Reading is Leading: Leadership Literacy
Hosts: Ed Schaefer and Andy Siegmund
Episode: 26 (Season 2, Episode 12)
Runtime: Approximately 55 minutes
Release Date: July 14, 2026
Website: leadershipexploredpod.com
Episode Description
Fifty-four percent of US adults read below a sixth grade level — and we’re promoting those same adults into management, trusting them with budgets, and calling them leaders. That’s not just a literacy problem. That’s a leadership pipeline problem. In this episode, Ed and Andy make the case that reading is not a personality preference — it’s a core leadership competency, as measurable and consequential as financial acumen or strategic thinking.
Ed and Andy dig into what reading actually does to a leader’s brain, challenge the conventional definition of literacy in 2026, and get honest about the limits: reading without synthesis and application is just information collection.
In this episode, Ed and Andy Discuss
Why the national readership crisis is quietly becoming a leadership pipeline crisis
The gap between average CEO reading habits (~60 books/year) and the average American (~4 books/year)
Four mechanisms by which reading reshapes a leader’s brain: decision-making, empathy, cognitive sharpness, and stress regulation
Why reading literary fiction measurably improves theory of mind — and why that matters for talent management and negotiation
The difference between a leader who reads and a leader who *leads from* what they read
How frameworks and quotes become “bright, banal platitudes” without the depth of real understanding behind them
What literacy actually means in 2026 — including media literacy, data literacy, and the ability to interrogate AI-generated content
How reading habits evolve across a career, and why fits and spurts are okay
Four practical tactics for becoming a “leader reader” — including reading adjacent, naming your reading publicly, separating surface from analytical reading, and tracking application over volume
Practical entry points for leaders who haven’t built a reading habit yet — and why your favorite TV show might be the best place to start
Whether you’re a voracious reader or someone who hasn’t finished a book in years, this episode is packed with real-world insights and practical takeaways that will change how you think about reading as a leadership practice.
Episode Highlights
⏳ [00:00] – Ed opens with a striking statistic: 54% of US adults read below a sixth grade level — and 21% are functionally illiterate.
⏳ [02:15] – The central argument: reading is a leadership competency, not a personality preference.
⏳ [04:00] – Andy shares how he uses books reactively — finding reading to solve current problems and to understand how new leaders think.
⏳ [07:30] – Ed reflects on books that shaped his leadership: *The Phoenix Project*, *Sooner Safer Happier*, and *The Elegant Puzzle*.
⏳ [11:45] – Ed makes the case that the readership gap between CEOs and average Americans signals a fundamental difference in what each group believes reading does for them.
⏳ [14:30] – Andy challenges the “book count” metric: reading HBR articles counts, reading select chapters counts, and fits and spurts are okay.
⏳ [18:00] – Andy on functional illiteracy: “Just because you can read, if you have not been reading, then for all intents and purposes, there’s no difference between you and the person next to you who cannot read.”
⏳ [21:00] – Ed walks through four mechanisms reading builds in a leader’s brain: mental simulations for decisions, theory of mind and empathy, cognitive sharpness, and stress reduction (up to 68%, per University of Sussex research).
⏳ [27:30] – Andy on why he deliberately filled his office bookshelf with fiction — and how reading memoirs of people with wildly different lives builds empathy and patience.
⏳ [31:00] – Andy invokes General James Mattis: if you haven’t read 100 books in your domain, you are functionally illiterate, regardless of your ability to read.
⏳ [33:30] – Ed on expanded literacy: media literacy, data literacy, and science literacy — and how readers are significantly better at detecting misinformation.
⏳ [38:00] – The distinction between a leader who reads and a leader who leads from what they read — why frameworks become “cargo cult” behavior without genuine application.
⏳ [43:00] – Ed’s four tactics for becoming a leader reader: read adjacent, name your reading publicly, separate surface from analytical reading, and track application over volume.
⏳ [50:00] – Andy on using commonplace books, abusing your books with margin notes and dog-ears, and finding your own reading format — print, digital, or audio.
⏳ [55:00] – Ed’s closing challenge: Are you a reader, or are you a leader reader? Has reading ever made you change a belief you were comfortable holding?
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