How Leaders Maximize Their Learning
With all the books written on leadership today, it’s hard to remember who wrote about which topic. However, there seem to be two points on which they all agree:
1) Leadership skills can be learned;
2) Leaders must continue to grow if the organizations they lead are to grow and succeed.
If that’s true, how can leaders best grow themselves and their leadership abilities?
Consider these questions: How do you develop leaders in your business? What are you doing to develop yourself? As you think about the answers, consider these three conditions that underlie the leadership development process:
· Leaders learn best from other leaders;
· Connection to groups enables individuals to reach higher levels of learning;
· You must have real relationships to grow.
David Kolb provides one of the most useful of the adult learning models. He suggests there are two ways of knowing new things: by direct experience and by comprehension. Additionally, there are two ways of transforming the knowledge into something we can use: by using the knowledge or by thinking about the concepts.
For many people, only knowledge gained through experience is valid. For example, if you're a parent, think about people who offer advice on raising your children. If they don’t have children, their credibility is low and any advice they offer would likely be ignored. Rather, one of the important ways we learn is by leveraging the experiences of others who are facing or have faced the same challenges we have.
Kurt Lewin, a psychologist who studied group behavior, said, “To counteract fear and to make the individual strong to face whatever the future holds, there is nothing so important as a fully accepted belonging to a group whose fate has a positive meaning.” In order to achieve higher levels of learning, we need to practice new behaviors and skills, receive feedback, and see the results of new ways of leading and behaving. These steps are more likely to occur when the individual is part of a group of people who they trust and with whom he or she has a significant connection.
Wilford Bion, a British physician and pioneer in group dynamics, took this idea even further; he contended that connection to groups is a requirement for human survival. Documented in prisoner of war situations, prisoners who were isolated have been known to lie down and die because of the lack of human connection. This fear of being alone is so powerful that people will go to great lengths to avoid it. It follows, then, that our job as leaders is to maximize the connection among the people we lead. It also indicates that our own growth is dependent on our connection to others who face similar challenges and are seeking growth themselves.
Most importantly, we have the biblical model for learning and growth. While many things in culture encourage us to be lone rangers (e.g. the persona of John Wayne), God did not create us to go it alone. The teaching of the Bible is one of relationship – first with God and then with others.
Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, in their book, How People Grow, state, “Years of research and experience back up this biblical reality: You must have relationship to grow.” They go on:
“Biblical growth is designed to include other people as God’s instruments. To be truly biblical as well as truly effective, the growth process must include the Body of Christ. Without the Body, the process is neither totally biblical nor orthodox.”
Why is this idea of relationship so important to our learning and to our growth? Following are just a few reasons:
· We can’t see our own blind spots and our heart (feelings) can deceive us; we need others to help us see ourselves and our circumstances more nearly as they are.
· God created us to interdependently need each other (the Body of Christ meets needs for us that otherwise would go unmet).
· One of our greatest needs as an individual is to be truly “known’” by another.
· We need both grace (unmerited favor, love and acceptance) and truth to grow. Grace comes from outside ourselves.
Consider these Scriptures:
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” Romans 4:4-6a
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10
When we seek out others for advice, when we build authentic and caring relationships with other believers, and when we actively seek to grow our skills and capabilities, we’re actually engaged in the biblical plan for growth set down by God.
To grow as individuals and as leaders, we must build relationships that support us and our leadership. Leaders who want to become more effective are hungry for feedback; they’re seeking to be challenged, to be encouraged and, most of all, to be told the truth by people who care about them. Although uncomfortable at times, these leaders rise to the challenge; they’re committed to improving their leadership and the companies they lead.
Unfortunately, many people fear giving or receiving honest feedback; they’re concerned about making others feel uncomfortable, or want people to think they have it all together. However, in a confidential setting with those they trust, people are willing to be authentic, provide others with honest and useful feedback, and receive it in return. These groups are best led by trained facilitators with a biblical worldview, a firm grasp on the principles of group dynamics, and years of relevant life experience.
The biggest opportunity for leadership growth is in the area of spiritual leadership. In the book, Spiritual Leadership, Henry and Richard Blackaby remind us, “…ultimately leadership is more about ‘being’ than about ‘doing.' As leaders grow personally, they increase their capacity to lead.” They further state, “Only when we understand leadership in light of God’s calling on our lives will we be equipped to lead effectively.”
Most of us live lives that are a mere shadow of our potential. We’ve settled for being much less than what God created us to be. People are looking for someone to lead them in God’s way. Only when we submit ourselves to God’s leadership, and show ourselves willing to answer His call, can we start to become the leaders He intended us to be.
Business leaders often spend substantial amounts of time and money training their people, while neglecting to invest in the person who could have the biggest impact – themselves. Which brings us back to the question, “What are you doing to develop your leadership?” It’s clear that there‘s a set of leadership skills that can be acquired and that leadership is more about who we are and can become through God’s grace.
The acquisition of new skills and the journey of becoming more fully what God called us to be are best learned in a safe and confidential group setting with fellow believers on a similar journey. Only with the support of others can we overcome the fears that hold us back. To reach the highest levels of effectiveness, we must be growing in our relationship with Jesus, investing time in reading and applying God’s Word in our life and leadership, and be connected in authentic, trusting relationships with other believers who help us see the truth about ourselves and support us in our growth process.
