Leadership Books: The Big Bold Reading List for Ambitious Leaders

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.

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