Experience is a vast territory. Fortunately, it is well-charted terrain. Since its inception in 1970 the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has researched the role of experience in leadership development. Along the way, CCL has identified some key principles that focus you on what matters most in becoming an experience-driven leader. We've also uncovered some common misunderstandings that might lead you down the wrong path.
Three fundamental truths form the basis for understanding and practicing experience-driven leadership:
- EXPERIENCE MATTERS—LEADERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
- EXPERIENCE IS VARIABLE—NOT ALL EXPERIENCES ARE EQUAL
- EXPERIENCE IS THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE AT ONCE
These overarching principles reinforce the mindset and practices essential to becoming an experience-driven leader. As you set goals and create a plan for development, we invite you to revisit these truths to inform and support your journey.
EXPERIENCE MATTERS—LEADERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
Not so long ago, little was known about the origins of successful leadership. A variety of innate abilities and underlying traits were examined, but no single one stood out as a definitive answer to explain what led to greatness in some and unrealized potential in others. Gradually, the focus shifted away from the notion that some leaders are “born with it” and we only needed to identify those with “the right stuff.”
But if great leadership is not the product of some natural-born talent, then what is its source?
A breakthrough in our understanding came when CCL researchers posed a straightforward question to a large group of successful executives. They asked them to recall specific events in their careers that had an important effect on how they currently led and to identify what they learned from these events.
The insights that emerged from this landmark research, called the “Lessons of Experience” study, have left a lasting imprint on the study and practice of leadership development. The practical knowledge gained from the Lessons of Experience and the many related studies that continue to this day form the basis for much of what we'll share with you in this book.
Here are four key points that reinforce that, when it comes to developing as a leader, it's our experiences—and what we make of them—that matter most.
EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER
Score one for conventional wisdom. CCL research definitively shows that we learn more about becoming an effective leader from our experiences on the job than any other source of development. More than we get from specific guidance from bosses, colleagues, coaches, and others. More than what we receive from formal development opportunities such as corporate training and academic courses.
Experiences that stretch us and get us out of our comfort zones yield the greatest benefits for learning, development, and growth. That's what sticks with us and makes a difference when we're faced with altogether new challenges. If you're really looking to learn, the prescription is clear:
MAKE THESE CHALLENGING LEARNING EXPERIENCES A PART OF YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE.
THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE IS UNIVERSAL
The conclusions from the initial Lessons of Experience research were based on studying a rather specific population, almost entirely white male executives from North America. So naturally, the question that comes to mind is, “If that doesn't describe me, are the results still relevant?”
The answer is, yes. Several years of studies around the globe, with individuals of varying age, gender, and organizational role, confirm that the results of the original study apply to everyone. The power of learning from experience transcends any given demographic or line on the map. It's just a fundamental quality of how we learn. Learning from experience is for anybody and everybody.
YOUR EXPERIENCE IS UNIQUELY YOURS
Whether you're conscious of it or not, you are acquiring potentially valuable learning experiences throughout your career (more on the “potential” aspect in a moment). Some of those experiences, particularly those that take place in a team setting, such as a new product launch or an organizational task force, are shared by others. But some, such as coaching a struggling employee or restoring confidence in a disappointed client, are likely to be yours and yours alone.
As you progress in your career, you'll acquire your own unique portfolio of experiences. It may bear similarities to others', but it can't be duplicated. Think of it like your own experience DNA or fingerprint. That's very powerful because you can mine and apply your experience in a way that no one else can. And if you've acquired truly valuable learning experiences and you've made the most of them, you also have unique advantages in leveraging that accumulated experience.
SOME PEOPLE LEARN MORE FROM EXPERIENCE THAN OTHERS
Just because you've had exposure to an experience that is rich in opportunities for learning doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're going to learn from it. Failing to fully appreciate the potential learning opportunity in an experience happens more often than you might realize: going through the motions, phoning it in, checking the boxes, playing it safe. Experience is only what you make of it.
Rather than all or nothing, most of us fall somewhere in the middle in terms of how we avail ourselves of experience. In most learning situations, we pick up some fundamental principles or rules of thumb, and we can say that we've grown a bit, but then we're on to the next experience. An unfortunate few people—and one or two examples likely come to mind pretty quickly for you—go through just about everything more or less unchanged.
BUT THEN THERE'S ALSO THE RELATIVE FEW WHO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THEIR LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES AND OFTEN COME AWAY SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED.
Many factors contribute to the ability to learn from experience. Much of the rest of this book will introduce you to some of the essential skills that will help you become more savvy at learning from experience and then applying those lessons to help you take on new challenges.
“LIFE IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE, ONLY IF YOU LEARN.”
— YOGI BERRA
EXPERIENCE IS VARIABLE—NOT ALL EXPERIENCES ARE EQUAL
As just pointed out, people differ in their ability to learn from experience. And their experiences differ, too. If you become adept at sizing up which situations provide the greatest opportunity for learning and also teach you specific things you need to develop, then you will better position yourself to seize and make the most of those experiences.
