It can be Hard to Know Where to Start When Picking Leadership Books.
With so much content out there in the leadership space it can be hard to know which books are the best investment of your time. While of course there is no right answer to this, if you are new to the leadership/self help space, these are five tried and true titles that can get you started.
I picked these books because they have certainly had an influence on my life and in many ways are the backbone of the content of the Human Constant. While I have read many leadership books over the years, I keep coming back to some of the lessons presented in these five.
1. Leaders Eat Last By Simon Sinek
Whether you know it or not, if you have watched TED talks or other leadership videos, you have probably seen Simon speak and he is one of the most prolific orators of the modern era. His delivery is very engaging, but so is his writing.
“Leaders East Last” is one of many by Simon Sinek that I have found useful. “Start With Why” and “The Infinite Game” are two others that I think are really well done, but I do think “Leaders Eat Last” is the best of the bunch.
Having worked in some great and not so great cultures over the years, this book is a great book for those looking to build lasting culture in their organizations. In particular, the section on generational differences is very enlightening and he also brings in a lot of biological science to explain why humans think the way they do.
Overall, this would be the book I gift someone who is stepping into the leadership space to get them started if they have never read leadership books before.
2. Extreme Ownership By Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Jocko Willink is another master TED talk speaker and when he speaks, you listen. He is after all, a NAVY seal and an absolutely jacked human being, so people tend to pay attention to him.
Willink and his co-author and seal Leif Babin, take you on a leadership journey that most don’t have; through the fog of war. They talk about some of their experiences in the Middle East and how some of their worst moments lead to their biggest leadership awakening.
Extreme ownership is a tough love kind of book in the sense that for the concept to work, you have to put everything on yourself. When you do that you open the door to self awareness and with that knowledge, access to the power that comes with it.
Ownership has been one of the best tools in my toolbox for quite some time. There is no better way to diffuse a tense situation or open the door to learning from mistakes than when you take extreme ownership of a situation. You also end up with a lot more respect from your co-workers when you do.
3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Great title, I know! It sounds pompous but the real substance starts after you open the cover and dig into the meat and potatoes of what Manson is saying.
As I get older, I think like many people, I find myself getting more ornery and things that didn’t used to bother me as much really seem to take hold. That jackass revving his engine because he has a superiority complex, or the half baked teenager that messed up my order because they didn’t know the difference between grilled and fried.
The more that stuff gets to you the more you set yourself up for a bad day. The solution? Stop giving a f*ck about it. It goes deeper though into some really challenging situations that tend to bog people down and keep them from being their best. Out of all of the books here, I have to keep reminding myself to practice what I read from this one the most.
4. Atomic Habits by James Clear
This may be the book out of the five that actionably changed my life the most. Most leadership books present wonderful concepts, only to have you scratching your head on how to actually put them in practice.
Atomic Habits has sold millions of copies for a reason. It is chocked full of actionable things you can do immediately to start doing the things you want to do in life and start improving every day.
The concepts in this book are short, actionable and immediately implementable into your own life and you will see immediate results, even if those gains are small. The idea is to achieve a 1% improvement every day as stepping stones to a much larger transformation over time.
One of my favorite parts of this book is when Clear talks about what it means to change your identity.
5. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goldman
The first time I had heard the term emotional intelligence, I was sitting in a conference room in Boulder, Colorado at my first leadership focused event. It was the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Youth Leadership Workshop and one of the facilitators gave this book to each of us. It was the literal beginning of my leadership journey.
Growing up I had heard the term “book smart” referring to people who were incredibly smart but didn’t have much common sense. In a way this is how I think about emotional intelligence in the simplest way, but really it is about how to interact with humans and build human skills that can propel you forward. The Human Constant certainly has a foundation grounded in Emotional Intelligence.
Several authors have picked certain concepts related to Emotional Intelligence to expand upon it or identify certain aspects of it that they want to explore but if you are looking for the basics of one of the fundamental concepts of leadership, this is the book to start with, as I did almost 23 years ago.
Pick Your Own Adventure
These five titles have been fundamental in my growth over the years, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. If one of these books resonates with you, then it is easy to find other titles that can take you further down the path. In addition many of these books have workbooks that accompany them so you can really explore the concepts and how they apply in your own life. Happy reading!
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Will You Accept Your First Leadership Challenge?
Learning about Emotional Intelligence is one thing, practicing it is quite another. Just like going to the gym can help you level up your physical state, these short, actionable challenges will help you upgrade your mental and social well being.
