Successful leaders Read and Research

Successful leaders read and research; they’re innovative.

Your boundaries on any given field extend as far as your extent of knowledge and understanding on that given field.

In my previous article on the strange secrets for success, I discussed The 3Rs for success. There, I went into some details on reading, research and reference (mentorship) and how vital they are to anyone that desires success in their career and life.

Then, in a subsequent article on the Divine influencers in Babylon, I went on to give further details of the areas an aspiring leader or one intends to divinely influence the world must pay attention to. You must be cunning in knowledge if you desire to make an impact in your generation.

Knowledge

I know it might sound like a cliché or overemphasized to say that leaders are readers, especially in this our time. But that statement is true and will remain true as long as the acquisition of knowledge demands the active participation of the learner.

Until knowledge becomes congenital, reading will always distinguish her sons and daughters.
Cabiojinia

We are limited by our ignorance. Once you get to know and understand a thing, the mystery surrounding it wanes and disappears. There is no mountain, every man’s ignorance is his mountain.

Successful leaders are lifetime students and learners. I’m yet to meet or read about any successful leader who doesn’t spend hours perusing certain books and journals. This is because knowledge is a form of power, so, the more you know the more your authority in a given sphere of influence expands.

Innovation and Research

Tied to the acquisition of knowledge through reading is their love and propensity for research and inventions. Successful leaders are in constant search of new and better ways of solving problems that may already have solutions. So, they spend a lot of time learning about the solutions that already exist and searching for better ones.

Another aspect of this quality is their desire to find solutions to problems that have no existing solutions. They lead their team to search out ways to tackle the numerous problems that bedevil man, beginning from their field of expertise.

Successful leaders also innovate themselves, their leadership style, their organizational structure, their production and marketing strategies, their customer services etc. as they learn more. They challenge the ways things have always been done with superior arguments. They don’t simply maintain the status quo because everyone says so. Why cling to old methods if there are better methods available?