At no time in my life has there been a greater need for leadership. At the same time, there seems to be the greatest shortage of qualified leaders in my lifetime as well. The reason is not just one thing. Character issues, selfishness, and a refusal to pay the price required to lead are the primary reasons, but another alarming statistic may give further insight into the problem.
The following is a chart of mentions of leadership in books since 1800. As the chart shows, there has been a significant drop since 2016.
Leaders are readers so a drop in leadership books is a reason for major concern. Books are an invaluable leadership resource and there appears to be a declining issue in the subject. It is a data-driven metric for one of the reasons we are having leadership issues.
For a small amount of money (often less than the cost of a lunch) and a few clicks on Amazon, books allow you to gain access to a highly-successful person’s entire lifetime of wisdom and experience. Also, there are problems you are facing other people have already solved. Those solutions can often be delivered to your door in 48 hours of less.
It’s time for leaders to get better and that starts by reading books!
So if you have neglected your reading as a leader, I want to give you my 10 favorite leadership books written since 2016 you may have missed and should have in your library. These are in alphabetical order by author except for the first one.
- 2021 The Year In Leadership: The Stories Of Faith, Business, Sports, And Life Which Inspired Us All by Brian Dodd – Yes, this is my most recent book. It may be self-serving but do you feel ill-equipped to handle the leadership challenges of a pandemic and post-pandemic world? If so, you no longer have to. Over 80 of his most popular articles make up the pages of this book. Each chapter is filled with wisdom and insights from the leaders who succeeded and struggled during 2021. I take lessons from all walks of life and gives you practical steps on how to best use them in your own leadership. As you will discover, the stories are entertaining, challenging, inspiring, and sometimes even sobering. By learning the lessons from 2021, it helps ensure you have the potential to become the leader God meant for you to be in the days ahead.
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear – If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
- BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business Into A Great Enduring Company by Jim Collins – This is the compilation of all of the Jim Collins books. 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 Culture Code: The Secrets Of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle – In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture. Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded.
- Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin – “After five decades of magisterial output, Doris Kearns Goodwin leads the league of presidential historians” (USA TODAY). In her “inspiring” (The Christian Science Monitor) Leadership, Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope.
- Originals: How Non-Conformist Move The World by Adam Grant – Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent. Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo.
- Gridiron Genius: A Master Class In Building Teams And Winning At The Highest Level by Michael Lombardi – I absolutely love this book! Why do some NFL franchises dominate year after year while others never crack the code of success? For 30 years Lombardi had a front-row seat and full access as three titans–Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick– reinvented the game, turning it into a national obsession while piling up Super Bowl trophies. Now, in Gridiron Genius, Lombardi provides the blueprint that makes a successful organization click and win–and the mistakes unsuccessful organizations make that keep them on the losing side time and again.
- Call Sign Chaos: Learning To Lead by Jim Mattis and Bing West – I would be completely remiss if I did not have a resource from our armed forces. Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’s storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas—and short-sighted thinking—now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles but fighting inconclusive wars. Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership.
- Covert Cows And Chick-fil-A: How Faith, Cows, And Chicken Built An Iconic Brand by Steve Robinson – This is my favorite business book ever! During his thirty-four-year tenure at Chick-fil-A, Steve Robinson was integrally involved in the company’s growth–from 184 stores and $100 million in annual sales in 1981 to over 2,100 stores and over $6.8 billion in annual sales in 2015–and was a first-hand witness to its evolution as an indelible global brand. In Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A, Robinson shares behind-the-scenes accounts of key moments, including the creation of the Chick-fil-A corporate purpose and the formation and management of the now-iconic “Eat Mor Chikin” cow campaign.
- The Cubs Way: The Zen Of Building The Best Team In Baseball And Breaking The Curse by Tom Verducci – A GREAT leadership book from top to bottom. How did a team composed of unknown, young players and supposedly washed-up veterans come together to break the Curse of the Billy Goat? Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs’ transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball. Beginning with Epstein’s first year with the team in 2011, Verducci will show how Epstein went beyond “Moneyball” thinking to turn around the franchise. Leading the organization with a manual called “The Cubs Way,” he focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry as well as statistics. To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs’ bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and late-arrival game days to loosen up his team, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with Old School leadership to help his players find their edge.
Get a book. Read it. Do what it says. And let’s start solving this leadership shortage problem.
My latest eBook is available for download. The Top 65 Leadership Quotes Of 2022 Part 1 is a resource every leader should have. Great quotes bring clarity and put into words who we intuitively feel as leaders. They give us wisdom and insights which advance the mission and vision of our organizations. This eBook includes thoughts and insights from leaders like Warren Buffett, Nick Saban, James Clear, Dawn Staley, Jurgen Klopp, Jerry Seinfeld, and even Ted Lasso. This resource will take you about 10 minutes to read but a lifetime to apply. You will want to stop and ponder the implications of each quote. Click HERE or on the image provided for immediate download!