The Top 20 Best-Selling Leadership Books As Determined By You The Readers

The Perfect Christmas Gifts For Leaders

Many of you reading this site are going to be getting Amazon gift cards for Christmas.  I want to help you know how to best leverage those resources.

Frequent visitors to this site know of my love for reading and my desire to promote quality authors and resources.  As a result, A LOT of books get purchased through this site.  I want to make you aware of what content resonated the most this past year with this tribe of leaders.

Before getting to this year’s books and authors, make sure you check another year-end resource, The Top 25 Most Read Leadership Blogs Of 2021 As Determined By You The Readers, if you haven’t done so already.

The Top 20 Best-Selling Leadership Books

The following are The Top 20 Best-Selling Leadership Books As Determined By You The Readers:

1. Unshakable Hope: Building Our Lives on the Promises of God by Max Lucado.  This was my site’s top-selling book of 2021.  In the New York Times bestselling book, Unshakable Hope, Max Lucado unpacks 12 of the Bible’s most significant promises, equipping you to overcome difficult circumstances by keeping your focus on the hope found in the promises of Scripture.  Whether it’s heart disease or cancer, job failure or addiction, natural disasters or family disasters, mass murders or mental illness, there are so many reasons to be overwhelmed and hope can feel hard to come by. Now more than ever, we need the definitive declarations of our mighty and loving God.
2. Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by Craig Groeschel.  Great book! We’ve all tried to think our way out of bad habits and unhealthy thought patterns, only to find ourselves stuck with an out-of-control mind and off-track daily life. Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Craig Groeschel understands deeply this daily battle against self-doubt and negative thinking, and in this powerful new book he reveals the strategies he’s discovered to change your mind and your life for the long-term.
3. Uncommon Leadership by Ben Newman – In Uncommon Leadership, performance coach and motivational consultant Ben Newman takes you inside the minds and hearts of eleven exceptional individuals: athletes, coaches, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and others whose unrelentingly high performance has made them not only the best in their fields but also unquestioned leaders in sports, business, and life. Ben breaks it down, honing in on the core qualities that drive these trailblazers to push for the best in themselves and others, every single day.
4. BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by Jim Collins. BE 2.0 is a new and improved version of the book that Jim Collins and Bill Lazier wrote years ago. In BE 2.0, Jim Collins honors his mentor, Bill Lazier, who passed away in 2005, and reexamines the original text of Beyond Entrepreneurshipwith his 2020 perspective.   The book includes the original text of Beyond Entrepreneurship, as well as four new chapters and fifteen new essays. BE 2.0 pulls together the key concepts across Collins’ thirty years of research into one integrated framework called The Map. The result is a singular reading experience, which presents a unified vision of company creation that will fascinate not only Jim’s millions of dedicated readers worldwide, but also introduce a new generation to his remarkable work.
5. If Jesus Gave A TED Talk: Eight Neuroscience Principles The Master Teacher Used To Persuade His Audience by Dr. Charles Stone.  There are many ways to improve public speaking abilities, but in this compelling book, popular speaker Dr. Charles Stone offers a new approach, a way to move past your limitations and become a more confident speaker and stellar persuaded.  Stone blends the latest neuroscience research on communication and learning with how Jesus, the Master Teacher, persuaded his audiences. It’s a revolutionary new method capturing the attention of speakers who want to lift their skills to the next level.
6. Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe by Voddie Baucham Jr. The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the summer of 2020 shocked the nation. As riots rocked American cities, Christians affirmed from the pulpit and in social media that “black lives matter” and that racial justice “is a gospel issue.”  But what if there is more to the social justice movement than those Christians understand? Even worse: What if they’ve been duped into preaching ideas that actually oppose the Kingdom of God?  In this powerful book, Voddie Baucham, a preacher, professor, and cultural apologist, explains the sinister worldview behind the social justice movement and Critical Race Theory—revealing how it already has infiltrated some seminaries, leading to internal denominational conflict, canceled careers, and lost livelihoods. Like a fault line, it threatens American culture in general—and the evangelical church in particular.
