I recently bought a new phone. Its operating system was different as was settings, icons, navigation, etc. I spent the first day grousing about the placement of the call button, setting items in the favorites screen, and downloading my fav apps. Tired of my complaints, my daughter pointed out the phone’s great features. “Mom, just learn how you use it. By the end of the week, you’ll be singing its praises.”

It’s not the end of the week yet but those words triggered these reflections:

1. Learning is a choice. Everyone chooses to learn from life, teachers, experiences, and books (didn’t think I wouldn’t slip that in, did you?). When you choose to learn, you expand your world. Conversely, when you choose not to learn, in whatever area of your life, you contract that space.
2. Learning requires an openness. The choice to learn can only be made when one is open to new ideas, experiences, knowledge, and people. The phone was new to me. I could either embrace a new (to me) idea of positioning icons and accessing apps, or I could fuss about it.
3. Learning liberates. It provides you with options and frees you from making the same mistakes over and again. When you take a lesson to heart, it shapes your thoughts and your actions. Learning gives you the freedom to choose what to believe, how to behave, and who to become. A leader liberates her and others minds through learning.
4. Learning transforms. They say knowledge is power, but the transformative power of knowledge is in learning. When you learn a new way of being, it transforms who you are.
5. Unlearning is learning. It is deciding to think differently about a position you’ve taken based on what you’d been told or taught. It is unlearning one operating system and embracing another. Unlearning is a difficult process but often necessary for progress.

#Leadershipbeginsathome, #Leaderslearn, #Learntolead