A leadership requirement...

Let’s just put it out there right away so there is no need to read any further unless you want to. In a Harvard Business Review article by John Coleman entitled For Those Of You Who Want To Lead, Read he writes:

But deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness.

So there you have it; for anyone who fancies themselves a leader it may be worth counting the books on your night table — at the very least it’s some quantitative data you can work with.

And if you need further proof, in the book STILLNESS IS THE KEY (which I’m reading for the second time) Ryan Holiday offers a perspective on the subject:

Tolstoy expressed his exasperation at people who didn’t read deeply and regularly. “I cannot understand,” he said, “how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on the earth.” There is another line, now cliché, that is even more cutting. People who don’t read have no advantage over those who cannot read.


I hated to read until two things happened; I started wearing glasses and had an inspirational grade eight teacher. I’m not a particularly fast reader, I like to savour every word, and over the years, I’ve collected my fair share of books — sometimes I would have two or three books on the go so ownership became less costly than borrowing from the local library. As I read and collected there was a point where I got it in my head it was nicer to have my books stacked then on a shelf; be it stacked on my night table or stacked on the floor. It was my very own literary art. Most of the books I’ve read (if only just in part), and for those I haven’t started yet, the book is on the go — I ‘m just on page one.

I can’t say my eclectic stacks of books make me a good leader, but rather, something I am working on.

iamgpe

PS — As for this stack of books I can only say I’m not sure why I got it in my head to take a course on Statistical Techniques; The SILK ROADS: A NEW HISTORY OF THE WORLD offers a fresh perspective on how we got to where we are; although 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is still on the go, I definitely need to check to see if there is any insights into dealing with pandemics. And it goes without saying that Dilbert is simply a must.