KP
Kerry Patterson
Author, Leadership Consultant
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Authors (12)
Greg McKeown
Author and Leadership Strategist
JK
James Kerr
Leadership Consultant and Author
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Authors and Leadership Consultants
John C. Maxwell
Author and Leadership Expert
LW
Liz Wiseman
Leadership Researcher and Author
MB
Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall
Leadership Researchers and Authors
MH
Michael Hyatt
Leadership Author and Entrepreneur
Michael Watkins
Leadership Author and Professor
Robin Sharma
Leadership author and speaker
Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky
Leadership scholars and authors
WJ
Whitney Johnson
Leadership Thinker and Author
Books (42)
Dare to Lead
by Brene Brown
star4.7
Brown's research shows that vulnerability is not weakness but the foundation of courageous leadership. Leaders who embrace discomfort build more trusting, innovative teams.
businessself-help
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
by Ben Horowitz
star4.5
Horowitz shares hard-won lessons from running a startup through near-death crises. There is no formula, leadership means making impossible decisions when there are no good options.
business
Traction
by Gino Wickman
star4.5
Wickman presents the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a framework for running a business with clarity and discipline. It boils leadership down to six key components: vision, people, data, issues, process, and traction.
business
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
star4.1
Lencioni uses a leadership fable to diagnose five interconnected failures that cripple teams: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.
business
Endurance
by Alfred Lansing
star4.5
Lansing reconstructs Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition in gripping detail. Twenty-seven men survived two years stranded on ice through extraordinary leadership and endurance.
history
Extreme Ownership
by Jocko Willink
star4.5
Willink and Babin argue that every leadership failure is ultimately a failure of ownership. Lessons from Navy SEAL combat translate directly: leaders must own everything in their world, no excuses.
businessself-help
Tribal Leadership
by Dave Logan
star4
Logan identifies five tribal stages that define workplace cultures, from hostile survival to visionary collaboration. Upgrading your tribe's language and relationships unlocks the next performance level.
business
The Ride of a Lifetime
by Robert Iger
star4.3
Iger shares the principles that guided Disney's acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. His core leadership lessons: pursue big bets with courage, treat people with fairness, and embrace innovation.
businesshistory
Great by Choice
by Jim Collins
star4.1
Collins finds companies thriving in chaos succeed through disciplined consistency, not bold risk-taking. The best leaders combine fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia.
businessleadership
How the Mighty Fall
by Jim Collins
star4
Collins identifies a five-stage pattern of decline, from the hubris of success to capitulation. Decline is largely self-inflicted and invisible until the late stages, but early detection helps.
businessleadership
Primal Leadership
by Daniel Goleman
star4
Goleman argues a leader's emotional state is contagious and directly shapes team performance. Effective leaders master resonance - driving emotions positively through self-awareness and empathy.
businessleadership
The First 90 Days
by Michael Watkins
star4.1
Watkins argues the first ninety days in a new role define long-term success or failure. Early wins, relationship building, and matching strategy to situation prevent common transition traps.
businessleadership
Turn the Ship Around!
by L. David Marquet
star4.5
Marquet transformed a struggling submarine by replacing command-and-control with intent-based leadership. Giving control to the people closest to the information unleashed extraordinary results.
business
Leaders Eat Last
by Simon Sinek
star4.6
Sinek argues that great leaders create a Circle of Safety so teams can focus on external threats rather than internal politics, and explains the behavior through four chemicals: endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. He contrasts serotonin- and oxytocin-driven selfless cultures with the cortisol-soaked environments produced by fear-based management.
businessleadership
The Speed of Trust
by Stephen M.R. Covey
star4.5
Covey argues that trust is the one variable that accelerates everything in business, and that it is a learnable competency rather than a soft virtue. He unpacks the 4 Cores of Credibility and 13 Behaviors of high-trust leaders, showing with case examples how low trust acts as a tax and high trust as a dividend.
businessleadership
The Advantage
by Patrick Lencioni
star4.5
Lencioni argues that organisational health, being whole, consistent, and minimally politicized, is the last untapped competitive advantage because it is free and nobody is doing it. He lays out four disciplines: build a cohesive leadership team, create clarity, overcommunicate clarity, and reinforce clarity through human systems.
