Couverture de Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Learning Agility

Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Learning Agility

Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Learning Agility

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 There are some conversations that remind me exactly why the Illustrating Leadership Podcast exists. This one with Angie McDermott did that. Angie has spent her career helping leaders, teams, and organizations grow into their potential. Her work spans global research at Procter & Gamble, leadership and organization development at Dell, running her own business, leading HR in tech, teaching at UT Austin, and now focusing on scaling her impact and legacy work. Across every role and every season, one belief has remained constant for her: Leadership is learned. Not inherited. Not granted by a title. Not reserved for a lucky few. Learned. And honestly, that might be one of the most hopeful leadership messages we can offer, especially right now. Two Leaders, Two Contexts, One Truth In this episode, Angie shared stories of two leaders who shaped her understanding of what effective leadership actually looks like. One was a CEO in a high-growth software company, an environment where everything moves fast and the pressure to perform is constant. The other was the long-time CEO of LifeWorks, a nonprofit in Austin focused on solving youth homelessness through housing, mental health, education, and workforce services. Different sectors. Different pressures. Different day-to-day realities. And yet, the leadership lesson was remarkably similar. Both leaders found ways to merge mission, people, and vision without losing their humanity. Letting Go of the "Born Leader" Myth Angie named something many of us have felt but rarely say out loud. The idea of the "born leader" does more harm than good. The leaders who make the greatest impact are not born with a fixed set of traits. They learn. They adapt. They surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are in specific areas. They stay open to feedback. They grow with the role instead of trying to perform their way through it. When leadership becomes a practice instead of a performance, everything shifts. If leadership is learned, then it is accessible. And it becomes something we are responsible for developing, not something we either have or do not. High Standards and High Care One of the things that stood out most in Angie's description of the software CEO was the balance he held. He expected a lot. He moved quickly. He held high standards. And he listened. He did not need to be the smartest person in the room. He built strong teams by asking good questions, investing in culture, and treating people with respect. Because of that, people were deeply committed to the work and to each other. It was a reminder I come back to often in leadership work. Focusing only on results might get you short-term outcomes. Focusing on people while pursuing results tends to build stronger teams, healthier cultures, and better long-term success. Knowing Who to Call Is a Leadership Skill The nonprofit leader Angie described led in an entirely different kind of pressure. Constant crisis. Limited resources. High emotional stakes. What stood out was not charisma or control. It was clarity and connection. She built genuine relationships across community partners, elected officials, donors, service providers, and the people the organization served. When challenges arose, she did not scramble alone. She knew who to call. That kind of leadership is built quietly over time. Through trust. Through consistency. Through showing up long before there is a crisis. Learning Agility Matters More Than We Think One of the most practical concepts Angie shared was learning agility. Learning agility is the ability to learn from experience and apply those lessons to new and unfamiliar situations. Research suggests it can be more predictive of leadership effectiveness than emotional intelligence or cognitive ability alone. The most important part is this. It is learnable. Leadership growth does not come from consuming more content alone. It comes from reflection. From asking better questions after things go well and after they do not. What worked? What did not? What assumptions did I make? What do I want to repeat? What do I want to do differently next time? Angie talked about building a regular practice of reflection, not as an indulgence, but as leadership training. Leadership does not require perfection. It requires learning. The Pressure to Be Right Immediately Another thread that resonated deeply was the pressure many new leaders feel to have the right answer on demand. Most leadership situations are not emergencies. We often have time to pause, gather information, reflect, and respond thoughtfully. The pressure to decide instantly can cloud judgment and create unnecessary stress. The goal is not to avoid mistakes entirely. It is to learn from them and avoid repeating the same ones in the same way. Leadership Is Will and Skill Near the end of the conversation, Angie shared something that stayed with me. Leadership is will and skill. You have influence. On your team. On your clients. On your ...
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