The Best Leadership Books of 2018

(Harvard Business Review Press, 2018)

The Mind of the Leader offers a radical, yet practical, solution to solve the leadership crisis. Organizations need to put people at the center of their strategy. They need to develop managers and executives who lead with three core mental qualities: mindfulness, selflessness, and compassion. (Blog Post)

(PublicAffairs, 2018)

In today's competitive environment, where latecomers can copy almost any product or service, companies can no longer just be good at what they do. Is the displacement of early pioneering companies an inevitable fate in the modern economy? Outlasting copycat competition in any industry is difficult; doing so over decades is nearly impossible—unless you leap. (Blog Post)

(Harvard Business Review Press, 2018)

Asking for help makes most of us uncomfortable and we often go to great lengths to avoid doing it. We fear rejection. We fear that people we think less of us. We believe people don’t really want to help. But the truth is we need the help and support of others to succeed. To be sure, leadership is fundamentally about asking people for help. (Blog Post)

(Harvard Business Review Press, 2018)

What did you learn today? We often think of learning as something we are doing all of the time. But we aren’t. Mostly we are repeating or reinforcing what we already know. And that gets in the way of learning. Like most things worthwhile learning must be deliberate. (Blog Post)

(SelectBooks, Inc., 2018)

The ability to reinvent yourself is core to your success as a leader. As you take on more responsibility, the demands on you as a leader change. If disrupting yourself isn’t part of who you are, you will get left behind. If you are just doubling down on what you’ve always done, you will miss the opportunities. When conditions change, you have to change too. (Blog Post)

(St. Martin's Press, 2018)

So much of leadership is managing tensions. Leaders must know when to adapt. After the publication of their first book, Extreme Ownership, many people latched on to the aggressive implications of the word “extreme” and missed the more nuanced balance that a leader must have. “Leaders must find the equilibrium between opposing forces that pull in opposite directions.” The Dichotomy of Leadership is meant to help leaders find that equilibrium. (Blog Post)

(Oxford University Press, 2018)

Over the last 40 years, the leadership industry has grown exponentially. Yet leadership education, training, and development still fall far short. Moreover, leaders are demeaned, degraded, and derided as they never were before. Why? Leadership in the first quarter of the present century is different from what it was even in the last quarter of the past century - which is why leadership taught casually and carelessly should no longer suffice.

(St. Martin's Press, 2018)

What began as a project to provide guidance to a select group of founders in the Webb Investment Network has been expanded and offered to founders of all types and those who need to have a founder’s mindset. The result is Dear Founder. (Blog Post)

(Hachette Books, 2018)

This is Day One is about choosing to lead. Everything worthwhile in life begins with a Day One. “If you want to be a leader, chose to be a leader today. Repeat that choice every day. It doesn’t matter if you failed to do it yesterday or if you’ve done it every day for a decade: every new day begins with a recommitment to that choice.” (Blog Post)

(Forefront Books/Simon & Schuster, 2018)

“Iconic organizations and leaders have become such universal symbols of distinction they are not only irresistible to customers in their marketplace, they compel interest and admiration across a wide spectrum.” How do you attain iconic status? The answer is explained in detail in this book. (Blog Post)

(St. Martin's Press, 2018)

“Your ability to communicate persuasively is the single greatest skill that will set you apart in the next decade.” There is so much in this book that will help you perform better in all of your communication. If only read one book on communication this year, this is it. (Blog Post)

(Simon & Schuster, 2018)

If you are thinking of starting a business—and apparently nine million Americans are currently thinking about it and only about 500,000 actually do each year—you will want to read Burn the Business Plan. (Blog Post)

(Silicon Guild, 2018)

When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. Powerful is a book of advice gained from her experience at Netflix. She began working with Reed Hastings to identify the behaviors that they wanted to see become consistent practices and worked to instill the discipline of actually doing them. When established they were communicated over and over again and eventually became known as the Netflix Culture Deck. (Blog Post)

(Currency, 2018)

Fred Kofman's approach to leadership has little to do with the standard practices taught in business school and traditional books. Bringing together economics and business theory, communications and conflict resolution, family counseling and mindfulness mediation, Kofman argues in The Meaning Revolution that our most deep-seated, unspoken, and universal anxiety stems from our fear that our life is being wasted--that the end of life will overtake us when our song is still unsung. Kofman claims that transcendental leaders, wherever they are in the hierarchy, are able to put aside their self-interests and help others to feel connected with others on a team or in an organization on a great mission and part of an ennobling purpose.