Around one-third of group-level CPOs who responded to Procurement Leaders’ Ovation pulse survey said they dedicate less than an hour a week to personal development. For a further 45%, it’s less than two hours.
Taken together, it means that fully three-quarters of C-level procurement executives at the world’s largest, most complex companies are spending less than 20 minutes a day on their personal growth and development.
This is, of course, understandable. The nature of the global business environment, the increasing complexity of the role, and the sheer volume and frequency of disruptions make a CPO’s working week demanding, draining and long.
It wouldn’t surprise me if firing up the cylinders to develop new capabilities might seem a little less appealing than a glass of wine or two at the end of another tough week.
But CPOs simply must make time. Speaking at Ovation, Larry Kramer, president and vice-chancellor of the London School of Economics (pictured above), said the single-most important habit that leaders must develop is that of “learning to learn”. That mental elasticity to take on new methods, new approaches and new knowledge.
For senior leaders, with huge amounts of experience, this doesn’t always come naturally. But procurement chiefs must avoid the assumption that they know everything they need to know. Instead, they must build and maintain a constant habit of acquiring new knowledge and continuously identify, adapt to and master new domains.
One member who responded to our survey shared how he “leans on AI” to augment his extracurricular learning. “My preferred method is short bursts of learning – usually listening to podcasts or reading – and I increasingly lean on AI itself to go deeper, ask follow‑up questions, and research new areas quickly,” he said.
Some told us they learn new approaches and skills by coaching others; others have taken a more formal approach of specific courses in social or soft skills; many have coaches or mentors. Essentially, there’s no ‘right’ way to think about how you, as a senior leader, continue to grow and evolve.
The worst thing a CPO can do, however, is to take the pressures of the job and the craziness of the calendar as reasons to not invest in themselves.
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