Learning information and career skills is no longer limited to the classroom experience or job orientation sessions. Learning is a lifelong endeavor.
In order to keep current with changing business trends, learning has to be a part of the equation. Learning is important to keep your skill sets updated and marketable if you are looking to change jobs.
Knowing how you learn most effectively can help you identify the types of careers in which you would best excel. Are you better suited learning from a textbook, working with others who model the way, or problem solving? Do you learn from experiencing the process or watching others? Regardless, it is important to be comfortable with the idea of life-long learning.
Learning is a Constructive Process
As we navigate through life, we continually add new perspectives to reshape the ideas we currently have stored in our brains. In the workplace, we are always refining and adding to what we know. Our knowledge base in the current business climate expands as we add more information, refine our skill sets, or change currently held attitudes. We are always building on what we know.
For women, such a constructive process of learning proves very useful as we transition through successive chapters of our lives. We transport what we have learned from previous chapters into the next chapter and apply that knowledge, skills and abilities to new situations.
Some of our acquired knowledge may lay dormant in a life chapter or two, only to become relevant again in some later situation. For example, fundraising organizational skills once used in a non-profit setting at the beginning of a career may not be drawn upon again until much later when we are working as a parent helping raise funds for the local elementary school. We find that most skills are very transferable and they can be augmented with the changing situations.
A Woman’s Career Path Rarely Follows a Straight line.
Reviewing career paths can provide interesting insights about the importance of continuous learning. It is interesting how many women found that their careers took a very circuitous route as they navigated through different jobs and different careers. Serendipity may play a part, but most likely it is the life adventures, including marriage, children, friends, divorce, and family, that impact our career choices and decisions.
Many women talk of re-inventing themselves over the course of their lifetimes for personal and/or professional reasons. Being adept at lifelong learning helps make the process more fruitful and the results more rewarding.
It is Refreshing to Stay Relevant
Learning new information and improving skill sets always keeps a person fresh and current. Keeping abreast of changing ideas and new innovations allows you to stay in the forefront of organizational change.
It’s easier to address the changing concerns of customers when you are staying current with changing trends. It is easier to maintain that competitive edge if you are aware of the different business demands. Learning is your lifeline to long-term success.
Ann Gatty
Dr. Ann Gatty is a business development strategist with 30 years’ experience, who believes that everyone has the capabilities to get where they want to go if they are enabled with the right strategies and tools. As a business consultant she builds businesses to work brilliantly. She is the co-founder of StrategicPeopleSolutions.com, an organization that helps businesses develop strong leaders while creating a culture where self-improvement is an intrinsic part of the organization’s value system. Ann works with clients to develop a strategic path towards the life they’ve always imagined. Ann can be reached at 855-284-4448 or [email protected].
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