Thursday's Leadership Insight; Engage In Learning Utilizing Four Resources to Expand Your Leadership L.Q.

The past two editions of Thursday's Leadership Insight newsletter were devoted to leadership lessons from our military, especially service, and sacrifice. These lessons for our military are practical and applicable to all leaders. This week's edition of Thursday's Leadership Insight newsletter will return to a four-part series on learnability in leadership practice, a willingness to learn as a crucial leadership skill for any organization in the 21st Century. A leader's willingness to develop their learnability or LearnabilityQoutent is a combination of?Intellectual intelligence of I.Q. and social–emotional intelligence or E.Q.??The development of a leader's Learnability Quotient (L.Q.) requires a choice and a commitment to engage and expand learning.

Today's leader is faced with a myriad of rapid, disruptive changes. These changes are part of what Pope?Francis In Let Us Dream referred to as "not an era of change?but?a change of era." This new era requires learners to expand their choice and skills at learning in all areas—intellectual work skills and social-emotional intelligence or L.Q.

?"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can not read or write. The illiterate of the 21st Century will be those who can't learn, unlearn and relearn."

Alvin Toffler, Future Shock

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A recent article in Reworked ?Chitra Iyer expounded on the need to reconsider and expand our notions of learning, especially for leaders. In ?Why Today's Leaders Need to Rethink Their Own Learning, June 05, 2023, Chitra Iyer described the type of expanded view ?learning "It's all a bit like learning how to juggle and walk the tightrope — at the same time."

Great leaders must have an intentional focus on developing a robust Learnability Quotient.

Iver also notes, "In this environment, leaders need to do more than learn a specific skill. "They need to up their 'learning to learn' skills, said?Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek, founder of Progressive H.R. and a LinkedIn Top Voice in H.R. Executives need the mindset and skill set to learn anything quickly, effectively, and actionably, even in times of disruption — especially in times of disruption." In her article, Iver quotes a Harvard Business Review publication "Learning to Learn," by Erica Andersen. She described leaders who are also good learners as leaders who "push themselves to acquire radically different capabilities — while still performing their job." to be successful today, leaders have to learn to be active, lifelong learners.

This may sound counterintuitive, but while learning happens automatically all the time, effective learning requires a deliberate awareness of and focus on the?process of learning.?For leaders, this means a well-designed process of identifying potential areas of disruption (learning), testing theories about that new idea in simulated scenarios (doing and practicing), evaluating what worked and what didn't (reflecting) and taking calculated risks to activate real changes across the organizations (decision-making)."

Tomas Charmorro-Prezmuzic and Mara Swan Iin a 2017 Forbes post What Happens When Leaders Lack Curiosity? wrote, "In our view, there is a fundamental ingredient of leadership that has been largely neglected, namely?intellectual curiosity?– a leader's willingness to learn, also known as?learnability. Learnability is crucial to meet the challenges and opportunities in today's contexts. James Kuszes co, author of the Leadership Challenge and Student Leadership Challenge, writes that "the best leaders are the best learners "and that the best leaders are "continuous improvement fanatics and learning is the master skill of leadership."Great leaders must have a focus on developing a robust Learnability Quotient.

The L.Q. of any leader will be their intellectual and Social Emotional Intelligence combined. It is not either ?/or; it is both and. A leader must combine both to meet today's and tomorrow's challenges. The acronym L.E.A.R.N can guide this choice of an intentional process expanded L.Q.The acronym guides the critical pathway to develop L.Q., L.Listening and Looking, E . Engageing and Expanding A.Asking R.Refelcting and Responding, and N. Never stopping in continual improvement.

"Leadership and Learning are Indispensable"

??President John F Kennedy

This Thursday's leadership insight will first define engagement. Secondly, four resources a ?leader can intentionally tap into to engage and expand their L.Q. will be examined.

