by Jonathan Jones
A way to have an impact on your culture is to encourage reading. If there are certain books you, as a leader, think are important for people at your workplace to read, share them and have conversations reinforcing their messages.
Some cultures expect their leaders and future leaders to read. They assign classic business books such as Peter Drucker’s “The Effective Executive,” Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” or Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” These books and others can help promote a leadership style for the company.
I have a very successful CEO client who has continuous learning as part of his values. He expects his employees, even the newest people, to read. He believes that reading is a key to success, and he wants people who are success-minded in his company. He encourages success principles that everyone can use. He starts with the classics. Two of the examples are “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie and “The Laws of Success in Sixteen Lessons” by Napoleon Hill. People who have read the books tend to be promoted, not because they read them but because they applied the principles at work.
Consider encouraging a company or department book club as a lunch-and-learn group. The group does not have to be led by management. The attendees will be determined by the topic, whether it is leadership, culture, sales, marketing or general subjects. A monthly book is a reasonable time frame, but determine what works well for the group. Members are more likely to stay in the group if they have a say in picking the books. An occasional “off-topic” book helps to encourage new ideas within the group.
Reading can help your learning organization become a growing organization.
Jonathan Jones (Jonathan.jones@vistagechair.com or 314-608-0783) is a CEO peer group chair/coach for Vistage International.
Submitted 8 years 0 days ago