Make Time To Reflect

4 Lifelong learning not only assures that you stay relevant, it also provides fuel to excel.

Follow these tips to become a dynamic learner:

Learn from mistakes. It’s easy to look at someone else’s failures and say: OK, I won’t do that, and I’ll do this instead. But it’s hard for many to admit their own shortcomings. Reverse that instinct to learn from mistakes more completely, says author Bradley Staats, who wrote “Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive.”

“It’s a huge challenge,” Staats told. Business leaders must normalize failure to encourage others to learn from mistakes, he says. “Leaders have a responsibility to share when something goes wrong.”

That’s not to say that immoral or illegal acts can be simply chalked up to mistakes that can be repeated over and over.

“I don’t mean to say you can do whatever you want,” Staats said. “But you have to acknowledge that when you’re doing complex, novel things, they are not going to go well all the time. When we admit that to ourselves, we are open to trying new things and learning.”

At Pixar, Staats wrote, cofounder Ed Catmull used to say: “Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. . . . Failure is painful, and our feelings about the pain tend to screw up our understanding of its worth.”

Instead ask why you might be responsible for the error. Even if you just ask yourself and not out loud.

“Commit beforehand by writing down what you think is going to happen,” Staats said. “Afterward go back and look at it. This holds you accountable.”

Ask questions. Don’t rush to get answers. You risk missing a larger or more important point.

“Someone throws something out there, and we need to immediately know the answer,” Staats said. “Some organizations judge you by the speed with which you reply to emails. But when you’re doing something new, you need to dig in, look for what don’t we know. (This process) fills in the blanks in knowledge and uncovers voids we didn’t see before.”

Asking questions also makes it easier for others to help you. Staats lists many examples of amazing innovations that resulted from a simple question. Among them: Edwin Land’s daughter asked him why she couldn’t see a vacation picture right away. So he invented instant photography at his company, Polaroid.

The key as a leader is to ask questions and listen. “In too many organizations when we get an answer, especially from senior management, we leap to execution,” Staats said. “As the saying goes: When a leader says I think, the thinking stops.”

Recharge and reflect. In many industries, the work is never ending. And Americans are notorious for taking very few vacation days. But many studies show that taking time to recharge frees up the brain to see new perspectives.

“Whether it’s mediation, mindful exercises, or sitting with a journal, it’s such a small action that has such a big effect,” Staats said. “When we move and when we stop and think, we activate different parts of the brain. Both are important.”

Some top CEOs make it a priority to take time off. Virgin Group’s Richard Branson recently told CNBC that vacations are not just about resting. Taking a break from the work routine and meeting new people can inspire you in unexpected ways, he said. Branson said he leaves his smartphone at home or in the hotel room as much as he can. By eliminating the daily stress of work life, he said he’s more likely to get new insights into old problems and flashes of inspiration.

Taking time to reflect rather than charging ahead with action is also crucial to learning the entire scope of what you’re doing. Reflection often leads to better decisions.

Reflective leaders include Abraham Lincoln, who once said: Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax. And Warren Buffett has admitted he isn’t as busy as some other legendary workaholic CEOs who work 80-hour weeks. He has stated that he’s spent 80% of his career reading and thinking.

Specialize and generalize. Be the expert at something. But understand that no one person has all the answers. As you work across an industry, you hone your skills and acquire new ones. You also get to know other specialists. Understanding the various components of expertise helps you make the necessary connections to thrive.

“Innovation is not all brand-new ideas; it’s existing ideas combined in different ways,” Staats said.

You are more likely to reassemble things in innovative ways if you are both a specialist in one area and a generalist in others.

“The generalist alone doesn’t bring enough detailed knowledge to the table. And the specialist brings little skill to bring ideas together,” Staats aid.

Adelia Cellini Linecker

Telegram me: Bursa Snipers Weekly