Engagement in learning is essential to expanded learnability in intellectual, job skills, and social-emotional intelligence. What do we mean by engagement? The Gallup organization has studied engagement in all sectors of the world for decades. According to?Gallup, employee engagement is defined as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace. Engaged employees are those who are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace.?Gallup's research shows that more?highly engaged employees?give more discretionary effort at work. In Discretionary Effort, Employee Engagement and the Bottom Line, the authors define engagement as "Going the extra mile," "giving all you've got," and "taking one for the team," are all phrases reflecting that extra effort people contribute to something even when they don't have to. "

Below are four areas of resource a leader intentionally seeking to engage and expand their L.Q. can access.

The first resource a leader can choose to tap into is themselves. A leader who chooses to expand their L.Q. can first assess where they are in their I.Q. and E.Q.A mentor, coach, or a true and brutally honest friend can help with this process. The leader can develop a plan to build on areas of strength and areas of challenge to develop or, if appropriate, delegate. or supplement. A leader who has, for example, a strong personal skill set can work to improve quickly. If that same leader is weak technologically, they can work to be knowledgeable and competent and have advanced technological support. The leader can also look at their personal channels available to engage in learning. Considering how one learns best and ways to tap those channels will expand learning. An excellent approach would be to utilize a professional coach.

The second resource a leader can choose to ?tap into is those they work with. A leader can choose to develop a learning focus on their leadership team, professional office assistants. Focusing on what you have learned lately will expand your knowledge and enhance connections with those you lead. Another rich area of information is small groups of workers .conducting personal listening and learning visits can lead to a rich untapped source of information. Hubert Joly became the C.E.O. of Best Buy when the company was floundering. In his book The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism, he wrote that as the new C.E.O., he spent time working on the showroom floors of various Best Buy stores. In talking with a store associate working in the T.V. area, he found out an excessive number of flat-screen T.V.s were arriving damaged and cost the company millions. The store associate showed him that televisions were being shipped with cheap wrapping and little or no protection, leading to damages and losses. This learning led to a demand that television producers change how televisions were shipped with more protective materials. This learning was available to Joly by visiting the showroom floor and listening

. The third resource a leader can choose to ?tap into to expand their L.Q. is the community they serve. Networking in local business, social, school, and church groups will give a leader valuable information. The leader will learn how the organization is perceived by its customers and the community. This expanded information can provide a leader with ways to support the area business and service agencies .this expands a leader's L.Q. gaining a broader knowledge of the environment and trends in the community and increasing empathy for the people they serve. The leader who chooses to tap into this resource will find enhanced ways to serve and increase visibility and connection. Jeff Henderson, a Maxwell Leadership thought leader and author, often says, "Doing good is good business," and that expanded efforts to be involved in the community shows how you as a leader and the organization are "For" them.

The fourth resource a leader can choose to tap into to expand their L.Q. is engaging in the study of national and organizational markets and trends. Involving themselves and their teams in a study of trending behaviors enhances a leader's knowledge and social-emotional intelligence. Leaders who intentionally engage themselves and others to study the?market and outside market information can consider trends. Understanding trends such as ChatGPT, generational diversity, and how mortgage rates affect business or social disruptions yields information and engages the leader in developing their L.Q. and modeling it in the organization. This process builds internal learning models and connections and can lead an organization to foster higher productivity and connection to the organization and adaptability and adjustments based on learning. The need to enhance L.Q. by a leader may have an organizational advantage. In the article noted above, Chitra Iyer?cites Charla Arie de Geus, author of "The Living Company" "The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage."

The leader who intentionally engages in these four learning resources and expands their L.Q. will utilize "discretionary effort. "The leader committed to engagement by discretionary effort beyond the norm demonstrates a new approach of learning to learn or L.Q. A leader's choice to intentionally develop their L.Q. can lead to learning as a model for the leader and the organization. The cumulative effect of this engagement can be sustainable: profitability, connectedness, and the ability to adapt to disruption. It is time to engage the resources available to all leaders to learn to learn.

The Leadership Question for you, then, is

1. Will you choose engagement to expand your leadership L.Q.? ??