“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” — Peter Drucker
Building and leading a successful team is indeed a crucial skill for any manager and building a team. The following list of books encompasses various aspects of leadership, management, hiring, motivation, and team-building, each offering unique insights and actionable advice.
Powerful Quotes
First I’ll get you excited by sharing some powerful quotes
- “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
- “The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table and then pay them for what they do because they like it.”
- “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” by Simon Sinek
- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
- “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni
- “Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team.”
- “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins
- “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”
- “Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.” by Brené Brown
- “Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging.”
- “High Output Management” by Andrew S. Grove
- “Your output is the output of your team plus the output of the adjacent teams under your influence.”
- “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity” by Kim Scott
- “Radical Candor really just means saying what you think while also giving a damn about the person you’re saying it to.”
- “Principles: Life and Work” by Ray Dalio
- “The most important thing is that you develop your own principles and ideally write them down, especially if you are working with others.”
- “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz
- “Take care of the people, the products, and the profits—in that order.”
- “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck
- “In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail—or if you’re not the best—it’s all been wasted. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome.”
50 Best Books on Managing People
I’ll summarize their key takeaways to help you choose the right ones for your needs.
Want to buy these books? They’re all on Amazon.
- “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
- Summary: Pink argues that the traditional carrot-and-stick approach to motivation is outdated. Instead, he introduces the concept of Motivation 3.0, which is based on autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
- Key Learnings: You’ll learn about creating an environment that fosters intrinsic motivation, encouraging your team to achieve their best through self-direction, the desire to get better at something that matters, and the urge to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.
- “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” by Simon Sinek
- Summary: Sinek explores the importance of leaders creating a culture of safety and trust within organizations. He uses real-world examples and insights from neuroscience and behavior research.
- Key Learnings: The importance of building a workplace where employees feel safe and trusted, leading to more cohesive and loyal teams willing to take risks and innovate.
- “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni
- Summary: Through a fable, Lencioni presents a model for overcoming the common hurdles that prevent teams from functioning effectively: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.
- Key Learnings: Strategies for building a cohesive, effective team by addressing its fundamental dysfunctions, fostering trust, promoting healthy conflict, committing to decisions, holding team members accountable, and focusing on collective results.
- Patrick Lencioni has some powerful books and also a good podcast.
- “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins
- Summary: Collins outlines the results of his research into companies that made the leap from good to great and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. The book identifies key principles that enable a company to achieve lasting excellence.
- Key Learnings: Insights into the importance of getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off), the concept of the Level 5 Leader, and the idea of the Hedgehog Concept (simplicity within the three circles: what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine).
- “Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.” by Brené Brown
- Summary: Brown discusses the role of vulnerability in leadership, arguing that courage and vulnerability are essential for effective leadership. She offers four skill sets that leaders can develop to embrace vulnerability and lead with courage.
- Key Learnings: How to cultivate a culture of bravery and vulnerability, engage in tough conversations, and build trust, leading to more innovation, creativity, and success.
- “High Output Management” by Andrew S. Grove
- Summary: This book provides a comprehensive guide to management from the perspective of former Intel CEO Andrew Grove, focusing on production principles and managerial skills applicable across industries.
- Key Learnings: Techniques for increasing productivity, including effective meeting practices, decision-making processes, and strategies for motivating employees.
- “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity” by Kim Scott
- Summary: Scott, a former Google and Apple executive, introduces the concept of Radical Candor—caring personally while challenging directly—to improve management relationships.
- Key Learnings: Practical advice on how to be a supportive and challenging leader, including how to give constructive feedback, make tough decisions, and build strong relationships with employees
- “Principles: Life and Work” by Ray Dalio
- Dalio shares the guiding principles he discovered while building Bridgewater Associates. You’ll learn about creating a culture of radical transparency and making decisions based on thoughtful disagreement.
- “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz
- Horowitz provides unvarnished insights into the challenges of running a startup. It’s a master class in problem-solving, crisis management, and leadership under pressure.
- “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck
- Dweck’s research on the growth mindset vs. the fixed mindset can transform your approach to leadership, challenges, and personal growth, emphasizing the value of persistence, effort, and learning from failure.
