Corey James and I wrote an article published in the February issue of ARMY Magazine focused on leveraging professional reading–and the Pro-Reading Challenge–as a tool for developing leaders.

The Pro-Reading Challenge boils down to talking about a book with your team at least once a year.  This challenge is for leaders out there who wants to take action to develop their leaders and improve their organizations’ effectiveness.

Article Excerpt:

“…the Pro-Reading Challenge is one way for Army leaders to take action when it comes to leader development and lifelong learning, helping leaders to overcome the feeling that leader development is overwhelming, or just “pie-in-the-sky stuff.” It is one specific action leaders can take and point to as evidence that they are, in fact, “committed to developing their subordinates.” In the process, leaders create momentum and foster a culture of learning. Once you taste genuine leader development, you want more of it. Perhaps most importantly for the health of our profession, lieutenants who take the PRC are much more likely to incorporate professional reading into their leader-development plans when they are in command. In this way, you pay it forward, creating that third-generation-leadership (3GL) effect: “Success [from the 3GL perspective] is not developing great leaders. Rather, success is developing great leaders who themselves have a personal vision to develop great leaders.”