What's Your Next Step?

Currently I am in the middle of holding exit interviews for a group I finished up with right before Thanksgiving.

Over the past eight weeks this group of twelve has met once a week for three hours while we worked through a leadership workbook and addressed an assortment of professional development topics.  At the beginning of the experience they completed a behavioral assessment on leadership behaviors and had observers complete the assessment about their behaviors to provide feedback.  This meant they asked supervisors, peers, and underlings to assess them (anonymously) on how often the observer felt the participants engaged in the asked about behaviors.  

While the assessments are completed at the beginning of our time together, I held the results until the exit interview.  Prior to going over the results with the participants in the exit interview I would ask them reflective questions on what they had hoped to learn when they entered the training, how they felt when they took the assessment, where they felt weak and strong after going over the material, and then show them the results of the assessment and discuss how the observers assessments compared to their own self assessments and reflections. 

Then comes the big question...."Okay, so what do you want to learn next?"

This seems to be a flabbergasting concept when presented.  Learn next? Wha? Hadn't they just finished learning how to be a leader? 

I think it is interesting that this seems a surprise concept to my participants.  These are individuals that chose to engage in about 24 hours of training (not counting some work outside of the sessions) in an effort to improve their leadership skills.  It doesn't end after you walk out of the conference room, it is an ongoing effort.  What did the last two months reveal to you? Inspire you to do? What is your next step in this journey to improve?  

If only leadership was twenty hours and a pretty certificate and we got to say "Yes! I am done! I am a LEADER!" 

Yeah, doesn't really work that way.  Our twenty-some hours was the start, the seed planting, for some individuals.  For others in that room in a refresher and a refiner as they better honed some skills and focused on strengthening up weaker areas.  For no one. though, was those hours the finishing touches or a perfect leadership masterpiece. 

I wish I could sell my skills were that magical, that after some time locked in a conference room with me you were A LEADER, but if you think I can do that in twenty-some hours I have some great oceanfront property in northeast Indiana I would love to sell you...

Leadership is self-reflection, purposeful practice, and an on-going pursuit. Don't short sell yourself into thinking that you are done, that you don't have room to go, that there isn't more for you to learn and discover.  

Don't short sell your potential.  Keep the journey up.  

So I have to ask....what is your next step?