Learning Styles and Strategies

Understanding How You Learn

• Understanding how you learn is the easiest piece of self-knowledge to acquire and is crucial for performance.
• Acting on this knowledge is vital; not acting on it leads to non-performance.

Different Learning Styles

• Schools often assume there is only one right way to learn, but there are probably half a dozen different ways to learn.
• Some people work best as team members, while others work best alone.
• Some people learn by reading, while others learn by listening.
• Examples of different learning styles include Beethoven, who learned by writing and keeping sketchbooks, and Churchill, who learned by writing.

Important Questions to Ask

• Do I perform well under stress, or do I need a highly structured and predictable environment?
• Do I work best in a big organization or a small one?
• Am I a reader or a listener?
• Do I produce results as a decision maker or as an adviser?
• How do I learn?

Performance and Personality Traits

• A person's way of performing can be slightly modified, but it is unlikely to be completely changed.
• Personality traits usually determine how a person performs.
• Few people can change their personality traits to become capable of performing in different ways.
• Examples of people who performed well in certain roles include General George Marshall, who was a great picker of men, and John F. Kennedy, who was a great listener as a senator.