Leaders Are Readers | Why Reading Makes You a Better Leader

Leaders who don’t read don’t stay sharp, they just stay busy. Today we unpack a simple belief with huge consequences: leaders are readers, and the ones who keep learning are the ones who make better calls when pressure hits.

TJ tees up General James Mattis’ famous message on professional reading, and I explain why Mattis saw books as a way to “light a dark path ahead.” When we skip reading, we’re forced to learn only through our own experience, and that often means learning the hard way. Reading gives us borrowed wisdom, faster pattern recognition, and the perspective to adapt before a situation turns into a crisis.

From there, we connect the habit of reading to three leadership basics I come back to again and again: trust, service, and truth. We walk through book recommendations that shaped my thinking, including Call Sign Chaos, Vietnam POW stories that spotlight character under extreme conditions, and Holocaust memoirs like Man’s Search For Meaning that show how purpose helps people endure. We also hit team and culture lessons from The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team, The Legacy, and The Hard Hat, plus The Talent Code on deliberate practice and coaching.

We close with three coaching questions to help you choose what to read next and how to apply it at work. If you get value from the show, subscribe, share it with a leader you respect, and leave a review so more people can find it. What book has shaped the way you lead most, and why?

Some books discussed and others worth taking a look at include Call Sign Chaos, Engage With Honor, Legacy, The Hard Hat, Hammerproof, Living Proof, Team of Teams, Leading Change, Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, True North, The Talent Code, The Killer Angels, 2801 Days in Hanoi, Once an Eagle, Man's Search for Meaning, The Happiest Man on Earth, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Transcript

Why Leaders Must Read

TJ 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Buzz with Lloyd Buzz Buzzell. Buzz is an international coaching federation, ACC credentialed coach, disc practitioner, and retired Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. This podcast is for leaders who want to align behavior with values and grow in self-awareness. Each episode features one book, one idea, one story, and three coaching questions to reflect on your leadership. Work hard. Tell the truth. Here's Buzz. Let's roll.

Buzz 0:40

Welcome back to The Leadership Buzz. I'm Buzz Bazell. Today we're talking about something I've always believed. Leaders are readers. I have always loved books as long as I can remember, even as a kid. I love that books give us the chance to learn from people we never met, places we'll never go, and experiences we may never have ourselves. Great books can challenge us, stretch us, and prepare us for moments we have not faced yet. TJ's going to fill us in on the main piece we are using today, but we're going to talk about several books and why reading matters so much for leaders. TJ, tell us more.

TJ 1:13

Leaders are readers is more than just a catchy phrase. On this episode of The Leadership Buzz, Buzz discusses General James Mattis' well-known letter on professional reading and why leaders who want to grow cannot afford to stop learning. Mattis wrote that when leaders do not read, they are forced to learn only through their own experience, often the hard way. But reading gives us the chance to learn through the successes and failures of others before we face those same challenges ourselves. He said reading lights what is often a dark path ahead and keeps leaders from being caught flat footed. Over to you, Buzz.

Buzz 1:55

We're going to cover several books, but before I do that, before I jump into these books, I think almost every leadership lesson comes back to three simple ideas. First is trust. People do their best work when they feel safe, supported, and trusted. Second is service. Leadership is about putting others ahead of yourself in orders to fulfill a vision. Then third, of course, I think is truth. I think strong leaders tell the truth, take responsibility, and align their behavior with their values. Those three ideas show up in almost every great leadership book I've ever read, and they have shaped the way I've led in the military, the way I coach today, and the way I try to live my life. I've been pretty excited about this episode because I'm a huge reader and I just love books. I've always loved books. I grew up working in a bookstore. I worked in a library as a page that's like putting away books. I just love being around books and reading books. And I have a lot of books in my library and in my house. And we're going to kind of focus a little on Call Sign Chaos by Jim Mattis and Bing West. They wrote a book together about Jim Mattis and his life and about how he views leadership. But in that book, it talks about

