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How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People
The differentiating mindset and habits that help you turn insight into action.
When you put learning at the center of everything you do, you grow your career, your leadership, your relationships, and your joy and fulfillment in life. But even for people who are naturally curious and interested in solving problems, being an effective learner who can turn their learning into action takes insight and practice.
With infectious enthusiasm and optimism, David Novak shows you how to master active learning. A trailer-park kid who lived in twenty-three states before entering high school, Novak rapidly ascended the ranks at PepsiCo to become cofounder and CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, the global restaurant icon Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and the Habit Burger Grill). And he credits active learning with getting him there. This compilation of wisdom and practical habits from Novak's life and from some of the most successful leaders in the world—CEOs from many industries, military and political leaders, sports greats, experts, and coaches—is your active-learning practice manual. Chapter by chapter, Novak and his all-star roster of leaders share how they've climbed to the highest levels in their fields.
Through stories of wins and losses, missteps and miracle saves, challenges tackled, and problems solved, Novak shows you all the ways, big and small, that you can become an active learner. A leadership devotional for the modern age, How Leaders Learn will inspire you to reach new levels of success in your own life and work.
When you put learning at the center of everything you do, you grow your career, your leadership, your relationships, and your joy and fulfillment in life. But even for people who are naturally curious and interested in solving problems, being an effective learner who can turn their learning into action takes insight and practice.
With infectious enthusiasm and optimism, David Novak shows you how to master active learning. A trailer-park kid who lived in twenty-three states before entering high school, Novak rapidly ascended the ranks at PepsiCo to become cofounder and CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, the global restaurant icon Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and the Habit Burger Grill). And he credits active learning with getting him there. This compilation of wisdom and practical habits from Novak's life and from some of the most successful leaders in the world—CEOs from many industries, military and political leaders, sports greats, experts, and coaches—is your active-learning practice manual. Chapter by chapter, Novak and his all-star roster of leaders share how they've climbed to the highest levels in their fields.
Through stories of wins and losses, missteps and miracle saves, challenges tackled, and problems solved, Novak shows you all the ways, big and small, that you can become an active learner. A leadership devotional for the modern age, How Leaders Learn will inspire you to reach new levels of success in your own life and work.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 4, 2024
59 people are currently reading
2745 people want to read
About the author
David C. Novak
10 books42 followersDavid Novak is the Co-Founder, retired Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), one of the world’s largest restaurant companies with restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories. Under his 17-year leadership, Yum! Brands doubled in size to over 45,000 restaurants and grew from a 4 billion to a 32 billion dollar market cap.
David is the founder of David Novak Leadership, the parent organization to four nonprofits dedicated to developing leaders at every stage of life — from preschool to the C-suite and everywhere in between. He is also the host of the top-ranked business podcast, How Leaders Lead with David Novak.
David has been recognized as “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review.
David is the founder of David Novak Leadership, the parent organization to four nonprofits dedicated to developing leaders at every stage of life — from preschool to the C-suite and everywhere in between. He is also the host of the top-ranked business podcast, How Leaders Lead with David Novak.
David has been recognized as “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 12, 2024
David's life and career isn't like most CEOs. He grew up in trailer parks, never got an MBA yet still managed to lead and grow the largest restaurant company in the world to $32 billion. This book is a snapshot into what has made him so successful — and the habits that the most inspiring people in the world have used to achieve and maintain their own success. The stories in the book are engaging and offer practical ways to apply those same habits to your own life. Highly recommend How Leaders Learn!
June 4, 2024
I enjoyed the book and took away new tips to help me effectively problem solve and how to approach difficult workplace situations with a new mindset. I appreciated the advice. Thank you for my advance copy. I have shared with others at work!
February 25, 2024
A solid book on leadership, things to remember and things to action. Good primer for new leaders or refresh for middle managers. Quite American centric with US examples. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.
April 7, 2025
Broken up into 3 parts. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Now that’s not to say it has its issues but overall it’s a very quick and easy read. Anyone trying to learn more about techniques for being in the work place as an emerging leader should pick up this book. The reasoning for the 4 and not 5 stars has a lot to do with the fact that the 3rd part falls flat and doesn’t provide anything the author hasn’t already mentioned earlier in the book. It’s repetitive in its examples so much so that even the author points it out. Still a quality book minus part 3
July 13, 2025
Great book, one to read again in a couple of years
September 3, 2025
Leaders should be accountable for what goes wrong and give away the credit for what goes right.
Rating: 4/5
I’ve discovered three essential building blocks or behaviors: They learn from anybody and any experience that has something new, interesting, or valuable to offer. They learn to maintain an open, curious mind and positive relationships (because we learn the most from and with other people). And they learn by doing the things that need doing or that will make the biggest difference.
