Make time to read. This is especially important when seeking the best leadership books. These books can inspire and guide you.

Reading can help you build your skills. It gives you an escape from your current situation. You can also learn from other people’s experiences.

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers”

Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States

Books can’t teach you everything about leadership. But they can offer you with new ideas. Books encourage you to make better decisions. They remind you of important fundamentals and concepts.

Reading business books can be enjoyable and critical to improving one’s leadership skills.

The best leaders have the best habits. One of these habits is reading. 

It is one of the most powerful sources of growth and habits of highly effective people.

Top 10 leadership books to read today

To inspire your own reading list, here is a list of the best 10 books you should read about leadership.

1. Leaders: Myth and Reality

Authors: Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone

Why should you read this book? In this book, Stanley McChrystal, a retired general who spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, collaborates with his co-authors Jeff Eggers and Jason Mangone. They discuss 13 great leaders. They also explain that leadership is not what you think it is.

This book explores the ancient old question: “What makes a leader great?”

There is no simple answer. The book explores the stories of these famous leaders. It shows how they used leadership in various eras and fields.

This book challenges our thinking about leadership. For example, General Robert E. Lee did everything right in his military career. Yet, he led the Confederate Army to defeat in the service of an evil-minded cause.

2. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

Authors: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Why should you read this book? A no. 1 New York Times bestseller, this book provides firsthand accounts from the U.S. Navy Seals and their heroism, tragic loss, and hard-won victories.

The book shows that the U.S. Navy Seals learned that leadership is one of the most important factors in whether a team succeeds or fails.

This book has become required for many of the most successful organizations. It details the mindset and the principles that allow the U.S. Navy Seals to unite. They achieve some of the most difficult combat missions in the world. They create high-performing teams that dominate the battlefield.

The authors of this book, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, are former leaders of a U.S. Navy SEAL team who helped U.S. forces secure Ramadi, a violent, insurgent-held city in central Iraq that was deemed “all but lost.”

This book provides powerful instruction and direct application to challenges leaders on fulfilling their purpose: lead and win.

3. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t

Author: Simon Sinek

Why should you read this book? The author of the popular book Start With Why provides insights on building a workplace around trust. They share how to avoid the silos that doom unsuccessful cultures.

Many successful companies today create environments where people want to work together and do remarkable things. The author worked with companies around the globe. During this time, the author realized that some teams literally put their lives on the line for each other.

During a conversation with a Marine Corps general, the author learned that “officers eat last.” The author watched as the most junior Marines ate first. Meanwhile, the most senior Marines were at the back of the line.

Great leaders sacrifice for the good of those on their team. With many workplaces driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest, the organizations that foster trust and cooperation are the most successful.

4. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

Authors: John Maxwell

Why should you read this book? This book is one of the best-selling leadership books of all time. The author of this book is a worldwide recognized leadership expert and speaker.

He discusses the 21 fundamental “laws” of leadership that are true to leaders in any culture or area of society. 

This book provides an evaluation tool to help you reveal your leadership strengths and weaknesses. It also provides application exercises in every chapter to help you grow as a leader.

Each chapter of this book discusses one of the leadership laws. These include the law of influence, the law of process, and the law of respect. Whether you like these laws or not, the laws of leadership govern your personal and organizational effectiveness. As the author says, “everything rises and falls on leadership.”

5. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

Author: Daniel Coyle

Why should you read this book? It takes you inside some of the world’s most successful organizations today, like the U.S. Navy’s SEALs, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs, to show you what makes them really succeed.

It boils down to a great culture built, strengthened, and sustained over time.

The author explores the culture-building process and identifies key skill areas that foster cohesion and cooperation.

This book discusses how diverse groups can learn to work with a single mind. The author explains what cultures should do or avoid. The book also describes common cultural pitfalls. Additionally, it outlines how to reform a toxic culture.

This book provides a road map for today’s leaders. It aims to create an environment that fosters innovation, solves problems, manages expectations, and exceeds expectations.

