Applying What You've Learned

Want to know the key to getting the most out of anything you’re learning, including all of this leadership stuff?

It’s actually quite simple. But it’s kind of tough, too.

“Education is nice, but application is better,” Adamchik said. In this video, he talked about why you need to do more than just learn about leadership skills, whether it’s on BuildWitt Training, through other courses, or from leadership books. 

You want a return on investment.

When it comes to being a leader, being here on a platform like BuildWitt is a good thing. But to be a better leader, you need to do more than just learn about good leadership skills.

Getting to know these different leadership concepts is step one of the process. But you need to move on to step two: you need to do the things you’ve been taught. Without application, it all just stays in your head, where it doesn’t do anyone any good.  

“You want to get a return on your investment, whether that investment’s your time or your money or both,” Adamchik said. “The expectation in business is always to get a return on investment. So how do you do that? If you want a return, you have to apply what you’ve learned.”

Take what you’ve learned, and put it to work.

So just how do you go about applying what you’ve learned? Adamchik offered some suggestions.

Action planning. You’ve heard Adamchik talk about action planning all through his series of talks here on BuildWitt. Why? Because it works. So get started today: decide what you’re going to do, write it out, and then do it. 

Be accountable. And don’t forget to tell someone you’re going to do it — it could be one of your peers, or maybe your boss — and ask them to check in on you later, to see how it went. It’s a great way to grab some accountability for yourself.

Re-watch and re-read. Go back and watch everything on this platform again. Re-read the written material. Go over your notes. Take new notes. Doing this will help the concepts sink in deeper. 

Reach out to your instructors. You’ve probably got questions. Get them answered. Hold conversations in this space that’s been created specifically to help you become a better leader. “Give me a call,” Adamchik said. “Seriously, I love these conversations.”

“Anything worth doing, is worth doing ______”

Fill in that blank. What did you come up with?

Chances are, the first word that comes to your mind is “well.” Because that’s the old adage, isn’t it? Anything worth doing, is worth doing well. 

It’s something we’ve all heard a billion times before. 

But Adamchik offered a different take on it. “Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly,” he said. “Why? Here’s the thing. Before you can do something well, you must do it poorly. Because there’s this thing called a learning curve.”

When you start learning anything new, you’re at the very start of this learning curve. After all, you’ve never done this new thing before. “And anytime you try something new,” Adamchik pointed out, “you’re going to be worse at it first, before you’re better at it.” 

That learning curve is the way you get better at something new. And this means it’s okay to do things poorly when you first start putting your newly learned leadership skills into practice. 

Maybe those first few hard conversations are really awkward. Maybe you miss a micro goal here and there. It’s okay. It’s all part of the learning process. 

Takeaways.

Getting the necessary education is always a good thing. But you need to apply what you’ve learned, too. 

The key to learning to be a better leader is to start applying what you’ve learned. “You want to start doing things differently than you’ve done before,” Adamchik said, “and as you start doing this, you’ll start getting better at being a leader. Just remember, anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly.”