If you have ever wondered whether cracking open a book could actually change the way you lead, the answer is a resounding yes. And the data behind that claim is hard to ignore.
Highly successful leaders are avid readers, consuming an average of 50 to 60 books per year, which works out to roughly one book per week. Compare that to the average American, who reads about 12 books annually, and the gap becomes pretty telling. Now, I am sharing those numbers purely for comparison and perspective. No political undertones or social commentary intended (please). Just a look at how the most accomplished people in business spend their downtime.
What Are the Big Names Actually Doing?
When you look at some of the most recognized names in business and entrepreneurship, a pattern shows up almost immediately. These are not people who stumbled into success without intention. They built reading into their lives the way most of us build in meals.
Warren Buffett reportedly spends up to five or six hours a day reading, working through roughly 500 pages in a single sitting. That is not a typo. Five hundred pages. Every day.
Mark Cuban dedicates about three hours each day to reading. He has said publicly that knowledge builds on itself and that reading is how he stays ahead in fast-moving industries.
Then there is Elon Musk, who famously read for up to ten hours a day as a child. When asked how he learned to build rockets, his answer was simple: he read books.
Again, I mention these names not to put anyone on a pedestal or make a political statement, but to point out a habit that shows up across wildly different personalities and industries. The common thread is the books.
What Does Reading Actually Do for a Leader?
Reading is not magic. You will not finish a biography and suddenly develop the negotiation skills of a seasoned CEO overnight. But reading does something more interesting over time. It rewires the way you think.
Here is what consistent reading tends to build in leaders:
- Broader perspective. Books expose you to ideas, cultures, industries, and experiences that you would never encounter in a single career. A leader who reads widely is less likely to make decisions in a vacuum.
- Sharper communication. The more you read, the more fluent you become in language. Vocabulary expands, sentence structure improves, and the ability to frame ideas clearly gets stronger. For anyone in a leadership role, that matters enormously.
- Better empathy. This one surprises people. Reading about others, whether in business memoirs, historical accounts, or psychology, builds the mental habit of understanding perspectives that are not your own.
- Stronger pattern recognition. Leaders who read history, strategy, and business tend to recognize patterns faster. They have seen versions of their current challenge play out before, even if the names and industries are different.
- Increased focus and patience. Sitting with a book for an hour trains the brain to stay with a problem. That skill transfers directly into the boardroom, the negotiation table, and the long-term planning session.
Wait, Does It Have to Be Nonfiction?
Here is where I get to have a little fun, because this question comes up all the time, and the answer is no. Nonfiction is not the only path to building a sharper mind.
I am a fiction writer and romance novelist, so please believe me when I say I have a personal stake in making this case. Fiction matters. It counts, and it works.
Multiple studies have shown that reading literary fiction, in particular, improves what researchers call “theory of mind,” which is the ability to understand what other people are thinking and feeling. For a leader, that is not a soft skill. That is a survival skill.
Fiction also builds creative problem-solving. When you spend hours inside a story where the rules of the regular business day do not apply, your brain starts making connections it would not otherwise make. Characters face impossible choices. Plots take unexpected turns. The reader’s brain works hard to keep up, and that mental flexibility carries over into real life.
Romance novels, which I write and love without apology, are particularly rich in emotional intelligence. They explore motivation, conflict, vulnerability, and resolution in ways that few other genres touch. If you want to understand what drives people, including the people you lead, reading about human relationships is genuinely worthwhile.
So whether you are reaching for a memoir by a former president, a business strategy book, a history of ancient Rome, or a spicy novella set in Deadwood, SD (yeah, I wrote that one), you are doing something good for your brain.
Building a Reading Habit That Actually Sticks
You do not need to match Warren Buffett’s 500-pages-a-day pace. Last year, I read 156 books, and I don’t think I read anywhere near 500 pages a day. Most people are not running an investment firm from a leather armchair. But even 20 to 30 minutes of reading per day adds up fast. That is roughly 10 to 15 books per year for the average reader, which already puts you above the national average.
A few practical ideas that tend to help:
- Keep a book on your nightstand. The few minutes before sleep are often the easiest place to build in reading time, and research suggests it also supports better sleep quality compared to scrolling on a phone.
- Carry something to read. Waiting rooms, coffee lines, and airport gates become opportunities rather than annoyances.
- Rotate your genres. If business books start to feel like homework, pick up a novel. Your brain will thank you, and you might be surprised by what shows up in your thinking the next morning.
- Talk about what you read. Discussion makes ideas stick. Even a brief conversation about a chapter you found interesting can transform a passive read into an active learning experience. If you want to take that a step further, consider joining or starting a book club. I facilitate a monthly book club in partnership with the Glass Ceiling Foundation, an organization dedicated to breaking barriers for women in leadership. Bringing a group together around a shared read creates accountability, sparks conversations you would never have alone, and builds community alongside all those leadership skills.
- Do not count out audiobooks. If your schedule makes it hard to sit down with a physical book, audiobooks are a legitimate and powerful alternative. Commutes, workouts, walks, and household chores all become reading time when you have a good listen queued up. The comprehension and retention benefits are comparable to reading on the page, and any time you absorb ideas and stories counts toward building a sharper leadership mind.
Read More, Lead Better
Reading is one of the most accessible, affordable, and consistently beneficial habits a leader can adopt. It builds the kind of thinking that helps you make better decisions, communicate more clearly, understand the people around you, and approach problems with flexibility and depth.
The leaders who read the most tend to be the leaders who last the longest.
And if some of those books happen to have a love story in them, well, that is just a bonus.