businessleadership
The Ideal Team Player
by Patrick Lencioni
star4.6
Lencioni argues that the best team players are humble, hungry, and smart (people-smart), and that missing any one of the three creates predictable failure modes like the accidental mess-maker or the skillful politician. The fable follows a construction company heir using the three-virtue model to hire, coach, and fire against a team-first culture.
businessleadership
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
star4.7
Goodwin reconstructs Lincoln's decision to appoint his chief political rivals - Seward, Chase, and Bates - to his cabinet, turning adversaries into collaborators. Goodwin argues that Lincoln's emotional intelligence and willingness to absorb dissent were the cornerstones of his wartime leadership.
biographyhistory
Leadership in Turbulent Times
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
star4.6
Goodwin distills five decades of studying Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ into a framework of how leaders develop through ambition, adversity, and crisis. She argues that leadership is learned through specific, identifiable habits of empathy, communication, and resilience during difficult eras.
leadershipbiography
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
by Satya Nadella
star4.4
Nadella recounts his transformation of Microsoft from a know-it-all culture to a learn-it-all culture, pivoting the company to cloud and AI while rebuilding strategic partnerships with former rivals. By last name, Nadella argues that empathy, growth mindset, and a reinvigorated mission are the true foundations of enterprise strategy in the age of ambient intelligence.
businessleadership
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
star4.5
Bossidy and Charan argue that execution is a discipline integral to strategy, not a tactical afterthought, and that it rests on three core processes: people, strategy, and operations, linked by robust dialogue. Drawing on Bossidy's tenure at AlliedSignal and Honeywell, they show how leaders who fail to engage personally in these processes deliver plans that never become results.
businessleadership
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
by Tony Hsieh
star4.6
Hsieh chronicles his path from childhood worm farms through selling LinkExchange to Microsoft and building Zappos into a billion-dollar company acquired by Amazon, arguing that culture, core values, and customer happiness, not product or price, are the real moats. He lays out the ten Zappos core values and makes the case that companies optimizing for employee and customer happiness will outlast those optimizing purely for profit.
businessentrepreneurship
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle
star4.6
The authors, all Google veterans, distill the coaching philosophy of Bill Campbell - the former football coach who mentored Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, and Jeff Bezos - based on interviews with 80 people who knew him. They argue that the best operational leaders in tech ran on trust, psychological safety, and team-first decision-making, and that Campbell's people-centric coaching explains much of the trillion dollars in market value he helped create.
businessleadership
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
by The Arbinger Institute
star4.1
Using a compelling narrative about an executive confronting challenges at work and home, this book exposes the subtle self-deception that undermines leadership effectiveness. It reveals how leaders unknowingly trap themselves in a 'box' of self-justification that damages relationships, teamwork, and organisational results.
leadershipmanagement
Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Change
by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky
star4
Drawing on decades of research and consulting at Harvard Kennedy School, Heifetz and Linsky present a practical framework for exercising adaptive leadership when facing complex organisational challenges. The book addresses the real dangers leaders face when pushing for change, offering strategies for manageing resistance, staying politically astute, and maintaining personal resilience.
leadershipmanagement
The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win
by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
star4.35
The follow-up to Extreme Ownership, this book addresses the most common leadership challenge: finding the balance between opposing forces. Willink and Babin draw on their combat experience as Navy SEALs and business consulting work to show that leadership requires nuance, not just bold decisiveness.
leadershipmanagement
The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
by Camille Fournier
star4.25
A practical guide that walks through every stage of the technical management career ladder, from mentoring interns to manageing multiple teams to becoming a CTO. Fournier draws on her experience as CTO of Rent the Runway to provide concrete advice on the distinct challenges at each level of engineering leadership.
managementleadership
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell
star4.1
McChrystal recounts how the Joint Special Operations Command transformed from a rigid military hierarchy into an agile network of teams to defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq. The book argues that in complex, fast-moving environments, organisations must replace command-and-control structures with shared consciousness and empowered execution.
