Prioritize learning

Prioritize learning

Your future career progress depends on your ability to keep learning, and your past achievements and present level of expertise are less critical.

Simply put, what you know is less relevant than what you can learn, and smart companies are less interested in hiring people with particular expertise than with the general ability to develop the right knowledge in the future, particularly if they can do it consistently and across a wide range of businesses and roles.

Try to stay away from jobs that handicap your ability to learn by completely draining your energy on the attainment of short-term results rather than broadening of your skillset and allowing for long-term contribution.

As a leader, consider your job to be teaching others how to learn more vs. teaching your team the things which seem most useful to them. If you want long-term results out of your team, you need to balance demanding higher levels of efficiency and productivity with opportunities that inspire curiosity and learning.

Remember, as children, we are naturally curious and continually explore the world around us; don't allow the motivation to learn new things drop off as you age.


Inspired by: Harvard Business Review - Take Control of Your Learning at Work, by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic