Reading at Different Levels

All Leaders Must Learn to Process Huge Amounts of Information

Over the last few years the volume of available reading material has grown exponentially, almost to the point that one could drown in a sea of information. According to recent Google statistics, there are over 146 million books available to readers with over 90,000 publishers.  

 How does one deal with the shear amount of information out there? What’s the answer to this dilemma? I believe today's leader must become adept at different levels of reading if they are going to continue their veracious reading habits.

   Here are a few areas that the average reader will need to address in order to become more proficient and improve their overall reading habits.

 1. You must change your general assumption that every word in a book needs to be read in order to get the most out of it.

 2. You must understand that all books can and should be read at different levels, depending on your purpose for reading it.

3. You must become skilled at making an accurate assessment of a book in order to determine its worthiness of your reading.

4. Upon assessing a book's worthiness, you make a determination regarding which level you will read the book.

5. You must define what “your levels” look like, and become skilled at reading at those various levels.

6. You must become disciplined at staying within the boundaries of the level at which you are reading.

7. Give yourself permission to go up in levels.

Conclusion

The ability to read various books in different ways is a skill every leader must develop. Next week: What are the different levels of reading?

 Coach John

 Works Cited: Robert J. Clinton, Reading on the Run, Barnabas Publishers

 

 

Comments

[Doug Beacham]

John, this is a good article and good start on a huge issue most of us face. Made me also reflect on several other factors in my own reading: 1) The need to read a wide range of perspectives and not get tunnel vision on a particular topic; 2) The importance of reading original sources and not simply trusting quotes or opinions from those sources which are often filtered through the writer's own lens; 3) The importance of reading and knowing older sources and writers through the 2000 yrs of church history and thought - the Bible is correct, there really is nothing new under the sun when it comes to ideas and thoughts.

Blessings to you and thanks for the effort you make in writing and coaching. Doug