That’s really what separates active learners from the rest of the world. They get so excited by the process of learning itself, because they know what they learn will be useful to help them grow. Taking on the role of active learner will lead you to places you never thought you could go. It will reveal possibilities you never imagined. It’s as Eric Hoffer, the American philosopher, wrote in Reflections on the Human Condition: “In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.”They can’t wait to discover the next idea, and the next, and the next, because behind every idea is a world of possibility and a brighter future. I’m excited to see what possibilities this book will bring to your life. Let’s see where the first idea takes you.
Part one, “Learn From,” is devoted to how we can all learn from the people, environments, and experiences available to us right now. Active learners don’t sit around hoping lessons and ideas will show up on their doorstep. They hunt for learning opportunities wherever they are and whoever they’re with so that they can make a positive difference now, not later.
In part two, “Learn To,” I’ll explore essential habits for developing open minds and better critical thinking habits, so that you can increase the flow of great ideas into your life and improve how you analyze them. I’ll lead with the most essential skill for learning: listening. How much time do most of us spend really listening, with focus and intention, when people talk to us? How often are we instead multitasking, listening with assumptions, or just thinking about what we’re going to have for lunch? Every day, people share great ideas that go nowhere because nobody’s actively listening. If you can become the one who does listen, you’ll have incredible potential for positive impact.
In part three, “Learn By,” we’ll explore the nuances of learning by pursuing joy, simplifying, solving problems, prioritizing people, recognizing others on purpose, and much more. When we learn by doing, we’re discovering the insights that come from action. Some of those insights are about us, some are about others, and some are about the world around us.
What are you learning right now from your environment? Is it time to move on?
It’s amazing what you can learn when you ask people who know more than you to share their knowledge.
If you’re wondering who you should turn to, always start with people who have applied their ideas in the real world and can prove that they work.
A final tip: if you want people to share their know-how with you, you need to spread know-how.
I can’t believe I’m quoting a notorious gangster and liar in a chapter on truth-telling, but John Gotti gave the world some good advice when he said, “You only lie when you’re afraid.” If people are afraid to tell us the truth, because of our reaction or the possible negative consequences, we won’t have many truth-tellers in our lives. If they tell us the truth and we don’t take action, don’t hold ourselves accountable to the truth, they’ll stop sharing it with us. What’s the point, if nothing changes, if we learn nothing?
Second, I was reminded that when you are the source of a crisis, you have to be honest and transparent (AmeriServe was not) by following these three steps: Be truthful and get the word out. People will forgive you if you tell them the truth and keep them informed. Explain specifically how you’re handling the situation right now. Lay out what you’re going to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
If you look back over your life, you’ll find moments when you’ve done exactly that. Along the way, you learned things about yourself and about the world and about how to succeed despite the circumstances. Put that CSE advantage to use when the next crisis arises—hopefully not next week, when I’m sure your schedule is already full. Learning from Crises Think about a crisis you’ve dealt with in the past year. What did you do that had the biggest positive impact? What did you do that didn’t turn out well? What could you do tomorrow to help avoid a similar problem in the future? Or what will you do differently the next time a similar crisis arises?
Active learners follow this pattern every day. They learn as much as they can from others’ wins—from people and teams that know something they might not. And they don’t miss any opportunity to learn from their own wins.
Active learners don’t walk away from a win without a backward glance. They analyze and assess. What made the difference? What hurdles did they have to overcome along the way and how did they? What did they learn about themselves or the people around them? What they’re looking for are bright spots—insights into process, discipline, and revelations from innovative moments they can leverage. They use what they discover to make the next win a bit easier, more likely, or bigger. And they do this consistently. The great Vince Lombardi put it plainly: “Winning is a habit.”
To learn from failures, we must be willing to fail in the first place. We must battle our fear, take the risk, see what happens, and then assess with a laser eye on opportunities for growth and improvement. Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe Systems, is a firm believer in this principle. Many CEOs would want to come on a podcast to talk exclusively about their successes, but he didn’t hesitate to share his failed product ideas and even an early business he had started that didn’t pan out. “Let’s also celebrate products that were perhaps not commercial successes,” he told me, “that may have been commercial failures, but the learnings from them were really what enabled us to build another product…. Celebrate people who tried something, took the initiative.” He doesn’t even like using the word failure because he is so focused on the learning experience instead.
“Failure is 100 percent information, only information.
