Best management books of all time
What qualities distinguish a strong leader? Is this individual charismatic? Is it confidence or a vision that is ambitious? I believe that effective leaders have all of these characteristics. However, how do you get these qualities? Indeed, there are “born leaders,” but the majority of us who are called upon to lead don’t fall into that group.
Fortunately, there is a wealth of knowledge available that can help us develop the abilities necessary to be effective leaders. Every manager worth their salt should be aware that there is always room for personal growth. Great managers go beyond simply assigning duties, giving counsel, or enrolling their employees in a range of personal development programs. The top performers can enhance their teams on their own.
A smart manager will want to be in charge of the entire business, but they shouldn’t want to be in charge of every assignment. The key to this is creating a team that can be trusted to make the right decisions and express their concerns openly, as well as providing them with the appropriate process management tools to support their success.
The best managers of all are those who are flexible and receptive to new ideas. Excellent learning opportunities include networking, enrolling in classes, and accumulating real-world experience. They are not, however, the only choice accessible. Every leader should read and take in various viewpoints on how to advance both himself and their organization to truly develop.
Well, in this article I’ll guide you through the best management of all time and a quick review about them.
Read more: The best leadership books of all time
Best management books
The followings are the best management books of all time:
The One Minute Manager
On Becoming a Leader
Turn the Ship Around!
Leaders Eat Last
How to Win Friends and Influence People
The Art of War
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
Influence
Leadership and Self-Deception
Multipliers
My Years With General Motors
Creativity, Inc
Radical Candor
Drive
Primal Leadership
The Truth About Leadership
Delivering Happiness
The Leadership Challenge
The E-myth Manager
Traction
Checklist Manifesto
Black Box Thinking
The Dirty Word
The Advantage
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Good to Great
The Sales Acceleration Formula
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Start with Why
The Art of Action
Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?
The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard Ph.D. and Spencer Johnson M.D.
This amazing book depicts the tale of a young man looking for a suitable leader. While he deals with many management philosophies, some autocrats simply worry about the bottom line, and the workers suffered. Others who had a democratic stance were only interested in people, which hurt the organization. A manager who employs the one-minute strategy is the person he finally finds. The one-minute method is a way to provide those you manage with clear expectations or goals.
Do you sweep the floor, dust the shelves, or arrange the bookshelves when someone asks you to clean a room, for instance? The expectations are evident, though, if you are instructed to sweep the floor and arrange the bookcases. Then comes a minute of compliments and a minute of reprimands, during which compliments and reprimands are given swiftly and without delay.
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
Warren Bennis taught at the University of Southern California’s business school and is regarded as a must-read for any businessperson. As one of the youngest lieutenants to serve in Europe during World War 2, he experienced his first taste of command. He firmly holds the view that leaders are created, not born.
One of the best management books available is this one. It lists several qualities that constitute a great leader. Bennis believes that a leader should be self-aware, inquisitive, and risk-taking. Leader acts morally because they can see the larger picture.
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Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders by L. David Marquet
Marquet was the submarine’s captain and had received leadership training in the traditional military manner of giving commands and achieving objectives. However, once he delivered a command that was impossible to carry out, his crew nevertheless attempted it with very tragic results. He questioned why, to which she replied, “Because you told me to.”
At that point, he made the decision to experiment with a different management approach, giving people beneath him the authority and responsibility to carry out their tasks. His managerial style adjustment had a big impact on the outcomes.
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek
Why do some teams work well together to complete the objective while other teams fall apart over disputes, quarrels, and backstabbing?
In response to a conversation he had with a Marine Corps general, Sinek addresses this issue in Leaders Eat Last. The most senior Marines were all at the rear of the line, and he noted that all the junior Marines ate first. Leaders always eat last, the general said because what was symbolic in the dining hall was deadly serious in battle. For the benefit of the team they lead, leaders must forgo their personal comfort and even their lives. He continues by using instances from real business and military events to demonstrate his points.
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How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Without this book by Carnegie, a list of the best management books would be incomplete. This book about leadership is among the most well-known ones ever, and for good reason. Some of the “soft talents” of effective leadership, such as making others feel valued and important, are revealed by Carnegie. You’ll become a better leader, negotiator, and motivator if you put the advice from this timeless book into practice.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Written more than 2000 years ago, this book is still recommended for leaders across businesspeople. Military strategist Sun Tzu wrote out his ideas on leadership and warfare.
It is full of sage advice that has stood the test of time, including “Avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.” Moreover, “Ultimate perfection rests in breaking the enemy’s resistance without engaging in combat.” Thirteen chapters make up the book, and each one is devoted to a different school of thought.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
Covey is another classic and a well-known expert on leadership. Despite the fact that he has written several books, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is his most well-known. True leadership, in Covey’s view, begins within. First and foremost, a good leader must take care of their own inner well-being, develop a personal vision, and practice self-control. They can only then start influencing others.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John Maxwell
One of the top management books available is Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, one of the most well-known books on leadership of all time. Although there may be additional “rules” of leadership, according to Maxwell, these 21 laws are essential for anyone to be successful. Furthermore, whether in the military, industry, or government, these laws apply to all positions of leadership in society.
