Reading isn’t doing. You learn, grow, and improve by doing.

June 21, 2016 by Joshua
in Leadership

Reading isn’t doing.

Watching videos isn’t doing.

Learning about research isn’t doing.

Only changing your behavior changes your behavior. What is your behavior while reading and watching? With regard to other people, it’s passive and non-interactive—the opposite of leadership, which is active and interactive.

Watching videos about leadership is like watching videos about lifting weights or running. You don’t lose weight from watching others exercise, you don’t get strong from watching others work, and you don’t learn to lead from reading about or watching others lead.

Nearly every book or video on leadership and most forms of professional development talk about leading. I’m not saying don’t read or watch them, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that reading or watching them improves your leadership. It only tells you something you can do, but you haven’t done it.

Think of them like reading a book or watching a video on how to improve your diet or get fit. If you still eat and exercise the same, you won’t improve your fitness. You might feel like you’re more fit, but biology doesn’t care what you think. It cares what you do. Same in leadership. People don’t respond to how great a leader you think you are. They respond to your behavior.

Nobody felt compelled to follow anyone because that person read a lot of books and watched a lot of videos.

If you want to improve, exercise. Do things. This blog has plenty. My courses put them together into comprehensive, integrated progressions. Get coaching if you can’t motivate yourself alone.

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