The Most Powerful Leadership Practice
Too often leaders believe they need to either do more of the same or use force to produce desired results. My yoga experience suggests otherwise.
I’m a cyclist, not hardcore, but I do like to challenge myself. Years ago, I got rid of my bike computer as I became a slave to my MPH and average speed. The result, I learned how to ride based upon how I feel. If I feel strong, I ride harder. If I don’t, I take it easy. My focus became total riding time, not speed or distance. In the spring, after the winter off, I have a short loop that I use every year to get back into cycling. Because I track time, I know this ride should take me between 55-58 minutes, predictably.
One spring, after doing Bikram Yoga 1-2x a week all winter, I got on my bike to do my typical early spring ride. When I got done, I checked my time, 44 minutes, I was shocked. I didn’t set out to ride quickly or to best my previous times. I just got on my bike and rode based upon how I felt. 44 minutes is between a 20-24% reduction in my predictable time, and I wasn’t even trying to do my best. This is remarkable and certainly unpredictable. How could this have happened?
When I first started Bikram Yoga, I read Bikram’s book. He shared that every sport we engage in tears down the body; only Yoga repairs the body. Bikram Yoga is a 90-minute session conducted in a room at 105 degrees with 40 percent humidity. No kidding. To say this tests your resolve is an understatement. Due to the combination of yoga and the heat, Bikram Yoga develops your flexibility, balance, strength, and stamina. The result? My body was clearly stronger and my cardio better conditioned as a result of doing Yoga. Who would have thought?
That’s how Yoga made me a stronger cyclist.
Don’t misunderstand me, I know that riding more miles will make me a stronger cyclist; however, it wouldn’t produce an unprecedented result as Yoga did.
You and I can accomplish the same level of unprecedented performance in our businesses. How? Certainly not by doing more of the same or by using force.
What then should we be doing?
Harry S. Truman gives us a compelling response in this quote, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
Like Yoga for sports performance, reading is likely the single greatest practice leaders can implement to optimize performance.
In October, my wife and I traveled to Virginia. We visited the homes of two of our founding fathers: Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s, and Montpelier, James Madison’s. Both were voracious readers and highly accomplished leaders. Records indicate that Jefferson donated 6,487 volumes to The Library of Congress. Clearly, he was a reader. Thomas Jefferson, a master wordsmith, drafted the Declaration of Independence.
James Madison was a thinker, studying and reading about every possible form of government. He used his learnings to formulate his own ideas to create a form of self-governing, which become the foundation of the Constitution of the United States. Madison is considered the father of the Constitution. He also drafted the Bill of Rights. I believe that both of these remarkable contributions to the United States are the direct result of knowledge gained from reading.
In modern-day, the stories of leaders who read are equally legendary.
Warren Buffet spends five to six hours per day reading.
Bill Gates is said to read 50 books a year.
Oprah Winfrey credits books with much of her success, “Books were my pass to personal freedom.” And she went so far as to share her reading habits with the world via her book club.
Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day, according to his brother.
Mark Cuban reads more than three hours every day.
Arthur Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot, reads two hours a day.
Billionaire entrepreneur David Rubenstein reads six books a week.
Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every two weeks.
The not-so-ironic irony of this modern-day list? They are all billionaires.
While you may not aspire to be a billionaire, reading expands our knowledge, teaches us new things, fosters new ideas and opens us up to whole new worlds of possibilities, literally, as evidenced by our Founding Fathers. Mark Cuban believes that one new idea from a book is worth many more times the investment spent on the book.
Reading is to leaders what Yoga is to athletes. It will help guide us to higher levels of performance. It’s available to all of us, and it doesn’t discriminate. I’m working on reading more, will you?