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Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive By Harvey B. Mackay
Authored by a self-made millionaire, Mackay offers helpful guidance on how to outsell your rivals and inspire your staff. It’s a quick read that’s packed with helpful advice. Many wise words, such as “If You Don’t Have a Destination, You’ll Never Get There,” are included herein. Make decisions based on your emotions, and the result will be heart disease, as well as “It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable, it’s the individuals you don’t.”
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini Ph.D.
Since he dedicated his whole professional life to studying the science of influence, Dr. Robert Cialdini has established himself as a leading authority on persuasion, compliance, and negotiation. He categorizes the rules of influence and persuasion into six understandable categories in his book Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion. In addition to teaching you how to persuade others, this book also teaches you how to defend yourself against duplicitous persuasion.
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
This book may be challenging to read, not because of the ideas presented or the language used, but rather because it makes the reader take personal responsibility for issues. The majority of us enjoy blaming external factors for our issues. However, you must be able to recognize your part in the issue in order to actually pursue solutions. The Arbinger Institute is regarded as a pioneer in enhancing organizational performance and resolving conflicts.
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Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman
This Wall Street Journal best-seller is only 292 pages long and discusses two leadership philosophies. Liz Wiseman, a leadership expert, examines these two leadership philosophies in this book and persuadingly demonstrates how Multipliers may have a resoundingly advantageous impact on organizations.
The people who are multipliers accomplish more with fewer resources, develop and recruit talent, and foster fresh perspectives and vigor to promote organizational transformation and innovation. Diminishers, on the other side, are the kind of people that sap invention and creativity from their staff.
My Years With General Motors by Alfred Sloan Jr.
This book on management is also regarded as a “classic.” Sloan’s book, My Years With General Motors, shot to popularity when it was first released in 1963. The author discusses his decades-long practice of the “discipline of management,” which has helped him become a successful leader.
Bill Gates calls this book the best management book ever written, and it is still applicable today. It was even rated “the top option for its bookcase of indispensable reading” by Business Week.
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
The co-founder of Pixar Studios, the team behind some of the most well-known and lucrative movies ever, developed this New York Times bestseller. The writers of this book examine the leadership traits that have contributed to Pixar’s success.
In this book, readers will discover many wonderful concepts like, “Give a fantastic idea to a subpar team, and they will muck it up. But if you give a fantastic team a bad concept, they’ll either improve it or come up with something better,” and “Risk prevention is not the manager’s responsibility. Making it possible for others to take them is the manager’s responsibility.
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
An executive at Google and then Apple, Kim Scott. She imparts her years of experience and expertise about how to be a great leader in this enlightening book about management and leadership. Her core conviction is that a leader must genuinely care about their team members while still setting clear expectations. It’s authoritarian if you don’t truly care about it. It is detrimental to the business if you don’t challenge. Furthermore, it’s merely manipulative if you do neither.
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Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, another New York Times bestseller, demolishes the idea of the carrot-and-stick approach to management.
In this book, Pink explores the discrepancy between what most businesses do and what science has determined motivates us. He contends that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the three main sources of human motivation. Therefore, if you can give them those things, your staff will be effective and productive.
Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee
What quality defines a leader as being the most important? intellect, drive, and vision?
This book’s writers make the case that “emotional intelligence” is a crucial component of leadership. For them, exceptional leaders possess traits like zeal, empathy, relationship management, and intuitive understanding. The writers attempt to identify and elucidate those essential traits using numerous examples from real-world situations. A team that has a good leader will “resonate,” but a team with a bad leader will “dissonance.”
The Truth About Leadership: The No-fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
The writers of this book lay forth eleven leadership “truths” in detail. Credibility, the cornerstone of leadership, is one of them. The finest leaders are also the best learners because they appreciate and inspire commitment. Either you set an example for others to follow or you don’t lead at all, claim the writers. Any great leader must comprehend these principles, and you dismiss them at your peril.
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
Zappos, an online store with yearly sales of over $1 billion, was founded by Tony Hsieh. He reveals his success secrets in this book. Among the many tactics, he listed are being someone others would want to work for, engaging personally with your team, providing your employees power over their responsibilities, and acknowledging and rewarding growth on both a professional and personal level. This is a wonderful read if you’re interested in starting your own business or even just managing employees.
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The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations by James Kouzes and Posner
The Leadership Challenge, one of the best management books ever published, is last but certainly not least. The Leadership Challenge, regarded as the “gold standard” of leadership guides, examines the distinction between competent and outstanding leaders.
