The Employee Who Is Already Preparing to Lead
In my recent article, 100 Books Every Leader Should Read, I encouraged aspiring leaders to stop waiting for the perfect time to begin developing themselves.
Choose a book.
Read a chapter.
Join a conversation.
Apply something.
Begin now.
But that raises another question.
What should an organization do when an employee actually takes that responsibility seriously?
A recent post from Leadership First described one of the earliest signals of a future leader: the decision to keep learning when nobody requires it.
Every organization has people like this.
They read books after work. They listen to podcasts during the commute. They take courses nobody assigned. They study the people they admire, ask better questions, seek feedback, and try to understand more than their current position requires.
They may not have a leadership title.
They may not be the loudest person in the meeting.
They may not be campaigning for a promotion.
But they are already preparing themselves for responsibilities they do not yet have.
Leaders should pay attention.
Self Education Is a Signal
When employees invest in their own development, they reveal something important about themselves.
They are demonstrating initiative.
They are taking responsibility for their growth instead of waiting for the organization to create it for them.
They understand that a job description defines their current responsibilities, not the limits of what they can become.
That matters.
Organizations spend enormous amounts of time trying to motivate people who have no particular interest in growing. Meanwhile, an employee with genuine curiosity may be quietly developing in plain sight.
But self-education is a signal of leadership potential. It is not proof of leadership readiness.
Reading leadership books does not automatically make someone a leader.
Neither does completing courses, collecting certificates, quoting podcasts, or building an impressive vocabulary.
The real question is what the learning changes.
Does the employee listen more carefully?
Do their questions improve?
Can they consider an idea without becoming defensive?
Do they apply what they learn to actual problems?
Does their growth make the people around them better?
Future leaders do more than collect information. They translate learning into behavior.
The Classroom Is Everywhere
There has never been a time when so much knowledge was available to so many people at such a modest cost.
A generation ago, learning a specialized skill might have required enrolling in a college course, traveling to a seminar, buying expensive materials, or locating an expert willing to teach you.
Today, the classroom may be sitting on your desk, traveling in your pocket, or playing through your car speakers.
LinkedIn Learning offers courses covering professional, technical, business, and creative skills. Some employers provide access, and participating public libraries make it available to patrons with a library card.
Coursera connects learners with courses from universities and companies around the world. Some courses provide free audit or preview options, while certificates and expanded features may require payment.
MasterClass uses a paid annual membership model that provides access to classes across a wide variety of subjects.
Then there are public libraries, audiobooks, podcasts, webinars, professional associations, community education programs, and thousands of knowledgeable instructors sharing material online.
The subject does not have to be leadership.
Someone can study accounting, technology, artificial intelligence, writing, public speaking, project management, photography, cooking, music, history, gardening, home repair, or a new language.
We can explore almost any additional skill, hobby, or area of general knowledge that captures our curiosity.
The opportunity to learn no longer depends entirely on whether an employer schedules a class or approves a training budget.
That changes the question from:
“Where could I possibly learn that?”
to:
“Am I willing to begin?”
Cost can still be a barrier, and not every resource carries the same quality or credibility. We have to evaluate instructors, compare sources, question unsupported claims, and recognize the difference between watching someone demonstrate a skill and actually developing it ourselves.
But lack of access is no longer the obstacle it once was.
If you want to understand spreadsheets, there is a course.
If you want to become a better speaker, there are lectures, demonstrations, and opportunities to practice.
If you want to learn how to conduct a difficult conversation, you can read a book, listen to a discussion, study a class, and prepare before the conversation arrives.
If you simply want to understand more about the world, an entire university’s worth of knowledge may be accessible without ever entering a classroom.
That is an extraordinary opportunity.
It also places more responsibility in our hands.
Learning Does Not Always Require Sitting Down
One of the most common explanations people give for not reading is simple:
“I don’t have time.”
That may be true if reading requires sitting in a quiet room with a printed book for an uninterrupted hour.
But that is no longer the only way to read.
Audiobooks allow us to absorb an extraordinary amount of information during time that is already part of our day.
A commute can become a chapter.
A long drive can become a book.
Time in an airport can become a course in history, leadership, psychology, or business.
Routine household work, exercise, yardwork, and other familiar activities can create opportunities to listen and learn.
Even a few minutes of waiting can become useful when an audiobook or podcast is already available on your phone.
Those minutes accumulate.
A person who listens consistently while traveling or completing routine activities may finish books they never would have found time to read in the traditional way.
Listening is not a lesser form of learning.
A narrator may give emphasis to an idea we would have moved past too quickly on the printed page. Hearing an author explain a concept can make the material more conversational and easier to understand. Listening also makes education available to people who struggle to sit and read for extended periods.
