What do Barack Obama, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have in common? Think not of net worth or political leanings, but of their mindset: All three heavyweights made a conscious choice to commit to lifelong learning. Obama is famed for dedicating time to reading, even – or perhaps especially – while in office as President of the United States. Buffett is said to have invested 80% of his time in reading and thinking throughout his illustrious career as an investor. Microsoft founder Gates, one of the richest people in the world, reportedly reads 50 books every year, carefully selecting content that warrants his attention and strategically committing information to memory.
It goes without saying that these great leaders are busy. Yet they carve time out of their schedule for lifelong learning. With good reason. The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Skills Outlook ranks “active learning and learning strategies” second only to “analytical thinking and innovation”, with new tasks demanding new skills. In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment, being a lifelong learner is the only way to keep astride of developments and ensure your leadership efforts are aligned with emerging realities.
In this article, EHL Insights provides perspective on lifelong learning, explaining why it is so important and what you stand to gain from it in terms of leadership development. We will look at the many forms lifelong learning can take and highlight some of the key considerations to bear in mind.
What is lifelong learning?
Lifelong learning is the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. While it is important for an individual’s competitiveness and employability, no lifelong learning definition would be complete without mentioning that it also enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development. Unlike continuing education specifically, which provides targeted instruction in a formal, structured setting, lifelong learning in general is a mindset.
The importance of lifelong learning
In reflecting on the importance of lifelong learning, perhaps we might recall the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” In fact, the World Economic Forum goes as far as to say: “Knowledge is the new money.”
In today’s “knowledge economy”, it is worth taking a moment to consider the reasons for which you first chose your university course or vocational training. Or perhaps why you opted out of tertiary education entirely. Do those reasons hold up today? Are they still aligned with the future you see for yourself? Or were they a result of constrictions or influences that applied at that time? Purely by virtue of maturing and of experiencing what content might be useful based on our everyday activities as leaders or hopefuls, we realize that the traditional format of frontloading our education is outdated. Not least because lifetime careers at a single company are no longer the norm. Breaking free from a single academic discipline also has the potential to usher in interdisciplinary thinking and cross-pollination of ideas, which can both enrich leadership.
With the world around us evolving at break-neck speed and automation on the rise, how will we prepare for the future of work? We simply cannot afford not to keep learning. We need to be continually seeking out the kinds of problems robots and software cannot perform, more creative pursuits and those that rely more heavily on collaboration between people. We must resist the urge to see the transition to a digital work economy as a bad thing, terming it disruption in distaste. Instead, we must accept change and rise to the challenge. We must do so by understanding education as more of a set of continual processes.
When EHL Insights asked Gary A. Bolles, an internationally recognized expert on the future of work and the future of learning, how to prepare for the future of work, he encouraged us to strive to be adaptive, creative problem-solvers and entrepreneurial thinkers, proactively identifying areas for action, asking:
- What new kinds of work will be opening up?
- How will people perform the respective tasks?
- How can we apply technology to augment human capacity (cue “superpowers”)?
These questions illustrate the importance of lifelong learning if we are not only to keep up with progress, but to take a leading role in shaping it. In answering them, we must remain mindful of key forces shaping the labor market, such as flattening or re-emerging corporate hierarchies, and the impact of real-world events, such as the COVID-induced recession.
With this in mind, lifelong learning can be as much about unlearning and relearning as it is about learning per se. To truly benefit, you need to loosen your grip on any fixed ideas and preconceptions. This is because our past successes and failures influence how we judge new situations and can cause us to respond in predictable ways, rather than seeking out the best way forward from a blank canvas. Some call the required openness “beginner’s mind”, while others speak of “being coachable”. Great leaders thrive when they are willing to unlearn things that no longer serve them and open to learning in non-traditional ways.
The benefits of lifelong learning in leadership development
Each new app and every new service and how they are received by consumers tells us something about the market landscape in which we are operating. Clearly, prime among the reasons for lifelong learning is the need to stay on top of the skills required not to be left behind by these developments. For leaders, though, the benefits of lifelong learning extend well beyond that. It offers a unique opportunity to break away from the day-to-day to pursue progress on a deeper, more personal level. Taking the time to deep-dive into specific topics of interest or skills feeds into a more holistic take on life and work, which can then inform business decisions and shape leadership style. Not to mention the potential added benefits of curating your network of professional contacts and ensuring your profile stands out from the crowd. Against this backdrop, let us take a look at some of the main benefits of lifelong learning for leadership development:
Shaping your leadership style and managerial choices
- Insights gleaned through lifelong learning can shed new light on existing problems and help you rethink engrained habits to improve your operational efficiency.
- Familiarizing yourself with new perspectives through lifelong learning broadens the base from which you consider your own challenges, opening up potential for novel solutions.
- Lifelong learning may provide the framework within which to focus on important leadership soft skills, such as exerting influence, negotiating and embracing empathy.
- By committing to enduring learning, lifelong learners hone their perseverance skills and embrace a growth mindset, which can be transposed onto strategic thinking in leadership.
- Using lifelong learning as a gateway to indulging in your passions is conducive to overall life satisfaction, which grounds you and may reduce any volatility in your leadership behavior.
- Pursuing lifelong learning can help you become a more rounded, better version of yourself, which can then permeate your leadership style.
