Opportunities to improve your understanding of your leadership capability are numerous. All leadership takes place in a context and it is helpful to know the context of your own leadership and the opportunities that are available specific to your own development. Knowing how you like to learn is helpful.
How People Learn
Honey & Mumford (1986) used the work of David Kolb to describe how people often prefer to learn in different ways. Knowing your preference is useful as choosing a method that best suits you can be motivational.
Activists invole themselves fully without bias in new experiences and revel in new challenges.
Reflectors stand back and observe new experiences from new angles.
Theorists adapt and apply their observations in the form of logical theories. They tend to be perfectionists.
Pragmatists are keen to try out new ideas, approaches and concepts to see if they work.
Which of these ways of learning do you prefer? Understanding your style can help you to develop better by choosing methods that inspire you. It also helps trainers and coaches to adjust their style to the needs of different learners.
People learn in all sorts of ways, some of them planned and some totally unplanned. Individualised development suggests that you can learn from all kinds of experiences, especially those that best suit your own way of learning, not just in formal training courses. Learning opportunities include other less formal, more learner-friendly situations such as work shadowing or job swapping.
Trends in Professional Development
Where can you go for information about current trends in professional development?
You can keep up to date with developments in your industry by reading the business press, following the blogs of commentators and thought leaders and listening to business programmes on radio and TV. More valid sources include professional or business publications or their websites.
You may have a Human Resources or Training Department at work which can provide advice and guidance. Professional bodies provide a wealth of information about various development activities in their specialist fields.
There are many offers of ‘bite size’ learning activities which can be used as evidence of your Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Your local college, university, adult education facility or library should also be able to give you reliable information on development opportunities.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Formal and Informal Learning
In practice, distinction between types of learning is often more fuzzy than these descriptions suggest. Formal and informal learning are very different. Each has its strengths in certain situations.
With prescribed objectives, structured learning activities, and built-in feedback, one or more work-related responsibilities can be acquired in a brief period of time through formal learning. The lack of context means that it is the learner’s responsibility to make connections to their own work situation.
