Creating Your Own PersonalLearning Strategy

A Step-by-Step Approach

Excerpted from

Crucibles of Leadership:

How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader

By

Robert J.Thomas

Harvard Business PressBoston, Massachusetts

ISBN-13: 978-1-4221-4484-8

4478BC

Copyright 2008 Harvard Business School Publishing CorporationAll rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

This chapter was originally published as chapter 7 of Crucibles of Leadership:How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader,

copyright 2008 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for

permission should be directed to permissions@harvardbusiness.org, or mailed to Permissions,Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

You can purchase Harvard Business Press books at booksellers worldwide. You can order HarvardBusiness Press books and book chapters online at www.harvardbusiness.org/press,

or by calling 888-500-1016 or, outside the U.S. and Canada, 617-783-7410.

7

CREATING YOUR OWN

PERSONAL LEARNING

STRATEGY

A Step-by-Step Approach

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns

something that can be learned in no other way.

—Mark Twain

We have arrived now at the critical moment, the pointtoward which this book has been leading. It is time to de-

velop your own Personal Learning Strategy—to carry the cat by thetail, as Twain put it so vividly, and see what emerges from the ex-perience. Developing a Personal Learning Strategy means crafting asystematic approach to practice—and to practicing while you per-form—tailored to your talents and your aspirations. Your PLS willdo two things: it will aid you in the process of learning from experi-ence—especially, though not exclusively, crucible experiences—and it will enhance your ability to adapt to change as a leader.

Some, perhaps many, of the resources that you need to de-velop as a leader are available from sources within your reach—forexample, your employer. However, the responsibility for creatingand enacting a PLS falls squarely on your shoulders. No one butyou can know what you want to accomplish with your life. Noone but you can know the obstacles in your way (and who, in-cluding you, put them there). Ultimately, no one but you can getyou up at 4 a.m. to lace up your skates, hit the ice, and practice.

The logic behind a PLS is straightforward: leadership, like otherperforming arts, is distinguished by levels of accomplishment (i.e.,novice, adept, eminent) and by constituent ingredients that are es-sential for progressing between levels of accomplishment. Fouringredients are important to becoming adept—thorough grasp ofmethod, ambition, instruction, and feedback—and the fifth, yourPersonal Learning Strategy, holds the key to eminence.

On the basis of the exercises in the preceding two chaptersand the examples throughout this book, you should be in a goodposition to create version 1.0 of your Personal Learning Strategy.There are three parts:

• Part 1 builds from the discussion of aspirations, motiva-tion, and learning styles in chapter 5. The goal is to capturehere, in one place, the driving forces behind your effort to grow and learn as a leader. In effect, part 1 will be atouchstone to which you will refer frequently—perhapseven on a daily basis—to keep yourself on track.

• Part 2 encourages you to rate yourself along three leader-ship dimensions discussed in chapter 6: adaptive capacity,engaging others through shared meaning, and integrity.1

Included in part 2 are example activities and potentialcrucible experiences tailored to specific aspects of eachleadership dimension; consider them to be exercises forspecific muscle groups.

• Part 3 guides you in cementing a plan for improving yourleadership capabilities by creating intermediate goals tosupport their attainment.

2 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

You should include as inputs to your Personal Learning Strat-egy any and all results you can gather from leadership, learning,and personality assessments that your employer makes available(e.g., the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI], the FundamentalInterpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior [FIRO-B], or Kolb’sLearning Style Inventory, as well as results from 360-degree leader-ship assessments and annual performance reports). Take full ad-vantage of the opportunities for technical training and technicalpractice that your organization provides. If your organization’shuman resource group has detailed a set of leadership competen-cies, you should become intimately familiar with them and availyourself of the assessment centers they have likely created (insist-ing, as you do, on receiving detailed feedback on their results).

Use your Personal Learning Strategy to set priorities when itcomes to the training you invest in and the assignments you areoffered. Since your career will likely span multiple organizations,only you will have the truly long-term view.

So let’s begin. In the following sections of this chapter, youwill consider questions in the three broad areas I just outlined—and ultimately build your own Personal Learning Strategy. Webegin with aspirations, motivation, and learning style.

PART 1: ASPIRATIONS, MOTIVATION,

AND LEARNING STYLE

Leadership may be actively sought or reluctantly accepted, but itis a behavior deeply rooted in, even inspired by, personal values.

Why I Lead

“Why I lead” may be the most difficult place to start if you havenot thought long and hard about it. If you are writing longhandrather than typing on your computer, I encourage you to use pen-cil (this is, after all, version 1.0) to jot down in the space provideda few key words that sum up your personal anthem. If you get

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 3

stuck, that’s perfectly fine. Move on to the next step in part 1 andreturn later.

Why I lead

Why I lead:

If you have something to say, document it. Then, sit back fora moment so you can explore this more. Borrowing a familiar de-vice from Total Quality Management, pursue the “5 Whys” foreach item or statement that describes why you lead.2 That is, ifyou put down something like “I lead to make life richer and morerewarding for the people who work in my department,” then askyourself, Why do I do that? One answer might be, “Because I be-lieve that they deserve richer and more rewarding lives.” Again,why is that important? “Because I believe these people are capableof great things—more self-expression, more creativity, and morethings that they and our customers value—than they are likely toexperience if I don’t lead them.”

Only two whys, and already there’s much more grit, detail, andinsight to the response than when we began. Now we can say, “Ilead because I want to help people express themselves, realize theircreativity, and produce things that they and our customers value.”

