Episode 242 Transcript:

0:00:00 Ramona Shaw: This episode is all about how to learn faster and better. Not just to help you grow and accelerate your career, but also to support your team trying to learn and grow. We’re going to talk about how learning happens and then some very tactical ways that you can foster a culture of learning and support others and yourself again to learn faster and better. Let’s dive in. Here are the two questions this podcast answers.

0:00:24 Ramona Shaw: One, how do you successfully transition into your first official leadership role? And two, how do you keep claiming that leadership, lap, ladder and continuously get promoted? Although the competition and the expectations get bigger, this show, The Manager Track podcast, will provide the answers. I’m your host, Ramona Shaw. I’m on a mission to create workplaces where work is seen as a source of contribution, connection, and personal fulfillment. And this transition starts with developing a new generation of leaders who know how to lead. So everyone wins and grows.

0:00:57 Ramona Shaw: In the show, you’ll learn how to think, communicate, and act as a confident and competent leader you know you can be welcome to this episode of the Manager Track Podcast. This podcast is all about helping you become the best version of yourself at work and in your career. In this episode, we’re going to dive into something really interesting. And this is about how our brains learn. Now. Okay, you might be thinking, great, why should I care about this?

0:01:25 Ramona Shaw: That’s not top of mind or not the biggest priority. But understanding how we learn, how you learn, and how your team members learn is really important. It will help you not only get better faster, but also be a better manager to your team and boost their performance. So we’re going to break down some big ideas around learning into smaller adjustable components. And my goal is to make this very practical so you don’t have to be a brain scientist and understand neuroscience. We’re not going to go too much into that.

0:01:58 Ramona Shaw: While I’m going to highlight the key takeaways, I want to give you a bunch of practical tips that you can start using right away. I hope you’re ready to unlock the secrets of learning. So let’s start off with the basics of human learning. When we talk about learning, we’re not just talking about memorizing facts like you might have done at school tests. We’re really talking about learning as how we’re constructing information.

0:02:25 Ramona Shaw: An analogy that helps us understand this is imagine your brain is like a big Lego construction. Every time you learn something new, it’s like adding new pieces to your construction. But it’s not that we just adding one piece on top of the other. We’re not building A tower of LEGO pieces. We are trying to figure out with every piece, how to make the entire construct better. So when you learn new information, that is, you take a new LEGO piece, your brain’s trying to figure out where that best place is to put that new piece.

0:03:02 Ramona Shaw: Sometimes that also means that we have to rearrange some of the existing pieces in order to make everything fit better. And that is what scientists call constructivism. It basically means that we’re building our understanding of the word, and we’re not just sort of empty buckets that get filled with information. A lot more like a master builder always working on that LEGO masterpiece, which means adding more pieces, but also reconstructing as we go.

0:03:33 Ramona Shaw: So this is important for you and for you as a manager, because when you think about, let’s say, being in a meeting or being in a training session, be this about leadership or be it about something very technical, you’re not just sitting there like a sponge, soaking up information one by one like a feed or like a water bucket. Now, while you’re listening, your brain is actively trying to figure out how all this new information fits into what you already know.

0:04:02 Ramona Shaw: So it’s constantly asking itself, how is this relevant to me? And you can accelerate this by asking and consciously thinking about, how does this relate to my last project? Or could this help solve a problem I’m struggling with? So to bring this to the point, as a manager, if you think about this constructivism, you, for your own learning, want to make sure that you’re not just passively listening or passively reading new information, but you’re actively engaging with the information.

0:04:32 Ramona Shaw: You got to ask yourself how it connects to your experiences and to your expertise. Try to think of ways you could use all of this to put it to work for you. Now, when you’re teaching your team something new, don’t just lecture them, but get them involved. Ask them how they think this new information could be useful. Encourage them to share their own experiences and ideas so that you’re actively helping this constructivism to take place so that they’re taking that LEGO piece and you sort of facilitating the brain to see where to put that new information and how to relate it to what they already know. One thing that you can try next time that you learn something new is to draw a mind map. Put the new idea or the new piece of knowledge in the center and then draw lines connecting it to things you already know or that you could use it.

