Top 10 Books On Management And Leadership [Updated 2025]
Management and leadership run parallel to each other in the corporate world. An individual who is not good at management cannot be a good leader. Likewise, an individual with poor leadership skills can never be good at managing. A manager is responsible for the work delegation and execution. At the same time, a leader takes responsibility for a whole team working together. So, both aspects are interconnected and must be practiced with efficiency and effectiveness. Here is the list of the most important books on management and leadership –
- Biased: Uncovering The Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, And Do ( Get this book )
- Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action ( Get this book )
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us ( Get this book )
- The Leadership Challenge: How To Make Extraordinary Things Happen In Organizations ( Get this book )
- Outliers: The Story Of Success ( Get this book )
- #Values: The Secret To Top Level Performance In Business And Life ( Get this book )
- Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter ( Get this book )
- First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently( Get this book )
- Radical Candor: Be A Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity ( Get this book )
- Humble Leadership: The Power Of Relationships, Openness, And Trust ( Get this book )
Let us go through each book on the list to understand why management and leadership are important –
#1 – Biased
Uncovering The Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, And Do
By Jennifer L. Eberhardt
The book came out in 2019 and talked about how biasedness works inside people’s heads and what professionals can do to overcome it. It is one of the top books on management and leadership.
Book Review
The book is centrally focused on team leaders and management professionals who have to make healthy decisions in their work. The author discusses racial bias in society. Not just that, but how biasedness works in and around neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and the community. The book speaks about problems in leadership and gives out ways to solve them effectively. It stands tall among some of the good books on management and leadership.
Key Takeaways
- The book essentially talks about the biasedness employees and colleagues have in their lives.
- It is a must-read for managers, leaders, and young entrepreneurs.
- The author talks about employees’ perspectives in the workplace environment and around their colleagues and superiors.
#2 – Start With Why
How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
By Simon Sinek
The book was released in 2009, and the author talks specifically about “how great leaders inspire action.”
Book Review
The author says that when employees make decisions from their gut, the highest level of confidence they possess for themselves is that to them, the decision feels right, even if it has several errors and flaws. The book talks about how leaders and managers can get over it and plan an insightful strategy for their teammates and their personal and professional growth. This book has more meaning to life and is not just for employees reading it for professional aspects.
Key Takeaways
- The book discusses an individual’s life purpose, how, why, and what.
- The author talks about how every company knows what they are doing and shares a common viewpoint.
- Simon Sinek, the author, points out the importance of having clarity, discipline, and consistency in a leader’s work and lifestyle.
#3 – Drive
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
By Daniel H. Pink
The book was first published in 2009, and the author postulates purpose, autonomy, and mastery as the aspects of human motivation.
Book Review
The author has gathered all his experiences to write this book, especially about how motivation works in people. The book explains how certain factors are associated with motivation and how it changes from one individual to another. It surely is one of the good books on management and leadership. Pink uses the same theory to denote how it can be used in the business, workplace, and among coworkers. For example, he says that a good manager or leader must appeal to their teammate’s sense of accomplishment and positive approach.
Key Takeaways
- The book talks about the failure of the carrot-and-stick punishment-reward leadership style.
- It suggests that it is essential for managers to let their teammates create their own goals and follow what interests them.
- The author believes that leaders should concern themselves with the employee’s inherent drive and motivation.
#4 – The Leadership Challenge
How To Make Extraordinary Things Happen In Organizations
By James M. Kouzes and Barry Posner
The book was released in 2012 and is focused on developing leadership skills and creating a positive and healthy environment for all team members.
Book Review
The book contains many examples to set out the tone and idea of the book about leadership and management skills. The authors help managers to navigate through team-oriented work relationships. They say that a good leader gets things done, and a great leader aspires and inspires team members to achieve more in life than just professional objectives. The book points out the difference between getting things done and making things happen.
Key Takeaways
- The book offers insights into organizational health and leadership’s role.
- It ranks high among the top books on management and leadership.
- The authors try to motivate and help leaders break through the new persuasive cynicism.
#5 – Outliers: The Story Of Success
By Malcolm Gladwell
The book was published in 2008 and discussed what makes great leaders successful and how other leaders and managers can follow them to get the same results.
