Throughout the year I constantly point this site’s readers to some of the best leadership content available. One of those resources is books. As you finalize the Christmas shopping for the leader(s) in your life, I want to provide you The Top 20 Best Selling Leadership Books of 2023 as sold on this site.
- The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy Of Leadership by Bill Walsh – One of the top five leadership 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. 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.
- The 16 Undeniable Laws Of Communication: Apply Them And Make The Most Of Your Message by John Maxwell – This is the best book on communication I have ever read!!! Everyone has a message to share. Whether you want to improve your ability to inspire employees, speak at PTA meetings, report to a board of directors, teach students, deliver a sermon, address a small group, speak from a stage, or communicate to an arena full of people, this book can help you.
- Leadership As An Identity: The Four Traits Of Those Who Wield Lasting Influence by Crawford Loritts – As I have often said, this is the best leadership book I have ever read!!! The question itself assumes an atypical answer, simply because it leaves out so much. To ask only about one’s character seems inadequate when defining a leader. We surely need to ask about character, but also about personality, communication skills, IQ, education, previous experience, and more… don’t we? Crawford Loritts disagrees. He answers the question with four simple words: Brokenness, communion, servanthood, and obedience. These four traits form the framework for Leadership as an Identity. By examining each trait, Loritts undermines many pervasive assumptions about leadership that are unbiblical.
- Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life by James Kerr – Difficult times call for different solutions. In his global bestseller, Legacy, James Kerr goes deep into the heart of the world’s most successful team, the New Zealand All Blacks, to help understand what it takes to bounce back from adversity and still reach the top. It is a book about leading a team or an organization – but, more importantly, about leading a life. The kind of life that you want to lead.
- Hidden Potential: The Science Of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant – Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.
- Gridiron Genius: A Master Class In Winning Championships And Building Dynasties In The NFL by Michael Lombardi – Why do some NFL franchises dominate year after year while others can never crack the code of success? For 30 years Michael 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. Also, check out Lombardi’s latest book Football Done Right: Setting The Record Straight On The Coaches, Players, And History Of The NFL.
- The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates The World’s Greatest Teams by Sam Walker – A true classic! The sixteen 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.
- Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results by Shane Parrish – Clear Thinking gives you the tools to recognize the moments that have the potential to transform your trajectory, and reshape how you navigate the critical space between stimulus and response. As Parrish shows, we may imagine we are the protagonists in the story of our lives. But the sad truth is, most of us run on autopilot. Our behavioral defaults, groomed by biology, evolution, and culture, are primed to run the show for us if we don’t intervene. At our worst, we react to events without reasoning, not even realizing that we’ve missed an opportunity to think at all. At our best, we recognize these moments for what they are, and apply the full capacity of our reasoning and rationality to them.
- 4th And Goal Every Day: Alabama’s Relentless Pursuit Of Perfection by Phil Savage – Phil Savage first worked with Nick Saban when they both joined the Cleveland Browns’ coaching staff in 1991. They were reunited in 2009 when Savage became part of the Crimson Tide Sports Network as the radio color analyst. Since then, Savage has enjoyed an up-close view of the Alabama program’s dedication to recruiting, its commitment to practice, and devotion to fundamentals. Through those years of observation, now comes his 360-degree perspective on Alabama football and Coach Nick Saban’s unique coaching style, a style that has led the Crimson Tide to five Southeastern Conference titles, three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances and five national championships.
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership: Follow Them And People Will Follow You by John Maxwell – Dr. Maxwell had two of the Top 10 best-selling books on this site. In this classic, you’ll learn the key principles of successful leadership such as vision, influence, responsibility and commitment. It highlights ways to set goals for yourself and your team while maintaining emotional balance during difficult times. Each law is backed up by inspiring and practical examples from Maxwell’s personal experience.
- Know What You’re FOR: A Growth Strategy For Work, An Even Better Strategy For Life by Jeff Henderson – In Know What You’re FOR, entrepreneur and thought leader Henderson makes it clear that if we want to change the world with our products or our mission, then we must shift the focus of our messaging and marketing. Rather than self-promoting, we must transform our organizations to be people-centric. This sounds like a no-brainer, but looking closer shows just how little this is true and how impactful the change would be if it were. Whether you’re a business leader, a change advocate, or a movement maker, Know What You’re FOR will help you – and your organization – thrive. Also, make sure you check Jeff’s new book What To Do Next: Taking Your Best Step When Life Is Uncertain.
- The Secret Power Of Kindness: 10 Keys To Unlocking Your Capacity To Change The World by Greg Atkinson – The old axiom is true: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. We find ourselves in a cultural moment where people simply want to feel seen, heard, and loved. The good news? A little kindness goes a long way. It’s time for this overlooked and underappreciated fruit of the Spirit to get its due.
- You Win In The Locker Room First: The 7 C’s To Build A Winning Team In Business, Sports, And Life by Jon Gordon – You Win in the Locker Room First draws on the extraordinary experiences of Coach Mike Smith and Jon Gordon—consultant to numerous college and professional teams—to explore the seven powerful principles that any business, school, organization, or sports team can adopt to revitalize their organization. Step by step, the authors outline a strategy for building a thriving organization and provide a practical framework that give leaders the tools they need to create a great culture, lead with the right mindset, create strong relationships, improve teamwork, execute at a higher level, and avoid the pitfalls that sabotage far too many leaders and organizations. Also, make sure you check out Jon’s new book The One Truth: Elevate Your Mind, Unlock Your Potential, Heal Your Soul.
- The Leader’s Mind: How Great Leaders Prepare, Perform, And Prevail by Jim Afremow – The Leader’s Mind taps into the same tips and techniques honed by top-tier athletes, such as how to get in a “zone,” thrive on a team, and stay humble, to become a champion at work and the ultimate team player at home. Based on high-performance psychology research and Dr. Jim Afremow’s two decades of experience providing mental training services across the globe to athletes and business leaders, The Leader’s Mind will help you master:
- Valuable leadership lessons through powerful parables and stories from well-known leaders.
- The actionable steps leaders must take to change their thinking and become the leader they want to be.
- The necessary mindset to push through the challenges you face and take control of your career and home life.
- Tips and techniques to excel and overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and challenges.
- Hidden Genius: The Secret Ways Of Thinking The Power The World’s Most Successful People by Polina Marinova Pompliano – After five years of writing The Profile, Polina Marinova Pompliano has studied thousands of the most successful and interesting people in the world and examined how they reason their way through problems, unleash their creativity, and perform under extreme pressure. The highest performers don’t use tricks or hacks to achieve greatness. They use mental frameworks that fundamentally change the way they see the world. They’ve learned how to unlock their hidden genius in order to reach their full potential.
- Inspired Every Day: Three Indispensable Ingredients To Connect With Your Passion by Kevin Paul Scott – The word inspiration can sound, well, less than substantial, but it’s much more than a momentary flash of enthusiasm or an isolated brilliant idea. The genius of a flashbulb moment happens much more often when a person has developed a lifestyle that blends three indispensable ingredients: a purpose to live for, a problem to tackle, and a partnership with likeminded people. One or two won’t do. It takes all three. Living inspired every day isn’t limited to certain personality types. Everyone can cultivate an inner fire that ignites creativity, instills lasting determination, and brings more fulfilment than we ever thought possible. In this book, Kevin Paul Scott is both engineer and coach: he carefully explains the interwoven elements of an inspired life and he encourages us in our pursuit. Kevin knows that an inspired life is one that’s worth living that will outlast us.
- Going On Offense: A Leader’s Playbook For Perpetual Innovation by Benham Tabrizi – Going on Offense is a powerful resource for anyone looking to transform their organization and their people into a perpetual innovator. Based on a comprehensive seven-year study from Stanford University, Going on Offenseprovides an insider view into the drivers of success and challenges in 26 organizations—including industry giants like Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks—along with actionable advice on replicating their winning approaches. In addition, the book highlights the similarities and differences among their five cultures, which, interestingly, mirror the five icons of industry who are leading or led them: Steve Jobs (Apple), Elon Musk (Tesla), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), and Howard Schultz (Starbucks). The findings draw on a survey of over six thousand executives, academics, and consumers and interviews with several dozen current and former employees of most of the 26 firms.
- Same As Ever: A Guide To What Never Changes by Morgan Housel – Every investment plan under the sun is, at best, an informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past. Same as Ever reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change. With his usual elan, Morgan Housel presents a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. Through a sequence of engaging stories and pithy examples, he shows how we can use our newfound grasp of the unchanging to see around corners, not by squinting harder through the uncertain landscape of the future, but by looking backwards, being more broad-sighted, and focusing instead on what is permanently true.
- Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, And Become Extraordinary by Ozan Varol– Extraordinary people carve their own paths as leaders and creators. They think and act with genuine independence. They stand out from the crowd because they embody their own shape and color. We call these people geniuses—as if they’re another breed. But genius isn’t for a special few. It can be cultivated. This book will show you how. You’ll learn how to discard what no longer serves you and discover your first principles—the qualities that make up your genius. You’ll be equipped to escape your intellectual prisons and generate original insights from your own depths. You’ll discover how to look where others don’t look and see what others don’t see. You’ll give birth to your genius, the universe-denter you were meant to be.
- The Creative Act: A Way Of Being by Rick Rubin – Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.
#CommissionsEarned
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Mighty: 7 Skills You Need to Move from Pandemic to Progress by Brian Dodd – Yes, this is my latest book and I hope you purchase copies if you haven’t already. Production. Passion. Resilience. Teamwork. Contentment. Courage. Faith. These seven skills were embodied over three thousand years ago by a group of elite warriors known as David’s Mighty Men. I want you to know the same skills used by David’s’ Mighty Men still work today. In my new book Mighty: 7 Skills You Need to Move from Pandemic to Progress, I show you how applying these skills can help you become Mighty and move from the Pandemic to Progress.