Smart person grow fast by knowing where’s the personal gap and focus all strength to develop a strategy fixing it. Usually we know our gaps from various failure in projects or daily operation. One faster way is actually going through conversations with people who is better in knowledge or experience.
I had opportunities in previous companies to access a few great country CIOs and IT directors. The talks with them are really inspiring see how great leaders handle tough situation and keep efficient team morale. In addition, there was a system where top IT talents in the region met up together at least once per year to work on strategy development and had opportunity to review with CIOs. I will forever remember the experience I learned in Japan years ago.