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best leadership books

Best Leadership Books

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Sharing my views and experience throughout Big-Hearted Leadership has been incredibly rich and meaningful, and it means a great deal to me that it has helped so many current and aspiring leaders in our communities. And, while I’m honored to share my philosophy on effective leadership, I embrace the input of other thoughtful individuals on the subject as well. If you’re looking to add additional management books to your collection, I’m sharing my own personally curated list for some of the best leadership books: 

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek 

The concept behind the title comes from the military practice of Marine Corps officers getting in line for their meal after all of those with lower seniority have been served. This daily ritual underscores the importance of leaders’ willingness to sacrifice their own comfort for the good of those they serve, and it makes for a powerful analogy as the central tenet of the book. Sinek is a well-respected thought leader on the subject of organizational behavior, and his TED talk “Start with Why” consistently ranks in the 25 most popular. 

Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization by John Wooden with Steve Jamison

Team sports make for an excellent and practical study of organizations and leadership, and I can’t think of many in a position to offer insights along those lines than universally revered college basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden is a prime example of the humble leader who instills the philosophy of putting the good of the team first in all of his players, and his fundamentally sound advice serves as a valuable playbook for the leadership team of any organization.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

While this one is not strictly categorized as a leadership book, I still include it among the best leadership books I own. It’s a great primer on communication, specifically aimed at providing a strategy for maintaining logic and balance in crucial, high pressure interactions. Any leader or aspiring leader would benefit from a read or a review of this straightforward and practical book.

Dare to Lead: Tough Work. Brave Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brene Brown

Another pop-culture icon and hugely popular TED talk creator, Brene Brown has earned her reputation as a psychology guru of sorts. She is a researcher and professor at the University of Houston, and in this, her most recent #1 New York Times Bestseller, she writes “I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” Her work speaks to cultivating and empowering leaders or aspiring leaders by encouraging vulnerability and bravery, and her background, research and experience provide the credibility to make her presentation compelling.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

Written by the founder of hugely successful internet retailer Zappos.com, this book underscores the concept that passion for one’s work is the key to fulfillment, happiness and success. Hsieh recounts his foundation, his missteps, and his ultimate success in a book that is both witty and moving, but it is his focus on intentional and thoughtful creation of an organization’s culture that makes this such a valuable read for leaders of all kinds. 

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

As a brand, Nike has gone from barely noticeable to iconic, and that journey in itself sparks interest. Add in that the creator and long-time CEO of the brand is notoriously private and in this book offers up a remarkably in-depth look into his life and the early, struggling days of the company, and this becomes a must-read. Knight urges those seeking career advice early in life to find their calling–what they must-do–rather than a career or a job, and this along with his obvious passion for his work make this not just a favorite book of mine but one that both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett count among their picks for the best leadership books as well.

 

woman holding phone

In Real Life – Social Interaction

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I’ve always been a huge advocate of face to face contact whenever possible. It provides a more effective platform for communicating, it feels more sincere, and it allows for greater clarity–all of which reduce the likelihood of a misunderstanding and make a more compelling case for succeeding at an intended accomplishment. It seemed intuitive to me that the loss of eye contact and real-life interaction lowers the connectivity and mutual understanding involved in an interaction, and my professional and personal experience have proven that suspicion to be true. Beyond the intuition and the support of communication theory, however, it appears that there are concrete biological indicators to validate these suppositions. As Susan Pinker explains in her TED talk, social interaction helps us to live longer, healthier lives; watch as she explains more, including how “face-to-face contact releases a whole cascade of neurotransmitters, and like a vaccine, they protect you now in the present and well into the future. So simply making eye contact with somebody, shaking hands, giving somebody a high-five is enough to release oxytocin, which increases your level of trust and it lowers your cortisol levels. So it lowers your stress.” It’s just one more way that being an effective, competent and caring leader not only makes you stronger and better at your job, it also makes for a better life.

 

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One glowing light man raising his hand among other people on light green pastel color background with reflections and shadows .

Doing Well by Doing Good

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There exists a commonly held conception that compassion and empathy are at odds with indicators of financial success, and this is a notion that we need to work hard to combat because it is simply not accurate. Doing well by doing good is not only feasible, it is probable both in business and in life. Acting in an ethical manner makes for sound, long-term productivity and reliability, and these translate into growth in profitability and market share. This is a concept I address in the first chapter of my book–structure is imperative, and being ethical and heartfelt are fundamental to creating reliable, effective structure.

