Project professionals must lead. Yet leadership is not part of most project management books or courses. So, what’s a person to do? We must learn leadership for ourselves, and reading is a rich source of ideas, instruction, and wisdom. Here is my list of great leadership books.
This is a personal list
It’s not ‘The’ Top 10 Leadership Books for Project Managers. No, it’s ‘my’ Top 10 Books. That is, these are the leadership books that have been of greatest influence on my own thinking. I will use each one to discuss an important idea I got from the book.
My Top 10 Leadership Books
This is not a ranked list. So, these books do not appear in any particular order.
However, I do indicate for each, who they are best for – mainly in terms of whether you are a:
- New leader
- Leader with a little experience
- Experienced leader
Please don’t take this as a hard assessment; just guidance, based on my judgment.
So, the ten books I have chosen are, with an almost inevitable bonus extra, of course:
- Effective Leadership Masterclass
- Head, Heart & Guts
- The Wizard and the Warrior
- Shackleton’s Way
- Fierce Leadership
- Why Should Anyone be Led by You?
- Leadership (Burns)
- Leadership (Giuliani)
- The Power of Project Leadership
- Brilliant Project Leader
And, your bonus extra, which I read only very recently…
Let’s get to it!
I’ll start with the fundamental text for new leaders…
Effective Leadership Masterclass
The new version of this is just called Effective Leadership. John Adair is a leadership expert who did a lot of work with the UK Army.
This book is simple and full of highly relevant, basic leadership skills that are perfect for day-to-day leadership in the context of project development and delivery. It is a low-cost/high-impact book that I recommend to every new manager and leader – whether in the project profession or not.
Adair’s well-known ‘Three Circles’ or ‘Action-centered Leadership’ model is very similar to my own approach of the ‘four essentials of team leadership’. It focuses on the three needs of task, team, and individual.
But the book covers a lot else besides, including servant leadership. And it is filled with short, informative examples of Adair’s principles in practice. These draw from Adair’s deep knowledge of military history, but their relevance is truly universal.
This is a book I wish I’d read at the start of my career.
Head, Heart & Guts
Head, Heart & Guts, by Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith, came highly recommended by a valued colleague. I bought it as soon as I got home!
It develops the three familiar components that make up a complete leader. I would argue that this is also a book for new leaders with, perhaps, a year or two of basic leadership experience. This is when the ideas will pack the greatest punch. It has a lot of good content around the various balances that leaders need to find in their leadership life.
An example of this is what the authors call the ’empathy trap’, reflecting the need to have strong empathy without getting caught up in the emotionality of the situation.
The Wizard and the Warrior
I picked this book up second-hand and was bowled over by how easy it was to read. The authors, Bolman and Deal, fill The Wizard and the Warrior with clear examples and introduce a strong thesis early on. This is one of four frames for leadership:
- Analyst – and the need for structure
- Caregiver – and the alignment of task to human needs
- Warrior – and the need to thrive in a political environment
- Wizard – and the need to work within the culture of the organization
Guess which two this book focuses on!
Shackleton’s Way (My TOP Pick!)
This one is, perhaps, my favorite of all of the books on this list. Ernest Shackleton embodied all the best aspects of what I consider good leadership. Not least was the comparison with Robert Falcon Scott.
Scott’s leadership placed the goal to the fore and inspired his men to follow him, ultimately, to their deaths. Shackleton’s leadership put his people first. When the goal was no longer realistic, he determined that no one would die. And he led his men to survive astonishing hardships to ensure that all were rescued.
Shackleton’s Way, by Morrell and Capparell, breaks down the detailed aspects of how his leadership style worked. What he did and the impact on the men who followed him.
Two honorable mentions are:
- Leading at the Edge is another excellent account of Shackleton’s leadership. Stronger as an account of his expedition than Shackleton’s Way, but not as clear on the leadership lessons.
- Nelson’s Way does for Lord Horatio Nelson what Shackleton’s Way does for Shackleton. And it does it just as well. Another excellent leadership book.
Fierce Leadership
This one is not for beginners. I read Fierce Leadership by Susan Jeffers, after reading her earlier book, Fierce Conversations and loving it. This book will give you a distinctive perspective on what leadership is – and it’s one I found both refreshing and challenging.
It is a guide to cutting through the usual BS and boosting your place on Jeffers’ BS, or Believability Scale. Can you acquire true emotional capital at work, pay deep attention to the people around you, and find a way through the ethical dilemmas with courage?
