Media leaders must keep learning. Here are five principles to guide your own learning and ensure it delivers

As newsroom leaders take on increasing responsibilities, it becomes hard to find time to keep learning. The usual newsroom hamster wheel often leads to routines that can crowd out opportunities for fresh ideas. This is even more dangerous in an industry where parameters are changing constantly. Stagnation is a real risk. 

So, how can newsroom leaders stay open to growth, both personally and professionally? We turned to Professor Lucy Kueng, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute and a leading expert in media leadership and innovation. With a background that bridges both industry and academia, Kueng shares her thoughts on how leaders can prioritise professional growth, challenge their assumptions, and create a culture of learning. Here are her guiding principles.

1. Make learning a priority

Prioritise learning. It is an extraordinary unlock—for you personally, for your team, and your organisation. While elite institutions offer incredible courses, you can design a do-it-yourself programme that costs virtually nothing and achieves similar results. Here are four fundamentals:

• Be consistent: Learning compounds over time. Make it a habit, and it can be transformative.
• Be strategic: Focus on what you need or want to learn right now. Dive deeply into it, nail it to where you need to get it, and then move on.
• Keep it light touch: Learning should energise, not overwhelm. Start with accessible resources like podcasts, YouTube, or newsletters, then move to more complex materials as your interest grows.
• Break it into chunks: Even 20 minutes a day can bring real progress when done consistently.

2. The more you progress,  the more important it becomes to challenge your assumptions

As you advance, the learning needs to shift from improving what exists (first-order learning) to questioning and reshaping underlying assumptions (second-order learning). This is where breakthroughs happen.

Second-order learning is challenging. It requires mental agility, a willingness to unlearn, and frequent exposure to new perspectives. Research shows it becomes harder and harder. As one gains more experience, their thinking is often anchored in the status quo.

The key is to intentionally seek out people and environments that challenge your assumptions. For instance, connect with leaders from entirely different sectors or immerse yourself in unfamiliar contexts that force you to rethink old paradigms

Importantly, second-order learning won’t come from similar organisations, peers, or challenges. While these can speed up solving current problems, they won’t yield path-breaking results. 

3. Create a culture of continuous learning in your team

Leaders must foster an environment where growth is part of everyday work. Here’s how leaders can foster that culture:

• Expose teams to change: Show them the pace and breadth of industry shifts. This lays a foundation for second-order learning.
• Lean into feedback: Quick, frequent feedback acknowledges the person, shows them that what they do matters, keeps the focus on priorities and maintains momentum.
• Leverage things that don’t work out: This is the most underused of the learning levers. Take a Socratic approach: discuss objectively, probe for assumptions, and reflect on lessons learned as a group. Keep it courteous and listen.

At the same time, individuals must take charge of their own growth and recognise the transformative power of learning. Learning can put your life on an entirely different trajectory. Taking personal responsibility for growth not only enriches your career but also increases your market value and sense of agency.

4. Build a structured approach to learning and leadership

The key to learning is less about any single resource and more about building a structured approach. As someone balancing dual roles – strategic advisor and researcher/writer – learning is central to everything I do. Here’s how I manage it:

• Select three learning topics: At any given time, I focus on an industry issue, an industrial-economic trend, and a practical skill. Right now, these are the topics I'm focusing on: the creator economy’s impact on traditional media, AI’s role in reshaping industries and value distribution and adopting ‘slow productivity’, inspired by Cal Newport.
• Layer your learning: Start light with podcasts, YouTube, or newsletters. Gradually progress to denser material like scholarly articles or books.
• Synthesise and apply: I consolidate what I learn into personal notes or frameworks and test insights in real-world scenarios. For example, I might test my analysis on a client’s situation and see what insights it generates, or change a working habit and see what results.
• Invest in going deeper, if warranted: If I feel this area is really significant, I connect with key actors, invest in a structured course, or maybe even write a book proposal. Writing a book is the most disciplined route to learning there is. 

5. Learn from the best

Here’s the golden rule: learn from those ahead of you. Study the best. Train with the most skilled you can access. Experience how they do it firsthand.

Professor Lucy Kueng is a regular speaker for our Leadership Development programmes.