My Top Ten Books about Leadership

Lord of the Rings - good stuff and no more rambling or fanciful than Aenid, Iliad, Odyssey... The Hobbit only sets up the "leadership training" running through the trilogy.

Only one female author?

Love the inclusion of Huck Finn's story in your post about books on leadership! Ha! Brilliant! And I've never heard of Dymer. Will need to seek it out.

Good list! Another by Sayers that I read recently that has impacted my leadership is The Mind of the Maker. She writes about how producing great lit requires the writer to let the story and the characters develop themselves and how if we force the issue and make our characters serve a completely predetermined end the characters then lack depth and are uninteresting. There are of course other implications of this that she draws out. Might be worth a read.

This is wonderful stuff. I am working on leadership material as I prepare for another round of job applications, just yesterday I noted how a lot of leadership and skills material bothers me because it does not seem like it is based in any particular job, situation, etc.

Advice related to one skill I am reported to have emphasized encouraging employees' imagination "so they can do more...." My response was "Do more what?!!!

It is like reading pure social theory divorced from any application. The LORD OF THE RINGS and much other discussed here is grounded very much in real life and practice. Maybe that is why I sought training as a historian.
Peace,
Randy Gabrielse

I love this list!

The Nicomachean Ethics is especially underrated, but that book is good for your soul.

Well played!
Jeff

Hi Scott:

Thanks for a great list of books, but I think I look at this issue from a different point of view than most of comments. I'll admit that my bias is that I am a leadership development specialist, working both in the local church and globally to train leaders.

I have read everything on the list except for the Aeneid and the one by C.S. Lewis. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its Hobbit prequel, I have read once a year since 1970.

I think these are wonderful books, but their subject matter is not leadership (per se) as much as it is life, worldview, story and philosophy… Reading (and living) these books will make one a better human being but not necessarily a better leader.

A nurse, engineer, lawyer, accountant, stay at home parent, etc. could read these books and not become a leader.

Someone could read these books and remain a weak or even poor leader, uneducated concerning the intricacies of leadership and untrained in the core skills of leadership.

I know many pastors who are truly insightful people, well versed in counseling, public speaking and even biblical theology… but who are very inadequate as a leader. They have read many books similar to the ones you mentioned, but those books did not shape them as leaders. It shaped them as human beings.

As a corollary, I had many teachers in my grad schools who were wise and insightful people, but not necessarily gifted in teaching. Reading books like the ones mentioned is not going to make them better teachers. They would be better served by reading books on teaching. Just like someone who is a weak leader needs to read leadership specific texts.

Here is a short leadership list. I won't annotate it due to this post becoming tedious.

Most of these books are longer, pretty substantial, and not written by Christians.

The Congruent Life: Following the Inward Path to Fulfilling Work and Inspired Leadership by C. Michael Thompson (okay, a short annotation. This is the one book you should read above all the others.)

Two by Ronald Heifetz of Harvard
Leadership Without Easy Answers
Leadership on the LIne

Two by Peter Koestenbaum
Leadership: the Inner Side of Greatness -- a Philosophy for Leaders
The Philosophic consultant: Revolutionizing Organizations With Ideas

Unnatural Leadership by Dotlich and Cairo

Leadership D ivied: What Emerging Leaders Need and What You Might be Missing by Ron Carucci

Leading MInds: An Anatomy of Leadership by Howard Gardner

Leadership by James MacGregor Burns (magisterial and historic in scope)

Intuitive Leadership by Tim Keel (one of the best from a postmodern point of view)

Reviewing Leadership by Robert Banks (a short, nice introduction to the field of leadership)

If anyone is interested in any of the books, I would suggest you do a Google search to read reviews before you buy any of them. In most cases they are not easy reads.

Brian

Thanks, RJS, for hitting LOTR right off the bat. More "leadership" (both good and bad) in Tolkien's characters than could be discussed in a lifetime....

What about Taylor Caldwell? She has written some amazing books -- check out this listing:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_1_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=taylor+caldwell+books&sprefix=Taylor+Cal

Of course, one of my favorites is "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun" by Wes Roberts ... especially is you like ancient Roman history ;^)

http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Secrets-Attila-Wess-Roberts/dp/0446391069

And Lewis B. Smedes has some amazing books which speak all over the issues of leadership -- especially what it takes to be a good one.

Cheers, all!

Thanks, RJS...it's nice to be remembered! Been way too crazy around my neck of the woods to even read...I check blogs in my Google Reader about once a month, if I'm lucky!

Has anyone read the book on Attila the Hun? It is really quite interesting....

Back to my closet ;^)