Oftentimes it's the experience that at first glance seems unappealing, even downright scary, that actually has the most to offer. Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors Company, shared this advice with up-and-coming leaders in her LinkedIn blog:
“IN MY CASE, SOME OF MY MOST IMPORTANT CAREER LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES CAME FROM SITUATIONS IN WHICH I INITIALLY THOUGHT, ‘YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?’
Like supervising a team at an assembly plant early in my career, or being asked, as an engineer, to lead Human Resources. That pang of fear you get when you're given a challenging opportunity is a good sign. See it as a motivator and an opportunity to learn new skills, work with new people, and expand your experience.”
You don't have to rely on intuition or on “closing your eyes and hoping for the best” to seek, identify, and seize the best learning experiences. You just have to know what to look for.
DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES TEACH DIFFERENT THINGS
Learning experiences fall into distinct categories. Depending on the particular type of experience, different lessons are more likely to emerge. Increases in job scope might improve your ability to handle complexity, make more high-stakes decisions, and manage your work-life balance. A horizontal move might sharpen your political savvy and your ability to look at things from different perspectives. Tackling a turnaround might give you a better understanding of communicating a vision, managing resistance to change, and dealing with ambiguity.
Before you enter any new experience, take a moment to contemplate what the experience is likely to teach you and how that might add to your development. Don't worry that the experience might be difficult or that you might not ever be good at it. Just focus on the potential learning and what you could gain from it.
QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE MATTERS
Some experiences are richer in their potential for yielding significant and lasting learning. Nine components contribute to the developmental value of an experience, including unfamiliar responsibilities, high stakes, influence without authority, and working across cultures. The more of these elements that are present in any one experience, the greater the developmental value or “heat” associated with the experience. These elements will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 19, “Seeking Experience.”
Of course, feeling the heat isn't necessarily appealing. But it's when you're well out of your comfort zone and wondering if you've gotten yourself into more than you can handle that you're actually giving yourself the greatest opportunity to stretch and grow. It may involve some struggle and even setbacks in the short term, but your willingness to embrace the learning experience will lead to significant gains over time.
QUANTITY OF EXPERIENCE MATTERS
The more high-quality learning experiences you acquire, the more potential lessons you can accumulate. Some people are only fortunate enough to have a few standout learning experiences in their careers. The lessons learned from these experiences often serve them well across a variety of circumstances but eventually reach the point of diminishing returns. On the other hand, constantly adding to your stockpile of lessons gives you a seemingly unlimited supply to draw from and apply. Of course, steadily acquiring high-quality learning experiences and continually willing yourself to get out of your comfort zone require some effort.
In addition to the total number of learning experiences you acquire, you also want to consider whether you've accumulated repeated experiences in one of the distinct learning categories. This might seem redundant, but multiple experiences in the same category can add depth and nuance to the lessons you've acquired. Just because experiences occupy the same category doesn't mean they are alike. Just think about the different skills and insights you might acquire from an international assignment in Latin America followed by an international assignment in Southeast Asia.
DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE MATTERS
If you've been fortunate enough to acquire a large number of high-quality learning experiences, then the last thing to focus on is making sure those experiences are as varied and distinct as possible. You'll never succeed in “doing it all” but the more diversity in experiences that you encounter, the bigger and broader will be the web of lessons created by these experiences.
COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT EXPERIENCE
Your ability to grow and develop through your experiences is strengthened by your understanding of the fundamental truths outlined in this chapter. But you can gain even more from your experience if you are also aware of some relevant misunderstandings that can trip you up. Here are three of the most common and important misunderstandings about experience.
MISUNDERSTANDING #1
EXPERIENCE IS WHAT'S ON YOUR RESUME
Thus far, we've only talked about learning and development in the context of experiences that take place on the job. But work isn't the only place where valuable learning can occur. In fact, many individuals who excel at learning from experience will tell you that some of their most valuable lessons learned have come from experiences they've had outside of work.
Just because learning takes place in a setting other than work doesn't mean that the lessons can't be successfully adapted to a work challenge. One individual shared the rather gut-wrenching experience he went through in trying to mediate a family dispute over who should inherit an uncle's property. Through the experience, he learned a lot about dealing with diverse stakeholders under very emotional circumstances in which there was a lot to lose. He later found that the insights and skills he gained from this experience proved quite valuable in negotiating multiparty contracts when interests diverged and emotions ran high.
As we mentioned earlier, different on-the-job experiences teach different things. In addition, CCL research shows that the lessons learned from any experience can potentially fall into three different worlds: the World of Work, the World of People, and the World of Self. The lessons that teach us about the self are sometimes the most difficult. They often stem from a particular category of experience we call hardships. We'll talk more about those later.
MISUNDERSTANDING #3
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE IS AN EVENT
Learning from experience is an ongoing process, not an event. Because of the way that past and present interact, learning from experience never ends. Different perspectives emerge over time. Also, a lesson isn't truly learned until it's applied. Until you can apply the insights you've gained from your previous experiences, their true value lies unrealized.
