Lifelong learning – and your willingness to embrace it – reflects not only humility but also curiosity and recognition that growth is a continuous journey and essential to effective leadership.

As leaders advance, expectations rise and the world around them continues to evolve – industries shift, companies face new dynamics and each context carries unique nuances. To stay effective and avoid becoming stuck at their current level, senior leaders must recognize their knowledge will always be incomplete and actively cultivate curiosity, continuous learning and growth – both for themselves and their organizations.

Employees at every level are more engaged, more likely to stay and better positioned to drive successful business outcomes when they have meaningful opportunities to learn, grow and develop their skills. The American Psychological Association notes that limited career and skill development is a key factor in workplace dissatisfaction and a major reason employees leave their roles.

The business case for instilling a culture of learning and growth is clear, particularly when it comes to retaining top talent. Replacing a high-performing employee can be highly disruptive, costing 50 percent to 200 percent of their annual salary, impacting team performance and slowing progress.

According to Harvard Business Review, training staff has a direct impact on your bottom line, with companies that provides employees with targeted training experiencing a 17 percent increase in productivity and a 21 percent boost in profitability.

And the value of corporate learning has arguably never been higher with the velocity of technological innovation. Businesses and leaders are now navigating a new normal where AI is creating a battleground for businesses and their employees to upskill and remain relevant. There’s an immense opportunity for those who take advantage.

Technological change fuels the need for learning

According to PwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey, compared with their global peers, Australia’s CEOs feel more confident about their organization’s future despite the volatility of the current technological environment. Almost three-quarters (74 percent) believe their business will be economically viable for more than 10 years if they continue down their current path, versus 55 percent of global CEOs.

Despite the optimism, business leaders in Australia and overseas fear a lack of skills within their workforce as a key blocker to innovation and navigating technological headwinds.

Bain & Capital, for example, finds 44 percent of global executives cite a lack of in-house AI expertise as a key barrier to implementing generative AI, and Australia would be expected to still see a shortfall of up to 60,000 AI professionals by 2027, with AI roles in Australia expected to exceed 140,000. Further afield in the United States as many as one in two AI jobs could be left unfilled in the same period.

There are suggestions that enterprises and their leaders are taking note and acting accordingly. At Skillsoft, we recently reported a surge in learner growth and engagement, including continued enterprise adoption of our technology-skilling solution. This includes a 30 percent year-over-year increase in the number of technology learners on the Skillsoft platform, a 74 percent increase in AI learners and a 158 percent increase in total AI learning hours.

Skills – not roles – are the currency of performance

There’s no doubt that AI is changing the script on how work gets done, and this extends to upskilling and reskilling. The organizations that succeed are building intelligent workforces where people and AI agents work together, fueled by real-time skills – not job titles – and optimized for outcomes.

Most talent systems weren’t built for this shift. They were designed to train individuals for static roles, relying on compliance-driven learning paths with no clear link to business impact. Now skills, not roles, are the currency of performance. Leaders need skills intelligence that provides real-time visibility into what their workforce can do today, the agility to adapt as needs shift and learning that’s embedded in the moment it’s needed and tied to measurable results.

There are platforms now available that ensure this is housed in a secure environment, acting as a single source of truth that protects institutional knowledge as AI agents become a bigger part of how teams operate and interact.

Building skills intelligence is no longer a side task. It’s how you retain knowledge, accelerate execution and stay competitive in a skills-based economy where capability is your most valuable IP.

How to instill a learning culture

Essential to achieving this is implementing a culture of curiosity, where continued learning flows down every level. This goes far beyond the technology you adopt.

One of the most important factors is ensuring that taking time away for learning purposes is normalized and that starts at the top. If employees see their CEO and leadership team taking part in active learning, they are more likely to take inspiration and feel they can do it themselves.

It also sets the precedent that learning spans an entire career and every seniority level and isn’t just reserved for junior staff. The same applies to ensuring that staff have allocated time during work hours for learning and development.

You must also ensure that your learning methods and infrastructure reflect both your organization’s and current modern working environments. In addition, learning programs should consider the current skill level of employees, as well as the expectations for the level at which they operate.

Blended learning, which merges the flexibility of digital self-paced content with the engagement and accountability of hands-on labs and provide live practice environments to help employees build and assess current skill levels, is a great place to start. Whether delivered virtually or face-to-face, this model offers an accessible and effective pathway for building deep, job-ready skills – and often achieves solid participation and engagement rates as a result.

A competitive advantage

With skills and learning under the microscope, as businesses around the world grapple with the rise of AI and filling unprecedented numbers of AI roles, getting on the front foot could have immense benefits to current and future growth.

And when you couple that with the clear organizational and personal benefits of upskilling – both for leaders and their teams – then you realize that embedding a culture of learning isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a clear competitive advantage. It flows into everything from employee happiness to profit and loss.

It might not be an overnight fix, but starting now could mean decreased staff attrition, the upward mobility of existing employees, vastly improved employee satisfaction and productivity and profit gains that make your competitors blush.

Like anything in business, it starts with the C-suite. So, what are you waiting for?

Opinions expressed by The CEO Magazine contributors are their own.