The 10 best books for business leaders

I’m a bibliophile. My bookshelves are stuffed with all kinds of books, both personal and professional, so much so that I must periodically go through and cull them. But there are some books  I would never part with — books I return to again and again for their wisdom, insight, and the sheer pleasure of reading them.

I was recently asked to prepare a list of my favorite books for shepherd.com, a website that offers book suggestions on a huge variety of topics. My list was about “the best books for living a life of purpose, productivity, and joy.” 

Of course, my book, Curating Your Life, topped the list. The other great books were:

• The Power of Full Engagement by Loehr and Schwartz

• A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

• Love + Work by Marcus Buckingham

• Yes, And by Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton

• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

If you want more details about why I chose those book check out my list.

Rounding out the 10 best business books for leaders

But let’s not stop there, because there are other unforgettable books on my shelf. Here are an additional four books about helping yourself and others perform at your best:

• Breaking Through Bias by Andrea Kramer and Al Harris. This is a terrific book for women in male-dominated workplaces. It brings a light touch to a very serious topic, with great stories about how women have navigated challenges and come out on top.

• Analyzing Performance Problems by Robert Mager and Peter Pipe. This is an old book that I read in business school. It provides a great decision tree for figuring out why people “aren’t doing what they should be, and what to do about it.” It’s not full of fancy theories, just excellent, down-to-earth guidance.

• Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock. Even now, eight years after this book was published, these ideas from the head of People Operations at Google seem radical. It challenged my thinking and made me smarter about how to select and motivate your best talent.

• Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith. I love this book. It’s another oldie about how to excel at selling services. Even though it was written before the internet was a thing, the principles and practices Beckwith offers continue to provide great guidance for how to sell what your company does.

Those are my top ten. At Gail Golden Consulting, we use tactics we’ve pulled from all kinds of sources. If you want to know more about key ideas that can change the way you do business, feel free to contact me.