Leaders are readers, and there is no short cut around this fact.
Comb the pages of nearly any history and you'll discover the scholarship of the doer of great deeds. Standing on the shoulders of giants, the hero dares from his lofty summit to attain an even higher peak.
Reading good books is oxygen to the brain and nourishment for the soul. It can inform, inspire, and instill the wisdom of the ages. Proper perspectives come into view as one's mental map more closely approximates the territory through informed learning.
Formal education may be fine. But for most, it is finite. True education is neither formal nor finite. It occurs informally but intentionally all the time and until death. That's the truth for leaders.
Are you called to leadership? Are you stirred to affect some great change? Are you dreaming of a vision of a brighter future? Are you inspired to attack the status quo? Take some age-old advice to take some age-old advice. Become an intentional, enthusiastic, consistent, hungry, determined reader, and the result, inevitably, is that you'll become a leader.