The authors listed five characteristics of excellent leadership: setting an example, inspiring a common vision, challenging the status quo, empowering people to take action, and encouraging the heart. This should be on the list of anyone seeking quality management and leadership books.
The E-myth Manager – Michael E. Gerber
This book is brief but jam-packed with useful information. Gerber makes it very obvious in The E-Myth Manager that procedure is the recipe your organization needs to succeed. or, to be more precise, a group of procedures. Everything, including onboarding, service delivery, marketing, and sales, needs to be defined.
After deciding how something should be done, a procedure is established. As a manager, you may then train others to carry out this specific task, freeing up your time to focus on new opportunities. The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker, a comprehensive manual for getting the right things done, is a companion piece to the idea of having superior time management. See The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson as well; it’s a terrific book that emphasizes the significance of managing your time effectively in order to boost productivity.
All three publications provide a straightforward review of the best strategies for fostering business growth. No matter how talented you are, you can’t manage a business by yourself.
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Traction – Gino Wickman
Traction is a guide on how to operate your company and is a must-read for anyone looking to develop their management and leadership abilities. It’s a terrific complement to the E-Myth, which promotes the idea that effective management is all about processes. By describing how to do this, Traction expands on this. It’s definitely my favorite item from this list overall.
The organization is the main topic of Wickman’s book, which examines the importance of having clearly defined responsibilities for managers and staff in any future commercial success. As well as selecting the right people and ensuring they are in the correct roles, there is some priceless advice on developing company plans and optimizing the development of processes. After reading this, you’ll understand why Traction is still a best seller 14 years after it was first released.
Checklist Manifesto – Atul Gawande
The checklist is the organization management technique that Atul Gawande emphasizes, and he supports it with so many case studies that it is evident how important it is for a business to flourish. He examines instances from the healthcare sector to show the impact a simple checklist can have on people who are under a lot of time constraints. A step-by-step hand-washing checklist, for instance, has a clear correlation to a decline in infections brought on by hospitals.
The Checklist Manifesto is a sobering reminder that even someone at the top of their field can neglect the simplest things, which is especially true in the corporate sector where we place such a premium on people’s capacity for innovation. Process mapping makes sure that no shortcuts are taken and that everything stays on task, which prevents minor problems from becoming major ones.
Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed
On top of the checklist method for business management, Black Box Thinking expands on it. It emphasizes the necessity of always fine-tuning your procedures and learning from mistakes.
Syed uses the aviation sector as an illustration. As is well knowledge, data from black-box recorders are examined in the wake of airline mishaps. The information acquired is then used to prevent similar mistakes in the future, which has significantly decreased the number of aircraft accidents.
Even if a company may not have a real black box recorder, the same idea might be discovered by gathering feedback. And this is where the value of procedures and delegation really shines through. The people using your procedures are the ones who know what functions well and what doesn’t. Let them improve your systems so that future failures won’t be repeated.
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The Dirty Word – Alistair Esam
So, here it is—my book! I incorporated a lot of what I had learned from the first four books on this list when I was writing The Dirty Word. The value of procedures, checklists, and feedback has been demonstrated. But I wanted to demonstrate that these are difficulties with leadership. The key to your organization’s success lies in accepting responsibility for how these concepts are articulated.
Black-and-white methods are disliked by everyone. They can stifle innovation and sap creativity. However, if you alter their definition and justification, a completely different beast comes into play.
Making it clear that the process is not about control but rather confidence was my secret to company independence. The people in charge of the process are those who are really following it, and they have the freedom to provide feedback with suggestions for enhancements. Since they are on the “front line,” they are the true experts, not you.
Your entire organization’s effectiveness will increase if you give your personnel the freedom to improve their own procedures. Additionally, your team members don’t feel constrained by a set of tedious checklists or procedures that they are aware are ineffective. Real success is paved by letting go rather than by micromanaging.
The Advantage – Patrick Lencioni
The Advantage is the first leadership publication that made me pause and consider my role as a CEO. I had a horrible work-life balance and was working an excessive number of hours at the time. This book made me reevaluate what it means to be a leader in business. Lencioni makes it obvious that you need to clarify your values in the form of a playbook that all employees can refer to before developing business procedures and checklists.
It is crucial to be clear about the purpose of the company, your objectives, and how to reach them. A playbook that is well-written and comprehensive gives all future employees a direction for success. A playbook makes sure there is no ambiguity should a staff member be uncertain about how to proceed with a specific issue.
The realization that an effective leader’s job was to set direction rather than get absorbed in the minor details of everyday operations that detract from the larger objectives of the company was a really significant insight.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
The subject of Lencioni’s upcoming book is the value of leadership in creating successful teams. Trust is the cornerstone of this; if you don’t make it a key component of your leadership style, everything else will crumble. When there is trust, everyone can speak up and significant discussions about procedures and course of action can occur. Everyone may be open and honest, suggest changes without worrying about negative consequences, and feel respected at work.