7. Row the Boat: A Never-Give-Up Approach to Lead with Enthusiasm and Optimism and Improve Your Team and Culture by P.J. Fleck and Jon Gordon. In Row the Boat, Minnesota Golden Gophers Head Coach P.J. Fleck and bestselling author Jon Gordon deliver an inspiring message about what you can achieve when you approach life with a never-give-up philosophy. The book shows you how to choose enthusiasm and optimism as your guiding lights instead of being defined by circumstances and events outside of your control.
8. Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking by Jon Acuff. Overthinking isn’t a personality trait. It’s the sneakiest form of fear.  It steals time, creativity, and goals. It’s the most expensive, least productive thing companies invest in without even knowing it. And it’s an epidemic. When New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff changed his life by transforming his overthinking, he wondered if other people might benefit from what he discovered. He commissioned a research study to ask 10,000 people if they struggle with overthinking too, and 99.5 percent said, “Yes!”  The good news is that in Soundtracks, Acuff offers a proven plan to change overthinking from a super problem into a superpower. 
9. Jesus the King: Understanding the Life and Death of the Son of God by Tim Keller. Now, Timothy Keller, New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet and the man Newsweek called a “C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century,” unlocks new insights into the life of Jesus Christ as he explores how Jesus came as a king, but a king who had to bear the greatest burden anyone ever has. Jesus the King is Keller’s revelatory look at the life of Christ as told in the Gospel of Mark. In it, Keller shows how the story of Jesus is at once cosmic, historical, and personal, calling each of us to look anew at our relationship with God. It is an unforgettable look at Jesus Christ, and one that will leave an indelible imprint on every reader.
10. Change Your World: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make a Difference by John Maxwell.  Whatever the desire of your heart—better schools, better neighborhoods, more positive workplaces, more connected families, or more engaged communities—Change Your World will guide you through the entire process to take action and start making an impact today right where you are. You can bring about positive, lasting change in the world and you don’t have to be rich and famous or lead a big organization to do it.  Global leadership and development icons John C. Maxwell and Rob Hoskins provide the inspiring and practical roadmap to get started being the change you want to see – in your community and beyond.
11. The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh.  One of the Top 10 books I’ve ever read! Bill Walsh is a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty. In the process, he changed the way football is played.  Prior to his death, Walsh granted a series of exclusive interviews to bestselling author Steve Jamison. These became his ultimate lecture on leadership.  Additional insights and perspective are provided by Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and others.  Bill Walsh taught that the requirements of successful leadership are the same whether you run an NFL franchise, a fortune 500 company, or a hardware store with 12 employees. These final words of ‘wisdom by Walsh’ will inspire, inform, and enlighten leaders in all professions.
12. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory by Tod Bolsinger.  Explorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. While they had prepared to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains. You too may feel that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along.  Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.
13.  Great Lives: Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit (Great Lives Series) by Chuck Swindoll. The apostle Paul was, by his own description, “the chief of all sinners.” Yet, this colossal figure left an indelible signature of greatness never to be forgotten. Some would argue, no other person in the Bible, aside from Christ Himself, had a more profound influence on his world and ours today than Paul. In this book, Charles Swindoll paints a vivid picture of this remarkable man and his story. 
14. The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership by Sam Walker. The seventeen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain—a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. Drawing on original interviews with athletes, general managers, coaches, and team-building experts, Sam Walker identifies the seven core qualities of the Captain Class—from extreme doggedness and emotional control to tactical aggression and the courage to stand apart. Told through riveting accounts of pressure-soaked moments in sports history, The Captain Class will challenge your assumptions of what inspired leadership looks like.
15. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people’s minds–and our own. As Wharton’s top-rated professor and the bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take, he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he’s right but listen like he’s wrong. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You’ll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don’t have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It’s an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom.