Trust Service And Truth

Buzz 3:10

reading and the necessity of reading to be able to be a great leader. And in Appendix B of that book, it talks about his letter, his email that he replied to somebody of just about his vision of reading. And so I'm going to read that part to you. And in the run-up to Marine General James Mattis, who later became the Secretary of Defense deployment to Iraq in 2004, a colleague wrote to him asking about the importance of reading and military history for officers, many of whom who found themselves too busy to read. His response went viral over email. Security blog Strife out of King's College in London published Mattis' words, and their title for the post, With Rifle and Bibliography, General Mattis on Professional Reading. Now I'm not going to cover this whole thing, and I'm not going to go through every book that he wrote into the appendix, but you can read that in the back of the book or you can go to the blog. So I'll just characterize the problem part of that. The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience or by your men's experience, that is the hard way. By reading, you learn through other experiences, generally a better way to do business, especially in our line of work, where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men. Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed, successfully or unsuccessfully, before. It doesn't give me all the answers, but what it lights what is often a dark path ahead. We have been fighting on this planet for 5,000 years, and we should take advantage of their experience. Winging it and filling body bags as we sort out what works reminds us the moral dictates and the cost of incompetence in our profession. As commanders and officers, we are coaches and sentries for how our units and how can we coach anything if we don't know a hell of a lot more than just the tactics, techniques, and procedures? What happens when you're on a dynamic battlefield and the things are changing faster, then higher headquarters can stay abreast of it. Do you not adapt because you cannot conceptualize faster than any enemy's adaptation? This is very important and part of the concept of what General Mattis talked about. How can you be a sentinel and not have your unit caught flat footed if you don't know what the warning signs are? That your unit's preps are not sufficient for the specifics of a tasking that you are not anticipating. The enemy has paid a price when I had the opportunity to go against them, and I believe that many of my young guys live because I didn't waste their lives, because I didn't have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy, at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields. Hope this answers my question your questions, and I will let my staff know and add all these books to that list. There are several books that I wanted to capture today, and amongst these books are his own book, Call Sign Chaos, by Jim Mattis. And Chaos is his call sign. I'll let you read the book and you can see on YouTube a little more about it. But the military story suggestion is it talks about how reading history and leadership books shaped your own approach and his approach to command and coaching. So what I want to emphasize is that you know General Mattis was a military marine and led men and then went and became the Secretary of Defense. But I think reading affects

Mattis On Professional Reading

Buzz 6:45

just about everything in life. And that whether you're a business person, entrepreneur, run your own business, whether you manage people or you work with people, I think reading can enlighten you and bring forth things that you'll never experience in life. And you don't live long enough to be able to do that. And that's exactly what General Mattis is just trying to emphasize in his book and his letter is you'll be able to gain a lot more information and a lot more experience by reading. And you know, I love reading, so I'm biased with it anyway. I wanted to highlight several books, but I'm going to try and group them together and move through these kind of quickly. But there's there's three books on Vietnam POWs that I just thought were amazing. The first, very first book I read on the POW situation was General Robbie Reisner's book, The Passion, Passing of the Night. There's a very short book about the character of the person, the experience there. The other two books that I read were 2801 Days in Hanoi by Larry Garino, and then of course Colonel Lee Ellis engaged with honor. And he's written several books, and you can find them on LinkedIn and Facebook, and I really recommend his books. They're just amazing, and and he's a great leader. These three books, and I've I've met two of the individuals, and I didn't meet Colonel Garino, but they're just amazing when you think about character and how leaders should act in different situations and high, high quality, high-critical situations. The reason I emphasize those POW books is that I often size myself up against those men that were in a camp where everything was taken away from them and they had to return to their values and rely on their teammates. I know that's an extreme situation to look back on, but I just think it's an amazing what they went through and how they survived that and were leaders at the same time. In the same way, the Holocaust survivors, there were two of them I've read their books that I thought were amazing: The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jacku, and of course Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel. Those two books really gave a holistic type of experience to what they went through and to how they bring it forth character and helping each other through those camps. And I think I may have told you the past of the kind bar with David Libitsky and how he produced the kind bar because his dad sat him down at the kitchen table when he's very young and he explained to him that he'd been in a concentration camp in the Holocaust, and by doing those small kind gestures that that gut people through by helping each other. And that's why he named the bar Kind Bar. And I try and keep one with me all the time. So when I see somebody doing something kind, I give them that one. And I try and relate that story to them, and it's very impacting. And I try and kind of look for those kind gestures in our in our society. Victor Frankel's book really does talk about surviving those concentration camps and argues that people can endure almost anything if they have meaning and purpose. And what that does is that meaning gives people strength. And when leaders help people connect their work to a deeper purpose, they can endure difficulty, uncertainty, and setbacks. And I think that's where we as leaders can have a real great impact on our teams, both personally and professionally. There's a couple of good, great sports books that you may or may not have read before. One of them is The Legacy by James Kerr, and the other one's The Hard Hat by John Gordon. The Legacy about is about the all-blacks rugby team, and it really focuses on culture, humility, discipline, and teamwork, while The Hard Hat by John Gordon is inspired by a lacrosse player from a college, and it really highlights great teammates that do invisible work, that they often remember the people who encouraged them, showed up every day and held everyone together. And I love the legacy book by James Kerr because it really highlights a lot of books that I love, and that when I was reading it, I couldn't believe that they mentioned these books, and I was just reading them or had them in my library. And really, it helps great leaders think beyond themselves and focus on what they are building for the next generation. Hey, before we get finished today, I wanted to mention for this episode if you have some favorite books or some leadership books that you think you'd like to share, hey, go ahead and drop them in the comments or send me a message or reach out to me on LinkedIn. I would love to hear what books that you all value, and I'll probably be putting something out of tomorrow with some list of books and maybe some books that we can share with each other. So please don't be afraid to reach out. And I'd love to hear what books you find valuable in your leadership journey and why you might think those are important. And I'd probably be remiss not to mention the five dysfunctions of a team. It's a book that I've given to several leaders, and it's really a story, but it illustrates relationships and trust. And a new leader walks into an environment, it's more it's told in a story type format. I mean, it's a it's as described by the author, is a compelling fable with a simple yet powerful message for those who strive to have exceptional team leaders. And I just love it because it really is all about relationships. And because life is built on relationships, and all relationships are built on one thing. That one thing is trust. Everything in life, whether you're building a relationship with a family member, a husband, wife, friend,

