10 Books Every Leader (and Aspiring Leader) Should Read
A funny thing happens when you get far enough into your career: you’re often expected to lead, coach, or mentor others. It’s a great idea, but being a leader requires an entirely new skill set, one that may have nothing to do with your success up until now. So to fast-track your leadership learning curve, check out the ten remarkable reads below.
Download the Next Big Idea App to enjoy “Book Bite” summaries of hundreds of new nonfiction books like these.
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest
By Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra
From the world’s most influential management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, an insight-packed, revelatory look at how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders—including chiefs at Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-author Scott Keller, in the Next Big Idea App
Boundless Leadership: The Breakthrough Method to Realize Your Vision, Empower Others, and Ignite Positive Change
By Joe Loizzo and Elazar Aslan
Whether you’re a CEO, manager, team leader, consultant, coach, social entrepreneur, or community activist, this book offers the tools you need to clarify your vision, lead others, and ignite positive change in the world. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Joe Loizzo and Elazar Aslan, in the Next Big Idea App
Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career Is Good for Your Kids
By Lara Bazelon
In this captivating and radical look at work-life balance, an acclaimed law professor and mother reframes our understanding of working women—and shows how prioritizing your career benefits mothers, kids, and society at large. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Lara Bazelon, in the Next Big Idea App
Animal Farm
By George Orwell
The classic political fable based on the events of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution and the betrayal of the cause by Joseph Stalin. Listen to our professionally-read Book Bite summary in the Next Big Idea App
Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism
By Tom Peters
Legendary management expert Tom Peters returns with more people-first wisdom for leading during these tumultuous times of socio-political unrest and a global pandemic. Listen to our professionally-read Book Bite summary in the Next Big Idea App
Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future
By Simon Mainwaring
By leading with “we”—putting the collective above the individual, holding the sum above the parts, and emphasizing the importance of the role that everyone plays—you can not only help solve the escalating challenges of today but also unlock extraordinary growth for your business, and abundance on our planet. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Simon Mainwaring, in the Next Big Idea App
Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams
By Stefanie K. Johnson
In this groundbreaking guide, a management expert outlines the transformative leadership skill of tomorrow—one that can make it possible to build truly diverse and inclusive teams that value employees’ need to belong while still being themselves. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Stefanie K. Johnson, in the Next Big Idea App
Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans
By David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer
Think Talk Create enables us to cultivate trust and define collective values, seemingly “soft” attributes that nonetheless markedly increase innovation and, ultimately, financial performance. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, in the Next Big Idea App
Wellbeing at Work: How to Build Resilient and Thriving Teams
By Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
Wellbeing at Work explores the five key elements of wellbeing—career, social, financial, physical, and community—and how organizations can help employees and teams thrive in those elements. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, in the Next Big Idea App
Provoke: How Leaders Shape the Future by Overcoming Fatal Human Flaws
By Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach
Two renowned strategy consultants deliver an insightful exploration of how people tend to act tentatively in the face of uncertainty and provide the tools we need to do things differently. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by authors Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach, in the Next Big Idea App
To enjoy Book Bites from anywhere, download the Next Big Idea app today:
The 10 books every leader should read
(Note: The links mentioned in this article are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase these books through these links, it will help me earn a small amount of money — at no extra cost to you. Thanks!)
Over the last few years, I read many books about leadership to understand what makes a great leader. Some of these books made a profound difference in my understanding of leadership. Let me share my list with you.
Why do so many teams never become high-performing? The answer to this question eluded me. I always wondered what holds teams from reaching their maximum potential. My curiosity pushed me to dive deep into the study of leadership.
Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
― Simon Sinek
What is leadership? Many people think leadership is a position you gain in life. I also used to have this perspective. But leadership is a set of attitudes. People who are not afraid of stepping into the unknown, taking care of the others without waiting for anything in exchange, are leaders.
Regardless of what you do, you can become a leader. The book, Leaders Eat Last, is a fantastic read. It is full of leadership examples. After reading this book, you can get a better understanding of how a great leader acts. What do great leaders do?