THE MOST EFFECTIVE OF ALL HUMAN FEARS WHICH PREVENT THE DEVELOPMENT OF FULL POTENTIAL ARE THE FEAR OF FAILURE AND THE FEAR OF SUCCESS…. IT IS A THIEF OF INNOVATION AND OF SATISFACTION.
I think incisive or beautiful questions start with the most basic: Why do we do things a certain way or why do we think a certain way? And in what new way could we act or think that would help us solve a problem or achieve something better? From there, we follow the rabbit trail with more questions to get to a deeper level of learning—and to show that we want to understand other people’s thinking better.
Active learners recognize that everybody has bias and prejudice, their own categories and templates and ways of seeing the world. They work on overcoming their own, but they also don’t blindly trust the opinions they hear from others.
Active learners deal in reality. They recognize an essential truth: delusional people don’t learn well. They work hard to follow the often-repeated advice of my mentor at Yum!, Andy Pearson: learn to see the world the way it really is, not how you wish it to be. If you assume that the best ideas and soundest knowledge are based in reality, what are the chances that you’re going to be open to them if you’re clinging to what you wish rather than acknowledging what is? And how can you possibly know where or how to grow and learn if you don’t know your starting point?
If you want to see the world the way it really is, you’ve got to hunt for the truth. You’ve got to chase it like all hell.
The richer your life experience is, the more creative you’ll become.” In his book, he offered this advice to hone your pattern thinking: Practice and refine the skill of finding patterns of unconnected events in the world of human experience. This can be learned. Pattern recognition is one of the consistent elements of successfully creative business problem solvers. Insights can come from any direction if you hone this ability. Once, while reading an article in the Washington Post on the Aztec irrigation system that brought water to dry, barren fields in Mexico, I had a sudden recognition about how to help restructure my agency’s direct marketing organization. Stories abound in business about how enormously successful products, from Post-it notes to Viagra, were discovered by seeing a popular application of something originally developed for a completely different purpose.1
The Cool Ranch process we went through reveals the power of pattern thinking. Pattern thinking is 1 + 1 = 3 kind of learning. You create something bigger than its parts by pairing things that aren’t obviously related but that together create something new, exciting, and powerful. You need to discover the subtle similarities between two things that seem different on the surface and then make a leap to a new idea, interpretation, or action.
It’s not about you.
Even when we don’t agree with somebody’s idea as a whole, we can celebrate what we do agree with in part.
As important as it is for us to trust in positive intentions, if we want people to trust in ours, we need to behave accordingly. We need to build a well of trust to draw on, and as Stephen Covey explains, an important factor in that is our integrity.
Joy is our source of purpose, passion, mission—and the most enjoyable path to learning.
Happy in challenge is better than miserable in success. Her only regret was that she didn’t do it sooner. Life’s too short not to do what you love, not to pursue joy, if you get the chance.
It was an aha moment for Marvin. “I realized that by fitting in, I was actually working two jobs. I was working the job I was being paid to do. And then I was working a job being someone that I wasn’t. I was doing double duty while everyone else was doing single duty.”
Every morning, I prepared to deliver on that goal. I exercised, journaled, and focused on gratitude. I did all of that with the goal of delivering my best to the million or so people around the world who relied on me to make good decisions for the company. And I still follow this preparation ritual every single day, with the same high expectations—because you never knew exactly what the day will bring or what opportunities to learn more might show up.
Of course, not all preparation is equal. Good preparation is purposeful, as the purposeful practice psychologist Anders Ericsson discovered in his research into peak performers.
The easy way is efficacious and speedy, the hard way arduous and long. But, as the clock ticks, the easy way becomes harder, and the hard way becomes easier. And as the calendar records the years, it becomes increasingly evident that the easy way rests hazardously upon shifting sands, whereas the hard way builds solidly a foundation of confidence that cannot be swept away.
Leaders are taught to delegate, but you have to avoid becoming disconnected, especially from the fundamental work of the business and the people making it happen.
Doing the right thing is the gift you give yourself.
Every time you push yourself to do the right thing, you’re rediscovering your values. You’re learning to translate them into action.
Third, simplify the situation, circumstances, or approach down to the essentials of success. Take the time to understand the fundamentals of whatever you’re doing and check yourself against them.
The worst thing you can do to a business is add complexity that doesn’t increase sales. If you’re struggling, simplify and focus on the fundamentals. Compare what you’re working on to those fundamentals. Are you moving closer to them or further away?