- “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses” by Eric Ries
- This book introduces the Lean Startup methodology, focusing on how to create a more flexible and innovative approach to building a company.
- “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
- A timeless classic, Carnegie’s book offers invaluable advice on understanding people, increasing your influence, and leading more effectively.
- “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek
- Sinek explores how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust, and change by starting with the question “Why?”.
- “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” by Daniel Goleman
- Goleman introduces the concept of emotional intelligence (EQ) and its critical role in leadership, communication, and personal success.
- “First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently” by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
- Based on Gallup’s extensive study of managers, this book challenges conventional wisdom on management practices.
- “Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders” by L. David Marquet
- A captivating account of leadership and management innovation on a nuclear submarine, emphasizing empowerment and distributed leadership.
- “Measure What Matters: Online Tools for Understanding Customers, Social Media, Engagement, and Key Relationships” by Katie Delahaye Paine
- Focuses on performance measurement in the digital age, offering tools and techniques for measuring success and aligning goals with strategy.
- “Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t” by Verne Harnish
- Harnish provides a practical framework for scaling up your business, covering people, strategy, execution, and cash.
- “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” by Daniel Coyle
- Coyle examines the group dynamics that drive successful organizations and how leaders can foster a culture of safety, shared risk, and purpose.
- “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business” by Patrick Lencioni
- Lencioni makes the case that organizational health is the ultimate competitive advantage and offers leaders a model for achieving it.
- “Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” by Liz Wiseman
- Wiseman explores how some leaders (Multipliers) amplify the intelligence of the people around them, while others (Diminishers) drain it.
- “Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell” by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle
- A tribute to Bill Campbell, mentor to some of Silicon Valley’s most successful entrepreneurs, this book distills his wisdom on leadership and coaching.
- “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear
- While not exclusively a leadership book, Clear’s insights on habit formation can transform personal productivity and organizational culture.
- “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek
- Sinek explores the concept of infinite games vs. finite games and how a mindset focused on long-term vision can drive more sustainable, innovative, and ethical business practices.
- “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World” by General Stanley McChrystal
- McChrystal shares lessons from the battlefield on adaptability, decentralized decision-making, and building a flexible, resilient organization.
- “The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life” by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
- This book offers a set of practices for creativity in all human endeavors, emphasizing the power of shifting perspectives to see new possibilities.
- “Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box” by The Arbinger Institute
- A profound book on understanding how self-deception affects our personal and professional relationships and how to overcome it.
- “The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success” by William N. Thorndike
- Profiles of CEOs who took unconventional approaches to leadership and strategy, resulting in extraordinary returns for their shareholders.
- “The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything” by Stephen M.R. Covey
- Covey argues that trust is a quantifiable, learnable, and measurable skill that can dramatically impact an organization’s speed and cost structure.
- “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever” by Michael Bungay Stanier
- This book offers practical guidance for adopting a coaching mindset and developing coaching habits to enhance leadership effectiveness.
- “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail” by Clayton M. Christensen
- Christensen’s landmark book explores why companies fail to innovate and how to avoid such pitfalls by distinguishing between sustaining and disruptive technologies.
- “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
- Nobel laureate Kahneman offers deep insights into the two systems that drive the way we think, revealing how our mental processes affect our decisions, including those related to leadership and management.
- “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth
- Duckworth shows that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit,” an essential quality for leaders and entrepreneurs.
- “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain
- Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. The book offers insights into how leaders can harness the strengths of introverted team members.
- “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber
- Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective.
- “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg
- Duhigg explores the science behind why habits exist and how they can be changed, providing insight into how habits work and how they can be transformed to create more effective organizations and lead more productive lives.
- “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
- This book offers techniques for communicating effectively in high-stakes situations, enhancing relationships, and ensuring successful outcomes.
- “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell
- Gladwell explores the power of the ‘blink’ – the instinctive process that gives us the ability to make decisions in the blink of an eye. This book sheds light on how leaders can hone their intuition and quick decision-making skills.
- “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World” by Adam Grant
- Grant examines how people can champion new ideas—and how leaders can fight groupthink, create cultures conducive to originality, and foster creative problem-solving.
