July 30, 2025

Leaders Are Learners

Leaders Are Learners

What’s the point of reading if it doesn’t improve your life and work?

In the second installment of the Pages to Projects summer series, BJ Kraemer explores why reading alone isn't enough; true leadership development requires learning. Drawing from personal experience, business coaching insights, and frameworks like the West Point leadership development model, BJ offers a practical breakdown of how to convert ideas from books into action, habit, and growth. If you’re ready to transform your reading habit into a leadership accelerator, this episode gives you the tools to make every page you read count. 

Tune in to learn how to build a learning culture for yourself and your team!

 

Key Points From This Episode:

•   Why "leaders are learners" goes beyond passive reading or listening.

•   Insight into West Point’s leadership development model.

•   A 4-step learning method: absorb, apply, reflect, reinforce.

•   The power of teaching what you’ve learned to others.

•   Tactical, operational, and strategic ways to embed learning into your life and work.

 

Quotes:

“If we don't make the bridge between what we [read] and how we can apply it, we're actually not taking the action to learn or to improve ourselves.” — BJ Kraemer 

 

“When you're looking at the world through the lens of who you're trying to become and you're looking at all of the books that you're reading from that lens, the nuggets will start coming to you: – ‘I can change this. I can get better here.’” — BJ Kraemer 

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

E214: Leaders are Readers

Who Not How

10x is Easier Than 2x

The Science of Scaling

Leadership Blueprints Podcast

MCFA

MCFA Careers

BJ Kraemer on LinkedIn