Your capacity to teach is only as great as your capacity to learn, and I can’t think of a person I would call a real active learner who doesn’t spend time teaching, partly because it’s just so rewarding. The part I love best about teaching isn’t the act of teaching itself. It’s discovering how people use the ideas to make a difference. At Yum! it was that magical moment at the end of the day when everyone got together in informal groups and talked about what they were going to do differently next week. Or the responses I received when I followed up with people after the program to find out how they were putting the lessons into practice and how they were being active in their learning. Any teacher will tell you that there’s no greater joy than when something you say or do inspires people to examine their behaviors, ideas, thinking, and habits—when maybe, in some small way, you made a difference in their lives. I hope you get to experience that same joy and learn powerful lessons from your own students.
What I came to understand better with programs like these is that you don’t only learn about your own ideas; you learn new ideas from the people you’re teaching. Of course, that’s only possible if you approach teaching as a discussion, not a lecture.
Teaching also helps you learn about your audience, and that’s how you build your connection with larger groups.
Active learners understand that people—not knowledge or results—should be the priority.
Focusing on people helps you learn more about the world around you—and gain a better understanding of yourself. You discover how to be vulnerable, which encourages people to be vulnerable back, to share ideas and insights that they might not have otherwise. These can be the ideas and insights that matter the most because they’re not necessarily easy. They’re not surface.
At a roundtable meeting with about ten route salespeople at our St. Louis plant, I asked a question about what was and wasn’t working in merchandising. Someone said, “Ask Bob about that. He really knows how to paint the store Pepsi.” Someone else said, “Yeah, Bob showed me more in one afternoon than I learned my first year.” And so on around the room: “Bob showed me this,” “Bob showed me that,” “Bob knows all about that.” I looked over at Bob, who was a route salesperson like the others, and saw tears streaming down his face. “Bob, people are heaping all this praise on you. Why are you so upset?” “You know,” Bob said, “I’ve been at this company for forty-seven years. I’m about to retire in a couple of weeks. And I never knew anybody felt this way about me.” Forty-seven years feeling completely unappreciated.
At first, Frank wasn’t sure if it was working. But after about three months, he was in a store and an associate approached him. “I got this note from you,” the man said. “Would you mind sending me another copy?” Frank said, “No problem, but why?” The man said, “Well, we all looked at it and we figured it had to be RoboPen. You couldn’t possibly have written it. So, we ran it under water to test it, and the ink ran. We ruined it.” That’s the power of personalization.
Fun and spontaneity matter, too—because they boost joy in the moment and create more memorable experiences.
If you don’t want to wait for results to improve, don’t wait to recognize the behaviors that produce the results.
The active learning will never, never stop. My life has always been full and I’m always dreaming about what’s to come, because there’s so much to learn. If I pursue it, I’ll keep making life better, for me, the people I’m closest to, and the people I have the privilege to help, teach, or influence. Active learners are painters. Artists. They see life as a masterpiece-in-progress, knowing that the more they learn, the more the masterpiece will reveal itself. Because as Frank Hubbard said, and the great John Wooden was fond of repeating, “It’s what we learn after we think we know it all that counts.”
That’s the power of learning: it elevates the impact you have on the people in your life and the world around you.
Rating: 4/5
I’ve discovered three essential building blocks or behaviors: They learn from anybody and any experience that has something new, interesting, or valuable to offer. They learn to maintain an open, curious mind and positive relationships (because we learn the most from and with other people). And they learn by doing the things that need doing or that will make the biggest difference.
That’s really what separates active learners from the rest of the world. They get so excited by the process of learning itself, because they know what they learn will be useful to help them grow. Taking on the role of active learner will lead you to places you never thought you could go. It will reveal possibilities you never imagined. It’s as Eric Hoffer, the American philosopher, wrote in Reflections on the Human Condition: “In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.”They can’t wait to discover the next idea, and the next, and the next, because behind every idea is a world of possibility and a brighter future. I’m excited to see what possibilities this book will bring to your life. Let’s see where the first idea takes you.
Part one, “Learn From,” is devoted to how we can all learn from the people, environments, and experiences available to us right now. Active learners don’t sit around hoping lessons and ideas will show up on their doorstep. They hunt for learning opportunities wherever they are and whoever they’re with so that they can make a positive difference now, not later.
In part two, “Learn To,” I’ll explore essential habits for developing open minds and better critical thinking habits, so that you can increase the flow of great ideas into your life and improve how you analyze them. I’ll lead with the most essential skill for learning: listening. How much time do most of us spend really listening, with focus and intention, when people talk to us? How often are we instead multitasking, listening with assumptions, or just thinking about what we’re going to have for lunch? Every day, people share great ideas that go nowhere because nobody’s actively listening. If you can become the one who does listen, you’ll have incredible potential for positive impact.
In part three, “Learn By,” we’ll explore the nuances of learning by pursuing joy, simplifying, solving problems, prioritizing people, recognizing others on purpose, and much more. When we learn by doing, we’re discovering the insights that come from action. Some of those insights are about us, some are about others, and some are about the world around us.
What are you learning right now from your environment? Is it time to move on?
It’s amazing what you can learn when you ask people who know more than you to share their knowledge.
If you’re wondering who you should turn to, always start with people who have applied their ideas in the real world and can prove that they work.
A final tip: if you want people to share their know-how with you, you need to spread know-how.
I can’t believe I’m quoting a notorious gangster and liar in a chapter on truth-telling, but John Gotti gave the world some good advice when he said, “You only lie when you’re afraid.” If people are afraid to tell us the truth, because of our reaction or the possible negative consequences, we won’t have many truth-tellers in our lives. If they tell us the truth and we don’t take action, don’t hold ourselves accountable to the truth, they’ll stop sharing it with us. What’s the point, if nothing changes, if we learn nothing?
Second, I was reminded that when you are the source of a crisis, you have to be honest and transparent (AmeriServe was not) by following these three steps: Be truthful and get the word out. People will forgive you if you tell them the truth and keep them informed. Explain specifically how you’re handling the situation right now. Lay out what you’re going to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
If you look back over your life, you’ll find moments when you’ve done exactly that. Along the way, you learned things about yourself and about the world and about how to succeed despite the circumstances. Put that CSE advantage to use when the next crisis arises—hopefully not next week, when I’m sure your schedule is already full. Learning from Crises Think about a crisis you’ve dealt with in the past year. What did you do that had the biggest positive impact? What did you do that didn’t turn out well? What could you do tomorrow to help avoid a similar problem in the future? Or what will you do differently the next time a similar crisis arises?
Active learners follow this pattern every day. They learn as much as they can from others’ wins—from people and teams that know something they might not. And they don’t miss any opportunity to learn from their own wins.
Active learners don’t walk away from a win without a backward glance. They analyze and assess. What made the difference? What hurdles did they have to overcome along the way and how did they? What did they learn about themselves or the people around them? What they’re looking for are bright spots—insights into process, discipline, and revelations from innovative moments they can leverage. They use what they discover to make the next win a bit easier, more likely, or bigger. And they do this consistently. The great Vince Lombardi put it plainly: “Winning is a habit.”
To learn from failures, we must be willing to fail in the first place. We must battle our fear, take the risk, see what happens, and then assess with a laser eye on opportunities for growth and improvement. Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe Systems, is a firm believer in this principle. Many CEOs would want to come on a podcast to talk exclusively about their successes, but he didn’t hesitate to share his failed product ideas and even an early business he had started that didn’t pan out. “Let’s also celebrate products that were perhaps not commercial successes,” he told me, “that may have been commercial failures, but the learnings from them were really what enabled us to build another product…. Celebrate people who tried something, took the initiative.” He doesn’t even like using the word failure because he is so focused on the learning experience instead.
“Failure is 100 percent information, only information.
THE MOST EFFECTIVE OF ALL HUMAN FEARS WHICH PREVENT THE DEVELOPMENT OF FULL POTENTIAL ARE THE FEAR OF FAILURE AND THE FEAR OF SUCCESS…. IT IS A THIEF OF INNOVATION AND OF SATISFACTION.
I think incisive or beautiful questions start with the most basic: Why do we do things a certain way or why do we think a certain way? And in what new way could we act or think that would help us solve a problem or achieve something better? From there, we follow the rabbit trail with more questions to get to a deeper level of learning—and to show that we want to understand other people’s thinking better.
Active learners recognize that everybody has bias and prejudice, their own categories and templates and ways of seeing the world. They work on overcoming their own, but they also don’t blindly trust the opinions they hear from others.
Active learners deal in reality. They recognize an essential truth: delusional people don’t learn well. They work hard to follow the often-repeated advice of my mentor at Yum!, Andy Pearson: learn to see the world the way it really is, not how you wish it to be. If you assume that the best ideas and soundest knowledge are based in reality, what are the chances that you’re going to be open to them if you’re clinging to what you wish rather than acknowledging what is? And how can you possibly know where or how to grow and learn if you don’t know your starting point?
If you want to see the world the way it really is, you’ve got to hunt for the truth. You’ve got to chase it like all hell.
The richer your life experience is, the more creative you’ll become.” In his book, he offered this advice to hone your pattern thinking: Practice and refine the skill of finding patterns of unconnected events in the world of human experience. This can be learned. Pattern recognition is one of the consistent elements of successfully creative business problem solvers. Insights can come from any direction if you hone this ability. Once, while reading an article in the Washington Post on the Aztec irrigation system that brought water to dry, barren fields in Mexico, I had a sudden recognition about how to help restructure my agency’s direct marketing organization. Stories abound in business about how enormously successful products, from Post-it notes to Viagra, were discovered by seeing a popular application of something originally developed for a completely different purpose.1
The Cool Ranch process we went through reveals the power of pattern thinking. Pattern thinking is 1 + 1 = 3 kind of learning. You create something bigger than its parts by pairing things that aren’t obviously related but that together create something new, exciting, and powerful. You need to discover the subtle similarities between two things that seem different on the surface and then make a leap to a new idea, interpretation, or action.
It’s not about you.
Even when we don’t agree with somebody’s idea as a whole, we can celebrate what we do agree with in part.
As important as it is for us to trust in positive intentions, if we want people to trust in ours, we need to behave accordingly. We need to build a well of trust to draw on, and as Stephen Covey explains, an important factor in that is our integrity.
Joy is our source of purpose, passion, mission—and the most enjoyable path to learning.
Happy in challenge is better than miserable in success. Her only regret was that she didn’t do it sooner. Life’s too short not to do what you love, not to pursue joy, if you get the chance.
It was an aha moment for Marvin. “I realized that by fitting in, I was actually working two jobs. I was working the job I was being paid to do. And then I was working a job being someone that I wasn’t. I was doing double duty while everyone else was doing single duty.”
Every morning, I prepared to deliver on that goal. I exercised, journaled, and focused on gratitude. I did all of that with the goal of delivering my best to the million or so people around the world who relied on me to make good decisions for the company. And I still follow this preparation ritual every single day, with the same high expectations—because you never knew exactly what the day will bring or what opportunities to learn more might show up.
Of course, not all preparation is equal. Good preparation is purposeful, as the purposeful practice psychologist Anders Ericsson discovered in his research into peak performers.
The easy way is efficacious and speedy, the hard way arduous and long. But, as the clock ticks, the easy way becomes harder, and the hard way becomes easier. And as the calendar records the years, it becomes increasingly evident that the easy way rests hazardously upon shifting sands, whereas the hard way builds solidly a foundation of confidence that cannot be swept away.
Leaders are taught to delegate, but you have to avoid becoming disconnected, especially from the fundamental work of the business and the people making it happen.
Doing the right thing is the gift you give yourself.
Every time you push yourself to do the right thing, you’re rediscovering your values. You’re learning to translate them into action.
Third, simplify the situation, circumstances, or approach down to the essentials of success. Take the time to understand the fundamentals of whatever you’re doing and check yourself against them.
The worst thing you can do to a business is add complexity that doesn’t increase sales. If you’re struggling, simplify and focus on the fundamentals. Compare what you’re working on to those fundamentals. Are you moving closer to them or further away?
Your capacity to teach is only as great as your capacity to learn, and I can’t think of a person I would call a real active learner who doesn’t spend time teaching, partly because it’s just so rewarding. The part I love best about teaching isn’t the act of teaching itself. It’s discovering how people use the ideas to make a difference. At Yum! it was that magical moment at the end of the day when everyone got together in informal groups and talked about what they were going to do differently next week. Or the responses I received when I followed up with people after the program to find out how they were putting the lessons into practice and how they were being active in their learning. Any teacher will tell you that there’s no greater joy than when something you say or do inspires people to examine their behaviors, ideas, thinking, and habits—when maybe, in some small way, you made a difference in their lives. I hope you get to experience that same joy and learn powerful lessons from your own students.
What I came to understand better with programs like these is that you don’t only learn about your own ideas; you learn new ideas from the people you’re teaching. Of course, that’s only possible if you approach teaching as a discussion, not a lecture.
Teaching also helps you learn about your audience, and that’s how you build your connection with larger groups.
Active learners understand that people—not knowledge or results—should be the priority.
Focusing on people helps you learn more about the world around you—and gain a better understanding of yourself. You discover how to be vulnerable, which encourages people to be vulnerable back, to share ideas and insights that they might not have otherwise. These can be the ideas and insights that matter the most because they’re not necessarily easy. They’re not surface.
At a roundtable meeting with about ten route salespeople at our St. Louis plant, I asked a question about what was and wasn’t working in merchandising. Someone said, “Ask Bob about that. He really knows how to paint the store Pepsi.” Someone else said, “Yeah, Bob showed me more in one afternoon than I learned my first year.” And so on around the room: “Bob showed me this,” “Bob showed me that,” “Bob knows all about that.” I looked over at Bob, who was a route salesperson like the others, and saw tears streaming down his face. “Bob, people are heaping all this praise on you. Why are you so upset?” “You know,” Bob said, “I’ve been at this company for forty-seven years. I’m about to retire in a couple of weeks. And I never knew anybody felt this way about me.” Forty-seven years feeling completely unappreciated.
