All Leaders are Readers

This month, The Network will kick off two new Leadership Book Clubs. Each of the new groups is filled to capacity with nonprofit leaders working in Orange and San Diego Counties. Each group will be lead by a professional book facilitator as part of an effort to train participants in the art of using books and reading as a leadership tool for their own constituents. The San Diego Club will begin on September 12th and the Orange County Club will begin September 19th.

Research has shown that reading has always been an essential component of leadership development (HBR, Feb. 2016). However, even with the best of intentions, it is often difficult to get to or finish all of the books competing for our attention. With a goal of creating well-read nonprofit leaders while imparting facilitation skills and building trusted relationships among nonprofit leaders, the Leadership Book Club offers a unique opportunity to study and develop leadership in a communal setting.

After completing the originally scheduled 10 month program last June, the Network’s first Club decided to continue meeting together. They are gathering on September 19th in San Diego with author Brandon Black to discuss his new book EGO FREE LEADERSHIP.

Our vision for this program is to seed the nonprofit sector with multiple book groups using literature to study leadership, to build trusted relationships and to develop personal facilitation skills. Much like our Learning Groups, we hope each group will continue to meet once the official program has concluded. So far, we are one for one!!

As President Harry Truman said, ” Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”

Applications are accepted for each new Leadership Book Club in April. The program begins in September and officially ends in June. More information can be found on our website under the Leadership Network tab.