If you have a growth-mindset and are stuck on public transport for three hours a day to-and-from work, what would you do? Well, I read leadership books and by late December of 2019, I had finished my 35th leadership book of the year.

Ok, ok, maybe you’d branch out into other topics. Anyway, my 2019 list is your shortcut to finding great leadership books that will help you find your purpose, be a better human, be a better leader and transform the places you spend a lot of time.

Before we get into the highlights from the list, let’s get into definitions.

Defining leadership books

Leadership is a repeatedly defined term, but for my purposes, the books I read broadly fell into three types:

Leadership in the traditional sense. Stories of leading teams, tactics to do it better and more. Personal development. If you can’t lead yourself, how can you lead others? Organisational leadership. Leading a company is a little different from leading a team. Not massively so, but enough to have its own type.

A la carte leadership book list

Below I have further broken down the leadership books. There are the classics, the not-yet-classics (note the 'yet'), the how-to books, the former military people and the history lessons.

The classics

Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E Frankl: A modern classic and the inspiration to many of the authors on my list.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R Covey: 25 years old, still relevant. A little dated, as meditation is normal now.

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell: the 10,000-hour ‘rule’ (now superseded by Range).

The not-yet-classics

Start with Why, Simon Sinek: They don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Daring Greatly, Brene Brown: It's in the title, and her leadership one grows off of this one.

Everybody Matters, Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia: A personal story of a CEO and how he built his company to be a great place to work.

The how-to books

Turn the Ship Around, David Marquet: Intent-based leadership with a great case study.

Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King & Halee Fischer-Wright: Identify where your team is at and teaches you how to move them to the next level.

The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier: Ask better questions to be a better leader.

Former military people

Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: Extreme ownership in a leadership sense.

The Dichotomy of Leadership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: Extreme ownership requires balance too.

Can't Hurt Me, David Goggins: What are you capable of? Goggins gives examples and insight into pain and success.

History lessons

Leaders: Myth and Reality, Stanley McChrystal: Awesome biographies of people throughout history and their leadership styles.

Leadership: Lessons From the Presidents for Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin: Fascinating insight into four U.S. presidents who made an impact.

The full list

This post is already long enough, so I’ve created a Google doc for you. Included is a one-sentence review (like above) so you can pick the best book for your situation.

Oh, and the number is 45, not 35. It’s 35 in 2019 and 45 leadership books from 2015 to 2019.

The TED talk is not better than the book

But there are a lot of them! So, if you’re like me and want to watch the TED talk before reading the book, I’ve created a YouTube playlist of all the ones I could find. 37 in total!

45 down, 40 to go

I'm not done. I've slowed down since leaving my three-hour-a-day commute job, but I have a list of 40 more leadership books to read. I'll see you in January 2021.

#Leadership #PersonalDevelopment #GrowthMindset