Last week I talked about the Levels of Leadership. I referenced the article by former VISA CEO Dee Hock in which he said leaders should be spending 50% of their time self-managing. So, this week I want to talk about one of the main ways we as leaders can be continuously growing and developing.
Harry Truman once said, “Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.” I must admit that after I graduated from college it was a very rare occasion that I picked up a book that I chose to read, but now that I’ve been away from the books for a few years I have found reading to be quite enjoyable. Reading is one easy way to be growing in your walk with God, growing as a person, and growing as a leader in ministry. Think of a book as having a personal mentor right next to you pouring everything they have learned into you. Most of us aren’t going to have the opportunity to sit down one on one with people like Francis Chan, Bill Johnson, or Rick Warren. However, when we sit down to read one of their books we are able to hear their heart come through and learn from their experience.
The good news is that if you’re reading this blog you’re already on your way to becoming a leader if you’re not already. So, what are some easy ways to become an avid reader?
Read blogs with RSS
Reading this blog and others like it is a great way to try and learn all that you can about college ministry. You can now read multiple blogs really easily using RSS. RSS is a way of subscribing to a blog and then using a reader (most people use Google Reader) that will automatically update you with new posts from each of those blogs. You can learn more about RSS by clicking the link on the left called What is RSS? and you can subscribe to this blog by clicking the link on the left as well. Now that I have this set up I make it a point of taking an hour once a week to go to the reader and look over all the posts I haven’t read yet. I skip those that don’t seem beneficial, skim those that have a few main points but don’t need to be read completely, and I read through those that do. At the bottom of this article I will post links to each of the blogs that I currently follow.
Set a reasonable goal
Most people can’t go from reading nothing or every once in awhile to reading 4 books a month (and I do know people who read nearly 4 books a month). That would be a very unrealistic goal. I determined for myself that I would begin by setting a reasonable goal of trying to read 10 books per year. In order to attain that goal I need to read a little less than one book per month. As I’ve set that as my goal I’ve found that I actually will most likely far surpass that goal now that I’m working towards it.
Make time to read
Most of us have more time in our schedules than we think we do. It’s very easy to think our schedules are incredibly busy, but have you ever logged your tasks throughout a day to see where you spend your time? You can very easily listen to audio books when you’re exercising, commuting to work, or taking long trips. You can read when you have down time at your job or at home. You can read during your lunch break. You can read on your phone (if you have a smartphone) while waiting in line at places like the bank, grocery store, etc. You can even read in the bathroom. That person I know who reads 4 books a month has made reading important and says he learns something new almost every day. He has one book that he reads in the bathroom, another that he reads at work, and another that he reads on his phone when he has down time.
So, now that you’ve decided you want to read more how do you figure out what to read? It’s very easy to skim a book or look at the reviews on Amazon and get a good idea of whether a book is worth reading or not. You can also look at the section of this blog on the left called Books to Read, which I’ll be updating every couple months. Below are some good resources for getting you started as well.
Blogs I currently read:
Brian Barella’s Blog
Exploring College Ministry
Heart of Campus Ministry
Leadership, Technology, Innovation
Mac Lake
AppStorm for Mac Users
Seth Godin
Staffhacker – Technology for Campus Ministry
Tim Elmore – Generation iY
Pastor Wayne Hedlund
A list of almost 1,000 books that every young leader/influencer should read
Are there any resources or books that you have found really useful? Please share them in the comments below.