"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers..."

I think that I have said this before, but just for the record, I like to read.  I always have liked to read.  Not everyone likes to read, but here's the thing.  Reading is fundamental to leadership.  As Harry Truman once said, "Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers."


Reading makes you a better thinker.  Reading broadens your horizon.  Reading teaches you new things.  It doesn't matter how many degrees or certifications you have - it doesn't matter how old or how experienced you are in your profession, you can always learn new things. 


Many of history's greatest leaders and thinkers were active readers.  For example, when the innovator Elon Musk was asked how he learned to build rockets, he simply replied, "I read books."  Oprah Winfrey once said, "Books allowed me to see a world beyond the front porch of my grandmother's shotgun house... [and] the power to see possibilities beyond what was allowed at the time." 


Bill Gates had this to say about reading: "Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding."  Gates is an avid reader, and he frequently publishes the list of his favorite books or the ones he is planning to read (see his list of recommended books for 2018 here).


Barack Obama, another famously avid reader (see his 2018 list of favorite books, movies, and music here) said, "Reading is important.  If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you."


I read for fun and enjoyment, but I also read to learn new things.  I tend to pick up whatever interests me, but I also like to get recommendations from friends, family, and co-workers (as Abraham Lincoln once said, "My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.").  Some leaders require a more regimented, formal professional reading program.  For example, each of the branches of the United States military has a professional reading list (see the link here), and the Navy has a formal, well-developed professional reading program.  Many of the books on these lists are geared more towards military professionals, but there are several excellent books on leadership in general.


I don't know too many physicians who don't read.  It is sort of an expectation.  We read to keep up with the latest clinical evidence and scientific advances.  Unfortunately, I, like many physicians (and other health care professionals too, for that matter) I know, focused too much on reading almost exclusively in my own specialty.  My professional reading was too specialized.  With age and experience comes wisdom, and for the past several years I have read more broad topics.


It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you are reading!  Winston Churchill recommended, "If you cannot read all your books...fondle them - peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are.  Let them be your friends; let them, at an rate, be your acquaintances."


As I mentioned in my last post, I am planning on reviewing some of my favorite "leadership" books in 2019.  If you look on the blog's main page, you will notice that I listed the books that I will plan to review under the heading "2019 Leadership Reading List."  These are books that I have read within the past few years (all of them are superb) and have not blogged about yet. 


I look forward to doing something new this year, and as always, I welcome your comments and feedback.  Happy reading!