Cadets,

I am currently a 2LT Platoon Leader who has struggled to maintain the habit of professional reading and personal development reading. The biggest thing I can say is figure out what works for you. Audiobooks and podcasts are amazing ways to gather knowledge without using any extra time. I listen to audiobooks while driving, exercising, cleaning, etc. Another tip is to just get in little spurts of reading in during 10-15 min downtimes, such as waiting for class. You’d be amazed at how much you can get done in 10-15 min when you only focus on that one thing.

Professional reading will never be outdated. The world is constantly changing, as does how we lead and what is effective. Don’t be afraid to reach outside of the military reading genre and learn from business books, history, and psychology.

One of my favorite professional development books is “21 Indispensable Qualities of  a Leader” by John C. Maxwell.  It goes through 21 qualities a leader should posses by describing the quality, giving examples, and a practice to do to develop that quality. Each chapter is short and is meant to be gone through one chapter a day to focus on that quality and exercise the practice. This book helped me define exactly what qualities of my leadership style I needed to work on and how to improve them.

Hope this helps and remember that progress is better than perfection!