Fall 2023 Leadership Book List
We’ve gathered a fresh, new harvest of must-read leadership books to inspire you. Happy reading!
by Hortense Le Gentil
The most effective leaders are “human leaders:” leading with empathy, vulnerability, and authenticity. But many still adhere to the outdated myth that leaders must be “superhero leaders: infallible, unflappable, and fearless.” Tragically, their innate ability to inspire remains locked within, blunting their impact.
In The Unlocked Leader veteran executive leadership coach Hortense le Gentil combines real life stories, rigorous research, and practical tools to explain how superhero leaders can become effective human leaders. You’ll discover:
- How to identify the mental obstacles that stand between you and leadership authenticity, and sap your energy and impact – your mindtraps.
- How to confront your fears and escape those traps by operating a mindshift.
- Practical strategies to better connect with yourself and others – a mindbuild.
The journey from superhero leader to human leader not only transforms the lives of leaders themselves – both at work and beyond. It also makes a profound and lasting difference in the lives of people around them and the organizations they lead. This is how human leaders make an impact and shine their light in the world: by changing the way they connect with themselves and other people, they start a chain reaction that reverberates throughout their organizations and beyond them, because we are all part of interconnected networks of human relationships.
An indispensable leadership manual for people who wish to lead not just with their heads, but with their heart and soul as well, The Unlocked Leader belongs on the bookshelves of leaders and aspiring leaders at all levels looking for a fresh new perspective on effective, powerful leadership in service of something bigger than themselves.
THE CULTURE PLAYBOOK: 60 HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ACTIONS TO HELP YOUR GROUP SUCCEED
by Daniel Coyle
The ultimate handbook for fostering and cultivating a strong team culture, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code and The Talent Code.
“If you are a leader—or if you work with one—and want to understand how to build psychological safety, trust, and a sense of purpose for your team, then you need this book.”—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
Building a team has never been harder than it is right now. How do you create connection and trust? How do you stay focused on your goals? In his years studying the ways successful groups work together, Daniel Coyle has spent time with elite teams around the world, observing the ways they support each other, manage conflict, and move toward a common goal. In The Culture Playbook, he distills everything he has learned into sixty concrete, actionable tips and exercises that will help your team build a cohesive, positive culture.
Great cultures, Coyle has found, are built on three essential skills: safety, vulnerability, and purpose. Within this framework, he shows us how we can better serve our teammates, ourselves, and our shared purpose, including:
- Scheduling regular team “tune-ups” to place an explicit spotlight on the team’s inner workings and create conversations that surface and improve team dynamics.
- Creating spaces for remote coworkers to connect with their colleagues to foster a team spirit even across distances.
- Holding an anxiety party to serve as a pressure-relief valve, as well as a platform for people to connect and solve problems together.
With reflections, exercises, and practical tips that will prove invaluable to companies, athletes, and families alike, and replete with black-and-white illustrations, The Culture Playbook is an indispensable guide to ensuring that your team performs at its best.
GOOD POWER, LEADING POSITIVE CHANGE IN OUR LIVES, WORK AND THE WORLD
by Ginni Rometty
Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty delivers a powerful combination of memoir, leadership lessons, and big ideas on how we can all drive meaningful change.
Ginni Rometty led one of the world’s most iconic companies, and in Good Power she recounts her groundbreaking path from a challenging childhood to becoming the CEO of IBM and one of the world’s most influential business leaders. With candor and depth, Rometty shares milestones from her life and career while redefining power as a way to drive meaningful change in positive ways for ourselves, our organizations, and for the many, not just the few—a concept she calls “good power.”
With heart, humility, and conviction, Good Power offers an inspiring, compelling guide to creating meaningful change in our lives.
