English: Book Cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Recently I read an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review Blog (HRB) that pointed out how important reading is to leading. The reasons may seem clear, but here is a passage from the article:
The leadership benefits of reading are wide-ranging. Evidence suggests reading can improve intelligence and lead to innovation and insight. Some studies have shown, for example, that reading makes you smarter through "a larger vocabulary and more world knowledge in addition to the abstract reasoning skills." Reading — whether Wikipedia, Michael Lewis, or Aristotle — is one of the quickest ways to acquire and assimilate new information. Many business people claim that reading across fields is good for creativity. And leaders who can sample insights in other fields, such as sociology, the physical sciences, economics, or psychology, and apply them to their organizations are more likely to innovate and prosper.
Reading can also make you more effective in leading others. Reading increases verbal intelligence (PDF), making a leader a more adept and articulate communicator. Reading novels can improve empathy and understanding of social cues, allowing a leader to better work with and understand others — traits that author Anne Kreamer persuasively linked to increased organizational effectiveness, and to pay raises and promotions for the leaders who possessed these qualities. And any business person understands that heightened emotional intelligence will improve his or her leadership and management ability.
Reading can also be a way to decrease stress as it makes life more enjoyable.
While reading is important, it is on a downward trend. Again, according to the article:
The National Endowment for the Arts (PDF) has found that "[r]eading has declined among every group of adult Americans," and for the first time in American history, "less than half of the U.S. adult American population is reading literature." Literacy has been improving in countries like India and China, but that literacy may not translate into more or deeper reading.
The article outlines some way to boost reading, but it does not try to identify why people are reading less or reading less deeply. I think the reasons have to do with the trends we see in the media. We tend to listen to what we want to hear and not diverse opinions. We watch similar programs. And it is easier to watch movies and television, especially with 100s of channels available, than to read books. Although I read that more people are now reading books on e-readers than hard copies. But that does not mean more people are reading.
If you are a reader of my blog, thank you. I realize you have thousands of blogs, books, and magazines to read. Plus you have many things competing for your time. Blogging keeps me reading, thinking, and writing. For you to spend some of your precious time reading and/or commenting on my blog, I am grateful.
Thank you. Keep reading whatever inspires you. And I will do the same.
Great blog, very interesting. In my opinion, reading has declined because our public school system has gotten rid of classes like American Lit, English Lit ect. and replaced those classes with touchy feely crap. Remember ' Book Reports ', Weekly Reader Magazine and the old High School library and learning the Dewey Decimal System ?.......
Posted by: El Kabong | August 31, 2012 at 07:58 AM