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Leadership skills can be honed through learning. Dive into these nine must-read leadership books for invaluable insights and strategies.
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Are you a natural-born or self-made leader? It doesn’t really matter; what counts the most is how effectively you employ your leadership skills. That’s why leaders read leadership books. The best leadership books offer real-life examples, proven strategies, and other valuable insights you can leverage to improve your leadership abilities- continuously. Whether you are beginning your leadership journey or are an experienced leader, books on leadership can provide that extra kick to keep you on track and elevate your abilities. Let’s look at nine must-read leadership books.
One of the common misconceptions that bring down leaders with great potential is the thought that they shouldn’t be vulnerable. In this book, leaders learn that leading with vulnerability, empathy, and authenticity could be what’s missing in their strategies. Being brave and leading with courage doesn’t mean putting on a strong face. Leading with vulnerability and showing empathy is a braver path. It makes developing authentic relationships with team members easier, which inspires them to reach their optimal potential.
Emotional intelligence is a key component leaders must understand, but it’s not always straightforward. Without emotional intelligence, a leader can hardly develop and maintain a team pulling in the same direction. Conflicts arising from failure to understand each other’s emotions can easily become the norm in the team. Primal Leadership book is an ideal read for leaders striving to improve their emotional intelligence and create a positive workplace culture.
You don’t just want to lead. You want to be an influential leader. Transformative leaders inspire others to follow them and innovatively make positive changes. This book provides a comprehensive guide on fundamental principles that characterize successful leadership, which you can leverage to become an influential leader. The 21 irrefutable laws are drawn from the author’s experiences. When practically applied, these laws can transform your leadership and elevate your abilities to influence others to follow you toward achieving set goals.
Every leader strives to build a cohesive team. A lack of trust and cooperation within teams often derails this effort. Trust isn’t easy to foster, especially with diverse teams. This book emphasizes the need for leaders to focus more on the psychological safety of their teams. Safety facilitates the development of healthy relationships that make it easier to build trust and a cohesive team. A culture of trust where everyone feels psychologically safe results in more motivated, engaged, and empowered teams, enhancing productivity.
A leader who can’t motivate their teams is hardly a leader. Leaders must know how to inspire teams to push harder and go the extra mile. But what motivates people? For many organizations and leaders, money and other rewards have been the primary go-to motivators, but are they enough? External motivators, as effective as they can be, do not always deliver. This book dives into internal motivators, such as giving employees autonomy and facilitating personal growth. The leadership book will equip you with the necessary insight on leveraging intrinsic motivation, which is much more effective than external motivators.
How effective are you as a leader? Do you make the right decisions and the right contributions? Do you set the right priorities and effectively manage your time? Where do you generate your strengths? While such considerations may seem basic, they are a must-master skill for any effective leader. This is among the must-read books about leadership as it delves into how to get the right things done by leveraging the basic yet critical aspects. Executives must learn such skills to be better leaders, which extends beyond leadership and into other areas of daily life.
Many books about leadership are all about building a cohesive team, but what does this mean for individuals in the teams? Do they have the right skills? Are they empowered to grow and develop personally and professionally? Tony Dungy’s book places more emphasis on mentorship. Investing more in mentorship enables leaders to prioritize the development and success of the team members. This way, they create a culture of excellence where the members continuously grow and achieve consistent success.
What’s your true north? How well do you follow your internal compass in your leadership? Staying true to your passions, values, and purposes can be challenging as a leader. Nonetheless, you should strive to discover and follow your inner compass to be an authentic leader. Authentic leaders align their leadership styles to their true selves, which allows them to motivate and inspire others to realize remarkable progress and results. Bill George’s True North is among the best leadership books every leader must read. It offers a comprehensive guide to discovering your True North and becoming an impactful, authentic leader.
As you may have deduced from the above list, many books on leadership focus on the skills leaders should develop. They focus on what happens when, as a leader, you elevate your abilities. But what about taking a different angle; what actually causes the common team dysfunctions? Patrick Lencioni takes this route and explores the common causes of dysfunctions. The book covers aspects like the lack of commitment and trust, fear of vulnerability and conflict, and the avoidance of taking responsibility and being accountable. Such insights can help you understand what could be standing in your way of becoming an influential leader.
Whether you are just making your way into leadership or are a veteran leader, there is always room for improvement. Reading books on leadership could provide the spark you need to break those boundaries that are stopping you from becoming a transformative leader.
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