The 22 Best Leadership Books You Need to Read in 2022

In the midst of a complicated and challenging time, leadership books are a vital tool for learning to navigate difficult situations, better manage your people, and get the best out of your teams to support organizational success. 

As 2022 gets underway, the best leadership books aren’t just an opportunity to sharpen your skills anymore. They’re roadmaps that can help you to navigate a rapidly evolving professional landscape.  

And that’s why the savviest leaders are tapping into these resources as a way to learn, plan for the future, and ensure the success of their teams and organizations. 

But with so many options on the market these days, it can be hard to decide which books are most deserving of your time and attention. 

So, we’ve taken the guesswork out of it and rounded up the 22 best leadership books you need to read in 2022.  

1. Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Even in the best of times, leaders face a ton of pressure. But this has seldom been truer than it is today, as the professional world undergoes a massive transformation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But even despite today’s turbulence, it’s important for leaders to remember that their predecessors have also experienced—and overcome—challenges. And, in this book, Doris Kearns Goodwin analyzes the obstacles faced by four American presidents—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson—to examine how their experiences connect to modern leadership.

This leadership book is a must-read for those looking to better understand crisis management and transformational leadership.

2. How to Talk to Your Boss About Race: Speaking Up Without Getting Shut Down by Y-Vonne Hutchison

A former international human rights lawyer who now acts as a diversity and inclusion consultant, Y-Vonne Hutchinson wrote this book for employees who recognize that changing systemic racism is everyone’s job. Described as a “handbook to moving beyond fear to push for change,” Hutchinson’s book, in one sense, is about power—and a reminder that employees have the ability to make change happen, too. During times when DEI is a forefront priority for organizations around the world, this book is timely and insightful.

3. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

There are two kinds of threats or dangers that people face when working within an organization: 

• Outside Dangers: Direct competition, alternative solutions, and market conditions 
• Inside Dangers: Personal conflict, intimidation, or even humiliation

And in his book, Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek addresses how great leaders build a strong culture by establishing a circle of safety within their organization, minimizing internal dangers so that individuals and teams can direct more of their energy towards external dangers.

If this is a topic that interests you, you might also enjoy our online guide: 4 Impactful Strategies for Conflict Resolution in the Workplace.

4. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This book may be more than 80 years old, but it’s still astonishingly relevant today. Dale Carnegie’s classic time-tested work explains six ways to make people like you, twelve ways to win people over to your way of thinking, and nine ways to get others to change without breeding resentment. Having sold 15 million copies, it should be a must-read leadership book on everyone’s list.

5. A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness by Roger Martin

A collection of Harvard Business Review articles from Roger Martin, the former Dean of the University of Toronto’s business school, this book includes memos he wrote to CEOs and their teams in his role as the world’s top management thinker. In his career, Martin advised the CEOs of Procter & Gamble, Lego, and Ford, and is known for his research on strategy, design, and innovation.

6. Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them by Tessa West

One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is managing toxic employees and their detrimental impacts on team morale. And in this hilarious and insightful book, Tessa West takes a unique approach to the different kinds of toxic coworkers and describes how best to engage with them all.

7. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. by Brené Brown

In her book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown shares lessons on the power of vulnerability and empathy in leadership, arguing that leadership is not about status or control, but rather recognizing the potential in individuals and ideas.

8. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow explores the human mind and the two systems that power everything—one fast, one slow. In this book, Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, argues that these two systems are responsible for everything from overconfidence in the workplace to cognitive bias to how we make decisions. This is a great leadership book for those wanting to decipher between when to trust your intuitions, when not to, and how to avoid common pitfalls when making decisions.

9. Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most by Cassie Holmes

All too often, people think of money as our most scarce and valuable resource. But it’s not, according to Cassie Holmes, a professor of marketing and behavioral decision making at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Our most valuable resource is actually time. And this book offers insights for how to use your time in a way that’s most meaningful and satisfying.

10. The Making of a Leader by Tom Young

In The Making of a Leader: What Elite Sport Can Teach Us About Leadership, Management and Performance, Tom Young unpacks the leadership qualities of those who have achieved excellence in their respective sports. He profiles prominent sports figures, including Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn or Stuart Lancaster, the former head coach of the England national rugby team. Young examines these principles and explains how they can be applied to business leadership.

11. How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers by David M. Rubenstein

This book has long been touted as the essential leadership playbook, profiling the principles and guiding philosophies of some of the world’s greatest leaders, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, and many more. How to Lead is a collection of illuminating conversations about these people’s remarkable lives and careers, including who they are and how they became successful.

12. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sanderson

Sheryl Sanderson, an executive with Facebook, wrote this book based on a combination of her personal experience and the insights she shared at her TED Talk in 2010. Lean In focuses on the ways in which women often hold back and miss career opportunities by being passive and polite. To counteract these challenges and empower women in business, Sanderson encourages women to seek strong mentors, advocate for themselves, and assert their place in the professional world.

13. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

If you’re not familiar with Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, they’re two former U.S. Navy SEALs. And during their time with the Navy, they learned the value of overcoming ego, facing reality head-on, admitting mistakes, and owing failures. And now, they share those values and explain how they apply in the business world, employing military discipline and combat strategy to break down traits and approaches that are necessary in great leaders.

14. Anti-Racist Leadership: How to Transform Corporate Culture in a Race-Conscious World by James D. White

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (commonly referred to as DEI) are prominent topics in 2022. And while many leadership books discuss the topic, very few are written by a CEO who’s been in charge of making real change on that front. James D. White, the former CEO of Jamba Juice, penned this book taking a stance that’s not apolitical but explicitly anti-racist, arguing that capitalism is built on a foundation of systemic racism and telling business leaders that they hold an important position in the power structure.

15. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

Another timeless leadership book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is all about teaching leaders how they can maximize their influence and create a common vision among employees, in no uncertain terms.

To get you kickstarted onto this topic, access our article: 5 Ways to Help Connect Your Employees’ Work to Your Company’s Mission.

16. Lead Like a Woman by Deborah Smith Pegues

Fortune 500 executive Deborah Smith Pegues’ Lead Like a Woman takes the old rhetoric surrounding women and their leadership abilities and turns it on its head. She argues that the very qualities women have been criticized for can actually help them in becoming effective and successful leaders. Pegues focuses on 12 traits that can help propel women’s leadership skills forward, plus 12 to avoid.

17. Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee

Now more than ever, emotional intelligence is becoming one of the most vital skills amongst leaders. And Primal Leadership explains how to identify and navigate feelings, empathize with employees, and build emotionally intelligent organizations as a means to avoid misunderstandings and incorrect judgements, relate more closely to workers, and collaborate in true tandem with employees.

If you’d like to help your leaders develop this skill, a group training program like Emotional Intelligence can teach them to:

• Increase self-awareness
• Self-regulate behaviors
• Develop better social skills for leadership
• Use emotionally intelligent motivators
• Develop a greater sense of empathy

18. Measure What Matters Most by John Doerr

As an organization grows, increased bureaucracy can make it cumbersome for leaders to establish and communicate strategic goals. And, as a result, progress can be slowed as teams struggle to identify and act on valuable opportunities. In his book Measure What Matters Most, John Doerr explains how the use of Objectives and Key Results, also known as OKRs, have helped organizations like Google, Slack, Disney, Spotify, and Intel, to become more aligned by boosting transparency, accountability, and collaboration.

19. Start With Why by Simon Sinek

When it comes to securing buy-in from their teams, one of the most common pitfalls experienced by leaders arises from focusing too closely on what the organization does rather than why it does it. He argues that, in order to inspire impactful action among employees, you need to create an emotional connection between them and the organization. And Star With Why teaches you how to do so.

20. Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R Banaji and Anthony G. Greenland

While the best leaders do everything they can to be fair and treat their people with respect, Mahzarin R. Banaji explains the hidden biases that all people have, due in part to our cultural influences surrounding age, gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and more. Most importantly, it explores the implications these biases have on leaders, teams, and organizations.

21. The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Bain

Jocko Willing and Leif Bain are making another appearance on our list for their book, The Dichotomy of Leadership, where they explain the many dichotomies of leadership and how it often involves striking a balance between two extremes. Using this information, it explores how you can identify the best course of action when both have pros and cons by following twelve principles broken into three categories: balancing your people, balancing the mission, and balancing yourself.

22. The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently by Tony Dungy

Celebrated retired NFL coach Tony Dungy uses this book to explain how you can elevate those around you towards success with one simple principle: “Your only job is to help your players be better.” To help you maximize your team’s potential and to drive individual employees towards being the best version of themselves, Dungy outlines the most important leadership fundamentals, including introspection, an altruistic mindset, and modeling values.

In a complicated and challenging time, leadership books are a vital tool for learning to navigate difficult situations, better manage your people, and get the best out of your teams to support organizational success.

Which leadership books are you reading right now? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments section below!

Learn about skills training and development programs to help support stronger leaders in your organization.  

If you’ve got questions about how group skills training and development programs can help your leaders be the best they can be, reach out to an Employee Engagement Consultant.