Leadership Library: My Top Recommendations

Oct 13, 2010, Written by Sue Miley

When I wrote about leadership yesterday I recommended a couple of books at the end.  As I mentioned there are many books on leadership or on building the traits and character that are commonly found in great leaders.

Clients and twitter friends ask me for recommendations frequently. I thought I would go ahead and post my all time favorites here:

The Holy Bible – will always be my main source for everything in life.

Leading with Soul by Lee Bolman – this is an incredible journey of a person’s spiritual journey to becoming the leader he was meant to be.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey – after 20 years I still use these principles and refer others to them daily.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell – practical, biblical insights.

Leadership and the One MInute Manager by Ken Blanchard – this is an easy to read story format guide to situational leadership.

Winning with People by John Maxwell – the title speaks for itself.

Linchpin by Seth Godin – read this earlier this year and believe philosophically it is of huge importance to everyone.  God created us each uniquely.  Seth focuses on following your uniqueness to make a difference.  (I threw the God part in!)

Circle of Innovation by Tom Peters – Tom Peters is the master at throwing out thought provoking ideas and ideals of business.

The Maxwell Leadership Bible – leadership examples, characteristics, and responsibilities are highlighted in commentary.

To be a great Christian Leader we need to be growing in our faith too.  Although it would take another whole list to put together my favorite books on Christian living, here are a couple that come to mind when I think of faith and leadership.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan – if we are full throttle in our faith, it will translate to everything we do.

Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning – this is a great book on trusting God.  I think we all need work on trusting God, but there is also a lot here to learn about being trustworthy.

Visioneering by Andy Stanley – leaders are leading towards a vision.  This book helps clarify your vision and determine if you are following the vision God has given you.

You can find these on my recommended resources page too. I probably need to go back through my library and add to the list, but these come to mind first and are books I have given out frequently over the last several years.

I would love for you to add to the list in the comment section.  What are your favorite leadership books?

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Sue Miley

Sue Miley MBA, MA, LPC helps small business owners build successful businesses on a foundation of Christian values. After 20 years in business, and 10 years as a Christian counselor, Sue uses a combination of faith, business and psychology to help clients in business and in life.

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