My Definitive Book Recommendation List For Leaders
I've shared a number of book recommendations over time, many of which have influenced my own leadership and coaching approaches.
Here are my most recommended books:
For Improving Leadership:
(Non-common recommendations from others)
Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson: This is a great resource for learning how to scale operations, manage people, and lead at the C-suite level by understanding your strengths and having necessary tough conversations.
Tiny Habits by Professor BJ Fogg: If you're interested in habit formation, this book is a must-read. It explains how to form habits slowly but surely by making them tiny, fitting them naturally into your life, and nurturing their growth.
Turn The Ship Around by L. David Marquet: This book significantly impacted my leadership style, particularly the concept of "I intend to." It's a brilliant reframing of leadership and to those who are going into a under performing team or environment this book will help you rethink and reshape your next steps.
Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed: A must-read for thinking differently, it emphasises tackling things uniquely, then sharing and empowering those around you.
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke: This encourages challenging the status quo intelligently and thinking in terms of probabilities, like in poker. I recommend this book the most for leaders who struggle to runs their own retros and understand the importance of resulting.
Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle: The key takeaway is the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) over IQ, showing that even the "smartest" or richest individuals benefit from empathic coaching.
Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg: This book is excellent for improving your listening skills and learning how to ask better questions. It highlights why some people are naturally good at this, and the opportunities that it presents for leaders.
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish: This helps you craft your own path, improve decision-making, and understand how to place yourself in successful situations. It's full of mental models to guide your journey.
Hidden Genius by Polina Marinova Pompliano: This breaks down how successful people maintain high resilience and leverage their mental frameworks. It also offers insights into how top performers consume content effectively.
The Surprising Science of Meetings by Dr. Steven Rogelberg: This can help you improve meetings and manage your time more effectively. "Meeting recovery syndrome" is a standout concept for many. If you struggle to manage your calendar or understand how your energy is killed by poor and ineffective meetings this book is a must-read or listen.
The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky: This offers a great framework for product development and understanding the intersection of product and design in businesses. I often say to non-product or technical leaders, this book is the unlock you will need in understanding what and how customer think
Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike by Greg Hoffman: This provides great insights from his time as Nike's CMO and stories that help connect deep brand with products, enabling marketing success.
No Rules Rules (the Netflix company culture book) by Reid Hastings: The lesson here is to set requirements and expectations for long-term excellence.
No Filter (the real story behind Instagram) by Sarah Frier: This teaches the importance of being deliberate, prompting, and nudging to change behaviour and create online cultural movements.
Arsene Wenger autobiography: This offers insights into the dedication and work involved in leading an iconic football club, highlighting that leadership is never a copy-paste endeavour.
The Classics
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni: Invaluable for leadership teams. This is the go-to book recommendation from exec coaches, I highly recommend reading this book. I would love to see Patrick and team update for 2026 as the world of work has been reengineered.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World by David Epstein: Explores why generalists succeed in a world of specialists, with compelling examples.
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense by Rory Sutherland: Rory helps to cement that often the most powerful ideas don't initially make sense.
How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp: The bible for most CMO’s, a huge chunk still applies in today’s market.
