Are you leveraging your network to learn?

Throughout life and especially in our professional careers we develop a network of people: peers, friends, bosses, subject matter experts within a team. Many of these relationships transcend time and places of employment. I've been blessed to have many people contribute to my (growth) journey. Such a gift.

Recently I've been reflecting on my professional journey and I realized that most of the learning came through from the people in my network. In this type of learning environment you are basically an apprentice and the lessons are more practical than ones achieved through the formal academic (my love for history was sparked by a 4th grade teacher, affinity for math can be traced to 8th grade geometry class, I discovered classical music at UCB, inspired by a young professor from Bosnia) track. The range of lessons span both soft [communication, problem solving, EQ more broadly] and hard skills (programming, statistical analysis). Some of the toughest challenges I had to overcome: dealing with conflict [I am still work in progress ;-)], or how to lead with confidence, yet come across humble. Keep in mind that whom you learn from does not always correlate to seniority; often, younger team members can be great teachers, particularly when it comes to new technologies and breaking free from the "been there, done that" fixed mindset. Conversely, at times you have the opportunity to give back and become a coach. Learning becomes a virtuous circle of people who care for each other.

I would remiss if I end without thanking a few people - you know who you are. A Texan who told me to be tough on the issue and easy on the person, or an engineer from Mumbai who inspired me to discuss ideas more than facts. I still remember like yesterday a New Yorker who synthesised communication with impact for me into 3 Cs: concise, clear, consistent. An engineer from Moscow demystified multi-treaded programming. The need for customer obsession was taught by guy from Haifa. Most of what I know about network storage & file systems came as a courtesy of an architect from Chennai and a product manager from Boston. A former engineer, now business leader from Maryland demonstrates every day how to lead with grace. Above all, numerous people in my network shaped me into better human being.

#learning #growthmindset