0:05:24 Ramona Shaw: So let’s say one of our recent episodes, we talked about using Gen AI and You might think, oh, interesting. I never thought about using it for strategic initiatives. That’s the new piece of information. Then you look at, what do I already know? How do I currently think about strategic initiatives? How do I currently think about planning for the year, planning for the quarter? And how does what you’ve just learned about Gen AI relate to what you already know?

0:05:51 Ramona Shaw: And then you’re going to look at specifically what you’re currently doing at work, how this new information could be useful or not useful in what you are already doing. So that supports constructivism. Or it’s about building the most awesome Lego masterpiece, the best possible LEGO structure that you can. And the same is true for your team. When you complete a training with them about compliance or about some new regulation, or about a new update or new technology from the organization.

0:06:21 Ramona Shaw: Go back with your team and talk about what they learned and how they see this applied to their work or how they think it impacts them. And so by you creating the space and time to have that conversation, you’re facilitating their learning. Now let’s talk about the brain’s role in learning. We’re going to zoom in and take a closer look at what’s happening inside our heads when we learn. Your brain, in essence, is like a super advanced computer, at least in our current understanding.

0:06:55 Ramona Shaw: And it’s made out of billions of tiny cells called neurons. And these neurons talk to each other by sending electrical signals. So when you learn something new, your brain creates new connections between these neurons. And it’s like building new roads between cities in your entire brain city, so to speak. The ability of your brain to create new connections and reorganize old ones is called neuroplasticity.

0:07:25 Ramona Shaw: So instead of thinking about these roads that connect cities to be made out of concrete, we’re looking at it as of these roads are made out of play dough. We can actually reshape them. We can wrap them back together and roll them up and place them elsewhere. Of course it takes effort, but the fact that we can do this is pretty cool. And it is important to know as it relates to learning. So the more that you use new connections, the stronger they get.

0:07:54 Ramona Shaw: So, you know, growing up in an area where there’s a lot of snow, the analogy that always comes to mind is if you walk in deep snow for the first time, it’s actually really strenuous and you don’t quite know where to go yet. There’s maybe some uncertainty. You don’t know where that next step is going to go. You might sink in because there was A bit of a ditch, or you might step on something unexpected, but yet you keep going because you realize, you know, walking through that fresh snow is going to get you ultimately to wherever you want to go. Faster than going the old route, sort of the detour.

0:08:26 Ramona Shaw: But the more often that you walk across that new paved path in the snow, the easier it will get. So initially you barely leave that trail, but if you walk that forth and back every day, eventually you have a really clear, well, mourn path through the snow. And that’s what happens in your brain when you practice something over and over. Now, for us as managers, what this means and how we want to use it for our own learning is that when you learn a new skill or understand a new concept, don’t just read about it once and then expect to be an expert.

0:09:06 Ramona Shaw: We have to actually practice it, think about it and talk about it. And the more that you engage with it, the stronger the brain connections will become. So let’s say if you want to get better at presenting or public speaking, you could either read a book about it and think, okay, I learned some ways to do this. Or you could actually practice giving speeches in front of a mirror to record yourself and to listen back.

0:09:36 Ramona Shaw: We often do this in our executive presence trainings and because just doing it once is not enough, we have to do it, review it, take notes about it, talk about it, all of that in order to help this new path to form. You can give presentations to your team, volunteer to speak at a company event, and every time you do this and you remind yourself of the suggestions and the tips that you’ve learned, you’re going to strengthen these new public speaking or executive presence pathways in your brain.

0:10:09 Ramona Shaw: Now, when you want to support your team in learning something new, remember that a one time training session is also not enough. So you need to give them opportunities to practice and apply what they’ve learned. Let’s say you train your team on a new project management software. Don’t just assume that they got it after one tutorial. You need to set up practice sessions where they can play around with the software.

0:10:31 Ramona Shaw: You might want to assign small projects where they have to use it, but it’s low stake. Maybe even organize some sort of competition that’s fun to see who can use the most new features creatively or create some efficiency with it and then do a voting on it. The more that you engage with it, the stronger their brain connections will become. I remember I had a client who had a new CRO come into the organization and the CRO was very savvy with one of a newer task management platform.

