I’m working on a project focusing on how the best leaders do not seem to follow “the rules”—they break with convention.

As part of the project I’d love to know your top leadership books and principles.

Some of the top leadership books that I’ve read include the following:

•  The Go-Giver, by Bob Burg and John David Mann
• A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald
• Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Good to Great by Jim Collins

Here’s a more expansive list published by Soundview Magazine as “The 25 Best Leadership Books of All-Time.”

1. On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
2. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
3. Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden & Steve Jamison
4. Good to Great by Jim Collins
5. Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee
6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
7. The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
8. Start with Why by Simon Sinek
9. First, Break all the Rules by Don Clifton
10. Execution by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan
11. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
12. Drive by Daniel Pink
13. Leading Change by John Kotter
14. The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
15. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
16. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
17. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
18. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
19. The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
20. The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
21. True North by Bill George
22. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
23. Tribes by Seth Godin
24. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
25. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Are there any on the list you especially emphasize? Are there any big misses that should be on the list but aren’t?

Photo by Syd Wachs on Unsplash

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published July 2, 2021

Topics: Lessons with Bill

LeadershipWisdom