Strong, effective leadership is essential for any organization to succeed. Leaders motivate teams, provide vision and direction, make key decisions, and work to better their organizations. There is no single formula or path to becoming an extraordinary leader, but studying the experiences and advice of great leaders can provide invaluable perspective and guidance. Leadership books offer guidance, sharing hard-won lessons, key qualities of remarkable leaders, and frameworks to lead teams effectively. The best leadership books profile historic and modern leaders, examine leadership case studies, and provide research-backed advice.
In this article, we review the best leadership books of all time. These books offer diverse leadership insights, examining leadership successes, failures, qualities, and case studies. From autobiographies of business icons like Howard Schultz and historical figures like Winston Churchill to modern research on Habits of Highly Effective People and Extreme Ownership, these books contain invaluable wisdom to help any reader strengthen their leadership capabilities.
Here are the best leadership books of all time:
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
Warren Bennis’ On Becoming a Leader is a masterful examination of leadership qualities and advice from the man who has been dubbed the “dean of leadership experts.” It examines the lives of historic and modern leaders to extract key traits that allow leaders to inspire, motivate, and guide teams successfully.
Spanning figures from Gandhi to Napoleon and modern CEOs to governors, the book provides a holistic view of extraordinary leaders. Bennis profiles common threads and patterns that allowed these remarkable individuals to lead effectively, emphasizing self-awareness, vision, adaptability, empathy, and more. This illuminating book breaks down complex leadership concepts, making them easily digestible while still being insightful.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey’s iconic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People contains universal guidance to become a better leader and have more fulfilling relationships professionally and personally. It focuses on principles all people should adopt, not skills or tactics. Broken into three sections, Covey first explains how to become an effective person through habits like being proactive, beginning with an end goal in mind, and putting first things first.
The next section examines effective interpersonal leadership, emphasizing mutual understanding. Covey’s book concludes by profiling habits to renew yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally to avoid burnout. 30 years after initial publication, the advice remains practical and applicable for anyone looking to improve their leadership abilities.
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
Extreme Ownership details the leadership lessons learned by decorated retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink during his 20 years commanding SEAL units in intense, dangerous missions. Co-authored by Leif Babin, the book emphasizes how high-performance teams must adopt extreme ownership of decisions and outcomes. When leaders take ownership, teams are motivated, trusted, and strive for shared success.
Written from first-hand experience leading teams who carried out the most dangerous missions imaginable, the advice is direct, clear, and impactful. Willink and Babin provide real-world examples where extreme ownership allowed leaders to overcome challenges and unite teams. Anyone who manages teams will gain invaluable, tough-love leadership principles from this book.
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People is arguably the most impactful self-improvement book ever written, having sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Despite being published in 1936, Carnegie’s advice remains relevant by emphasizing universal interpersonal leadership habits.
Carnegie believed leadership success stemmed from the ability to connect with, understand, and motivate others. His book thus focuses on cultivating emotional intelligence via principles like avoiding criticism and arguments, understanding motivations, and learning names. Building trusted relationships leads to expanded influence and leadership capabilities.
While subsequent leadership books have expanded on Carnegie’s central thesis, his classic work laid the foundation for interpersonal leadership. It remains essential reading for anyone looking to motivate teams effectively.
Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet
Turn the Ship Around tells an incredible true story of organizational turnaround driven by leadership transformations. Author David Marquet was newly assigned to command the struggling submarine USS Santa Fe, which ranked last among sibling sub-forces across all measures from morale to operational excellence.
Rather than wield authority through top-down leadership, Marquet implemented an empowering, collaborative model, allowing his crew to take greater ownership. Through this and other leadership habits, Santa Fe became best-in-fleet while retention skyrocketed. The crew thrived when given trust and responsibility.
The book provides an inspirational case study proving the potency of collaborative, trust-based leadership models in stark contrast to authoritative approaches.
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Made to Stick examines how some ideas resonate and stick in people’s minds while others are instantly forgotten. Authors Chip and Dan Heath analyze universal qualities making ideas memorable and compelling by profiling case studies of effective communication.
Leaders must master strategic communication to connect ideas with teams and the broader public. The Heath brothers break down the traits shared by sticky ideas, emphasizing simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. By understanding and adopting habits of concise, impactful communication, leaders can more effectively convey vision, motivate teams, and drive change. Made to Stick offers a recipe for exactly that.
The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John Maxwell
In The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, acclaimed pastor and leadership expert John C. Maxwell details the top traits all highly effective leaders possess. Spanning qualities like discipline, communication abilities, and problem-solving skills, Maxwell uses historical examples and case studies to break down exactly why these traits fuel strong leadership capabilities.
