12 Best Books Every Leader Needs to Read

In previous posts, I provided the best motivational books of all time, as well as the favorite books of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates's summer reading list.

However, I've never really listed out the books that every manager should read to become a better one.

Featured below are books that hone your management skills, usually by providing examples, both good and bad. (The final book is a real hoot.)

I've avoided the autobiographical and biographical "how to" management books, because I usually find they're too specific to that individual to be of much general use.

1. The One Minute Manager

Author: Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Why It's Worth Reading: This classic not only provides the basics of managing people, but emphasizes that it's not really all that complicated to get people to do what you need them to do.

2. First, Break All the Rules

Subtitle: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

Authors: Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

Why It's Worth Reading: Based on an extensive study of managers in different companies, this book pretends to be iconoclastic (hence the title), but is actually a clear manifesto of what has now become standard management practice.

3. Start With Why

Subtitle: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Author: Simon Sinek

Why It's Worth Reading: While the previous book is mostly about hiring the right people and setting them loose, this book is more specifically about providing reasons for people to do what you'd like them to do.

4. Strengths Based Leadership

Subtitle: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow

Author: Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

Why It's Worth Reading: While I don't know whether the research behind this book (and the online survey it promotes) has been replicated or substantiated, this book's intent to be data-driven rather than opinion-driven is to be applauded. 

5. The Art of War

Author: Sun Tzu

Why It's Worth Reading: Although written many centuries ago, this book provides advice about general political strategy and, more important, defeating your enemies without expending a vast amount of effort. Best read alongside The Tao of Pooh (which I almost included in this list.)

6. Good to Great

Subtitle: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't

Author: Jim Collins

Why It's Worth Reading: Probably the best of the "case study" style of management book. While I often question whether case studies are applicable to real-life situations, Collins is a genius at finding commonalities that make successful companies more successful.

7. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Subtitle: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

Author: John C. Maxwell

Why It's Worth Reading: I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of the "xxx principles" format. Nevertheless, this is a classic of that genre and contains a wealth of accessible, easily understood advice.

8. Leadership and Self-Deception

Subtitle: Getting Out of the Box

Authors: The Arbinger Institute

Why It's Worth Reading: Many bosses suffer from confirmation bias, where every fact and event is framed so that it reinforces the boss's preconceived notions. I've watched huge companies topple as the result of self-deception; this book makes you painfully aware of your own tendency toward it.

9. The Essential Drucker

Subtitle: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management

Author: Peter F. Drucker

Why It's Worth Reading: Almost everything that's been written about management since the middle of the 20th century is based in one way or another upon Drucker's work. Reading these excerpts gives you a solid understanding of this seminal thinker.

10. Management and Machiavelli

Subtitle: An Inquiry Into the Politics of Corporate Life

Author: Antony Jay

Why It's Worth Reading: This "classic that you've never heard of" reframes corporate behavior in terms of medieval politics. While the book was written before the PC revolution and many of its corporate stories are hoary, there's a universality to the way Jay presents his arguments that's eye-opening. He later co-authored two classics of political humor, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.

11. The No Asshole Rule

Subtitle: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

Author: Robert I. Sutton

Why It's Worth Reading: All too many bosses tolerate bullying and jerky behaviors, especially from their "star" performers. This book explains why jerks always create more problems than they're worth and suggests ways to either get rid of them or change their behaviors.

12. Crazy Bosses

Author: Stanley Bing