Podcast: Continuous Learning and Self Development: 4th Leadership Characteristic for Meaningful Change

If you’re not growing, you’re standing still or worse—and that goes for leaders as well as the organizations they helm.

It’s the difference between a status quo mindset and a growth mindset, explains podcast cohost Dr. Mohamed Saleh in the latest edition of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement. This episode is the fourth in a series of 10 that address key leadership characteristics for driving meaningful organizational change.

Leaders who are not engaged in continuous learning and self development are doing the equivalent of standing still, which is the wrong mindset if culture change is the organization’s goal, Saleh and co-host John Dyer say.

In fact, “you could be sabotaging your own transformation,” Saleh says.

In this episode, the hosts talk about company training and the myriad reasons why leadership may choose not to participate: They are busy, they already know all this information, or they don’t want to show that they don’t know something.

Not good enough, Dyer says.

“I understand that you got a lot of different priorities pulling you in different directions, but if you truly want to change the culture, then you will want to sit through the entire class without your laptop, without your cell phone, tell everyone that you're out of the office for those two or three days,” Dyer says. “You may not learn anything new … maybe you already know it all. But what you're doing is you're sending a message to the rest of the organization that one, this is a priority; two, that you're in it with them; and three, that you now become a lot more relatable because the people that are in that class with you will spread word throughout the organization that ‘hey, you know, our executive vice president or our general manager is a real person, and they have some of the same issues that we have.’ … It's about building a cohesive team where everyone is supporting everyone else, and the only way to do that is to create those bonds.”

The podcast cohosts delve further into the value of shared training experiences as well as the difference between observing and participating. Dyer also mentions a training article he wrote for IndustryWeek, which can be read here: Is It Worth the Effort to Teach Improvement Tools to All Employees?