What Are You Learning Right Now?
Lifelong learning isn’t optional—it’s essential leadership.
Recently, during a job interview—yes, I’m still looking, in case you know of any opportunities—I was asked in what ways I’m proactive. I talked about planning, anticipating, and the importance of good communication. All true. But what I forgot to mention is a core belief of mine: we are all lifelong learners. There is always more we can know, more we can understand, more we can question.
To me, the mark of a good leader isn’t just that they keep learning. It’s that they try to anticipate what’s on the horizon—and pursue the knowledge that will help them meet it. The goal isn’t to know more than your team. It’s to stay nimble enough to think ahead with clarity and confidence.
For me, that belief in continuous learning has shown up again and again throughout my career. It’s meant digging into income reporting rules when our newsroom was uncovering illegal double-dipping by county sheriffs. It meant learning about addiction recovery systems when we covered the opioid epidemic—so I could support our journalists with empathy and clarity. And it meant getting under the hood of new social media publishing platforms so I could better understand what our digital teams were grappling with.
None of this made me an expert. But it made me a better manager, coach, and colleague—and maybe even a better person.
I loved this recent quote from PBS President Paula Kerger in her New York Times interview:
Q: What are you trying to learn more about right now?
A: “From a business standpoint, I’m trying to understand more about A.I. On a personal level, I’m in Duolingo studying French.”
(Full article: NYT Interview)
It’s simple, but powerful. It’s a reminder that learning is both strategic and personal. It’s what allows you to stay grounded and grow.
Andrea J. Miller put it another way in a recent LinkedIn piece that stuck with me:
“Every leader needs a thought partner—even if it’s a human one.”
She argues that too often leaders default to problem-solving instead of thought-partnering—jumping to fix instead of pausing to explore. That resonated deeply. Because learning isn’t just solo work. It’s collaborative. The best leaders don’t just collect insights—they create space for shared reflection.
Harvard Business Review has echoed this in several pieces:
“Continuous learning enables adaptation and growth.”
It’s what helps leaders challenge their assumptions, interpret complexity, and make better decisions. And I’ve found that my best managers shared that same sense of curiosity—not to micromanage, but to experience the excitement of discovery with their teams.
The worst? They said they trusted their teams, but had long since stopped learning themselves. They led from their résumés—what they had done, not what they were doing.
I never want to be a “have done.”
So what about you?
What are you learning right now?
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I write about leading with trust, building teams that matter, and staying curious—even when things are messy. Most weekdays, straight to your inbox.