Leaders Who Don't Read

I object to leaders who don’t read widely and often. You can tell by the shallowness of their speech just how barren their interior landscape is, and how tragically impoverished their mind is shown to be by their utterances and actions. Now I do understand that reading is not for everyone, and there are a few factors that go into this, such as social status, economics and lack of opportunity. Just 25% of Americans attend a four-year college, after all, and plenty of of them will gladly tell you they haven’t read a book since college. 

It’s also hard to read until you get the knack for it, and there are endless distractions and diversions awaiting even the most avid bibliophiles. But if you would presume to present yourself as a person who would provide guidance in matters of business or state, we can safely conclude that a wide range of steady reading over years and years is one of the preeminent requirements for such an august responsibility. Basically if your conversation and speech does not show an ability to link up complex topics and understand difficult issues, you are approaching functional illiteracy, and sending a powerful message: that you cannot or will not make the effort to exercise your mind and to do so by reading everything you can get your hands on, perhaps because it is too hard and you find it confusing. Fine. That’s understandable. But you should also perhaps shut up if you’re just airing notions that blew through the attic of your mind. Seriously. Just put a cork in it, and let the adults talk. Maybe go outside and play, right? Because if you cannot articulate a vision based on what happened before and informed by the judicious sampling of the very best minds (so often to be found in books), then you are in no way qualified to go off at considerable length about what your thinking tells you we as a people should be doing in going forward. 

How shall we discern this quality? Look for an elegance of expression combined with multiple references and a broad knowledge of the world embracing the entire panoply of humanity in all of its fascinating divergence and diversity. Anything less is simply unacceptable. Leadership is complex, to foment the obvious, and it has been found that the best combination for effective leadership is book knowledge combined with experience and insight into our fellow humans. Otherwise, be quiet.