Skip to main content

What Leadership Book Will Be On Your 2014 Reading List?


As you think about what business books you want to read next year, how about adding to the list at least one book from the list below. 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.

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.



Top Books About Leadership.
  • 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) 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
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 5, 2013 at 3:35 PM

    This is an extremely impressive list of leadership books! I am extremely surprised not to see business guru Rod Collin's new book, Wiki Management, on the list - www.wikimanagementbook.com
    I was shocked to find that businesses are still using a 19th century management model of "Command and Control" in this day and age. Rod Collins opened my eyes to becoming a facilitator for my employees and tapping into their collective knowledge. It's time for the "Boss" to stop putting on airs that he/she is better than everyone else and realize that the group working as a whole has more knowledge than that one boss ever could. The book is full of stories and practices of this successful new management style and if companies like Google, Linux, Wikipedia and Whole Foods (just to name a few) are using this model than it seems to be working quite well! Businesses can't control change but according to the author they need to focus on a far more important question, "whether or not they can manage at the pace of change." It is a well written, extremely helpful book and I recommend it to all business owners and managers out there. It helped me out tremendously and I am certain it can do the same for you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership .  In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by 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 catal...
Post a Comment
Read more

How To Play Bigger And Be A Category King In Business

"The most exciting companies create. They give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, many times solving a problem we didn't know we had -- or a problem we didn't pay attention to because we never thought there was another way," explain the four authors of the dynamic new book,  Play Bigger . They add that, "the most exciting companies sell us different. They introduce the world to a new category of product or service." And, they become  category kings . Examples of category kings are Amazon, Salesforce, Uber and IKEA. Play Bigger  is all about the strategy that builds category kings. And, to be a category king you need to be good at  category design : Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king. Category design is the opposite of "build it and they will come." Key traits of category design...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mentoring Tips From The Book, One Minute Mentoring

Fortunately, I've benefited from having great mentors throughout my career. And, I've have the honor and good fortune to be a mentor, both formally and informally, for various individuals the past few decades. Mentoring is powerful. Both being a mentor. And, being mentored. That's why I became an instant fan of the book,  One Minute Mentoring: How to Find and Work With a Mentor -- and Why You'll Benefit from Being One . Released this in May, the book presents a fictional parable about the power of finding, or being, a mentor. In what is about a one- to two-hour read, you'll gain knowledge and easy-to-use tools for  how to find and leverage mentoring relationships . Ken Blanchard You'll also learn why developing effective communication and relationships  across generations  through mentoring can be a tremendous opportunity for companies and individuals alike. Bestselling author,  Ken Blanchard, Ph.D . teamed up with  Claire Diaz-Ortiz ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review & Highlights: Leadership Conversations

When I read business books, I turn the corner of every page that has something I really like, want to remember and easily reference in the future. Halfway into the 300-page book,  Leadership Conversations , I had turned the corners of nearly every fifth pages.  So, you can see why I believe this is such a good book.  There is so much to learn from  Leadership Conversations .  It's a must read for today's business leaders.  Leaders who are leading multi-generational workforces.  And, leaders who want the skills to get promoted and move up the corporate ladder. Authors  Alan S. Berson  and  Richard G. Stieglitz  wrote the book because they believe that  a leader's most powerful skill is the ability to hold effective conversations . So, in their book, they detail the  four types of conversations every leader must effectively master .  Conversations that: Buil...
Post a Comment
Read more

10 Disciplines To Help You Stay Sharp And Energetic

The new book, Shine , is a transformative guide that illustrates how looking inward is the key to unlocking true entrepreneurial freedom. Certainly, Shine is a book for entrepreneurs, however, it is bound to benefit any business leader.   “Entrepreneurs often have a burning need to succeed. But that same relentless brilliance that propels you in your career can take a toll on your teams, personal relationships, and even your health,” explain author Gino Wickman and coauthor Rob Dube . “Our book will help you strike a crucial balance between those inner and outer worlds while taking your success to new heights.” In  Shine , Gino shares 10 disciplines to help you stay sharp and energetic without burning out. The 10 Disciplines teach you how they can lay a foundation that creates space in your busy life for you to consistently and optimally perform and achieve your inner peace.   “I have helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs achieve significant business succ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role.   You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations.   Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor.   You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived.   Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you.   Some aren’t even as committed.   You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap.   If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground.   How did something that looked so easy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

70 Simple Rules For Sensational Service

Flavio Martins ' book,  Win The Customer , teaches you  70 simple rules for sensational service . "These can be used as a top-down resource in organizations looking to develop or enhance a service culture," explains Martins. "They can also be used as a resource for individuals who want to transform the way service is handled from the ground up, even when lacking the full commitment and support from organization-wide training and change efforts." To deliver sensational customer service, you need to have the  right culture . Martin says that the right culture: Inspires  -- Culture isn't a mission statement; it's a statement of action. Fosters  -- When united in a common goal, people contribute to an environment where everybody willingly comes to work each day and pours their best efforts into doing what they believe will make the greatest difference. Transforms  -- When working toward a higher purpose, the right culture has a real, positive effect...
1 comment
Read more

How To Design A Purposeful Organization

"The challenge for the organizational architect is to systematically create the blueprint for an organization that  consciously connects everything to purpose ," explains author   Clive Wilson , in his book,  Designing the Purposeful Organization . "The product of doing this are measurable results and, importantly, a felt sense of success." Wilson's book is packed with  case studies  and  activities  that help you put to practice in your organization the learnings from the book. Clive Wilson One of the activities that I found most interesting and revealing is Wilson's " Where Did They All Go and Why? " Think of the household names of just a decade or so ago that are no longer with us, write their names on a sheet of paper, then make brief notes on what happened to them and why.  Then, ask yourself, to what extent was it to do with their purpose (e.g. a lack of purpose, an unclear purpose, an uninspiring purpose or purpose being so...
Post a Comment
Read more

How To Manage Hybrid Meetings

Hybrid meetings are becoming the new norm. Making hybrid meetings work well requires planning, preparation and know-how – skillsets that are different from managing traditional face-to-face meetings. Fortunately, the new book, Suddenly Hybrid: Managing The Modern Meeting , supplies leaders a practical guidebook that clearly outlines what works and what does not work when planning and managing hybrid meetings.   “We encourage you to not read the book passively but rather to actively engage with it by using its tools to assess yourself and your organization,” share the authors Karin M. Reed and Joseph A. Allen, PHD . Those tools include checklists   and chapter takeaways .  Hybrid meetings, the new norm for many companies, are much more complex in terms of how people are connected versus the traditional face-to-face meeting. Hybrid meetings are where some people are in the same room, and some are linked in remotely. Some are face-to-face while others are connected via ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leadership Lessons From Abraham Lincoln

Did Abraham Lincoln really say, " Get out of the office and circulate among the troops ," back in 1861? He did.  But, not in those exact words.  What he said, according to author  Donald T. Phillips , is this: "His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with." Lincoln made this statement when describing his reason for relieving Gen. John C. Fremont from his command in Missouri (September 9, 1861). Phillips writes that for Lincoln, casual contact with his subordinates was as important as formal gatherings, if not more so. Phillips, includes many more leadership lessons from Lincoln in his fascinating book,  Lincoln on Leadership , where Phillips presents  15 of Lincoln's leadership statements in today's vernacular . Another leadership lesson from Lincoln is to: Influence people through conversation and storytelling Phi...
Post a Comment
Read more