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Why Leaders Need a Personal Knowledge Management System

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Why Leaders Need a Personal Knowledge Management System

Apr 26, 2021   |  By
KMI Guest Blogger Myrah Abrar

In every organization, leaders are appointed so that they can give professional guidance to their teams. They take the responsibility of providing practical knowledge to their peers and assist them in their tasks. When a team is assigned a project, then the leader is held accountable for the faults found in them.

However, a leader can only fulfill such a role if they have the inner ability to learn new information. This knowledge can be earned from books, daily life, videos, or work experience. However, by just storing it in your brain, that information is useless because it didn’t become a part of their actions.

The Need for a Personal Knowledge Management System

Personal Knowledge Management is the process of drawing important conclusions or lessons from the knowledge that you’ve learned from past experiences. Thorough understanding and implementation of those lessons help the leaders to become proficient in their work.

Hence, came a personal knowledge management system that provides an organized method for storing tips and lessons learned. Marking pieces of text in books, bookmarking blog posts, or writing notes are just some of the ways of using a personal knowledge management system.

Here are a few reasons why such a system can prove to be beneficial for you.

1.   Find Hidden Lessons in Your Past Experiences

You may think journaling is a waste of time, but it proves to be a great tool, not just for jotting down your feelings but also to note down the challenges faced over the years and how did you overcome them. Just remembering about what happened at a specific incident wouldn’t help you to analyze what mistakes you made and what lessons did you learn. 

When you write such processes that occurred in your life, it can help your mind to find hidden patterns that you weren’t able to find before. This is where a personal knowledge management system can aid you in writing down your emotions and experiences. So, whenever you revisit them, you can look at those memories from a different perspective.

It’s a good idea to note down all of the events that occurred during work daily. Make a separate page to write down important information, advice, or practical knowledge that you have learned during the day.

For example, an employee learning about digital marketing services for their next online campaign can write down their thoughts, ideas, and strategies by using a personal knowledge management system.

2.   Keeps Track of Your Performance

One can only know how much ground they have covered when they’ve made a record of all of the achievements and failures they’ve faced along the journey. How can anyone learn from their mistakes if they aren’t identified?

A personal knowledge management system can help you to form a written record of your progress at the workplace. It can help you to spot mistakes you’ve made before and learn from them. So, whenever you’re going through a similar phase, you can revise to find the solutions to your problems.

It’s also a good motivation booster because one can become aware of the achievements they’ve made throughout their work life. If a leader continues to concentrate on their failures, then it can cause them to lose confidence and remain in constant anxiety. So, they won’t be able to face new challenges.

By learning about your accomplishments, it can give you the strength to face the challenges ahead during your leadership journey.

3.   Enhances Creativity

Making your knowledge management system can help to feed your creativity. By noting down important details while researching through different mediums, you’ll try to match concepts. As you’re matching them, you’ll be able to find out new solutions to problems.

4.   Promotes A Collaborative Company Culture

When a leader practices a new skill or technique, all of the followers begin to follow the same technique. Similarly, a business leader who follows a personal knowledge management system will attract all employees to adopt a similar system.

Through the creation of a knowledge management system for your team members, it can enable them to share important concepts or lessons learned during their work time or research. This creates a collaborative learning environment as an employee tries to help their partner in the completion of their tasks.

Leaders can share insights that could help employees to perform better in their tasks. Overall, appointing a system of personal knowledge management can help leaders to boost the productivity of their teams.

Develop Your Personal Knowledge Management System

Now that you know the importance of a personal knowledge management system, you need to know how to make a personal knowledge management system that suits you best. It isn’t limited to the use of a journal for writing down your thoughts. Below are a few ways to make a proper knowledge management system.

Journal every day:  Try to write about your experience throughout the day in your diary or a digital notepad, also include lessons learned. It can prove to be a useful inventory when you revisit it.
Make use of Notes-taking apps or Memos: There are various notes taking applications available that can help in making quick notes about any important information you’ve heard or read.
Apply to an Online Course: These online programs such as Getting Things Done and Building a Second Brain can help you to acquire skills for learning new information and managing it in a better way. You’ll also get the chance to interact with a learning community that is pursuing the same goals.

Wrapping Up

Your skillset can grow only when you know how to apply the lessons learned from your past experiences. To remember the lessons of leadership, it’s essential to record the mistakes you’ve made and how did you rectify them.

This needs to be updated regularly with new information that you continue to find. As leaders, you’re responsible for assisting your teams in major projects. Through the implementation of a personal knowledge management system, you can simply store what practical teachings you know and have learned.

This storage will prove to be a valuable asset for you in expanding your brand and becoming an excellent leader.

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Author Bio:
Myrah Abrar is a computer science graduate with a passion for web development and digital marketing. She writes blog articles for Dynamologic Solutions, Digital Marketing.
 

 

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