While many people associate leadership with bold decision-making and high-level strategic vision, Maxwell emphasizes the core intrapersonal and interpersonal habits extraordinary leaders cultivate consistently. By adopting self-discipline, channeling enthusiasm, and becoming a good listener, nearly anyone can substantially strengthen their leadership skills. Maxwell offers playbooks and frameworks to turn these indispensable leadership qualities into daily habits.
Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal
Team of Teams tells an incredible story of large-scale organizational transformation under extreme pressure. Written by retired four-star general Stanley McChrystal, it profiles how he reshaped the Joint Special Operations Command, facing a new threat environment in Iraq.
To defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq during the 2000s, McChrystal adopted an extremely adaptive, transparent leadership model, allowing for decentralized decision-making. By connecting siloed units into a cohesive, flexible “team” sharing real-time intelligence, the task force delivered monumental impacts despite fluid conditions.
McChrystal’s book provides a masterful case study in radical organizational change. Through examining themes like empowering frontline experts and shared consciousness, he offers an invaluable leadership playbook for any complex, evolving business.
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Start with Why examines how iconic leaders and organizations capture hearts and minds by leading with purpose ahead of products and profits. Author Simon Sinek analyzes famous speeches, branding campaigns, and product launches to extract common threads, allowing some leaders to inspire while others simply manage.
Truly iconic leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Apple’s Steve Jobs connected with people through starting communication by detailing their “Why” or purpose. By leading with an inspirational reason for action, they better persuaded teams and customers alike compared to focusing on tactical “Hows” and “Whats“. Sinek’s leadership book provides guidance to harness the power of why in leadership communication, motivation, and decision-making.
The 360 Degree Leader by John Maxwell
Acclaimed leadership expert John Maxwell guides readers to lead effectively regardless of formal authority in The 360 Degree Leader. Most leadership training focuses exclusively on executives and managers. Yet impact and influence come down to much more than a title.
Maxwell thus profiles how to lead in any direction, regardless of management status. Whether influencing lateral peers, guiding superiors, or mentoring frontline employees, individual contributor staff can become powerfully influential leaders in their own right. By cultivating focus, empathy, and accountability, individuals strengthen their leadership habits and maximize their lift. Packed with practical habits and examples, this book reframes leadership as influence rather than formal authority.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There analyzes how strengths can become glaring weaknesses or derailers as leaders and teams scale new heights. Author Marshall Goldsmith profiles 20 key habits that allow leaders to continue evolving rather than plateauing.
Exceptional leaders recognize the habits allowing their rise must continue improving, or their flaws can undermine teams. Through quality self-assessment, they identify blind spots and address counterproductive tendencies like passing blame, refusing feedback, and lacking interpersonal awareness. Goldsmith offers expert guidance in both identifying and overcoming the flaws holding leadership back as organizations grow more complex.
Multipliers by Liz Wiseman
In Multipliers, leadership expert and executive coach Liz Wiseman examines how certain leaders consistently bring out the best in others while others inadvertently squash talent. Wiseman details these diametric approaches of “Multiplier” vs. “Diminisher” leadership through extensive case studies.
Multipliers cultivate talent and enable teams to operate at their highest levels through habits like granting ownership, instilling confidence, and co-strategizing. Diminishers hamper potential by micromanaging, harshly critiquing, and insisting only they have the correct answers. These contrasting leadership archetypes lead to night-and-day performance discrepancies in teams.
By profiling real-world Multiplier leaders across fields like manufacturing, education, and technology, Wiseman provides a playbook to adopt talent-elevating habits or avoid diminishing tendencies. The book helps leaders calibrate their impact, becoming powerful Multipliers who enable their entire organization.
Work Rules! By Laszlo Bock
As the architect behind Google’s exceptional workforce culture, Laszlo Bock provides invaluable insider perspective in Work Rules! He details counterintuitive lessons about hiring, cultivating talent, and building outstanding teams from his tenure. Two-thirds of Work Rules! cover the critical topic of talent management.
Bock upends traditional wisdom on structuring teams, clearly detailing Google’s uncommon tactics around blind resume review, collaborative hiring, ubiquitous feedback and 20% free time for passion projects. Proving their merit, these tactics created perhaps the most successful corporate culture and talent engine in history. The book teaches leaders how to build engaged, empowered teams by giving them greater ownership and purpose.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Respected business author Patrick Lencioni examines how even well-credentialed teams can fail to produce results due to organizational dysfunctions in his leadership fable The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Using a fictional executive team as a case study, he profiles five common pitfalls successful leaders must recognize and overcome to improve team effectiveness.