0:11:03 Ramona Shaw: And they came into the organization and said, okay, we’re not using the tool that you’ve used for the last 10 years. We’re going to use this one tool that I’m going to bring along with me because one, I like it. Two, I think it’s great and I think it will help the organization. Well, people did not like that. First of all, most of us don’t like change. But second, the CRO was already really skilled in it.

0:11:28 Ramona Shaw: Yet for everyone else on the team, it was a new platform. And as you can imagine for the CRO coming in, the employees wanted to demonstrate their skill, they wanted to showcase their performance, they wanted to look good in front of this new CRO. So suddenly they feel sort of flustered, they feel like they’re inefficient, they’re kind of fumbling, struggling through it. And the CRO is starting to get frustrated.

0:11:49 Ramona Shaw: And it was actually a pretty bad onboarding experience because the CRO brought this in. People didn’t like it, People also started to struggle with it. The CRO started to get frustrated and it hindered the building of trust in this really important new relationship that needed to be formed. Now, of course, it’s not to say that it wasn’t useful to change the platform, but it could have waited and CRO could have been a lot more intentional with onboarding the team into this platform, giving them more opportunities to learn before forcing them to fully transition where it started to impact their performance.

0:12:24 Ramona Shaw: There’s a lot of things that could have happened by taking a step back and looking at the dynamics of the situation and understanding what it takes to learn. So that just as a quick example, another way that we use this in our training programs. For example, our new manager training, the Leadership Accelerator, is designed so that every participant learns something. Let’s say you’re learning the skill of coaching and how to really support team members, not just by giving advice, but by challenging them to think in new ways.

0:12:54 Ramona Shaw: Now, while it sounds pretty straightforward, actually, in our minds, it’s a pretty big shift to what we’re used to doing for many people. So knowing that when people go through that specific module, we then talk about it in our weekly calls, what coaching really means, how they can use it, how they can sort of slowly get into the practice. We also do a practice round where some people are experiencing it, other people are observing it.

0:13:21 Ramona Shaw: So we’re spending time forming these new pathways. And while we may think, well, no, we gotta rush it, it needs to go fast and me giving you a 10 minute introduction into coaching should be sufficient. It simply isn’t. And we look at retention rates of workshops and one off trainings and we clearly see that it isn’t working right. So then that full hour was actually a waste of time. If you really wanna teach something to your team or learn something for yourself, listening to a podcast or reading that book and then moving on to something else, speed reading through it using the PDF summaries of books and then moving on to the next one. Just because you want to hit 100 books a year or whatever number may give you a kick and a boost. Because you’ve read all the books, but isn’t actually a signal that you’ve learned it. Now maybe you did, but we don’t know. But what would be a way stronger signal that you actually learned what you read is if you spent time thinking about it.

0:14:22 Ramona Shaw: If you create a mind map, if you talked to other people about it, you had a book club meeting with your leaders and your peers and talked about a leadership book. And you exchanged ideas and you discussed how to leverage the insights from the book and how to make them work within your environment. Those would be clear signals more strongly correlated to actual results and growth. You just reading it.

0:14:47 Ramona Shaw: So I really wanted to hone in on this because while we understand neuroplasticity and how our brains work, often tactical implementation at work is missing. So to sum this up, it’s like planting a seed in your garden, in the brain. And for that seed to grow in a strong, healthy plant, you need to water it regularly, which means to practice, you need to give it sunlight. You have to apply it in different situations. You expose it to wind, to shade, to sun.

0:15:16 Ramona Shaw: You need to nurture it, which means to reflect on what you’ve learned. So as a manager, you’re not just tending to your own brain garden, but you’re also helping your whole team grow these plants out of this that you’ve placed in their brains. Now, the other part about neuroplasticity is to really understand that we’re incredibly adaptable. No matter how old you are and what your background is, you can always learn new things and reshape your brain.

