How strong is your practice game?

Recently I’ve been reflecting on the idea of “continuous learners.” Language of this sort can be found in a lot of leadership development models, and for good reason: learning is essential to our growth and development.

I’m all in on learning, but what if what feels like learning is actually consuming.

In many cases, I think it is. For me, learning means going beyond the acquisition of new knowledge. Learning requires skillful implementation, followed by regular reflection and evaluation, and then course adjustments based on lessons learned. Learning requires repeating that cycle over and over. It requires deliberate, ongoing practice.

Ultimately, the measure of whether we learned something shouldn’t be if we know it, but if we can do something meaningful with it. If the full learning cycle doesn’t occur, I’d call that consuming knowledge. To be clear, that isn’t a bad thing, but there is a difference.

If you, like me, consider yourself a “continuous learner,” I have a question for you: how is deliberate, ongoing practice incorporated into your work?

If it’s not:

• How might it be?
• What’s held you back?
• What is one step you could commit to taking today to make being a continuous learner a reality?

Are you a leader or coach who is looking for a regular opportunity to grow and practice skills? Our Transformational Conversations Accelerators are designed with the explicit intention of supporting deliberate practice of Transformational Coaching. It might be exactly what you need.

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