16. Create the Future + the Innovation Handbook: Tactics for Disruptive Thinking by Jeremy Gutsche. Create the Future is an exciting, highly-visual guidebook for disruptive thinking, innovation, and change, paired with The Innovation Handbook, an updated version of the award-winning book, Exploiting Chaos. The 360-page bestseller is loaded with the same tactics, tools and frameworks that Gutsche’s team uses to accelerate 700 of the world’s most powerful brands, billionaires, CEOs and NASA.  In short, you are capable of much more than you think, and our current period of chaos in presenting you with a unique window of opportunity.  COVID-19 has entirely reshuffled the deck, and changed consumer needs. Millions of businesses have already been disrupted, many more are about to fail, and yet, new consumer needs are creating an opportunity that could reshape your future.
17.  After Amen: What to Do When You’re Waiting on God by Rusty George. Though none of us pray enough, we all pray some. There eventually comes a moment when we get desperate enough to cry out to God. We pour out our prayers, making confessions, promises, and deals, then we say Amen. And we wait. And wait. Sometimes the silence is deafening, and we question whether God hears us or not. We wonder if our prayers ever got past the ceiling, if he’s even there, or if he is waiting on us to do something. So what do we do while we wait for God to answer our prayers? As a pastor with decades of experience, Rusty George offers a new way to help you connect with God and get answers while you wait. By exploring the ministry of Jesus, you will encounter a variety of people who come to him in need, but receive a mixed response; while some get an immediate answer, some have work to do, and some simply wait. As you read, discover the powerful steps of faith you can take after saying Amen.
18. The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities by Patrick Lencioni. In what may be his edgiest page-turner to date, Lencioni thrusts his readers into a day-long conversation between rival CEOs. Shay Davis is the CEO of Golden Gate Alarm, who, after just a year in his role, is beginning to worry about his job and is desperate to figure out how to turn things around. With nowhere else to turn, Shay receives some hard-to-swallow advice from the most unlikely and unwanted source―Liam Alcott, CEO of a more successful security company and his most hated opponent.
19. The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin. Based on the breakthrough Akimbo workshop pioneered by legendary author Seth Godin, The Practice will help you get unstuck and find the courage to make and share creative work. Godin insists that writer’s block is a myth, that consistency is far more important than authenticity, and that experiencing the imposter syndrome is a sign that you’re a well-adjusted human. Most of all, he shows you what it takes to turn your passion from a private distraction to a productive contribution, the one you’ve been seeking to share all along.
20. The Uniform of Leadership: Lessons on True Success from My ESPN Life by Jason Romano.  Jason Romano learned incredible lessons during his seventeen years as a producer at ESPN–and these fundamentals for success on the field or court work just as well in other spheres of leadership, especially when you add God’s direction to the playbook.  This collection of compelling, inspiring, and often funny stories challenges readers to ask themselves the hard questions. It draws them into introspection and then directs them into action so they can cultivate habits of service and excellence in themselves and in those around them. From Tony Dungy to Darryl Strawberry, Will Ferrell to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, readers will discover how to replicate the principles practiced by some of the most influential leaders in sports and entertainment. And in the end, they’ll be able to construct thriving cultures where the people they lead can bloom where they’re planted and serve one another.

#CommissionsEarned

Just a final reminder – I recently released my The 2-Minute Leader Coaching Course will give you and your team the exact tools needed to grow and develop into the type of leaders every organization desperately needs.  I want to get this coaching into as many hands as possible.  That’s why I’m offering this coaching course for the insanely low cost of $37!!!  This is not a misprint – you can begin creating a leadership culture and pipeline for only $37!!!

This course (which would make the perfect Christmas gift) includes:

• 10 Coaching Videos for your leaders to watch
• A 99 page PDF workbook
• 5 PDF Copies of my 2-Minute Leader book
• Confidence in your leadership development plan at your church

The 2-Minute Leader Coaching Course is a great resource for equipping your team members to fulfill their unique roles and find purpose and meaning in their lives.  Click HERE or the image above to order!