- “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport
- Newport argues that cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits in virtually any profession. Leaders will learn how to transform their mindsets and habits to support high concentration.
- “The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization” by Peter M. Senge
- Senge introduces the concept of the learning organization and the five disciplines that support it, offering leaders tools to build organizations that excel at adapting and transforming in response to complex challenges.
- “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
- This book presents the results of a six-year research project exploring what leads to enduringly great companies. It provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the 21st century and beyond.
- “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” by Sheryl Sandberg
- Sandberg offers insightful advice on women achieving their full potential. For leaders, it’s crucial for understanding gender dynamics in the workplace and fostering an inclusive environment.
- “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- Willink and Babin bring leadership lessons from the battlefield to the business world, emphasizing accountability, discipline, and leading under pressure.
- “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph” by Ryan Holiday
- Holiday draws on Stoicism to provide strategies for turning obstacles into advantages, offering leaders a philosophical perspective on resilience and perseverance.
- “The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win” by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford
- Through a fictional narrative, this book explores the DevOps philosophy and its impact on improving IT and business outcomes, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and integration across departments.
- “The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You” by Julie Zhuo
- Zhuo offers a modern field guide for new managers, providing practical advice on making the transition from individual contributor to leader.
- “Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life” by Spencer Johnson
- Johnson’s parable offers insights into managing change, highlighting the importance of adapting quickly to new circumstances for personal and professional growth.
- “The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations” by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
- This book presents five practices of exemplary leadership, based on research and case studies, providing a framework for effective leadership behavior.
- “Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time” by Susan Scott
- Scott emphasizes the importance of authentic, meaningful conversations in achieving success and building relationships, offering strategies for having those conversations effectively.
More Resources
To deepen your understanding of management and enhance your skills as a leader, a variety of resources beyond books can be invaluable. Here are several types of resources you might find useful, ranging from online courses and podcasts to professional organizations and tools:
Online Courses
- Coursera
- Offers courses on leadership and management from top universities and business schools. Notable courses include “Leading People and Teams” by the University of Michigan and “Strategic Leadership and Management” by the University of Illinois.
- LinkedIn Learning
- Features a wide range of courses covering various aspects of management, including team leadership, strategic thinking, and effective decision-making. Courses like “Becoming a Manager” and “Management Tips Weekly” can be particularly useful.
- edX
- Provides access to courses from institutions like MIT, Harvard, and others. You can find courses on management theory, organizational behavior, and leadership essentials.
Podcasts
- HBR IdeaCast
- A weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management from Harvard Business Review.
- Manager Tools
- Offers actionable advice on management and leadership topics, focusing on practical tools and techniques.
- The Tim Ferriss Show
- While not exclusively about management, this podcast often dives into productivity, leadership, and personal development through interviews with successful leaders and entrepreneurs.
Professional Organizations
- Project Management Institute (PMI)
- Offers resources, certifications, and networking opportunities for project managers, but the lessons and insights can be broadly applied to general management as well.
- Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
- Provides resources and certification for HR professionals, offering valuable insights into managing people effectively.
- American Management Association (AMA)
- A membership organization that provides a wealth of resources, training, and networking opportunities for managers at all levels.
Tools and Software
- Asana or Trello
- Project management tools that help you organize, track, and manage your team’s work.
- Slack
- A communication platform that can enhance team collaboration and management.
- Tableau or Microsoft Power BI
- Data visualization tools that can assist in making data-driven management decisions.
Blogs and Websites
- Harvard Business Review (HBR)
- Offers a range of articles, case studies, and podcasts on leadership and management.
- McKinsey Insights
- Provides research and articles on management trends and best practices.
- Forbes – Leadership
- Features articles on leadership, management, and entrepreneurship from Forbes’ leadership section.
Books and Publications
- While you’ve already received a comprehensive list of books, regularly checking new releases and bestseller lists in the business and management categories on Amazon, Goodreads, and The New York Times can help you stay updated with the latest thought leadership.
Utilizing a mix of these resources can provide you with a broad and deep understanding of management practices, theories, and real-world applications. Engaging with a variety of formats (courses, podcasts, articles, and tools) will also cater to different learning styles and preferences, enhancing your ability to lead effectively in today’s dynamic business environment.
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