0:15:44 Ramona Shaw: And this is what we’ve often talked about when we discuss a growth mindset versus having a fixed mindset. So when someone says, oh, I’m just not good at this, I can’t learn that I’m too old. All of that is totally just a belief in our head. It’s just A thought in our heads. Not actually true. With practice and persistence, you can literally rewire your brain. And that’s, I think, what’s fun. It’s something that keeps me going all the time. I have to challenge myself because I definitely find myself too, thinking, ah, I’m just not wired this way. And like, hold on a second. No, that’s not true.

0:16:17 Ramona Shaw: If I wanted to, I could actually improve certain skills, adopt a new way of thinking and so forth. Now that we know what our brains can change, let’s talk about how we can learn to make the most out of it. And this is a bit like having a toolbox with different learning tools and knowing when to use each tool first. There’s something called associative learning. This is when we try to connect the dots with new ideas.

0:16:44 Ramona Shaw: Your brain loves to make connections. And when you praise or you recognize a team member that suddenly they are more motivated to do that specific behavior again, it’s because their brain just connected recognition with this task. And that leads to stronger motivation to do this same behavior next time again. You know, in a recent example, one of our clients said, well, I have a team member who never takes notes in meetings. And suddenly they were, like, writing something down. And I said, oh, I love that you’re taking a note of this. This makes me feel like you’re participating.

0:17:20 Ramona Shaw: And without them saying anything else. From there on out, in 90, 80, 90% of the time this particular employee started to take notes, this person’s brain was connecting the dots. It’s basically saying what behaviors lead to good results, what strategies seem to work. So for yourself and for your team, encourage this. Maybe it is to ask on a regular basis or in the team meeting, what’s a new thing that you learned? What did we learn as a team? Collectively, what is something that was hard or we. It failed and it was a learning opportunity.

0:17:56 Ramona Shaw: By asking those questions, we’re now allowing others to connect that, oh, something goes wrong. Yeah, we could sort of like, soak ourselves in pity and in. In shame or in guilt for it going wrong. Or we can say like, oh, learning opportunity, connecting the dots. And then me sharing the takeaways and the insights from this mistake is recognized and is encouraged. The second one is observational learning.

0:18:23 Ramona Shaw: This is sort of the fancy talk for monkey see monkey do. We learn a ton just by watching others think about how you learned to cook or ride a bike or even brush your teeth. You probably watched an adult do it, and then you thought, oh, let me try this too. And as a manager, this is really important because other people are watching you. They’re learning from you and how you handle certain situations, how you talk to people, how you respond to feedback or to being challenged, how you approach problems.

0:19:00 Ramona Shaw: It’s important for you to find role models or other people that you admire for certain behaviors or skills. And then you watch them, how they handle tough situations or how they motivate their teams. And by observing, you learn. By the way, I often hear this from leaders we work with that they say, oh, I’ve learned how to do it, and I’ve learned how not to do it through my exposure to other managers.

0:19:22 Ramona Shaw: Totally true. You have a manager who does a really bad job in leading the team or who’s micromanaging or is moody, and you see the impact through observation. Your brain is saying, don’t ever do that. That’s not a good thing. Of course, now, if we think about your team, we hope that your team isn’t going to say that about you. Your team should be saying, now, I learned from you because you are a role model to me on what to do.

0:19:50 Ramona Shaw: Another way that you can encourage this is that you set up a shadow program where team members can observe more experienced colleagues in the way that they work or they prepare for a client meeting, debrief a meeting, and so forth. Okay, so that’s the second one. The third one is experiential learning. This is sort of the learning by doing, and it’s often the most powerful way to learn. It’s also how a lot of the learning happens on the job.

0:20:17 Ramona Shaw: Let’s say skiing. You could watch others ski all day, but just because you watched doesn’t mean that you know how to do it. Watching others parent, watching others lead is very different than actually being a parent and actually being a leader or a manager or actually going back to the skiing, actually being on skis. Right? So for you, this means, you know, we can think about how we would handle certain situations, but then a really good way is to just expose ourselves to the challenge and being okay making mistakes.

0:20:49 Ramona Shaw: So volunteer for new projects or responsibilities. Raise your hand when there’s an opportunity to get promoted or to take on something new. Even if it feels like you might not quite be ready or it feels scary, the new experience in itself is a chance to learn and grow. Now, for your team, it’s the same thing. If you create a safe space where they can take on opportunities to learn new things and experiment with it, and then not being reprimanded if they make a mistake, of course, you know the high risk mistakes, you need to be there and sort of ensure that that doesn’t happen.

0:21:26 Ramona Shaw: But oftentimes we want to go help them. Even for small stuff. We see them struggle and we think we need to jump in and give them the answer or do it for them. No, that is all part of the experience. It’s not supposed to be all smooth. It’s supposed to feel like a challenge. And it’s supposed to be a little bit iterative, right? So let that be okay? And know that that’s part of learning. Now, the next way of learning, and the last one that I want to call out here, is implicit learning.

0:21:56 Ramona Shaw: This is sort of the ninja of learning. It happens without you even realizing it. It’s how you pick up on the unwritten rules of your workplace or you learn to read the mood in a room. As a manager, you’re probably doing this all the time without realizing it. How you’re paying attention to what people do and you’re starting to adapt the way that you communicate to them. It often can be facilitated by listening to the gut feeling that you get and leaning into that. So you might get a gut feeling like, huh, I think someone is, you know, a bit down or seems a bit demotivated or disengaged.

0:22:31 Ramona Shaw: And then leaning into that and asking questions to see if you are on the right track. That is sort of picking up data points and then learning as you go. Similar for your team, you know, it’s about picking up these unspoken cues and you want to be mindful of the vibe that you create on your team and what kind of implicit learning environment that you create. Because if you reprimand someone for making a mistake and then you start micromanaging, your team is implicitly learning that when they make a mistake, you’re going to jump in and sort of micromanage.

0:23:03 Ramona Shaw: So what they’ll do is avoid taking on more challenging things or when a mistake happens, they won’t share that with you. So these are all the different ways of learning, and there isn’t one better way than the other. They all happen somewhat simultaneously. And it’s for you to think about different types of learning and trying to figure out how can I foster more opportunities for myself and for my team to learn through one of these different forms to review those different learning types.

0:23:32 Ramona Shaw: Let’s use this analogy of cooking. If you learn to cook a new dish, associative learning is noticing that when you add spices, the food tastes better. Observational learning is to watch a cooking show or a cooking video. Or seeing your friend make a dish. Experiential learning is getting in the kitchen and actually trying to cook it yourself. And then implicit learning is sort of developing the feel for cooking over time, like knowing when the pan is hot enough, even without checking for its temperature.

0:24:06 Ramona Shaw: So as a manager, you want to use all different types of learning, like a MasterChef is using all different types of cooking techniques, and you want to create opportunities for your team to use all of these learning styles too. Now, of course, the one thing that we also need to pay attention to is not everyone learns the same way or learns as effectively through the different methods. So you offer a variety in learning experiences, and then you’ll see some people do a lot better with the experiential learning.

0:24:34 Ramona Shaw: Others do more so with the associative or the experiential associative or the observation or the observational learning. It’s a bit of a buffet. And everyone’s going to sort of choose what they like the most or what works best for them. Okay, now that we’ve covered the different types of learning, let’s talk about what can make learning easier or harder. So there are certain conditions that can foster a culture of learning for yourself and others, and then those that can hinder.

0:25:03 Ramona Shaw: The first one here that I want to call out is motivation. This is really the not so secret, secret sauce of learning. When you’re really interested in something, learning feels easy and fun. But when you’re not motivated, even simple things can feel like climbing a mountain. So as a manager, you want to find ways to boost motivation. It often comes from connecting the dots of why learning something new is important for their work or might even be important for whatever they want to do next in their career.

0:25:35 Ramona Shaw: If someone says, hey, I want to ultimately lead my own company, but right now I’m part of a startup, it’s like, okay, so you learning quality assurance of our processes or our product or code that will help you later when you have your own company and that you develop good quality products or processes and so forth, so you can help them see the why behind what they’re learning. I remember when I decided to make a career shift away from finance into the leadership development space.