Inspire action
Create a circle of safety
Tell the truth
Lead people instead of numbers
Choose to eat last
High-performing teams have an environment that allows them to thrive. The leadership is responsible for cultivating a healthy and sustainable environment. Leaders can only be successful if they understand that leaders are responsible for people who are responsible for the numbers.
Purchase the book here.
Principles, Ray Dalio
“If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential”
― Ray Dalio
How can we thrive in our personal lives? How can we become successful in our professional lives? Ray Dalio wrote the extensive book Principles, where he openly shares the principles that led him to become a successful person.
Principles are fundamentals for us to have a better life. Without them, we may end up running in circles. Principles can guide us through awkward moments. If we step back and give us the chance to analyze the situation and compare it to our principles, the critical choices to make will become clear. However, until we define our principles, we will struggle to identify what works best for us.
Until principles are evident within the team, high performance is unreachable.
Purchase the book here.
Coaching Agile Teams, Lyssa Adkins
“We practice mastering ourselves in the moment so that we can better open ourselves to being a servant leader and to harness our emotions and choose what to do with our reactions.”
― Lyssa Adkins
Why some agile teams become high-performing teams while some remain mediocre? I’ve always wondered if there’s a set of actions to transform ordinary teams into high-performing ones. Lyssa Adkins clarifies the secrets of coaching agile teams. Shu-Ha-Ri is a promising approach:
Shu — “Follow the Rule” : learning how to play the game.
: learning how to play the game. Ha — “Break the Rule” : make the game better for the team.
: make the game better for the team. Ri — “Be the Rule”: evolve the game to reach the best of the team.
For me, one insight stood out in the book Coaching Agile Teams. Coaches should meet the team one step ahead. The coach should always think ahead about the next best step for the team on their Agile journey. It’s essential to understand what the team can reach, but without knowing where the team is, it’s impossible to help them to become a better version of themselves.
Purchase the book here.
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni
All companies have one aspect in common. They are made of people. How the interaction between the people happens will define how successful the company can be. Why some companies reach so much while some are always struggling for survival?
Ordinary companies have only a group of people working together, which is not a team. In such a scenario, the groups live in an artificial harmony, they don’t discuss, but they also don’t deliver on their commitments. They fail to achieve what they promised.
Successful companies have passionate teams working towards a common goal. They discuss passionately, argue, commit, and deliver what promised.
“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Purchase the book here.
Good to Great, Jim Collins
“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
― Jim Collins
First who, then where. Right people on the bus, wrong people out of the bus. Jim Collins insists on hiring the right people to the company is crucial to be successful. Great leaders find the right people to be with them, and only after that can they define where to go. Without the right people on board, the company will inevitably fail to achieve the goals.
Leadership is a vital difference in companies that make the leap from good to great. All companies have leaders, but few have a level five leader. The most significant difference is the humility. The Level Five executive is someone who leads by example. Someone who is not interested in getting credit for anything. A person who is humble and who believes the achievements were the result of the incredible people around.
“A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.”
― Jim Collins
Purchase the book here.
Made to Stick, Chip Heath & Dan Heath
“The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern.”
― Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Leaders must be great communicators. It’s impossible to lead a team without mastering communication. Yet, it’s such a daunting skill to master. The book, Made to Stick, describes why some ideas stick and others disappear.
If you want to learn how to communicate in a way that resonates with people, Made to Stick, is a must-read. Until people care about the message, nothing will happen. But once they connect to the message, changes can occur.
The authors’ Chip & Dan Heath, shared extensive examples of communication styles and methods that have worked for centuries. This research led to their framework for creating ideas that stick.
Purchase the book here.
Measure What Matters, John Doerr
“When people have conflicting priorities or unclear, meaningless, or arbitrarily shifting goals, they become frustrated, cynical, and demotivated.”
― John Doerr
I’ve been to many companies, where we defined OKRs (Objective Key Results) per quarter. But the OKRs had conflicting objectives. Instead of helping the teams to follow a common direction, we fought because our goals did not align. Every quarter, we would fail to meet our objectives. Our morale tanked.
After reading Measure What Matters, I understood why we failed. The book contains many examples of companies succeeding by using OKRs. By reading this book, you can understand how to implement OKRs properly. Meaningful OKRs show the following characteristics:
Relate to goals to achieve instead of features to develop.