Fostering crucial relationships
- Lifelong learning endeavors may provide an arena in which to polish your communication and affective skills.
- Some more formal avenues, such as continuing education, may prove to be a fast-track to expanding your network of professional contacts.
- Pursuing personal growth though lifelong learning can enhance both your professional and personal relationships.
Setting yourself apart from the competition
- If a new job will get you on the next rung of the leadership development ladder, any expertise gained through the application of lessons learnt through lifelong learning may increase your employability and/or facilitate a switch to a new industry.
- Becoming an expert-generalist by studying across several different fields can provide an information and innovation advantage.
- With few people willing to significantly invest in lifelong learning, if you choose to do so, you may have the upper hand.
Lifelong learning and leadership development: more than buzzwords
It has become apparent that lifelong learning should be more than a buzzword in corporate and academic spheres. If you are committed to developing your leadership skills or making sure you stay on top of your game in the C-suite, take a proactive and deliberate approach to your leadership development goals and methodologies. A personal leadership development plan can help you do just that.
The World Economic Forum highlights these six essential aspects to bear in mind:
- Identifying valuable knowledge at the right time
- Learning and mastering that knowledge quickly
- Communicating the value of your skills to others
- Converting knowledge into money and results
- Learning how to financially invest in learning to get the highest return
- Mastering the skill of learning how to learn
Drafting your personal leadership development plan
To ensure your lifelong learning activities are lean, efficient and impactful in terms of your leadership development, you will need to ask and answer the following questions:
- What do I want to achieve?
Starting with a thorough self-assessment, determine what characteristics are required to be an effective leader both in your target industry and in general. Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses to identify areas for improvement. Consider what kinds of responsibilities you wish to take on in the future and what tasks they will entail, as well as any topical fields you need to study or explore. - How can I achieve it?
For each of the skills you need to master and for any experience gaps you need to close, reflect on what steps you need to take. Do you need formal input? Would it be helpful to learn from a mentor? Can you read your way through this problem? What challenges can you seek out to strategically push yourself? This point also includes recognizing any activities you need purposely not to pursue. What do you need to delegate? What do you need to unlearn?
- When do I need to achieve it by?
Some knowledge and skills may be tied to current developments, technologies and/or demand, increasing the urgency of acquisition. Others may be of longer-lasting relevance or of an evolving nature, requiring regular top-ups. Define your timeline and prioritize your efforts, being brutally realistic about how much time you have and what you can and cannot achieve, without curtailing your ambition. Time is your most precious resource. Use it wisely.
- What am I willing to invest?
Time may not be the only resource in question. Weigh up how much you are willing to spend in pursuit of your goals. This is not a case of throwing money at a problem. Your lifelong learner mindset will very much be underpinning the work. Think about how you will quantify your return on investment, and what that means for initial and ongoing outlays. If cash is tight, carefully weigh any debt against the predictability of an increase in income and the duration of repayments.
- How will I know whether I have met my goals?
Where and how do you expect success to manifest? How will you ensure you apply what you have learnt in your professional life? Identify and track any applicable metrics. Reassess at regular intervals, focusing both on what is going well and what might be stalling. Seek feedback from those around you, truly listen, absorb what they are saying and consciously decide whether this should tie back into what you want to achieve. If so, make any necessary amendments to your personal leadership development plan.
Is being a lifelong learner synonymous with going back to school?
The short answer is: Yes, no – or both. There are many types of learning. Rapidly evolving technology is impacting not only work but also learning environments. Education is no longer synonymous with academic institutions. With a vast array of resources available online, it is now quickly “unbundling and democratizing”. And in case you were worrying about forgoing the instant allure of a high-brow university name on your CV, note that some high-profile employers, including Deloitte and PwC, are consciously choosing no longer to be led by alma mater reputations or UCAS points. Driven self-starters to the fore!
What type of learning is right for you? That will depend on the criteria you need to fulfil in order to meet your leadership development goals. How formal does your learning need to be? Will leveraging your lessons learnt require a specific certification or diploma? To what extent will you need to customize your learning? How closely will you need to track your progress? Does the outcome need to be measurable? What is your cost point? What is your time scale? Some might argue that a blend of different types of lifelong learning is the most promising. Here are some options, listed from high to low formality:
Different types of lifelong learning
- Degree, diploma and certification programs, MBAs
widely recognized, highly structured qualifications - College/university courses or modules
scheduled and monitored classes with a set cohort of learners - Apprenticeships and internships
practical vocational training - In-house professional development
role- and/or company-specific training - Customized business school programs
specific to relevant challenges - One-to-one coaching
provided by consultancies - Specialist conferences
as a speaker or member of the audience - Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
flexible and affordable self-directed learning - Remote personalized learning platforms
a low-cost alternative for functional and technical knowledge - Targeted reading
industry-specific or general - YouTube, Lynda.com, TED Talks, podcasts, etc.
sequenced workshops or one-off targeted input - Educational trips, visits, excursions
museums, culturally or linguistically enriching stays abroad, etc.
In selecting your preferred course of action, you need not go against the grain: Acknowledge what kind of learner you are and tailor your efforts accordingly. Are your strengths interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, physical/kinesthetic or visual/spatial? Find out and take it from there!
Cultivate your curiosity, seek out challenges and refuse to settle. All while keeping an eye on efficiency and optimizing effectiveness. Who could put it better than Mahatma Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”