Five Books on Leadership from Independent Authors on Amazon
designACE - your weekly resource for meetings and workshops. Leadership is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice and guidance. Many books on leadership offer insights, advice, and inspiration for aspiring and experienced leaders alike. In this blog post, we will review five books on leadership from independent authors on Amazon that we found informative and engaging.
These books are:
The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
The Leadership Challenge
The Leadership Challenge is a classic book by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner that presents five practices of exemplary leadership based on extensive research and interviews with leaders at all levels.
The five practices are:
Model the way: Clarify your values and set an example for others.
Inspire a shared vision: Envision the future and enlist others in your vision.
Challenge the process: Seek opportunities for innovation and improvement and experiment with new ideas.
Enable others to act: Foster collaboration and trust and empower others to act.
Encourage the heart: Recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of others.
We enjoyed that this book also provides stories, examples, exercises, and assessments to help readers apply the practices to their situations. We know you’ll love that this book is easy to read and understand and offers a practical and proven framework for leadership development. This is an uncomplicated approach to leadership that everyone can benefit from reading.
Primal Leadership
Primal Leadership, by Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, explores the role of emotional intelligence in leadership and how leaders can use it to create positive organizational climates and results.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage one’s own emotions and those of others. The book argues that leaders with high emotional intelligence can create resonant relationships with their teams, leading to higher performance, engagement, and satisfaction.
The book identifies four domains of emotional intelligence:
Self-awareness
Self-management
social awareness
relationship management
It also describes six styles of leadership: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding. Finally, the book explains how each type affects the emotions and behaviours of followers and how leaders can choose the most appropriate style for different situations.
We love that this book focuses on scientific research and real-world examples. We know you’ll love the tools and techniques for developing emotional intelligence and improving leadership effectiveness.
Extreme Ownership
Extreme Ownership shares the leadership lessons learned by two former Navy SEALs, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, who led teams in Iraq's most dangerous combat missions.
The book shows how military leadership principles can be applied to any organization or team. The book’s central message is that leaders must take full responsibility for everything that happens under their command. This means that leaders must:
Own the mission: Define and communicate the goal to everyone involved.
Own the team: Build trust and loyalty among team members and support their growth.
Own the problem: Identify the root cause of any issue and find a solution.
Own the solution: Execute the plan with discipline and accountability.
We love that this book contains battlefield stories that illustrate extreme ownership concepts. We know you’ll find it helpful because of the practical advice on implementing it in business and life.
Dare to Lead
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown challenges leaders to cultivate courage, vulnerability, and empathy in themselves and their teams, based on the author’s research and experience as a social scientist and leadership consultant.
The book argues that courage is not a trait that some people have, and others don’t but a skill that can be learned and practiced.
The book identifies four skill sets of courageous leadership:
Rumbling with vulnerability: Being open to uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure
Living into our values: Aligning our actions with our beliefs
Braving trust: Building trust with ourselves and others through reliability, accountability, integrity, respect, and generosity
Learning to rise: Recovering from setbacks and failures with resilience
We like this book uses familiar tactics like simple examples to bring their points to life. You’ll love the tools and exercises they provide to help readers develop these skills. The book is honest, inspiring, and empowering.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell outline 21 universal principles of leadership that apply to any situation or organization.
Our top 5 of their universal laws are:
The Law of Navigation: Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course
The Law of Addition: Leaders add value by serving others
The Law of Respect: People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves
The Law of Magnetism: Who you are is who you attract
The Law of Explosive Growth: To add growth, lead followers; to multiply, lead leaders
We appreciated how this book illustrated each law through historical, business, sports, and political examples. We know you’ll learn practical tips on applying the laws and improving one’s leadership potential.
In conclusion
Becoming a skilled leader can be accomplished through consistent practice and proper guidance. Numerous publications on leadership offer valuable knowledge, tips, and motivation for novice and seasoned leaders. We hope our review of five distinct authors' leadership books, which can be found on Amazon, was informative and enjoyable for you. Please share your thoughts on our suggested readings.
