Leadership Thought: A System for Recording and Remembering Reading Information You Wish to Retain.

Dear Friends,

Do you ever read a book and then a few months later you discover you have forgotten most of what you have read? That was my problem, If I could remember 1/100th of the things I have read, I probably would have been one of those champion contestants on Jeopardy.

A number of years ago, frustrated with my memory failure, I decided to do something about it. I devised a personal strategy to help me remember oft forgotten information. It started with a quote by a reading mentor of mine, John Maxwell, who said, “I mark my books, and my books mark me.”

As I read through a book, I will underline or circle key information-quotes, stories, statistics that impress me. I love marking with colored markers, a personal quirk of mine.

When I have finished the book, I then skim through it a second time, noting and recording highlighted information that I want to remember and quickly access in the future. I generally will do that a chapter at a time, taking time to reflect as I am recording the information.

Once I have competed the chapter, I used to type out the relevant information I wanted to save, a time consuming device before I learned how to use the dictation device on my computer to automatically record  key thoughts and information I wished to remember. Having done this, I then store my notes in the book itself or in a file cabinet under the title of the book.

I am sure there are a multitude of other excellent ways to record such information that you don’t want to forget, but this way seems to work for me.

Let me know if you have found any helpful ways of storing and retrieving information you wish to access.

Below is an example of information I recorded from the chapter of a leadership book on how to identify leaders.

Chapter 1

Every person  on your team makes you better or worse

People decisions cannot be hidden

                                 Questions to ask in recruiting leaders

1 ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS  know your vision and your mission. Who do you need to accomplish your vision?

2 ASSETS ON HAND what is the leadership potential?

                             are there known commodities who gets things done

                                               levels of leadership

1 position people follow because of title.

2 permission people follow because of relationship.

3 production people follow because of results

4 people development people follow because of life change

5 pinnacle leaders  people follow because of respect

Andrew Carnegie “men are developed in the same way gold is mined several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold , but you don't go into the mine looking for dirt . You go into the mine looking for gold

Chris Hodges 55,000 people in attendance gets leadership from best campus churches 22 campuses.

Mark Sanborn  said great leaders help people have a larger vision of themselves

Abraham Lincoln said I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down

most people have high points that have impacted their lives  (Personal note Sam Tatum is a good example of how my life was changed)

 3 ASSETS NOT ON HAND who has leadership position potential outside of the organization

                              Four questions to ask  a candidate

culture in your last company, empower or disempower you

best boss you ever had

how did you handle conflict, share an example with one of your coworkers?

feedback you expect to receive and how often

when you bring someone on be sure to be clear regarding expectations it's about the big picture not me you are expected to keep growing, value other people , take responsibility, and never avoid tough conversations.

( A portion of notes taken from the first chapter of The Leader’s Greatest Return, John Maxwell)

This may be a more elaborate way of recording information than you desire, and if so, develop your own system with which you are comfortable.

This Pandemic period provides a wonderful time to do some extra reading, and if you don’t want to waste time reading information, only to quickly forget it, find a way to “mark your book so those books mark you.”

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

P.S. It has been said that what you will be in the next five years will be determined by the books your read and the people with whom you associate.