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Priceless Perspectives #41: Learning — Leaders Never Graduate

Writer: Scott Doggett
Scott Doggett
Aug 12
9 min read

Leadership growth isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some leaders learn through practical workplace insight. Others through story. Some through Scripture. Others through the executive lens. That’s why each weekly theme is explored through four different perspectives… so you can grow in the way that reaches your heart, your mind, and your leadership practice.


This Week’s Theme: Learning in Leadership


Learning is a lifelong leadership posture: staying curious, continuing to grow, learning from others, and helping others grow in return. Great leaders never assume they have arrived, and servant leaders make sure what they learn does not end with them.


To explore this week’s theme, choose the lens that connects with you most or experience all four for a full, 360-degree perspective:


◆ Adventures of Noah Hart: The Educator Who Became a Student Again

◆ The Shepherd’s Voice: Even the Wise Have More to Learn

◆ The Boardroom Brief: The Learning Organization Advantage


Because every leader eventually learns:

The moment we stop learning is the moment we begin leading yesterday’s world.

And always remember… people are priceless!

Leadership Lens

◆ Leadership Lens


Why Great Leaders Stay Teachable


Learning is one of leadership’s quietest disciplines. No one celebrates when a leader admits, “I don’t know,” asks someone else for help, or starts learning something they have never done before. Yet the leaders who continue growing are often the ones best equipped to keep leading well. Here are three ways learning strengthens leadership:


Great Leaders Are Willing to Become Beginners Again


Experience is one of leadership’s greatest assets, but it can also become a trap when we rely too heavily on what worked before or assume we should already have the answers. Learning something new puts us back in the position of a beginner... asking questions, making mistakes, depending on others, and sometimes learning from someone with less experience than we have. That discomfort keeps leaders humble, curious, and connected to what growth actually feels like.

The title on your door does not graduate you from growing.

The Best Learning Happens Beyond the Classroom


Formal training matters, but it is only part of how people develop. The widely used "70-20-10 model" offers a helpful way to think about learning: roughly 70% through experience and doing, 20% through developmental relationships such as coaching and mentoring, and 10% through formal learning. It is not a rigid formula. It is a useful reminder:


  • 10 — Learn it.

    Books, courses, workshops, certifications, and instruction give us knowledge.


  • 20 — Learn with someone.

    Coaches, mentors, colleagues, and feedback help us make sense of what we are experiencing.


  • 70 — Learn by doing.

    Projects, conversations, mistakes, decisions, and real challenges turn knowledge into capability.

A workshop can introduce leadership. A mentor can help us understand leadership. But eventually, we have to lead.

What We Learn Multiplies When We Give It Away


Servant leaders do not collect knowledge simply to become more impressive. They ask:

“Who else could benefit from what I now know?”

Servant leaders put that question into action by coaching, sharing lessons, recommending resources, creating opportunities, and supporting others as they grow. Lifelong learning is not about becoming the person who knows the most; it is about making sure our growth helps someone else grow too.


Practicing Learning This Week


This week, consider:


  • Learning something that puts you back in the position of being a beginner

  • Asking someone, “What do you know about this that I could learn from?”

  • Giving someone a stretch opportunity with coaching and support

  • Sharing one hard-won lesson with someone earlier in their journey

  • Asking yourself: “When did I last learn something that changed how I lead?”


The Leadership Ripple


When leaders keep learning and keep teaching, growth stops being an event and becomes part of the culture. People become more comfortable asking questions, seeking help, experimenting, and sharing what they know.

Great leaders keep growing. Servant leaders help others grow with them.



Adventures of Noah Hart

◆Adventures of Noah Hart


The Educator Who Became a Student Again


The Missouri morning was already warm as Noah Hart and Luman approached a school preparing for a new year. Near the entrance, a man was helping a young administrator carry boxes into a classroom.


“Need another set of hands?” Noah asked.


“Always,” the man said. “I’m Tony.”


Smiling boy with backpack and glowing firefly greets a man outside a school; box of classroom supplies and a poster read New Year, New Goals

“I’m Noah. I’m traveling across the country learning about leadership.”


Tony smiled.


“Then we have something in common. I’m still learning too.”


The young administrator laughed.


