recover from unexpected situations, and adapt to changes. This, in turn, is related to courage. To develop all the necessary characteristics to become resilient, you need courage. This is because without this ability to face the unknown and go beyond what you're accustomed to doing, it's almost impossible to grow, adapt to new conditions, and regain a secure posture in a new scenario.

In behavioral psychology, it's clear that when people are encouraged to expect errors and learn from them at the beginning of the process of acquiring new skills, the result is "increased interest, persistence, and performance improvement."

Recently, I worked with a client who is a senior project manager who was recently appointed to lead a development team in Germany. He was having a hard time getting used to living in another country and working with colleagues from other cultures, and his response was to emphasize his expertise in management rather than acknowledge his beginner status in the new environment. I helped him identify his resistance to being a cultural beginner, and he managed to change his self-talk from "this is so uncomfortable, I'll just focus on what I already know" to "I have a lot to learn about German cultures. I learn fast, so I'll manage."

Soon he realized that the big secret lies in how the professionals who make up a team work together. When he felt secure, in turn, he brought up the more difficult criterion that definitely needed to be met, and it's totally related to the role and posture he needed. Anyone leading a group of employees also needs to convey psychological safety to them, and one way to achieve this is through the power of vulnerability.

The ability to quickly and continuously acquire new skills and knowledge is essential for success in a dynamic world. Now that you know more about the power of vulnerability and all its importance, the next step is to discover how to become a positively vulnerable leader. To complete this article, here are my tips:

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·???????? Say goodbye to your armor: the stance of knowing everything and never making mistakes.

·???????? Seek self-awareness: it's essential that you know yourself better, both as a person and as a professional.

·???????? Ask for help from your team: not pretending to know everything is a way to expand your knowledge.

·???????? Don't shy away from having difficult conversations: every relationship is a two-way street.

·???????? Have trust as the foundation of your relationship with your team: When the foundation of the relationship between leader and team members is trust, delegating tasks and sharing activities becomes an easy and natural process.

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If you currently lack the ambition, self-awareness, curiosity, and vulnerability to be an efficient learner, then change the way you see things and seek to develop these simple tools. They can help you consider the fact that there is something better you can learn, and that's not fragility, but a way to value your performance and seek better results for everyone. Believe me, these simple 4 steps are already a great start for your turnaround and will really help you get there. So let's practice, shall we?

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Hello, I'm Marcello de Souza! I started my career in 1997 as a leader and manager in a large company in the IT and Telecommunications market. Since then, I have participated in important projects of structuring, implementation, and optimization of telecommunications networks in Brazil. Restless and passionate about behavioral and social psychology. In 2008, I decided to delve into the universe of the human mind.

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