An employee will hesitate to speak up if they have personally spotted an issue within the company and are unsure of how managers or coworkers will respond. Employees will continue to do as is required of them while the issue is left unresolved. In a situation where everyone is pulling in separate directions, task management and teamwork deteriorate.
The success of a corporation is critically dependent on employee engagement. Profits will rise as a result, boosting productivity. A team becomes dysfunctional without it. A wonderful guide for creating a high-functioning team where everyone is responsible for their actions and given the freedom to enjoy their work is The Five Dysfunctions.
Good to Great – Jim Collins
The top leadership books available take a scientific approach to company leadership, as does Jim Collins. The book Good to Great examines the elements that successful companies share in common with those that fail. One of his key conclusions is that a company must identify what it excels at and then stick with it. Even companies like Apple can use this principle. We might assume that their portfolio is diverse. However, their area of expertise is innovation.
Excellent insights on effective leadership are provided in the analysis, including how vital it is to be determined and have a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish in the future. The daily grind weighs down too many company leaders. The companies mentioned here aren’t apprehensive about taking on the obstacles in their path, changing their operations, or using new workflow tools. I particularly appreciate how strongly it is emphasized that you should never give up, even in the face of extreme difficulty; if you do, you will never succeed.
The Sales Acceleration Formula – Mark Roberge
The focus of Mark Roberge’s book is not on how to raise the individual sales performance of your team, but rather on how effective sales leadership may significantly impact team productivity. We make the department head our best salesperson much too frequently. But the skill sets required for the two roles are very different. Intuitive selling is typically difficult for skilled salespeople to convey in everyday language.
The sales crew as a whole follows the same rules. Great data analysts may not know how to close deals, but by providing the appropriate data insights, they can significantly improve the performance of your team. In the Sales Acceleration Formula, the emphasis is on creating a strong sales team from the ground up and on how to match the right candidates with the appropriate jobs based on the particular personality attributes that each position necessitates. I can’t stress enough how effective this one is after testing these theories.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
The book by Ben Horowitz is exceptional in terms of leadership literature. It focuses on many of the less anticipated difficulties that business founders and co-founders may have, like how to organize your company. Even individuals with years of experience will find a lot to learn here, but startups will find it particularly helpful.
The Hard Thing… examines the significance of relationship management, including how to deal with situations where your most skilled employees don’t perform well at work or how to discipline people you care about. These are only a few of the morally challenging situations that every CEO will encounter eventually. Finding out that you’re not the only one who struggles with them and getting some advice is helpful. There is also some fantastic advice on when to consider selling your business and when it is the perfect time to do so.
Start with Why – Simon Sinek
Another book that promotes “out-of-the-box” thinking is Start with Why, which will change the way you view leadership forever. It is evident that persuading others to share your vision is one of the keys to company success. However, as we’ve seen in Turn the Ship Around!, it’s not just a matter of assigning duties and expecting others to finish them.
Sinek examines two leadership styles: inspiration and manipulation. He draws the conclusion that inspiration is by far the superior way, using instances from both the business sector and the real world. Answering “why?” at the outset can help people understand the rationale behind their jobs and the motivations behind adopting any culture. A company can succeed if its leaders can foster a sense of purpose among its employees.
Additional information about the significance of inspiring those around you may be found in Simon Sinek’s book Leaders Eat Last. In keeping with this idea, you should also look into Multipliers by Greg McKeown and Liz Wiseman. Take a page from Daniel H. Pink’s Drive for a great perspective on inspiring those around you.
The Art of Action – Stephen Bungay
Stephen Bungay is a renowned management consultant and military historian. The Prussian army of the 19th century serves as a leadership case study in The Art of Action. The army’s top generals set clear objectives and then encouraged open discussion on how to accomplish them among its junior generals.
There is a clear comparison between this and how I view procedures, which I believe should empower rather than control. This strategy enables a more adaptable workforce, one that can make adjustments right away rather than having to wait for approval from above.
Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? – Ben Hunt-Davis and Harriet Beveridge
Will it Make The Boat Go Faster? was written by a professional executive coach and an Olympic rowing champion. was the team’s guiding principle for pursuing continual development. The pair describes how the term affected every aspect of their lives, from technical changes to what they ate for breakfast each morning. They were able to outperform their rivals thanks to these small percentage gains.
It’s been a wonderful asset to my own leadership style, therefore I’ve incorporated it here. Having it as my guiding principle helps me make decisions while keeping the end in mind. It’s a terrific way for my team to stay on task and to be reminded of why we were doing something.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell deserves special notice in my list of leadership books before we go on to Personal Development books. This condenses many of the ideas we discussed above into a list of rules for living and adds a few of its own.
