Wondering what to read to become a better leader? While most executives gravitate toward business bestsellers and leadership playbooks, research and experience suggest that reading fiction for better leadership may be the most powerful and underrated resource. Unlike case studies or strategy guides, fiction challenges your worldview, builds empathy, and helps you see the human dynamics beneath every business decision. In an era of AI, remote teams, and constant change, fiction doesn’t just entertain—it trains leaders to think, feel, and respond with clarity.
Many high-performing professionals are now recognizing that novels and short stories provide a unique kind of leadership development. Fiction lets you explore moral dilemmas, emotional complexity, and power struggles—without real-world consequences. These are the very dynamics that make or break strategy in real workplaces. From Kafka’s Poseidon to Diaz’s Trust, literature helps leaders strengthen the one skill they need most today: empathy.
Why Reading Fiction Builds Emotional Intelligence in Leaders
One key reason to embrace reading fiction for better leadership is its ability to build emotional intelligence. Neuroscience shows that reading literary fiction activates the brain’s default mode network, enhancing our ability to understand what others think and feel. This means leaders who read fiction become more attuned to the unspoken dynamics in meetings, better able to relate to team members, and more effective in navigating conflict.
Take Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, where Gregor Samsa wakes up transformed into an insect. While surreal, the story echoes modern crises: burnout, layoffs, and identity loss. It forces readers to consider what it means to be valued, useful, or abandoned—just as leaders must do with employees navigating change. The lesson? Stories train you to see beyond the surface and respond to people with compassion, not just policies.
How Fiction Helps Leaders Tackle Moral Complexity
Unlike leadership case studies that often wrap up neatly, fiction presents messy, unresolved situations—just like real life. Reading fiction allows leaders to safely explore moral ambiguity, conflicting motives, and power dynamics. Consider Charles Johnson’s Menagerie: A Child’s Fable, where leadership and freedom collide in a pet store run by animals. There’s no clear hero—just hard choices, unintended consequences, and a reflection of the silos and politics in modern workplaces.
In one real-world example, an appliance manufacturing team used this story to examine their own organizational silos. The fiction didn’t give them answers—but it gave them a mirror. That’s the power of narrative: it makes us look inward and confront the choices we often avoid. Leaders who routinely engage with fiction are better prepared to navigate ethical gray zones with humility and foresight.
Strategic Thinking Starts with Storytelling
Fiction also sharpens strategic thinking and perspective-taking, both essential for modern leadership. In Trust by Hernan Diaz, four conflicting accounts of the same story force readers to question everything they think they know—mirroring how leaders must navigate multiple narratives inside their own organizations. What HR calls “modernization,” employees may see as “micromanagement.” Every change has competing perspectives, and fiction prepares leaders to hear them all.
When you read fiction, you’re not just enjoying a story—you’re training your mind to process complex systems, listen deeply, and adapt your understanding as new information unfolds. These are the exact skills leaders need in times of transformation, uncertainty, and innovation. So next time you're choosing your summer reading, skip the business shelf and reach for a novel that makes you think—and feel—differently.
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