5 Books Every Leader Needs to Read to Lead Better

You can read every leadership book on the shelf and still feel stuck. Maybe you show up, push hard, and try all the tactics, yet the same frustrations keep finding their way back. A lot of the time it comes down to discernment. You finish a book, feel fired up for a week, and then life happens and the ideas fade before you ever put them to work.

Here's what ties these five personal development books together. Each one turns your attention inward, and that's where leadership really begins. The way you lead a team, a business, or a room grows out of the way you lead your own mind, which makes you the biggest lever you have as a leader.

These five earned their spot on this list because I've lived inside them. I reread some every year, and I finished one just last month. Each has changed how I lead, and I think they'll do the same for you.

1. The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks: Work From Your Zone of Genius

I reread this one every January or February, and it gives me something new each time. You're always evolving, and this book gives you permission to keep doing exactly that.

The Big Leap helps you see where you're working in your zone of excellence, your zone of confidence, and your zone of genius. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, and your zone of genius is the place you can keep deepening year after year. Working from there expands your threshold for happiness.

It also helps you identify the ways you self-sabotage. Those patterns evolve, yet the mechanisms underneath tend to stay the same. It's lipstick on a pig, with the same sabotage dressed a little differently. Rereading each year gives you a chance to reflect and dig in deep.

2. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown: Own What's Yours and Go First

Dare to Lead helps you recognize what's yours to own. Brené Brown makes a strong case for vulnerability in leadership, including how to go first in a way that makes you proud of yourself. Her ideas around getting clear on your values and having honest conversations with your team give you practical ways to put it all into action.

This book had a profound effect on me. It had me pausing to ask where I've pointed blame outside myself and what I can own. That question alone can change the way you lead a team.

3. Be Your Future Self Now by Dr. Benjamin Hardy: Let Your Future Lead

I've made vision boards since 2015 and I've led vision board and manifesting workshops since 2018, so this book resonated with me right away. Many of the concepts I teach in my workshops show up in Hardy's work.

So many of us behave based on old paradigms. Hardy asks who you want to become in the future, invites you to get really clear on that, and then lets your future self start dictating the actions you take today. Responding from who you used to be reiterates the same story, while acting from who you're becoming keeps you evolving.

That's how you actually get moving forward. It gives you room to evolve as a leader and make some incredible strides toward the life and business you want.

4. Big Trust by Dr. Shadé Zahrai: Quiet Self-Doubt and Build Self-Trust

This one is a recent read for me. Dr. Shadé Zahrai studies self-doubt, and she and her husband, Faycal Sekkouah, work with entrepreneurs and executives. Big Trust identifies four areas where self-doubt tends to show up, and once you know which one is yours, she gives you practical tools for moving through it.

In my work with executives and leaders, I can almost always spot the doubt, the questioning, and the hesitancy holding them back. When they do their own internal work and start spotting it for themselves, it shifts the way they lead. That's why this book is a great place to start.

5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: Lead With Better Communication

I just finished this oldie but goodie. Some of the concepts might sound familiar, and they land as needed reminders about the way we lead. It all comes down to how we communicate with others.

Reading it tied back to The Big Leap for me. It had me asking when I'm trying to win an argument, when I'm trying to be right, and what a conversation with a friend, a spouse, a family member, or a team member could look like if I stopped needing to prove myself right and skipped pointing out their mistakes.

As a type A perfectionist, I can be quick to correct when someone says something wrong. As a leader, that habit can lower morale and make people feel small. What I love about Carnegie is the reminder that leadership shows up in how we communicate, how we show up, and how we make others feel on the receiving end of our words.

Where to Start

If you're picking just one, start with The Big Leap. It shows you where you have room to grow and gives you language for the growth that's already trying to happen.

From there, let the list build on itself. Vulnerability, vision, self-trust, and communication all lead back to the same place, which is you. When you learn to lead yourself well, everyone around you feels the difference.

If you're ready to do that work with someone in your corner, book a discovery call and let's dig in.