The success of a business, regardless of its size, often depends on its management. It is not always easy to lead a team. Even the greatest leaders look for an action plan and consult the best business leadership books in the world for guidance.
For women, there are unfortunately fewer female business models to draw inspiration from. Women make up only 19% of the board members of the country's 500 largest companies, and hold only 8.5% of the highest paid positions in Canada's 100 largest companies. However, almost 85% of Canadian women surveyed would like to run a business. The problem is that many of them are concerned that they are not natural leaders and don't know where to start. We're here to help Canadian women bridge that gap.
Business experts will all tell you that natural leaders don't exist, and that's a myth. The fact is that anyone can become a business leader as long as they make the effort to learn how. One way to learn is to read about effective leadership techniques that are easy to implement in any workplace, and follow the example of other intrepid leaders. Reading itself improves emotional intelligence, organizational and communication skills - all essential characteristics of a good leader.
There is no shortage of books on this topic, and it can be difficult to determine which ones are right for you. To save you valuable time, we present the best books on leadership, including the best books on business leadership that can help you refine your leadership style, stimulate your business, break the glass ceiling and improve your personal and professional life.
Best Leadership Books of 2020
1. Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World by Emily Balcetis (February 2020)
When it comes to success, perception counts for a lot. In this book on leadership psychology, award-winning social psychologist Emily Balcetis provides an overview of the four visual approaches she discovered while studying the science of vision, cognitive research and motivational psychology. Clearer, Closer, Better was written to help you enrich your mind to envision unlimited possibilities.
2. More Myself: A Journey by Alicia Keys (March 2020)
This book is imbued with the wisdom of Alicia Keys, an exceptional woman. In this personal account, the award-winning musician, actress, producer, activist and entrepreneur tells how she became the performer and fearless leader she is today.
3. No Time For Spectators: The Lessons That Mattered Most From West Point To The West Wing by Martin Dempsey (May 2020)
After more than forty years in the U.S. Army and serving as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey knows a lot about leadership. This book on military leadership, No Time For Spectators: The Lessons That Mattered Most From West Point To The West Wing, is one of the most recent books on leadership that inspires action and performance based on mutual expectations.
Books read by great leaders
1. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue - recommended by Oprah Winfrey
This Oprah-recommended novel is one of the best books on leadership and is an inspiration to anyone, whether you are a student, business leader or potential entrepreneur. This fictional work tells the story of a Cameroonian couple who traveled to New York City to explore the business world in order to deal with a financial crisis.
2. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks - Recommended by Bill Gates
This outstanding book on leadership was recommended by Bill Gates as one of the best business books he ever read. New Yorker contributor John Brooks tells 12 stories on Wall Street that provide insight into the dramatic and unpredictable inner workings of the financial sector.
3. Becoming Michelle Obama - recommended by Barack Obama
Barack Obama may have a bias, but he is right to recommend Devenir, his wife's memoirs, as one of his favorite books. This number one New York Times bestseller tells the fascinating story of Michelle Obama that begins in Chicago's South Side neighborhood and continues in the White House and beyond. The author has established herself as an outstanding role model and leader for women around the world.
Best Leadership Books for Emerging Leaders
1. Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader by Ryan Hawk
Listeners of Ryan Hawk's Learning Leader Show podcast can learn even more by reading his new book Welcome to Management. This book is a guide for newly promoted managers designed to help them become effective in their supervisory role. With case studies, interviews and personal anecdotes from Hawk himself, Welcome to Management could be one of the best books on leadership development available today.
2. Great Leaders Have No Rules: Contrarian Leadership Principles to Transform Your Team and Business by Kevin Kruse.
According to Kevin Kruse, almost everything we've been taught about leadership is wrong. So forget the rules of leadership you know and read Great Leaders Have No Rules instead. Kevin Kruse will teach you to be both the boss that everyone wants to work for and the high-performing leader that every CEO wants to hire.
3. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo
After promotion to a management position, panic sets in and it is difficult to know where to start. The Making of a Manager is one of the best books on leadership for new leaders because it contains a wealth of useful tips (and illustrations) to help you become the manager you wish you were.
Best leadership books on administrative accountability
1. Accountability Leadership: How Great Leaders Build a High Performance Culture of Accountability and Responsibility, by Di Worrall.
Accountability Leadership is one of the best leadership books on administrative accountability and won the National Indie Excellence Awards for Best Leadership Book in 2015. In it, Di Worrall presents an accountability plan that will become the "secret weapon" for your company's success.
2. Leadership Without Excuses: How to Create Accountability and High-Performace (Instead of Just Talking About It) by Jeff Grimshaw and Gregg Baron.
The key to good leadership is to stop making excuses. Leadership Without Excuses describes three types of workers: "saints," "sinners," and "redeemed," and explains how to get the best out of each and demand responsibility.
3. Accountability: The Key to Driving a High-Performance Culture by Greg Bustin.
Author Greg Bustin surveyed more than 3,200 prominent leaders and in doing so, identified the seven pillars of administrative accountability that are essential to effective leadership. This is one of the best books on business leadership for leaders who want advice on what to do to grow their business.
Best books on leadership psychology
1. The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
This exceptional book on the psychology of business explores how both mundane and decisive choices shape our lives and careers. Sheena Iyengar unveils her fascinating research on the art of decision making, while encouraging readers to reflect on the reasons behind these choices.
2. The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power by S. Alexander Haslam, Stephen D. Reicher and Michael J. Platow
The New Psychology of Leadership is an award-winning book on the psychology of leadership that explains that leaders must foster group identity within their teams to be successful. This new psychological approach to leadership is the result of twenty years of research that shows that the most important word to use for a leader is "we".
3. The Inner Winner: Performance Psychology Tactics That Give You An Unfair Advantage by Simon Hazeldine
The Inner Winner presents proven performance psychology tactics that leaders can use to improve performance. Simon Hazeldine writes about how you can focus, gain confidence and manage stress through self-hypnosis. The author demonstrates that the greatest optimizer of performance is your mind.
Best book on leadership from a management perspective
1. Leading the Unleadable: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People by Alan Willett
Every great manager leads at least one difficult employee. The book on management leadership, Leading the Unleadable, teaches managers how to turn difficult employees into productive team members.
2. Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Want to Follow, by Scott Jeffrey Miller.
Scott Jeffrey Miller has gained a lot of wisdom during his imperfect journey as a manager and shares with us his experience in Management Mess to Leadership Success. This book on management leadership provides excellent management tips and is full of humour.
3. 3. First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Gallup
In this book on leadership for executives, Gallup presents the findings of its groundbreaking study of the experiences of more than 80,000 managers. Read it to discover how the best managers stand out from the rest.
Best books on leadership published in the last 10 years
1. Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace, by John C. Maxwell.
In Leadershift, author John C. Maxwell tells readers how to adapt their leadership style to embrace inevitable change and remain resilient in the face of uncertainty.
2. All Ahead: Women, Work and Power by Sheryl Sandberg
In what is arguably the best book on leadership for women, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, looks at why women are slower to rise to leadership positions than men. She also explains what women can do to get there with confidence.
3. Absolute Responsibility: The Navy Seals Method for Success by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
In this book on military leadership, two of the most decorated officers of the US Navy SEALs provide leadership tips from their battlefield experience that can easily be applied to your desk job.
Best leadership books of all time
1. These collapsing giants: why some companies are declining while others resist Jim Collins' leadership.
Whether you're doing business or not, you've probably already heard about this classic. There is a good reason why it is widely considered one of the best leadership books of all time. Throughout the book, Jim Collins explores and explains how some businesses that already succeed eventually succeed even better, while others fail. According to the author, an essential factor in building a successful business is that it be led by a humble, but motivated leader.
