Read to lead

Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

I doubt very much whether President Truman's statement is literally true. Surely there have been illiterate leaders over the years and leaders who could read but didn't. Still I suspect there is a correlation between reading and leading.

Many U.S. presidents gained a reputation for reading. These include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower (even if he preferred westerns) and John F. Kennedy (even if he preferred James Bond thrillers).

My abiding memory of visiting Harry Truman's Key West "White House" several years ago is the many shelves of books that fill the place. He probably couldn't get away to Key West often during his presidency — it was much more distant than Hyde Park or Camp David — yet even so he filled it with books.

Why would reading benefit leaders? Perhaps because it gives them ideas and inspiration if they read nonfiction. History can guide the present. If they prefer fiction, it can give them empathy. Stories put us into the lives and minds of other people — people of other races, other social classes, other ages, the other sex, other points of view, etc. Leaders should give some thought to the people they are leading. Reading may help them do that.