From My Bookshelf to Yours: 10 Leadership & Business Books You Can’t Afford to Ignore
The topic of leadership fascinates me. Perhaps it’s owing to the leadership genes I inherited from my parents. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been passionate and driven to learn how to become a better leader. I attend seminars, seek out mentors, and voraciously read leadership books. I believe that my quest to learn everything I can about leadership was key to the successes my partners and I had in leading a third-generation small architectural practice. And I believe that reading the right books and then implementing that new knowledge can be key to your success as well.
That’s why I’m sharing this carefully crafted list of my 10 favorite leadership and business books. In the case of many of the authors who made this list, I have read all their books and/or reread these favorites as a refresher decades later. Great leadership is timeless. And remember, the speed of the organization is set by the pace of the leader.
1. E-Myth Mastery by Michael Gerber
I met Michael Gerber in 1998 and he changed my life. I come from an entrepreneurial family and so understand why most small businesses fail. Understanding how to prevent failure holds great meaning for me. I believe Gerber really “gets” the small business owner’s psyche and frustrations. The simple phrase he continually repeats can have a powerful impact if followed – Entrepreneurs need to work ON their business, not just IN their business.
What he is telling entrepreneurs is that we get so caught up in serving our clients, providing the services or producing the products that we do not make enough time to focus on the very necessary activities that make a business flourish. We run out of time to hone leadership skills, and to develop great strategy, marketing, lead conversion, etc. Gerber has written several versions of his book. E-Myth Mastery goes further than the earlier versions because he lays out seven essential disciplines and provides very specific steps with downloadable forms to use.
2. Good to Great by Jim Collins
I have had the pleasure of hearing Jim Collins speak before a live audience on several occasions. What I love about Jim Collins and his books is the vast amount of research he gathers on successful companies to share the similar threads that run through each of these organizations. There are two concepts from Good to Great that have stuck with me since the day I first read this book many years ago. Both concepts have had significant impact on making our good business great. One concept was to focus first on “getting the right people on the bus” because regardless of your business’s needs or direction, the right people can get you there. In Collins’ vernacular, he says “who” before “what.” Pretty groundbreaking concept ― to focus on assembling the best team first and then decide your company’s direction.
The second lasting concept for me, Collins calls the “Flywheel Effect,” which is the effort required to start change and build momentum until change is ultimately achieved. Collins’ book, like Buckingham’s (see #5 on this book list), is based on volumes of data. Collins spent FORTY YEARS following 1,435 “good” companies to find 11 companies deserving of the label “great.” Collins labels companies “great” only if the business’s financial performance is several levels superior to the market average over a sustained period of time, typically through multiple leader transitions.
3. Winning by Jack Welch
I received this book in 2005 from one of my leadership mentors. My copy of Welch’s book has more dog-eared pages and underlined concepts than almost any business book I’ve read. Known as one of the brightest leaders, Welch enjoyed a 40-year career during which he led G.E. to year after year of success despite fierce competition. What I appreciate most about this book is how it lays out multiple concepts for winning by dividing the book into four valuable sections. It starts with Welch’s business philosophies; next he speaks about how to develop a winning company from the inside. Welch moves on to discuss outside challenges like your competition, and finally he concludes with pearls of wisdom for managing your own career.
4. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
You can’t go wrong with reading any of Lencioni’s books because each one has terrific lessons. I’ve read and recommend them all but it is this book ― The Five Dysfunctions of a Team ― that has stuck with me the longest when it comes to the practicalities of developing a highly functional winning team. All Lencioni’s books develop principles through the narrative of fictional characters in a realistic business fable. I found this delivery style easy to read and refreshing. My former architectural firm used the Team Assessment survey at the back of the book to score ourselves on the five dysfunctions and then used a leadership coach to discuss ways we could strengthen our team to much success.
5. First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
I have read several of Buckingham’s books and can’t say enough about them. Each book is based on in-depth data from the Gallup Organization. Now, Discover Your Strengths is also a favorite of mine because I love the idea of having a common vocabulary of team member attributes and learning how that knowledge can help me to work with my team more effectively. However, it was Buckingham’s earlier book First, Break All the Rules that really made a huge impact on how our company made sure that we attracted and kept the most talented employees. We incorporated the book’s 12 questions into our annual one-on-one employee feedback meetings as a simple and accurate way to measure each individual’s work satisfaction. This book is a must read for every supervisor.
6. Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
I’m not overly patient, often wishing that change, opportunity and new business in the organization I lead would come more quickly. As someone on a journey in which I struggle to not let the “achiever” in me take total control of my life, I found this book wonderfully instructional. Gerstner teaches us how he methodically turned the behemoth but failing IBM organization around. So, if you find yourself with the weighty goal of orchestrating a monumental change in your organization, Gerstner’s lessons on how he accomplished lasting change will be invaluable. I can relate to his statement that “his single biggest accomplishment is creating his leadership team” and so I found his insights into how he built his team particularly helpful.
7. Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson & Joseph Grenny
I don’t believe I’ve ever learned so much about communicating in challenging settings than I did from this book. Patterson and team define a “crucial conversation” as one where options vary, stakes are high, and emotions run strong. What is so delightful about this book is that you will be better at handling both professional and personal conversations ― immediately ― with every page you read. There is such a wealth of practical information in this book.
8. Beyond the Summit by Todd Skinner
In 2003, I met world-renowned rock climber and business speaker Todd Skinner. I share his passion for hiking and the great outdoors, so I love his use of mountain climbing as a metaphor for business challenges. Skinner set a gargantuan goal ― to complete the world’s first free ascent (this means to use only your hands, feet and body to make upward progress) of a Grade 7 climb of the 20,500-foot Trango Tower in the Himalayas. He ultimately accomplished that goal, which everyone claimed was impossible.
In his book, Skinner talks about assembling the best team for the mission, encountering difficulties along the way, weathering storms, and finding the stamina for the final hardest steps toward reaching your goal. The story offers interesting parallels and connections that make reading a book about reaching your business summit and overcoming challenges highly thought provoking in a way that may delight you. Tragically, in 2006 while rappelling down Yosemite’s Leaning Tower, Skinner fell 500 feet to his death. I continue to find this book one of the most motivating business books in my vast library.
9. The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema
This book has had one of the most memorable impacts on the success of my architectural firm because in ultra clear language it helped us strengthen our firm by deciding what type of company we wanted to be. The authors’ challenge is – choose your customers, narrow your focus, and you will dominate your market. They lay out three distinct business models with one great example of a company that succeeded in each model. You too will be able to decide is your model Operational Excellence, Product Leader or Customer Intimacy? Once you decide, this book helps you understand the corresponding strategy, pricing, and service decisions your business needs to make.
10. How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
After writing Built to Last and Good to Great (both great reads), Jim Collins turned his attention to the reasons why some of the greatest companies in history fail. After poring over volumes of research, Collins was able to crystallize the five stages of decline. He helps readers identify whether they are in any of these stages, and explains that decline can be detected early and, as long as your company is not in the final stage, decline can be reversed. I found reading about the first two phases of decline the most interesting because I could picture how easy it is to find myself there and yet I never want to be. Stage 1 is called “Hubris Born of Success” and Stage 2 is “Undisciplined Pursuit of More.” The pinnacle of decline is Stage 3 ― “Denial of Risk and Peril” ― the place from which an organization is heading downhill to complete failure. All businesses large and small will learn a great deal about “staying power” from this mighty book.
Being a leader is challenging and can often be lonely. Through reading these lessons from other leaders, I felt a comfort in walking this road and found ideas I could turn into solutions.
Happy reading, friends! The greatest leaders are perhaps the most voracious readers.