EXPERIENCE IS THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE AT ONCE
This last truth is a little more abstract than the others but no less important or practical. Your experience isn't limited to the space and time in which it occurred. It has a past, a present, and a future, and the lines between them can blur.
If you appreciate all three of these aspects, you are better positioned to actively leverage your experience and make the most of it rather than just letting it “happen” to you. You also avoid getting stuck in the past, becoming lost in the present, or forever dreaming about the future.
“IF WHAT YOU DID YESTERDAY SEEMS BIG, YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TODAY.”
— MIKHAIL GORBACHEV
THE VALUE OF PAST EXPERIENCE IS DYNAMIC, NOT STATIC
Past experience doesn't just get hardwired and have one set of lessons or meanings attached to it. It can be revisited and reflected upon, leading to new insights. Subsequent experiences can bring new perspective to what happened before and cause you to reframe what you've learned. Sometimes an important lesson from an experience lays dormant until an altogether new experience triggers an “aha” that makes you say, “I guess I knew that all along!”
PAST EXPERIENCE AND PRESENT EXPERIENCE ARE IN CONSTANT INTERPLAY
Just as current experiences can cause us to look at the past in a new light, so can past situations add to our understanding of the challenges we encounter today. This dynamic keeps your perspective from becoming rigid and narrow. So try to avoid notions of “keeping the past the past” or “living completely in the moment”—allow the two to mix it up and shape one another.
YOUR FUTURE EXPERIENCE CAN BE SHAPED
You can influence the direction your experience follows, if you so choose. Because much of our learning and development takes place during challenging job assignments, we sometimes overlook our own ability to identify and pursue the experiences that are going to contribute to our growth. Instead, we wait for experiences to come our way (or worse, lay low to avoid them).
Sure, an international assignment isn't something that you can make happen just by walking into your boss's office and asking for it. On the other hand, leading a task force, or volunteering to start up a community of practice, or mentoring a younger colleague are all things that can be made possible without too much back-and-forth.
Once you've identified the general type of experience that will provide you with the right learning opportunities, begin to think strategically about which opportunities you can pursue most quickly and easily. You might be surprised as to how many quality experiences are at your fingertips.
The essence of these truths and misunderstandings is that experience is of immense value to your development as a leader but only if you choose to make the most of it. That is what this book will help you do. Next, we'll introduce you to four fundamental skills that will help you rediscover your past, seize the present, and shape your future.
TRUTH #1
EXPERIENCE MATTERS–LEADERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
- EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER.
- THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE IS UNIVERSAL.
- YOUR EXPERIENCE IS UNIQUELY YOURS.
- SOME PEOPLE LEARN MORE FROM EXPERIENCE THAN OTHERS.
TRUTH #2
EXPERIENCE IS VARIABLE—NOT ALL EXPERIENCES ARE EQUAL
- DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES TEACH DIFFERENT THINGS.
- QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE MATTERS.
- QUANTITY OF EXPERIENCE MATTERS.
- DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE MATTERS.
TRUTH #3
EXPERIENCE IS THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE AT ONCE
- THE VALUE OF PAST EXPERIENCE IS DYNAMIC, NOT STATIC.
- PAST EXPERIENCE AND PRESENT EXPERIENCE ARE IN CONSTANT INTERPLAY.
- YOUR FUTURE EXPERIENCE CAN BE ACTIVELY SHAPED.
Since CCL first conducted its Lessons of Experience research, it has carried out many follow-up studies to delve further into our understanding of how experience shapes leaders' development. If you'd like to dive deeper into what we've learned, we recommend the following:
McCall, M. W., Jr., Lombardo, M. M., & Morrison, A. M. (1988). The lessons of experience: How successful executives develop on the job. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Morrison, A. M., White, R. P., & Van Velsor, E. (1992). Breaking the glass ceiling: Can women reach the top of America's largest corporations? Reading, PA: Addison-Wesley.
Van Velsor, E., & Hughes, M. W. (1990). Gender difference in the development of managers: How women managers learn from experience. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Wilson, M. S. (2010). Developing tomorrow's leaders today: Insights from corporate India. Singapore: Wiley Asia.
Wilson, M. S., Van Velsor, E., Chandrasekar, A., & Criswell, C. (2011). Grooming top leaders: Cultural perspectives from China, India, Singapore, and the United States. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
CCL has also published material for human resource executives and others who are looking to approach experience-driven leadership development from an organizational perspective. The following titles offer a number of practical insights and tools from CCL as well as industry and academia:
McCauley, C. D., DeRue, D. S., Yost, P. R., & Taylor S. (Eds.). (2014). Experience-driven leader development. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
McCauley, C. D., & McCall, M. W., Jr. (Eds.). (2014). Using experience to develop leadership talent. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Wilson, M. S., & Chandrasekar, N. A. (2014). Experience explorer: Facilitator's guide set. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership