Great CEOs are great learners, with a thirst for knowledge and ideas that they continually apply to their jobs. The challenge for them, and any executive who wants to become a CEO, is finding time to learn and improve skills. It can be done. Professionals who strive for the CEO chair someday or simply want to be great in their chosen endeavors should build continuous improvement into their work routines as early in their careers as possible. Here are 12 tips for professional development that I recommend to current and aspiring CEOs. These ideas apply to all leaders. Some of the tips on this list are adapted from the book Activating Your Ambition: A Guide to Coaching the Best Out of Yourself and Others by Mike Hawkins (Brown Books Publishing Group, 2009). After all, if CEOs can find the will and time to do it, so can you!
12 Ways to Learn Commit to self-improvement. Leaders often cite lack of time as the reason they avoid continuous learning. Those who do make time often are the most successful because they have learned to balance their responsibilities. They also realize that they always have more to learn, no matter how successful they are. Hubris can limit many promising leaders who feel they know everything already. It’s a sure way to stagnation. It is critical to your long-term success to set aside at least a few hours every month for self-development. On a daily basis, incorporate as many of the following tips into your routine as possible. Read regularly. In a September 2014 interview with McKinsey Quarterly, Tom Peters said, “I was at a dinner party recently with a guy who’s probably one of the top 10 finance people in the world. At one point he said, ‘Do you know what the biggest problem is with big-company CEOs? They don’t read enough.’” Reading helps leaders of all kinds be innovative and stay one step ahead of the market. If you haven’t done so already, develop a reading habit. Seek out time to read whenever and wherever you can. Your reading list doesn’t have to be limited to business books. In October 2014, CEO.com examined the reading habits of CEOs such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Tony Hsieh, Elon Musk, and Meg Whitman and found that many read everything from history to fiction to biography. Attend training and development programs. Some skills and knowledge cannot be gleaned from books alone. Even Fortune 500 CEOs can benefit from training and development sessions in everything from communication skills to new technologies. These programs get you out of your bubble and force you to focus on skills and expertise
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specific to your job. There are sometimes valuable networking opportunities during these sessions as well. Those who believe they don’t have the time to take a training course are not doing their jobs properly. Write regularly. Regular writing helps you improve the skill, share your expertise with others, and clarify your thoughts for future benefit. There are more venues for expressing yourself today than ever: articles, blog posts, online forums, etc. Even if you are still developing your expertise, you can write about what you know. Chances are, you have a perspective that will benefit someone else. The feedback you receive may help you become a better professional, and the visibility may help build awareness of your expertise in your field. Scrutinize your decisions. Quick decision making is vital to keeping an organization going, but leaders should take the time to do a postmortem on important decisions—those that could have a significant impact on your performance and/or the business. You or someone you designate should actively look for evidence that could prove you were wrong. This willingness to examine past actions for ways to improve distinguishes great leaders from mediocre ones and allows them to provide leadership in their companies for the long haul. Network with peers. Leaders need to network with others who are experiencing the same responsibilities and challenges. Seek out professionals in your community. Establish relationships with the other leaders in your industry. Networking with contemporaries outside your industry can be valuable as well. In fact, speaking with professionals in other industries can give you some creative ideas you may not have been exposed to otherwise. Teach what you learn. There is no better way to deepen your own knowledge of a subject than teaching it to someone else. It makes you think through the material in a different way. Take advantage of opportunities to teach what you know to others both inside and outside your company. This experience will help you improve your presentation skills as well. You may learn as much or more from your “students” than they learn from you. Develop self-awareness. Self-awareness skills are critical to leading effectively. Knowing how you think and react in different situations is extremely valuable. Strive to continually improve in areas such as emotional intelligence, which is how well you read others and gauge their motivations. There are many different self-assessment tools available—from Myers-Briggs to Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton’s strengths-based assessment in Now, Discover Your Strengths