Becoming Coachable: How Great Leaders Develop Great Leaders by Embracing Continuous Learning

The greatest athletes in the world have all had coaches, even in their prime. Lebron James, Serena Williams, Leo Messi–all continued to be coached for the duration of their careers. Because even when you achieve greatness, there is always more to learn. So, why then, do so many business leaders and managers stop learning when they earn their leadership positions? According to Kevin Wilde, there are about 6 reasons leaders drop the learning habit, and a lack of coachability holds them back from truly becoming great.

Kevin has had an illustrious career in learning and development. He started with 17 years at General Electric, developing all the leaders at the company and spending time at the Crotonville Leadership Institute. His next 17 years were at General Mills as CLO, where he helped earn the company recognition by Fortune for its Leadership Development program. All in all, very few people have spent as much time with as many leaders as Kevin has. Today, he shares his insights for developing and becoming more coachable leaders.

Join us as we discuss:

• Why many new leaders lose their habit of learning
• How actionable, honest feedback is reliant on the development of genuine relationships
• The importance of finding truth-tellers, or trusted advisors at work who will give it to you straight
• How to introduce coachability to a large cohort of leaders and encourage better reception of feedback
• How to identify and remove your dismissive responses to feedback
• The psychological steps (and strategies for) habit formation and breaking

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Episode Resources

Kevin Wilde on LinkedIn
Kevin Wilde websitegetAbstract websitegetAbstract on LinkedIn

L&D In Action: Winning Strategies from Learning Leaders releases every other Tuesday, bringing you conversations from the best minds in Learning and Development.

Previous guests include: Simon Brown of Novartis, Ravin Jesuthasan of Mercer, Michael Lee Stallard of Connection Culture Group, Michelle Weise of Rise and Design and Dr. Nigel Paine of Learning Now TV.

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