Lifelong learning is essential for business success – 80% of CEOs say the need for new skills is their most pressing business challenge, while professional development opportunities are the second most important determinant in workplace satisfaction for employees, Harvard Business Review reveals.
A recent survey of 400 small business owners by Vox Media also found “commitment to lifelong learning” to be the top quality cited as the key to business success. So, by working to continually increase your knowledge base and skill sets, you can better unlock your potential as an entrepreneur and adapt to challenges within an ever-changing business environment.
Foster a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset – defined as a virtually-limitless ability to learn new things – is key to business success. For example, when Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft, he worked hard to foster a growth-mindset company culture that embraced fresh, new ideas, learning, and innovation.
The result? In just five years, Microsoft outperformed the S&P 500 index by over as much as 80%. And the good news is anyone can develop a growth mindset. In fact, research has proven intelligence, skills, and expertise can be fostered through effort, practice, and hard work – meaning, contrary to popular belief, these qualities aren’t static or predetermined at birth.
The brain can be trained and strengthened just like a muscle, and when it learns something new, new connections between neurons are made. In one study, for instance, the world’s top ten champion chess players were asked to perform an IQ test.
Surprisingly, three in ten players were found to have an IQ lower than average. This unexpected result highlights the importance of practice and perseverance over IQ when it comes to mastering new skills beyond your current abilities (indeed, these chess players had devoted around 10,000-50,000 hours to honing their skills).
People with a growth mindset typically understand the importance of dedication and hard work plays in achieving their maximum potential. They also regard challenges not as something to hide away from but rather as valuable opportunities for personal growth.
Ultimately, they’re usually higher achievers than people with fixed mindsets – these people typically consider their learning ability to be determined by genetics, education, and available learning opportunities. If someone with a fixed mindset thinks they can’t do something, they’ll usually avoid the challenge.
Indeed, when it comes to their perception of their ability to learn new skills and information, people usually have either a fixed or growth mindset, according to Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck. Your mindset plays a key role in how much effort you put into learning, and how much you’re able to learn, as well as determines your ability to handle criticism, and accept and recover from failure.
So, it’s therefore important to ensure you cultivate a healthy, growth-oriented mindset that supports your continual learning and development. Start by taking the time to consider the nature of your own mindset. If it’s holding you back, think about why that is.
It’s essential to understand you have the power to choose the attitude you take toward learning new information and practicing different skills. If negative thoughts stemming from your fixed mindset start to creep in as you embrace new learning opportunities, listen to these thoughts without judgment – but, don’t let them stop you. Instead, replace negative thoughts with positive ones in line with a growth mindset.
Boost Your Performance
You can’t learn anything new without allowing yourself to leave your comfort zone. Once you exit your comfort zone to work on new skills and tasks, you enter what’s called the learning zone. Although leaving your comfort zone can be stressful, stress can actually be beneficial to your performance – up to a point.
According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, there’s a relationship between an increase in stress and an improvement in performance. When people start working on something new, they experience a small amount of stress that motivates them to improve their performance.
Yet, if stress levels become too high, they cause anxiety, which ends up hampering performance. So, although leaving your comfort zone to learn new things is essential for growth, be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. Keep in mind it can even be beneficial to study subjects outside your day-to-day work.
In fact, studying a variety of subjects can help improve cognitive versatility and flexibility, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. If you’re interested in chemistry, for example, Proprep provides in-depth courses created by expert tutors to support you on your learning journey.
Lifelong Learning Helps Take Control of Your Career
Lifelong learning can give you greater control over the direction of your career and business. So, take time to devise your own learning goals. Look at your current skill sets and knowledge base, and identify any existing gaps.
You can then rank your learning goals by importance and work on achieving these goals accordingly – the hard work and perseverance involved in this will also help you develop a competitive advantage. It’s also important to have a trusted mentor available to support you on your learning journey.
In fact, 88% of business owners who have a mentor call them “invaluable”. So, for instance, get in touch with stakeholders and ask them if they’d be willing to provide you with feedback on your work. Feedback – whether it’s from stakeholders, clients, customers, or peers – is essential for growth, development, and achieving your full potential. Receiving straight feedback will let you know what you’re doing well and where you need to improve.
Similarly, don’t forget to track your learning and development progress. You’ll want to take time to assess your progress every so often to stay on track toward reaching your overall goals.
The importance of lifelong learning for business success shouldn’t be underestimated. By helping you foster a growth mindset, boosting performance, and taking control of your career, lifelong learning and development are essential for driving innovation and staying ahead of the competition.
