I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t value learning. Almost all of the business owners that I work with invest in the training and development of their team.
They know the value it provides. That it stimulates their staff. That it opens their minds. That it teaches them new skills. That it delivers a return on investment.
Yet, knowing all of this, it surprises that these same business owners rarely invest in training and development for themselves.
After spending five gruelling years completing my law degree, I never wanted to study again. But three years on I found myself feeling unfulfilled… It is only now that when I look back and reflect on that time I understand why – I had stopped learning. I had told myself that I was done with study.
I had no new information coming into my conscience to challenge what I already knew and as a result I had stopped growing.
I realised that if I didn’t make a change, nothing would change, so I enrolled in my MBA – which in hindsight was the catalyst for transforming my life. It reignited the spark inside me.
Taking in new information, digesting new concepts and exploring new ideas opened my mind and gave me new perspective all at once.
I continued to practice law after I completed my MBA. But it didn’t take long for the boredom to set back in. That is when I realised I needed a career that would allow me to continue growing and learning, to constantly be exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking – which is what led me to create Maestro.
Now I learn something new every single day – from my clients, from the articles I read and from undertaking regular training courses.
Interestingly, I find that many business owners invest in training courses for their staff, but rarely for themselves. Perhaps it is because they feel they should be the ‘expert’ on that, or maybe they think they already ‘know’ about that. But, if there is one thing I’ve learned it is that you will never know all there is to know about something. That by investing in training, even in an area that you are well versed, you will walk away with a new idea or a new concept. And more importantly, you will walk away with a renewed sense of purpose and passion.
As John F Kennedy famously said ‘leadership and learning are indispensable to each other’.
Leaders need to invest in their own training and development. To be better leaders and to be better humans.