Best Business Leadership Books of 2024
Recommended books for business leaders to help grow and improve.
Great leaders never stop learning, and there is always more to learn. It always seemed that if you could get an idea or two to help you become a better leader for the small purchase of a book, it was money well spent.
2024 was an excellent year for business books, with lots to learn. Here are my favorites, with a highlighted quote from each book, to help give you an idea of the material.
Enjoy!
The Five Talents That Really Matter: How Great Leaders Drive Extraordinary Performance
Research-based advice on the critical leadership skills that matter the most. I learned a lot from this one and will revisit it again in the new year.
“There is no single quality that makes a leader exceptional, nor is leadership an acquired skill. Ten thousand hours of practice will not transform an intrinsically weak leader into one who is world-class. Rather, leadership is a compendium of talents that different people express in their own unique way.”
How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People
Great leaders never stop learning, right? David Novak, former CEO of Yum! Brands shares his career experiences and how active learning helped him to meet the ever-changing demands and challenges.
“Solving problems and active learning go hand in hand. You learn by tackling problems—in two ways. One, you spot them on the horizon and then learn so that you can prevent them from affecting you. Or two, if they’re already on top of you, you learn so that you can solve them as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach
Regarding strategy, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. This book aims to help you determine which strategy approach is best for your challenges.
“The leader must manage a state of artful disequilibrium, often against an organization's natural tendency to lock in a familiar, comfortable, or successful recipe. Leaders are uniquely positioned to read the external context to determine which approach to strategy applied where and to put the right people in the right place to execute each approach.”
The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder
Friction can be a challenge and an opportunity. Learn how leaders can leverage friction to make the right decisions more manageable and the wrong ones more challenging.
'“Friction fixers avert trouble before it happens—they don’t just repair or remove problems that flare up.”
This Is Strategy - Make Better Plans
It's a classic Seth Godin book - easy reading but powerful insights. His goal was to demystify strategy and provide a framework to help improve your planning.
“A tactic is what we do next. A strategy is all the nexts, one after the other. Tactics are for now. Strategies see and respect and value time. If your tactics work, they should advance your strategy. If your strategy is flawed, all the successful tactics you engage in won’t help.”
Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work
While incentives can be a powerful tool for motivating certain behaviors, they also have the potential to create inefficiencies and barriers to change that must be avoided.
“If you want to encourage long-term considerations, you need to make sure that your short-term incentives do not have too much weight. You will probably observe less success in the short run, but that’s fine if it serves your long-run goals. “
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
Learn about the secrets of highly effective communication. This book is about how to get better at one of the most essential skills for a leader.
“The goal is showing that the aim of this conversation is not winning, but understanding. You don’t need to avoid disagreements or downplay your own opinions. You can offer thoughts, advocate for your beliefs, even make arguments and challenge each other—as long as your goal is to understand, and be understood, rather than to win.”
Having the right culture is essential for growing your organization. Setting up the right mindset for your company can help improve collaboration and learning and set the stage for the risk-taking needed to generate future growth.
“Just as individual mindset is a strong predictor of behaviors and outcomes, so, too, is mindset culture. Research clearly shows that organizational mindset can forecast the success of individuals, teams, and organizations. It affects whether people collaborate; whether they come up with innovative ideas and solutions; whether they are willing to take risks; whether they engage in ethically problematic behavior like hoarding information, hiding mistakes, and stealing ideas; and finally, whether the company can benefit from the insights and talents of people from diverse groups, or whether their perspective remains limited.”
Never Lead Alone: 10 Shifts from Leadership to Teamship
Great teams are exceptional but don’t get there by accident. In this book, Keith Ferrazzi reports on what the research says it takes to help move your team from average to high-performing.
“For decades the role of the leader was elevated. But the world’s best teams don’t win because of leadership alone. They win largely because of their teamship. A good leader gives feedback. A great leader assures the team gives each other feedback. A good leader holds members of the team accountable; a great leader assures the team holds each other accountable.”
On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
Business growth requires taking risks. What lessons can you learn about risk-taking from gambling pros to venture capitalists? It isn’t just about knowing when to fold and when to raise.
“Successful risk-takers are process oriented, not results oriented. They play the long game.”
There are so many more that I didn’t have time to read this year. I would love to hear what you recommend.
Looking for more to read? Here are my lists from 2024: November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January, and 2023.
Great list- I am interested in Keith Ferrazzi book. I am impressed by all 5 star reviews .
Thanks for this list. I just saved it so I can come back to it later. I'm always looking for good leadership books to read. 📚