I often get asked my opinion on the best books for leadership development.
If you’re leading a team, you can never stop growing as a leader.
Your self development process is paramount to your success as a leader.
If you don’t invest in your personal development, your team will lose confidence in you.
They won’t trust you and they won’t admire or value you as a leader.
When that starts to happen, you’re gonna see people start to disengage.
People will leave your organization because no one wants to work for a leader they aren’t confident in.
When people leave, it’s hard to execute your mission.
That’s the reason you’re in a leadership role; to execute the mission.
You can’t do that without your people.
So, you’ve got to focus on your personal development.
What are you doing right now to develop yourself as a leader?
What are you reading?
Leaders are readers!
I spend my time focusing on how to develop myself as a leader, by reading what other people are writing.
I stay current on what’s going on in leadership.
I work to master the tried root practices that will help me be successful as a leader.
If you don’t, don’t expect to be in leadership for a long time.
You will struggle as a leader and be let go.
I don’t want that to happen to you.
These books are cornerstones of my bookcase when it comes to leadership development.
1. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
I call this book the Leadership Bible.
This was the first book I read by John C. Maxwell.
If you find yourself not being successful as a leader, it’s almost certain that you’re not following one of these 21 laws.
I call this the Leadership Bible, but John C. Maxwell actually wrote a version of the Bible.
In this leadership Bible, he outlined lessons of leadership through scriptures.
But this book gives great laws of leadership.
If you follow them, you will be successful.
If you don’t, you will struggle as a leader.
2. The Leadership Challenge
This book is full of lessons.
Leadership is a challenge that you must rise to.
This book gives strong insights and a framework on how to overcome this challenge.
3. Team of Rivals
This doesn’t look like the typical leadership book.
If you’ve ever been to one of my workshops, you’d know I spend a considerable amount of time talking about this book.
This book is the story of Abraham Lincoln’s rise to the presidency and how he governed our nation through the most difficult time in American history.
You may think we’re living in difficult times now, but this does not compare to living during the civil war.
Abraham Lincoln led our nation through the civil war with people who were his political rivals.
His rivals are like that manager or director that don’t like you.
They think you take the wrong approach to leadership and they don’t trust you.
Could you imagine empowering those leaders to govern?
That’s what Abraham Lincoln did.
He picked his most fierce political rivals and asked them to join his team.
He used their abilities and diversified skillset to shepherd our nation through the civil war.
If you don’t have this book, you’re missing out.
It says wonders about being an inclusive leader.
You may be thinking, “I don’t like history.”
Well, you should.
If you don’t learn from the past, you’re doomed to repeat it.
I’m pretty sure you’re not the first leader in your role.
The reason they’re not there now is because they didn’t understand the past and repeated it.
You don’t wanna make that mistake.
4. Everyone Communicates, Few Connect
I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again: if you don’t master effective communication as a leader, you will not be successful.
Communication is more than sending emails and texts or showing a PowerPoint presentation.
Communication involves body language.
It involves using the right words and tone.
But being a successful leader requires more than communication.
It requires connection.
This book teaches the power of connecting deer with the people you lead.
When you connect deeper with people, you understand what motivates them and what makes them tick.
These are things you need to know about your team.
I’ve shared this book with my team and it’s had a lasting impact on the way we worked together.
We were able to move through difficult situations because we understood the importance of connecting.
John C. Maxwell is one of the best leadership writers on this planet.
If you don’t want to learn from the best, you don’t want to be a leader.
5. The Audacity of Leadership
This is my first book!
It focuses on teaching the 10 essentials of becoming a transformative leader in the 21st century.
If you want to lead change, this is the book you need to read.
If you want to be a leader committed to taking your organization to a higher place, this is the book you need to read.
If you’re trying to grow to the next level in your leadership position, this is the book you need to read.
6. The Presidential Principles
This is my most recent book!
It teaches you how to inspire action and create a lasting impact.
It’s called the presidential principles for a reason.
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy.
You know that these are all names of past United States presidents.
The decisions they made as leaders still have a lasting impact on our lives today.
I wrote this book to share how the last five presidents of the United States had a lasting and personal impact on my life.
I put them into traits that every leader should embody.
A presidential impact inspires action in the people you lead.
If you want to have a presidential type of impact on the team that you lead, this is the book you need to be reading.
You don’t have to be president of the United States to have a presidential impact.
These are the books that have shaped my leadership development.
These are books that you need to read to develop your leadership skills.
For more resources, visit Antongunn.com/resourceguide.
This is a document that’ll give you the 44 resources that I use to grow myself as a leader.
