Every Leadership Challenge Is Asking You To Learn Something

Most leadership challenges appear to be performance problems. The results aren’t there, the team isn’t moving fast enough, and the instinct is to push harder.

But what if the issue isn’t effort?

In this episode, we explore how to recognize when a challenge is actually asking you to learn something new—and why the best leaders know when to pause, rethink, and grow instead of just doing more. Listen now!

Transcript

When Challenges Aren’t Performance

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture. I'm your host, Nathan Freeberg, and I've been thinking about challenges and growth lately. I think one of the realities of leadership is that many challenges look like performance problems. Something isn't working, the team isn't moving fast enough, the results aren't there. And so I think often the instinct is to push harder, to add meetings, tighten timelines, ask for more effort. But the real issue, quite often, isn't effort, it's capability. The challenge requires something new, a different way of thinking, a new skill, or a new approach to leadership. Now, research on adult neuroplasticity shows us that we can continue to learn and adapt throughout our lives. But that kind of growth requires curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to move beyond what's worked before. So when facing any challenge, we as leaders need to decide what type of challenge we are facing. Is it a performance-related challenge, or is it a learning sort of challenge? Because when leaders get that wrong, they push harder on systems that were never designed to solve the problem. But when they get it right, the conversation shifts from pressure to development and from urgency to growth. So today I want to explore this idea with Dr. Linda and Brian Schubring as all of us try to figure out how do we continue to grow. This is a Leadership Vision podcast. Enjoy. Brian and Linda, you just got home from vacation and you went to the same place that you've been many, many times. I'm curious if you did anything new on this trip.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Well, we tend to do a lot of things new when our daughter comes with us. Ah, yes, as one does. And so one of the things that we've learned as a family is that to expand our experience wherever we go, we will ask our daughter to come up with some kind of itinerary or something to do each day that she has learned from Instagram or TikTok or whatever's happening out there. And we find new places to go, things to visit, different types of coffee to experience because of what she brings. And so that's one of the things that I look forward to is the uniqueness that's brought out of our experience by what Camila's introducing us to.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

So shout out to Vigilate Maui. Vigilate. They have a wonderful story. They have delicious vixology, high-level mixed coffee.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I don't even know what that is, but I will be on Instagram in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

You'll know what it is. Vigilati. And what's unique about their story is how they had to learn and relearn again to adapt to all the challenges that they have faced as a unique business.

Ask What The Challenge Teaches

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah. Well, that's an interesting thing that you mentioned that, Brian, because I have a question for you, for both of you. Here's my question. How can leaders recognize when a challenge requires learning something new rather than simply working harder at what they already know? Perhaps use a latte example or something else. Who wants to go first?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

I will because I would debate the question. Oh. Because I would invite leaders or anyone for that matter to look at every challenge as a learning opportunity. Not to ask, does this require, but to ask, what is this challenge asking of me to learn? Because I'm I'm of the mindset that there's something to learn all the time. And I also recognize that our default mechanism is to rely on patterns of thought and behavior to solve whatever challenges ahead of us and not to learn something new. So I think there's learning to be had in every situation that comes up.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I remember when we're having some work done in the house and I was trying to screw something. And the contractor who was there, I was like, I just think I gotta turn it harder, I gotta grip the screwdriver harder. And he's like, You're not using the right screwdriver. I was like, What? He's like, Yeah, it's the wrong size. And he gave me the right one and just boop. And so I that's kind of where I'm curious about this question, is because sometimes it's like, no, I just gotta grip tighter, I just gotta do it. And then it's actually you gotta step back and be like, are you using the right tool? Are you doing the right thing? And so that's kind of what, like, well, how do we know that? Like the screwdriver example, it's not always that simple, but is there some sort of I don't I don't know, a a way to help leaders identify when a problem is less about rolling up your sleeves and more about, you know, we got to get more skills?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Oftentimes leaders get to their position of leadership by doing something really well. It was on their resume, it was on their CV, it was on their LinkedIn, and they were hired for a specific purpose. And when something's not working and the kind of challenges that leaders are facing, when when those manifest, it's like, oh, well, then I'll just take everything I was hired to do and do it more, and I will do it with more intensity, and I will enunciate, and I will try to show people that this is, you know, that I was the right hire and I can lead through this. And some of the best leaders that we are working with right now are actively practicing unlearning. They are doing the rethinking, they are doing the all right, well, we're not gonna even use tools for this. We're gonna look for a different, a different option, or maybe we're looking in the wrong direction. And so, how do we invite a whole new set of solutions to not just try to fix the same, to fix the same problem the same way?

SPEAKER_02 5:50

So when a challenge arises, there are two questions to ask. One question is, what do I need to learn in the midst of this new challenge? And a second question is, what do I need to unlearn in the midst of this challenge? That's good.

