Top 10 Leadership Books of all Time

Many an author have written books on leadership, and I would like to offer my own list (in no particular order) of the Top 10 Leadership Books of all Time.

I'd be interested in your opinion. Is this a good list of leadership books? Am I missing some important aspect of leadership that needs to be considered? Am I forgetting a great author of yours?

Top 10 Leadership Books of all Time

1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni

Lencioni is challenging and forthright about what is the best way to show leadership within a team environment and tough leadership decisions that need to be made to create a healthy team.

2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

 Still an absolute leadership book classic. Concepts that are pertinent to all areas of life: family, faith, business, nonforprofits, etc. Seek first to understand, how to manage priorities, and loads more. Click here for a summary of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

3. Axiom - Bill Hybels

This is pretty frank and down the line. Some readers may not like the bluntness of some of what Hybels says in this leadership book, but I found it helpful.

4. Courageous Leadership - Bill Hybels

Another Hybel's leadership book. Courageous leadership was the first time I had heard about 360 degree leadership; you know the concept of leading down, across and up all at the same time?

 5. Developing the Leader Within You - John C. Maxwell

 John Maxwell we know has written many a book on leadership. I find in my circles, that he's either a leadership guru or you can't stand him. I learn much from one of his earlier books, Developing the Leader Within You, as it simply was a book that provided some bite-sized concepts of leadership to help grow me as a leader. Other Maxwell leadership books that have impacted many are:
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and Developing the Leaders Around You

 6. Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman

 Why is this one of my top 10 leadership books? Emotional Intelligence through the research and work of Daniel Goleman helped me understand much about leadership from not just an IQ perspective, but a EQ perspective. EQ is emotional intelligence, and is imperative that leaders have high emotional intelligence if they want to be able to cope with the demands of conflict resolution, change management and the like. For a detailed rundown of Emotional Intelligence click here.

7. Good to Great - Jim Collins

Jim Collins has a following now, after tireless years of research into books like Good to Great and Built to Last. There are concepts in this book that I can apply to my ministry as a Salvation Army officer, including concepts about level 5 leadership, getting the right people on the bus (first who then what), the hedgehog concept, confronting the brutal facts and having fanactical discipline.
For those in social sectors, there is a little follow up book that is helpful alongside Good to Great, called, Good to Great and the Social Sectors.

8. Leadership Next - Eddie Gibbs

 Eddie Gibbs is well versed in what it means to lead within the context of shifting generations. In the wake of postmodernism and the changes in focus and outlook on new generations, Leadership Next, looks primarily on how to lead effectively within the Christian faith. Much of what we give credence to in leadership, he challenges well!

9. Spiritual Leadership - J. Oswald Sanders

 Sanders is pretty straight down the line with his outlook on leadership. Integrity is absolutely critical, a servant attitude is needed, and the ways of Jesus Christ need to be emulated to lead authentically. Be challenged by Spiritual Leadership!

10. The Truth About Leadership - James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

One of the key leadership teachings that comes out of this book is that credibility in the foundation of leadership. You can read more about this leadership book on a previous post I did.









There is more to be said. Why are there no women in my list? Can anyone recommend a leadership book written by women? If I added a book from the Bible, I would've added the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah challenges us to be tenacious and finish what you started. Some also mention Sun Tzu's Art of War, but from a Christian perspective I really stuggled with it. The other book was How to Win Friends and Influence People from Dale Carnegie, and while I appreciate it has been a successful and popular leadership book over the years, I debate the authenticity of some of the premises within it. If you do this and say that and manipulate the situation correctly, you will win friends and thus have influence. That inauthentic way of leadership does not gel overly well with me.

Please comment below. What do you think are the top 10 leadership books of all time? Do you even care? What do you prefer to read?

God bless.

Pete.

Also: What are the differences/similarities between leadership and managment?

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Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

In 1995, Daniel Goleman released a hard-hitting, inspiring snapshot of what he labels, 'Emotional Intelligence'. Improving your Emotional Intelligence (EQ), he said was just as important as improving your Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

We could all sit here and think of a person with an extraordinarily high IQ who has a very limited ability to emotionally connect with those around him. That's because, this person has a high IQ, but a low EQ. Goleman relays a story of a student named Jason (of Colorado Springs, Florida), who was an A+, highly intellectual student, who desired to enter Harvard University. When Pologruto (his Physics Teacher) gave him a 'B' on a quiz, Jason took a butcher knife to school, and stabbed Pologruto in the collar bone. Why would someone of such a high IQ, be able to do something so dumb? (p. 33 - Emotional Intelligence). The answer - he lacked emotional intellignce.

Our emotional intelligence is our ability to deal with our emotions, for example, how we respond to someone cutting us off in traffic, or our reaction to a close friend betraying us, or how we deal with our anger when our spouse grates against us. Other situations include, our emotional reaction to almost touching a hot stove, or the fear we have when we stand on the balcony 30 stories high. What about the emotions you feel, when you are driving along and a car brakes hard, and all of sudden your previous bad experience of that car accident from 1997 comes fresh to mind? This intelligence is powerful and someone being able to control their emotional responses will no doubt stand in good stead for empowering leadership and interpersonal relationships in the future.

Prior to Goleman's revolutionary teaching on emotional intelligence, IQ was believed to be the most important type of intelligence that existed. Interestingly Stephen Covey goes further in his book The 8th Habit, saying there are four intelligences that we need to focus on (Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Intelligence, Physical Intelligence and Spiritual Intelligence or IQ, EQ, PQ, SQ). Daniel Goleman speaks of a contemporary, Howard Gardner, who in his 1983 book Frames of Mind, wrote that there was not just one 'monolithic kind of intelligence that was crucial for life success' (p. 38), but he listed at least 7 varieties (e.g. verbal and mathematical-logical intelligence, spatial capacity, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, etc.).

Consider the picture of the brain above. You will see an almond shaped part of the brain called the amygdala, and this part of the brain is related to our responses to emotional situations. When we are confronted with a situation that makes us tense, angry, nervous, or fearful, it is our amygdala that is creating those emotional urges/feelings we have. Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to deal with their response to emotionally laden circumstances better than people or leaders with low emotional intelligence.

Interestingly, the rational part of our brain, and where we make rational decisions, e.g. "I will eat breakfast because it helps kick start my metabolism", is made with the prefrontal cortex (pictured as the prefrontal lobe). Now, when we are thrown into an emotional situation, our brain will generally go to the amgdala 'before' the prefrontal cortex. Now let me explain what happens then... We find out, for example that an employee has stolen from you - the manager. Since the situation makes you quite emotional, the amgydala kicks in almost immediately, before the brain has had the chance to make a rational response to the situation. So as the manager, you might find yourself getting angry and blowing off some steam, and then realizing a moment later that you flew off the handle unexpectedly. The challenge for leaders, is to be emotionally intelligent, and take a deep breath before responding to emotional circumstances. This actually gives time for the brain to consider an appropriate response from the prefrontal cortex, (where the rational decisions are made). So, when someone says, 'Take a deep breath...' it is not just to shut you up, or a cliche, it is actually a physiological fact, that a deep breath, helps your brain to have that split second extra time to make the right and rational response.

Emotionally intelligent leaders take the deep breath. That don't let their initial feelings, hurt and pain be expressed in an unprofessional manner. They allow that extra moment to make a wise, rational response.
This is emotional intelligence and this is why Daniel Goleman rates it so highly amongst the intelligences, because it affects our ability to engage with others, and our ability to lead.