Changing the question to “Why you?” leads to a deeper ex-ploration of what qualifies you to lead, and so on: “I feel a per-sonal obligation to take responsibility, to make things happen, to

4 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

create the conditions under which people can do and be things thatreally matter to them.” Fine, but again, why you (and not some-one else)? And so on.

Two important notes here: first, don’t obsess. This is just anexercise—a glimpse at something you will muse about (and prob-ably have mused about) for a long time. There’s no reason to believethat you will or must get the answer complete the first time through.Second, it’s a worthwhile exercise for you to evolve a shorthandversion of your personal vision to serve as a goal, as well as a talis-man, that reminds you of why you are on this journey to eminenceas a leader. Use it the same way a taxi driver uses a photograph ofhis children taped to the dashboard of his cab (and if you havechildren yourself, no doubt they are also why you lead).

Myself at Peak Performance

In chapter 5 I recommended a split screen visualization exercisethat began, as I do here, with your projecting ahead in time (to acertain date) images of yourself operating at peak performance.Now for this piece of your PLS, you get the opportunity to docu-ment, in as much detail as you can, the texture of that image. To aidyou in making it graspable, we encourage you to use the presenttense to describe what you see—not “I will” but “I am.” And don’tdescribe what you had to do or stop doing or give up in order toget there. Describe instead who you are as a result of some, as-yet-unexplored, intervening process.

Myself at peak performance

(future date: )

1. As a person:

(continued)

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 5

2. At work:

3. As a leader:

4. At home:

It is important to be as explicit as you can be when describingyourself at peak performance. Don’t stop when, for example, yousay that as a person, you are “athletic and trim.” Give it detail soyou can measure it: “I weigh 175 pounds and play tennis threetimes a week.” Ask yourself each time you describe an attribute,How would I know whether I’d achieved that?

Once you complete this segment of the PLS, review it and seewhether what you have written here extends, amends, or contra-dicts what you might have written earlier about “why I lead.”

My Current Reality

Now it is time to focus on the other half of your split screen: yourcurrent reality. By the very naming, current reality, you might feelinclined to be self-critical, dour, and disappointed. After all, onceyou have envisioned yourself at peak performance, it can’t helpbut be a letdown to look in the mirror. Recall, however, Bill Rus-

6 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

sell’s self-assessment: I have the pieces, but I don’t yet have thewhole. There are likely to be many things that you will want topreserve and add to, as well as things that you’ll want to grow ordiscard, in pursuit of your aspirations.

So, describe in as much detail as you can the facts of your cur-rent reality. Again, be explicit; unless you have a meaningful base-line, you’ll have trouble discerning when you’ve gained groundon your aspirations.

My current reality

(today’s date: )

1. As a person:

2. At work:

3. As a leader:

4. At home:

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 7

Managing Creative Tension

If you’ve taken the last two steps seriously, you are likely to befeeling a little tension. Perhaps more than a little. That’s actually apositive because most of us need both a push and a pull to get changestarted. Waiting for what Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKeeterm a “wake-up call” is both inefficient and risky.3 Discoveringyour most powerful and meaningful aspirations right after you’vehad a heart attack or some other near-death experience may notleave you able to do much about them.

So, use the creative tension between your current reality andyourself at peak performance to get “unstuck” and start to move.Begin with the supply side of the equation: what are the things youcould do—the high-impact moves—that could give you the energyyou need to overcome the inertial forces of your current reality?High-impact moves are actions you can take that will have a dis-proportionately positive effect on your development as a leader.

How can you know what those are? Interestingly, intuition isnot a bad place to start, because, to paraphrase Ed Schein, mostleaders know what they need to do and what they are doingwrong.4 They just need a reason to think it through and committo doing something about it.

Of course, intuition and self-reflection are generally not enough,and there’s real benefit to be had from external, even clinical, judg-ment. That’s why, in chapter 6, I provided assessments of threecore dimensions of outstanding leadership as a foundation to buildon. It’s also why I encourage you to take advantage of assess-ments and coaching that may be provided by your organization.Recall the vital role played by coaches, mentors, and counselorsin many of the crucible stories analyzed in chapters 2 and 3.

Finally, there are the obstacles that we encounter and oftenallow, consciously or not, to divert ourselves from accomplishingthings we value, or things that we at least say we value. Stop for amoment and consider what some of your favorite diversions, timewasters, and “suddenly important” chores are. For example, whenit came to writing, I used to find it impossible to start an article

8 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

unless I had twenty pencils sharpened to a needle point and ar-rayed in my favorite pencil holder. Diversions are different fromrituals; rituals are a valuable way to ingrain desired actions intoan automatic routine. Diversions are ruses: they appear to moveus forward but generally sidetrack us because they find partners,and together they create lengthy diversionary chains—for example,needing writing pads of paper of a specific color and style to goalong with the sharp pencils, a clean desk that requires a can offurniture polish, a trip to the sock drawer for a worn sock to useas a polishing rag, an excursion to the mall to replace several pairsof worn socks, and a side visit to look at ties that might match anewly purchased sport coat. Sound familiar? (I will have more tosay about the value of rituals and renewal in part 3).

Managing creative tension

1. How I manage the creative tension between the two visions:

2. High-impact moves I can take to accelerate progress:

3. Obstacles I routinely set for myself, and how I prevent

them:

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 9

Motivations

Motivation is obviously an important aspect of your PLS, but it islikely to be the one about which you have the least insight unlessyou have taken a motivational assessment and have the results towork with. As noted earlier, many organizations do use these assessments. If you can get access to one, be sure to insist on acomplete analysis of the results and their implications for yourpersonal and career development.

