The BEST Books for Developing Leaders and Leadership Skills
COMMUNICATION FOR LEADERS – What Leaders Say
- PEOPLE SKILLS – How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- ADVANCED PEOPLE SKILLS – Easy Peasey & Body Language by Allan Pease
- CONNECT – Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell
- CONNECTION – Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint by Christopher Witt and Dale Fetherling
- RAPID RAPPORT BUILDING – How to Make People Like You in <90 seconds by Nicholas Boothman
- GIVING FEEDBACK – The One Minute Manager book and series by Ken Blanchard
- TOUGH LOVE – Crucial Conversations & Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson et al
- COACHING CHANGE – Conversations for Change by Shawn Hayashi (& her other books)
- UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT PEOPLE – Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
BEING A LEADER – Adopting a Leader’s Mindset
- SET YOUR MIND – The Four Agreements by Michael Ruiz
- GROWTH MINDSET – The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
- POSITIVE MINDSET – Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- OPTIMISTIC MINDSET – Learned Optimism & Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman
- SUCCESS MINDSET – Why People Fail by Siimon Reynolds
- FINANCIAL MINDSET – Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker
- LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOURS – The Leader Within by Ken Blanchard et. al
- LEADER MINDSET – What got you here won’t get you there by Marshall Goldsmith
STEPPING UP TO LEADING PEOPLE – Supervision Skills
- BEST BOOK ON LEADERSHIP – The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner
- FROM BUDDY TO BOSS – Good Boss Bad Boss by Robert Sutton
- FIND STRENGTHS IN PEOPLE – Strengths-based Leadership by Marcus Buckingham
- PURPOSE – Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- LEADER BEHAVIOUR – Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
- LEADERSHIP – Good Boss, Bad Boss and The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton
TEAM BUILDING – Motivation and Incentives
- CREATING CULTURE —Fish! By Stephen Lundin
- GROWING YOUR PEOPLE – Multipliers by Liz Wiseman
- MOTIVATION & REWARDS – Drive & A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
- AVOID DISENGAGEMENT – Employee Enragement by James Adonis
- TEAMWORK – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- BUILD A TRIBE ONLINE- Tribes by Seth Godin and Content Rules by Kerpen
- RECOGNITION & REWARDS – 1001 Rewards & Recognition Fieldbook by Bob Nelson
- COMPETITIONS – The Retailers Complete Book of Selling games & contests by Friedman
- COMPENSATION PLANS – Scaling Up Compensation by Verne Harnish
SYSTEMISING – Developing Processes and Checklists
- SYSTEMATIC APPROACH – The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
- DEVELOPING PROCESSES – Work the System by Sam Carpenter
- BUILDING SYSTEMS – Systemology and the Systems Hero by David Jenyns
- EOS SYSTEMS – Traction by Gino Wickman
IMPLEMENTING & EFFECTIVENESS – Goals, Habits and Taking Action
- GOALSETTING – The Magic Lamp by Keith Ellis
- BUILD HABITS – Atomic Habits by James Clear
- PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey
- TAKING ACTION – Time Power by Brian Tracy
- DELEGATION – Who Not How by Dan Sullivan & Dr Ben Hardy
- SCALING – 10x is easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan and De Ben Hardy
FOCUS & SIMPLICITY – Clarity for Leaders
- BUSINESS STRATEGY – The Star Principle by Richard Koch
- LEVERAGE – The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
- ABILITY TO FOCUS – Deep Work by Cal Newport
- MINIMALISM – The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
- SIMPLIFYING – Essentialism by Greg McKeown and
- WORK WITH PURPOSE – The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
- NEW WAY OF WORK – The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
CHANGING – Adapting to Change
- PERSONAL CHANGE – Switch by Chip and Dan Heath
- THE SCIENCE OF CHANGE – Change Anything by Kay Patterson
- ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE – The Heart of Change and other books by Kotter
- COPING WITH CHANGE – Who Moved My Cheese by Ken Blanchard
- SUCCESSION PLANNING – Succession – Are You Ready by Marshall Goldsmith
TAKING OVER – How to be a NEW Leader
- NEWLY APPOINTED – The First 90 Days by Michael Watson
DAVE’S BIG LEADERSHIP BOOKLIST TIP
It takes a lot of time to read all these books. You can use ChatGPT to create an AWESOME SUMMARY of any of these books and how you can implement those book ideas in your life and workplace. – Focus on the Stories, Phrases, Quotes, and create a set of Actions to Implement.
Then pick the books you really want to read or listen to an AudioBook if that’s your style.
Reading the right book at the right time will change your life!
