Welcome to the final column of a three part leadership series on building intellectual capital. In previous columns we focused on the first two questions of any strategic planning process: where are we today, and where do we want to be tomorrow? The final strategic planning questions is how do I get there, and that is the focus of this final article.
How do I get there?
An important building block to acquiring both intellectual and social capital, the subject of future columns, is understanding, respecting and leveraging yourself. You will make your growth strategy much easier if you understand your strengths and how you learn best.
One recommendation is to assess your learning style. It is not our aim to get in an academic discussion of which learning style methodology is the best. Howard Gardner is one of several academics that has categorized different learning styles, and on-line self assessment quizzes can be easily found on the internet. Through them you can determine if, for example, you are a visual learner or an audio one. Find out the way that you learn best, and adapt your learning strategies to it.
Adapt your learning time as well. If you experience a significant peak in your mental efficiency during the day, schedule your ‘capital building’ for that time as well. I am, for example, a morning person. Trying to learn at night is simply harder work for me. Be aware of what it takes to be ‘on your game’ when you learn. Create the optimal situation for success. Don’t fight what you are – leverage it.
Base Leadership Skills
While every profession is different, there are foundational skills to develop that cut across them all. In a recent study based on interviews with international business leaders from several countries, for example, the following were considered to be the most important global leadership competencies:
- Communication skills
- Motivation to learn
- Flexibility
- Open-mindedness
- Respect for others
- Sensitivity
It is very easy to roll through this list and assume you don’t need improvement in any of them. But no matter where you are on the spectrum, you can always improve. And do you honestly know where you are on the spectrum? Do you have someone that acts as an objective advisor to you? Getting that honest advice can help you chart your path forward effectively.
Supervisors, peers and mentors can be sources to help you plan your changes. We work with clients to create strategic advisory boards and peer advisory boards to establish open feedback and mentoring. Do you have such honest mentoring? Can you establish it?
How can you foster these attributes of open-mindedness, sensitivity and respect for others? By being more globally aware. Learn with a global perspective. Travel if at all possible. Be aware of what is going on in the world and how it impacts you and your organization and career. Actively pursue information and ideas that are outside of your country.
A quick and easy tip to expand your thinking is via the books and magazines you select. You can have your favorite magazine delivered in another language. You can sign up for e-newsletters from other countries. You can also set up a keyword-based email news feed on international topics from Google Alerts for free. Because of our work with clients on building business in China, for example, we regularly collect and send research to our clients that they would find of interest. This builds their knowledge and yours. Whenever anyone is considering entering a new market, they are extremely interested in immersing themselves in it. Is there a topic of intense interest in your company you should aggressively target to learn?
These methods can also extend to any topic, not just global perspectives, and I encourage that you use it to learn outside your field. Pick up magazines on topics outside your normal range of interests. It’ll help you understand others, pick up on trends, connect dots and increase your value.
A great tie-together of communications skills and motivation to learn is to push yourself to become a speaker and author. Are you a member of Toastmasters? This is a nonprofit group of dedicate peers helping each other’s communication skills. They have a structure of taking the newest of public speakers and building presentation skills in a non-threatening way. There are thousands of chapters you can join.
Giving presentations can be a way to force yourself to learn. When I was a Systems Engineer with IBM, I was asked to give a technical talk on a new architecture I was not yet familiar with. I knew, however, that it was an area of expertise I needed to develop, so I said yes. Since the presentation was to be in front of 300 of my very technical peers, I learned it well and fast. It forced me to learn quickly and thoroughly, since the Q and A sessions can be brutal!
The columns that follow will target specific areas of knowledge leaders should consider acquiring and how to do it. If you have specific thoughts regarding what you think that ought to be, please contact me at mcook@ageos1.com and we’ll compare notes!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3