0:26:06 Ramona Shaw: One of the questions that I entertained was, what is something that I never get tired of learning about? And for me, it was personal development, professional development, learning, leadership, human behaviors, neuroscience. Those were all the topics that I was craving and felt highly motivated to learn. So these are good indicators, and sometimes they come intrinsically and sometimes, especially as a manager, we might need to build a bit of a bridge of why is this what you’re learning here, relevant and useful for you so that they are more motivated to engage the next one. The second factor is attention.

0:26:42 Ramona Shaw: This is like a spotlight in your brain. Whatever the spotlight is pointing at, that’s what you’re learning. So in today’s world, there are so many things trying to grab our attention. Rights, emails, it’s notifications, it’s memes, social media, you name it. But when you need to learn something important, try to create a distraction free zone. Turn off your phones, find a quiet space to work to really engage with that information.

0:27:11 Ramona Shaw: Same for your team. Help them carve out dedicated learning time where they don’t get interrupted, have learning hours, have those conversations where everyone talks about that same create a block where you don’t schedule meetings, don’t send them urgent messages during that time slot with the intention for them to use that time to explore something or learn something. It might be a technical tool, it might be about a process, about an industry update, or about leadership or professional development overall. This is also one of the reasons why the self paced learning modules like a LinkedIn learning or Udemy that you might be using at work, they’re really fed through the same device that all these other distractions are coming through.

0:27:55 Ramona Shaw: So oftentimes we find people watching a video and within five minutes, suddenly they get distracted because an important email ended in their inbox and then they’re typing while the video is still playing. So in that moment that spotlight moved away from the learning into something else and so learning didn’t really take place. Third factor is the emotion. So our feelings actually play a pretty big role in learning when we’re happy and excited. We tend to learn better when we’re stressed or anxious. And most of us can definitely recall how that may have showed up as we went through our education or even at work.

0:28:34 Ramona Shaw: When we’re in these intense negative emotions, it is like running through mud. Everything just feels harder versus, you know, running on an open field. So when we’re trying to approach learning with curiosity and excitement and we see the reason why we’re learning and how we’re going to get something out of it, and we really place value and associate it with positive emotions, it will free us up to run more easily through that experience than when we feel stressed.

0:29:04 Ramona Shaw: Now sometimes we can’t really change that. We might be in a learning situation, but we have some heavy burdens on our shoulders. You know, take a few deep breaths, ground yourself in a moment. Try to calm yourself down before you engage in a learning activity similar for your team. If you notice your team is highly stressed, a moment to celebrate wins or celebrate progress, or have a sort of fun, light conversation, adding that levity before engaging in learning.

0:29:33 Ramona Shaw: The fourth out of these five factors, Social interactions. Humans are social creatures, and we often learn best when we’re learning with others and from others. It’s like how singing with a group is often easier, more fun than singing alone. So finding a learning group, a group of people who are interested in learning the same thing and sharing what you learn is a great way to reinforce teaching. Actually, what I find interesting is, you know, sometimes I research something and I land on Reddit and there are a lot of people who are learning new things and then have a dialogue with other people who are interested in the same topic and they comment forth and back about said topic on a Reddit thread.

0:30:16 Ramona Shaw: So social media can actually facilitate some of that. But whenever you do have an opportunity to meet people, you know, through zoom or through virtual meetings or in person, that social component is even stronger for your team. You could set up sort of a buddy system where people in groups learn a new skill together in our work, in our programs. And I’m going to go back here to the leadership accelerator.

0:30:41 Ramona Shaw: We have these small groups, cohorts of four to six managers that learn leadership skills together for that exact reason. Not only are we spending time to sort of reflect and think through what we’re learning, but we’re also having that social interaction where we see, oh, you know, the way that we think about this maybe similar or different than others, and that accelerates their learning process. The last factor I’m going to call out is the environment where and how we learn can also make a difference.

0:31:11 Ramona Shaw: So it’s like trying to read a book at a rock concert versus in a comfy chair by a fireplace is, you know, one is definitely easier than the other. So for yourself, think about what kind of environment helps you to learn best. For me, it’s definitely being by myself, not having things to do, or being on a timeline where I feel like I need to often check my clock, being in a comfortable space, having something to drink next to me, having my pen and paper and all that really creates a really positive experience for me.

