Leaders are Readers Q3 2026

Every edition of "Leaders Are Readers" seems to develop a theme, whether I intend for it to or not. In a way that will surprise no one who engages with my work regularly, this edition is about leadership as a verb—a practice—rather than as a noun, a position to be held.

Somewhere between two nonfiction books, a novel from the New York Times bestseller list, and a podcast, it hit me that what leaders may need most today is a reminder that their work is practice, not perfection. The stakes are high in higher education right now; technology is moving at a breakneck pace, and leaders have to keep learning to handle it all.

Hopefully, no matter how you like to learn, something on this list resonates with you. Pick up one of these books or pop in your headphones and listen, and I think you'll walk away thinking differently than when you started. If you haven't figured out yet that my main goal is to get you to think differently through learning, well. . . it is.

Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better

By David Epstein

I am a big fan of David Epstein's book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, which I featured in a previous edition of this reading list, so I was excited to dive into his new book, Inside the Box.^Footnote1 Admittedly, I went into it expecting to agree with Epstein's main premise—that limits are good for us—because I have long held that same belief.

In a world aiming for limitlessness in nearly every aspect of life, meaningful limits as a guide feel countercultural yet incredibly refreshing. Think of a freeway with no lane lines. Sure, the lines restrict where and how you can drive on the road, but they also keep you alive. Yet in so many other aspects of life, we seem to be in a constant struggle against limits.

In one of those convenient coincidences for this reading list, much of Inside the Box is built around the true story of the technology company General Magic. A little technology overlap never hurt a guy writing for an audience of technology professionals. General Magic operated with seemingly few limits. Meanwhile, one of its main competitors, Apple, was led by a ruthless limit-setter named Steve Jobs. Many of you might know how that story played out if you reach for your phone anytime soon.

Leadership lessons abound in Inside the Box. Our desire to avoid limits in the first place means that "humans reflexively add in order to solve problems—more people, more money, more features, etc.—even when subtracting is better."^Footnote2 It's one of the catch-22s of leadership: there is always a problem to solve, but we almost never think about subtraction as the solution. Taking away can itself be a creative act because, as Epstein writes, "total freedom, then, is the enemy of creativity, and constraint its companion."^Footnote3

Your team doesn't need total freedom. They need clear problem boundaries and the freedom to solve within them. Your systems don't need limitless additions; they need the most meaningful constraints to be identified and prioritized. Constraints force us to focus on what actually matters rather than keeping every possibility alive. And sometimes leadership means creating those constraints ourselves: drawing the lane lines, narrowing the question, sketching the picture the puzzle will eventually become, or deciding what we simply won't do.

Breakthroughs rarely come from total freedom of thought. They come from ideas tested against limits, experiments that don't quite work, and lessons carried forward into whatever comes next.

I closed the back cover on this one a little less interested in removing constraints and a little more interested in whether I have the right ones to be the person and leader I want to be.

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

By Seth Godin

I've written before in this series that I believe leadership is creative work.^Footnote4 Leadership, like creativity, isn't something we summon when inspiration strikes or when we have a good day. It is work we get better at in the same way we learn anything else: by doing it, reflecting on it, and then doing it again.

My favorite part of Seth Godin's book The Practice is the simple yet profound conclusion: "do then be."^Footnote5 Many people tend to think becoming a leader works the other way around. Get the title, become the leader, then start doing what leaders do. But leadership is a craft, and honing a craft requires practice. It would never make sense to think about learning in other contexts the way we think about leadership.

Take, for example, about a year ago when it was time to potty train my son. How sweet it would have been to simply say, "Well, buddy, you've officially been promoted to Potty Extraordinaire. Enjoy your new title, here are your new responsibilities, and, oh, a nice little bonus of Cheerios to go along with it." Every parent knows how my life, and my carpets, would have looked if that had been my strategy.

Yet too often, leadership development follows a pattern: take someone who is really good at their job—peeing in a diaper—give them a leadership title—Potty Extraordinaire—and expect them to suddenly know how to lead—use the toilet consistently.

As Godin puts it, creativity is "a commitment to the process, not simply the next outcome on the list."^Footnote6 Leadership is the same. It is a commitment to constant growth, learning, and some of the most humbling moments imaginable. Leadership is not an outcome or a product. It is a craft that is honed through time and practice.

