First let me say that John Spence, author and coach inspired me to increase my reading this year, as he is reading about 100 books each year since 1989. Although I am far away from that goal, I realized two major lessons.

Lesson #1 – Move from Consuming to Creating

When finishing a 200-250-page book about every other week, it is important to develop a method to digest the content before starting the next one. I do this first of all by underlining in the book itself (yes, I still use paper books in most cases) and then after I finished reading, I copy all important aspects, quotes etc. to the first page or last page of the book, wherever there is empty space. This helps me to summarize the content and remind me of the main themes and learnings.

As highlighted in multiple books, if you would like to improve your learnings further, it will be important to move from consuming to creating. I do this, by posting quotes of the book on various social platforms or combine the book ideas with other themes in longer articles that I publish on LinkedIn. This helps me to see the bigger picture and to better integrate the learning.

Lesson #2 – Connect the Dots

Having intensified my reading this year has helped me to better connect dots; dots across several books, but more importantly dots in my work environment, thinking outside of the box, seeing things that others may not see. And it helped me to change my own behaviors; in other words I was really profiting from it for my own life. Reading over and over similar themes and conducting the book exercises helped me to establish some new routines.

A few questions I got asked this year

How do you find the time to read all these books?

It is not really about time, it is about prioritizing, which is not difficult for me knowing how much joy it is for me to read, but also discussing the themes/learnings at my workplace, with family and friends, and the gains I get as explained above.

Is there one theme you realized across the books you have read?

Yes, leadership starts with you. The more you are aware about your blind spots the better. The more you work on your intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical capacities, the more you will be able to elevate others.

Did the reading improve your leadership skills?

I guess this is a question that needs to be answered by my peers and colleagues I regularly work with, but for sure it raised my awareness about my behaviors and enabled me to establish some new routines.

What are the top 3 books you have read this year?

Difficult to say, as all have interesting information. If I could only take three books with me on an island, I would take…

• Dare to lead from Brené Brown, because it helped me to show up at work with my whole self. Easy? No! Because choosing courage over comfort is sometimes tough. Worth it? Always!
• Elevate from Robert Glazer, because it is easy to read, yet profound and helped me to elevate my spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional capacities, and to establish some new habits
• The coaching habit from Michael Bungay Stanier because it helped me to tame my advice monster, to say less, and to ask more questions to unlock other peoples' potential

And the runner-up is:

• Data Story from Nancy Duarte because it taught me how to bring data to life and transfer them into narratives; to tell a story that initiates real change for the business

My final advice

If you are reading many more books than you usually do, ensure that you treat each book as if it would be the only one you read this year.
I hope this inspires you to read more non-fiction books in 2020.

My 2019 book list below (in chronological order)

Hal Elrod – The Miracle Morning	Michael O’Brien – Shifts (My last bad day)	David Epstein – Range
Justin J. Kennedy – Brain Reboot	Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez – The Project Revolution	Brené Brown – dare to lead
Tim Ferriss – Tribe of Mentors	Pawel Motyl – Labyrinth	Laura Vanderkam – Juliet’s school of possibilities
Frances Hesselbein et al. – Work is love made visible	Sandy Ogg et al. – grow	Ingrid Fetell Lee – Joyful
Sabine Bredemeyer – Happy Leaders, Happy People, Great Results	Dorrie Clark – Reinventing You	Scott Eblin – overworked and overwhelmed
David Hamilton – I Love Me (the science of self-love)	Brené Brown – Daring Greatly	Ronald Heifetz et al. – Leadership on the line
Cara Holland – Draw a better business	Nancy Duarte – Data Story	Gretchen Rubin – The Happiness Project
Robert Glazer - Elevate	William Ury – Getting to yes with yourself	Kathleen Starr et al. – Why we resist
Michael Bungay Stanier – The Coaching Habit	Julie Rosenberg – Be True	Sara Canaday – Leadership Unchained
Hortense Le Gentil - Aligned	Alex Osterwalder et al. – Testing Business Ideas	Simon Sinek – The infinite game

 

Volker Hack is an Executive Director at one of the largest Contract Research Organizations and dedicated to Improve Health. He is an advocate for incorporating mindfulness into the work life.