My Mad Obsession For Learning

As you are aware if you have been reading my posts this week, I am reading Out of the Silent Planet this week at The Kilns. This morning will be by last morning until my next visit. As I reflected, with the smell of my new morning favorite of crumpets with jam and clotted cream (applied in that order I might add – because it is a ‘thing’ here) this morning, I realized that what C. S. Lewis said in Out of the Silent Planet is so true: “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.” My eagerness to gain deeper learning of C. S. Lewis and study his work through the lens of leadership has become somewhat of a mad obsession. But that mad obsession has led me on this wonderful odyssey. I am headed to Oxford today to spend time at the Bodlein Library for further study. Additionally, I began courses at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford this week in Professional Services Firms leadership. More to come on where all this research, studying, and learning will take me; or, better yet, allow me to take others!

Last week I had the opportunity to learn from Gary Bolles as part of The Kevin Eikenberry Group‘s Virtual LeaderCon. As a student of Peter Drucker, who said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” I perked up when Gary said, “Mindset eats skill set for lunch.” Bolles had outlined the three rules of our work as we know it now:

Mindset
Skill set
Tool set

Bolles was encouraging us to start with the growth mindset and encourage everyone we serve to create personal development plans and consider themselves lifelong learners. As you may know, I am not a fan of the term ‘lifelong learner’ as we are learning every day whether we want to or not – it is about what we are doing with that learning that matters. In my case, I have gained a mad obsession for learning. That mindset for learning will invariably cause gains in ‘skill set’ and ‘tool set’. This really flips the old school of thought that we must start with all the technical skills. One of the very profound things that Bolles said was, “The future of work will be judged by how we have helped others lead.” He went on to say that, “…leaders will be judged by how many problems never reached their desk.” So, for this continual learning to happen we, as leaders, must take responsibility for helping others. And, since I believe everyone is a leader; this means we must all be responsible for helping others and growing our own knowledge.

Byron's Babbles