If, as we noted yesterday, mechanically consuming the latest management and leadership books as they roll off the presses is not necessarily illuminating, then what should we read? One thing you might do is take the time, first, to review other people’s reading lists, like that on this site, to see what is being and has been read by others in your general field, and to consider what they have to say about it. That should narrow your professional reading – even your professional library – down to an office-shelf-sized range of always thought-provoking and actionable classics.
But there is another, perhaps even more important, suggestion for every professional seeking ideas to help expand his or her understanding of work, the workplace, and the responsibilities and possibilities for management there: read non-management books. It doesn’t matter a great deal what they are. They can be restricted to fiction.
It is helpful, though, to try to mix things up a bit. Expand the types of fiction you read: historical, science, mystery, psychological, detective stories – even humor. Next, stir in some material from non-fiction subjects – perhaps even those suggested by the type of fiction you’ve been reading. This could include straight history, the wide array of subjects in science, current events, and – if you must – biographies.
Aside from refreshing, diverting, enjoyable, and enlightening, you will find this reading every bit as contributive to your professional life as your putatively “professional” reading – perhaps even more so. As you read, you will catch connections forming, ideas coming to mind, comprehension growing and deepening. Or you may not catch these happening – but they are.
You may agree or disagree with the authors you discover, just as you do with your management and business writers. You may develop a voracious appetite for some genres and sources, and come to dislike or reject others. But as you expand your reading, you will expand even more your perspective and ability to understand what is happening at work, and how to better contribute there.
Give it a try. If it seems too counterintuitive for you, then just add it as an item on your to-do list, as Michael Wade recommends. You’ll soon find yourself doing that more often, and finally, not at all as it becomes a productive and habitual part of your life – both personal and professional.
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Today’s tip: Speaking of open-mindedness, please see this piece by Cam Beck on skepticism – and the morality of selfishness.
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Jim – If high-level executives are so helpless they don’t know what THEY NEED to read, then it makes no difference what they read. Might as well read the current business press pap or a random collection of financial statements. If they are readers, they can find their own way, with questions – not directed to peers! In my experience over the last four decades, I would conclude that most top executives CAN’T read – they just want the answers, the recipes. So the first step may be there.
Hello Lee,
I share your frustration! Some of the resistance to reading comes from the belief that they have no time for it – another reason, of course, for the search for easy, mechanical answers that require no thought and that can also be blamed themselves (the answers), rather than requiring the executive to take responsibility.
But reading can be fit into almost any schedule, and it is both a welcome and insight-provoking break from routine, and an investment in perception and acuity worth making.
Thanks for stopping in with this!