FAQs
What is the best book to be a good manager?
The Best Leadership Books for New Managers
Welcome to Management. How to Grow from Top Performer to Excellent Leader by Ryan Hawk.
The Truth About Leadership by James Kouzes & Barry Posner.
The First 90 Days
From Bud to Boss by Kevin Eikenberry & Guy Harris.
Leading with Gratitude.
The 17 Best Management Books Every Leader Should Read
Naval Ravikant, the CEO and founder of AngelList and a famed investor, once said, “Books make for great friends because the best thinkers of the last few thousand years tell you their nuggets of wisdom.”
As a manager, reading can help you in many ways. The world of management continues to change as more technologies are introduced and work cultures continue to change.
Managers need to adapt on the fly in order to ensure that they remain relevant. Many of the older management theories, for instance, are no longer applicable as the world makes the transition to remote work.
But, in this post, we’ll be covering timeless management books every leader should read at some point in their journey of running a business…
Cialdini’s seminal work is an excellent read for managers, especially those who prefer a more laissez-faire form of management and want to empower teams under them.
Persuasion, for instance, is an essential skill for managers. Instead of having to order your employees all the time, what if you could persuade them to do well?
In this book, Cialdini talks about the core concepts behind the art of persuasion and talks about how managers can improve business communication. Instead of offering personal opinions, Cialdini refers to psychological studies about how you can persuade people and features many fascinating interviews and personal anecdotes.
Good managers are often good leaders. They employ various management techniques and styles to ensure that they keep their employees motivated and complete the project on time.
Some managers take a more autocratic approach, while others prefer a more democratic management style. In The One Minute Manager, Blanchard and Johnson tell a tale of a young individual looking for a good leader.
By creating a story of sorts, the authors talk about the different types of management styles and eventually provide their own: the eponymous one-minute method.
This is a unique method for setting clear expectations and goals, something with which many managers struggle. This insightful read is ideal for managers who want to improve their leadership skills and how they set milestones and define objectives.
John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is one of the most widely quoted books on leadership. A revised edition was also published, introducing two new laws. Think of this book as the ultimate guide to becoming a good manager.
Not only does Maxwell give excellent leadership advice, but the book also includes lots of personal stories. More importantly, the book also gives you different tools that you can use to improve your understanding of your own weaknesses and strengths.
On top of that, the book offers a series of practical exercises that you can do to improve your leadership style and become a better manager in the workplace.
Thinking Fast and Slow was released in 2011 and is a fantastic book for managers that want to understand how people generally think. The book’s primary focus is about two different styles of thinking, delving into the dichotomy between them.
The first system is fast, emotional, and purely based on instinct, whereas the second one is more logical, requires more deliberation, and is slower. It talks about how to frame choices and takes a deep dive into more than a decade’s worth of research about how human judgment has evolved.
This is one of the best reads for managers that want to understand how their subordinates may approach different situations. Once you have a better understanding, you can obviously work to structure milestones and situations in a way that benefits your teams.
Inclusivity and diversity in the workplace are both crucial concepts. As a manager, if you don’t have a diverse team under you, you could be missing out on a lot.
Radical Inclusion talks about the change in society after 9/11, and how exclusion eventually led to a serious breakdown of trust, loss of power, and, ultimately, loss of control. In today’s dynamic environment, it is essential for companies to be as inclusive as possible.
The book states that if you want to maintain control within the organization, you need to give more control to your subordinates. Fostering trust is critical this book will tell you just how to do that.
Daniel Goleman’s book completely changed how people approached workplace management. In this book, Goleman argued that non-cognitive skills were just as important as IQ, which, at the time, was an unprecedented concept.
By providing insights into how emotion plays a vital role in the workplace, and by talking about the different ways by which people can inspire each other, Goleman talks about the importance of valuing emotional intelligence.
Nowadays, this is all the more critical. Workplaces are becoming more and more dynamic and making sure that you have emotionally intelligent people who play to each other’s strengths could be just what you need to succeed as a team.
Dale Carnegie was one of the pioneers of self-improvement, and his works are still widely circulated today. This has to be one of the most popular books on leadership ever written, simply because of its timeless concepts.
Carnegie focuses on what makes a good manager, talking about how you can make people feel included and important, and how you can appreciate their work. It’s a simple, actionable book that gives you a bunch of tips that’ll make you not just a better manager, but also a better negotiator and, above all, a better leader.
Captain Abrashoff was in command of the U.S.S. Benfold, one of the first ships to include anti-aircraft systems and missiles. The ship was fitted with the latest technology of its time, which significantly increased the responsibility on the manager’s shoulder.
When Abrashoff took charge, he realized that many of the crew members were unmotivated, and since lethargy is so contagious, it didn’t take long before the performance was dipping.
