“Change before you have to.” — Jack Welch

How are you focused on changing and growing as a Leader over the next six months?
Top Five reasons to NOT be a Learning Leader in the coming months (pick yours):
__ “I have no time to focus on this.”
__ “Nothing comes to mind that I really need to learn.”
__ “I want to grow, but I don’t like to read business books and don’t know of any other resources.”
__ “This is great to think about the first week in January, but the demands of my job will overwhelm me by next week.”
__ “I don’t really need to learn anything new; instead, I need to be teaching my direct reports how to improve as leaders.”
In adult development, there is a concept know as “the doom loop.” The repeating doom loop represents the common sense notion, attributed to Albert Einstein, that:

“The height of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

The antidote to the doom loop is this. Instead of repeating your leadership response to the daily challenges you face – responses that, by the way, are comfortable, familiar and safe based on past experience – you intentionally step out of the doom loop and ask, “is there a different way for me to respond?”
This is learning. Being self-aware. Creating a plan. Acting intentionally. Being accountable.
Max DePree, former chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, and author of Leadership is an Art, says this – “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” Um, yes.
Will you be leading the same way in six months as you are this first week in January?
Leaders tell me repeatedly –

“I have no time to . . . .”

Time and motivation go hand in hand. With adequate motivation, usually boosted by emotion, you will make the time.
For your company to learn and grow, you, as it’s Leader, must learn and grow.
Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller, co-authors of The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do identified this as one of the five key practices of the best leaders –

“The best leaders are always concerned with how to get better. This fixation is NOT confined to helping others get better. Great leaders want to improve themselves as well. The very best see this not as a luxury but a way to stay competitive in a changing world. . . . Bottom line: The best leaders are learners.”

Start here: “My leadership development focus for the next six months is ________________________.”
I’d be interested to hear how you fill in the blank. Also, I have a simple, self-guided outline called “My Personal Action Plan” which I use with Leaders each day. If you would like to receive a complementary copy, just e-mail me.