The Big Bold Reading List for Ambitious Leaders
One thing that defines all ambitious leader that I’ve either studied or have been able to spend time with is that they are learners. Learning comes in many ways - being around people, immersing yourself in continuous learning, running lots of experiments and failing a lot, and of course through reading - one of the most accessible and easy ways to access the thoughts and ideas of successful leaders.
In this list, I’ve assimilated some of the most impressive minds out there. Although some of these will be obvious why they are here, may seem like unusual choices. Every single book is here for a specific reason in the way that it’s helped to shape my thinking to be bigger and bolder. Since the learning never stops, this is very much a dynamic list and if you’ve got additional books you’ve found impactful, I’d love to hear them and once I’ve read or listened to them, I’d be keen to add them. I’ve done a very rough assortment into different categories (below) - some probably fit into several categories so at best it’s a rough guide, a way of navigating some of the ideas.
To avoid being self-serving, my books are not included although of course many of the ideas that I’ve gleaned and assimilated from these books will be assimilated in my writing.
These are not ranked in any particular order as I truly believe that each book can serve us at different points in our journey and since we’re all at different points, the most relevant book for one person will be different to the next person.
Leadership Autobiography Books
Principles - Ray Dalio
The Ride of a Lifetime - Bob Iger
Inspiring Leadership - Kevin Gaskell
Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter Isaacson
It’s your Ship - Michael Abrashoff
Banking on it - Anne Boden
Hit Refresh - Satya Nadella
Let my people go surfing - Yvon Choinard
Shoe Dog - Phil Knight
Finding Ultra - Rich Roll
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance - Louis Gerstner
Commanding Excellence - Gary Morton
Legacy - James Kerr
Can’t Hurt Me - David Goggins
David Hockney - The Arrival of Spring
Science Led Autobiography Books
Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck
The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel van de Kolk
Lifespan - Why we Age and Why we Don’t Have to - David Sinclair
Why we Sleep - Matthew Walker
Clearer Closer Better - Emily Balcetis
Psychocybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harare
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
How Emotions are made - Lisa Feldman Barrett
The Fearless Organisation - Amy Edmonson
The Science of Storytelling - Will Storr
Why we do what we do - Dr Helena Boschi
The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Anti-Fragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Switch - Chip and Dan Heath
The Blank Slate - Steven Pinker
Rest - Alex Soojung-Kim
Made to Stick - Chip and Dan Heath
When the Body Says No - Gabor Mate
Deep Work - Cal Newport
The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gwande
Stealing Fire - Steven Kotler
The Chimp Paradox - Steve Peters
Where Good Ideas Come From - Stephen Johnson
Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
Being Mortal - Atul Gwande
Phantoms in the Brain - VS Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee
Peak - Robert Pool and Anders Ericsson
Pre-Suasion - Robert Cialdini
Drive - Dan Pink
Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely
Time to Think - Nancy Kline
Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall
A Billion Wicked Thoughts - Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam
Quiet - Susan Cain
Motivational Led Leadership Books
The One Thing - Gary Keller
Any of his books - Tony Robbins
Rebel Ideas - Matthew Syed
The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwarz
Atomic Habits - James Clear
In Praise of Slow - Carl Honore
Daring Greatly - Brent Brown
So Good They Can’t Ignore You - Cal Newport
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** - Mark Manson
Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink
Grit - Angela Duckworth
The Infinite Game - Simon Sinek
The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt
Bolder - Carl Honore
12 Rules For Life - Jordan Peterson
Seven Habits - Steven Covey
Personality isn’t Permanent - Benjamin Hardy
Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek
Beyond Order - Jordan Peterson
The Alter Ego Effect - Todd Herman
Business Led Leadership Books
The Innovators Dilemma - Clayton Christenson
The Practice - Seth Godin
Little Bets - Peter Sims
The Star Principle - Richard Koch
8020 - Richard Koch
Linchpin - Seth Godin
David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell
Who not How - Dan Sullivan
Zero to One - Peter Thiel
How to Take Smart Notes - Sonke Ahrens
Never split the difference - Chris Voss
Getting Things Done - David Allen
Known - Mark Schaefer
Mastery - Robert Greene
How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
Blitz Scaling - Reid Hoffman
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
How to avoid a Climate Disaster - Bill Gates
Re-inventing Organisations - Frederic Laloux
Reboot - Jason Stockwood
Unsexy Business - Jamie
If I could tell you just one thing - Richard Reed
The Bomber Mafia - Malcolm Gladwell.
What would you add to this list? Please do write to me and let me know.