Good leaders are good learners. And that means, in many cases, good learners are also good readers and by extension, good leaders are good readers. That makes sense as we consider the behavioral science around leadership behaviors--in addition to being self-aware and self-reflective, good leaders learn from others and seek ways to apply what they've learned because they are future-oriented.
The great Henry Kissinger, in a new book about leadership, writes that "Leaders think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead. They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a strategy.”
Enough said--to best consider the future, we learn from the past and from the journeys of those who came before us.
Clark Twiddy, President of Twiddy & Company, is the author of our Leadership Corner, published on our blog the third Tuesday of each month. He can be reached at ctwiddy@twiddy.com.
