I have noticed something very strange about senior level leaders.
The higher they rise in office, the lower their willingness to learn becomes.
A young trainee attends every seminar eagerly with notebook in hand.
A middle manager attends because attendance is compulsory.
A senior executive attends only if there is business class travel, a five star buffet and a photograph in the papers. And if there is a “life coach” conducting the session, many senior leaders suddenly discover they have an urgent meeting elsewhere.
Because, many honestly believe they know everything already. One gentleman told me proudly, “Bob, after thirty years in this industry nobody can teach me anything!” Five minutes later he asked his secretary how to unmute himself on Zoom.
My wife is a medical doctor with decades of experience. Yet every few years she has to attend CMEs which are Continuing Medical Education programmes. If she does not attend enough of them, she cannot continue her registration.
Imagine a senior doctor sitting and listening to lectures again.
Suppose she stood up dramatically and announced, “I know enough medicine already! Bring me my stethoscope and move aside!”
The hospital would probably move aside permanently.
Medicine keeps changing. New techniques come in. New cures are discovered. New inventions arrive. And because she keeps learning, the hospital often calls her for high-risk patients.
Experience combined with fresh learning becomes invaluable.
But some leaders behave differently. They attend a seminar with the expression of a man being taken for a root canal treatment.
They sit in the last row. Fold their arms. And whenever the speaker says something intelligent, they nod sadly as if civilisation itself is collapsing.
The world is changing at frightening speed. Technology changes every few months. Communication changes. Leadership changes. Even children nowadays know more about phones than their grandparents, parents and sometimes the mobile company itself.
But many senior people still operate with knowledge collected during the Doordarshan era.
The problem is not age.
The problem is ego.
Some people stop learning because learning requires humility. To learn, you must first admit you do not know everything. And for some senior leaders, that is harder than climbing Mount Everest in bathroom slippers.
The truly wise never stop learning.
They ask questions.
They listen.
They attend programmes.
They read.
They stay curious.
Because the day we stop learning, we start becoming outdated.
Soon we are proudly demonstrating fax machines while the rest of the world is discussing artificial intelligence.
So dear chairmen, MDs and senior corporate leaders, attend that workshop. Join that coaching programme. Listen to younger people too.
Do not become one of the Wright brothers proudly polishing your tiny aircraft while everybody else is flying comfortably in jets! Because one day, when seniors are being retained, the question asked will be, ‘are you a Wright senior or the right senior to hold on to..!”
The Author conducts an online, eight session Writers and Speakers Course. If you’d like to join, do send a thumbs-up to WhatsApp number 9892572883 or send a message to bobsbanter@gmail.com