At first, Frank wasn’t sure if it was working. But after about three months, he was in a store and an associate approached him. “I got this note from you,” the man said. “Would you mind sending me another copy?” Frank said, “No problem, but why?” The man said, “Well, we all looked at it and we figured it had to be RoboPen. You couldn’t possibly have written it. So, we ran it under water to test it, and the ink ran. We ruined it.” That’s the power of personalization.
Fun and spontaneity matter, too—because they boost joy in the moment and create more memorable experiences.
If you don’t want to wait for results to improve, don’t wait to recognize the behaviors that produce the results.
The active learning will never, never stop. My life has always been full and I’m always dreaming about what’s to come, because there’s so much to learn. If I pursue it, I’ll keep making life better, for me, the people I’m closest to, and the people I have the privilege to help, teach, or influence. Active learners are painters. Artists. They see life as a masterpiece-in-progress, knowing that the more they learn, the more the masterpiece will reveal itself. Because as Frank Hubbard said, and the great John Wooden was fond of repeating, “It’s what we learn after we think we know it all that counts.”
That’s the power of learning: it elevates the impact you have on the people in your life and the world around you.
June 12, 2024
This book showed me what’s made the world’s top leaders so successful — they’re always hunting for learning and then they apply that learning to their own lives. I never really looked at “learning” as something I should try to get better at, but I do now. What a great book!
August 6, 2024
I'm thrilled to share my thoughts on "How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People" by David Novak from Harvard Business Review .
This book is an inspiring journey into the mindset and habits that differentiate successful leaders.
David Novak's infectious enthusiasm and optimism shine through every page as he illustrates how putting learning at the center of your life can transform your career, leadership, relationships, and overall fulfillment.
Novak's own story, from a trailer park to the pinnacle of corporate success, is a testament to the power of active learning. His journey, along with insights from an all-star roster of leaders across various fields, provides a practical and compelling guide for turning insight into action. Each chapter is packed with wisdom and real-life examples of how top leaders tackle challenges, solve problems, and achieve their goals.
This book isn't just a collection of leadership theories; it's a hands-on manual for mastering the habits that lead to success. Whether you're at the beginning of your career or a seasoned professional, "How Leaders Learn" offers valuable lessons that can help you reach new heights.
This book is an inspiring journey into the mindset and habits that differentiate successful leaders.
David Novak's infectious enthusiasm and optimism shine through every page as he illustrates how putting learning at the center of your life can transform your career, leadership, relationships, and overall fulfillment.
Novak's own story, from a trailer park to the pinnacle of corporate success, is a testament to the power of active learning. His journey, along with insights from an all-star roster of leaders across various fields, provides a practical and compelling guide for turning insight into action. Each chapter is packed with wisdom and real-life examples of how top leaders tackle challenges, solve problems, and achieve their goals.
This book isn't just a collection of leadership theories; it's a hands-on manual for mastering the habits that lead to success. Whether you're at the beginning of your career or a seasoned professional, "How Leaders Learn" offers valuable lessons that can help you reach new heights.
December 30, 2024
This is a phenomenal leadership book. Couple points to help it provide more utility:
1. The author comments that it does not need to be read continuously and may even be more beneficial to read over the course of a lengthier time to apply the principles. He's correct.
2. The questions at the end of the chapters should be read twice- once at the beginning and then again upon completion of the chapter. It really helped absorb the concepts once I started doing this.
3. The unsung hero of the book is the "notes" section at the end and the vast number of books that Novak references throughout.
I'll read the book again in this fashion: find a chapter with a concept to focus on, read the questions at the end, read the chapter, highlight the books and media references he uses, then go through and read/view all of those items.
(Make sure to check out his podcast too! It's phenomenal!!!)
1. The author comments that it does not need to be read continuously and may even be more beneficial to read over the course of a lengthier time to apply the principles. He's correct.
2. The questions at the end of the chapters should be read twice- once at the beginning and then again upon completion of the chapter. It really helped absorb the concepts once I started doing this.
3. The unsung hero of the book is the "notes" section at the end and the vast number of books that Novak references throughout.
I'll read the book again in this fashion: find a chapter with a concept to focus on, read the questions at the end, read the chapter, highlight the books and media references he uses, then go through and read/view all of those items.
(Make sure to check out his podcast too! It's phenomenal!!!)
April 8, 2025
73%
Life story was a really nice touch in this. It was a big departure from what I traditionally get in narratives from my billionaire teachers and
Why is that? Because this guy is not a billionaire. Is, I understand it makes sense.
