Reading a Novel Could Help You Lead Your Team

 

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a pretty avid reader. One of my guilty pleasures is diving into a novel for some brain candy every once in a while. I say guilty pleasure, because I look at it as an escape from reality and a time when I can vicariously experience the adventures and mishaps of others. However, I learned this morning that it might not be a guilty pleasure after all.

Some time ago, I was looking for the correct way to sharpen a pocketknife and stumbled upon a fun (if not irreverent) website called the Art of Manliness. The goal of the site is to share all of those things manly men seem to know (like the right way to sharpen a pocket knife).

This morning while visiting the site, I stumbled upon a great article written by Brett and Kate McKay titled, Why Men Should Read More Fiction. The authors suggest "...while many men have stacks of books on their 'to-read' pile, chances are that pile is composed primarily of non-fiction tomes. For the past 20 years of so, the publishing industry has noted a precipitous decline in the number of men reading fiction. Some reports show that men make up only 20% of fiction readers in America today."

Although this might be a yawner to some, there are some pretty compelling reasons why reading fiction might be worth you time, particularly if you lead a team.

According to the authors: "Dr. [Keith] Oatley argues in his book Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction that fiction is primarily about “selves in a social world,” and that fiction’s main subject is “what people are up to with each other.” Just as your understanding of history and finance is improved by reading lots of books on those subjects, reading fiction improves your understanding of social relationships–your thinking about what other people are thinking. In fact, Dr. Oatley calls fiction a simulation for the social world that allows you to experience (at least vicariously) a variety of social circumstances with different kinds of people than you might encounter in your actual day-to-day life."

We often talk about the soft skills and how difficult they might be to acquire if you aren't naturally blessed with them. This might be particularly true for me, who according to the authors "...have gotten the short end of the evolutionary stick when it comes to our ability to socialize. Studies show that male brains are generally wired for dealing with stuff, while female brains are generally wired for dealing with people. This may explain why women often prefer fiction over non-fiction: their brains are already wired to want to read about “selves in a social world.”

They argue that men (manly men they would argue) have a lot to gain from reading fiction. "Instead of seeing fiction as a bunch of made-up, waste-of-time baloney, look it as a simulator that allows you to exercise and strengthen the cognitive muscles responsible for socializing. Every time you pick up and read a novel, you’re molding yourself into a better, more socially adept man."

Theory of Mind and Reading Fiction

"Theory of mind is a cognitive ability that humans use all the time, but take for granted. Basically, it’s our ability to attribute mental states (like thoughts, feelings, and beliefs) to others based on a whole host of input in order to predict and explain what they are thinking," write the McKays.

Theory of mind is what allows us to make decisions about what others are thinking and perceiving so we can effectively communicate. Empathy is an important part of communicating and fiction compels us to be empathetic to the characters we're reading about and thus more empathetic when we communicate with our colleagues and our teams.

"While reading fiction may engage our theory of mind, does it strengthen it?" they ask.  "In recent studies by Dr. Oatley, the answer appears to be yes. In studies published in 2006 and 2009, Dr. Oatley reports that individuals who frequently read fiction perform better on theory of mind tests, regardless of gender. One such theory of mind test is the Mind’s Eye Test in which participants look at photos of nothing but people’s eyes and then have to describe what the people are feeling. Fiction readers perform better at this test than non-fiction readers. And a 2010 study performed on pre-school children showed that the more stories that were read to them as toddlers, the stronger their theory of mind. (Read to your kids, dads!)"

The authors also suggest that reading fiction increases creativity. "[P]erhaps fiction’s greatest creativity boost is what literary critic Viktor Shklovsky said is the purpose of fiction: to make the familiar strange, so that we look at things in a new light. Fiction allows us to compare how the human experience and ideas work in a made-up world to how they work in real life. From these comparisons, we can begin to think about ideas in profoundly different ways. I like to think that fiction disorients us to reorient us and during that reorientation new ideas spring to our minds."

I'm not going to feel the least bit guilty when I sit down with Hemingway or Faulkner anymore because it might just help me be a better project leader. I suggest you do the same.

The website also suggests the 100 Must-Read books every manly man should read (that being said, I think it would be OK if the ladies in our audience were to read them too).