leadershipmanagement
Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader's Guide to the Real World
by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall
star4.1
Buckingham and Goodall systematically dismantle nine pervasive myths about the modern workplace, from the value of cascading goals to the usefulness of well-rounded people. Drawing on large-scale engagement research and psychological science, the book offers evidence-based alternatives that reframe how leaders should think about culture, feedback, and performance.
managementleadership
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
star3.95
Based on Gallup's landmark study of over 80,000 managers and one million employees, this book identifies the twelve key questions that distinguish great workplaces and the four keys that great managers use to unlock human potential. It challenges conventional management wisdom by showing that the best managers focus on strengths rather than fixing weaknesses.
managementleadership
An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization
by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
star3.9
Kegan and Lahey introduce the concept of Deliberately Developmental Organisations (DDOs), where personal growth is woven into daily work rather than confined to training programs. Through deep case studies of three companies including Bridgewater Associates and Decurion Corporation, the book shows how organisations can be redesigned so that people's deepest desire to grow is aligned with the organisation's need to thrive.
organizational-cultureleadership
Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility
by Patty McCord
star4.1
Former Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord reveals the unconventional HR practices she helped create at Netflix, including radical honesty, the elimination of formal performance reviews, and treating employees as adults who thrive with freedom rather than rules. The book challenges traditional human resources orthodoxy and argues for building cultures based on high performance and transparency.
managementorganizational-culture
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You
by John C. Maxwell
star4.15
Maxwell distills more than three decades of leadership experience into twenty-one foundational laws, each supported by real-world stories from business, politics, sports, and the military. The 25th anniversary edition updates the original framework with fresh examples and insights, including lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic era.
leadershipmanagement
Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life
by James Kerr
star4.12
James Kerr goes inside the New Zealand All Blacks - the most successful sporting team in history with a 77% winning record over more than a century - to extract 15 powerful lessons in leadership, culture, and sustained excellence. Through concepts like 'Sweep the Sheds' (leaders do the menial work) and 'No Dickheads' (character over talent), Kerr reveals how the All Blacks built an organisational culture of humility, purpose, and collective accountability that transcends individual eras and players.
sportsleadership
Joker One
by Donovan Campbell
star4.4
Campbell recounts his experience leading a Marine infantry platoon through some of the fiercest urban combat of the Iraq War. A raw, unflinching memoir of leadership under fire and the bonds forged in battle.
history
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
by Sheryl Sandberg
star4.2
Sandberg argues that women hold themselves back from leadership in ways they often don't realise. She combines personal stories, research, and practical advice for navigating a workplace still shaped by gendered expectations.
businessself-help
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
by Jim Mattis
star4.7
Mattis distils four decades of military leadership into lessons on reading history, building trust, and delegating authority. Includes his famous insistence on blocking out an hour a day for reading, even in combat.
leadershipbiography
Daring Greatly
by Brene Brown
star4.6
Brown draws on twelve years of research to argue that vulnerability is the birthplace of courage, creativity, and connection. The book that sparked her shift from academic researcher to mainstream leadership voice.
self-helppsychology
Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy
by Amy Edmondson
star4.5
Edmondson's influential framework for "psychological safety" argues that high-performing teams are built on the shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. A foundational text in modern management.
businessleadership
The Outward Mindset
by The Arbinger Institute
star4.5
Arbinger's follow-up to Leadership and Self-Deception argues that a fundamental shift from "inward" to "outward" thinking — from focusing on our own needs to seeing others as people — is the most powerful change a leader can make.
businessleadership
The Heart of Business
by Hubert Joly
star4.6
Joly, the former CEO who turned around Best Buy, makes the case for "human magic" leadership: putting people and purpose at the centre of business. A direct rebuke of pure shareholder-value thinking.
businessleadership
Leading From Purpose: Clarity and Confidence to Act When It Matters Most
by Nick Craig
star4.5
Craig argues that purpose is not a discovery exercise — it's already inside you, waiting to be uncovered. The book provides a structured process for finding the experiences that shaped your "purpose statement".
leadershipbusiness