Book Review
Malcolm Gladwell determines how it is important for young entrepreneurs to look for factors that make a manager successful. The book points out that it is about controlling what is outside and what goes inside people’s minds. Finally, the author asks the most important question: what makes successful leaders and achievers different and the secret of earning more than most corporate leaders.
Key Takeaways
- The book is a delight for managers looking forward to excelling in their fields.
- It is one of the best books on management and leadership, for it explores minute details and lifestyle patterns of successful people.
- The author takes his readers on an interesting journey of self-discovery and realization.
#6 – Values
The Secret To Top Level Performance In Business And Life
By Betty Uribe
The book first came out in 2017, in which the author talked about her life struggles and how she overcame every hurdle in her life and accomplished everything she is today.
Book Review
The author takes readers to her past, where she tells that her first job was cleaning houses to support her family. She has become an internationally renowned senior banking executive, author, entrepreneur, and speaker. It is arguably one of the best books on management and leadership. In her book, Uribe talks about how she identified an inevitable need for good leadership.
Key Takeaways
- The book is a life story of the author’s harsh struggles that she overcame.
- It is an account of all the lessons learned by the author throughout her life.
- The author talks about the values managers, and great leaders must possess while working in their fields.
#7 – Multipliers
How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
By Liz Wiseman with Greg McKeown
The book was initially published in 2017 and is focused on how smart people make everyone around them smarter and more enthusiastic about their life and work.
Book Review
Wiseman, as the author, talks about harnessing all the energy around and using it to elevate one’s mindset and intelligence. The book accounts for many skills and habits that distinguish good leaders from great leaders. She jots down the factors that distinguish a genius from a genius maker. The book states that there are personalities like multipliers and diminishers in a company, and it is important to identify each of them and associate with the right one.
Key Takeaways
- The book outlines five disciplines for young employees to consider and practice daily.
- The authors discuss encountering two types of leaders in the business world.
- They analyzed more than 150 leaders from around the world.
#8 – First, Break All The Rules
What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
By Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
The book came out in 1999 and sheds light on the skill of identifying quality employees and building strength in teams to help them all work together.
Book Review
The book is a work of 25 years of observation by Gallup, Inc. It stresses that the new age managers have destroyed the old notions and myths about management and set out some new groundbreaking rules by obtaining talented people in their organization. The key ideas in the book include what good managers do and don’t do. In addition, the authors share the pros and cons of leadership thoroughly.
Key Takeaways
- The book is the result of a survey of 80,000 managers.
- It is a must-read for every manager at every level there is.
- The authors talk about the world’s greatest managers’ rules.
- They demand that every employee must be treated as an individual in a team.
#9 – Radical Candor
Be A Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
By Kim Scott
The book was released in 2017, and it is all about providing guidance, becoming the best versions of one, and coming out as great leaders.
Book Review
The author explains that radical candor is the sweet spot between aggressive and emphatic managers. It is a point where criticisms and challenges match together to form a better result. It also helps employees develop their skills and stretch out their boundaries of success and performance. Finally, the author provides three simple principles for building better relationships with coworkers and superiors.
Key Takeaways
- The book is written for all the bosses operating at every level of every organization, no matter how big or small it is.
- It states that the managers who challenge their team members bring out the best in themselves.
- The author talks about how compassion and kindness make good leaders in an organization.
#10 – Humble Leadership
The Power Of Relationships, Openness, And Trust
By Edgar Schein and Peter A. Schein
The book came out in 2018 and highlighted traditional leadership and hierarchy in the workplace.
Book Review
Both the authors bring a collective perspective on relationship-building and a deeper understanding of complex interpersonal relationships within an organization. The book highlights the differences between the traditional form of leadership and the modern age leadership values. It critically accounts for group dynamics, adaptiveness, and agility among team members. Finally, the authors outline some key steps towards climbing the corporate ladder.
Key Takeaways
- The book discusses complex group work, diverse workforces, and cultural differences.
- It is debatably one of the best books on management and leadership.
- Both the authors demand their readers to look for the emerging trends in leadership and management.
- They talk about practicing creativity and humble leadership behavior in the office.
