Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2021 - 13

BUILDING
LEADERS

SAM SHRIVER & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

EMBRACING THE
VULNERABILITIES ASSOCIATED
WITH LEARNING SOMETHING NEW
Jim Yong Kim immigrated to the United
States when he was five years old,
growing up in a town called Muscatine,
Iowa. To simply describe him as talented
would be to disregard the instructive
value of his journey altogether. By
the same token, it would be easy to
do because his achievements are
difficult for mere mortals to wrap their
heads around.
For example, he was named
valedictorian and president of his high
school class while also representing
his school athletically as the
quarterback of the football team and
point guard of the basketball team.
In college, he graduated magna cum
laude from Brown University before
going on to Harvard to get his M.D.
and Ph.D. in anthropology (which
answers the age-old question many
of us have struggled with: Why settle
for one doctoral degree from Harvard
when you can have two?).
In his professional career, Dr. Kim has
gone on to positively impact millions
of people around the world. A partial
list includes:
* Becoming a founding partner of
Partners in Health, an organization
dedicated to the treatment and
prevention of diseases like drugresistant tuberculosis, HIV and Ebola
in economically challenged regions
of the world.
* Accepting an appointment as a director
of the World Health Organization with
a charter to help developing countries
scale-up their protocols for treatment,
prevention and care.

* Being named the 17th president of
Dartmouth College.
* Becoming the only president in the
history of the World Bank whose
professional background was not in
the political or financial sector.

ALL OF US WILL
BE SUBJECT TO
INCREASING DEMANDS
TO LEARN NEW THINGS
AND UPGRADE OUR
SKILL SETS.
Beyond all of that, many of you have
seen and heard him the last year or
so addressing the once-in-a-lifetime
challenges presented by COVID-19.
Amongst all else, he has developed
the ability to break down extremely
complicated information - like virusinduced disruptive change - in
a manner that communicates the
facts, as well as a sense of hope and
confidence that people need during
times of uncertainty.

EMBRACING LEARNING
With
such
an
accomplished
background, it's not surprising that
Jim Kim would have an interesting
perspective on topics related to
upskilling, reskilling and learning.
When asked for his thoughts on these
subjects, it's clear you hit a nerve.
Before Kim says a word, he pauses,
takes a short breath and ever so briefly
rolls his eyes skyward to make sure he

" gets this right. " He then says with a
tone and in a manner that suggests he
is convinced he is sharing a message
that encapsulates the essence of
his vast and impressive personal
experience:
" I have never felt more alive than the
moments in my life when I stared my
insecurities directly in the face and
embraced the vulnerabilities associated
with learning something new. "
Setting aside his intellectual gifts,
consider the possibility that the
primary driver of Dr. Kim's legendary
success has much more to do with
this personal philosophy of learning
than anything else. Consider a bit
further that all of us, including learning
professionals, will be subject to everincreasing demands to learn new
things and upgrade our skill sets.

THE PATH FORWARD
As Dr. Kim has clearly figured out
somewhere along the way, your past
... is just that! It is a documented road
map you can point to that highlights
the destinations you have passed
through to get yourself here. Your
value moving forward will be a function
of your determination to explore
territories that you have never been to
and, likely, know very little about.
Marshall Goldsmith is the world
authority in helping successful leaders
get even better. Sam Shriver is the
executive vice president at The Center
for Leadership Studies. Email Sam
and Marshall.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MAGAZ INE - CLOSING SKILLS GAPS I WWW. T RAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

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Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2021

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