The joy of learning

To be a great leader, its important to know how to follow, and to know how to follow we need to be open to learning, and to be open to learning we need to regularly put ourselves in situations of "not knowing".  Follower-ship doesn't generally get quite as much press or air time as "leadership" (a mere 450,000 hits on google compared to 501,000,000 on leadership) and yet I have come to realise that without this essential quality, leadership lacks the multi dimensional quality that it needs to be genuinely effective.

So what does it mean to be open to learning?  I recently met a great  African leader from a project in Madagascar.  He runs a leadership programme which incorporates life skills and entrepreneurial business skills encouraging micro enterprise in some of the poorest areas.  What struck me about this man was his incredible desire and passion to learn all that he could about leadership- his comment to me was that he wanted to "drink from my water bottle" as he felt that I had skills, knowledge and experiences that he could learn from.  I felt genuinely humbled by the encounter and will be seeing him this week to share my water bottle with him!

When was the last time you asked to "drink from the water bottle of some-one else?

When was the last time you willingly put yourself in a situation of "not knowing"?

I have recently completed an introduction to water colours paining course for beginners.  What united me and my eight fellow learners was a common vulnerability even fear that sometimes comes with "not knowing" how to do something.  The teacher was a wonderful artist from Lancashire who said that she regularly went on painting weekends to learn new skills- this ability to follow the lead of another and to embrace the vulnerability of not knowing, enabled her to communicate with genuine empathy with her learners; it quite literally enhanced her leadership.

By embracing my own state of "not knowing" and pressing through the vulnerability, I discovered a new joy of learning and with it a deeper awareness of what it means to lead others.

The joy of learning is at the heart of great follower-ship and therefore the heart of great leadership also.  So however your own leadership is best expressed, my encouragement is to find someone with a fuller water bottle than yourself and ask them for a drink, you will receive so much more than a satisfied thirst.