BELONGING: THE SCIENCE OF CREATING CONNECTIONS AND BRIDGING DIVIDES
by Geoffrey L. Cohen
Discover the secret to flourishing in an age of division: belonging. In a world filled with discord and loneliness, finding harmony and happiness can be difficult. But what if the key to unlocking our potential lies in this deceptively simple concept? Belonging is the feeling of being a part of a group that values, respects, and cares for us―a feeling that we can all cultivate in even the smallest corners of social life. In Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, Stanford University professor Geoffrey L. Cohen draws on his own and others’ groundbreaking scientific research to offer simple, concrete solutions for fostering a sense of belonging. These solutions can generate surprisingly significant and long-lasting benefits.
Small but powerful actions can bolster belonging―actions such as encouraging people to reflect on their core values before they face a challenge or expressing belief in someone’s capacity to reach a higher standard. A wide range of innovative approaches have been found to boost achievement at work and at school, bridge political divides, reduce prejudice, and even contribute to overall health. Rigorously tested in diverse arenas―from classrooms to disadvantaged neighborhoods to iconic Silicon Valley companies―these methods offer a path forward in these demanding times. Belonging is a compelling read for all who yearn for a more connected world, whether you’re a manager or employee, an educator or student, a parent or caregiver, or simply someone seeking to make the most out of every moment you spend with others. Packed with actionable insights and specific strategies, this book offers hope and practical guidance, serving as both an inspiration and a roadmap to creating a world of inclusion, understanding, and empathy.
BUILD THE LIFE YOU WANT: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF GETTING HAPPIER
by Arthur C Brooks and Oprah Winfrey
In Build the Life You Want, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action, they show you how to improve your life right now instead of waiting for the outside world to change.
With insight, compassion, and hope, Brooks and Winfrey reveal how the tools of emotional self-management can change your life―immediately. They recommend practical, research-based practices to build the four pillars of happiness: family, friendship, work, and faith. And along the way, they share hard-earned wisdom from their own lives and careers as well as the witness of regular people whose lives are joyful despite setbacks and hardship.
Equipped with the tools of emotional self-management and ready to build your four pillars, you can take control of your present and future rather than hoping and waiting for your circumstances to improve. Build the Life You Want is your blueprint for a better life.
SMART BREVITY, THE POWER OF SAYING MORE WITH LESS
by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz
Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity—think Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for the digital age.
In Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less, Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz teach readers how to say more with less in virtually any format. They also share communications lessons learned from their decades of experience in media, business and communications.
by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
This groundbreaking New York Times bestseller has helped hundreds of thousands of people at work and at home balance stress and recovery and sustain high performance despite crushing workloads and 24/7 demands on their time.
We live in digital time. Our pace is rushed, rapid-fire, and relentless. Facing crushing workloads, we try to cram as much as possible into every day. We’re wired up, but we’re melting down. Time management is no longer a viable solution. As bestselling authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate in this groundbreaking book, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance. The Power of Full Engagement is a highly practical, scientifically based approach to managing your energy more skillfully both on and off the job by laying out the key training principles and provides a powerful, step-by-step program that will help you to:
- Mobilize four key sources of energy
- Balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal
- Expand capacity in the same systematic way that elite athletes do
- Create highly specific, positive energy management rituals to make lasting changes
Above all, this book provides a life-changing road map to becoming more fully engaged on and off the job, meaning physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.
DIARY OF A CEO: THE 33 LAWS OF BUSINESS AND LIFE
by Steven Bartlett
A galvanizing playbook for success from Steven Bartlett, one of the world’s most exciting entrepreneurs and the host of the No. 1 podcast The Diary of a CEO
“This is a must-read for anyone dreaming of doing something audacious.” Jay Shetty
“Valuable lessons about the importance of following a different and unconventional path to power.” Robert Greene
“At the very heart of all the success and failure I’ve been exposed to – both my own entrepreneurial journey and through the thousands of interviews I’ve conducted on my chart-topping podcast – are a set of principles that ensure excellence.
These fundamental laws underpinned my meteoric rise, and they will fuel yours too, whether you want to build something great or become someone great. The laws are rooted in psychology and behavioral science, in my own experiences, and those of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, artists, writers, and athletes, who I’ve interviewed on my podcast.
These laws will stand the test of time and will help anyone master their life and unleash their potential, no matter the field.
They are the secret sauce to success.”
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