Great Leaders Read Fiction

“Great leaders are Made not Born”

The thousands of books and articles published on the subject of leadership effectively illustrate how difficult it is to define the qualities of a great leader.

The Centre for Creative Leadership identifies the Core Leadership Skills as:
Self awareness, Communication, Influence, Learning agility, Integrity, Gratitude, Empathy, Courage, Respect and an Ability to delegate.

Great leaders are also expected to be visionary, humble, virtuous, inspirational, charismatic, intelligent, just, generous and compassionate.

Great leaders must know how to Unite team members to pursue a common goal, and they must know how & when to Praise, Encourage & Admonish.

Great leaders must develop Trusting Relationships by
Sharing Responsibility & Sharing Accolades.

Great leaders must know when to take the Role of the Hero and when to take the Role of the Sage.
Great leaders must be able to accommodate a variety of Perspectives and balance a range of Outcomes.

Great leaders must be Mentors who recognize and nurture the Potential in individuals, and can Inspire & Motivate individuals to achieve their potential within the goals of the team.

David Foster Wallace says:
“A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get up to do better things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.”

How does fiction help us differentiate Great Leaders from Tyrants and Charlatans?

Reading fiction activates our Default Mode Network – the regions of the brain associated with the personal qualities, memories and dreams that go towards defining our personality. The Default Mode Network is also responsible for building social awareness, and for insight, problem solving and creativity.

Stories nurture Core Confidence – with Hope, Efficacy, Resilience & Optimism – and help us to adopt a Growth Mindset.

Stories Increase Cognitive Flexibility, Intuition, Insight and Spontaneous Thought.

Leadership is a social process.

The list of what makes a good leader could include every positive human quality. But as every leader brings their own leadership style to the role so there are many different styles of leadership.

“A real leader is somebody who … is able to inspire people. Leadership is a mysterious quality … but we always know it when we see it, even as kids.” David Foster Wallace

Indeed, it is often easier to identify poor leadership than to recognise a Great Leader for, as Lao Tzu says, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

But while we may not be able to isolate the Qualities of a Great Leader, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Great Leaders Read Fiction

References

Anhalt, E. (2017, October 16). Ancient Greek wisdom for today’s leadership crisis. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/ancient-greek-wisdom-for-todays-leadership-crisis-84902

Nevin, M. (2017, October 8). Why Leaders Should Read Fiction. Linkedin.Com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-leaders-should-read-fiction-mark-nevins

Popova, M. (2014, February 17). David Foster Wallace on Leadership, Illustrated and Read by Debbie Millman. Brain Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/17/dfw-leadership-debbie-millman/

Popova, M. (2020, August 23). Octavia Butler on How (Not) to Choose Our Leaders. Brain Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/08/23/octavia-butler-parable-leaders/

Shinagel, M. (2013, March 7). The Paradox of Leadership. Blog.Dce.Harvard.Edu. https://blog.dce.harvard.edu/professional-development/paradox-leadership

What Are the Characteristics of a Good Leader? (2019, January 14). Center for Creative Leadership. https://www.ccl.org/blog/characteristics-good-leader/

Photo by Joshua Hibbert on Unsplash