Remaining teachable: why maintaining a beginner's mind is the best way to stay ahead of the game.

What qualities spring to mind when you think of the most successful CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners? Most people will likely answer with words like intelligence, determination, shrewdness, flexibility, pragmatism, passion. Here's a word you don't hear as often, but it's more vital to ongoing success than all the raw knowledge and refined expertise in the world: teachability. Teachability is, quite simply, being able and willing to learn--and put into practice--the information and skills-necessary to accomplilh your goals.

When entrepreneur Joel Bomgar started Bomgar Corporation in 2003 at the age of 22, he had a product he believed in and understood thoroughly. He had developed a remote-access technical support solution that was unprecedented in his industry. But, even with all his expertise, Bomgar was terrified; he knew next to nothing about starting, running and growing a business. So right from the start, Bomgar met with numerous advisors and read everything he could get his hands on, trying to understand how businesses succeed and why they fail. "I wanted to understand the technology landscape, the business landscape, everything," he says.

Five years later, Bomgar's venture was ranked 28th on Deloitte's 2008 Technology Fast 500. "What has served me best in business is the fact that I have an insatiable curiosity for understanding how things work," Bomgar says. "I'm the kind of person who reads instruction manuals, usually multiple times. My curiosity gave me the idea for Bomgar Corporation."

When he started, Bomgar was the quintessential example of the teachable beginner. Beginners know they don't know it all and proceed accordingly. As a general rule, they're open and humble, noticeably lacking in the rigidity that often accompanies experience and achievement. As Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote in the classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few."

It's easy enough to have a beginner's mind when you're actually a beginner. But maintaining teachability gets trickier in the long term, especially when you've already achieved some degree of success. The real challenge is to remain receptive over time, and to establish a commitment to lifelong learning, personally and professionally. So how exactly do you do that?

Get Out of the Past

At 38, Kathy Caprino seemed to have it all: a thriving career in marketing, a supportive husband and two happy children. Her professional track record demonstrated determination and talent. From the outside, her life was the very picture of balance and fulfillment. But Caprino was inexplicably unhappy and frustrated. How, she wondered guiltily, could she have everything she ever thought she wanted--indeed, everything most people dream of--and still be so miserable?

Caprino was experiencing a professional breakdown, and as a result of her despondence and confusion, she eventually lost that top-notch job. To overcome her struggles, Caprino had to become, and remain, profoundly teachable. Today, she has a flourishing career as founder and president of Ellia Communications, a Connecticut-based executive coaching and consulting firm. She is also the author of Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Professional Woman's Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power and Purpose.

The main cause of Caprino's life-changing breakdown was a long-held assumption that the career she had started off wanting and working so hard for would always be the right one for her. The truth was that she was no longer happy in her job, and her willingness to let go of her old ideas was the starting point for an entirely new and fulfilling line of work. Today, she helps other professional women find the same freedom.

Take an Inventory of the Present

Breakdown doesn't just happen on an individual level. Problems arise when companies cling to old strategies and identities that simply don't work. Steve Zaffron, CEO of San Francisco-based global consulting firm Vanto Group and co-author of The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life, has made a career of helping companies examine the way they function to make the jump to a higher level.

For example, many companies retain overly complex record-keeping systems that duplicate effort, waste time and burn employees out. In other organizations, a distinct, outdated "us vs. them" mentality is present between management and employees. Whatever the specific issue, on whatever scale, the vital question to ask is, Am I willing to give up what's comfortable and familiar but not really working? "If people can muster up the courage and the authenticity to look at that for themselves, then they can have a breakthrough," Zaffron says.

If you or your organization has suffered a breakdown, keep in mind that it's human nature to fear change, but failures are necessary for growth and understanding. They show us exactly what needs work, and why "Breakdown is caused by being closed to our ongoing process of learning, enrichment and growth," Caprino says. "Breakthrough is only made possible through having a beginner's mind, being teachable and seeing new possibilities where only constraints were apparent before."

So instead of throwing up your hands at the first indication something isn't working, take another word of advice from Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: "Be grateful that you have a sign or warning signal to show you the weak point."

Read, Study and Ask Questions

A major component of teachability is the willingness to keep learning about your particular industry and, just as important, the fundamentals of business success. Vast amounts of practical, insightful and highly targeted information are available at the click of a mouse and at every bookstore and newsstand. "I subscribe to about 20 business- and technology-related periodicals," Bomgar says. "When I have a long flight, I work my way through an eight-inch-high stack of magazines. I'm constantly reading and learning all that I can."

The experience and insight of other business owners can also be invaluable. To this end, Ray Silverstein, a former CEO of two successful corporations, founded the President's Resource Organization, a Chicago-based nationwide network of peer advisory groups for business owners. In small groups, entrepreneurs, CEOs, presidents and business executives from various industries gather to provide each other with support, accountability and constructive feedback.

"What's obvious to one person may not be obvious to someone else who doesn't have the same experience or perspective," Silverstein says. "All of us together are smarter than any one of us."

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Silverstein recalls a business owner who spent months complaining to his peer advisory group about his poorly performing marketing manager and his need for an assistant. He knew his current situation wasn't working, but he was afraid to make a move. His group gave him a teachability ultimatum: "You've been complaining about this for months, but you haven't tried any of our suggestions. Don't come back to the group until you fire the marketing manager and hire an assistant for yourself." The feedback was forceful and matter-of-fact, but the business owner trusted the group and did as they suggested. At the next meeting of his peer advisory group, he reported that he should have taken the groups advice months earlier.

Look Forward to a Successful Future

The most successful, adaptable businesspeople never lose sight of the constant need for growth and learning. "In a successful, high-growth company, the CEO absolutely has to keep growing, has to be a visionary," says Bomgar. "Had I not adopted the belief that I could always be wrong about any given thing, Bomgar Corporation would have long ago grown beyond my ability to lead it."

No matter how long they've been in business, even the masters have room to improve and can benefit from adopting a beginner's mind. "Tiger Woods has redone his swing three times," Steve Zaffron says. "Mastery is not a place you arrive at. It's an ongoing game."

The tools for lifelong learning and professional growth are readily available, While some entrepreneurs seem to come by the quality of teachability quite naturally, there's no doubt that this vital character asset can be acquired by anyone with a little willingness to stay in the game.

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Five Tips for Lifelong Learning

1. Seek out a mentor. Look for someone who exemplifies the business lifestyle you want to emulate and plan to adopt some of his or her strategies for success.

2. Accept constructive criticism. When someone offers you a suggestion for improvement or reveals holes in your plans, don't get defensive. Evaluate the input and be grateful for the alternate point of view.

3. Enroll in continuing education. Whether building skills for your industry or your hobby, taking a class can broaden your mind, help prepare you for new endeavors and remind you that you don't know it all.

4. Join a community. Find a community of business owners or industry experts and join their regular meetings and forums.

5. Ask questions. Even if you're the boss, don't be afraid to admit that you still have some things to learn.