I often get asked for recommendations for a Leadership course. To be honest, I struggle to answer. My preference is for what I call “Immersive Learning”.
My issue with a “course” is that I have done so many of these over the years. You go, you learn but then you go back to the every day stuff in your workplace and it very quickly gets forgotten. Within a very short period of time I can barely remember what the course was about. Little if anything gets implemented from the course, time and money essentially wasted.
I probably need to add a disclaimer here; formal education is really not my thing. I ran away on my 2nd day of primary school and had to be delivered to the teacher who would hold onto me until the door closed and I couldn’t reach the handle to escape. I like to think that I got a little better as I got older, but honestly not much….
Immersive Learning for me is participating in programs, systems, methodologies that offer ongoing training. EOS, EO, industry peer groups, mastermind groups, mentoring. To me this really imbeds the learning, going deeper on what you already knew, accountability on implementing what you learn along the way. And the real gold – creating an environment of trust and respect allows for the sharing of other people’s knowledge and experiences, mistakes and challenges.
Leadership is not something, in my opinion, that can be taught in a one-off course. There are so many skills to being a great leader and the thinking that you can go, or send a member of your team, to a course and leave as a “Leader” is optimistic at best.
Another disclaimer – I am not saying don’t do courses, all great leaders will have attended many courses, read countless books, been mentored and been a mentor to others, made mistakes and learned from them, asked thousands of questions, have a long list of contacts so they can “phone a friend” and consciously been the dumbest person in the room.
The next person who asks for a recommendation is going to get this answer: Find lots of courses, read lots of books, sign up to Audible & listen while you’re walking and driving, join EO, read Traction & implement EOS into your business, join EO or another peer group, get a mentor & be a mentor. Start the leadership journey. They may just regret asking 😊