0:31:43 Ramona Shaw: When I was at university, although I lived by myself and, you know, a quiet home, all the things that I needed, I love going to the library, sitting in the library, having this little tiny desk with the lamp, and I would just sit there for hours studying that kind of learning environment amongst other students really helped. We’re each different. For you to figure out, what is it? Do you need music? Do you need total silence? Do you actually like sort of a coffee shop where some of the things are happening?

0:32:13 Ramona Shaw: Similar for your team, try to see what kind of learning spaces they enjoy. Some probably prefer a busy collaborative area and others prefer a quiet corner. Give people options on how they want to learn or even engage with them in that conversation. How do you like learning? What helps you to learn certain things and then encourage them to make use of those. I’m going to go back to that gardening example. As a manager, you’re really like a gardener, trying to create the best conditions for your team’s learning to flourish. You also planting those seeds and then helping those seeds grow.

0:32:49 Ramona Shaw: And just like different plans need different care, different people may also need different learning conditions. The key is that you experiment, that you check in with them and you find what works best for you personally. And then again on that note of the team to figure out, encourage them to use whatever works best for them. So remember, creating the right conditions for learning is just as important as the content being learned.

0:33:12 Ramona Shaw: So I know this was a lot of information, but to wrap it all up, what’s really key here for yourself and for your team is to set specific learning goals and to not just have a goal, but to also know, like, why am I learning that? In order to foster that motivation and enthusiasm for learning it. What will I be better at? How is this helping me in my future career? Or is it helping me now in this role in order to be more successful?

0:33:37 Ramona Shaw: Then think about how you learn best, how you can leverage a number of different tools and learning styles, and then how can you create an environment that fosters that learning? So as you think about goal setting or professional development for your team, you know, at the time that this episode goes live, many of us are starting to think about goals for the next year, for 2025. And as you think about these goals and the reason for why you want to set these goals, then also have a conversation or think for yourself.

0:34:08 Ramona Shaw: How am I going to apply this? What are the different formats? Am I going to shadow someone? Am I going to sort of create roundtable conversations or peer conversations? Am I going to write about it? Am I going to record myself and review it? Where do I build in these feedback loops in order to then take that Lego piece and not just add it on top of what I already have, but to reconstruct that Lego masterpiece in the best possible way and then for yourself, but also with your team to ensure that you have regular check ins to see how it’s going, what’s working, what isn’t working, and how much on track you are in achieving your goals.

0:34:48 Ramona Shaw: One of the things that I’ve noticed for myself recently is how often I do things for the sake of doing it without really checking in. Is this really getting me the outcome that I want? Just because I said I’m going to, you know, apply a certain behavior? It’s the behavior is not the end game. The behavior is supposed to be something that I do or a routine or a habit in or did you achieve something else?

0:35:10 Ramona Shaw: But am I actually making progress towards achieving that end goal or am I just doing the habit for the sake of the habit? And yes, you know, I love the habit. This gives me some kind of routine or consistency. But again, it’s, it’s really taking a step back and reflecting on it. And as we learn and grow we need to do that often. I hope this was helpful. I also suggest sharing this with your team as you think about learning and growth so that all of you have the same language and understanding of how to foster a culture and an environment that’s conducive to learning and growth. And if you’re interested in joining one of our programs that are really designed with a lot of this information in mind and it’s also the reason why our programs have such positive results and you can read that on our website arcova.org

0:35:59 Ramona Shaw: under Client Results and how we are developing leaders and the growth and the results that they’re achieving. So if you’re interested to really lean into all of that in the coming year, email us@contactarcova.org or check out the show notes for the link to schedule a strategy call and talk through what options might be best for you. And with that, have a great week and I’ll talk to you next time. If you enjoyed this episode, then check out two other awesome resources to help you become a leader people love to work with.

0:36:28 Ramona Shaw: This includes a free masterclass on how to successfully lead as a new manager. Check it out @archova.org/ masterclass. The second resource is my best selling book the Confident and Competent New Manager how to quickly rise to success in your first leadership role. Check it out @archova.org/books or head on over to Amazon and grab your copy there. You can find all those links in the show notes down below.