Daily reading can improve your leadership abilities and your business.
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1. Establish a common lexicon
When we are young, the stories our parents read aloud to us at bedtime help us pick up new words. And while the books we read as adults might be a little more complex, their main goal is always the same. Daily reading exposes us to new wand ords, some of which may describe things we already do (like the "lean startup movement" I mentioned) and others about which we have long been fascinated. Our communication will improve as we increase our vocabulary, making it easier for us to interact and network with our coworkers.
You can instruct your team in these lessons as well. By offering to purchase certain books for team members and ship them straight to their homes, you may emphasise learning and establish a shared vocabulary. A fantastic technique to establish a shared understanding of your objectives without spending hours explaining each person individually is by using books on particular areas of interest.
All leaders need to be excellent communicators, and reading is one of the best methods to increase your repertoire of communication techniques.
2. Encourage a developing mindset.
A reader would not read if they were unable to be open to other people's viewpoints. And individuals who have a growth mindset also exhibit this same openness.
One of the first things I look for when hiring new personnel is a growth mindset. Almost often, I'll choose to work with a candidate who has less experience but shows a desire to learn, improve, and put in the effort versus a more seasoned but haughty applicant. A growth mentality is automatically encouraged by reading. Every book you read exposes you to fresh perspectives and innovative approaches, some of which you'll probably agree with and others you won't. Whatever the case, what essential is that we maintain our humility and be aware of the fact that there will always be those who are more knowledgeable than we are about a given subject or, at the very least, have a different perspective on it.
Furthermore, even when we aren't actively reading or even thinking about the content itself, our unconscious mind naturally retains the information we read in our brains. Our minds take off once we adopt a growth-based attitude and start nourishing them with interesting and novel material, which promotes original problem-solving and substantial growth.
3. Find your creative side
Reading may unlock the childlike wonder and inspiration we had as children when we thought that superheroes might actually exist, Santa Claus was real, and magic was conceivable. Whatever your opinion on superheroes, creativity and imagination are essential to business because they foster innovation and move us closer to our objectives. And there is no better place to look than a book when we're trying to find inspiration.
We are motivated to carry on when we read of someone else's tenacity in the face of hardship. Or, when a Discusses how they got to the top, we could learn something new about how to handle issues in our own businesses. There is nothing new under the sun, so chances are that whatever it is you are working on or struggling with, someone else has also struggled with it. They might even have written a whole book about it. We might even be able to steer clear of future costly blunders by reading about how others have approached comparable roads to our own.
Whether you are expanding a business, constructing a team or product, or learning a new skill, reading is an excellent approach to generate fresh ideas and generate enthusiasm about your or your team's capacity to achieve goals.
How to start
I don't have time to read every day, you might be thinking. And although though this may seem contrary to everything I've just said don't have to—at least not right away. Start by establishing tiny, reachable goals, just like with forming any new habit. Read novels that genuinely interest you and make a commitment to reading one chapter each morning or night a few times a week. Put a book down and pick something else if it isn't engaging you. You will find yourself reading more and more as soon as you establish the habit and begin to experience its benefits, eager to soak up all the fresh knowledge you can.
The importance of reading to our development was stressed to us by our first-grade instructors, and they weren't lying. However, somewhere also advises the line, with all the commotion that comes with running a business, we decided to disregard that advise. The benefits can profound if we can carve out even 20 minutes of reading time each day. Reading regularly fosters better communication, a willingness to learn, and a sense of inspiration. When you combine all three, you and your team will be invincible.
