The 2008 Pfeiffer Annual: Training – “Learn-Ability”

A Leader’s Most Important Competence

The coming decade presents tremendous risks and remarkable opportunities. Wherever you are and whatever you do, you face not just the question of how to cope. It is paramount to face these risks successfully and, at the same time, wisely embrace the opportunities to participate and lead the way forward in the extraordinary developments that are reshaping our world. With the help of hundreds of executives and managers who have participated in our leadership seminars, we have identified a single feature as the most crucial competence necessary to lead others in a rapidly changing business and socio-political environment. That competence is Learn-ability …. When you come to think about it, learn-ability is the propelling locomotive of entrepreneurialism. Don’t stop at thinking that entrepreneurialism’s driving core is capital creation or the gaining of power. Wealth creation, individual ownership, free society and market economy are the enablers of the entrepreneurial energy. They offer the means of expression for entrepreneurs. But if there is a spiritual core to entrepreneurialism it is learning – the development and the inner and outer growth of individuals, society, and human kind at large, the core competence for which we call here learn-ability.

In this article the author explores the ten practices and disciplines of Learn-ability.

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The 2004 Pfeiffer Annual, Consulting edition

Life Centering Stories: a Powerful Coaching and Self-Discovery Tool

Life centering moments concern formative experiences that fashion a template of perception and response that is then active throughout a person’s life. Identifying these moments to explore and crystallize their centering quality is a powerful coaching and self-discovery tool…. In this article the author describes the theory and application of life centering stories and offers personal coaching experiences that validate this process as a leadership development tool. Life centering stories can be customized to be used in leadership effectiveness retreats, vision quests, team building and personal development workshops as well as in one on one executive coaching.”

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The AMA Trainers’ Activity Book

From You I Have Learned

The idea of From You I Have Learned was stimulated in me at the age of 17 (many years ago) when I read “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius. Towards the end of his life Marcus Aurelius, a ruler of the Roman Empire and a philosopher, wrote “Debts and Lessons” – reflections about the people he had met and the learning he experienced with them. The idea captured my imagination. Here was a way, I thought, to live an enlightened life. I decided that instead of waiting for the end of my life to summarize the learning and value of my interactions with people, I could begin now.”

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The Futurist

The Holistic Future of Aging

September-October 2003. Volume 37, No. 5


Methodology Instruments:

  • Whole Person Development Planning: The Seven Steps of Value-Centered Self Management, February 2003
  • The Five Colors Emotions; April 2003
  • Enhanced Leadership Awareness; December 2002
  • To Listen; October 2002
  • God Needs Help; August 2002
  • The Loom of Cohesive Stories; May 1998