Learn From Others


There’s no way to overestimate the importance of learning from the people around us.

When we’re open to learning from others, we benefit from their experience as well as our own and we can inherit their wisdom and knowledge.

Learning from others is not a passive process, but one that requires work and commitment on our part.

Research shows that we learn best from others when do certain things:

Exchange roles: Learning is a two-way street. Connecting and exchanging with key stakeholders around shared development challenges catalyzes considerable results.

Collaborate: When we realize we don’t have to acquire knowledge on our own. Collaboration and sharing make it twice as rich.

Find the smartest person in the room: Who’s the local expert on what we need to know? Who’s been in the department or organization the longest and has a long-term perspective? Who has the deepest well of experience for us to draw from?

Mix it up: Engage in multiple levels of learning. Hone your expertise in one area while you’re taking your first steps in another.

Build a support team: It can be hard to see for yourself how your work is paying off and where it might be falling short. Having a support team of trusted people allows you to get feedback and direction.

Read the past: Read and experience as much history, biography, and autobiography as you can. Learning the past leads us toward the future.

Invest in yourself: Take a risk and do something out of your comfort zone. It’s okay to fail. Its okay to take a chance. Start with small steps and build from there.

We learn when we read, what we hear, how we see, the way we discuss, and where we experience our lives.

Most of all we can learn from what we teach others. The purpose of learning is growth, and our hearts are eager for actualization.

Learning is a practice, not an event. Leadership and learning are invaluable to each other.

Make learning inspirational enough for us to dream more, learn more, do more and be more.

Lead From Within: There is a magnet in our heart that attracts growth. Allow the magnet to focus you— to learn from others and lead you deeper into inner growth.


Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world. Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies. As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program is engineered to be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world.

Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.

  1. Chris Harrison

    05. Dec, 2012

    Great list, Lolly!
    I appreciate the post, the blog and the follow.

    Those last two, read the past and invest in yourself, are the unsung secrets. I hope to have them really sink in over 2013. What are the top 5 history, biography, and autobiographies you have read this year?

    Reply to this comment
    • lollydaskal

      06. Dec, 2012

      Dear Chris,

      I love that you call them the UNSUNG secrets …. the past and investing in yourself is key for development.

      I love the question you asked me about the books, history and autobiographies that I read…..
      I might just make into a blog post, there is a lot to choose from because I read a book a week.
      Stay tuned..
      Lolly

      Reply to this comment
  2. Steve Litt

    06. Dec, 2012

    As I read this, I thought how often the workplace is like the family. I am a marriage and family therapist and every suggestion you make here also applies to our love relationships. The one exception, kind of, is that in one are or another we are all the smartest person in the room, even the youngest child. Good post.

    Reply to this comment
  3. Henrieta Riesco

    07. Dec, 2012

    Great article! Very often, we fight to prove that our way is the right way, rejecting other opinions, approaches, and solutions. It’s important that we open ourselves (from within) to a possibility that there is another way of thinking, doing, or being.
    The good part is that we can choose what we want to learn from others and in my own life I simply follow what inspires me.

    Thanks for your ideas 🙂

    Reply to this comment
  4. Ed

    11. Dec, 2012

    Thank you Lolly…I belong to a couple of organizations where I chair meetings on a regular basis. Your website is full of pearls of wisdom! I wish more and more leaders would lead from within.. We would have a better world.. (I know I know, I am a dreamer)

    Reply to this comment
    • lollydaskal

      11. Dec, 2012

      Help me spread the message of Lead from within, introduce it in every meeting, encounter, and colleague.
      You are NOT a dreamer

      Reply to this comment
  5. Ade Sobanjo

    12. Dec, 2012

    Yep.. I look forward to mixing things up and really tapping into the strengths of the people around me in 2013.

    Reply to this comment
  6. counterstrike

    22. Jun, 2016

    Regards for sharing this great websites

    Reply to this comment
  7. Adeoye Adetoyese

    06. Aug, 2020

    I acknowledge that it is important to see the best in others even if they are stressful people or fake fam. Why?

    Understanding stressful people or a fake fam.
    (1) People when driven out of their comfort zone can experience traumatic stress which could make them stressful people.
    (2) They catastrophize often and often by imagining the worst case scenarios in situations and events.
    (3) People experiencing unpleasant events on regular basis.

    Some people are doing the best that they can from their own view and may not be aware of their habitual counterproductive attitude problem. They can be friendly and unfriendly, they show affectionate and incessant bellicose attitude, but that does not mean they are absolutely useless even in their hostility.

    As a reflection of some peoples’ background, they do not feel bad about their misconduct, they do not know the right thing to do when they misbehave. Some were not brought up to feel disappointed in themselves when they are wrong. You need to accept the fact that “a man cannot give what he does not have.” Their orientation differs from yours, yours differ from theirs, you can still gain something positive from their strength and learn from their weaknesses. Similarly, they can gain clarity and wondrous inspiration from you overtime. In essence, you can not view everything about them with a cynic lens.
    Some were thoroughly taught but they refused to yield to instructions hence, they move on into adulthood with no moral compass. They do not have the confidence to think clearly and the consciousness to see or do things that are of profits to others. They act regardless of the wishes or good of others. They profess love to you and something less kind about you behind your back. They look for cunning ways to pull you down or downplay your worth. However, life is incomplete without them because it is good to have different characters to experiment with to be able to establish effective relationships with others, understand different basic personality traits, perform better on the larger platform and to be able to figure out what is wrong or what is right on other platforms.

    Reply to this comment
  8. Tiimob Richard W

    21. Apr, 2021

    This article is timely. It is my uttermost wish that many other people will read it and apply it accordingly. Apart from the fact that many people are relenting in learning from others, we often fail to apply the knowledge we have acquired from others. The 21st century youth keep widening the gap between the them and the old folks and this is preventing us from tapping from the rich experiences they have built over the years.

    Reply to this comment
  9. Rosella

    16. Nov, 2022

    I have been perusing posts with respect to this point and this post is one of the most fascinating and educational one I have perused. Much thanks to you for this!

    Reply to this comment

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