11 Books that Every Leader Should Read

I have been maintaining – and occasionally updating -- a list of “11 Books That Every Leader Should Read” on my Work Matters blog since 2011. These are books that have taught me much about people, teams, and organizations -- while at the same time -- provide useful guidance (if sometimes only indirectly) about what it takes to lead well versus badly. I just created an updated version for folks on LinkedIn, where I have just started as an “Influencer.”
I am always tempted to expand the list further (indeed, my list on Work Matters currently has 12 and like this one mentions quite a few other books). I’ve almost certainly left some of your favorites, I left out many of mine as well. After all, some 11,000 business books are published in the United States every year.
Many on the list are research based, others tell detailed stories, and only two are quick reads (Orbiting the Giant Hairball and Parkinson’s Law). I guess that reflects my bias. I lean toward books that have real substance beneath them. This runs counter to the belief in the business book world at the moment that people will only buy and read books that are very short and simple – and have just one big idea. So, if your kind of business book is The One Minute Manager (which frankly, I like too... but you can read the whole thing in 20 or 30 minutes), then you probably won't like most of these books.
1. The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. A masterpiece of evidence-based management -- the strongest argument I know that "the big things are the little things."
2. Influence by Robert Cialdini. The classic book about how to persuade people to do things, how to defend against persuasion attempts, and the underlying evidence. I have been using this in class at Stanford for over 25 years, and I have had dozens of students say to me years later "I don't remember much else about your class, but I still use and think about that Cialdini book."

3.Made to Stick Chip and Dan Heath. A modern masterpiece, the definition of an instant classic. How to design ideas that people will remember and act on. I still look at it a couple times a month and I buy two or three copies at a time because people are always borrowing it from me. I often tell them to keep it because they rarely give it back anyway. And, for my tastes, it has the best business book cover of all time -- the duct tape even looks and feels real,
4. Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman. Even though the guy won the Nobel Prize, this book is surprisingly readable. A book about how we humans really think, and although it isn't designed to do this, Kahneman also shows how and why s0 much of the stuff you read in the business press is crap.
5. Collaboration by Morten Hansen. He has that hot bestseller now with Jim Collins, Great By Choice, which is OK, but this is a better and more important book. I have read it three times and, in my view, it is -- by far -- the best book ever written about what it takes to build an organization where people share information, cooperate, and help each other succeed.
6. Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. It is hard to explain, sort of like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll, as the old song goes. But it is the two best creativity books ever written, and one of the best business books of any kind – even though it is nearly an anti-business book. Gordon's voice and love creativity and self-expression -- and how to make it happen despite the obstacles that unwittingly heartless organizations put in the way -- make this book a joy.
7. Creativity,Inc. by Ed Catmull. One of the best business/leadership/organization design books ever written – this and Hairball are a great pair. I wrote a more detailed review of Ed’s wonderful book here. As I wrote in my blurb, and this is no B.S., “This is the best book ever written on what it takes to build a creative organization. It is the best because Catmull’s wisdom, modesty, and self-awareness fill every page. He shows how Pixar’s greatness results from connecting the specific little things they do (mostly things that anyone can do in any organization) to the big goal that drives everyone in the company: making films that make them feel proud of one another.” Note also that Catmull has a chapter on Steve Jobs that offers a different perspective than anyone else I have seen --and they worked together for decades. (Read this book in concert with the The Pixar Touch by David Price if you want a real treat).
8. Leading Teams by the late J. Richard Hackman. When it comes to the topic of groups or teams, there is Hackman and there is everyone else. If you want a light feel good romp that isn't very evidence-based, read The Wisdom of Teams. If want to know how teams really work and what it really takes to build, sustain, and lead them from a man who was immersed in the problem as a researcher, coach, consultant, and designer for over 40 years, this is the book for you. Oh, and if you want the cheat sheet – although you are missing enough that you are mostly cheating yourself -- check out Hackman’s HBR piece, the very definition of profound simplicity, a lifetime of wisdom and (I am guessing) the results of 1000 studies summarized in six concise points.
9. Give and Take by Adam Grant. Adam is the hottest organizational researcher of his generation. When I read the pre-publication version, I was so blown away by how useful, important, and interesting that Give and Take was that I gave it one of the most enthusiastic blurbs of my life: “Give and Take just might be the most important book of this young century. As insightful and entertaining as Malcolm Gladwell at his best, this book has profound implications for how we manage our careers, deal with our friends and relatives, raise our children, and design our institutions. This gem is a joy to read, and it shatters the myth that greed is the path to success." In other words, Adam shows how and why you don't need to be a selfish asshole to succeed in this life. America -- and the world -- would be a better place if all of us memorized and applied Adam's worldview.
10. Parkinson’s Law by the late C. Northcote Parkinson. You’ve probably heard of Parkinson’s Law, which he first proposed in The Economist in 1955: “It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” I had as well, but I never knew much about C. Northcote Parkinson, nor had I read his 1958 gem of the same name (I didn't even know it existed) until Huggy Rao and I started writing Scaling Up Excellence and my well read co-author pointed me to this collection of essays. Parkinson was quite a guy -- a scholar of public administration, naval historian, and author of over 60 books. For our scaling book, I was especially taken with his arguments, evidence, and delightfully polite English sarcasm about the negative and predictable effects of group size and administrative bloat. I am also a big fan of The Peter Principle, which is similar in some ways, (I wrote the forward to the 40 Anniversary Edition – read it here) but Parkinson’s Law is an even better book.
11. The Path Between the Seas by historian David McCullough. On building the Panama Canal. This is a great story of how creativity happens at a really big scale. It is messy. Things go wrong. People get hurt. But they also triumph and do astounding things. I also like this book because it is the antidote to those who believe that great innovations all come from start-ups and little companies (although there are some wild examples of entrepreneurship in the story -- especially the French guy who designs Panama's revolution -- including a new flag and declaration of independence as I recall -- from his suite in the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and successfully sells the idea to Teddy Roosevelt). As my Stanford colleague Jim Adams points out, the Panama Canal, the Pyramids, and putting a man on moon are just a few examples of great human innovations that were led by governments. If you want to learn about what world class scaling “clusterfug” looks like, read about how the French messed things up – and if you want to learn about skilled scaling (with some horrible side-effects) and the amazing U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, find the time to read this rather massive masterpiece.
I would love to know of your favorites -- and if want a systematic approach to this question, don't forget The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
P.S. For self-defense, I still recommend that we all read Isaacson's Steve Jobs -- I still keep going places -- parties, family gatherings, talks I give and attend, and even the grocery store where people start talking about Jobs and especially arguing about him. As I explained in Wired and Good Boss, Bad Boss, I have come to believe that whatever Jobs was in life, in death he has become a Rorschach test -- we all just project our beliefs and values on him.
P.P.S. Also, a big thanks to Chris Fry, one of the heroes in Scaling Up Excellence, for encouraging me to maintain this list – and for offering gentle complaints when I add something that he believes isn't as good as he had hoped. Chris’s favorite book on the list is Path Between the Seas.

Featured on: