Reading – A sign of intelligence that’ll make you a great leader tomorrow

 





We all aspire to become tomorrow’s leader of influence, transforming and impacting lives of others in profound ways. We want to be trusted by others and achieve great things. We want to be effective role models and inspire others. 


In order become a great leader, we have to have a curious mind ready to learn and unlearn and become highly creative. The best way to achieve this is through reading.

Many successful leaders like A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama attribute their success to their strong reading habits. 

Margaret Fuller said: "If you are a leader, if you want to be one, you have to read”.

My top three advise for our younger generation is to be:

• Disciplined
• Consistent
• Curious

Keep your curiosity alive and mind active. Let your curiosity help you question the why, how, what, and not let it limit itself to what is already known. Let your curiosity drive you to become more creative and innovative. Your curiosity should lead you to reading that can help you find answers to your questions, help unravel many unsolved mysteries and allow you to become a well-informed individual.

Reading while it helps you build your vocabulary and improve your writing skills; it contributes to much more. One of the key issues with our education system is that students are taught how to answer a problem but not challenge or reframe them. Students then answer the problems with pre taught methods, theorems and formulas. While this may just be enough to score good grades, this is so disconnected from the reality. Unfortunately, life does not come with a manual that helps us solve the lives problems in a systematic manner.  We have to constantly look at ways to find, define and redefine them ourselves. Sometimes we are so caught up with our early educational training that the moment we are faced with complex problem to solve, we just look for answers to solve the immediate problem at hand but not look around to see if there are any other problems that can be better solved.

This is why I cannot emphasis enough on reading. Reading helps you broaden your perspective of life and help you challenge the existing perception giving you access to new ideas, building a good self-image and able to play well with others. If you want to become successful leader, be willing to learn and learning requires you to turn to reading.

One of the key qualities of a great leader is empathy. When you read and put yourself in the shoes of the characters in the book, you start to realise and relate more to how the character feels. This helps you not become judgemental of the people you are leading. As a leader, you should be able to introspect yourself. Reading is method of introspection. If you want to be a trusted leader, you must strive to become a great communicator who can describe complex situations succinctly and direct the team with clear and precise information. The more time you contribute towards reading, the more it will enhance your communication skills.

Reading is an absolute foundation that will steer you to success. I hope this alone motivates and inspires you to reading more.

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