To keep leading a project, keep learning. Value your listening, and reading time at roughly ten times your talking time. This will assure you that you are on a course of continuous learning and self-improvement. I love the sentence "You could be my teacher". Being ready to learn is not a normal attitude found in some project managers. However every project is a continuous learning process during the whole project life cycle. The only thing you need is to be focused on the project facts, analyze them and try to learn to improve your performance.

Sometime ago I learned the biography of Charles Chaplin and at the beginning of his career nobody may predict his great fame. However it was very curious for me to understand that Chaplin was successful because he had great talent and incredible drive. But those traits were fueled by teachability.

He continually strived to grow, learn, and perfect his craft. Even when he was the most popular and highest paid performer in the world, he was not content with the status quo. I always try myself keep growing and learning as a project manager and practitioner. If you observe your team members and other project stakeholders you can learn something new everyday. Your growth as a project professional determines who you are. Who you are determines who you attract, and who you attract determines the success of your organization. If you want to grow as a project manager, you have to remain teachable

I have some guidelines to help you to cultivate and maintain a teachable attitude.

1. Cure your destination disease

Lack of teachability is often rooted in achievement. Some project managers mistakenly believe that if they can accomplish a particular goal, they no longer have to grow. I consider that effective project leaders cannot afford to think that way. The day they stop growing is the day they forfeit their potential and the potential of the organization.

2. Overcome your success

Effective project leaders know that what got them does not keep them there. If you have been a successful project manager in the past, beware. Consider this: if what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you have not done much today.

3. Swear off shortcuts

As you desire to grow as a project manager in a particular area, figure out what it will really take, including the price, and then determine to pay it.

4. Trade in your pride

Teachability requires us to admit we don't know everything, and can make us look bad. One of the things I learned in my life was that the greatest mistake one can make in life as a project manager is to be continually fearing you will make one.

5. Never pay twice for the same mistake

Who makes no mistakes, makes no progress. That's true. But the leader who keeps making the same mistakes also makes no progress. I always made an hope to make mistakes. Be focused on what they taught you.

In order to improve your teachability, do the following:

1. Observe how you react to your mistakes. Do you admit your mistakes?Do you apologize when appropriate? Or are you defensive? Observe yourself. Your a project leader, and your team expect from you leading by example. If you react badly or you make no mistakes at all, you need to work on your teachability.

2. Try something new: Go out of your project today to do something different that will stretch you mentally, emotionally, or physically. Challenges change us for the better. If you really want to start growing, make new challenges part of the daily activities.

3. Learn in your area of strength. Read from six to twelve books a year on leadership, or on project management. Continuing to learn in an area where you are already an expert prevents you from becoming jaded and unteachable.

Related Resources

• Paths to Practical Know-How: Crucial Learning beyond Training
• Continuous Learning isn't a BADD Idea (or is it?)
• Company Program for Ongoing PM Learning
• New project managers: The fastest way to competence, judgment, and confidence