Recommendations For Your Business Books Summer Reading List

This Memorial Day, as you select the books you plan to read for pleasure this summer, how about adding to the list at least one business book. Perhaps a book that will help you improve your leadership skills.

Awhile back, members of five groups on the professional social media web site LinkedIn voluntarily recommended their favorite books about leadership. They responded to a group discussion question, "Best Leadership Books -- What's Your Favorite?"

When contemplating their favorites, they likely thought about which books were in their minds the best, most favored, most inspiring, most instructional, most relevant, and which ones they might reference frequently.

The recommendations came from these member groups:

ExecuNet Executive Suite
Leadership Think Tank
Linked 2 Leadership
Keller Graduate School Of Management
The Talent Buzz

As the recommendations rolled in, it became clear that leaders learn from, and are inspired by, a wide variety of books -- biographies, autobiographies, books backed by research and academia, books made famous by the popular press, books by motivational speakers, and books by professionals eager to share their personal and professional leadership success stories, tips and suggestions.

Readers' favorites included those written by or about sports coaches, athletes, CEOs, scholars, religious leaders, governmental and military leaders.

Not surprisingly, many well-known leadership book authors made the list, such as authors:

Drucker
Kotter
Maxwell
Welch

Interestingly, the discussion thread, particularly within the Linked 2 Leadership group of LinkedIn, generated debate about the value and quality of some of the book recommendations. But, the general consensus was that if someone recommended a book that inspired them or taught them how to be a better leader, the book was worth their time.

Within the list of favorites you'll find titles published decades ago and ones published last month.

Here is the list of all 235 books, in alphabetical order. It represents many of the vast approaches to leadership in practice today throughout the world. Take a look to see how many you've read. Perhaps you'll find one of your favorites.

Then, select one or more for your summer reading list.

1776
177 Mental Toughness Secrets Of The World Class
100 Greatest Ideas For Effective Leadership And Management
100 Greatest Leadership Principles Of All Time
20 Minutes To A Top Performer
A Book Of Five Rings
A Commitment To Valor
A Force For Change: How Leadership Differs From Management
A Leader In The Making
A Sense Of Urgency
A Whole New Mind
Against The Gods
Alexander The Great
Awaken The Giant Within
Awesomely Simple
Bad Leadership
Becoming A Person Of Influence
Becoming A Resonant Leader
Best Practices In Leadership Development & Organization Change
Beyond The Timberline
Bo's Lasting Lessons
Built To Last
Built To Serve
Changing The Human Battery
Chasing The Rabbit
Choices: Discover Your 100 Most Important Life Choices
Cracking The Code Of Leadership
Credibility
Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High
Deep Change
Defeat Into Victory
Developing The Leader Within You
Defining Moments
Developing The Leaders Around You
Discipline Of Market Leaders
Effective Supervisory Management
Emotional Intelligence
Energy Leadership
Engaged Leadership
Evolutionary Leadership
Execution: The Discipline Of Getting Things Done
Executive Wisdom
Exodus
Exposing Leadership: Redefining The Top 20 Leadership Traits
Fired Up Or Burned Out
Firms Of Endearment
First Break All The Rules
For Your Improvement
Force For Change
From Worst To First
Gates Of Fire
Get Out Of Your Own Way
Good To Great
Gung Ho
Handbook Of Leadership
Heroic Leadership
High Five: The Magic Of Working Together
Holy Bible
Hostage At The Table
How Did That Happen?
How Lance Does It
How The Mighty Fall
How To Get Anyone To Do Anything
How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be
How To Grow Leaders
How To Lead
How To Think Like A CEO & Act Like A Leader
How To Win Friends And Influence People
In Search Of Excellence
Influencer: The Power To Change Anything
Inside The Tornado
Inspirational Leadership
Integrity: The Courage To Meet The Demands Of Reality
Integrity Is Everything
Irresistible Leadership
It's Our Ship
It's Your Ship
Jesus, CEO
Launching A Leadership Revolution
Lead To Succeed
Leaders: Strategies For Taking Charge
Leadership
Leadership: Tidbits & Treasures
Leadership: Enhancing The Lessons Of Experience
Leadership Agility
Leadership And Motivation
Leadership And The One Minute Manager
Leadership And The New Science
Leadership And Self-Deception
Leadership Brand
Leadership Engine
Leadership For The Disillusioned
Leadership God
Leadership Insights
Leadership Is An Art
Leadership Is Common Sense
Leadership Jazz
Leadership On The Line
Leadership Pipeline
Leadership Secrets Of Attila The Hun
Leadership Self-Deception: Getting Out Of The Box
Leadership Without Easy Answers
Leading At A Higher Level
Leading Change
Leading Leaders
Leading Out Loud
Leading With Confidence
Leading With Kindness
Learning From The Links
Led To Follow
Lessons On Leadership
Life Entrepreneurs
Lincoln On Leadership
Love Leadership
Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
Masters And Commanders
Masterplanning
Maximum Achievement
Maxwell Leadership Bible
Moments Of Truth
Monday Morning Leadership
Peak
Pivot: How One Simple Change In Attitude Can Lead To Success
On Becoming A Leader
On Leadership
One Thing You Need To Know
Only The Paranoid Survive
Out Of The Crisis
Predictably Irrational
Preparing For Leadership
Primal Leadership
Profiles In Leadership From The Battlefields Of Virginia
Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint
Reclaiming Higher Ground
Reframing Organizations
Regan On Leadership
Resonant Leadership
Results-Based Leadership
Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing
Scores On The Board
Senior Leadership Teams
Servant Leadership
Silver Parachutes
Situational Leadership
Son Of Morning Star
Start With Why
Stewardship
Straight From The Gut
Strengths-Based Leadership
Studying Leadership
Survival Is Not Enough
Team Of Rivals
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness To Greatness
The 80/20 Principle
The 48 Laws Of Power
The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership
The 360 Degree Leader
The 33 Strategies Of War
The Adventure Of Leadership
The Anatomy Of Peace
The Arc Of Ambition
The Art And Discipline Of Strategic Leadership
The Art Of Possibility
The Art Of The Leader
The Art Of War
The Change Monster
The Courage To Teach
The Disney Way
The DNA Of Success
The Effective Executive
The Empowered Manager
The Essential HR Handbook
The Essential Wooden
The Extraordinary Leader
The Feiner Points Of Leadership
The Fifth Discipline
The First 90 Days
The Five Dysfunctions of A Team
The Four Obsessions Of An Extraordinary Executive
The Great Game Of Business
The Human Element
The Inspiring Leader
The Leader Of The Future
The Leader's Window
The Leadership Challenge
The Leadership Code: Five Rules To Live By
The Leadership Engine
The Leadership Matrix
The Leadership Moment
The Leadership Pill
The Leadership Secrets Of Colin Powell
The Leadership Test (my (Eric Jacobson's) most recently read favorite)
The Magic Of Thinking Big
The Maxwell Daily Reader
The Mission, The Men And Me
The New Leaders
The One Minute Manager
The Persian Expedition
The Practice Of Adaptive Leadership
The Practice Of Leadership
The Prince
The Psychology of Persuasion
The Pursuit Of Something Better
The Right To Lead
The Rules Of Management
The Score Takes Care Of Itself
The Secret Language Of Business
The Secret Language Of Leadership
The Servant
The Servant-Leader Within
The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave
The Sustainable Way
The Tao Of Leadership
The Winner Within: A Life Plan For Team Players
The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle
The Wrong Bottom Line & How To Change It
Think & Grow Rich
Three Laws Of Performance
Total Leadership
Tough Choices
Toy Box Leadership
Tribes
Walk The Walk: The #1 Rule For Real Leaders
We Were Soldiers Once And Young
What A Great Idea
What Got You Here Won't Get You There
What Leaders Really Do
What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School
Why Not The Best
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance
Winning
Winning With People
Wooden
Words That Sell
You Don't Need A Title To Be A Leader

