This is a selection of the best leadership books that we personally review and examined.
Although it’s called “best leadership books“, it’s actually a “best leadership resources” list, since it considers any source of knowledge such as videos, courses, or podcasts.
Note on selection: Every resource has been reviewed by Lucio Buffalmano
Unlike many ‘best leadership books’ lists online, every entry on this page has been analyzed through the lens of real-world power dynamics and social psychology. This ensures that the advice you see here isn’t just ‘popular’ but strategically sound
14. Lean In
We don’t support Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘help other women’s angle because we find it divisive, tribalist, and un-meritocratic.
That being said, Lean In contains great wisdom for women in business.
Just one example: women should negotiate from a “we” position because assertive women are disliked across the board.
Dig deeper on these strategies in these posts:
Leadership Quote: Done is better than perfect
13. How To Win Friends And Influence People
How to Win Friends and Influence People is not strictly a leadership book per se.
But it can help many current and future leaders understand that top-down “orders” often breed resentment and have little buy-in.
This is not to say that strong top-down leadership has no place: there are times and situations when it’s the way to go -or the only way to go-. But as a rule of thumb, authoritarian leadership is not good for long-term performance -and, often, for the survival of the leader himself-.
Also read: saving face and never outshining the master.
Leadership quote: Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding
12. Extreme Ownership
I’m not a huge fan of the work of former military personnel leveraging war and experience to sell books.
And it’s not for moral reasons, but for the limited know-how to add value to the readers.
Such as, they have leadership experience, which is great, but often only in a very limited scenario, which is not good, and little knowledge of research literature, also not good.
So in some cases, it feels like they’re selling hype to the civilian population who wants to buy some “danger” and “excitement” through vicarious living.
In this specific case, it also feels hypocritical -who took ownership of finding those weapons of mass destruction?-.
Anyway, let’s now get to the content, and Extreme Ownership shares some important mindsets that leaders the whole world over would benefit from.
The title of the book itself is probably the main takeaway: leaders must take responsibility for everything which happens in their team.
Leadership Quote: There are no bad teams. Only bad leaders.
11. The Leadership Challenge
This is a top “manual” type of leadership, a great starting opint for any aspiring leader.
Leadership Quote: Exemplary leaders know that if they want to gain commitment and achieve the highest standards, they must be models of the behavior they expect of others
10. Leaders Eat Last
Leaders Eat Last is one of the best leadership books because if all leaders heeded Simon Sinek’s message we would live in a much better world.
Unlikely, it’s inherently also naive if you take it as a how-to leadership guide because it refers to how the world should be.
Sinek says that leaders, by virtue of their positions, enjoy a plethora of advantages.
However, great leaders also need to shoulder the responsibilities of leadership, which include leading by example, eating last when food is scarce, and taking care of the people by shouldering the risks and downsides.
I don’t fully agree with Sinek’s assertion that leaders are not responsible for final results and I disagree with some of the “softer” approaches. In life, there also happen situations when an iron first is more needed.
That being said, Leaders Eat Last is a wonderful book and a must-read for anyone who aspires to be the best possible leader they can be.
Leadership Quote: You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him
9. Eleven Rings
If you are planning to lead top-performing teams, then you might learn a thing or two from the guy who has coached some of the most talented, motivated, and driven men in the history of basketball (including Michael Jordan, Pippen, and Kobe Bryant).
It’s particularly interesting because some of the top athletes he coached didn’t like each other and were quarreling for the leader’s position in the team (Shaquille O’Neal VS Kobe Bryant) while some others were pure rebels by nature (Dennis Rodman).
Lots to learn about leadership here when it comes to super-driven individuals working together.
Leadership Quote: the secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.
8. The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership
My absolute favorite lesson is Law N.1, which Maxwell calls “The Law of The Lid”.
It states that the effectiveness of the leaders is the maximum threshold to which the team can operate.
I personally apply an even wider meaning to this rule. To me, it means that any leader must be in some form or respect “superior” to the team in some important and recognized trait.
That could be decisiveness, strength, wisdom, experience, or strength of values and beliefs (charismatic leadership).
I have indeed seen plenty of managers who could NOT keep good people in their teams because they were, simply, inferior individuals in core aspects of their personalities -including, crucially, in ethics and morals-.
In a nutshell, to be a great leader, be a great man (or great woman).
Leadership Quote: leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others
7. Drive
Drive can fix some of the most glaring deficiencies of managers’ understanding when it comes to human nature.
All the information on human psychology and what motivates people is out there.
It doesn’t require managers, leaders, or anyone else to reinvent the wheel. It requires some basic reading and not going through our lives with our eyes shut (figuratively).
“Drive” is one of the best leadership books because it provides one of the most important pieces to understand human nature when it comes to work, team performance, and motivation.
And it’s this: extrinsic motivators such as salary and material rewards don’t produce passion and motivation. On the contrary, they can crow out intrinsic motivation.
To learn more about the phenomenon also read The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson.
Leadership Quote: control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement
6. Delivering Happiness
Summary (review removed) | Amazon
Leadership has been linked to decisiveness, strength, and courage, and also to empathy and vulnerability.
But to happiness? Not so often!
This is why we propose this book: to offer a different take as a reminder that morale matters because it’s linked to mental empowerment, the foundation of personal effectiveness.
Leadership Quote: money alone isn’t enough to bring happiness.. Happiness is when you’re actually truly ok with losing everything you have.
5. Principles
If you want to develop a culture that is all about growth, learning, and, ultimately, top performance, then Principles by Ray Dalio is simply the best organizational book available.
It’s not easy to implement because the key principles of radical open-mindedness and radical transparency require a buy-in into meritocracy that goes beyond ego and personal fiefdoms of power.
