Leaders are Readers

Leaders must be intentional about investing in their own development as a leader. One way to do this, is to read books about leadership.

By now you know that I like to read. For me, it comes with the territory of being a teacher. As a teacher whose primary teaching area is leadership, I read a lot of leadership books. And I have some recommendations for your own developmental reading.

Here's the list of Leadership Books I read in 2010. Most were good, but the ones I most highly recommend are emphasized in bold print:

Leadership Books 2010

1. Derailed, Tim Irwin
2. Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
3. Holy Ambition, Chip Ingram
4. Leadership: Influence that Inspires, Chuck Swindoll
5. Credibility: How Leaders Gain it and Lose It and Why People Demand It, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner
6. Leading When it Hurts, Jeff Iorg
7. Why Great Men Fall, Wayde Goodall
8. Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls, Noel Tichy & Warren Bennis
9. David: A Man of Passion and Destiny, Chuck Swindoll
10. Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You, Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, & Andrew Campbell
11. Rescuing Ambition, David Harvey
12. Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders, Reggie McNeal
13. Leaders Who Last, Dave Kraft
14. The Making of a Leader, Robert J. Clinton
15. John Adams, David McCullough
16. The Power of a Whisper, Bill Hybels
17. The Mentor Leader, Tony Dungy
18. Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership, Gary McIntosh & Samuel Rima
19. The Truth About Leadership, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner
20. Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations, Margaret Benefiel
21. Leadership and Self-Deception, The Arbinger Group
22. April 1865: The Month that Saved the Nation, Jay Winick