Challenging to achieve while extremely motivating.
Put the teams in a single direction.
Purchase the book here.
The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle
“The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.”
― Daniel Coyle
Successful teams are much more than a group of people. They have an influential culture behind the scenes which binds them together. Great leaders strive to cultivate a healthy culture.
Without a meaningful culture, teams cannot achieve astonishing results. Many companies fail to thrive due to a weak culture. The book Culture Code helps us to understand the importance of culture and how to cultivate a culture that will put the team in a successful path.
Strong cultures have the following traits:
Safety : encourage people to take risks and learn from failures. Open discussions are welcome. Credit is always shared.
: encourage people to take risks and learn from failures. Open discussions are welcome. Credit is always shared. Vulnerability : embrace discomfort. People know they can be vulnerable because there’s mutual support.
: embrace discomfort. People know they can be vulnerable because there’s mutual support. Purpose: people share something in common. They know the why behind their activities.
Purchase the book here.
The Trillion Dollar Coach, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle
“He believed in striving for the best idea, not consensus (“I hate consensus!” he would growl), intuitively understanding what numerous academic studies have shown: that the goal of consensus leads to “groupthink” and inferior decisions.”
― Eric Schmidt
Bill Campbell was a humble person. He was always behind the scenes. He never wanted to be in the spotlight. Many people tried to write a biography of him, but he never allowed it. It was only possible after Bill passed away. However, his attitudes can teach us profound lessons.
For more than 15 years Campbell coached, among others, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Sundar Pichai at Google, Steve Jobs at Apple, Brad Smith at Intuit, John Donahoe at eBay, Marissa Mayer at Yahoo, Dick Costolo at Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook.
Bill Campbell was considered the best friend of almost everyone he coached. His coachees knew, Bill was always available for them. No matter when and what for, Bill would be ready to help. He made the time for everyone. He was humble and selfless.
Beyond being a great friend, Bill guided those he coached in decision making that led to massive business successes. He helped them reach beyond what they could imagine. Bill knew how to find a diamond in the rough.
Purchase the book here.
Give and Take, Adam Grant
“The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade.”
― Adam Grant
Give and Take is a great book to understand some behaviors we can observe in our daily life. According to Adam Grant, there are three types of people:
Givers : help the other whenever they can without expecting anything in exchange.
: help the other whenever they can without expecting anything in exchange. Matchers : give back precisely what received or only help if get something in exchange.
: give back precisely what received or only help if get something in exchange. Takers: do everything to make advantages on the others. Focus on self-progress.
Many takers will get to the top positions, but eventually, they will fall. While givers may take longer to reach senior positions, once it happens, they will last longer because they want to help the others. Givers are selfless. They help the world to be a better place. All high-performing teams I observed had only givers.
Purchase the book here.
Best Leadership Books You Should Read in 2023
Who even reads leadership books anymore? You can just learn everything on the job as you go, right? But if you were to ask the top leaders out there, they will, no doubt, tell you about how much they wish they had known on their leadership journey. Not only do the best leadership books offer you advice about your professional lives, but it also gives you multiple insights to apply to your personal lives as well. In this article, we have put together a list of the best leadership books to give you a headstart. From business titans to world leaders, this list covers all the insights you will need to prepare for leadership roles.
Post Graduate Diploma in Management by JAGSOM Become a Digital Age Management Leader Apply Today
1. The First 90 Days Author: Michal D Watkins One of the most stressful challenges in the workplace is when you transition into a leadership role for the first time. In his book, The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins shares the secrets on how to make these transitions as smooth as possible. It offers self-assessments, checklists, and strategies on how to avoid the most common mistakes made by new leaders.
2. First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently Author: Gallup Gallup, a management consulting company, studied more than 80,000 managers to understand what made the best ones stand out. They discovered that the best leaders do not hesitate to “First, Break All the Rules” held sacred by conventional wisdom. This book is perfect for people at any level of their leadership journey.
