It’s back to school time for the kiddos, but what about us adults? This started me thinking about what I’m learning these days. I dusted off the book stack on my nightstand. Fun library novels were covering up three impactful books I’d started but not finished (Radical Candor, Broadcasting Happiness and Non-Violent Communication if you care to know…ideas to come from these in future blogs). The back-to-school spirit prodded me to finish two of the three so far!

I once heard someone say their biggest strength is being a “lifelong learner”. Hmmm…is that really more valuable than being mechanically gifted, or great at math, or a master communicator? Does being a “lifelong learner” mean I’m always reading books with new ideas, or going to classes to learn the latest software? I am an avid reader. I read the car magazine when getting my oil changed even though I don’t care a bit about cars, so I dig this definition. But I think it’s a broader definition that is truly impactful as a human being and as a leader.

In a technical context, is could be learning about advances in no-till and cover crops and being willing to adapt your production process. Or going to a class to learn how to create more useful financial reporting. Or becoming a master marketer through Extension education programs.

In a relationship context, it is learning about and with the people around you. You could learn how to use behavioral profiles to communicate better within your team. You could spend time learning about the goals and challenges of each person on your team; personal understanding leads to commitment and teamwork. Your ownership family could learn how to have productive planning meetings and some family business frameworks to help.

In a business leader context, there is value in expanding our exposure and ideas beyond our everyday farming world. So ingesting a variety of business, leadership, or religious books or podcasts or videos does seed ideas. Sometimes they are more targeted at larger company situations, but I have yet to read one that didn’t have a nugget I could adapt to our world.

In all contexts, being curious about the world around you leads to new knowledge, new insights and hopefully the wisdom to use both. In that case, it well may be at the top of my list of important strengths.

Davon Cook is a family business consultant at K Coe Isom. Reach Davon at [email protected].

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.