Nah, they aren’t really done, they just need something different, like liberation.
The Frank Discussion
Some of you will have already heard my telling of this frank discussion. Others of you will find it familiar from your own experience, and a few of you were there.
The discussion has stayed with me as I poke at what it might mean for the development of organizations, the folks who work in them, the customers, clients, and communities being served, and what it might mean for you in regards to your role and responsibility for your leadership development and the leadership development of others.
Now to the discussion.
About a month or so ago, I was enjoying a casual post-work hang-out with a group of folks who all held leadership positions when I overheard one say, “I’m done with learning.”
Another replied with (as best as I can remember), “I still go to conferences, but only for the networking and to be seen, I know what I’m doing, I don’t need some new-to-the-profession keener telling me what I already know.”
And then the conversation took off with others chiming in with comments such as:
- “I’m doing good, do I really have to keep learning?”
- “I’m too busy.”
- “I’m on the way to being done.”
- “I keep up with the trends – what else is there?”
Oh dear.
I waited for a pause, then waited for another pause, and asked, “Beyond formal learning at conferences, through webinars, and at leadership and management retreats and programs, what are you curious about in your professional life?”.
Their answers were brilliant and reassuring, particularly given how they had just been talking about “learning”. They are curious about:
- Self-awareness and self-knowledge
- Showing up to support others
- Creating spaces and process where staff can be more innovative and collaborative
- Taking measured risks and absorbing mistakes
- Staying engaged
- Giving back
So, other than my question re-framing the discussion, what is the difference between the first part where they were “done with learning” and the second part where they talked about being curious?
Perhaps a better question is, what opens a “growth mindset”?
Growth Mindset
Whitney Johnson, the author of the 2022 HBR publication Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company*, in an interview with McKinsey and Company said,
A growth mindset suggests that you can grow, expand, evolve, and change. Intelligence and capability are not fixed points but instead traits you cultivate. A growth mindset releases you from the expectation of being perfect. Failures and mistakes are not indicative of the limits of your intellect but rather tools that inform how you develop. A growth mindset is liberating, allowing you to find value, joy, and success in the process, regardless of the outcome.
If a growth mindset is liberating, then it might be that opening that mindset is as straightforward** as offering a supported, structured, and accountable path to liberation. Liberation from:
- limiting beliefs and the harmful stories we tell ourselves
- out of date leadership practices, such as command and control (I have some thoughts on this here)
- the unease of disconnected or misaligned values and priorities
- fear of missing out professionally
- perfectionism and inner critics
What do you want to be liberated from?
I’m here for you,
Babs
p.s. Find out more about me and my work as a leadership coach at the Courageous Leaders Project. While you are there, use the contact form to book a complimentary 30-minute chat with me to explore how we might work together.
I believe that great leaders never stop learning.
Simon Sinek, LinkedIn, October, 2024
*I will share my mixed thoughts on the book in the upcoming November 20th Lists. Spoiler alert, I don’t agree that learning is as predictable as an s-curve.
** Very little in life is straightforward, especially when it comes to the complexity of our feelings and thinking, but for the sake of keeping this newsletter quick to read, we will go with straightforward.
Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash