Tuesday at 2:00pm with Russ

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

Greetings to you!

Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.

Russ...

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"Learn continually - there's always 'one more thing' to learn!" Steve Jobs

What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

This idea of GROWTH is interesting to me. We're going to spend a few weeks talking about it, but personally I'm being challenged to not simply "be content" with where I'm at today. I want to always be growing and developing. What about you? To see past themes, visit my blog HERE.

Steve Jobs challenges us in the quote above to "learn continually", and while this is good and makes sense, to hear it from someone like Jobs who was so focused on innovation, we need to be reminded from time to time.

While Jobs may not have been the best leader at all times, he pushed his people to continually be learning, to be asking questions, to be approaching things from different perspectives, and to never settle for just "good". He was on a mission to create products that changed peoples lives, and he did this, over and over again.

We also saw Jobs "learn" along the way. He learned about his leadership, he learned about what worked and what didn't work, and he learned to trust people to help them pursue a compelling vision for his company.

I've read a number of Steve Jobs biographies over the years, and he did a great job of asking questions along the way, of surrounding himself with people who were smarter than him, and as technology changed, he changed.

I remember when I graduated from High School, I thought to myself, "I don't have to go to school anymore." It was now my choice to learn in a formal classroom or to be "done". I went to college...

I remember thinking at college graduation, "I don't have to go to school anymore. I'm done". Then I went to grad school...

I remember thinking when I finished my Masters, "I'm done learning. I have the degree". Then I kept learning through books, seminars, certifications, and all kinds of things....

Learning is a posture. It's not always tied to formal education, and I'm so thankful I went on to study and learn through a variety of methods and opportunities.

I am a life-long learner because it makes me a better leader and a better person.

How do you approach life-long learning?

DEEPER STILL:

Jobs also learned from some classic failures which have been documented in books, leadership seminars and movies.

I don't know if he leveraged every lesson, but he displayed one of the greatest comebacks in business leadership when he returned to Apple after having been fired, and ushered in a new year of growth, impact and global awareness.

I have also learned from some great failures in my past, and instead of allowing myself to wallow in those failures, I was able to pivot most of times to lessons learned, and these lessons have come back to fuel my continued growth as a leader for years.

  • I learned about ALIGNMENT in my vision when I got really distracted and was spending time doing things that had nothing to do with the vision of our organization.

  • I learned about DECISION MAKING when I was reluctant to make some tough decisions and allowed that reluctancy to blow up into major issues.

  • I learned about PATIENCE after I had moved to fast and ran over some people that I cared about.

  • I learned about INTENTIONALITY when I ignored some clear warning signs around concerns about my priorities.

Each of these lessons brought some pain, but they also led to change.

I wish I could say "I'm done learning", but I'm not. I still make mistakes and I will hopefully continue to learn lessons that will make me a better leader and a better man.

Think back to one of the hardest life-lessons you received? What did you learn and why was it so difficult?

 

Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:

Source: www.leadermundial.org