Recommended books on leadership & related topics (personal development, sustainability, social innovation, startups, ethics), curated by Gregg Vanourek (Twitter/X: @gvanourek)
Books on Leadership
- Michael Beer, High Commitment, High Performance
- *Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader
- *Peter Block, Stewardship
- *Laszlo Bock, Work Rules: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead
- Brene Brown, Dare to Lead
- *Jim Collins (and colleagues), Built to Last, Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice
- *Stephen M. R. Covey (and colleagues), The Speed of Trust and Smart Trust
- *Max DePree, Leadership Is an Art
- *Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organization
- Mike Ettore, Trust-Based Leadership
- *Bill George, Authentic Leadership
- *Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership
- Ronald Heifetz, Leading without Easy Answers
- John Horan-Kates, The Leader’s Journal: Integrating Head and Heart
- Herminia Ibarra, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader
- Robert Kegan and Lisa L. Lahey, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization
- *James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge
- Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organizations
- *Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Advantage
- John Mackey, Steve McIntosh, Carter Phipps, Conscious Leadership
- Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In
- Kim Scott, Radical Candor
- Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations
- *Bob and Gregg Vanourek, Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations
- *Bob Vanourek, Leadership Wisdom: Lessons from Poetry, Prose, and Curious Verse
- Bob Whipple, Trust in Transition: Navigating Organizational Change
Leadership Derailers Assessment
Take this assessment to identify what’s inhibiting your leadership effectiveness. It will help you develop self-awareness and identify ways to improve your leadership.
Books on Self-Leadership, Life Design, Personal Development, & Career Path
- Mark Albion, Making a Life, Making a Living
- Jenny Blake, Pivot
- *Po Bronson, What Should I Do with My Life?
- Arthur Brooks, From Strength to Strength
- *David Brooks, The Road to Character / The Second Mountain
- *Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection / Daring Greatly
- Bob Buford, HalfTime: From Success to Significance
- *Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Designing Your Life
- Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Designing Your Work Life
- *Kevin Cashman, Leadership from the Inside Out
- *Shirzad Chamine, Positive Intelligence
- Clayton Christensen, How Will You Measure Your Life?
- Jerry Colonna, Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up
- *Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
- *Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
- *Hal Elrod, The Morning Miracle
- Bruce Feiler, Life Is in the Transitions
- *Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life / Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive
- *Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
- Stewart Friedman, Leading the Life You Want
- *John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal
- Bill George & Peter Sims, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
- *Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives
- Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis
- Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, The Start-Up of You
- *Arianna Huffington, Thrive
- Herminia Ibarra, Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career
- Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership
- *Richard Leider, The Power of Purpose / Life Reimagined Repacking Your Bags / Something to Live For / Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?
- *Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness
- *Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- James O’Toole, Creating the Good Life
- *Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak; A Hidden Wholeness
- *Daniel Pink, The Power of Regret: How Looking Back Moves Us Forward
- Jerry Porras et al., Success Built to Last
- *Martin Seligman, Authentic Happiness
- *Emily Esfahani Smith, The Power of Meaning
- *Chade-Meng Tan, Search Inside Yourself
- Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise
- *Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
- *Bob Vanourek, Leadership Wisdom
- Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
- *David Whyte, The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self, and Relationships
Books on Conscious Business, CSR, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Impact, and Sustainability
- Christine Bader, The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist
- Michael Beer et al., Higher Ambition
- Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka, Steve Zimmerman, Nonprofit Sustainability; The Sustainability Mindset
- David Bornstein, How to Change the World
- *Alex Budak, Becoming a Changemaker
- Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing (Patagonia)
- Aron Cramer and Zachary Karabell, Sustainable Excellence
- Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, Forces for Good
- J. Gergory Dees, Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs
- *Rebecca Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
- Jeffrey Hollender, The Responsibility Revolution
- Ryan Honeyman, The B Corp Handbook
- Aaron Hurst, The Purpose Economy
- Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values
- Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls, Jr., Mission, Inc.
- *John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter, SuperCorp
- *Blake Mycoskie, Start Something that Matters
- Raj Sisodia and Sheth, Firms of Endearment
- Lynn Stout, The Shareholder Value Myth
- Paul Thallner, Reinventing Resilience
- *Bob and Gregg Vanourek, Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations
- Kyle Westaway, Profit & Purpose
- Muhammad Yunus, Building Social Business
Books on Ethics and Values-Based Leadership
- Joanne Ciulla, Ethics, The Heart of Leadership
- John Costa, The Ethical Imperative
- Stephen R. Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership
- Mike Ettore, Trust-Based Leadership
- *Rebecca Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
- *Ronald Howard and Clinton Korver, Ethics for the Real World
- *Gus Lee, Courage: The Backbone of Leadership
- John Maxwell, Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know
- Ed Morler, The Leadership Integrity Challenge
- *James O’Toole, Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership and The Executive’s Compass
- Lynn Stout, The Shareholder Value Myth
- Linda Fisher Thornton, 7 Lenses
- *Bob and Gregg Vanourek, Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations
Books on Startups and Entrepreneurship
- Steve Blank (with Bob Dorf), The Startup Owner’s Manual
- *Matt Blumberg, Startup CEO
- Clayton Christensen (and colleagues), The Innovator’s Dilemma; The Innovator’s Solution; The Innovator’s DNA
- Gary Erickson (Clif Bar), Raising the Bar
- *Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, LIFE Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives
- Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing about Hard Things
- Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Delivering Happiness
- *Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs; The Innovators
- *Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From
- Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start
- *Ash Maurya, Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works
- *John Mullins and Randy Komisar, Getting to Plan B
- *Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation
- *Eric Ries, The Lean Startup
- Peter Sims, Little Bets
- Peter Thiel with Blake Masters, Zero to One
- Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk
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Gregg Vanourek and Bob Vanourek are leadership practitioners, teachers, and award-winning authors (and son and father). They are co-authors of Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations, a winner of the International Book Awards. Check out their Leadership Derailers Assessment or get their monthly newsletter.
