My Top Leadership Reads 2021

I love to read - ever since I was a kid, I’ve spent as much of my free time as possible engrossed in a book. Childhood me would be pretty stoked I ended up writing books! Though possibly disappointed that I’m writing business books and not legal thrillers a la John Grisham.

Books remain one of the the most incredible ways for us to grow and develop. How else can we access the life’s work of an expert for less than $40?!

Anyway, I digress. If you’ve read You Don’t Need An MBA and you’re looking for some more brain-fodder to level up your leadership and you're the kind of person to look beyond the bestseller list, check out some of these titles. All vetted by yours truly.

Adaptive leadership 

• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How successful people become even more successful by Marshall Goldsmith

• The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world by Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky

• The Strategist: Be the leader your business needs by Cynthia Montgomery

• Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield 

• Start With Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action by Simon Sinek

Flexibility 

• The Obstacle is the Way: The ancient art of turning adversity to advantage by Ryan Holiday

• Fear Your Strengths: What you are best at could be your biggest problem by Kaplan & Kaiser

Decisions 

• Predictably Irrational: The hidden forces that shape our decisions by Dan Ariely

• Moments of Impact: How to design strategic conversations that accelerate change by Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon

• Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman

• Seeing Around Corners: how to spot inflection points in business before they happen by Rita McGrath

• The Strategy Book: How to think and act strategically to deliver outstanding results by Max McKeown

• Creating Great Choices: A leader’s guide to integrative thinking. by Jennifer Rield and RL Martin

• Rebel Ideas: The power of diverse thinking by Matthew Syed

Systems

• 11/22/63: A novel by Stephen King

• Think in systems: complexity made simple: the theory and practice of strategic planning, problem solving, and creating lasting results by Zoe McKey

• Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

Performance

• Dual transformation: how to reposition today’s business while creating the future by Anthony, Gilbert & Johnson

• Atomic Habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits and break bad ones by James Clear

• Necessary Endings: the employees, businesses, and relationships that all of us have to give up in order to move forward by Henry Cloud

• Essentialism: the disciplined pursuit of less by Greg McKeown

• When: The scientific secrets of perfect timing by Dan Pink

Influence

• Influence: Science and practice by Robert Cialdini

• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

• Lead the Room by Shane Hatton

• Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die by Chip & Dan Heath

• To Sell is Human: The surprising truth about moving others by Dan Pink