Exposure, Learning and Growth

I believe exposure can be an enemy of learning and growth.

A while back I had a meeting with a young man who didn’t have his life all figure together as you may say. What stood out to me was his demeanor or rather the desire to listen, learn, and try something new. He was like an open book because he didn’t know much. It’s very hard to correct or challenge a very exposed opinionated person. They won’t let you finish before they interrupt with what they know better than you. Or their minds racing on a thousand other things they could say better than you. Or still, something they should also let you know that they know. They would like to mention their experiences here and there and let you know how well exposed and experienced they are. It calls for a lot of maturity for an exposed and experienced person to listen to another person. Worse if they feel the person doesn’t know much as they are or is less exposed and experienced compared to them.

I dare say that exposure also deters our ability to make and deal with choices that we face daily. We always want to measure up to the level of people we have interacted with or show that we have it all together or we know what others don’t know. We delay eating the humble pie and taking the first single confused step. We hold ourselves in high esteem and end up getting frustrated if we don’t see things in our lives move as first as we would like them to. We feel we deserve better and hence not ready to start from the bottom. We want the best seat and the good office. We don’t see ourselves serving tea or punching papers or cleaning tables.

Exposure is excellent, and everyone needs it to learn from different experiences and to get different perspectives in this life. We need to think global and act locally. But if your exposure leaves you unteachable, not wanting to start from where you are, hanging on the experience and being empty looking for another dose of when next will you have another adrenaline rush of another high profile exposure, then it’s a waste of your life. I’d rather an exposure that opens you to the global world but makes you realize that you have to start small to get there. You have to start where you are and start now. When you get a person, who is mature enough and can translate that exposure to their present status and build something out of it, then that’s a life well lived.

I consider myself privileged to have some unique access to some excellent opportunities and people. This year especially has come with access to another amazing opportunity. My next step now is to ask myself, how do I translate that into my present situation so I can build something out of it. I have become a GiANT Worldwide Senior Consultant. GiANT Worldwide was not in my new year resolutions for 2018, but God had it in his plans for my life. It has opened me to a world of amazing people, content, ideas, possibilities, and hope for coaching and consulting on Leadership, Team Performance, and Organizational culture. Am the first in Africa. Now how I translate this to make sense to me is the next hard step.

Raising the Standards of Leadership

Image Credits: www.giantworldwide.com

Unfortunately, this has brought some challenge in my life. I feel I know something that most people don't know. I find myself having to tell myself, concentrate and listen to the person talking. Don't be thinking of how best that could be said or how much that could mean if you were given a chance to talk about it now that you have this fantastic content. So I have to learn to listen at a new level. Not having to give my opinion on everything. Go into training sessions organized by others with an open mind to learn not to compare. Sit down in a meeting and not necessarily have to say anything.

If this resonates with you, seek to make love work not just talking about it. Look for a small community of friends who you can learn to do this together. Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s journey of making love a reality. You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be a small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you.