When you think you’ve started to master leadership, read this book and start to work on deepening your practice.
Why Should Anyone be Led by You?
This book was a sensation among the clients I was working with, when it came out in the mid-oughts. It introduced us all to the concept of ‘Authentic Leadership’. That is, turning up to work as yourself, and putting the true you on show.
Why Should Anyone be Led by You? by Goffee and Jones asks the question that matters, because without willing followers, you don’t have leadership – just autocracy. Their answers are just as compelling today as they were twenty years ago. I see this as a mid-leadership career book, for when you have a couple of years of experience to reflect on.
And it is not just about being authentic. It’s at its best when it shows us how to apply authenticity to handle the real and common challenges that every leader faces.
Leadership (Burns)
James MacGregor Burns may not have introduced the term Transformational Leadership, but he did own it. It was his ideas that Bernard Bass developed into the now widely-used Bass’ Transformational Leadership Theory.
I’ll grant you that Leadership is not an easy read (unlike all the other books in this list). But, if you are serious about thinking deeply about the transformative effect your leadership can have on people, read this book. It goes deep into historical and political perspectives and is one to read for the pleasure of deepening your appreciation of the big ideas of leadership, rather than for picking up day-to-day leadership tips.
To read more from Burns about the history of leadership – in a more digetable form, I’d say – pick up his companion book, Transforming Leadership.
For a solid text on Transformational Leadership in the workplace context, the classic is The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications by Bernard Bass.
Leadership (Giuliani)
I’ll be honest. Rudy Giuliani is not the man he appeared to be when he completed his term as Mayor of New York and wrote this wonderful book. And that could make this book Problematic for some.
On the principle that the qualities of a book are separable from the qualities (or failings) of its author, I would say this is an excellent book that is well worth your attention. It’s another one for leaders with a couple of years of leadership experience, who want a new perspective on some of the things that matter and what choices can make the right difference.
(Yup, irony overload!)
In Leadership, Giuliani is particularly strong on the proper use of optimism, and on the task of a leader in crisis and tough times. My recommendation – pick up a second-hand copy if you can!
The Power of Project Leadership
I feel like I am on absolute home-turf when assessing books on Project leadership, and The Power of Project Leadership by Susanne Madsen is excellent. I traded in my first edition for a new second edition – but have not checked to see what changed!
Madsen approaches the topic through seven keys to project leadership. They are all spot-on and allow her to talk about a lot of very important project management and leadership topics. For any project professional wanting to focus on the shift from management to leadership, this is one of two books I consider essential reading. (Next up: the other one!)
Brilliant Project Leader
What is so good about Brilliant Project Leader and The Power of Project Leadership as a pair of books about the same topic is that they complement each other perfectly. They each take a different approach to the topic, but share a common set about what is important. This book approaches project leadership through:
- The four essentials of team leadership
- Leading your team through the four stages of a project
- Three tough times for a project leader
This means you can read them both and:
- Get new ideas from each,
- Without finding confusing contradictions between them.
Disclaimer: I can’t be properly objective about this book, because I wrote it. But, if you are reading articles on the OnlinePMCourses website, watching videos on the @OnlinePMCourses YourTube channel, and maybe taking some of my courses, then you will like this book – a lot.
Special Mention
AI-Powered Leadership: Mastering the Synergy of Technology and Human Expertise
I’ve been reading the new book, AI-Powered Leadership, by Silberman, Maltzman, Abramo, and Kanabar. It left me with a powerful emotion. I felt cheated.
I feel cheated of the opportunity to enjoy a career in which I can fully use the powerful tools that are with us now. And the way I will miss out entirely on many of the tools that are to come, which we can hardly dream of.
Reading this book, I realized more powerfully than ever before what a difference AI will make to the careers of professionals, managers, and leaders who embrace it. Yes, I knew a lot of this stuff. Many of the use cases came as no surprise. But, the overall effect was like a phase transition in my instinctive recognition of what has changed.
AI will bring much more substantive change to organizations and to disciplines like Project Management (my own). Yet, for all this, it’s the new way of working, as a professional in a work environment, that hit me hard. I am in mourning for the career asset I didn’t have.
AI-Powered Leadership is about how professionals, managers, and leaders can collaborate with AI tools to be better professionals, managers, and leaders. You can read my full review on LinkedIn.
What are Your Favorite Leadership Books?
I’d love to extend this list with your own personal favorites. Please do add them to the comments and tell us what you liked about them.
