“๐ฟ๐ค๐ฃ’๐ฉ ๐ก๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ฎ ๐ค๐ ๐ฅ๐ง๐ค๐๐ง๐๐จ๐จ.”
Throughout our careers, Don Tomoff, MBA, and I have prioritized and felt responsible, as part of our leadership goals, for developing the people we work with daily. How can we help others grow through micro-moments of engaging in a learning opportunity and pausing for 5 or 10 minutes to slow down and talk through a challenge or difficult concept?
Over time, everyone becomes stronger as the learning moments compound and then build exponentially over the long haul. Too often, we rush through our days, exclaiming (unfortunately, often proudly), “I am busy! I have too much to do to allow the luxury of slowing down to prioritize learning.” This is shortsighted and a colossal mistake.
Seth Godin recently released a Udemy course, “This is Strategy with Seth Godin.” In Lesson 27, “Toward a Strategic Practice,” he challenges us to think about how we spend our professional time. “We only get today once. It is the asset that each of us gets to deploy onceโtoday. Is it possible to develop a practice of being strategic?”
Seth argues that there are three choices for how we spend our time at work:
* ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ธ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ (most people) that can possibly be outsourced.
* ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ. We can be writing specs and managing people who are following the specs (outsourcing possible – not done often enough).
* ๐๐ ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฒ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐น๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ฟ. “To confront resistance. To become incompetent in the face of learning.” When we lean into these moments (maybe 5 minutes a day), we are truly being strategic.
Exerting emotional labor is the most important work. This is the 5 or 10 minutes that Don and I frequently encourage and challenge others to embrace the discomfort of learning something new. ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ข๐๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค๐ฌ๐๐ง๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ค๐ง๐ฉ๐ช๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ. Pictured below is a moment of celebration of learning with a previous coworker. Helping others enhance their skills is very gratifying!