“He means it. I’m Cleo, and Tony has answered about nine hundred questions for me this month.”


As they walked toward Tony’s office, Noah noticed a framed certificate hanging on the wall.


“Real estate license?” he asked. “I thought you worked in education.”


“I do.”


“Then why real estate?”


Tony smiled.


“Because I was curious. And because every now and then, leaders need to remember what it feels like to be a beginner.”


He explained that learning real estate stretched him into unfamiliar territory while also helping him better understand homes, neighborhoods, finances, and some of the realities affecting the families and communities schools serve.


“I had to study new terminology, prepare for an exam, ask basic questions, and learn from people who knew far more than I did.”


“Was that uncomfortable?” Noah asked.


“Absolutely. That’s part of learning.”


Tony picked up a marker and wrote three numbers on a whiteboard:

70 — 20 — 10

“A mentor taught me this years ago,” he said. “It’s not an exact formula. Just a useful way to think about how adults develop.”


He pointed to the ten.


“Some learning comes from formal instruction... books, courses, workshops, studying.”


Then the twenty.


“Some comes through people... mentors, coaches, colleagues, feedback.”


Smiling principal writes 70-20-10 on a whiteboard as a boy with backpack watches in a warm school office.

Finally, he circled the seventy.


“But most development happens when we actually do something. We try. We make decisions. We make mistakes. We adjust. And we try again.”


Tony looked at Noah.


“Actually, you’re learning that way right now.”


Noah tilted his head.


Tony pointed toward the worn copy of "Priceless!" in his backpack.


“There’s some of your ten.”


Then he nodded toward Luman.


“Your coach, traveling companion, question-asker… there’s some of your twenty.”


Luman glowed proudly.


“And the seventy?” Noah asked.


Tony smiled.


“Fifty states. New people. New places. Real experiences. You’re not just reading about leadership. You’re living your way into understanding it.”


Noah looked at the numbers differently now.


Just then Cleo appeared at the door.


“Tony, about tomorrow’s faculty meeting…”


“I was going to present that section,” Tony said. “But I think you should.”


Cleo hesitated.


“I’ve never done it before.”


“Exactly. I’ll help you prepare, and afterward we’ll talk about what you learned.”


Noah grinned.


“Seventy and twenty.”


“Now you’re learning,” Tony said.


Before Noah left, Tony handed him a packet of hawthorn seeds. “Missouri’s state flower,” he said. “Like learning, what begins small can keep growing when it’s planted, nurtured, and shared.” He smiled toward Cleo. “Someone helped me grow. Now I get to help her. That’s how learning is supposed to work.”


Noah planted the seeds near the school courtyard.


As he stood, a small wooden sign shimmered into view:

Seed Planted (Missouri): Learning grows through what we study, the people who guide us, and the experiences that stretch us.

Luman hovered beside him.


“Do you think Tony will ever finish learning?”


Noah looked back through the doors, where Tony was listening as Cleo practiced her presentation.


“I don’t think he wants to.”


As Noah and Luman continued down the road, he carried the lesson forward:


That great leaders never graduate from learning…


They stay humble enough to be students, courageous enough to learn by doing, and generous enough to help someone else grow.


Boy kneels planting seeds with a glowing firefly outside Noah Hart Elementary School at sunset; sign reads Seed Planted (Missouri).



The Shepherd’s Voice

◆ The Shepherd’s Voice


Even the Wise Have More to Learn


Theme Verse: “Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.” — Proverbs 9:9 (NIV)


Learning in Scripture


Apollos arrived in Ephesus already an impressive teacher (eloquent, knowledgeable in Scripture, and someone others could learn from) yet he still had more to learn. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him teach, they did not embarrass or dismiss him; they invited him closer and explained the way of God more fully, and Apollos received it. His knowledge did not make him unteachable, and his ability to teach others did not mean his own learning was finished. Scripture also shows that learning should be passed on, as Paul tells Timothy to entrust what he has learned to others who can teach it too.

Biblical learning multiplies: someone invests in us, we grow, and then we invest in someone else.