Understanding the need to change his approach towards leadership, Abrashoff made quite a few alterations, which resulted in his crew members regaining their confidence, becoming more proactive, and above all, motivated.
In this book, Abrashoff talks about the strategies that he used. Almost every manager has dealt with unmotivated teams. This book gives you everything you need to energize your crew.
Liz Wiseman is a leadership expert, focusing on different styles of leadership and identifying situations where they might be suitable. In this short book, Wiseman details two different leadership styles and talks about Multipliers and the effect that they can have on organizational performance.
What’s a Multiplier, you ask? Essentially, it’s anyone who gets more done while consuming fewer resources. On the opposite end are Diminishers, who Wiseman believes drain creativity from teams and make them more robotic.
This book is a fascinating read that can help managers better understand the strengths of their teams, identify Multipliers, and cultivate them to improve performance across the board.
Daniel Pink’s fantastic book is an excellent read for people who want to know exactly what it is that motivates others. It veers away entirely from the conventional carrot-and-stick management style, instead delving into the science about what makes people do what they do.
In the book, Pink states that people are motivated by three things: mastery, purpose, and autonomy. Understanding how to provide these three things to your employees could be just what you need to build a motivated team of professionals, and this book will teach you just how to do that.
Coyle’s The Culture Code is an excellent book that talks about organizational culture, its importance, and the influences that can affect it. Daniel Coyle talks about the different types of workplace cultures and the strengths and weaknesses of each.
More importantly, the book provides actionable tips on how managers can build diverse workplace cultures. It includes information about popular businesses like Zappos, the San Antonio Spurs, and even entities like the Navy Seals, and how they each develop such robust workplace cultures.
This book will teach you everything you need to know to build excellent workplace culture, using the teachings of some of the world’s most successful organizations.
First published in 2006, The Practice of Management by Peter Drucker is an excellent read for those who want to understand management in more detail.
The book distinguishes between management, and what it takes to become a manager, after which it then delves into different management theories and practices. By discussing fundamental management concepts and linking them with the change in modern workplaces, Peter Drucker’s book will teach you how to be a better, more empathetic manager.
Jim Collins’ fantastic book is one of the best reads for professionals who want to learn about what separates good companies from great companies. This is a prequel to Built to Last, which Collins wrote with Jerry Porras.
In his management research, Collins went through over 6,000 articles and conducted thousands of interviews. Collins and his team meticulously followed some of the most impactful managers in companies like Walgreens and Kimberly-Clark.
Collins also introduces what’s known as the Hedgehog Concept, which is a unique product or service that allows companies to outdo the competition. It’s an excellent read for executives and managers in fast-growing companies.
Gallup’s behemoth study of more than 80,000 managers takes a deep dive into some of the most innovative and unique approaches that the world’s most successful managers use.
It’s an insightful study into how managers from different backgrounds use various styles, and how they all share some common attributes that set them apart, despite all of their differences.
Gallup’s research is highly detailed and insightful and will help you become a better manager. It also includes some essential statements that set the most crucial departments of companies apart.
Julie Zhuo’s book is the perfect read for people just starting in a management position. She lists her own experiences and talks about the challenges people face in the role.
Think of it as an excellent field guide that you can use to not just identify great managers in your company, but discover what it takes to become one. It’s a fantastic read that goes into comprehensive detail about the demands of the role.
Managers can learn quite a few interesting techniques about operating in dynamic companies. Julie’s managed hundreds of people in her professional career, so she shares some really insightful advice from her career too.
Lencioni is famous for weaving fantastic stories into self-help books, and this one’s no different. The book follows the story of Kathryn Petersen, the CEO of a tech company, and how she faces different leadership challenges.
As the story unfolds, Lencioni talks about the different dysfunctions of a team and the impact that they can have on even the best groups. It’s a riveting fable, with Lencioni using his storytelling abilities to full effect.
Not only does it make for a great story, but the lessons in this book are timeless and highly appropriate for modern-day managers.
Captain David Marquet, the commander of the USS Santa Fe, provides a masterclass on leadership in this book. Instead of focusing on fundamental principles and repeating those, again and again, Marquet weaves a tale about how he took charge of a crew of low performers and turned them into an efficient team.
In this book, he breaks down his philosophy by talking about three essential parts: clarity, control, and competence. He provides a unique way of looking at problems and talks about how culture plays a vital role in employee performance.
It’s an excellent book by a man who managed one of the most demanding groups in the world in high-pressure situations.
Books Are Timeless Teachers, Especially for Managers
These are some of the best management books that you can read to improve your skills as a manager in 2022. However, it’s essential to understand that management is not an exact science.
What works for someone else might not work for you, which is why it’s important to continue to adapt your management style and find exactly what clicks for your team.
11 Best Management Books to Read in 2022
You discovered our list of useful management books.
