The Surprising Reason More Information Won’t Make You a Better Leader

For most of my life, I thought learning was all about acquiring knowledge—facts, figures, data points. I treated it like stocking up on supplies for some future intellectual challenge, as if the more I knew, the better prepared I’d be. But then something shifted. I realized I wasn’t really after knowledge. What I was searching for was understanding.

At first, the difference might seem subtle. But it’s not. Knowledge is static. It’s like a book gathering dust on a shelf, waiting for someone to open it. Understanding, by contrast, is active. It’s what happens when you take that book down, open the pages, and start connecting the dots. It’s not about what you know—it’s about how that knowledge fits into a broader context, how it relates to the world. Understanding transforms information into something that matters.

A couple of years ago, I signed up for a “one book a week” reading challenge. At the time, it felt like a perfect way to feed my intellectual appetite. I jumped from The Tibetan Book of the Dead to Invisible Women, from The Changing World Order to The Courage to Be Disliked. I was flying through them. And it felt productive—like I was accumulating new perspectives at a rapid pace.

But when I look back, I realize something important: I was gathering knowledge, but I wasn’t giving myself the space to achieve real understanding.

It wasn’t the books’ fault. Each of them was filled with fascinating ideas, new ways of seeing the world. The issue was time. Many of those books required more than just a quick read. They needed room for reflection. They needed me to sit with their ideas for a while, to test them out, to figure out how they fit into my worldview. But with the pace I had set, there was no time for that.

I was so focused on accumulating knowledge that I didn’t give myself the time to digest it. And that left me wondering: Is the rush to accumulate knowledge actually counterproductive if we don’t allow ourselves the space to truly understand it?

For leaders, this distinction is critical. We live in a world where information flows constantly—charts, metrics, reports—data coming at us from all directions. It’s tempting to believe that knowing more makes us better leaders. But the truth is, the real advantage doesn’t come from accumulating information. It comes from understanding it.

Understanding is what allows us to turn information into action. It’s what helps us see patterns in data and draw out insights that can shape strategy. Knowledge gives you breadth—it lets you talk about a range of topics. Understanding gives you depth—it lets you make sense of those topics in a meaningful way.

In leadership, understanding is the difference between reacting to situations and anticipating them. It’s the difference between having access to data and knowing how to use it. It’s not about the quantity of knowledge we have; it’s about what we do with it.

This is the challenge for leaders today. We live in a world where information is abundant, but understanding is rare. We are bombarded with data, but often don’t give ourselves the space to reflect on what it means. And if we don’t take the time to understand the information we gather, we risk confusing the accumulation of knowledge with genuine progress.

As Socrates once said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” In a world where information is endless and knowledge is abundant, it’s the ability to understand that makes the difference.

But here’s the real challenge: In our quest for more knowledge, are we losing sight of what truly matters—understanding?

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