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All Leaders Are Readers

One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to foster and encourage a life-long love of reading in your children. As the saying goes, "Leaders Are Readers," and reading is the one characteristic shared by all great leaders.

This is an age where technology and all kinds of electronic media can rob our children of all interest in reading if we as parents allow it. Video games, smart phones, computers, mp3 players and televisions all discourage reading. And, despite the fact that many of these media immerse your child in an imaginative fantasy world, it's passive, not active immersion.

Although these electronic diversions do have some value, if you want to raise a leader it is very important to teach self-discipline and moderation when it comes to these pastimes.

How can you foster a love of reading? By reading to your children right from birth. It doesn't matter if they understand the words, it's important to establish the habit. Many parents incorporate reading a book into the "bedtime ritual." As children age, many parents continue this by allowing them to read in bed before "lights out."

Those who are leaders - corporate leaders, national leaders, industry leaders, inventors, or professionals - have one thing in common: they read. They read newspapers that offer different opinions. They read trade journals to keep up with the latest in their fields of expertise. They read biographies to discover ideas and actions worth imitating in their own lives. They read about foreign affairs to find out what the rest of the world is doing. They read something out of their normal "literary library" to expand their horizons and exercise the brain – it is a muscle after all!

British author, Sir Francis Bacon, is known for saying, "Knowledge is power." Reading opens many doors for a child, a student and an adult pursuing a career. Parents who fail to foster a love of reading in their children may be dooming their children to failure in terms of their education, careers, critical social skills, and ability to network in the years to come.

In today's fast-paced, changing climate, many see this as a form of child neglect.