6. What Are Your Blind Spots? Conquering the 5 Misconceptions that Hold Leaders Back

Authors: Jim Haudan and Rich Berens

Why should you read this book? Are you aware of your blind spots and how they impact your leadership approach? This book discusses how leaders today use old, legacy thinking and best practices to engage and motivate their teams. As a result, many teams are failing.

This book explains that today’s most successful organizations are “purpose-driven.” They drive strategic change. They encourage customer loyalty and foster employee engagement.

The authors explain how leaders should discard old ways of thinking. They should recognize the five common leadership blind spots that hamper success.

This book will show you how to recognize your blind spots and overcome them. The authors will equip you with the necessary tools to engage and motivate your team.

7. The Power of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World

Authors: Jon Gordon

Why should you read this book? As a leader, you will experience many challenges, tests, and people who are negative.

This book explains that life can be hard. Positive leadership is essential to success. It is what makes great leaders great.

This book explains that a positive leader can help build a great culture. The leader can unite your organization in the face of challenges. They can also create a committed team that produces excellent results.

Author Jon Gordon also wrote The Energy Bus. It is a best-selling book. The book reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work positively and progressively.

He has interviewed some of the greatest leaders of our time, researched, and shared what he has learned. This book provides a framework with proven principles, stories, and ideas to help you become a positive leader.

8. Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust

Authors: Edgar Schein and Peter Schein

Why should you read this book? It provides a perspective on leadership where your vulnerabilities can become your strengths. The authors challenge the traditional way of leadership, which has become outdated and ineffective.

They explain that companies today face more complex, interdependent tasks. Leadership should become more personal and open. This way, leaders can create an environment of collaborative problem-solving.

The book calls for leadership that meets today’s trends. This includes relationship building, complex group work, and a diverse workforce.

This book explains that humble leadership is rooted in a deep understanding of group dynamics. This understanding fosters collaboration. Such collaboration will help your organization achieve the agility you need to succeed.

9. The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win

Authors: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Why should you read this book? This book, from the same authors of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, helps leaders walk the fine line of leadership balance. This balance is crucial to succeed in today’s world.

While reading this book, the authors will guide you. They will help you find balance between the opposing forces. These forces pull every leader in two different directions.

The book explores these questions: When should you lead and when should you follow? When should you let the team run itself, and when should you dive into the details?

The authors give examples from their combat experiences while serving on the U.S. Navy SEAL team and explain how these lessons can be applied to the business world. Learn the mission-critical skills for any leader and how your team can succeed.

10. Leadership: In Turbulent Times

Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Why should you read this book? Does the leader make the times, or do the times make the leader? Are leaders born or made? How does adversity impact the growth of leaders?

The author examines four U.S. presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson) to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves. In today’s polarized world, you can learn from these leaders.

This book describes how these leaders confronted the dilemmas of their times, guided by a sense of moral purpose.

These famous leaders faced their most significant challenges. They managed to harness their talents. They led others through hardships in turbulent times.

BONUS! Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)

Author: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Why should you read this book? The author marshals decades of research to build his case on why we should re-evaluate our views on leadership.

This book discusses our tendency, as a society, to equate leadership with certain personality traits. These traits are statistically more to be found in men, like confidence, extroversion, and charisma.

These same characteristics can backfire as overconfidence, narcissism, and even psychopathy, resulting in a disaster for an organization.

The author argues that we should value competent, unassuming, and humble leaders more. And we should not encourage women to Lean In and adopt dysfunctional leadership traits.

What are some of the best leadership books to read?

Leadership isn’t something you master once; it’s a lifelong journey of learning, adapting, and growing. The best leadership books offer timeless wisdom and fresh perspectives. They give real-world strategies you can apply. These strategies work whether you’re leading a team of two or two thousand.

These books help leaders master emotional intelligence. They guide them in navigating tough decisions. They also help in building high-performing cultures. Countless leaders have risen to the challenge with their help. But we know this list is just the beginning.

What are some of the best leadership books you think everyone should read? Is your favorite title missing from the list? Share your top recommendations in the comments. Great leaders never stop learning, and your suggestion can be exactly what someone else needs to grow.

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