By / Jessica Kirby • Editor, Sheet Metal Journal-Western Washington
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
—Malcolm X
As leaders, the learning never stops. Every time we interact with a customer, an employee, or a colleague, we learn something new about business, social interactions, and ourselves. This is indirect or implicit learning, which means we aren’t really trying to learn or actively seeking education. Rather, it is the education or learning we absorb naturally, passively even, from our environments. It is the kind of learning that helps us make better business decisions, teaches us how to treat people and, most importantly, how to show others how we want to be treated.
Explicit learning is purposeful. It occurs when we seek out education by having specific, focused, investigative meetings or conversations; by reading or researching a particular topic; or by going all out and taking professional development courses well into our careers.
They are both essential. Obviously, implicit learning is how we learn to navigate our environments, but taking an extra moment after a conversation or experience to reflect on the implicit lessons of said interaction can make us sharper, more intuitive leaders, and clearer decision-makers.
Seeking answers, practicing deliberate critical thinking, and learning the art of conflict resolution and dialogue are ways we educate ourselves on the daily, and for many of us, taking a further step toward formal education is an achievable goal once our careers are established and we have the time, energy, and finances to do so.
Going back to school has advantages nearly anyone can appreciate—wage increases, avenues into new career paths (even within the same organization), new challenges, and better confidence and self-esteem. When we move into higher education opportunities, we are committing to bettering ourselves and what we can offer our organizations, and we are setting the bar high for our employees, demonstrating that we value these benefits and are willing to take on the challenge of learning something new at a later age.
Because it can be challenging. We love our routines and our comfort zones. We feel safe and confident sitting in the same chair, making the same decisions, managing the same staff, and representing the same interests. When we invest in education, we tackle a hurdle first where we have to be vulnerable, admit there is something out there we might not know, and seek a mentor to teach us. For some that is easy and for other it is agonizing, but once we tumble over that wall, we begin to see the benefits tenfold.
Maybe you didn’t go to college right after high school. Now might be the perfect time to nail those goals and aspirations, with the added bonus of a more experienced and mature world view.
Maybe you have an education, but find yourself in another frame of mind or area of interest than the one you were in when you were learning, or maybe you see potential for advancement or innovation in a new direction. When you own a business, manage teams, and coordinate work in a highly competitive field (like sheet metal) there are leadership skills, intergenerational communication issues, political and economic matters, and basic business acumen skills to learn that change and grow as society changes and grows. Chances are, you’ll be better off if you learn them.
Maybe you did go to college and have years of experience and love your current position, but want to forge new paths. Executive business graduate programs teach the most contemporary approaches to leadership, business strategy, and management techniques, and can help connect learners with local and international perspectives on how to be the very best in business for yourself and your organization.
Take a risk. Whether you’ve been a leader for five weeks or five decades, there is always something to learn and a reason to learn it. The most important thing to remember is that implicit and explicit learning work in tandem. That means if you are the kind of person who commits to deliberate lifelong learning, your skills for picking up implicit lessons—observation, curiosity, critical thinking, creativity—will also improve, which will in turn make you a more well-rounded learner, more likely to seek formal education opportunities.
Don’t be afraid to seek opportunities to build your success on a strong foundation of lifelong learning—your organization and your career can only benefit.
The future belongs to you. Will you claim it? ■
