Edge: Successful Leaders Never Stop Learning

This Management Connection CE article appeared in the 2024 July/August issue of Nutrition & Foodservice Edge magazine. To view a PDF of this article click HERE.

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Successful Leaders Never Stop Learning

By: Michael Kopec, CDM, CFPP

LEADERS SHOULD NEVER BE CONTENT with where they are right now. They should want to grow and possess an intrinsic desire to get better. Leaders who strive to improve themselves are always learning and enhancing their abilities.

Never stop learning and advancing your knowledge! Leadership is a constant process of improvement. And since change is constant, managers are required to stay up to date on the latest industry innovations. Think outside the box and keep an open mind. You are setting yourself up for success if you commit to a growth mindset.

HAPPY LEADERS ARE ALWAYS GROWING

Show me a leader who says they’re done learning, and I’ll show you a leader who’s done growing. Exemplary leaders are constantly curious. They want to learn. They are inspired by knowledge. They never stop pursuing education. And that includes learning about the people in their organization. They’re naturally curious to know what makes people tick and how people work together. They’re always interested in what might make them a better leader. They have humility when they approach new subjects, because they want to learn from different people and varying viewpoints. They desire to acquire new ideas. They’re always looking to expand their mind, and exploring ways to do something better. They’re also keen on discovering how they can be of greater service to their teams, their customers, and the world.

REMOVING THE LID

One of the characteristics of great leaders is that they make the commitment to becoming lifelong learners. Because change is constant, but growth is optional, we get the choice to grow, adapt, and evolve, or to stay stuck where we are (“Leaders Never Stop Learning,” 0:03-0:19). “The Law of the Lid” is the first rule in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell. The law states that “a person’s leadership ability is like the lid on their potential, and the lower their ability to lead, the lower their potential.” This means that our team is only as good as its leader, and our team will never be able to grow if we as leaders don’t do anything to further our own personal development.

When you’re a leader in an organization, you’re ultimately the “lid” on everyone in that organization. If you stop learning and growing, you’re essentially preventing anybody from going any further than you. And if you don’t keep developing and pushing yourself, you’re going to hold everybody else back. Your team members will eventually catch up to you and in time will want to leave.

GROW LIKE A TREE

We’ve all had an exercise or fitness routine at some point in our lives. What happens when you stop working out? Do you stay fit? No, you fall off the cliff…and you probably gain some unwanted weight back. Leadership is the same! By failing to follow your routine you’ll never arrive at great leadership, and believe it or not, there’s a valuable gift in this. The gift is the journey. Leaders must ask themselves daily, “how can I get better, how can I get better for myself, for my family, for my community?” (“Leaders Never Stop Learning,” 0:52-1:27). Think of leadership as a tree. A tree routinely renews itself. It drops needles or leaves but continues to grow new ones. Trees also continually reach new heights. They don’t just decide to stop growing one day and be done. Again, leadership is the same. The more that we work on ourselves, making it a routine, the better and more confident a leader we become.

If you do currently have a fitness routine, don’t quit. Physical activity can improve your brain health, and you’re going to need that to grow and continue absorbing all the wonderful information that this world has to offer about leadership.

A SPIRIT OF OPENNESS

You must maintain a spirit of openness when you’re continually learning and challenging yourself. It’s easy to become complacent, even a little bit bored, and rest on your laurels. As a leader, at any stage of your career, your apprenticeship phase never really ends. It’s important to remember that no matter how much success in life you have, or how much money you make, how much attention you get, or how much power you have, you must always keep learning. The world is continually changing.  If you’re not adapting and not keeping up with it, you’re going to fall behind.

A lot of people rise to the level of their success through one particular trait that they have. Maybe they’re aggressive, they’re charismatic, or they’re hard workers. Whatever it is, they have one quality that fits the current time period, and they make it to the top. But then, they cannot adapt. They only have that one thing, that one power in life, and it’s the only thing that they’ve known. Now, when they get to the top, and circumstances change, things are different in the world socially, economically, and culturally…they can’t change, they keep doing the same thing and it ends up being their downfall.

The idea is that an exemplary leader is a person who can continually adapt and modify their game. That means you must maintain a spirit of openness, where you repeatedly learn, grow, and develop. Become multi-dimensional and continue challenging yourself to become the best leader you can be.

LEADERS KEEP THEIR BRAINS SHARP

An important factor in growing and strengthening your leadership qualities is to read, take courses, and attend conferences or seminars. I’m a firm believer that all leaders should be readers. Reading books has been a game-changer for me when it comes to making smarter leadership decisions. The wealth of knowledge found in leadership books has provided valuable insights, strategies, and perspectives that have helped me build a solid leadership foundation. Many of us are already crazy busy with work and our personal lives, but we should never stop reading leadership books and magazines, attending conferences, getting into blogs and discussion forums, and keeping abreast of what is going on. You may not retain everything you read in leadership books or come away with a full working knowledge of what was discussed in a class or seminar, but you’ll still take away something that will make you better.

Taking a deep dive into ourselves and identifying what leadership qualities we might be missing is essential to becoming a better leader. When you know what qualities you are missing, then you can put your focus on developing and learning them, says Brian Tracy, self-development author. Leadership can be learned!

Remember, most great leaders became great because they identified the leadership qualities that they were missing and then intentionally set out to acquire them, says Tracy.

CONCLUSION

Successful leaders understand that to lead others better, they must learn to lead themselves better. This learning can happen through various avenues such as reading books, blogs, attending events, courses, and training programs. Having all these skills, tools, and practices available gives us endless opportunities. Once you learn something, don’t stop! I know it’s tempting because I’ve been there and have gotten complacent. Resist the temptation to stop once you get to a certain point. Every time I consider stopping, I remind myself that life is a never-ending learning experience. Thinking about it this way, you will further develop a growth mindset. As you grow, people around you will grow as well.

About the Author

Michael Kopec, CDM, CFPP

Michael Kopec is the Food Service Specialist at the Waukesha County Mental Health Center in Waukesha, Wisc., and has been a CDM, CFPP since 2001.  Kopec holds a B.S. in Business Management & Leadership and an M.A. in Leadership & Innovation from Wisconsin Lutheran College. He also serves as an advisory board member for the dietetic technician/dietary manager program at Milwaukee Area Technical College.