Books › Best Leadership Books
Best leadership books for managers and new leaders
Nobody is ready to manage people the first time they do it. The shift from doing the work to getting it done through others catches most people off guard, and the habits that made you good at your job often get in the way. These books focus on the practical side: your first months in the role, how you coach and give feedback, and how you build a team that trusts itself.
Read them roughly in order. The early books cover your first role. The later ones cover what changes once you lead other managers or a whole function.
How often it comes up in job postings
- LeadershipCommon
- Managing a teamFrequent
- Motivating peopleRare
- CoachingRare
- DelegationRare
Leadership is named often, and managing a team is the most common phrase in the postings we track. Coaching and delegation come up less, so the books that cover them are about specific habits rather than the job title.
Based on our analysis of live job postings, as of 2026-10-10.
How these books help in your role
Engineering Manager
Your first team is where this matters most. Your First Leadership Job and The Coaching Habit cover the first months, and Radical Candor covers the feedback conversations you will have to hold.
Reading list for Engineering ManagerProject Manager
You coordinate people without direct authority over most of them. Being the Boss and Multipliers help you lead people you do not manage.
Reading list for Project ManagerScrum Master
You coach a team rather than manage it. The Coaching Habit and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team fit that role closely.
Reading list for Scrum MasterTechnical Program Manager
Leading across teams with no line of authority is the job. Multipliers and Leaders Eat Last help you build trust between groups that report to different people.
Reading list for Technical Program Manager
Getting started
Your First Leadership Job
by Tacy M. Byham, Richard S. Wellins · 2015
How new leaders move from doing the work to getting it done through others, with practical guidance on the first months in the role.
View book →The New One Minute Manager
by Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson · 2015
A short fable about goal-setting, praise and reprimands, and what a manager does with each. Quick to read and easy to apply the same week.
View book →The Coaching Habit
by Michael Bungay Stanier · 2016
Seven questions that replace advice-giving with better conversations. Useful for any manager or team lead.
View book →Start with Why
by Simon Sinek · 2009
How leaders communicate purpose, and why it drives commitment from teams and customers.
View book →The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni · 2002
A leadership fable about trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results in teams.
View book →
Doing the job
Being the Boss
by Linda A. Hill, Kent Lineback · 2011
The three imperatives of managing people for the first time, and how a new manager builds authority and a team.
View book →Leaders Eat Last
by Simon Sinek · 2014
How leaders create the safety that lets teams work together, and what it looks like day to day.
View book →The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey · 1989
Seven habits for personal and professional effectiveness, from proactivity to synergy. This edition is the 30th anniversary.
View book →The Self-Aware Leader
by John C. Maxwell · 2021
Why self-awareness is the base of leadership, and how to see yourself and your team more accurately.
View book →The Mentor Leader
by Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker, Jim Caldwell · 2010
Practical guidance on developing people and building teams that win over time.
View book →Multipliers
by Liz Wiseman, Greg McKeown · 2010
How some leaders get more from their teams by making people smarter, not by taking over. This edition is the 2017 revised and updated version.
View book →
Senior and leading
Good to Great
by Jim Collins · 2001
The research on what turns good organisations into great ones, and the habits of leaders who make that happen.
View book →
Radical Candor
by Kim Malone Scott · 2017
~270 pages~7 hrs to read
Caring personally while challenging directly: a framework for giving and receiving feedback as a leader.
View book →Leadership and Self-Deception
by The Arbinger Institute · 2000
Why leaders often treat people as obstacles, and how to see others as people with their own needs.
View book →
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Reading for a specific role?
Each of these roles has its own books page, with the books that matter most for that job.
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