What goes into being a great leader? According to the Harvard Business Review, companies spend around $24 billion every year on leadership development. This goes to show that nurturing leaders within an organization is considered an important step.
The thing is, even with billions spent on leadership development, not every individual that enters a program walks away as a good leader. In reality, and on the most basic level, good leaders are good learners. And the more a leader is open to learning for the long term, the more valuable that leader will be to the organization. Below is a closer look at the importance of learning in leadership.
Reasons Why Leaders Should Always Be Learning
Leaders Set the Tone For An Organization
Leaders naturally set the tone for the culture of an organization. With that being said, leaders who remain in learning mode keep learning, evolving, and adapting at the core of the company’s DNA. Consider a supervisor who encounters a problem or fails at something. This supervisor quickly regroups and addresses the issue differently, possibly using advice from the team. This exemplary supervisory action can encourage team members to follow the same pattern. But this also encourages perceptions that the workplace is stable and capable.
Learning Drives Innovation
When good leaders are good learners, they are wide open to fresh opportunities and change. They don’t necessarily expect every skill or strategy that worked in the past to always apply. Instead, the leader looks for new ways to approach a challenge or situation using a combination of learned experience and more innovative tactics. For example, a learning leader is open to proposed ideas from colleagues during a conflict. They’re not afraid to take a new approach or experiment. This mindset drives innovation throughout an organization.
It Builds Effective Teams
Leaders who keep themselves in a continuous learning mode naturally translates into good team-building skills. Leaders open to evolving know that everyone on the team has the same capacity to grow and learn new skills. Therefore, teams led by leaders that model a “growth” mindset are less likely to be stagnant entities and more likely to have the mindset of their leader—they can flex as needed and as new skill sets emerge. In the end, this can mean that a team is better capable of adapting to and overcoming problems.
Learning Helps You Become a Better Leader
The best leaders are the best learners. Leaders open to active listening, adapting to change, and honing their skills repeatedly are better capable of setting an example for the team members they lead. This is one reason why executive coaching is such an effective way to enhance company culture. Essentially, the more a leader learns, the more resilient they become. The effects of coaching don’t just benefit the leader, but the entire team.
Become a Better Leader with Learn2
In the end, building effective leaders can make all the difference in the overall success of a business. Learn2 can help leaders develop their leadership skills with leadership development training programs. Want to know more about how we can help? Contact us to get the conversation started.
