Lessons of Experience

How do people learn? Well, like so many things... that depends! and it depends on who you ask and how you ask it. When I ask people how they learned do do their jobs so well, I almost never get the answer "I took a class." It almost always is about experience... particularly experiences involving either working in difficult times, or starting something from scratch. And it often involves working with someone that the learnee admires (mentor or coach).

The book Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job by Morgan W. McCall, Michael M. Lombardom, and Ann M. Morrison, gives an in-depth study on the role that experience plays in the on-the-job development of executives.

Executives get development from a variety of experiences:


Setting and Implementing Agendas
Technical/professional skills
All about the business one is in
Strategic thinking
Shouldering full responsibility
Building and using structure and control systems
Innovative problem-solving methods

Handing Relationships
Handling political situations
Getting people to implement solutions
What executives are like
How to work with executives
Strategies of negotiation
Dealing with people over whom you have no authority
Understanding other people’s perspectives
Dealing with conflict
Directing and motivating subordinates
Developing other people
Confronting subordinate performance problems
Managing former bosses and peers

Basic Values
You can’t manage everything all alone
Sensitivity to the human side of management
Basic management values
Executive Temperament
Being tough when necessary
Self-confidence
Coping with situations beyond your control
Persevering through adversity
Coping with ambiguous situations
Use (and abuse) of power

Personal Awareness
The balance between work and personal life
Knowing what really excites you about work
Personal limits and blind spots
Taking charge of your career
Recognizing and seizing opportunities

In coursework, classes that provide "experience" are the best for developing executives:

• a) Courses deal with issues relevant to the business, but are not restricted to newer technical aspects.
• b) Some courses provide opportunity for careful self-analysis and feedback.
• c) Attention is paid to timing – people attend when it fits with things on the job.
• d) Attention is paid to credibility and competence of colleagues and instructors.
• e) Courses are considered only one of many developmental tools and are used in conjunction with on-the-job experience.

This book works well combined with the Job Challenge Profile from the Center for Creative Leadership. With this tool the developing manager/executive looks at their current role and discovers ways to develop on-the-job through experiences that the current job presents, or through expanding their job.

What is your experience with this? Please comment