Motivations

1. What motivates me most? (e.g., power, achievement, or affiliation):

2. I know this is important to me because:

3. These are the implications for my career goals:

The results of a motivational assessment are only as useful asthey are believable to you and actionable by you. In the space pro-vided, see whether you can cite examples of critical choices you have

1 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY0

made in your career or, more generally, in your life that reflect theunderlying motivation. Test yourself and see whether you cannotdocument equally compelling evidence for the influence of othermotivations. Though it may be quite valid, the conclusion that youare motivated by the opportunity, say, to exercise power does notimply that you should abandon any activity or avocation that de-viates from that motivation. No one is a pure type, motivations canchange across different stages in adult development, and person-ality tests can be suborned by conscious or semiconscious gaming(e.g., “What would I like to think or have said about myself?”).The intent of any assessment is to help you deepen your self-understanding and to bring your aspirations into greater alignmentwith your more enduring traits.

Since career objectives will likely form a big part of your indi-vidual aspirations, it makes sense to give some thought to whatthe implications of your core motivations are for how you thinkabout a career. Ed Schein’s concept of “career anchors” may be auseful one to consider as you think through the implications ofunderlying personality traits and lifelong work pursuits.5 Accord-ing to Schein’s research, there are eight themes for which peoplewill have a prioritized preference. These themes are not necessarilypredictive of what careers people will end up in; however, peopleoften find themselves understanding better the dissatisfactionthey’re feeling with a current career when they review the resultsof their career anchors assessment.

Learning Style

There are two levels of learning to address here: how you learnunder conditions of stress and challenge—as might be the case ina crucible—and how you extend your ability to learn from expe-rience. Let’s consider each in turn.

As you will recall from the discussion of learning in cruciblesituations in chapter 2, research suggests that conditions of stressand challenge occasion dramatically different learning behaviors:often either we “snap back” to behaviors that are well ingrained

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 11

(conceivably even comforting) but that make it difficult to learn newthings in the moment, or we “lean forward” to behaviors charac-terized by an openness to learning. Begin this part of your PLS byreviewing the lifeline and the crucible stories you documented inchapter 5. What did you conclude about the conditions and thebehaviors associated with learning something important aboutleading or about yourself as a leader? Did you tend to lean for-ward or snap back?

If you tended to snap back or assumed a defensive posture (thatstill did not prevent you from learning), it might help to jot downwhat you can recall about the way you came to recognize that you’dlearned something important. For example, how long did it take,and what prompted you to recognize that something important hadhappened? Was a friend or adviser or coach involved? Did you no-tice something about an experience someone else had that led you toan “aha?” Did that insight come even more obliquely—for example,while watching a movie or reading a novel? The intent here is to ren-der explicit—and therefore repeatable—the conditions under whichyou gain insight into something complicated, even difficult.6 If youcan more easily recognize the conditions under which learning oc-curred—no matter how distant in time they may have been fromthe triggering events—then you increase the odds of learning again.

Learning style

1. How I learn best (according to experience):

2. Using the Kolb model, my preferred learning style is:

12 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

3. This means I am most likely to learn important things in these kinds

of situations:

4. My opposing and adjacent learning styles are:

Opposing:

Adjacent:

Extending your ability to learn from experience is the objec-tive of completing a learning styles assessment on the order of theKolb inventory. You can gain insight into your default learningstyle, and you can identify situations where it will be possible toexperiment with other approaches. The key, however, is to forceyourself out of your learning comfort zone: not just what youknow, but how you know.

PART 2: MY LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES

Before you begin to look more closely at enhancing your capabil-ities as a leader, think again about what you’re trying to accomplishhere. If your goal is to become the CEO of your company, there isa definable set of assignments, competencies, relationships, andoutcomes that will enhance your chances of achieving that goal.No guarantees, obviously, but a lot of hard work and a couple ofwell-placed internal coaches, and you are on your way.

But if your goal is to carry out your answer to “why I lead”and to fulfill the aspirations you’ve laid out earlier, then you need

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 13

a plan that is far more robust. Allow me to offer a personal illustration here. When my daughter took up piano lessons, I suddenly got interested in learning to play too. I envisioned my-self playing a Thelonious Monk tune that I especially loved. I sawpeople drifting into our living room while I played. They were ob-viously enjoying my playing, and I was absolutely perfect in myrendition. I stopped there. I knew my current reality: I couldn’tplay piano. I knew what I had to do: get lessons. But when Italked with my daughter’s piano teacher the first day he arrived, I boldly cut to the chase:

“I see myself playing this Monk tune and everyone is enthralled. So I don’t need all the handholding my daughter’s going to need; I just want to learn that song—as a starter.”

Smiling, he said, “I can teach you to play that song. Butthere’s a catch: you’ll only be able to play that one song.Nothing more.”

I thought about it for a minute. “Hmm . . . ,” I started to say. But he cut me off.

“On the other hand,” he said, “how would you like toplay any song? Any song you wanted to?”

I thought about it again. “Okay!” I exclaimed.

“Good,” he replied. “Then sit down next to your daughter.”

The outstanding leaders I’ve studied—men and women whohave proved able to lead for a lifetime—have opted, metaphoricallyspeaking, to sit down at the piano for the full range of lessons.Hence, I focus this part of the PLS on the three core capabilities:adaptive capacity, engaging others through shared meaning, andintegrity.

