Like most people that have not been able to leave their homes due to a COVID-19 lockdown, I have had to adapt my daily routine. Early mornings consisting of stretching, exercise and journaling are the new normal. Then reading. Lots of reading, and even more coffee.
” Books never annoy, they cost little, and they are always at hand, and ready at your call.
-William Cobbett
I love reading. I actually suffer from “Book FOMO”. I worry on “Will I actually read enough books before I die?” So, on the plus side, having these last two months to work through my reading list has actually been appreciated. Less worry, more learning.
We have to make the best of the time we have been given and create what Robert Greene, and more recently, Ryan Holiday, have recently referred to as “alive time”. This is when you utilize the time you have and use it to learn and grow. As opposed to ‘dead time’ when you wait for things to happen to you and waste away the hours. Achieving nothing.
As such I have been reading with purpose, on the recommendation of Admiral James Stavridis. Switching between fiction and non-fiction. Leadership books, autobiographies, sci-fi and pop-psych, you name it. All the time considering: “What can I learn from this?” “Why did they do that?” or “What would I have done in this situation?”
Admiral James Stavridis believes that the best leaders are not born, or arrive to the role fully-formed. They are forged through a combination of parenting, teaching, training, education and life experience. Reading improves your ability to lead.
“Perhaps the single best way a leader can and grow is through reading.”
-Admiral James Stavridis
Reading is not leading. But it does broaden your understanding of unfamiliar situations, offers you perspective, allows you to develop empathy, provides models to explain real-life events and, or solve problems. In short, you gain your first leadership experience before you land your first leadership role. Select wisely, and you can learn from the best.
Harry S. Truman once said that “not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” If a leader isn’t reading then they aren’t learning how to be better, and that should worry those that they serve. All leaders can be better. All mission-driven leaders try to be.
Reading to lead involves being very deliberate in your reading process:
- Be very deliberate in what you choose to read. If you aren’t enjoying the book, or not learning from it- move on
- Read in short bursts
- Take notes
- Decide on what you are trying to learn or do, and then focus on reading for that purpose
- Consider what the book is teaching you
- Teach what you have learned to others
- Start a leadership-focused bookclub.
We all know the best way to retain information is to teach it. So, before sitting down to read your next book, take the time to consider why you chose it in the first place. Then ask what will you learn from it, note it down and teach it.
Finally, you may also want to discuss your reading with your manager or boss. Better still, ask them what they have been reading, and if they don’t read- move on.
Journeying:
Image: Alex Block on Unsplash
Books cited:
The Leader’s Bookshelf by Adm. James Stavridis & R. Manning Ancell
The Assistant Principal 