Leaders and Readers
Simon Lovegrove December 2021
Prof Steve Sample wrote ".. we are what we read."
**
I tend to agree. But there's a problem. The process that influences us is mostly subliminal. And almost everything we read is ephemeral: business plans, presentations, emails, social media/posts. It's a river of words.
Yet there are texts - hundreds of years old - that are still widely read today: the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Vita, Confucius Analects, Shakespeare’s plays, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Homer’s IIiad and Odyssey, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.
The list is short, and that's the point. Of all the plays, all the books, all the articles ever written, there are only a few dozen still widely read today.
These have formed and set the major frames and stories we live by. Leaders can ignore them, but their influence is all around.
But everyone has special texts that have changed them; texts that have landed something - a new experience, a new frame, that reorders the world into a new shape.
We (Harthill) call these frame-changers. I can think of only a few for myself.
With this in mind, what do we suggest to read for the thousands of leaders we work with? .. We recommend you read widely.
Read the things that are timeless (of course). Ask others what they are reading, tell them what you have read.
Especially tell them about the things that set your heart and mind on fire.
Tell them about your frame-changers.
What is one thing you recommend we read?
**The full quote is: "To a far greater extent than we would ever care to admit, we are what we read." This is from his book ‘The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership’.
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