Books That Build Character And Teams

Buzz 12:15

parent, everything is based on trust. And that's what this book is kind of based on. And I think you'd love that book if you picked it up. Hey, one great book, also I think is The Talent Code Code by Daniel Coyle, and really explores how people develop talent through repetition coaching and deliberate practice. You know, repetition builds confident confidence, and great performance often comes from preparation and practice, not just natural ability alone. I mean, I saw this in our ICBM missile training where we use checklists and inspectionals and simulator work, where repetition helped build people performing under pressure, because often you're asked to do things in a time-based manner as something that you'd never experienced or seen before. And it took people from varying different academic backgrounds in different parts of the country and put them together to build great performance and great teams. And I think this book, The Talent Code, really illustrates that, that you can bring that out in your teams.

TJ 13:16

Buzz, your final thoughts today on leaders are readers.

Buzz 13:20

Hey, today I was talking about several different leadership books and a key concept from many of them. But honestly, the bigger message underneath all of it is that leaders have to keep learning. The books themselves are really just examples of a larger point, and the books that I like, they might not be the ones that you like. It matters because it helps leaders prepare before they face that challenge. The leaders who read are less likely to get caught flat-footed, like General Maz talks about. That gives perspective, it exposes to other people's mistakes and other people's successes and helps us recognize patterns faster. It builds judgment. It's just not about gathering information, it's about becoming more thoughtful, adaptable, and more prepared to lead when pressure comes. I saw that in the military from time after time. These leaders who studied, reflected, and kept learning usually made better decisions and led people better than the leaders who relied only on instinct or experience. Leaders are readers because reading helps us think better,

Coaching Questions And Next Reads

Buzz 14:20

lead better, and avoid learning every lesson the hard way.

TJ 14:25

Let's get to this week's three coaching questions for our listeners.

Buzz 14:30

Hey, for the coaching questions this week, a little different episode we had today, but what book or article or experience has shaped the way you lead most and why? How did that make a feel you feel when you read that book? How did that affect you and why did that affect you? Two, where might you be relying too much on your own experience instead of learning from others who have gone before you? And how does that look in your life? Is there some way you could read more or experience more through some type of reading that might help you? And finally, if you committed to reading with more purpose, what leadership challenges in your life might you could help a little handle a little better? How would that look for you if you were doing that? Just a hair better. Hey, I've always loved books of reading. But one thing I stumbled on into over the years was the Pulitzer Prize winning books. It started when I picked up a book about Boston. It ended up being a Pulitzer Prize winner, and even though it was a long book, it was incredibly easy to read because it was just so well written. That got me curious. I went back and started looking through a list of Pulitzer Prize winners over the years and began reading more of them. What I found was that many of these books were on topics I normally would not have picked up on my own. History, politics, biographies, war, culture, different places and people. But because they were all so well written, they pulled me in. I learned a lot from these books and I probably never would have chosen otherwise. I think there is a lesson in that for leaders. Sometimes the best books are not always the ones sitting in the leadership section of the bookstore. Sometimes the best lessons come from history, literature, biography, or books about places and people very different from us. So if you're looking for something new to read, I would encourage you to take a look at Pulitzer Prize winners. There's all kinds of topics, and you may be surprised by what grabs your attention and what you learn from it.

TJ 16:23

Leaders are readers reminds us that leadership is not only built through experience, it is also built through learning from others who have gone before us. Reading gives leaders perspective, judgment, and a chance to see patterns before they face them in real life. General Mattis believed that leaders who do not read are forced to learn everything the hard way. The best leaders stay curious, keep learning, and never stop growing. Back to you, Buzz.

Share And Put One Idea To Work

Buzz 16:54

Thanks for listening to The Leadership Buzz. If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with someone else who cares about leadership. You can follow me on LinkedIn or visit workhardtelltheuth.com for more leadership content and updates. And if this episode made you stop and think, take one idea from it and put it into practice this week. Until next time, keep leading, keep serving, work hard, and tell the truth.