If You Want to Lead, You Have to Read
Readers Make Better Leaders
As a Leader of LIGHT, you have an important challenge ahead of you: You have to grow yourself, and at the same time, you have to grow everyone around you. Balancing these two tasks can be very difficult.
Spend all of your time on you, and everyone around you suffers. Spend all of your time growing others, and you will be outdated and irrelevant in just a few short years.
Striking a balance is hard.
Even seasoned leaders wrestle with this dilemma, but it’s particularly evident in young leaders. In fact, according to the Center for Creative Leadership, 40 percent (!) of new leaders will fail in their first 18 months. Chew on that stat for a moment …
This is where reading comes in.
One of the most powerful and effective arrows in a leader’s quiver is the ability and desire to read.
In fact, not only does regular, consistent, and focused reading improve your ability to stay current, it helps you grow everyone around you. Here are five ways reading makes you a better leader.
1. Reading improves your ability to focus. Because reading requires your full attention, the more you read, the better your focus becomes. And the better your focus becomes, the better your perception, memory, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving become as well.
2. Reading helps you think bigger. Reading exposes you to big ideas and big dreams. What leader’s life hasn’t been changed after reading about some difference-maker who’s dared to dream (and accomplish) the impossible?
3. Reading improves your decision-making. Regularly engaging with complex narratives and themes strengthens your critical thinking and analytical skills. This enables you to more thoroughly analyze problems and make better decisions.
4. Reading reduces your stress. Reading can be a powerful stress-reliever, which is important for leaders who often face high-pressure situations. In fact, in one study, reading was a more powerful stress-reducer than exercise, meditation, or medication.
5. Reading accelerates your career trajectory. Studies tell us that leaders who read are significantly more creative, innovative, passionate, dedicated, and successful than those who don’t.
Let’s Talk About Your People
Not only does reading help you and your career, it also helps you to bring out the best in all those around you. In fact:
1. Reading enhances your empathy and your emotional intelligence. Reading fiction, in particular, can cultivate empathy and emotional intelligence by allowing you to understand the thoughts and feelings of people who are radically different from you. This newfound awareness, in turn, allows you to better understand what’s going on in the lives of your people.
2. Reading improves your ability to communicate and speak what’s on your mind. Leaders who are readers have better vocabularies and an increased ability to say the right words at the right time.
3. Reading allows you to be more focused and present. Studies demonstrate that leaders who are readers have longer attention spans. This translates into a greater ability to be present and remain focused during both casual and crucial conversations.
4. Reading exponentially expands your ability to remain calm and patient with others. Through regular reading, leaders come into contact with a whole host of characters, situations, and challenges that they otherwise never would have. Each of these vicarious encounters creates rich life experiences that leaders can draw on in times of stress and duress.
5. Reading expands your awareness of what’s possible. Through regular reading, leaders learn that people can accomplish more than they ever thought possible. This simple epiphany is enough to change what leaders want for their people and what they’re willing to do to help them achieve it.
How to Become a Better Reader
In no particular order, here are seven tips to help you become a better reader.
1. Read books and articles in hard copy. Research suggests that reading printed books generally leads to better memory and comprehension than reading on a screen. The physical act of turning pages, the tactile feel of the book, and the overall reading experience tend to aid in retention and comprehension more than the digital experience.
2. Underline, highlight, and dog-ear pages. Underline, take notes, and dog-ear the information and sections that are the most relevant to you. Not only does this keep you actively engaged in digesting the material, but it also allows you to easily access the book’s important material in a flash.
3. Make it a habit. Read every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Remember that the more you read, the stronger the habit will become. In fact, if you read for just 30 minutes a day, you’ll read about 20 books a year.
4. Get a library card. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is a library card. Indeed, this little card will allow you to check out 20-30 books at a time. You’d be surprised at what can happen when you scatter 20-30 good books in your office, home, bedroom, and briefcase.
5. If the book is a dud, stop reading it. Repeat after me: Life is way too short to read dull books. If, after 40-50 pages, you aren’t grooving on the book’s content, it’s time to find a different one.
6. Study the table of contents. Books make more sense and are much more fun to read when you know how they are going to progress. Always, always, always spend a few minutes reading the table of contents. Not only will this habit dramatically improve your comprehension, but it will also exponentially increase your enjoyment.
7. Rip out the first page and use it for a bookmark. Nobody has the time to read a complete book cover to cover in one sitting. As a result, you’ll need to complete the book over time. If you rip out the first page of the book (it’s blank anyway), you can use it for a bookmark. This will allow you to pick up right where you left off with little to no effort.
Reading offers numerous benefits, including improved memory, increased empathy, and a reduction in stress. It also enhances cognitive function, promotes relaxation, and expands your vocabulary. For all of these reasons and more, it’s no surprise that readers make better leaders.
Until next time: See light. Be light. Spread light.
Until Next Time...
We’ve picked some articles we think you might like! Click below to read more.
15 Minute Fixes: How To Get Better at Forgiving Others
When it comes to forgiveness, every leader of light needs to have a powerful exercise that can be employed at a moment’s notice to help those in your charge.
Do You Have A Problem With Forgiveness?
Anyone who’s in a leadership position understands that it’s a lot easier to talk about forgiveness than it is to actually do it.
The Power of Forgiveness
As leaders of light, it’s guaranteed that we will find ourselves in situations that test our patience. Dealing with broken promises, missed deadlines, substandard performance, and blatant disregard for important organizational values (just to mention a few!) are all part and parcel of the leadership experience.
About Lead with Light
Lead with Light is an initiative that aims to equip current and emerging leaders with a reimagined approach to servant leadership.
Our ultimate vision is to grow and develop thousands of Leaders of Light to ignite a movement to see light, be light, and spread light in ways only each can.