2. Stephen R. Covey's Seven Habits of People Who Do Everything They Do
First published in 1989, it remains one of the most famous books on leadership ever written. In The 7 Habits of Those Who Achieve Everything They Do, Stephen Covey explains the steps to take a holistic approach to life, guided by principles that ensure resilience, wisdom and power. The author believes that his principled approach is the key to success, both personally and professionally.
3. The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
The Effective Executive, a timeless book on leadership and management, is considered an indispensable book on leadership and highly recommended reading for all professionals. Peter F. Drucker explores the role of the leader and presents five practices essential to operational effectiveness.
Leadership Bookstore Success
1. Begin with why: how great leaders inspire us to take action on Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek is known for his books on leadership. In this acclaimed book, Simon Sinek answers questions that many of us often ask ourselves: Why are some people and organizations more influential, innovative and profitable than others? By studying the profiles of some of history's greatest leaders, the author reveals that they all think, act and communicate in the same way. Most importantly, he argues that each great leader simply began by asking "Why?
2. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brené Brown
This number one New York Times leadership list success explores what it means to be a leader. Based on her research with 150 senior executives worldwide, author Brene Brown explains that being a bold leader is not about status or power, but rather about recognizing the potential and ideas of others.
3. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger.
In these memoirs, Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, presents the many lessons he learned during his career. This popular book on leadership shows how he reinvented one of the world's most cult companies at a time when the popular Disney brand was beginning to deteriorate. The author recounts his experience leading 200,000 employees and explains how taking significant risks, being fair, and being a source of inspiration played a key role in his success.
Best books on leadership for entrepreneurs
1. Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
Entrepreneurship is not easy. In this book on entrepreneurial leadership, Gino Wickman describes common problems affecting entrepreneurs and how to avoid them. Traction presents a practical framework for managing your business while increasing your level of fun, focus, growth and success.
2. The Great Leap: Overcome your hidden fears and bring a new dimension to your life as a Gay Hendricks.
Deciding to face your fears is one of the first steps to success as an entrepreneur. Gay Hendricks, a New York Times-recommended best-selling author and psychologist, explains how to overcome the fears and false beliefs that prevent entrepreneurs from achieving their goals.
3. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
Thinking of starting a business? If so, this book is a must read. History shows that most start-ups fail, but Eric Ries says these failures could have been avoided. In The Lean Startup, the author describes the problems that typically plague start-ups, as well as practical solutions. With The Lean Startup approach, new companies will be more innovative and benefit from increased creativity and human capital efficiency.
Best Leadership Books for Sales Managers
1. Sell or Lose: How to Chart Your Course in Grant Cardone's Business and Life
This best-selling bookstore success about sales leadership explains that everything in life can and should be treated as a sale. Sales expert and author Grant Cardone argues that the principles of selling can help you in all areas of your life. He explains how to master the art of selling in any area and how to accept rejection and correct an unfavourable environment.
2. Sales Management. Simplified: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team, by Mike Weinberg.
Sales Management, Simplified is one of the best books on sales leadership that tells it like it is. Sales consultant Mike Weinberg recalls the many problems that plague sales managers and provides useful information on how those problems can be turned into successes. The book explains that sales problems are usually due to the way the sales team is led, making it a must-read for sales managers.
3. The Truth About What Motivates Us: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Life and Move Forward by Daniel H. Pink
Best-selling author Daniel H. Pink explores the power of sales in our everyday lives. The truth about what motivates us is that no matter what industry we work in, people spend their days trying to sell ideas to others, and in some ways we are all salespeople. This leadership success story offers a new perspective on the art of selling, as well as useful tips on how to do it effectively and efficiently.
You can begin your journey to becoming a better leader today simply by reading these books. By consulting some of the best books on business leadership, you will be better equipped to deal with the daily dilemmas and greater challenges you face as a leader, both in your professional and personal life. One of the key messages in many of these excellent leadership books is that you have to start somewhere, and reading a good book is always a great place to start.
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