Recommended Reading
The best leaders are avid and life-long learners. We hope you enjoy this list of books. Fortunately, there is no shortage of good authors to learn from. We also provided reading excerpts for some of our favorites. Happy reading!
- Loren B. Belker, Jim McCormick & Gary S. Topchik – The First-Time Manager – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Warren Bennis – On Becoming A Leader – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Warren Bennis & Joan Goldsmith – Learning To Lead: A Workbook on Becoming A Leader
- Warren Berger – A More Beautiful Question – The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough ideas
- Peter Bevelin – Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger
- Keki Bhote – Beyond Customer Satisfaction to Customer Loyalty – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Leo Bottary & Leon Shapiro – The Power of Peers
- F. Leigh Branham – Keeping The People Who Keep You In Business – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- W. Steven Brown – The 13 Fatal Errors That Manager’s Make and How You Can Avoid Them
- Marcus Buckingham – First, Break All The Rules
- Marcus Buckingham – Now, Discover Your Strengths
- Bo Burlingham – Small Giants – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Jim Canfield and Kraig Kramers – CEO Tools 2.0
- Ole Carlson – Beneath the Armor – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Rick Carson – Taming Your Gremlins
- Lorna Catford and Michael Ray – The Path of the Everyday Hero
- Shirzad Chamine – Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential
- James Champy & Nitin Nohria – The Arc of Ambition: Defining The Leadership Journey
- Robert Cialdini – Influence – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Donald O. Clifton – Soar With Your Strengths
- Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist
- Paulo Coelho –Life: Selected Quotations
- Paulo Coelho –Manuscript Found in Accra – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Jim Collins – Built To Last – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Jim Collins – Good To Great – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Jim Collins – How The Mighty Fall – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Mickey Connelly – Communication Catalyst
- Daniel Coyle – The Culture Code – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and The Making of Meaning
- Ray Dalio –Principles: Life and Work
- Mihir A. Desai – How Finance Works
- Richard Dowis – The Lost Art of Great Speech
- Peter Drucker –The Essential Drucker
- Peter Drucker – The New Realities
- Angela Duckworth – Grit
- Charles Duhigg – The Power of Habit
- Charles Duhigg – Smarter Faster Better – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Will and Ariel Durant – The Lessons of History
- T. Harv Ecker – Secrets of The Millionaire Mind
- Tim Ferriss – Tools of Titans
- Tim Ferriss – Tribe of Mentors
- P.M. Forni – The Thinking Life – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Viktor E. Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
- Viktor E. Frankl – Yes To Life: In Spite of Everything – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Mo Gawdat – Solve For Happy – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Robert G. Gift & Catherine F. Kinney – Today’s Management Methods
- Malcolm Gladwell – Blink
- Malcolm Gladwell – David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfit, and the Art of Battling Giants
- Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers: The Story of Success
- Malcolm Gladwell – Talking To Strangers
- Malcolm Gladwell – The Tipping Point
- Malcolm Gladwell – What The Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
- Judith Glaser – Creating We
- Daniel Goleman – Emotional Intelligence
- J. Barry Griswell & Bob Jennings – The Adversity Paradox
- Stephen Grosz – The Examined Life
- Peter Guzzardi – Emeralds Of Oz – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Gary Hamel – Leading The Revolution: How To Thrive In Turbulent Times By Making Innovation A Way Of Life – Review Ed’s PowerPoint
- Charles Handy – Beyond Certainty: The Changing Worlds of Organizations
- Charles Handy – The Elephant and The Flea – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Charles Handy – Gods of Management
- Daniel Harkavy – Becoming A Coaching Leader
- Jim Harris – Getting Employees To Fall In Love With Your Company – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Arnoldo C. Hax and Nicolas S. Majluf – The Strategy Concept & Process
- Robert Heller – Business Masterminds: Peter Drucker – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Bryce G. Hoffman – American Icon: Alan Mulally and The Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
- Robert Iger – The Ride of A Lifetime
- Susan Jeffers – Feel The Fear…And Do It Anyway – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Brian Johnson – A Philosopher’s Notes
- William Joyce, Nitin Nohira, and Bruce Roberson – What Really Works
- Gary Keller – The One Thing – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton – The Strategy Focused Organization
- Jon R. Katzenbach – Peak Performance: Aligning The Hearts and Minds Of Your Employees – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Daniel Klein – Every Time I Find The Meaning of Life, They Change It – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Stanley Kogelman and Barbara R. Heller – The Only Math Book You’ll Ever Need
- Randy Komisar – The Monk and The Riddle
- Phillip Kotler – Kotler on Marketing
- Philip Kotler – Corporate Social Responsibility