Learning in a Christian Workplace


In a Christian workplace, learning is both humility and stewardship. No title, tenure, accomplishment, or reputation exempts us from having more to learn. God often uses other people, unexpected experiences, failures, Scripture, correction, and even unfamiliar situations to develop us. Christian leaders should be able to say:


  • “I don’t know.”

  • “Help me understand.”

  • “What can I learn from you?”

  • “Let me share something someone once taught me.”

We do not learn merely to know more. We learn so we can serve better. And we teach so others can do the same.

A Leader’s Prayer for Learning


Dear Lord,


Thank You for every person, experience, success, mistake, and season You have used to teach me. Keep my heart teachable.


Give me humility to learn even in places where I already feel capable. Help me welcome correction without defensiveness, ask questions without embarrassment, and recognize the wisdom You may place in people around me.


Show me who I can learn from. And show me who I can encourage, mentor, coach, or develop with what You have already taught me.


May I never pursue knowledge simply to appear wise. Help me learn so I can love more deeply, serve more faithfully, and lead more wisely.


Amen.


One Faith-Forward Mini-Challenge


This week, ask God two questions:


  1. “Who can I learn from?” and

  2. “Who can I help learn?”


Then act on both answers.




The Boardroom Brief

◆ The Boardroom Brief


The Learning Organization Advantage


Executives often treat learning as a line item (a training budget, compliance module, leadership program, or annual seminar) but learning organizations build development into how work gets done. In a world reshaped by AI, technology, changing customer expectations, and evolving skills, organizations cannot rely only on what people know today; they must continually build the capacity to learn tomorrow.


From Know-It-All to Learn-It-All


Microsoft offers a useful example. Under CEO Satya Nadella, growth mindset became central to the company’s cultural transformation, including the shift from “know-it-alls” to “learn-it-alls.” When leaders ask questions, seek feedback, experiment, and openly acknowledge what they still need to learn, they make curiosity and growth safer for everyone. Learning organizations begin with leaders who visibly remain learners themselves.

Learning is not evidence that you are unqualified; it is part of staying qualified.

Training Is Only Part of Development


Courses, workshops, certifications, books, and conferences matter. But the 70-20-10 model reminds leaders that development also requires experience and relationships. That means an organizational learning strategy should include more than a catalog of classes. It should create:


  • Stretch assignments

  • Coaching and mentoring

  • Cross-functional exposure

  • Opportunities to experiment responsibly

  • Reflection after important projects

  • Knowledge sharing across teams

  • Leaders who intentionally teach what they know

The classroom can introduce capability. The workplace has to develop it.

Learning Organizations Learn from the Work


Every important project produces two outcomes: the result of the work and what the organization learned from doing it. Too often, companies capture the first and lose the second... moving on from successes, distancing themselves from failures, or allowing valuable knowledge to leave with experienced employees. Learning organizations intentionally capture, share, and apply what experience teaches them.


What Boards and Executives Should Examine


Consider:


  • Can employees safely say, “I don’t know” and ask for help?

  • Are managers expected to develop people or only deliver results?

  • Where do employees receive meaningful stretch opportunities?

  • What critical knowledge currently lives inside only one person’s head?

  • Do teams reflect on what worked, what failed, and what should change?

  • Are senior leaders visibly learning themselves?


Bottom Line


A learning organization is not defined by the size of its training budget, but by a culture where curiosity is encouraged, experience becomes development, leaders coach, knowledge is shared, and mistakes create insight. The competitive advantage is not simply what your organization knows, but how quickly your people can learn, apply, share, and learn again.




Join the Movement That Never Stops Learning


Learning is not a phase that ends with a diploma, promotion, or impressive title. It is a lifelong posture… staying curious enough to keep growing and generous enough to help others grow too.


If this issue encouraged or challenged you, consider sharing it with a leader, mentor, teacher, or lifelong learner who has helped you become better. And if you want to continue growing in servant-hearted, people-first leadership, we would love to walk alongside you.


Learn more at: nationalald.com


Start a conversation: Book a 30-minute exploration call



Because in workplaces where learning is practiced and shared, something powerful happens…

People stop fearing what they don’t know yet, keep becoming more capable, and help one another grow.

And always remember… people are priceless!

Yellow smiley face icon with black eyes and grin on a plain white background, cheerful and simple.

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