In many ways, they go against the “default” human nature that most of us are born with.
Yet, by developing an antifragile ego and a growth mindset, we can all tap into what’s our next stage of human wisdom and power.
And maybe, on the way there, build a multi-billion company as Ray Dalio did :).
Leadership Quote: truth – more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality – is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.
4. Underboss
By Peter Maas
Summary
What’s so good about this book?
While all the others books here talk about leadership, Underboss shows you leadership.
Especially, you will learn from the failures of leadership, and the Machiavellian aspects of leadership.
And that makes it one of the best on this list, much more “real life” than bla bla bla on what makes a great leader.
Leadership Quote: “It was a big disgrace for the family. A real black eye. You give him up in five minutes to the Genovese family? Would you want your father giving you up like that? That was a bad, bad move Paul made. A real bad move. You want to know your boss is going to fight for you tooth and nail
3. Radical Candor
By Kim Scott
Summary | Audiobook
If you’re looking for leadership books that can help you in your business or in your team at work, look no further.
Kim Scott’s approach is designed to develop top-performing teams via both radically honest feedback and personal caring toward the people.
It’s best suited for best-performing companies and teams. You probably cannot use the wisdom of this book if you’re in a company where office politics is the name of the day and if you’re not yet a high-level manager.
For that, read “best career strategies books“.
But if you want to create the best possible working environment, where people can grow the most and where your work is performed in the most effective way possible, look no further.
Once again though, we must warn you about the naive-risk if you take this “how things should be book” for “how things actually are”.
Leadership quote: I once worked for a man who told me, “In every relationship there is a screwer and a screwee.” Needless to say, I didn’t work for him for long.
2. Leadership BS
By Jeffrey Pfeffer
Summary | Audiobook
A mandatory read especially after “Radical Candor”.
Leadership BS will bring you back to earth on how things most often are -rather than “how it’d be cool they were”-.
Also very much in line with this website and the work we do: describing how things truly are, so that you can be the most effective you can be, and achieve your goals.
Leadership Quote: Go home and throw out the numerous leadership books—or better yet, give them to career competitors.
1. The New Psychology Of Leadership
By Alexander Haslam
Summary | Amazon
This book is heavy, long, full of academic research, expensive, and difficult.
But it’s the most empirical book on the list. It’s not a compendium since the authors also introduce their own concepts and theories. But overall, we found it to be the most instructive and insightul by a fair margin.
Leadership Quote: Leadership that is grounded in shared identity will always win out over that which is grounded in ego.
Bonus: Power University
By Lucio Buffalmano
Overview | Reviews
Focus: Real-world power dynamics and goal achievement
Format: Multimedia Course.
Power University is relatively expensive, harder to consume casually (for example, at bedtime), and requires more mental effort.
But it can be a good fit for those who want something more immersive and strategic.
While the majority of this list focuses on the written word, Power University is included here as a living resource for those who prefer a multimedia approach with video examples as well.
The second major distinction is a focus on not only management, but also goal achievement, self-advancement and power dynamics, including how to become a leader, how to maintain respect and influence, and how to advance at work.
In practice, it can serve as a bridge between the research-heavy foundations of The New Psychology of Leadership and the practical execution required in corporate boardrooms.
Best for: Men who want an integrated, application-focused system that combines research with real-world scenarios.
Less ideal for: Readers who prefer a book format, people on a budget, and it is less tailored to women, as version 9.0 primarily focuses on men
Key Leadership Components:
- Behavioral Modeling: Video analysis of executive presence and frame control.
- Organizational Politics: The social and power dynamics of workplaces, teams, and boardrooms
- Self-advancement: Strategies for combining effective leadership with self-advancement in competitive environments (which standard books often gloss over)
Objective Note: This is an internal resource, and we analyze it with the same critical lens as the external books on this list
Good Leadership Books
Outside of the TOP 10, but still with plenty of wisdom:
- The One Minute Manager: simple but good primer
- Onward: Onward embodies the spirit of the leader who is driven by passion and deeply in love with his craft, with a ‘family approach’ to this team (albeit I think employees shouldn’t fall for that: your company is never your family)
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: A golden nugget about the psychology and dynamics of “enemies within”, such as the disgruntled employees who do little work and secretly undermine the team’s efforts.
- Good to Great, on what distinguishes great leadership from average one (share credit and take blame; modest; want to see the company success even after they’re gone)
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: One of the best leadership books to understand the importance of teamwork, trust among team members, and how the free flow of opinions and information differentiates top-performing teams from average ones.
- Creativity Inc.: Possibly the best leadership book when it comes to creative organizations and creative cultures. The biggest takeaway for me: share the problems and the reasoning behind your choices. People will take ownership and will not waste time second-guessing what’s happening.
- Winning If you want to model a hard-driving, results first and people-second type of leader, then Jack Welch is your man. Warren Buffett said it’s the only book you’ll ever need to read on management. I don’t necessarily agree, but it’s definitely a significant endorsement -and I also actually loved the book-.
- The Truth About Leadership: Kouzes and Posner are two big names in the leadership literature. And for good reasons: they write simply and without frills while going at the core of what it means to be a great leader. In this wonderful book, they boil it down to ten simple rules, all backed by research.
- The Dichotomy of Leadership. Leadership has no extremes: it’s about walking the line. A few great takeaways from this book, include that great leadership also means knowing when to follow, when to ask for more junior members’ opinions, and establishing a good relationship with your boss even if you don’t agree with him (or like him).
The Leadership Literature
Let me say this straight:
A good chunk of the popular literature on leadership is poor.
It’s naive because it talks about how things should be, rather than how things are.
And sells what sounds nice, rather than what actually gets you in leadership positions and keeps you in power.
I highly recommend this article on naive self-help:
