Each quarter I list a group of books from my current personal reading list which will make you a better leader. This quarter’s collection will help you with personal growth, business leadership, spiritual development, creativity, lessons from the military, and learning the secrets of championship teams.
Also, I can’t recommend enough that you become a reader and continual learner. There are issues you are facing today which can be solved in 48 hours by simply purchasing one or more of the books listed below.
The following are The Top 10 Books Leaders Need To Read In Winter 2023 listed alphabetically by author with the exception of the first book listed:
- Letter To The American Church by Eric Metaxas – The most important book I’m reading this quarter. Can it really be God’s will that His children be silent at a time like this? Decrying the cowardice that masquerades as godly meekness, Eric Metaxas summons the Church to battle. The author of a bestselling biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Metaxas reveals the haunting similarities between today’s American Church and the German Church of the 1930s. Echoing the German martyr’s prophetic call, he exhorts his fellow Christians to repent of their silence in the face of evil. An attenuated and unbiblical “faith” based on what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” has sapped the spiritual vitality of millions of Americans. Paying lip service to an insipid “evangelism,” they shrink from combating the evils of our time. Metaxas refutes the pernicious lie that fighting evil politicizes Christianity. As Bonhoeffer and other heroes of the faith insisted, the Church has an irreplaceable role in the culture of a nation. It is our duty to fight the powers of darkness, especially on behalf of the weak and vulnerable.
- Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson – For over fifteen years, almost any conversation about international soccer has always come back to two players—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—undoubtedly the greatest of their generation but with styles, attitudes, and fanbases that couldn’t be more different. For millions of people around the world “Messi or Ronaldo?” isn’t simply a barroom argument, or an affirmation of fandom, so much as a statement of philosophy, of values, of what global soccer is today and of what it will be tomorrow. Now Wall Street Journal reporters and co-authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, unite the stories of Messi and Ronaldo into a single modern epic of global sports, detailing how one rivalry changed both the game and the business of international soccer—forever.
- No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer – Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, bestselling author of The Culture Map and one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings’s own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world’s most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.
- 11 in ’11: A Hometown Hero, La Russa’s Last Ride in Red, and a Miracle World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals by Benjamin Hochman – I love books about how championship teams are built and perform. Of the 11 World Series titles the St. Louis Cardinals have won in their formidable history, 2011’s victory stands out as something different, something magical. It was the work of a team that seemingly had no business even playing in October yet one that stared down defeat over and over again, refusing to back down until the trophy was theirs. Go inside the front office to see how this roster was constructed; relive the blistering final stretch of the regular season which saw the team winning 20 of its last 28 games.
- Swagger: Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs―A Memoir by Jimmy Johnson – From his early days on the college football fields at Louisiana Tech to his arrival as the Cowboys’ coach in 1989, Swagger traces the history of Johnson’s career, and his lifelong mission to win. His larger-than-life personality and hard-driving, tough-talking coaching style led him to become one of only six coaches in NFL history to win back-to-back Super Bowls. Swagger shows the behind-the-scenes details of his professional conflict with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his personal revelations following his mother’s death and his son’s struggle with addiction. It reveals Johnson’s formula for winning, including his criteria for identifying talent, his core beliefs, how he replaced legendary coaches like Tom Landry and Don Shula, coached stars from a young Troy Aikman to an aging Dan Marino, and established the ever-elusive sense of “culture” that every team leader hopes to achieve. More than a highlight reel, Swagger reveals the hard-won lessons Jimmy Johnson has learned both as a man and as a coach through a lifetime dedicated to excellence.
- Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck by Carey Lohrenz – As an aviation pioneer, Carey D. Lohrenz learned what fearless leadership means in some of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Here, her teams had to perform at their peak&;or lives were on the line. Faltering leadership was simply unacceptable. Through these experiences, Lohrenz identified a fundamental truth: high-performing teams require fearless leaders.
- Corporate Rebels: Make Work More Fun by Joost Minnaar – Today’s workplaces are broken. Badly broken. With 85% of employees disengaged, 23% feeling burned out and 37% believing that their job makes no useful contribution to society, work as we know it today is simply not working. The good news? There is a better way. And it’s not just theory. It’s already practiced in pioneering organisations around the globe. Drawing on Minnaar and De Morree’s visits to 100+ of the world’s most progressive organisations, this book gives direct evidence that you can make work enjoyable and rewarding, while boosting performance and success. This book is for people who know workplaces could, and should, be better. Whether you’re in the leadership team, a rebel who has been suppressed by corporate dogma or a manager who is trapped in the broken system: this book is for you!
- The Lord Bless You: A 28-Day Journey to Experience God’s Extravagant Blessings by Terry A. Smith – From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible makes it clear that our God has a zealous intent to bless you. In this encouraging devotional, Pastor Terry A. Smith will help you recapture God’s heart for His people and discover His extraordinary goodness in your life right now. You will learn not only how much God wants to bless you, but also how to receive His blessing, how to bring blessing to the world around you and how blessing leads to the discovery of your true purpose. Come, see what He will do in you, to you and through you.
- The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life by Tom Verducci and Joe Maddon – Like his teams, Joe Maddon defies convention. He is part strategist, part philosopher, part sports psychologist, and part motivational coach. In THE BOOK OF JOE, Maddon gives readers unique insights into the game, including the tension between art and data, the changing role of managers as front offices gain power, why the honeymoon with the Cubs did not last, and what it’s like to manage the modern player, including stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Yu Darvish, and Kris Bryant.
- Modern Leadership Lessons From the World’s Greatest: Discover Timeless Qualities of 8 Extraordinary Leaders and How to Develop These Game-Changing Skills in Yourself by Paul Wyatt – Many leaders, both in the past and present, have missed the mark. Most are frustratingly out of touch with the people they serve. Instead of striving for the greater good, they ruthlessly pursue personal ambitions and fancies. But, every so often, a handful of good apples rise from the muddied waters and offer a glimmer of hope through their actions, words, deeds, and ability to make things happen. How do they do it? Great leaders are constantly moving, making and learning from mistakes, and growing. Greatness involves constant and painful self-awareness, discovery, and improvement. Of course, each one is cut from a different cloth. But ALL of them share a few things in common.
- ***BONUS*** 2021 The Year In Leadership: The Stories Of Faith, Athletics, Business, and Life Which Inspired Us All by Brian Dodd – Yes, this is my latest book! Each chapter is filled with wisdom and insights from the leaders who succeeded and struggled during 2021. I take these lessons from all walks of life and give 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. The best leaders are the ones who sense and seize opportunity in the midst of chaos. By learning the lessons from 2021, it helps ensure you have the potential to become the leader God meant for you to be in 2023.
What other great books are you reading?
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