From absence of trust to lack of commitment or accountability, Lencioni dissects complex team dynamics into addressable concepts. He offers targeted solutions and frameworks allowing leaders to recognize dysfunctional tendencies and actively foster the intrinsic discipline and behaviors allowing teams to thrive. These lessons prove universally applicable for leaders in any sector seeking to build cohesive, empowered teams.
Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith
Marshall Goldsmith’s follow-up to What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Triggers examines daily habits jeopardizing or derailing leadership progress and credibility. Even well-intentioned, highly successful leaders can unconsciously fall into unproductive reactive patterns, compromising influence through emotional flare-ups or condescension.
By identifying and planning for common workplace emotional triggers like being interrupted or dealing with dismissive feedback, individuals can consciously self-regulate reactions. Goldsmith blends cutting-edge neuroscience with case studies to showcase how proactive trigger planning minimizes reactive leadership. The short but research-heavy book expands on his previous work on transforming leadership blind spots into constructive growth opportunities.
Dare to Lead By Brené Brown
Research professor and culture thought leader Brené Brown translates her decades studying vulnerability, courage, and empathy into a leadership context within Dare to Lead. Leadership demands the bravery to listen, be vulnerable, and connect authentically—traits not emphasized in traditional corporate environments.
Yet suppressing the emotional core of leadership compromises relationships and morale. Brown emphasizes embracing courageous vulnerability and dare leading with your heart. It proves radically effective both professionally and personally. Dare to Lead provides research and stories outlining an emotionally intelligent blueprint for leadership far removed from stoic stereotypes.
Good to Great by James C. Collins
In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, acclaimed author Jim Collins highlights the key drivers allowing some companies to make the leap from simply good results to actually attaining market-dominating greatness. He examines leadership and culture within companies enjoying these rarefied transformations.
Through rigorous analysis, Collins concluded elite leadership was a pre-requisite for the leap alongside qualities like fanatic discipline, key people decisions and cultivating a culture embracing brutal truths. Leaders must never compromise excellence even amid success – a rare but indispensable quality shared by the most elite. Good to Great has sold over 4 million copies by detailing the uncommon leadership, strategic and cultural traits driving uncommon results.
Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
Leaders Eat Last draws upon extensive biological and sociological research proving how leaders responsible for their people’s overall welfare outperform by every metric. Author Sinek references military case studies and examples spanning fields like hospitality, education, and sports, depicting where leadership got culture right or wrong.
By emphasizing service over self-interest, truly remarkable leaders like Under Armour founder Kevin Plank inspire team members while producing better results. Leaders Eat Last provides science-backed evidence that prioritizing people proves better for profits and morale alike versus obsessing over short-term numbers. It offers guidance cultivating a caring, performance-driving culture starting from the top.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Thinking, Fast and Slow offers an insightful examination of decision-making from renowned psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman reviews decades of research, for which he won a Nobel Prize, studying how people frame problems and analyze information. He details two systems driving decision-making: System 1 operates automatically with little effort while System 2 focuses deliberately and analytically.
Leaders overly reliant on intuitive System 1 thinking often fall victim to biases and logical fallacies. But information overload overwhelms System 2’s limited capacity. Kahneman offers leaders an operating manual honing judgment, perspective and vigilance. Thinking, Fast and Slow provides mental models distinguishing reflex reactions from concentrated analysis – an invaluable skill for complex leadership challenges involving risk, uncertainty, and mental fatigue.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
From Steve Jobs to The Beatles, Outliers examines high achievers who share unexpected commonalities despite their diverse fields. Specifically, journalist Malcolm Gladwell recognizes how cultivating skills for at least 10,000 hours proves transformational alongside outside advantages like birth timing. Analytical yet engaging profiles reject notions of self-made success, instead emphasizing hidden advantages and diligent skill sharpening.
For leaders, Outliers proves expertise can outweigh innate talents through commitment to deliberate skill improvement. It also stresses making opportunities for others since circumstance and lucky breaks aid success alongside dedication. Outliers replaces inspiration with evidence-based lessons on achieving excellence.
Give and Take by Adam Grant
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant confronts traditional wisdom by proving givers – those sharing time, expertise and connections with others sans expectation – end up more successful than takers in Give and Take. Takers ruthlessly chase short-term gains whatever the cost while givers slave away with no guarantee of reward. Yet givers build broad, authentic relationships and social capital that takers will never achieve.
Grant offers a roadmap reforming workplace culture by empowering more givers to succeed. Leaders supporting givers by scoping smart goals and establishing protective systems are rewarded with exceptional team cohesion and performance. Give and Take offers a well-researched leadership blueprint that challenges Machiavellian norms.
Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman
In Primal Leadership, psychologist and author Daniel Goleman partners with leadership development experts Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee to examine the neurological and biological processes driving leadership effectiveness. They incorporate extensive research into resonating, empathetic leaders motivating individuals on an emotional level while dissonant leaders hamper morale and performance through excessive pacesetting or criticism.
This emotionally intelligent leadership blueprint resonated widely, selling over 2 million copies. Its primal leadership model dissects the emotional components inspiring peak performance. By balancing self-awareness with vision, empathy and communication, leaders maximize workplace fulfillment and results simultaneously.
Legacy by James Kerr
Leadership lessons permeate a broader culture; hence, examining exemplary teams in various settings helps leaders in any field. In Legacy, author James Kerr examines the famed All Blacks rugby team, profiling key insights like purpose over outcome and communal responsibility allowing their sustained dominance. Players ritually sweep locker rooms after matches, despite their prominence, because no one is above the team.
Kerr spotlights coach Steve Hansen’s inclusive, disciplined, but audacious leadership approach keeping stars motivated and hungry through unprecedented success. Legacy extracts powerful yet nuanced lessons around service, culture building and standard setting from the world’s most successful sports team.
Radical Candor by Kim Scott
Radical Candor draws upon Kim Scott’s experiences as a CEO and leadership coach to detail two opposing leadership approaches: overly aggressive – or obnoxiously aggressive – and ruinously empathetic. Neither creates high-performing teams or moves businesses forward, and most default to passive-aggressive niceness over direct challenge and feedback.
Scott preaches a path between, where leaders care deeply but also personally challenge to drive results. By modeling honest care—not rule enforcement—about staff’s careers and shared mission, leaders earn permission to fuel progress with candid feedback, even bluntly sometimes. Radical Candor is the key lever ensuring entire organizations learn rapidly at scale when priorities shift or strategies transform.
Scott’s book details why founders able to both openly criticize and genuinely care for early employees are far likelier to sustain innovative thinking as they scale. For leaders wary of too much honesty compromising morale, Radical Candor offers methods caring abundance prefaces, and caring enforcement – helping even averse personalities practice effectual transparent communication.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Daniel H. Pink upends traditional carrot and stick management motivation in Drive, revealing business incentives frequently backfire long-term. Detailed analysis examining varied tasks shows money increasingly ineffective motivating creative, analytical and problem-solving driven work. Purpose and autonomy far better incent complex cognitive tasks now prevalent across industries given automation handling routine labor.
Leaders thus must better understand intrinsic motivators like mastery, progress and purpose. Successfully motivating modern talent requires context-specific strategies maximizing worker control while defining meaning and skill growth opportunities. Pink offers tactical guidance optimizing motivation through increased autonomy highlighted by companies like Atlassian, Netflix and Whole Foods.
Leaders permitting workers greater independence over processes often see improved results. Drive compels 21st century leaders and cultures abandoning outdated rewards-punishment binaries by spotlighting what truly elevates performance amid exponential disruption.
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg examines why women remain underrepresented in leadership roles despite enormous progress elsewhere. Internal barriers like not “leaning in” during meetings exemplify how women handicap progress out of gender-driven social cautiousness. Sandberg admits feeling out of place surrounded by male peers before recognizing behavior shifts eased imposter syndrome without compromising authenticity.
The leadership book intersperses memoir with advice coaching women to advocate boldly for themselves and other women. Essay-emphasis makes Lean In highly readable while offsetting research quantifies unequal家 but addressable workplace hurdles hindering female leaders. Perfectly balancing acknowledgement of external barriers with solutions internally controllable, Sheryl Sandberg delivers inspiration and evidence supporting organizations elevating exceptional women neglected elsewhere due to bias.
Conclusion & Next Steps
The best leadership books profile behaviors allowing leaders to inspire action, strategize effectively and maximize team fulfillment simultaneously. While no leader exemplifies every quality, analyzing their habits allows anyone to incrementally improve.
These books showcase leaders overcoming struggles by staying fiercely committed to growth through qualities like humility, communication, empowerment and purpose. While each work looks through distinct lenses, common themes emerge around self-awareness, emotional intelligence, culture and leading by example.
Readers should analyze their current behaviors and priorities against the advice contained in these seminal leadership guides. By extracting a few principles resonating strongly in your current role, craft a personalized development plan charting concrete next steps. Revisit and remix these lessons over time as leadership contexts change.
Leaders are not defined by innate skills or circumstances, but rather by their commitment to growth and maximizing collective human potential. By deliberately practicing the key habits allowing the icons profiled within these books to achieve remarkable influence with lasting impact, anyone can strengthen their leadership capabilities exponentially. Leadership is learned – and these books represent the Masters curriculum.