Comments

James G. Ellis Shares The Leadership Lessons Behind A Lasting Legacy

In his new book, James G. Ellis shares the lessons he learned throughout his career as an entrepreneur, CEO, professor, mentor, and one of the nation’s most respected business school leaders. He is the former Dean of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. For aspiring leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs, A Journey of Insights: Lessons In Leadership And Legacy , offers a roadmap to success grounded in real-world experience, with a focus on humility, listening, and building strong, collaborative environments. The book is both a personal memoir and a strategic guide for those aiming to leave a lasting legacy in business. At the core of his message is the central theme that listening to voices around you throughout life is the key to success. “In essence, ears can speak louder than voices,” shares Ellis. The book also explores pivotal moments that helped define Ellis’ understanding of leadership, including encounters with Pres...

How To Transform The Influences Of Your Childhood Into Your Unique And Most Effective Leadership Style

The most significant predictor (up to 80 percent) of how someone shows up in their interpersonal interactions as a leader, and as a human, is their childhood, claims Pam Manfredo Curtis, PhD , author of the new book, The Origins Of A Leader: Transforming Family Patterns Into Leadership Power . Grounded in decades of psychological analysis, executive coaching, and behavioral data, Curtis elaborates that how leaders perform today is dramatically influenced by their childhood, with patterns formed early in life continuing to shape behavior, decision-making, and relationships at the highest levels. “When you know your why , you can change your how ,” says Curtis. “Put another way, when you understand the influential factors of your life, you can choose how they affect you. Curtis encourages you to explore specific childhood environments and discover how they shaped your strengths, communication patterns, and hidden limitations. Regarding the implications o...

Six Leadership Actions To Leverage Employees' Differences To Strengthen Teams

The new book, All The Difference: Six Leadership Actions To Bridge Perspectives, Strengthen Teams, and Create Value , teaches how leaders can turn their team's individual differences into deeper trust, greater creativity, and winning results. “The greatest risk of unmanaged difference isn’t conflict: it lies in the ideas, insights, and opportunities that may never surface,” explain the book’s authors, Susan MacKenty Brady , Stuart D. Kliman , and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Leslie C. Smith . They suggest that you look around your team to fully see people with different communication styles, perspectives, cultural norms, and capabilities. These differences are expressed in all kinds of ways, such as casual gestures in a meeting, a colleague's opinion on a current event, or an intense work style. Often, those differences can lead to friction, even conflict. You may try to manage around them. But, for you and your organization to fully leverage the strengths of your team’s diffe...

