Too Advanced To Learn | The DeVenney Code

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The DeVenney Code

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Enjoy the unraveling of the business world's deepest darkest secrets from the comfort of your desk with “The DeVenney Code”. Michael’s opinions on both major and less covered business topics can be enlightening, refreshing, and humorous. Gain some perspective on topics that you may have never considered before, and challenge yourself to consistently “think outside the box”.

“The DeVenney Code” is your way to the inside scoop.

Too Advanced To Learn

The average age that people stop learning new things is 29 years. How sad is that?

Yet, I see it all the time. Recently, my offer to work with a senior management team was politely turned down as they felt they were too advanced to learn additional concepts. Again, how sad it that?

My first thought was to quickly sell any shares I owned in their company. Thinking you already know it all is a sure sign that you don’t. Learning is a life-long experience that continues to build on the value you bring to others. Stop learning and you stop creating new value – you become stale and people stop coming to you for creativity and business.

Unfortunately, smart people who have achieved success are often the greatest offenders of the “too advanced to learn” line of thinking – or lack thereof. They mistake having a senior position or making a lot of money with knowing everything. A lack of continuous investment in learning impacts business and organizations at all levels blocking the level of performance and results.

Executives and managers often cite “not enough time” as the reason they can not invest in learning and development. By not making time for what is most important – continuing to learn and building greater value – they relegate themselves to repeating the same mistakes, experiencing the same crises and fires and never finding better ways to do things so they can win.

Invest in yourself and your personal and professional development – have a learning plan each year. Identify the results you want to see; where are your priorities; and outline the key strategies you will follow to achieve your plan. Combine industry and technical training and programs with developing leadership and management skills as well as knowing your client better.

Always be reading – select one or two journals about your industry, clients or profession that will keep you on the cutting edge of ideas and knowing what is most important to your business – also select one journal that may be totally unrelated to your business but keeps your mind open to different perspectives
Even more reading – read a book a month on your profession or industry and become an expert within two years – if you don’t like reading, get books on tape to listen to on your IPod but keep reading what is new and relevant so you stay new and relevant
Invest each year in further professional development through workshops, conferences, certifications, private programs or platforms that fit you

Don’t wait for other people to tell you what you should be doing to learn and grow – be clear on who are your clients and what they need from you (and how they may be changing) and what professional and personal actions are needed to really succeed in your chosen field. As a leader, help your team members continue to grow by giving ideas and financial support for their investment in learning.

Keep learning or become a useless corporate bottleneck – your stock will be sold.