Why I review novels on a blog for CEOs and executive coaches

October 18th, 2008 — tonymayo

Fiction, like religion, takes us to a strange world to which we nevertheless feel a connection.

–Herman Melville

To enter another person’s world, to see things as they see them, to allow for different reactions to similar circumstances is to connect with people in a powerful way. Such empathy, compassion, and insight are essential for succeeding as a leader, salesperson, or an executive coach and to living a fulfilling life.

Reading the stories of people in circumstances different from your own is entertaining exercise that develops this important skill. Good novels novels offer intimate and immersive experiences of worlds most business people never encounter, yet the practice they offer with escaping our own narrow versions of reality can help us to be more receptive to the various worlds of the people we manage and sell to every day. [For more on individual worlds, see The Santiago Theory of cognition.]