3. Legacy Author: James Kerr What can you learn from one of the world’s most successful national sports teams - All Blacks from New Zealand? A lot, in fact, about leadership and business. Bestselling author, coach, and speaker James Kerr shares the top 15 lessons that you can learn from this legendary team in his book Legacy. Legacy talks about everything from how to achieve world-class leading standards to creating a legacy to be proud of. Even if you are not an avid rugby fan, this is one of the best leadership books to read from the top leaders who are the best at what they do.
4. Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change Author: Stacey Adams Stacey Abrams is an influential and accomplished politician in the US known best for tirelessly galvanizing over 800,000 people of color to register as voters in Georgia. This book is based on years of her personal experiences on how to harness your strengths even as an outsider and lead others to do the same. It is particularly relevant for leaders outside of the traditional white male-dominant hierarchy.
5. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You Author: Julie Zhuo The Making of a Manager is the culmination of Julie Zhuo’s years of leadership experience. It offers crucial strategies for people with no formal management training on how to deal with pressure at work. She also shares tips on how to hire well to build the best team, how to give feedback to people to inspire them, and how to succeed in your first few months as a manager. Stand Out From Your Peers this Appraisal Season Start Learning With Our FREE Courses Enroll Now
6. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Author: Daniel H Pink What motivates you? According to Daniel H Pink, too many leaders mistakingly rely on motivators like money. This book stresses the need to understand how motivation works and how leaders can encourage people to produce effective and meaningful results. The book is relatively an easy read and inspires people to examine their own motivational practices.
7. Start With Why Author: Simon Sinek In his book Start With Why, Simon Sinek poses the idea that why you do something is more important than what you do. The whole book is based on the premise that anyone can become a leader once they start questioning why they want to. Once you find the answer, Sinek says that you can encourage anyone to believe in your business and also lead employees who understand your vision. This gives your business the longevity and faith that it needs in order to survive.
8. Long Walk to Freedom Author: Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela is one of the world’s most moral and political leaders. This autobiographical work has been an inspiration for millions across the world. Not only does it speak about human rights and racial equality, but it also stresses his leadership style and how he approached struggle and adversity. This includes learning to forgive and never giving up in any part of your life.
9. How to Win Friends & Influence People Author: Dale Carnegie Our list wouldn’t be complete without this book that has achieved superstar status. Written in 1936, it still contains relevant advice on how to achieve your maximum potential as a leader. This includes remembering people’s names, being generous with praise, showing a genuine interest in other people, and lots more.
10. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t Author: Simon Sinek This book is the second entry by Simon Sinek on our list of the best leadership books. This book explains how the best leaders make sacrifices so that their whole team thrives. Just like in the Marine Corps where leaders are formed when they put the needs of their teammates above their own, an office (which can be like a battlefield) also requires a number of such qualities from a true leader.
11. The Four Fixations of a Brilliant Leader Author: Alan J Sears This brilliant book focuses on the four main fixations of good leadership and management - vision, inspiration, development, and action. It is divided into two parts - part 1 focuses on a fictional anecdote with leadership teachings; part 2 explains the technical features and key management behaviors seen in part 1. It contains relatable leadership and easy-to-visualize scenarios that anyone can understand.
12. Leading Change Author: John P Kotter In his book, Leading Change, John Kotter says that change is inevitable and we should learn to make the most of it to maximize our opportunities. He shares an 8-step process for people on how to deal with change and lead change in their organizations.
13. The Truth About Leadership Author: James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner This book contains ten bold and honest truths that all leaders should know. Based on 30 years of advanced research, it is proven to help leaders beyond just temporary trends and modern-day fads. It is perfect especially for Gen Zs and millennials actively transitioning to leadership roles.
14. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less Author: Greg McKeown If you’re feeling overworked yet unproductive in a fast-paced environment, this book is a perfect read. Greg McKeown is a famous business strategist known for his strategies to lead in intense, competitive environments. This book sets the criteria for what should be deemed as essential work and how leaders can channel their time and energy to achieve better results.
15. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts Author: Brené Brown In her book, Dare to Lead, Brené Brown calls for leaders to take responsibility and find potential in those that work around them. ‘Dare to lead’ essentially talks about tackling difficult conversations in the workplace head-on and also daring to share that power with others to see the results you need.