Insightful Leadership Books

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’ve got a brand new version of my Leadership Books list.

My previous list just did not do justice to the space. I think this list now gives everybody a better chance at finding the gems, learning some of the best insights, and turning insight into action.

A Unique Collection of Insightful Leadership Books at Your Fingertips

My leadership books list is a unique collection of many of the insightful books on leadership. Rather than measure a book on readability or entertainment value, I measure these leadership books by their insight and their usefulness.

I test them against results on the job, so I’m looking for books that I can use that make a difference. I also tend to find out about interesting books from colleagues at Microsoft because I’m always asking them which books are making a difference for them or what books do they recommend.

My list gets stronger through the collective wisdom.

It’s a Living List of Insightful Leadership Books

I organized the list of leadership books so that you can quickly scan it. Up front, I put new leadership books in the space, followed by a vital few set of books that I think of as cornerstone works.

I then follow that with a more comprehensive A-Z list of leadership books so that you can quickly scan and compare the list of books to what you already have or know about. I chopped the list at at certain point when it felt like diminishing returns.

A Map of the Leadership Space

What’s interesting about having an organized list of leadership books, is that if you know what the main nuggets of insight from each book, then you basically a map of the leadership space.

At a glance, you can quickly see patterns. You can see where the leadership domain is over-crowded and where it’s underserved. You can also see the general nature of contributions to the space, as well as the amazing contributions by certain individuals, such as John Maxwell.

It’s also easier to see unique contributions that stand out from the rest because of the piece of the leadership space they tackled or how they’ve tackled it.

A Sample of Leadership Books from the List

Here is a sample of some of the books from the list:

180 climbing the two ladders to inner strength & outer freedom , by Rob White
Harvard Business Review on Developing Leaders , by Harvard Business School Press
Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead , by Charlene Li
Principle-Centered Leadership , by Stephen R. Covey
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action , by Simon Sinek
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, by John C. Maxwell
The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership , by John Wooden
The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us , by Seth Godin
Zengage, by David Zinger