The important question is not whether the information reached us through our eyes or our ears.
The question is whether we considered it, retained it, and did something useful with it.
That requires intention.
Pause when an idea deserves more thought. Return to an important chapter. Save a note when it is safe to do so. Discuss the book with someone else. Look for an opportunity to apply what you heard.
Multitasking does have limits.
Some responsibilities deserve our complete attention. We should not force learning into activities where listening would create distraction or risk. Rest also has value. Every quiet moment does not need to be converted into another form of productivity.
But much of life includes routine time when our hands may be occupied while our minds remain available.
Audiobooks give us a way to use some of that time differently.
The person you pass on the highway may not simply be driving to work.
They may be learning how to manage conflict.
They may be studying financial principles.
They may be listening to a biography of someone who led through circumstances far more difficult than their own.
They may be preparing for a responsibility their organization has not yet imagined giving them.
The classroom really is everywhere.
Sometimes it is traveling at sixty-five miles per hour.
Quiet Growth Is Easy to Miss
Organizations often notice the most visible employees first.
We notice the person who speaks frequently in meetings. We notice the strongest technical performer. We notice the employee who steps into a crisis and saves the day.
Those qualities may matter, but they are not the only evidence of leadership potential.
Sometimes leadership development is much quieter.
It appears when an employee asks why a process works the way it does.
It appears when someone requests feedback and then acts on it.
It appears when an employee shares something useful without needing credit for discovering it.
It appears when someone begins preparing for a difficult conversation before being told what to say.
It appears when a person recognizes a weakness in their own performance and starts working on it before a supervisor intervenes.
These moments rarely come with an announcement.
They have to be noticed.
If leaders look only for charisma, visibility, tenure, or technical performance, they may overlook the person who is steadily becoming more capable every month.
Learning Must Become Application
If you discover an employee who is serious about self-development, do more than compliment their ambition.
Ask what they are learning.
Ask what has challenged their thinking.
Ask where they see those ideas applying inside the organization.
Give them an opportunity to test what they are learning through a real assignment with appropriate support.
Let them lead part of a meeting. Ask them to improve a handoff. Invite them to help orient a new employee. Include them in a project that requires collaboration, judgment, and follow-through.
Then observe what happens.
Can they turn an idea into action?
Can they work with people who disagree?
Can they accept correction?
Can they remain accountable when the outcome is imperfect?
Potential becomes clearer when learning meets responsibility.
A book can introduce someone to coaching. A supervised coaching conversation begins revealing whether they can actually coach.
A podcast can explain accountability. A missed deadline shows whether they can practice it.
A course can teach communication. A tense meeting reveals whether they can remain composed enough to use it.
Development needs both education and experience.
Do Not Exploit the Hunger to Grow
There is also a responsibility organizations should not avoid.
We should admire employees who invest their personal time in learning, but we should not turn unpaid personal development into a hidden requirement for advancement.
Not everyone has the same amount of time outside work.
Some employees are raising children, caring for parents, working an additional job, managing health concerns, or carrying responsibilities their employer may never see.
Their leadership potential should not be discounted because their development does not happen late at night with a book in their hands.
A commitment to growth can appear in many forms.
It may be the employee who asks for a mentor.
It may be the person who listens to an audiobook while driving.
It may be someone who volunteers for a difficult assignment because they want to learn.
It may be an employee who studies a mistake instead of hiding from it.
Organizations that say they value development should invest in it too.
Provide books and audiobooks. Create mentoring relationships. Offer meaningful training. Give employees time to learn together. Provide access to online learning platforms. Build leadership book clubs. Discuss ideas during the workday. Create responsible opportunities to practice before a promotion makes someone else’s workplace experience depend on skills they have never had the chance to develop.
Growth should involve personal ownership, but it should not require organizational neglect.
Notice Who Is Becoming
The employee reading after work may never mention it.
The person completing an online course or listening to an audiobook during the commute may not know whether anyone sees their ambition.
The supervisor studying difficult conversations may simply be trying to handle the next one better.
Pay attention anyway.
Ask questions.
Create opportunities.
Offer guidance.
Watch what they do with what they are learning.
The original list of 100 leadership books was never really about finishing 100 books.
It was about becoming more prepared before responsibility arrives.
Somewhere in your organization, an employee may already be doing exactly that.
They are learning before the title.
Practicing before the promotion.
Growing before anyone formally asks them to lead.
Do not overlook them.
The future of your organization may already be listening, learning, and preparing for the responsibility.
Lead by Legendary Example grew from more than four decades of watching people step into leadership, sometimes prepared and sometimes left to learn at everyone else’s expense. The book was named a finalist for the International Impact Award.
Learn more about Lead by Legendary Example:
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