Management books are resources that outline how to handle common managerial situations. For example: interviewing and hiring, assigning projects and teams, monitoring progress, delivering feedback or discipline, and containing crises. These books teach the technical skills and practical approaches necessary for guiding employees and achieving desired results.
These books are similar to new manager books, leadership books, leadership books for women, coaching books and employee engagement books. These guides help develop team management skills and skills for first time managers.
This article includes:
business management books
top people management books
books on management skills
Here is the list!
List of management books
From advice for new managers to guides for difficult discussions, here is a list of books that teach how to be a great manager.
1. How to Think More Effectively: A guide to greater productivity, insight and creativity by Alain de Boton
While this entry does not fall exclusively into the category of business management books, How to Think More Effectively optimizes thought processes in ways that greatly benefit bosses. Managers need to think clearly and strategically, and this guide from The School of Life teaches readers how to adopt productive mindsets. How to Think More Effectively is a mindful approach to mindsets, training readers to be more aware of different ways of thinking.
Notable Quote: “There is a fundamental distinction to be made between two kinds of thinking: figuring out what we would like to achieve, and working out how to achieve it.”
Buy How to Think More Effectively.
2. Solve Employee Problems Before They Start: Resolving Conflict in the Real World by Scott Warrick
Solve Employee Problems Before They Start applies a three-pronged approach to mitigating and mediating workplace clashes: empathetic listening, parroting, and rewarding. Employment law attorney and conflict-resolution guru Scott Warrick advocates an emotionally intelligent management technique that aims to assure teammates you understand and care about their plight before reaching a workable solution. Acknowledging and honoring employee emotions increases the likelihood of a situation de-escalating rather than escalating, and improves the probability of satisfaction on all sides. Warrick pioneered a method he calls “Verbal Jeet” that treats conflict as a battle winnable by means of strategy and planning.
Notable Quote: “Solutions stem from our mutual interests and goals. That is where we find our common ground, and when we can see where the true common ground lies, solutions emerge.”
Buy Solve Employee Problems Before They Start.
3. Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos by Jeff Bezos and Walter Isaacson
Invent and Wander collects the correspondence, speeches, and guiding philosophies of Jeff Bezos together into a primer on innovative, next-level, large-scale management. The book sorts Bezos’ musings into chapters with titles like:
Thinking About Finance
Making Decisions
Growing New Businesses
Setting Goals
Building a Culture of High Standards
Thinking Three Years Out
Work-Life Harmony
Competition
Part autobiography, part self-help book, Invent and Wander spans a wide array of situations entrepreneurs encounter through the lens of Bezos’ impressive empire and accomplishments. Although the book merely gathers pre-existing pieces of advice, performances, and memorandums, few readers could deny the fact that Jeff Bezos has experienced a wide management spectrum spanning multiple industries.
Buy Invent and Wander.
4. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo
Early in her career, Julie Zhuo became a Facebook executive. As a new manager in her mid-twenties, Zhou found herself at times overwhelmed by the amount of skills to master, lessons to learn, and seemingly endless questions to answer. After a decade leading teams in Silicon Valley, Zhou penned her own guide to help freshly-minted managers feel more confident in new roles of responsibility. The Making of a Manager tackles topics such as qualities and behaviors that distinguish excellent managers from mediocre managers, navigating interviews, building rapport with teams, vanquishing doubt, and appearing composed and competent under pressure. Written from the perspective of a young leader, The Making of a Manager is one of the best management books for new managers.
Notable Quote: “That is the crux of management: It is the belief that a team of people can achieve more than a single person going it alone. It is the realization that you don’t have to do everything yourself, or even know how to do everything yourself. Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together. It’s from this simple definition that everything else flows.”
Buy The Making of a Manager.
5. How to Be a Great Boss by Gino Wickman and René Boer
How To Be a Great Boss is a master course in employee engagement best practices, providing tools and suggestions for earning goodwill, trust, and respect from employees while still accomplishing goals and achieving results. The book breaks down basics such as:
How to surround yourself with great people
How to make more effective use of your time
How to create accountability
How to deal with direct reports that don’t meet your expectations
The book also outlines five essential management practices and leadership practices, respectively.
By following the advice laid forth by Wickman and Boer, managers can avoid staff disconnection and disengagement, delegate effectively, unlock the true potential of teams, and become a beloved boss for whom staff willingly travels the extra mile.
Notable Quote: “We’re facing a crisis that is not just measured by a lack of opportunity for the workforce, but also by the lack of enthusiasm that the workforce has for their jobs.”
Buy How to Be a Great Boss.
6. It’s the Manager: Moving From Boss to Coach by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
Jim Clifton is the CEO and Jim Harter is the chief scientist of Gallup, the organization that has gathered data on the State of the American workplace for over a decade. Using findings from Gallup polls, It’s the Manager pinpoints trends of effective management. The book asserts that team leaders and managers are the factor that most reliably determines an organization’s long-term success, and offers advice on performing managerial functions such as hiring, reviewing performance, enabling diversity, and managing other managers. Not only does the book analyze the current climate of management, but also looks forward to the near future, to better prepare managers for the industry environments of tomorrow.
