Since knowledge is the weapon most needed in the manager's armoury these days, your career could be turbo-charged by realising your learning potential. Such is the mission-statement of Learning Skills For Managers.
The importance of reflection and continuous improvement and learning is highlighted. Abraham Lincoln who became the president of the United States was born in a log cabin and spent less than a year in school. But he never stopped studying, he was a lifelong learner.
Samuel Malone's book begins with a detailed description of the "biocomputer" in your head and how it works. He says that you could be smarter at 50 than at 20 and that some companies are beginning to question the wisdom of early retirement because of the haemorrhage of intellectual capital - a financial loss even though it does not feature on the balance sheet. He points out that youth and glamour have been overemphasised for commercial reasons and this ageist trend has been followed blindly by business leaders.
Malone takes us through the different learning stages such as "unconscious incompetence" - where you don't know that you don't know - and "conscious incompetence" where you know that you don't know.
Interest and commitment may be more important than formal education which many great men and women in history missed out on. We must always believe in ourselves. Charles Darwin's father told his son who was not doing well at school: "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and your family."
Malone offers some good advice - for example, an optimum amount of stress can help you as a learner, whereas too much stress is a barrier to learning.
The conventional approach to learning assumed concentration and repetition. However, the accelerated learning technique stresses being relaxed in a supportive environment and engaging all the senses.
Good reading skills are essential and Malone gives tips on how to read more effectively. As a how-to-succeed-at-exams-type book Learning Skills offers practical tools and techniques to improve your approach as a learner.
But it is burdened with too much detail and would be used best by dipping into various sections rather than wading through the entire tome.
Learning Skills For Managers would probably be more useful for teachers rather than students. It is doubtful if your average busy manager would have the time to read it all.
jmulqueen@irish-times.ie