Because I operate in this manner, it was no surprise to me to learn about the benefits of being mindful of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investing; think of factors relating to how corporations treat their workers, build trust and foster innovation, respond to climate change, and manage their supply chains. According to the UN document Who Cares Wins (backed by prominent investment firms worldwide including Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley), “Companies that perform better with regard to these issues can increase shareholder value by, for example, properly managing risks, anticipating regulatory action or accessing new markets.” Additionally, according to Forbes contributor and investment professional Georg Kell, not only is “good corporate sustainability performance associated with good financial results,” but also “in many important markets, including the U.S. and the EU, ESG integration is increasingly seen as part of fiduciary duty.“

The bottom line is that approaching leadership, business, life, and even investing with a compassionate philosophy isn’t just the right thing to do. Done correctly and intelligently, it’s also the more beneficial, effective and profitable route to success.

 

Read more in Forbes.

 

“Big-Hearted Leadership” book by Donn Sorensen with Vaughn Kohler

Leading With Empathy

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As seen in Forbes by Joresa Blount

Ben Horowitz is not your regular venture capitalist.  As half of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the largest venture capital firms, he knows a thing or two about surviving the ups and downs of startup life.  Horowitz, who is also the author of The Hard Thing About Hard Things, shed some truth of being a CEO.

“Running your own company is incredibly emotionally challenging,” he said.  There was a time when he would wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out a way to save a startup.  He admits being a CEO is something you learn on the job. Some founders of startups he has invested in never held that role previously.  “It’s easier to teach the innovator how to be a CEO than to teach a CEO how to be an innovator,” he explained. “It’s great to have someone on your board that has actually started a company and been CEO,” said Horowitz.

Since being a great leader is something that happens day to day on the job, Horowitz did have one essential tip for founders, according to MillionaireMatch. “I think people skills seem to be highly underestimated in terms of the stability to run a company,” he said. “The ability to understand other people’s motivation, those you talk to and those you aren’t talking to,” he continued.  In an article from 2010, Horowitz noted three key traits of a leader:

  1. The ability to articulate the vision.
  2. The right kind of ambition.
  3. The ability to achieve the vision.

Now, the keyword attached to leadership is empathy.  Instead of it being categorized as a soft skill, it’s in the file of essentials if you want to be an effective leader.   Donn Sorensen, author of Big-Hearted Leadership, says that empathy is what makes one organization outperform another. Sorensen writes in the section of his book titled Value Vulnerability, “Instead of being the kind of leader who makes him or herself unapproachable or unassailable, you should be the first person to say when you’ve screwed up.  In other words, give them your weaknesses, not just your strength.” Sorensen lays out what qualities a great leader should have which includes genuineness, integrity, emotional intelligence, resolve, courage and most of all tenderness and enthusiasm. “The common mistake is they focus on themselves and their own success, trappings of the office and return on investment.  Those may be fine, however a CEO will not be highly successful unless they focus on their people and put them first,” said Sorensen.

Technology

Being Genuine Online

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I have a chapter in my book entitled “Turn Your Organization into a Force for Good,” and it’s a concept I feel very strongly about. Leaders have the ability to galvanize entities into action, and it’s important to optimize that potential to do good in our communities. In the same regard, I really find it to be a moral imperative that as leaders, we offer as much positivity and inspiration to others as we’re able.

While this certainly applies to our organizations and communities, it extends beyond that into the realm of social media as well. The current climate of what can best be described as conflicting and full of animosity is toxic, and we can all do better. Whether we are leaders or aspiring leaders in our professional lives or not, we can apply the principles of Big Hearted Leadership to our individual presence on social media to make a concerted effort at changing the nature of the conversation.

Being generous in your genuineness is one of the five pillars of Big-Hearted Leadership, and applying this principle to our social media lives could go a long way towards improving the climate. As a society, we value vulnerability and the courage to be authentic in others, yet it can be incredibly hard for us to exhibit these qualities ourselves. Big-Hearted Leaders take this risk, and they do it wholeheartedly and with enthusiasm. If each of us vows to increase our willingness to be genuine, and we extend this to our social media channels, we will transform the content our social circles are consuming, thereby initiating momentum for them to feel emboldened to become more genuine in their interactions. We are the authors of social media’s fate, so let’s make it a force for good.

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