Here's an eye-opening and provocative post by
Brad Smart, reprinted with his permission from his
Topgrading blog:
A Player executives have very common reading habits, and what they read varies dramatically from what C Players and lower level managers read. For anyone aspiring to be a successful CEO, or a C-level executive, emulating the reading habits of the best and the brightest might give you an edge.
Sorting through my hard copy files of 6,500+ senior executives I focused on C-level executives (CEOs and those reporting to CEOs) who are North American, and only those whom I rated "A Player." There are about 500 in the sample.
First I'll report the results, and then explain
why those executives believe their reading habits give them a competitive advantage in their career.
The Results of the Study: What Periodicals A Player Executives Read: 1. Wall Street Journal - Almost all read the front page and in the Opinion section, the Review and Outlook column (this column, in my sample, is the single most powerful source of political thought for senior executives).
For all the remaining periodicals, most executives skim them and only read a few
...