Continuous learning is when you voluntarily learn new skills and expand your knowledge. This could be gaining new skills and knowledge in new areas, but it might also relate to refreshing your existing skill-set. It can also be previous knowledge that you already had but was perhaps locked away in a distant memory.
In your working life, you will always also experience learning in an ad-hoc fashion, usually when you encounter new tasks (at least that’s assuming you don’t do your work in a fully automated mode like a robot 😉). However, when it comes to continuous learning, I am in favour of a more conscious approach by connecting your learning to a theme or a goal. For myself, I’ve set the goal to improve as an Alliance Leadership Coach in 2023. This means I will work on further developing my skills in the areas of Alliances, Leadership, Coaching (and any combination of those three areas).
There are several ways to embark on the journey of continuous learning. I, for now, have chosen to start off with reading a backlog of books relating to the Alliances, Leadership and Coaching topics. On the other hand, with a client I recently started a more guided and structured approach for their own specific learning journey.
That particular project entails helping my client to become the best global alliance team they can be. To reach that goal, ongoing development of their alliance leadership competencies is desired. Every team member brings in a different competency level. As such we’ve started the project with a 360 degree assessment in which each team member is being assessed in 7 main alliance leadership competency areas. Based on the outcome of the assessments, each member will choose one or two areas that will be their learning and improvement focus for the next 12 months. Combining personal development with team coaching will lead to improved team performance and eventually to being the best alliance team they can be!
Next to these aforementioned approaches for continuous learning, there are the more classical approaches, like following a course for example. For those who want to improve their alliance management skills there is the proven, highly interactive, online Alliance Masterclass. During these masterclass lessons Anoop Nathwani and I will guide you through the alliance management process and supporting tools. Equipped with these, you will be ready to more effectively and successfully manage your own alliances & partnerships.
For those that need a refreshing introduction into the art and science of successful alliances & partnerships there is the online “Creating Successful Partnerships” course. I will share what one of the first participants said after finishing the course, “I just finished the Creating Successful Partnerships course. It was very insightful and presented in a well-organised manner”.
There are undoubtedly more ways to continuously learn. I’m curious, what do you do to stay sharp and continue your own learning?