What you read reflects who you are. Leaders like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Indra Nooyi, and Mark Cuban advocate reading extensively to gain knowledge and challenge assumptions. At a minimum, reading widely develops a key business skill—making intelligent small talk. More importantly, reading and actively discussing ideas enhances critical thinking skills.
Unfortunately, some studies show that only 16% of Americans read daily and for pleasure. Before the digital revolution, that number was well over 50%. Even more concerning, the latest statistics show that about a third of high school graduates have college-level reading skills.
Leading a book club is a great way to share your business experience, develop early-stage workers, and inspire the next generation of reading advocates. I started a book club focused specifically on books written by business leaders at Wake Forest University. Book clubs are fun, but they are not easy. I’ve learned a few rules for success.
RULE #1: OWN THE LEADERSHIP ROLE
You must read the entire book and prepare for the meeting. Once you’ve read the book, use AI to summarize it and then edit and refine the output to match your understanding.
As a leader, you probably tend to overprepare. Be patient. Some participants will lack experience with deep reading. College faculty often work with students who are not used to reading and resist reading anything longer than short excerpts. Many use AI to summarize everything and are accustomed to attending class with only a shallow understanding of the content.
Set a standard by discussing specific ideas in depth. Do not assign these ideas as homework. Remember to contextualize them. Millennials and Gen Z were born after 1980. You will know who the readers are. They will offer valuable insights that go well beyond the book. Hopefully, it inspires the rest to match the group’s effort.
RULE #2: READ ORIGINAL THINKERS
Before pursuing an MBA, I earned a PhD in Anthropology. Completing a PhD involves reading vast amounts of work by original thinkers. I’ve read everyone from Plato to Machiavelli to Karl Marx to Stephen Jay Gould.
When I entered business school, I found it odd that management scholars wrote most of the material we read about businesspeople, rather than by businesspeople about their own views and experiences in business. Many business students don’t find academic work relevant. Increasingly, they do not read books by leaders with fascinating lives, such as Alfred P. Sloan and Andrew Grove, who struggled with problems relevant today.
Alfred P. Sloan Jr. (1875–1966), for example, ran GM from the 1920s through World War II, an era of incredible technological development. Sloan transformed a large, diverse group of businesses into a professionally managed company. In his book, My Years with General Motors, he grapples with the challenges of decentralization with coordinated control, his phrase for the tricky balancing act that spurs growth by encouraging decentralization for initiative and speed, while maintaining some central coordination for economies and strategic consistency.
Andrew Grove (1936–2016), a cofounder and CEO of Intel, was one of the most influential technology executives of the 20th century. Grove’s philosophy, described in Only the Paranoid Survive, helped him guide Intel through a difficult pivot. The book’s real treasure, however, is his 1996 analysis of whether the internet created a Strategic Inflection Point—a moment when a company’s fundamentals change so profoundly that old assumptions no longer hold. My students laughed when they realized no one really knew what would happen with the internet, but they also recognized the value of learning from Grove and applying his methods to artificial intelligence and future technologies.
RULE #3: RELY ON FACTS, NOT ATTACKS
Shallow reading and social media encourage us to stop thinking at the first sign of outrage. Business book clubs do not bash or nitpick leaders. They promote discussions of universal human challenges and how, as champions of free enterprise, we can bring our best to the ongoing effort to improve the human condition. Leaders will need to keep discussions fact-based and free from personal attacks.
Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 book, Lean In, for example, is full of useful ideas for women in the workforce. Unfortunately, participants may only hear her ideas dismissed as corporate, privileged, and faux feminism. Lean In is now more than a decade old. Instead of criticizing Sandberg, isn’t it more interesting to explore real data on what’s improved and where the work still needs to be done?
FINAL THOUGHTS
Book clubs are both rewarding and challenging. I look forward to book club meetings and hearing what Wake Forest students take away from reading. A business-focused book club is an excellent way to connect with early-career workers and address skills gaps. Helping others develop the habit of reading is one of the best gifts you can give to the next generation.
Christina Elson is the executive director for the John A. Allison Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University.
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