Although organizations spend more than $24 billion annually on leadership development, many leaders who have attended leadership programs struggle to implement what they've learned. It's not because the programs are bad but because leadership is best learned from experience.
尽管企业每年斥资超过240亿美元来开展领导力培养项目，许多参加过这些项目的领导还是不能完全把学到的东西应用到实践中。这并不是因为项目本身存在问题，而是因为从经历中汲取经验才是提升领导力的最佳途径。
 
Still, simply being an experienced leader doesn't elevate a person's skills. Like most of us, leaders often go through their experiences somewhat mindlessly, accomplishing tasks but learning little about themselves and their impact.
然而，仅仅成为一名经验丰富的领导者并不会提升一个人的能力。像大多数人一样，领导们做事的时候经常会有些不用心，虽然完成了任务但是对自身和其影响力却了解甚微。
 
Our research on leadership development shows that leaders who are in learning mode develop stronger leadership skills than their peers.
我们对领导力培养的研究表明不停学习的领导较之与其职位相同的人拥有更强的领导力。
 
Building on Susan Ashford and Scott DeRue's mindful engagement experiential learning cycle, we found that leaders who exhibit a growth mindset diligently work through each of the following three phases of the experiential learning cycle.
以Susan Ashford和Scott DeRue的“思维参与”以及经验学习周期理论为基础，我们发现拥有“成长型思维”的领导者会勤奋地依次完成如下经验学习周期的3个阶段。
 
First, leaders set challenging learning goals in the form of "I need to learn how to…" For some leaders, the goal might be to become more persuasive or to be more approachable. With a goal in mind, leaders can identify opportunities to make progress toward it. These could include a new project, an international assignment, a job rotation, or simply striving to approach routine encounters in a fundamentally different way.
首先，领导者会以“我需要学习如何……”的形式制定具有挑战性的学习目标。对一些领导者来说，这个目标可能是自己要变得更有说服力或更平易近人。有了目标之后，他们就会抓住机会逐步实现自己的目标。这些机会可以包括一个新的项目，海外派遣，轮岗或者仅仅是以一种完全不同的方式进行日常的会面。
 
Next, they find ways to deliberately experiment with alternative strategies. A leader interested in increasing their persuasiveness, for example, might experiment with sitting in a different place or speaking first or last in a critical meeting. Creating and capitalizing on learning opportunities can be bolstered by having a coach or peer provide feedback and act as a sounding board.
接下来，他们会设法采用不同的策略来故意进行试验。比如说，一个希望提高自己的说服力的领导者可能会尝试在重要会议中坐在一个不同的位置或第一个或最后一个讲话。找一个指导者或者职位相同的人来提供反馈并征求他们的意见可以激励你去创造并利用学习机会。
 
Finally, leaders who are in learning mode conduct fearless after-action reviews, determined to glean useful insights from the results of their experimentation. Candidly reflecting on what went well, what did not go so well, and what might work better in future are essential though often neglected initiatives for learning from experience and discerning what to focus on learning next. Understanding these principles is important for organizations not just because it means that leadership development doesn't have to be expensive, but also because it means that leadership skills can be systematically learned and practiced.
最后，不停学习的领导者会进行大胆的“事后回顾”，下决心要从他们试验的结果中汲取有用的见解。直率地回顾什么进展地很顺利，什么并没有取得很好的结果以及以后什么可以取得更好的成果对于从经验中学习和辨别接下来要学习什么是必不可少的，但这些行动却常常被忽视。了解这些原则对于企业来说十分重要，这不仅仅是因为这些原则意味着领导力培养并不需要昂贵的费用，更是因为其意味着人们可以系统地学习和锻炼领导力技能。
 
How can leaders enter learning mode? Leaders can construe setbacks as meaning they have not yet developed the required capabilities, rather than them being just not cut out for the task at hand. They can also avoid the trap of constantly seeking out places and tasks to highlight their strengths, as well as feedback that affirms their innate talents and self-esteem. Simply asking themselves, "Am I in learning mode right now?" can be a powerful cue to wholeheartedly focus, or refocus, on their leadership development, as well as their leadership performance, and thereby truly learn from their experiences.
领导者如何进入学习模式呢？他们可以将挫折视为自己能力不足的表现，而非自己本身就不适合手头的这项任务。他们也可以避开这样一种陷阱，即不停地寻找其它的职位和任务来彰显他们自己的能力并且渴望得到肯定他们的天赋和自尊的评价。一句简单的自我提问——“我现在是在学习模式吗？”——就可以成为一个强大的暗示，提示自己要全身心地投入到或重新投入到领导力培养和领导力表现中去，进而真正从经验中学习。
 
How can organizations help leaders enter and remain in learning mode? Organizational leaders can help rising leaders focus more on being progressively better than they were in the past, rather than on constantly benchmarking themselves against others. They can model construing mistakes as potential learning opportunities rather than as indicators of leadership inadequacy. In hiring and promotion, organizational leaders might give priority to those most likely to grow and develop in a role. Finally, they might conduct an audit of fixed mindset cues in their organization — such as the use of psychometric testing to select the most "innately qualified" high-potential leaders; forced ranking performance appraisals; and winner-take-all reward systems — and tweak them to focus more on developing than diagnosing leadership capabilities.
那么企业如何帮助领导者进入并保持在学习模式呢？组织领导者可以帮助那些还处在上升期的领导者更多地集中在逐步取得进步上，而非总是将自己和别人相比较。他们可以将错误视为潜在的学习机会而非领导力不足的象征。在雇佣和晋升时，组织领导者可以优先考虑那些最有可能在其职位上成长和发展的人。最后，他们可以针对企业内部的“固定型思维”暗示开展审核，例如利用心理计量测验来选拔那些天赋异禀的，拥有巨大潜力的领导者，或利用强迫排名的绩效评估方式，或采用赢家通吃的奖励机制，来使他们更多地集中在培养而非判定领导力上。
 
The bottom line is that by supporting leaders being in learning mode, organizations can develop the capabilities that leaders need to anticipate, respond to, and continually learn from the stream of emerging challenges to organizational prosperity.
关键就在于通过支持领导者不断地学习，企业可以培养领导者所必须具备的预测，应对企业发展所面临的挑战的能力以及从这些挑战中不断汲取经验的能力。