The Spring 2021 special 100th issue of Leader to Leader will publish any day now. This year also marks 25 years of publication; and ten years since I became Managing Editor.
The quarterly journal is co-published by Wiley/Jossey-Bass and the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum, which is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) Johnson Institute For Responsible Leadership. I’m super-honored to collaborate with Editor-in-Chief Frances Hesselbein, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and Pitt alumna.
I’ll write other posts about the 100th issue in the coming weeks/months, but in the meantime, I’ve curated a list of 100 books written by many of our authors. The concept of our publication is leaders writing for their fellow leaders in a clear, straightforward, almost conversational style. Working with these and so many other authors (and often their impressive teams) has been a continuing joy.
Ideally you will find this list to be useful for your journeys, leadership or otherwise!
John Baldoni: Grace: A Leader’s Guide to a Better Us; Moxie: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership
Michael Beer: Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations About Your Company’s Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy
Jennifer Garvey Berger: Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World; Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity
Lisa Bodell: Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution; Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters
John Hope Bryant: How the Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class; Up from Nothing: The Untold Story of How We (All) Succeed
Kathy Caprino: Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Professional Woman’s Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power, and Purpose; The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss
Kim Christfort and Suzanne Vickberg: Business Chemistry: Practical Magic for Crafting Powerful Work Relationships
William A. Cohen: A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher; Drucker on Leadership
Chip Conley: Emotional Equations: Simple Steps for Creating Happiness + Success in Business + Life; Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder
Stephen Denning: The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done
Amy C. Edmondson: Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy; The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth
Frances Frei and Anne Morriss: Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business; Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You
Stewart D. Friedman: Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life; Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life
Bill George: Discover Your True North, revised and updated edition; True North Groups: A Powerful Path to Personal and Leadership Development (with Doug Baker)
Marilyn Gist: The Extraordinary Power of Leader Humility: Thriving Organizations & Great Results
Judith E. Glaser: Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust and Get Extraordinary Results
Kara Goldin: Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters
Marshall Goldsmith: Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts–Becoming the Person You Want to Be; What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful (both with Mark Reiter)
Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ; Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
Sally Helgesen: How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job (with Marshall Goldsmith); The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work (with Julie Johnson)
John Hennessy: Leading Matters: Lessons from My Journey
Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter: The Mind of the Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results
Jane Hyun: Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences (with Audrey S. Lee)
Herminia Ibarra: Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader; Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career
Amantha Imber: The Innovation Formula: The 14 Science-Based Keys for Creating a Culture Where Innovation Thrives
Jo Ann Jenkins: Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age
Bernadette Jiwa: Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights Into The Next Big Thing
Bob Johansen: Full-Spectrum Thinking: How to Escape Boxes in a Post-Categorical Future; The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything
Whitney Johnson: Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve; Disrupt Yourself: Master Relentless Change and Speed Up Your Learning Curve
Guy Kawasaki: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions; Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life
Beverly Kaye: Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want, 2nd edition (with Julie Winkle Giulioni); Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay, Sixth Edition (with Sharon Jordan-Evans)
Debbe Kennedy: Putting Our Differences to Work: The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
Karen and Henry Kimsey‐House: Co-Active Coaching: The proven framework for transformative conversations at work and in life; Fourth Edition; Co-Active Leadership: Five Ways to Lead, Second Edition
Nancy Koehn: Forged in Crisis: The Making of Five Courageous Leaders
John P. Kotter: Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World; Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions , tenth anniversary edition (with Holger Rathgeber)
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner: Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership: How to Make a Difference Regardless of Your Title, Role, or Authority; The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, Sixth edition
Joan Kuhl: Dig Your Heels In: Navigate Corporate BS and Build the Company You Deserve
L. David Marquet: Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say–and What You Don’t; Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
Annie McKee: Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness (with Richard Boyatzis and Frances Johnston); How to Be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship
Frederick A. Miller and Judith H. Katz: Safe Enough to Soar: Accelerating Trust, Inclusion & Collaboration in the Workplace
Tara‐Nicholle Nelson: The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair with Your Customers by Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser
Kelly Palmer and David Blake: The Expertise Economy: How the Smartest Companies Use Learning to Engage, Compete, and Succeed
Torin Perez: Who Am I to Lead?: The World Is Waiting for You
Rajeev Peshawaria: Open Source Leadership: Reinventing Management When There’s No More Business as Usual; Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader
Tom Rath: Are You Fully Charged?: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life; Strengths Finder 2.0
Joyce M. Roché: The Empress has No Clothes: Conquering Self-Doubt to Embrace Success
Peter M. Senge: The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, revised and updated edition; The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World
Amanda Setili: The Agility Advantage: How to Identify and Act on Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World
Rebecca Shambaugh: It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor: Free Yourself From the Hidden Behaviors Sabotaging Your Career Success; Make Room for Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model to Achieve Extraordinary Results
Daniel Shapiro: Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts
Diana McLain Smith: The Elephant in the Room: How Relationships Make or Break the Success of Leaders and Organizations
Michael Lee Stallard: Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, Second Edition; (with Todd W. Hall, Katharine P. Stallard and Jason Pankau)
Gretchen Ki Steidle: Leading from Within: Conscious Social Change and Mindfulness for Social Innovation
Thomas A. Stewart & Patricia O’Connell: Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight
Amy Jen Su: Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence, (with Muriel Maignan Wilkins); The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self–Every Day
Atta Tarki: Evidence-Based Recruiting: How to Build a Company of Star Performers Through Systematic and Repeatable Hiring Practices
Clifton L. Taulbert: Eight Habits of the Heart: Embracing the Values that Build Strong Families and Communities; Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons From an Unlikely Entrepreneur (with Gary G. Schoeniger)
Dave Ulrich: The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By (with Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman); The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win (with Wendy Ulrich)
Thomas Wedell‐Wedellsborg: What’s Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve
Margaret Wheatley: So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World; Who Do We Choose To Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity
Ron Williams: Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yourself, Leading Others, and Leading an Organization
Mary‐Frances Winters: Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit; Inclusive Conversations: Fostering Equity, Empathy, and Belonging across Differences
Liz Wiseman: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smart, Revised and Updated
Denise Lee Yohn: Fusion: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Greatest Companies; What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest
John H. Zenger and Joseph R. Folkman: Speed: How Leaders Accelerate Successful Execution; The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders, 3rd Edition