- John Kotter – Leading Change
- John Kotter – The Heart of Change
- John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do
- James Kouzes and Barry Posner – The Leadership Challenge
- James Kouzes and Barry Posner – Learning Leadership – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Pat Lencioni – The Five Temptations of a CEO – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Pat Lencioni – The Four Obsessions of An Extraordinary Executive – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Pat Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions of A Team
- Pat Lencioni – Death By Meeting – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Pat Lencioni – Silos, Politics and Turf Wars
- Larry G. Linne – Make The Noise Go Away
- Mary Lore – Managing Thought
- James Lucas – Fatal Illusions – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Mark Lutterman – Abe’s Final Masterpiece
- Larry G. Linne – Make The Noise Go Away
- Og Mandino – The Greatest Miracle In The World
- Og Mandino – The Greatest Salesman In the World
- Og Mandino – The Greatest Secret In The World
- Jean-Francois Manzoni & Jean-Louis Barsoux – The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome
- Garold L. Markle – Catalytic Coaching: The End Of The Performance Review
- Bernard Marr – Key Performance Indicators
- Don R. Marshal – The Four Elements of Successful Management
- John C. Maxwell – Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Make
- John Medina – Brain Rules – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Roland Merullo – Breakfast with Buddha
- Danny Meyer – Setting The Table
- Philip Mudd – The Head Game
- Eugene O’Kelly –Chasing Daylight
- Richard Olivier – Transformational Leadership
- Mukul Pandya – Lasting Leadership
- Mark Parrott – Meta-Trends And The Next Economy
- Randy Pausch – The Last Lecture
- M. Scott Peck – The Road Less Traveled – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Krishna Pendyala – Beyond The PIG and the APE: Realizing Success and True Happiness
- Jordan B. Peterson – 12 Rules for Life – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Donald T. Phillips – Lincoln on Leadership – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Donald T. Phillips – Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership
- Donald T. Phillips – Founding Fathers on Leadership – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Tom Rath – Are You Fully Charged?
- Tom Rath – Strengthsfinder 2.0
- Tom Rath – Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements
- Andrew Roberts – Leadership In War – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Ed Robinson – On Leader and Business
- Ed Robinson – Reflections On Life and Leading
- Tony Robbins – MONEY: Master The Game
- William J. Rothwell – Effective Succession Planning – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- David M. Rubenstein – How To Lead
- Elizabeth D. Samet – Leadership: Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Eric Schmidt – Trillion Dollar Coach– Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Susan Scott – Fierce Conversations
- Tom Searcy – Whale Hunting
- Gillian Zoe Segal – Getting There: A Book of Mentors
- Tal Ben-Shahar – Choose The Life You Want
- Tal Ben-Shahar – Happier – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Tal Ben-Shahar – The Pursuit of Perfect
- Robert Skrob – Retention Point
- Rob Slee – Time Really is Money – Read Ed’s Excerpts
- Jack Stack – The Great Game of Business
- Michael Bungay Stanier – The Coaching Habit
- Admiral James Stavridis – The Leader’s Bookshelf
- Tony Stoltzfus – Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide To Powerful Asking Skills
- William Strauss and Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Skin In The Game
- Richard Templar – The Rules Of Life
- Daniel Tobin – Transformational Learning – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin – Differentiate or Die – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Key Management Models – Marcel van Assen, Gerben van den Berg, & Paul Pietersma
- Chris Voss – Never Split The Difference
- Craig Weber – Conversational Capacity
- Jack Welch – Straight From the Gut – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
- Jack Welch – Winning
- John Whitmore – Coaching for Performance
- Richard Wiseman – 59 Seconds: Change Your Life In Under A Minute
- David Whyte – Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
- David Whyte – The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America
- David Whyte – The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self & Relationship
- Geno Wickman – Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business
- Don Yaeger – Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently – Review Ed’s PowerPoint Summary
Other Recommended Reading Lists
- 7 Great Business Books You Must Read (forbes.com)
- 9 Psychology Books Every Businessperson Should Read (inc.com)
- 11 Books Every Young Leader Must Read (hbr.org)
- 11 Of The Best Self-Development Books Of All Time (goalcast.com)
- 25 Best Self Improvement Books To Read No Matter How Old You Are (lifehack.org)
- Best Business Books (goodreads.com)
- The 16 Best Business Books of 2019 (inc.com)
- The 31 Most Influential Business Books Ever Written (businessinsider.com)
- Top 10 Topical Leadership Books (psychologytoday.com)
Interested in learning more about leadership?
Ed’s books on Leadership, Life and Business will elevate your knowledge and give you the confidence to apply it to your personal and professional life.