Being receptive to people, listening talking. Actively seeking feedback. All great mechanisms being honest in them down to earth I guess and giving people silly rubber chickens, silly floppy rapper chickens. Why are they silly floppy rubber chicken? Did I miss that? Uh, I don't know why why are the chicken specifically I nursed? I understand why he was giving them. Something. But why why a floppy rubber chicken?
I didn't really. Learn anything in this? It's just reinforcement. The biggest thing is For me, looking at this. For what uniquely provides. And that is that this person has a very Difference and more unique. Intelligence structure.
In the leadership Arena.
Life story was a really nice touch in this. It was a big departure from what I traditionally get in narratives from my billionaire teachers and
Why is that? Because this guy is not a billionaire. Is, I understand it makes sense.
Being receptive to people, listening talking. Actively seeking feedback. All great mechanisms being honest in them down to earth I guess and giving people silly rubber chickens, silly floppy rapper chickens. Why are they silly floppy rubber chicken? Did I miss that? Uh, I don't know why why are the chicken specifically I nursed? I understand why he was giving them. Something. But why why a floppy rubber chicken?
I didn't really. Learn anything in this? It's just reinforcement. The biggest thing is For me, looking at this. For what uniquely provides. And that is that this person has a very Difference and more unique. Intelligence structure.
In the leadership Arena.
November 16, 2024
In How Leaders Learn, American businessman David Nowak (b. 1952), tells his life story (grew up in trailer parks with a dad who traveled extensively for work), brags about his many career accolades (former president of fast food chains KFC and Pizza Hut, former CEO of Yum! Brands), shares a few of his misses (Crystal Pepsi, anyone?), and occasionally shares quotes or insights from others on the topic of how leaders learn, but mostly he just talks about himself and his accomplishments. I was hoping for more external perspectives given the title and more than a bit annoyed at what was actually delivered, though Nowak certainly has had an interesting life and career.
My statistics:
Book for 2024
Book cumulatively
My statistics:
Book for 2024
Book cumulatively
January 16, 2025
I enjoyed this book by David Novak about How Leaders Learn. It was an easy read with stories throughout. Like many business books, it took too long to recap the key points but the generally point of being a life long learner, asking questions, be intellectual curious, learning from everyone, being willing to share your learning with everyone were the key areas of focus. The stories brought this to life and I really enjoyed learning more about the history of YUM Brands and how some of the learning culture and recognition culture was shaped by David Novak. There are no revolutionary concepts but good reminders and a great way to start the year focused on the mindset of continuously learning.
October 28, 2024
One of the top books on leading and learning I have read to date! Novak brings a life time of wisdom that is generously shared in a way that brings the leader along. How Leaders Learn is an extended hand for those active learners looking for a friend to walk with them on their leadership journey no matter the season.
March 1, 2025
Enjoyed the short chapters that made it a breeze to read. The book discussed active learners, however didn't enlighten the reader on strategies on how to be an active learner. Seemed to just boast about his success at his companies like YUM! and Pepsi. Suggested many books to further knowledge as an active learner.
June 23, 2025
It’s a great book. I’m a very large study of his work with his podcast, and I love it so much!
I think I’d rate it 5 stars if I picked this up out of no where. Because I’ve listened to so much of his podcast, I recognize most all of these stories & lessons in this book.
It’s a good book, but for ME it’s repetitive based on how much I have listened to his podcast
I think I’d rate it 5 stars if I picked this up out of no where. Because I’ve listened to so much of his podcast, I recognize most all of these stories & lessons in this book.
It’s a good book, but for ME it’s repetitive based on how much I have listened to his podcast
September 26, 2024
If you're a regular reader of productivity and self help books, you likely won't gain much from this one. It's too basic and lacks depth. I read the first 60 pages and skimmed the rest. It might be more suitable for beginners.
August 25, 2025
Former Yum! Brands CEO emphasizes continuous learning as leadership's core skill. Strong on creating learning cultures and developing others. Straightforward advice but no groundbreaking insights, i.e. nothing new, might be common sense.
August 19, 2024
good book
September 13, 2024
Great advices for those of us that need guidance to be a better leader.
October 18, 2024
David’s authenticity shines through his anecdotes and stories on leadership . A must read for all leaders as it talks about the why and how to learning as leaders .
October 27, 2024
Such a great read! So glad that Jay Bilas recommended this to me! I will share with my leaders and read over and over.
November 22, 2024
Worthwhile read. Not much new other than examples. Good compendium of growth mindset/active learning behaviors.
May 23, 2025
Without original or innovative ideas.
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