14 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

Adaptive Capacity

Review your responses to the adaptive capacity self-assessment,and complete the following segments of your PLS. Note that onthe next set of pages provided for each of the facets of the assess-ment, you’ll find both an example activity in which you could en-gage and a potential crucible experience that could enhance yourability in that area (see table 7-1). If your firm has identified orga-nizational assignments or roles that provide learning opportuni-ties paralleling any of those facets, by all means sample them aswell. (I’ll take up the issue of timing and pacing of activities inpart 3 of the PLS.)

Adaptive capacity

1. My score in the adaptive capacity self-assessment was _____

2. The facets of adaptive capacity where I scored myself most in need

of work were (lowest-ranking three) and activities that I can begin

in the next three months to enhance each:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

3. The facets of adaptive capacity where I scored myself in need of

work were (middle-ranking three or four) and activities that I can

begin in the next six months to enhance each:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

(continued)

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 15

4. The facets of adaptive capacity where I scored myself highest (top-

ranking three or four) and activities I can engage in to sustain them:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

Engaging Others Through Shared Meaning

Review your responses to the engaging others through sharedmeaning self-assessment, and complete the following segments ofyour PLS. Again, note that in table 7-2 we have provided for eachof the facets of the assessment both an example activity in whichyou could engage and a potential crucible experience that couldsubstantially enhance your ability in that area.

Engaging others through shared meaning

1. My score in the engaging others self-assessment was _____

2. The facets of engaging others where I scored myself most in need

of work were (lowest-ranking three) and activities that I can begin

in the next three months to enhance each:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

3. The facets of engaging others where I scored myself in need of

work were (middle-ranking three or four) and activities that I can

begin in the next six months to enhance each:

16 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 17

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

4. The facets of engaging others where I scored myself highest (top-

ranking three or four) and activities I can engage in to sustain them:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

5. My crucible story:

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y an

d tr

eat i

t as

if A

ssem

ble

a te

am o

f peo

ple

who

live

at t

he m

argi

ns o

f you

r it

wer

e a

wor

k p

roje

ct: s

cop

e it,

dev

elop

a b

udge

t for

or

gani

zatio

n, a

nd, w

ith th

em, d

evis

e a

visi

on o

f the

idea

l al

loca

ting

scar

ce re

sour

ces

to it

, and

gen

erat

e a

timet

able

p

lace

to w

ork

with

maj

or m

ilest

ones

8.B

ecom

e a

good

jud

ge

Volu

ntee

r to

ser

ve in

a fu

nd-r

aisi

ng c

apac

ity fo

r a

not-

for-

Volu

ntee

r to

ser

ve a

s a

revi

ew p

anel

mem

ber

for

a of

cha

ract

erp

rofit

org

aniz

atio

n si

nce

that

role

dem

and

s th

e ab

ility

to

phi

lant

hrop

ic o

rgan

izat

ion

dis

cern

who

will

ple

dge

and

who

will

mak

e go

od o

n a

ple

dge

9.P

erse

vere

thro

ugh

Teac

h a

child

how

to r

ide

a b

icyc

le, o

r he

lp a

str

oke

vict

im

Volu

ntee

r to

take

a le

ader

ship

role

in a

turn

arou

nd,

diffi

culti

esre

gain

his

or

her

spee

chor

gani

zatio

nal d

owns

izin

g, p

ostm

erge

r in

tegr

atio

n si

tuat

ion,

or la

rge-

scal

e te

chno

logi

cal c

hang

e

10.V

olun

teer

for

a d

ifficu

lt A

gree

to s

erve

on

a ci

tizen

-rev

iew

pan

el fo

r yo

ur lo

cal

Volu

ntee

r to

ser

ve o

n a

cros

s-fu

nctio

nal t

ask

forc

e in

you

r as

sign

men

tp

olic

e d

epar

tmen

tor

gani

zatio

n

TA

BL

E7-

2

Enh

anci

ng c

apac

ity

to e

ngag

e o

ther

s th

roug

h sh

ared

mea

ning

: exa

mp

le a

ctiv

itie

s an

d p

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

leex

per

ienc

es

Exa

mp

le a

ctiv

ity

to b

egin

wit

hP

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

le e

xper

ienc

e

1.E

ncou

rage

dis

sent

ing

Set

asi

de

time

in ro

utin

e m

eetin

gs fo

r p

eop

le to

act

ivel

y Id

entif

y a

top

ic th

at is

cau

sing

unp

rod

uctiv

e co

nflic

t in

your

op

inio

nsco

nsid

er d

isse

ntin

g vi

ews

on to

pic

s w

here

ther

e m

ay b

e w

ork

grou

p, a

nd o

rgan

ize

a m

eetin

g th

at le

ads

to h

ones

t hi

dd

en d

isag

reem

ent

dia

logu

e an

d a

ctio

n; ta

ke re

spon

sib

ility

for

man

agin

g co

nflic

t, id

entif

ying

act

ions

that

can

be

take

n to

miti

gate

the

pro

ble

m, a

nd c

omm

it yo

urse

lf p

ublic

ly to

see

ing

thos

e ac

-tio

ns th

roug

h to

com

ple

tion

and

revi

ew

2.D

evel

op re

latio

nshi

ps

with

A

tten

d a

soc

ial g

athe

ring

whe

re y

ou m

ake

it yo

ur p

rivat

e Jo

in a

gro

up th

at is

just

sta

rtin

g ou

t, a

nd h

elp

it re

fine

its

peo

ple

in o

ther

line

s of

b

ut d

edic

ated

pur

pos

e to

lear

n so

met

hing

ab

out e

ach

visi

on, m

issi

on, a

nd o

bje

ctiv

es .

