Leaders Skills and competences

To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning

In his book, The New Rules, John P. Kotter, Professor at the Harvard
Business School author and an internationally recognized authority on
leadership and change, shares the results of a twenty year study of
115 Harvard Business School graduates (the Class of 1974). The
purpose of his work was to study how the paths to a successful career
had changed over the past two decades and why. The results of his
effort, published in 1995, indicated a shift in career paths “from
large bureaucratic companies to smaller more entrepreneurial ones.”

Key in his findings was the focus that life-long learning has in the
success in rapidly changing environments: “Firms and individuals
rarely succeed when they are static and try to live off the past.”
More specifically, his study conclusions indicated that the most
successful members of the class had the capacity to “turn terrible
events – even their personal and family troubles – into growth
experiences” through reflecting and learning from them. He went
further and asked the question: why doesn’t everyone act that way?
His conclusion was that there was one factor that stood out – real
ambition.

”Low standards, a weak drive, and a lack of self-confidence in
competitive situations undermine lifelong learning. Without ambition,
the pain of growth can simply look too big. Absent real drive, the
budding entrepreneur never gets out of the corporate womb, the young
consultant does not put up with the rejection…, the individual with
leadership potential never takes the risk of trying to lead, and the
junior deal maker never goes for the big deal where (win or lose) so
much can be learned. Without real ambition, painful episodes from
which one can learn so much are avoided both on and off the job. And
with avoidance comes stagnation.”

It is the great leaders’ ambition and passion for life that sparks
them to continuously stretch themselves to grow – to find within
themselves every gift that lies hidden. It is the continuous
introspective search (“Know thyself”) that fuels their growth. It is
their seeking out of new experiences that challenge ideas and
assumptions that enables them to see the fuller beauty of life, people
and events.