Being a leader is more than just making your voice heard or standing out in a crowd. Being a leader means you possess characteristics that can take the organization to the next level. You have fresh ideas, you think outside the box, and you know how to communicate effectively with people.
While you may have been born with these traits, you still room to grow. And, what better way to do so than through books?
There are some books that are great to have for show on the bookshelf in your office. And, then there are others that are books you should read. Actually, no – they are the best leadership books that you must read. See, leaders aren’t born, they are made, learning and developing their traits from others as they grow.
Believe it or not, books change lives. If you are looking to make an impact and become one of the best leaders, then you need to start reading.
1.The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever [by Michael Bungay Stanier (2016)]
If there is one thing that every great leader knows, it is that saying less is often more. So often in business – and in life – there is a misconception that the loudest individual or the one who is the most vocal is taking charge. But, true leaders know that to be false. Stanier shows the impact of talking less – and confirms how it can make a great leader.
Summary: Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples’ potential. He unpacks seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how–by saying less and asking more–you can develop coaching methods that produce great results.
2. The Positive Organization: Breaking Free from Conventional Cultures, Constraints, and Beliefs [by Robert E. Quinn (2015)]
Leaders embrace change. They know that there is always something that can be done to better a situation, whether it is productivity, office morale, or anything in between. Keeping the status quo is not leading, but coming up with new, innovative ideas – and shedding the old – is.
Summary: The problem is that leaders are following a negative and constraining mental map that insists organizations must be rigid, top-down hierarchies and that the people in them are driven mainly by self-interest and fear. But leaders can adopt a different mental map, one where organizations are networks of fluid, evolving relationships and where people are motivated by a desire to grow, learn, and serve a larger goal. Using dozens of memorable stories, Quinn describes specific actions leaders can take to facilitate the emergence of this organizational culture helping people gain a sense of purpose, engage in authentic conversations, see new possibilities, and sacrifice for the common good.
3. Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance [by Kim Cameron (2008)]
There is something to be said for learning from others. A leader knows that by educating oneself, greater success can be achieved. Why would you try to do something as someone else did – and failed? If you don’t learn about the successes and failures of those in surrounding industries, you may waste a lot of resources for negative results.
Summary: The objective of this book is different. It aims to explain strategies that can help leaders reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and positively deviant performance. It does so by relying on validated findings from empirical research. The book is based on analyses of organizations that have achieved exceptional levels of success. …Carefully examining organizations such as this one has helped uncover some atypical leadership strategies that enable levels of performance that dramatically exceed expectations and reach extraordinary levels of excellence.
4. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t [by Jim Collins (2001)]
Leading a company to success for a brief period is not as triumphant as leading it through sustained, continual success and growth. Leaders don’t just instantly have a winning company- they must create it. Collins uses his expertise to give an inside look at sustainable companies that have greatness weaved into their core.
Summary: Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies’ triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? Learn about this study in this book.
5. The Emperor’s Handbook [by Marcus Aurelius (2002)]
Sometimes a simple quote can affect the decisions we make – especially when the quote comes from one of the most powerful leaders and rulers. This book is filled with quotes that any leader would deem useful. And, finding yourself focused on them can prove to make you a better leader, too. Choose to carry this book with you, turn a powerful quote into a mantra, or simply hold it as somewhere to turn when you need guidance.
Summary: Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire at its height, yet he remained untainted by the incalculable wealth and absolute power that had corrupted many of his predecessors. Marcus knew the secret of how to live the good life amid trying and often catastrophic circumstances, of how to find happiness and peace when surrounded by misery and turmoil, and of how to choose the harder right over the easier wrong without apparent regard for self-interest.
The Emperor’s Handbook offers a vivid and fresh translation of this important piece of ancient literature. It brings Marcus’s words to life and shows his wisdom to be as relevant today as it was in the second century. This book belongs on the desk and in the briefcase of every business executive, political leader, and military officer. It speaks to the soul of anyone who has ever exercised authority or faced adversity or believed in a better day.”
6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [by Stephen R. Covey (2004)]
Perhaps a classic book that everyone – especially those in leadership roles – should read. As with other books, we see the theme of change here in Covey’s book. Creating habits that are beneficial to you as change inevitably occurs. Developing habits that will have you ready to face the change and embrace new opportunities can only come with practice.
Summary: In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity–principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.
7. Leadership is an Art [by Max De Pree (2004)]
De Pree’s book has been often referred to as the Bible of leadership in the business world. And, for good reason. Because leaders need to be kind and generous. Leaders who harbor these traits will find that they will have more success in driving a business forward than those leaders who take more of an aggressive, dictator approach.
Summary: Pree looks at leadership as a kind of stewardship, stressing the importance of building relationships, initiating ideas, and creating a lasting value system within an organization. Rather than focusing on the “hows” of corporate life, he explains the “whys.” He shows that the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality and the last is to say thank you. Leadership Is an Art offers a proven design for achieving success by developing the generous spirit within all of us. Now more than ever, it provides the insights and guidelines leaders in every field need.
8. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t [by Simon Sinek (2014)]
The culture of your company is incredibly important if you want to lead it to success. When you create a place where employees want to work – and they want to work together – you can grow and achieve. Leaders must first gain the trust of the employees and then work to get them to trust one another. This process may get ugly and uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Summary: Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a “Circle of Safety” that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.