. . a

nd th

en s

tay

with

that

b

usin

ess

and

wal

ks o

f life

per

son

you

mee

t tha

t mak

es th

em s

pec

ial a

nd in

tere

stin

g gr

oup

long

eno

ugh

to s

ee th

e co

nseq

uenc

es o

f you

r w

ork;

e.g.

, a n

eigh

bor

hood

crim

e w

atch

, an

afte

r-sc

hool

tuto

ring

pro

gram

, or

a lo

cal d

isas

ter-

relie

f gro

up

3.S

end

a c

lear

mes

sage

, S

yste

mat

ical

ly a

sses

s w

heth

er th

e p

eop

le w

ho re

por

t R

un fo

r el

ectiv

e of

fice

clea

rly u

nder

stoo

dto

you

cle

arly

und

erst

and

you

r p

ositi

on o

n a

pol

icy

that

is

imp

orta

nt to

you

and

/or

your

org

aniz

atio

n—on

e th

at y

ou

thin

k yo

u ha

ve b

een

extr

emel

y cl

ear

and

con

sist

ent a

bou

t

4.G

et “

buy

-in”

bef

ore

Con

den

se y

our

case

for

mak

ing

chan

ge in

you

r R

un fo

r el

ectiv

e of

fice

imp

lem

entin

g id

eas

orga

niza

tion—

wor

k or

oth

erw

ise—

into

a n

inet

y-se

cond

el

evat

or p

itch,

and

pre

sent

it to

key

sta

keho

lder

s; a

sses

s th

eir

leve

l of a

gree

men

t and

poi

nts

of re

sist

ance

; re

fine

your

pitc

h an

d tr

y ag

ain

5.H

one

a st

rong

sen

se o

f W

rite

and

sub

mit

your

ow

n en

try

to N

atio

nal P

ublic

Rad

io’s

Vo

lunt

eer

to g

ive

a se

rmon

or

a sp

eech

at y

our

chur

ch o

r p

urp

ose

to m

y lif

e an

d

pro

gram

title

d T

his

I Bel

ieve

syna

gogu

e in

whi

ch y

ou d

iscu

ss a

val

ue th

at is

cen

tral

to

com

mun

icat

e th

at to

oth

ers

your

life

(con

tinue

d)

TA

BL

E7-

2 (c

ontin

ued

)

Enh

anci

ng c

apac

ity

to e

ngag

e o

ther

s th

roug

h sh

ared

mea

ning

: exa

mp

le a

ctiv

itie

s an

d p

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

leex

per

ienc

es

Exa

mp

le a

ctiv

ity

to b

egin

wit

hP

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

le e

xper

ienc

e

6.Ta

ke a

n ac

tive

role

in

Set

asi

de

time

with

eac

h of

you

r d

irect

rep

orts

and

with

Vo

lunt

eer

as a

tuto

r in

a p

ublic

sch

ool,

coac

h a

spor

ts te

amsu

bor

din

ate

care

er

at le

ast t

hree

oth

ers

who

don

’t re

por

t to

you

to fi

nd o

ut

if yo

u ha

ve n

ever

don

e so

, or

wor

k as

a B

ig B

roth

er

dev

elop

men

tw

hat t

hey

are

pas

sion

ate

abou

t in

thei

r liv

es—

and

then

or

Sis

ter

sugg

est w

ays

for

them

to p

ursu

e th

ose

pas

sion

s at

wor

k

7.S

eek

out o

ther

s fo

r Fi

nd s

omeo

ne a

t wor

k w

ho c

an s

erve

as

your

per

sona

l Fo

rm y

our

own

per

sona

l boa

rd o

f dire

ctor

sca

reer

ad

vice

coac

h

8.P

ract

ice

emp

athy

Iden

tify

the

stak

ehol

der

in a

cha

nge

effo

rt y

ou a

re le

adin

g Vo

lunt

eer

to s

erve

as

a tu

tor

at a

pris

on o

r co

rrec

tiona

l w

ho m

ost s

care

s or

con

cern

s yo

u, a

nd s

eek

him

or h

er o

ut

faci

lity

for

advi

ce o

n ho

w to

be

succ

essf

ul in

you

r ch

ange

effo

rt

9.Te

ll st

orie

s to

illu

stra

te

Take

a w

orks

hop

or

a co

urse

in s

tory

telli

ng, a

nd u

se it

to

Writ

e a

shor

t sto

ry a

bou

t a c

ritic

al e

vent

in a

cha

ract

er’s

life

m

y id

eas

hone

you

r ow

n cr

ucib

le s

tory

and

sub

mit

it fo

r p

ublic

atio

n

10.B

ecom

e ab

le to

det

ach

The

next

tim

e yo

u fin

d y

ours

elf i

n th

e m

idd

le o

f an

inte

nse

On

a to

pic

ab

out w

hich

you

car

e p

assi

onat

ely,

sea

rch

out

mys

elf f

rom

my

emot

ions

deb

ate,

not

ice

the

circ

umst

ance

s, n

otic

e yo

ur p

hysi

cal

and

com

pile

evi

den

ce th

at s

ugge

sts

that

you

are

com

ple

tely

st

ate,

esp

ecia

lly y

our

bre

athi

ng—

and

rela

xw

rong

Integrity

Review your responses to the integrity self-assessment, and com-plete the following segments of your PLS. Again, note that intable 7-3 we have provided for each of the facets of the assess-ment both an example activity in which you could engage and apotential crucible experience that could substantially enhance yourability in that area.

Integrity

1. My score in the integrity self-assessment was _____

2. The facets of integrity where I scored myself most in need of work

were (lowest-ranking three) and activities that I can begin in the

next three months to enhance each:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

3. The facets of integrity where I scored myself in need of work were

(middle-ranking three or four) and activities that I can begin in the

next six months to enhance each:

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

4. The facets of integrity where I scored myself highest (top-ranking

three or four) and activities I can engage in to sustain them:

22 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

Facet: Activity:

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

________________________ ________________________

PART 3: SETTING MY AGENDA

Each of these new behaviors is intended to have a start date and anend date, to be built on every three to six months, and to be replacedwith additional new behaviors. The purpose is to give yourselfample opportunity to practice while you perform. The key is to lookfor behaviors you can consciously practice at work and at home.(See the box, “Recovery and Renewal for [Corporate] Athletes.”)

Likewise, since we tend to play to our preferred learning style,there is substantial opportunity for personal and professionalgrowth if you seek out experiences and situations in your adja-cent and opposing learning styles. Scan your landscape at workand at home, and identify those instances and roles out of yourcomfort zone that will allow you to stretch into new behaviors,perspectives, and leadership capabilities.

Recovery and Renewal for (Corporate)

Athletes

IN A MARKED PARALLEL to studies of expert performance, re-

searchers (and former sports coaches) Jack Groppel as well as Jim Loehr

and Tony Schwartz have developed approaches to individual develop-

ment that focus on the interdependencies between physical, emotional,

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 23

TA

BL

E 7

-3

Enh

anci

ng in

teg

rity

: exa

mp

le a

ctiv

itie

s an

d p

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

le e

xper

ienc

es

Exa

mp

le a

ctiv

ity

to b

egin

wit

hP

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

le e

xper

ienc

e

1.D

isag

ree

with

the

maj

ority

D

on’t

go lo

okin

g to

pic

k a

fight

, but

the

next

tim

e yo

u fin

d

Cam

pai

gn p

ublic

ly fo

r a

caus

e yo

u ho

ld d

ear

out o

f con

scie

nce

your

self

in a

situ

atio

n w

here

you

str

ongl

y d

isag

ree

with

the

maj

ority

op

inio

n, s

pea

k up

2.Te

st th

e co

nsis

tenc

y of

O

n a

sing

le s

heet

of p

aper

, writ

e d

own

the

valu

es, i

n E

xpan

d th

e ci

rcle

of p

eop

le w

hom

you

rout

inel

y tu

rn to

for

pub

lic a

nd p

rivat

e vi

ews

stat

emen

ts r

athe

r th

an o

ne-w

ord

bul

lets

, tha

t you

bel

ieve

fe

edb

ack,

and

incl

ude

at le

ast o

ne p

erso

n w

ho h

as p

ublic

ly

you

enac

t on

a d

aily

bas

is; n

ext t

o ea

ch v

alue

, lis

t an

opp

osed

you

; let

them

kno

w th

at y

ou s

eek

thei

r co

unse

l ex

amp

le o

f how

that

val

ue in

fluen

ced

a re

cent

dec

isio

n b

ecau

se y

ou re

spec

t the

ir in

tegr

ity, a

nd a

sk th

em to

pro

vid

e yo

u m

ade

you

with

thei

r in

sigh

ts o

n a

mat

ter

of g

reat

imp

orta

nce

to y

ou

3.Fo

llow

thro

ugh

on

For

a w

eek,

as

a ro

utin

e p

art o

f eve

ry m

eetin

g yo

u at

tend

, In

stea

d o

f con

trib

utin

g m

oney

to a

cau

se y

ou s

upp

ort,

giv

e co

mm

itmen

tsw

heth

er o

r not

you

cal

l or c

hair

the

mee

ting,

do

not a

llow

yo

ur ti

me,

ene

rgy,

and

idea

sth

e m

eetin

g to

con

clud

e w

ithou

t sum

min

g up

the

com

mitm

ents

that

eac

hin

div

idua

l has

mad

e, a

nd m

ake

sure

that

eac

h kn

ows

that

you

will

hol

d th

em a

ccou

ntab

lefo

r fu

lfilli

ng th

e co

mm

itmen

ts th

ey h

ave

mad

e

4.M

ake

mys

elf a

vaila

ble

Offe

r to

men

tor

or c

oach

som

eone

in y

our

orga

niza

tion;

be

Offe

r to

join

the

boa

rd o

f dire

ctor

s of

a s

mal

l, un

der

reso

urce

d

to o

ther

ssu

re th

at y

ou a

re p

rep

ared

to d

o so

, how

ever

; tha

t may

no

t-fo

r-p

rofit

that

is c

omm

itted

to a

cau

se y

ou s

upp

ort b

ut is

m

ean

atte

ndin

g a

wor

ksho

p o

r se

ekin

g in

stru

ctio

n on

how

no

t vis

ible

and

pop

ular

in th

e so

cial

circ

les

you

inha

bit

to m

ento

r or

coa

ch

5.E

xplo

re g

uilt-

ind

ucin

g Id

entif

y at

leas

t tw

o si

tuat

ions

at w

ork

that

cau

se y

ou to

feel

D

o or

par

ticip

ate

in s

omet

hing

you

can

be

incr

edib

ly

situ

atio

nsgu

ilt—

e.g.

, whe

re y

ou c

ould

hav

e d

one

som

ethi

ng to

rig

htp

roud

of

a w

rong

but

did

n’t,

or

an a

ct y

ou c

omm

itted

that

now

ca

uses

you

to fe

el s

ham

e;fo

r ea

ch s

ituat

ion,

writ

e d

own

in

det

ail i

n on

e co

lum

n of

a p

age

why

you

feel

gui

lt, a

nd th

enin

the

opp

osite

col

umn

writ

e d

own

wha

t you

sho

uld

hav

e d

one

or w

ill d

o sh

ould

a s

imila

r si

tuat

ion

aris

e, a

gain

in d

etai

l

(con

tinue

d)

TA

BL

E7-

3 (c

ontin

ued

)

Enh

anci

ng in

teg

rity

: exa

mp

le a

ctiv

itie

s an

d p

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

le e

xper

ienc

es

Exa

mp

le a

ctiv

ity

to b

egin

wit

hP

ote

ntia

l cru

cib

le e

xper

ienc

e

6.B

elie

ve in

mys

elf

Sch

edul

e tim

e ea

ch d

ay to

revi

ew th

e p

ositi

ve th

ings

you

S

tart

you

r ow

n b

usin

ess

acco

mp

lishe

d, a

nd c

ongr

atul

ate

your

self

for

acco

mp

lishi

ng

them

7.Fi

nd o

ut w

heth

er p

eop

le

Inco

rpor

ate

into

you

r 36

0-d

egre

e le

ader

ship

ass

essm

ent

Mak

e ho

nest

y an

d tr

ansp

aren

cy c

entr

al to

you

r th

ink

I am

hon

est

exp

licit

que

stio

ns a

bou

t you

r p

erce

ived

hon

esty

orga

niza

tion’

s m

issi

on

8.G

ive

up th

e le

adP

rep

are

som

eone

els

e to

take

you

r p

lace

as

a le

ader

in a

n A

gree

to ta

ke re

spon

sib

ility

for

the

succ

ess

of a

n im

por

tant

ac

tivity

that

you

dee

ply

enj

oy a

nd v

alue

und

erta

king

—p

refe

rab

ly s

omet

hing

you

car

e ab

out—

but

do

so u

nder

the

cond

ition

that

you

will

not

be

visi

bly

ass

igne

d to

it an

d th

at y

ou w

ill n

ever

get

cre

dit

if it

succ

eed

s

9.K

now

the

pow

er o

f A

t a s

ocia

l gat

herin

g am

ong

frie

nds,

offe

r a

priz

e to

the

At t

he o

utse

t of a

new

ass

ignm

ent,

ask

the

mem

ber

s of

the

my

pos

ition

per

son

who

, by

cons

ensu

s op

inio

n, d

oes

the

bes

t job

of

team

you

wor

k w

ith to

writ

e ou

t (an

d s

eal a

way

) one

or

two

imita

ting

you

in v

oice

and

bod

y la

ngua

gep

arag

rap

hs th

at d

escr

ibe

thei

r p

ositi

ve a

nd n

egat

ive

exp

ecta

tions

of y

ou a

s a

lead

er; t

hen,

at t

he c

oncl

usio

n of

your

tim

e in

that

ass

ignm

ent,

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intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of performance.a Most important

for our purposes are the points they make about the significance of

recovery/renewal and ritual in support of long-term improvement.

Recovery/Renewal

Simply put, any system, whether it’s physical or cerebral, needs rest after

it’s worked hard. Work and rest support one another. So do work and

play. For example, in describing how weightlifting tones and shapes

muscles, Loehr and Schwartz note that muscle tissue needs time to re-

cover and heal from the stress of the lifting activity before it strengthens.

Recovery can take many forms. Limiting the time devoted to techni-

cal practice gives you an opportunity to relax and reflect. While a hectic

schedule may require “bursts” or concentrated periods of rehearsal, a

great deal can also be accomplished through background practice,

where your mind is free to indirectly and independently sift and sort

through the work of leadership—for example, while weeding a garden,

watching a ballet, listening to a symphony, or hiking in the woods.

Ritual

Many of the things humans do are unconscious or at least semicon-

scious.b In a fast-paced, information-rich environment, it’s not surpris-

ing to discover that attention is, as Tom Davenport and John Beck put

it, “rapidly becoming the scarcest commodity in the marketplace.”c

Adding another thing to do is difficult, and when that other thing or

things are not inherently enjoyable—or may be predefined as “hard

work,” like not eating donuts or getting up early to go to the gym—

backsliding may not be excusable, but it sure is understandable. Find-

ing ways to ritualize—and therefore render subconscious—the key

physical and intellectual exercises is essential.

Like a string tied around your finger that, when noticed, reminds

you of something you must do, rituals are intended to both soothe and

irritate. Little rituals provide an opportunity to rest, to regroup, and to

prepare. For example, scheduling a regular appointment with yourself

is a way to set aside time to review your aspirations—similar in intent

to what we described earlier as the process of decomposing motives.

Acting and speaking coaches as well as golf instructors advise their

26 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

clients to get into a rhythm that’s distinctly their own in order to force

out distractions and to set in motion a process that, once initiated,

seems almost automatic. Loehr and Schwartz describe tennis player

Ivan Lendl’s ritual between serves: “Each time Ivan Lendl stepped up to

the line to serve during a tennis match, he predictably wiped his brow

with his wristband, knocked the head of his racquet against his heels,

took sawdust from his packet, bounced the ball four times and visual-

ized where he intended to hit the ball. In the process, Lendl was recali-

brating his energy: pushing away distraction, calming his physiology,

focusing his attention, triggering reengagement and preparing his

body to perform at its best.”d

A business leader renowned for his ability to “connect” or establish

rapport and common ground with widely divergent groups once de-

scribed to me a ritual he believed helped him connect. “Every night

before an important meeting or encounter,” he said, “I sit and think it

through. I always ask myself two questions: What are the three things that

need to happen in this meeting? And what is the one thing that cannot

happen in this meeting? The first question gets me clear on why I’m there

and forces me to keep focused. The second question gets me thinking

about what I need to do to make sure we achieve our goals. When I do

that well, I often get a sense of déjà vu in the midst of the meeting.”

Rituals, whether big or small, activate a level of conscious rededica-

tion to the goal while, at the same time, lowering the amount of atten-

tion paid to the activity—often the uncomfortable activity—that will

get you to the goal. In that respect, rituals are also a critical part of

keeping “why I lead” close to the foreground.

a. Jack Groppel, The Corporate Athlete: How to Achieve Maximal Performance in

Business and Life (New York: Wiley, 2000); and Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The

Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Perfor-

mance and Personal Renewal (New York: Free Press, 2003).

b. Some researchers estimate that upward of 95 percent of behavior is semicon-

scious. See, for example, Loehr and Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement, 168.

c. Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck, The Attention Economy: Understanding

the New Currency of Business (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003).

d. Loehr and Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement, 172.

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 27

Use table 7-4 to set a list of tasks in key areas of practice, a startdate for each, and a schedule for how often you need to practice.Don’t try to start everything at once, but also don’t be shy aboutgiving yourself a weekly regimen to pursue. Think, again, aboutinstances in which you have actually stuck to a plan for yourself:what were the circumstances, how did you keep yourself focusedand your energy consistent, what support did you need in orderto keep going? That experience could have involved a sport, a dis-cipline you imposed on yourself to take and pass a test, how youquit smoking or lost weight, or how you acclimated yourself to anew job or a new city.

TABLE 7-4

Setting my agenda

Task Start date Frequency

Part 1

Why I lead Review and refine Immediately Daily

Myself at peak Review and refine Immediately Weeklyperformance; my current reality; managing creative tension

Motivations Complete formal assess- Within the first ment; receive and review three monthsfindings; incorporate into PLS

Learning styles Complete formal assessment; Within the first receive and review findings; three monthsincorporate into PLS

Part 2

Adaptive capacity Identify intersections with Within the first At least one training in leadership three months course or training competencies offered by my event per yearorganization, and enroll in relevant courses

Undertake exercises that First three One exercise address areas of greatest months per monthdevelopment opportunity

Pursue a crucible opportunity Second six One per yearin an area where I feel most monthsin need of development

(continued)

28 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

The idea in the opening paragraph of this chapter bears repeating:developing a Personal Learning Strategy means crafting a system-atic approach to practice—and to practicing while you perform—tailored to your talents and your aspirations. In other words, onlyyou can craft a PLS that both captures your imagination and con-tains within it the motivations that will help you adhere to it. Ifyou discover that your most effective PLS need not take as struc-tured or as regimented a form as the one I’ve suggested here, then

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Strategy 29

TABLE 7-4 (continued)

Setting my agenda

Task Start date Frequency

Part 2 (continued)

Engaging others Identify intersections with First three At least one through shared training in leadership com- months course or training meaning petencies offered by my event per year

organization, and enroll in relevant courses

Undertake exercises that First three One exercise address areas of greatest months per monthdevelopment opportunity

Pursue a crucible opportunity Second six One per yearin an area where I feel most monthsin need of development

Integrity Identify intersections with Second three At least one training in leadership com- months course or training petencies offered by my event per yearorganization, and enroll in relevant courses

Undertake exercises that Second three One exercise address areas of greatest months per monthdevelopment opportunity

Pursue a crucible opportunity Second year One per yearin an area where I feel most in need of development

Part 3

Resetting my Review and amend self- Every six agenda assessments in each months

leadership area

Review and amend PLS Once each year

so be it. The test, in the end, is the power and the durability ofyour answer to the question, “Why lead?”

Parts I and II of this book have focused heavily on the individ-ual’s journey to eminence as a leader, inspired in part by BenjaminFranklin’s sage advice that “being ignorant is not so much ashame as being unwilling to learn.” In part III, however, we heli-copter up to the level of organizations in order to see better whatthey have to offer individual leaders in their quest to learn. We’llfind that organizations have a great deal to offer, but not in con-ventional ways. In fact, it may be the unconventional organiza-tion that shows us the most creative ways in which crucibles canbe harnessed to develop leaders.

30 CRAFTING A PERSONAL LEARNING STRATEGY

Chapter 7

1. I encourage you to duplicate the three assessments from chapter 6and share them with people who you can rely on to give you a candid as-sessment. The added information you can get from partners, spouses, andassociates can help you make a more considered judgment of your personalstrengths and weaknesses. Keep another set handy as you complete part 2 ofthe PLS.

NOTES

2. Shoji Shiba, Alan Graham, and David Walden, A New AmericanTQM: Four Practical Revolutions in Management (University Park, IL: Pro-ductivity Press, 1993).

3. Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, Resonant Leadership: Renew-ing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, andCompassion (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2005).

4. Edgar H. Schein, Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Help-ing Relationship (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1998).

5. The eight themes are technical/functional, general managerial, autonomy/independence, security/stability, entrepreneurial creativity, service/dedication to a cause, pure challenge, and lifestyle. For more detail, seeEdgar H. Schein, Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values (San Fran-cisco: Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer, 1990).

6. In the PBS video series on creativity, there are some captivating mo-ments when creative people are overheard talking as they create. One par-ticular segment in the episode devoted to Pinchas Zukerman and the St.Paul Chamber Orchestra nicely portrays the way in which collaboration canenhance individual creativity: it features two cellists swapping insights onhow they learned different finger placements and how each could enhancethe depth and the quality of sound the other created.

Notes32