Taking control of your own learning

Are you enjoying yourself at work? Are you moving forwards? Are you learning?

If you’re not sure, take control of your own path.

Increasingly, we see success gravitating to environments where talented people are able to learn and express themselves. If you want to progress, that’s where you want to be.

Whether it’s Serena Wiegman’s supremely grounded World Cup football team, or Ben Stokes’s freewheeling test players, we increasingly see the ascendancy of teams of autonomous, curious individuals, thriving together.

It’s a modern paradigm in which many businesses in our industry are struggling to acclimatise. The natural magic formula of workplace fun and professional osmosis doesn’t seem to be working as well as it was.

For ambitious businesses, new approaches to learning and development are a hot topic.

But as an individual, don’t just wait for the perfect plan to land. Do whatever you can to control your own path, and take control of your own development.

1. ? ? Contract around your development with your business.

Developing high-potential employees should be a top tier priority for any sustainably successful business. It’s reasonable for you to expect a path to progress and improvement, and support to get there.

But remember it is a contract – and it’s on you to learn from the opportunities you get, and to apply that learning in a valuable way. Sit down, have the discussion about what success looks like for both parties, set key actions, and follow through.

?

2. ? ? Grab onto the odd-shaped opportunities.

No-one can do everything, and ‘no’ is an important word if you don’t want to overload. But you’ll learn most from opportunities to work in new contexts, in new disciplines, in new environments.?

As David Bowie said: “Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

?

3. ? ? Set your own standards.

It’s great to find your strengths, but don’t take praise as a sign that you don’t need to get better. The very best at anything are aware of their own gaps, and search for every opportunity to improve.

When you aren’t getting feedback on how to improve, just being told you’re great, that’s not a good sign – it’s a red flag. There are few traps as pernicious as being the prodigy or golden child in your neighbourhood. It's a big world out there!

?

4.? ? Invest your resources in yourself.

It doesn’t matter how good your employer is, your development will never be as important to them as it is to you, and there will always be things you want to learn that don’t happen to coincide with what your business needs.Whatever resources you have – time, energy, or money – make sure to keep investing something in the areas you want to learn to shape your future, whether or not they are in your natural development path.

Investing in yourself means being able to set your own priorities, it mains making a pre-commitment, and at crucial moments of change these are the things that will drive you forwards.

?

Later this month, we are going to start opening up our Transformation Sessions for individual bookings. Keep your eyes peeled – places will be limited, but they could be an important moment as you take control of your own path of learning.

?

And later this week, our LookUP Substack will have 5 ways to take control of your own learning.?

?

In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more from us, get in touch by contacting [email protected] or [email protected].