This is newsletter #32 in the series. If you have missed prior newsletters, and are enjoying the series, we encourage you to take advantage of complete Leadership and Life Skills Program. Click on the coupon at the bottom of this page.

If you thought that once you received your diploma, degree, or certification you were finished with education, think again! Education is constant and will remain so throughout your career. Changes in technology result in changes to every career field and your commitment to learning and implementing new ideas is vital. If you find yourself falling behind (and there are a variety of reasons that might cause that to happen), convince yourself to get back on track and recommit yourself to learning new things. Be willing to take a class if necessary. Remember that no one is perfect, not even leaders, so if something happens that causes you to fall behind, just pick up where you left off and continue on. Failure to keep up with current business, social, and technological changes is directly linked to failure. The better-educated individual is the one who’ll stand the best chance of achieving success in his or her career.

Knowledge is power and is the result of education and training. Your ability to apply your knowledge influences your earning power. An electrician, for example, who’s never taken training classes can’t contribute very much to an organization; nor can they capitalize on opportunities. Be humble. Learning doesn’t stop when you achieve your goal of completing your apprenticeship. At the very least you’ll need to learn of changes to the National Electrical Code^® every three years in order to stay current in your field.

Whether you’re on the job, or in a social environment, there’s something new you can learn. Embrace every opportunity to increase your knowledge of your trade or enhance your skills so you can increase your productivity, and then qualify for advancement. Take a course at least once a year in something that will improve your leadership skills. Compare what you’ve done with the goals that you’ve set. Ask yourself, “What technical or personal skills or certifications have I acquired lately?” If you don’t have the latest skills and don’t let your employer, supervisor, or potential employers know, then you’re robbing yourself of the ability to truly be successful.

If we never read a book on business or personal development, where can we expect to be years from now? How can we expect to grow? Leaders actively participate in life-long learning, even if it’s simply a matter of reading ten pages of a good book each day. But there’s more information out there than any one person can keep up with. A lot of it will provide us with the knowledge we need to perform effectively. To better manage the time you spend reading, learn to read efficiently; skim the table of contents and directories, gloss over the headlines, glance over the chapter and section titles, find and highlight what’s pertinent to you, and then spend time reading that material in depth. You can always go back and fill in the details when you have time. Learn to read more quickly by taking a speed-reading course.

Are you one of those people who have a mountain of letters, notes, magazines, and books waiting for you to sort through and read? It may look hopeless and the first thought many of us have is to just throw it all out—it takes less time and will certainly eliminate the “mountain.” If you’re about to tackle that mountain (or are trying to avoid it altogether), here are a few helpful suggestions to better manage what you read:

• Develop a list of books, magazines, and newspapers that you want to read, and read them first. Set goals and reasons for reading each source of information. Establish a year-long reading plan, and then follow through. Read with a purpose.
• Eliminate everything you really don’t need to read. This not only helps to save time, but it makes the piles look smaller, which is encouraging.
• Cancel subscriptions to magazines you don’t read or need—it saves you money and time. Get off mailing lists for information that’s not necessary or enjoyable for you to read. Yes, enjoyable! Be sure to take some time in your day to relax and pursue your own interests.
• Keep a constant check of what you read and evaluate its importance to you. If you don’t need it, throw it away.
• Put deadlines on your reading materials. If you haven’t read those magazines in over two months, you probably never will—throw them out!
• Keep a file folder of articles you want to re-read or refer to. Just tear out what you need, rather than keeping the entire magazine. Learn to skim over these and circle the ideas you find important and want to remember.
• Take your reading on the road. Set up a reading folder that’s portable so you can read prior to appointments, or while waiting in a doctor’s office. Better yet, catch up by reading your books and magazines on your tablet or phone.
• If there’s information on a topic that you need, go to the web. Search for that topic and read what you need to know online without purchasing and storing unnecessary publications.
• If there’s a particular topic you’d like to be informed about, set up a Google Alert for your email account. You can enter a subject or topic on which you want to be current, and every day you’ll get an automatically generated email with a list of all relevant articles. Read those that interest you, and then delete them.
  

Take advantage of technology. Put your books, work, spreadsheets, and reports on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, and sync them, so that when you read something or take action on something, the results are reflected on all your devices. eBooks and electronic subscriptions provide the ability for you to read when and wherever the opportunity presents itself by accessing them on your cell-phone, tablet, or laptop. Sometimes we can go overboard with new technology and it can actually impede our progress. There’s a lot of research that shows we retain much more of what we read and study when we’re holding the actual paper in our hands as opposed to looking at a screen. Some of us might conduct our business on computers but prefer our educational reading to be on printed media.

Learning how to ask questions is one of the most powerful tools a leader can have. Find a mentor, ask lots of questions, and make a commitment to learn as much as you can from them. Talk to colleagues, employees, and customers frequently to learn information about your business, and find out what’s really going on in the process, so you’ll be ready for future changes.

Learning and training should never end. Reading, continuing education, and seminars are all important if you truly wish to be a successful leader. You must keep up to the best of your ability, even if it means setting aside an hour or two a week to browse the internet for new developments in your field. Failure to keep up has been directly linked to the failure of many people.

Your time is limited. Make every moment count!

The above content is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills textbook.

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