10 Best Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership

Here are some of my favorites quotes from John C. Maxwell's book, The 5 Levels of Leadership -- a book I believe should become a must-read for any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catalyst for bringing out the best in the team. Progress comes only fro...

How To Be A More Human Leader

“To be most effective in today’s environment, leaders must be human leaders. Human leaders must be able to lead not only with their heads but also with their hearts and souls,” says veteran executive coach Hortense le Gentil , author of the book, The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead with Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World . She adds, “In addition to being respected, seen, and valued, employees also seek leaders who feel human, not distant and perfect beings with whom they can’t connect.” Additionally, leaders need to put the collective interest before their own and work hard to make other people’s good ideas happen. “And although the book focuses on leadership at work, each of us is a complete individual, not a sum of separate, isolated parts. As such, the process presented in the book applies to all areas of your life,” shares the author. She further explains that becoming a human leader is a journey, not a desti...

How To Become Your Best-Self Leader Everyday

“By focusing in specific ways on five key leadership elements— Purpose, Process, People, Presence, and Peace —you can increase your time, capacity, energy, and ultimately your leadership impact,” explains Amy Jen Su , author of the book, The Leader You Want To Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self—Every Day . Su shares both Western management thinking and Eastern philosophy to provide a holistic yet hands-on approach to becoming a more effective leader with less stress and more equanimity. She draws on rich and instructive stories of clients, leaders, artists, and athletes. And, she focuses on three foundational tenets: s elf-care, self-awareness, and personal agency . Most important, Su explores in depth, chapter-by-chapter the Five Ps : Purpose – Staying grounded in your passions and contributions, doing your highest and best work that has meaning and is making a difference. Process – Relying on daily practices and routines that honor your natural energy rhyt...

The Five Critical Roles You Need To Build A Winning Team

The book, Team Players , by leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author, Mark Murphy , explains why a team needs more than strong leaders—it needs the right mix of five roles and talents to succeed. In addition, Murphy reveals that the secret to extraordinary teams isn’t making everyone the same—it’s embracing and leveraging fundamental differences through those five distinct team roles. No amount of teambuilding, trust, or cohesion can overcome having the wrong mix of people in the room. The five essential roles and talents are : The Director assumes a leadership role within the team, guiding its direction and making important, difficult, and even unpopular decisions. The Achiever immerses themselves in the details of accomplishing tasks and getting things done, with a keen eye for delivering error-free work. The Stabilizer keeps the team on track with meticulous planning, processes and procedures, clear timelines, and organization. ...

The Science And Secrets Of High-Performing Teams

Ron Friedman ’s new book, Superteams , is the best book about teams and team building that I have ever read and have reviewed on my blog. It’s all about what the best teams do differently. It’s packed with counterintuitive insights, surprising science, and real-world lessons "from the most comprehensive study of elite groups ever conducted" reports Friedman. Read through it once and then keep it handy to refer to repeatedly. The 50-plus strategies for how a team does its best work are invaluable. Friedman surveyed thousands of teams and pinpointed the precise habits that separate the best from the rest. He reports that “the results upend everything we think we know about teamwork. It turns out that the most successful teams aren't the ones that collaborate most, get along best, or put in the longest hours.” What really sets them apart, according to Friedman, is the way they: Manage their energy and attention. Bring out the best in one another. Keep improving...

How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader

What you don't see about yourself can hold you back as a leader. That's typical for many leaders. What we don't see is what we can't see: we have blindspots . Your blindspots prevent you from achieving your greatest success. “It turns out that we're often not great judges of ourselves, even when we think we are. Sometimes we're simply unaware of a behavior or trait that's causing problems,” explains Martin Dubin , author of the new book, Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader . “Bottom line: until we uncover these blindspots, we can't move forward. The good news is that you can learn to do your own blindspotting .” “Most of us understand the idea of blindspots in a general sense—areas we can’t see, to take the term most literally, or places we have gaps that we may not even realize, to be a little more abstract,” says Dubin. “But in the context of this book, I’m defining blindspots quite specifically: They are the par...

How To Use The MOVE Framework To Be A More Effective Leader

In their new book, Real-Time Leadership , leadership coaches David Noble and Carol Kauffman teach leaders how to use their unique MOVE framework to help leaders adjust their reflexive reactions and optimize their responses to any situation – including unexpected and complex leadership challenges. The MOVE framework includes these four key elements : M : Be Mindfully Alert . Attune yourself to the three essential dimensions of leadership: what you want or need to achieve, who you want to be as a leader, and how to help unlock others’ potential. O : Generate Options . Identify at least four pathways forward by making decisions as each challenge requires, from slow and pensive, to whip fast. V : Validate Your Vantage Point . Choose the best reality-based point of view – even if it wasn’t your own or initial thought. Leaders can be prone to missteps if they’re unclear on their perspective. E : Engage and Effect Change . Do this first as an indivi...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog