Summer’s over. It’s back to school for business.

The best business leaders are lifelong learners, so brush up on your Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

Reading

1. Man’s Search for Meaning – Everyone needs a purpose and this groundbreaking book by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl is considered one of the 10 most influential books ever If what you’re doing isn’t moving you toward your dream, you’re wearing yourself out on a hamster wheel.

2. CEO Tools – Kraig Kramers turned around eight under-performing companies in widely different industries. His book is a toolbox to help you fine-tune your organization’s engine.

3. That’s A Great Question – You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. But you must ask smart questions. This book contains more than 500 questions on 18 topics.

Writing

4. Write down—and be extremely precise—the 3 most significant objectives you want to accomplish between now and year-end. I recommend you make at least one objective business-related and at least one objective personal.

5. Write down—and be excruciatingly detailed—about the impact of not achieving your objectives…and your response to falling short.

6. Show your list to an accountability partner. If you don’t have one, find one.

Arithmetic

7. List the 3 – 5 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will measure performance against your objectives. Do you have more than five KPIs? Then they aren’t key.

8. Compare your KPIs to your colleagues’ KPIs.

9. Are you using the same KPIs? Why or why not?

Lead by Learning

Learning is exceedingly important because the pace of change has never been faster.

“The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read and write,” said futurist Alvin Toffler. “They are those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”