Personal Team And Organization Learning

SPEAKER_01 6:02

That's really good.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Bright, it's interesting to look at some of the layers of where this learning could go.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Right, because whenever we're faced with a challenge or some level of change or uncertainty, there's many layers of learning that need to be considered. I think that oftentimes we overlooked that. First of all, there's the personal learning, like what is it that we as an individual are being invited to learn? Second, think about the teams and the context that you're working in. Oftentimes there could be something that the team needs to learn collectively, and that by collectively learning something together, not only are you creating a new shared experience of learning, but the team also feels the sense of connection and belonging by learning something together to face a challenge that they can actually overcome. And a third layer of learning is to ask yourself, what is a larger, maybe organizational learning that is coming out of this challenge? Not prior to or in the midst of, but as a result of this challenge, what did we as an organization learn that can help inform us when then the next challenge arises?

SPEAKER_01 7:12

When I go back to the question, I'm thinking more about like I think that learning is good, but how does a leader know when this is something new and different we need to learn versus, oh, this is just a challenge we have to keep pushing harder at?

Pause Listen And Choose Voices

SPEAKER_02 7:27

That's a great question, Nathan, because one of the key components of learning is our awareness of time. Because sometimes when a challenge is facing us, Nathan, like you intonated, is that the leader may recognize, oh, we've already learned this lesson before, or you know, we've already tested something or a delivery or a strategy that we need to maybe just employ and not learn something new. I think leaders often pay attention to what's down the road and what do we need to learn right now that is going to prepare us for what's coming at us at a rate that maybe is going to surprise us. What I think is often the most challenging for leaders is to think about what's important to learn right now. When you kind of forcibly push aside all that brought you here, when you when you turn a blind eye towards the future and you ask, what do we need to learn now? And sometimes paying attention to the present moment is perhaps the most difficult because of how distracting our past performance and behavior is and how enticing the future could be.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Some of the best leaders that we work with are tenacious, and that tenacity sometimes looks like stubbornness. So when you ask the question, like, how do you know whether to work harder or not? They're for me, I I'm thinking about some of the leaders that even in their stubbornness, they take a pause and they say, Wait, like, all right, speak back to me. What do you think? Where are where are we at? And when a leader can be in tune with not the fear of their people, but when they can be in tune with the wisdom of what is coming next, how do they continue to hold the optimism and the hope instead of just saying, well, just you know, suck it up and we're we'll eventually get there, just pressing pause from time to time to to listen to the right voices. And I think some of the best of the best leaders have those right voices around them. They have the voices that are speaking truth to power, they have the voices that are speaking wisdom, and they have the voices that are very distracting. And it's almost like the best of the best leaders know how to turn some of those voices down. And so I think it is a practiced invitation. You have to practice it and you have to trust the people around you for help.

The Two Breaths Learning Question

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Because I think in this conversation, perhaps the most important takeaway is this whatever the challenge or situation is that we're facing, it is a moment to learn more about ourselves. We know that being present to who you are in the moment is perhaps the greatest opportunity for unlocking our potential. And oftentimes, challenge and change and uncertainty are those moments where we're learning about ourselves. We're learning about our character, we're learning about our capacity, we're learning about our emotions, and we're learning on how important it is to be connected to other people. So when facing challenges, our invitation for leaders is to consider what people are learning about themselves and how can we as leaders recognize, note, and name how others are learning, and to be so brave as to ask people, what are you learning about yourself in this moment?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

So, in closing, or to sort of summarize this, I think what I hear you saying is there's there's rarely a moment when just working harder and pushing faster and shoveling more coal into the engine and you know, whatever that sort of movie metaphor of like, you know, just go faster. That's that's rarely the answer. It's when that that challenge or that resistance or something comes up, it's like, well, hang on a second. Have we seen something like this before? What are our priorities? What are the goals? It's really everything's an opportunity to learn something new. Is that sort of what you're saying? It's never just head down and just push forward. It's take a break, assess what can I learn, what can we learn?

SPEAKER_02 11:41

It's always important to ask, what is here for me to learn?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Oh, that's good. What is here for me to learn? And that pause and that question doesn't have to take a whole day or a whole retreat. It could just literally be a couple breaths where you're asking yourself, what is here for me to learn?

Listener Reflection And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 12:02

That's great. Well, Brian and Linda, thank you so much. And listeners, thank you for listening. And I would encourage you to just take a moment, think about a challenge in your life, think about a situation at work or at home or whatever, and just think about this question is what is there here for me to learn right now? Thank you for listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture. If you found value from this episode or any of our other materials, we would love it if you could subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast, follow us on the socials, join our free email newsletter at Leadership Vision Consulting.com slash subscribe. There are links to all of those things in the show notes. My name is Nathan Freeberg. I'm Linda Schuberg. And on behalf of our entire team, thanks for listening.