"What Technology Leadership in Higher Ed Really Means Today"

With Tara Hughes and Miloš Topić

I know, I know, another podcast on the "Leaders Are Readers" list, but you have to trust me on this one.^Footnote7 This era may be remembered as the one that uncovered the magic of putting a group of amazing people in a space, giving them microphones, and saying, "Okay, go." One thing I like about EDUCAUSE Shop Talk is that the conversations often start with technology and end somewhere much more nuanced.

The conversation with Hughes and Topić began with a deceptively simple tension: everyone wants to talk about the exciting new technology, but somebody still has to make sure the basic things are in place, such as infrastructure, realistic budgets, security, and the institutional capacity to actually support whatever comes next. Hughes calls those things the "vegetables" that make the cake possible. As someone who grew up with a grandfather who advised me to always eat dessert first, lest you be too full for it at the end of the meal, I still think she's right.

And being who I am and thinking about leadership the way I do, I appreciated that Hughes and Topić described the role of the technology leader beyond technology. Topić talked about the CIO as an enterprise leader and strategist who happens to lead technology. Tara pushed that further by arguing that technology leaders have to understand the people behind every decision. Yup, once again in this series, we land on the reality that leadership is a people endeavor, not a technology or business one.

The last edition of "Leaders Are Readers" was all about stewardship, so I smirked with a slightly flared ego when this conversation landed there too.^Footnote8 Stewardship of resources, people, and legacy is not a side responsibility of leadership. It is how people decide whether they can trust a leader with the weight of the role.

Even as technology changes and artificial intelligence (AI) seems to take our lives to places we never imagined, some of the most important parts of leadership remain: understand people, steward what you have well, tell the truth, and build trust over time.

Theo of Golden

By Allen Levi

A novel has appeared in "Leaders Are Readers" only once before, and that was a bonus selection. This time, a novel reached into my soul and taught me a meaning of beauty I hadn't yet considered.

Theo of Golden is a book about connection, generosity, gratitude, fellowship, love, and leaning deeply into others' lives. If that isn't leadership, I don't want to be a leader.^Footnote9

This story allowed me to think not about what leadership should do, but how leadership should feel. Theo models a kind of leadership that is warm, caring, unselfish, and humble, yet deeply accountable to something greater. Accountability should never surpass warmth or become cold in the name of achievement. Instead, it can look like holding high standards because you recognize that leadership has already given you something special—and your responsibility now is to give something back.

If, like me, you lean toward leadership books full of facts, figures, quotes, chapters that could be pages, and pages that could be sentences, Theo will bring a breath of fresh air. My only ask is that you don't read it to earn anything.^Footnote10 Read a few pages at a time. Sit with it. Think on it.

The ending is worth the read, and Theo is a leader we should all aspire to be.

Closing Thoughts

Leadership is less about arriving and more about a journey of learning how to live the work well. It's as simple and complicated as that.

Read something, listen to something, try something, reflect, and then go again.

Be curious. Be well.

Notes

1. See Ryan MacTaggart, "Leaders Are Readers: Q4 Reading List," EDUCAUSE Review, December 11, 2023. Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. David Epstein, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better (Riverhead Books, 2026), 12. Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩
3. Ibid., 49. Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.↩
4. Most obviously to this point, I featured The Creative Act by Rick Rubin last year, but the theme of leadership as creativity has been a constant in my thinking and in this series since the start. See Ryan MacTaggart, "Leaders Are Readers: Q1 2025 Reading List," EDUCAUSE Review, April 1, 2025. Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.↩
5. Seth Godin, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work (Portfolio/Penguin, 2020), 31. Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.↩
6. Ibid., 23. Jump back to footnote 6 in the text.↩
7. To be fair, you could read the transcript if you want to be a reading purist for your leadership learning. Jump back to footnote 7 in the text.↩
8. Ryan MacTaggart, "Leaders Are Readers Q2 2026," EDUCAUSE Review, June 22, 2026. Jump back to footnote 8 in the text.↩
9. Deep gratitude to Judy Lewandowski, whom I consider a mentor and a friend, for recommending this book to me. Amazing how one small nudge can be transformative. Thanks, Judy. Jump back to footnote 9 in the text.↩
10. Though I would say the same for any book. It's fun to set a reading goal or try to read more books than your sibling, but I think turning reading into a competition can ruin something sacred in the practice. Read for something more than competition. Read for richness. Like an amazing crème brûlée, a book is not to be devoured so you can brag about it, but savored slowly and with presence. Jump back to footnote 10 in the text.↩

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Ryan MacTaggart is Associate Director, Professional Learning, at EDUCAUSE.