March 19, 2026
“The Illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can’t read or write. The illiterate of the 21st Century will be those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler, Future Shock
Question for all of you: What is the first thing you do when you enter a dark room? You would probably reach for a light switch. This, of course, may be more difficult if you have not entered this room often; you might have to search a bit to find the switch. Next, you would apply that learning to turn the switch on to illuminate the room.
The situation above describes leadership today; many leaders are searching for the light switch to provide some illumination. Today’s leaders may, in fact, have to enter many dark rooms they have not entered before or recently.
Maxwell Coaching Lead Faculty member Valorie Burton, presenting on her most recent book, Rules of Resilience, this past Tuesday at the International Maxwell Confrence shared her observations that leadership today happens in a world of constant disruption, emotional fatigue, and rapid change. In this environment, leaders face significant confusion. It is like entering a dark room or maybe entering multiple dark rooms for two reasons. One, there is a lack of clarity and confusion in the darkness. Two: to illuminate the room, we need to learn where the switch is and apply that knowledge to turn it on. Learning, then, is applying learning, which will illuminate the way for us to step in.
Learning has always been important to leadership. In 1963, in a speech to be given in Dallas in 1963, JFK was to declare that “Leadership and Learning are Indispensable to each other”. Despite his assassination, the words of the US president, acknowledged to be one of history’s great leaders, live on to serve as a reminder of the need for leaders to be constantly evolving. In 1975, in Future Shock, Futurist Alvin Toffler wrote that constant change would disrupt the traditional definition of literacy. He wrote that the illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can not read or write. The illiterate of the 21st Century will be those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Tomas Charmorro-Prezmuzic and Mara Swan in a 2017 Forbes post What Happens When Leaders Lack Curiosity? wrote, “In our view, there is a fundamental ingredient of leadership that has been largely neglected, namely intellectual curiosity – a leader’s willingness to learn, also known as learnability. The capacity for learnability, then, is a lifeline for today’s leaders.
This Thursday’s Leadership Insight focuses on how leaders bring their best self to their leadership practice by developing their leadership capacity for learnability. This article will offer an expanded consideration of the capacity of learnability (IQ and EQ = LQ) and a framework of learnability, L.E.A.R.N., to guide the development of this capacity.
A leader’s #1 superpower is choice. A leader must choose to equip themselves, learn new skills, and develop adaptability, intentionally and continuously expanding their current intellectual and emotional growth. James Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge, writes that leaders must be continuous-improvement fanatics. The capacity for learnability is more than a willingness; it is a drive and an opportunity mindset to learn, be, and do more. A leader who chooses to grow their learnability capacity develops a learnability quotient (LQ) and will grow their intellectual IQ and emotional EQ. The importance of considering learnability as a capacity is the constant demand to expand learning to and learn, unlearn, and relearn in the context of the times. The critical difference in learnability capacity is that LQ combines intellectual skills (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ). The leader today must be expanding intellectually, yet in a world of AI and multigenerational workforces and other forms of disruption, today’s leader must be constantly developing their personal competence, comprised of self-awareness and self-management, as well as social competence, comprised of social awareness and relationship management. In today’s world, authors like David Goleman and Travis Bradbury provide data that EQ is a major factor in determining leadership success.
The L.E.A. R.N. framework provides a guide for developing the capacity of learnability, which is based on interdependent sets of IQ and EQ as building-block skills that expand in the context of the times. Below is a brief overview of each building block:
L.Leaders lean in, look up, down, and all around, and listen to develop their learnability capacity.
The leader whose leadership practices are based on commitment, leaning in, curiosity, observations, and listening to others’ observations, feedback, and reports will be informed and will develop as a leader. Leaders who choose to grow their LQ will look beyond their team, organization, and community. In an Applied Corporate Governance article, LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING: THE NEED FOR CONSTANT EVOLUTION .The authors write that leaders must be observers, noting that listening and looking, “In theory very simple but in practice requiring effort to apply consistently. Thomas Alva Edison is often quoted as saying, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” A leader with high LQ looks and listens more than they speak.
E. Leaders can explore, engage others, and expand, thinking to develop their learnability capacity.
The leader who wants a constantly growing and developing LQ must learn to become comfortable expanding the learnability capacity by using questions and observation, and by listening to expand a search for opportunities and challenges. Leaders who don’t ask and expand their learning capacity will be behind in ever-changing times, because they stay in the past. Consider the examples of Kodiak, Circuit City, and Blockbuster. Developing their learnability capacity (LQ) engages a readily available pool of diverse perspectives in the workplace. The workforce has 4-5 generations and diverse gender, racial, and faith perspectives. Leaning into these resources builds a culture that is connected, engaged, and psychologically safe, one that can learn from failures and successes.
A.. Leaders who develop the power to A.S.K and apply learning expand their learnability capacity.
The leader who first leans in and listens, as noted above, and then pairs that practice with powerful questions, asks thoughtful questions. Leaders who want to expand their learnability capacity, remembering that A.S.K. = Always Seeking Knowledge. They will embrace a paradoxical leadership model of being both a learner and a teacher, as noted by Dr. Tim Elmore in the 8 Paradoxes of Great Leadership. They will craft questions to expand on current information and anticipate future challenges and opportunities. The high learnability capacity leader will act to learn, not being afraid of failure or leaving current tradition, which can hinder movement forward and learning.
R. The Leader who is reflective and responsive will expand their learnability capacity.
The leader who frequently practices, models, and encourages reflection in their organization will learn from successes and challenges. This leader will foster a culture of responsiveness to all situations and build their learnability capacity and that of the organization.
N. the leader who notices all involved in learning and models learning will never stop learning, expanding their learnability capacity.
The leader, leaning into developing their own and others’ learning capacity, notices learning across the entire organization. They are also committed to continuously developing their learnabilty capacity. They understand, as Simon Sinek writes in The Infinite Game, that there is no finish line.
Learnability capacity is the leader’s and, eventually, the organization’s choice for continual intellectual and emotional development. In today’s ever-changing world, the L.E.A.D. framework serves as a guide for developing learnability capacity, the leader’s way to learn and relearn.
The leadership questions for you then are
1. What is your learnability capacity?
Are there areas of intellectual or emotional intelligence you need help to develop