Notable Quote: “Maximizing human potential not only has a positive impact on your company, but on your nation’s and the world’s productivity too. The stakes are that high.”
Buy It’s the Manager.
7. Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager by Kory Kogon, Suzette Blakemore, James Wood
While most project management books target official project leads, Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager speaks to professionals without formal titles or designations who shape or guide work undertakings. After all, a project’s success is not solely a manager’s responsibility, but rather lies on every contributor’s shoulders. The guide walks those willing to take ownership through all life stages of a project, from the inception and planning steps, to executing and managing workflow, and finally, completing the assignment and evaluating results. Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager helps any team member structure, organize, and finalize any project with grace, knowledge, and competence.
Notable Quote: “Project management is as much about effectively leading people as it is about skillfully managing a process.”
Buy Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager.
8. The Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook: The 17 Skills Leaders Need to Stand Out
As the title suggests, this book serves as a manual for managers. While many other management books provide a single perspective, The Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook gathers insight from a range of experts to offer a comprehensive glimpse into the essentials of management. The book outlines 17 skills managers need to excel and shine, plus specific situations such as transitioning psychologically into the role, defusing strong employee emotions, interpreting of organizational strategy, drafting a delegation plan, and conducting effective meetings.
Notable Quote: “Managers have formal authority to make decisions, allocate resources, and direct employees — in theory. In actuality, though, people won’t do something just because you tell them to, and they certainly won’t do it well.”
Buy The Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook.
9. 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees: A Manager’s Guide to Addressing Performance, Conduct, and Discipline Challenge by Paul Falcone
While many management books on communication focus on presentations or everyday conversation, 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees hones in on the difficult discussions managers occasionally need to initiative. The book veers into territory such as disciplinary proceedings or addressing poor performance, covering topics like:
inappropriate appearance
lack of technical knowledge or necessary skills
bullying or gossip
absence of teamwork or people skills
laziness and underachievement
defensiveness and excuse-making
compensation conflicts
101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees runs the gamut of challenging discourse, teaching managers how to conduct conversations with tact, empathy, and dignity to ensure the best case scenario for involved parties. Most managers dread starting such conversations, but this book offers a guide for how to handle any hurdle that may arise. From hirings to firings, pay problems to people problems, group conflict to individual issues, disruption of company policies to violation of laws, this book covers all ground.
Notable Quote: “After all, involved management is all about getting to the truly human concerns at hand, which are issues that may have been left unaddressed for far too long. And it’s only in that mode of positive confrontation that you’ll be able to simultaneously protect your company and allow your employees to take back control of their careers.”
Buy 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees.
10. The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier
The Manager’s Path explores the unique challenges of managing within the tech industry. For example, the requirements of being both technologically savvy enough to delegate and evaluate work while also being competent enough in soft skills to lead employees effectively. The book explores managing in various capacities such as overseeing individuals, teams, multiple teams, and even other managers. Camille Fournier approaches management through the particular lens of startup and bootstrapping culture, teaching how to keep up with the demands of supervisory roles within the “move fast and break things” mentality of Silicon Valley.
Notable Quote: “Humans, by and large, feel good when they set small goals and meet them regularly.”
Buy The Manager’s Path.
11. The First-Time Manager by Jim McCormick
Another entry in the category of management books for new managers, The First-Time Manager emphasizes the differences between follower and managerial mindsets. The book delves into topics such as:
building trust and confidence
showing employee appreciation
training team members
dealing with resistance
delivering performance appraisals
The First-Time Manager also covers territory like managing your own time, choosing a management style, leading with an appropriate sense of humor, and coping with stress. This book explores the less-mentioned avenues of self-regulation and self-reflection that are integral to supervisory roles.
Notable Quote: “When you create a setting where your people see that their efforts are contributing to a positive outcome well beyond what they could achieve individually, they will be more motivated and find greater meaning in what they do.”
Buy The First-Time Manager.
Conclusion
Navigating the intricacies of management can seem daunting at times. Managers often want to look competent both to their bosses and their people, and may be hesitant to ask for help for seemingly obvious questions or difficult circumstances. Luckily, managers can turn to books for answers, accepting advice from accomplished professionals eager to impart wisdom to up-and-coming managers. While there is no shame in asking for assistance from colleagues, these books serve as valuable references to guide managers so that they can better guide their teams.
For more reading, check out our list of CEO books, these books on teamwork, these books on time management and this one with books on office management. We also have a great list of books on employee experience and books about business finances.
You may also want to learn about the signs of a good manager, signs of a bad manager, and this one on micromanagement at work.