From 2020 Vision leader’s blog

 

This classic TED video with Sir Ken Robinson on the subject of “How schools kill creativity” is still as good and relevant and important as it was 8, 5 years ago when he made the actual talk. If you haven’t watched it yet, please do – it’s worth every minute of your time.

One of the key point that he makes, that is also relevant to being a leader in 2020 and beyond, is that we don’t know what the world will look like in a few years, so we need to teach children how to think for themselves not just memorise data that may become incorrect over time anyway.

What this tells us is that the speed of change along with the fact that we just don’t know everything anyway, requires us to keep a very open, curious mind. Every single day offers opportunities for learning, for challenging the status quo. Leaders need to keep learning and encouraging others to do the same. Many leaders are however challenged by this as they feel they are so busy anyway, that making time for learning is hard. Having said that, many leaders are also starting to realise that learning happens every day, naturally, when they stay open to receiving learning in daily situations and interactions.
Leadership is about learning, as it’s hard to lead if you don’t stay ahead, right?

So leadership is about learning – learning about

  • Self – what motivates me, how do I come across to others, what stresses me etc
  • Others – what makes them tick, what do they believe in, what worries them etc
  • The business – what’s our vision, what do we do well, what could we do better etc
  • Stakeholders – what do they need, what do we need from them, how can they support etc
  • Competitors – what are they doing, what can we learn from them, how can we stay a step ahead of them etc
  • Society and politics – what is changing in rules and regulation, what challenges faces the country/industry/society as a whole – and how does that affect us? etc

This is by no means a complete list. There is so much learning.

What do you think is the most important thing for leaders to learn?

Or what is most important for you specifically to learn right now?

Please share and get the discussion going