Can you learn to be a leader by joining a book club?
I have always loved books. Since I was a kid, I have been heavily reliant on libraries. Books have been my comfort amongst all the chaos. Books open up worlds and enable me to live in multiple parallel realities. After a couple of years of hiatus, I picked up reading last March (we all know what happened last March). As I was reading more and more, I realised that I wanted to discuss the books I was reading. When I joined Mendix, I was excited about the book club where folks discussed fiction and non-fiction! Finally, some more people with whom I can discuss books. Imagine my delight when last December Jake* started a leadership book club. I did wonder what I could learn about leadership by reading books. Isn't leadership something intuitive? Can leadership be learnt?
Mendix leadership bookclub
The first book that was chosen was Becoming a Technical Leader by Gerald Weinberg. I further doubted my joining even more because well, I am not a typical "technical" person that you would encounter in RnD at Mendix and neither did my job title have a "lead(er)" in it. After sharing my concerns with Jake*, he said I was more than welcome to join and that design is also a technical discipline.
We met every other week either on Wednesdays and Fridays. We discussed three chapters at once. The author turned a series of his workshops into this book. The questions at the end of each chapter can serve as a lot of content for reflection. More than the act of reading a book, it was the discussions with peers in RnD that was interesting. I got to meet folks with diverse job titles and backgrounds. I heard a lot of interesting interpretations of what adds to leadership.
So did I learn to be a leader by joining this book club? Here are some of my leadership learnings by participating in this book club
1. Facilitation is key for leadership
Jake* did a great job setting up the cadence of these sessions, preparing a miro board, and keeping an eye on the time while we all rambled. It was also nice to see some people taking lead by jotting discussion questions before the session. Alexis* made visual summaries of chapters. Elsa* made mind map diagrams to connect the discussions we were having. While I might have forgotten some names, everyone who showed up contributed in a way.
One needs to probe the audience with questions to keep the discussion going. This is something I already bring to my workshops but I realised that at times these questions can also be more controversial to bring in-depth discussions. Another key skill is to know when to interrupt and move on vs when to continue with the topic at hand. One can cultivate this by active listening.
2. Active listening is an acquired skill
I was often tempted to jump in with my point of view to feel seen. However, one can learn so much more by listening and observing. James* at times would consciously mention that he was going to remain silent. It also creates space for those who like to structure their thoughts before they speak. I heard about active listening while reading this book on FBI negotiations. Active listening happens when you stop trying to come up with responses to what someone is speaking.
3. Leadership comes in all sizes and shapes
We had people managers, individual contributors, program managers join the book club and it made me realise that a leader need not have "manager" or "senior" or "lead" in their job title. In fact, the examples mentioned above of people taking notes, or making summaries are all acts of leadership. No one asked them to do that. While we might be eyeing that "leadership" position, we need to remember that we display leadership with our way of working and not through a job title.
Bonus: Connecting with people across the organisation helps improve problem-solving skills
The ability to connect with colleagues from different roles and backgrounds is key to get to the core of a problem. One can never master all the knowledge there is. However, we can always learn to ask the right questions and to explain things in a jargon-free manner. Also, we really need to get out of our discipline's bubble every once in a while to get a new perspective on the challenges at hand. Mendix leadership book club was super helpful with that as we had folks from different units in RnD. It would be great to have such avenues across the org, especially to help us all speak the same language.
So can one learn to be a leader by joining a book club? In short, hell yes you can learn leadership skills from a book club! And yes for those who are sparked, you gotta join this book club! It was the equivalent of those lunch conversations or water cooler triggered turned long discussions with colleagues from Mendix - newbies like me to those who have been here for over 10 years.
*names changed to fictitious ones.
