Here are 100 books that On the Edge fans have personally recommended if you like
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I’m on a mission to cultivate creativity at work! After starting my career in the performing arts, I made a pivot to corporate life over 20 years ago and haven’t looked back. What I’ve discovered is how essential creativity is in any workplace, and how its impact on organizational culture is underrated. Effective leaders prioritize connection, creativity, and make culture a strategic priority. After learning from hundreds of artists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, I wrote this book to highlight their stories—unpacking how they bring creativity to life in their work. My hope is readers leave with tools to spark more meaningful connection and creative work experiences.
A refreshingly unconventional business book read, Orbiting the Giant Hairball reveals Gordon MacKenzie’s long-tenured career at Hallmark and distills his reflections on what it means to be a creative human in a traditional corporate environment.
Illustrated with playful art throughout, this book invites deeper meditation on how our creative spirit shows up in our work—and life. For the non-linear thinkers among us, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable escape.
Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Gordon McKenzie worked at Hallmark Cards for thirty years, many of which he spent inspiring his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to orbit--to a mode of dreaming, daring and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full color, he shares the story…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I found myself leading a newsroom in my mid-20s. No one took me aside and told me how to lead a group of ambitious reporters, most of whom were half-again my age. Maybe that’s the same for you. There are lots of leadership books, and it’s easy to go astray (A fellow editor quoted Machiavelli a lot; it didn’t work out well for him). Instead, I found good guidance in authors who advised me to be authentic, think differently, and lead with compassion. Many years have since passed, and I’ve had the privilege to lead great teams and mentor many young leaders. We always start with being more human.
The best leaders are great influencers, persuading people to get behind an initiative, adopt a new approach, and maybe even have a change of mind.
Turns out that many of the ways we’re taught to influence – make a strong argument, show compelling data, insist that we are right, among other tactics – simply don’t work with the way our brains are wired. In this deeply researched yet highly readable book, neuroscientist Tali Sharot unwraps the mysteries of persuadable brains and leaves you with the tools to better advocate for your ideas at work and beyond.
Selected as a best book of 2017 by Forbes, The Times, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, Greater Good Magazine, Stanford Business School and more.
'A timely, intriguing book' Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take
'This profound book will change your life. An instant classic' Cass R. Sunstein, bestselling co-author of Nudge
Part of our daily job as humans is to influence others; we teach our children, guide our patients, advise our clients, help our friends and inform our online followers. We do this because we each have unique experiences and knowledge that others may not.…
I have always been fascinated by psychology and the science behind why people are the way they are. This is probably why as a journalist, I’ve always been drawn to writing personal profiles of fascinating people, digging deeper into how they overcame various obstacles and setbacks. I have read so many leadership books that focus on success, but really found a gap when it came to those in-depth stories, which is why I wrote The Setback Cycle, a career advice book that focuses specifically on that messy middle part of leadership. My goal was to share the stories of people who overcame setbacks while offering an actionable framework that guides us through our own.
I loved Morra’s fresh take on reframing something previously perceived as a weakness and turning it into a superpower. She writes intelligently about how anxious people are equipped to lead and backs up her argument with rigorous research and quotes from credible experts.
I especially liked how she pointed out that anxious people are great at leading through crises because they spend so much energy preparing for the worst.
A timely and compelling guide to managing the anxiety that comes with succeeding and leading-from entrepreneur, mental health advocate, and top-rated podcaster Morra Aarons-Mele.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the world. But in our workplaces, anxiety has been a hidden problem-there in plain sight but ignored. Until now.
The Anxious Achiever is a book with a mission: to normalize anxiety and leadership. As leadership expert and self-proclaimed anxious achiever Morra Aarons-Mele argues, anxiety is built into the very nature of leadership. It can-and should-be harnessed into a force for good.
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I’ve always been fascinated by how we can fulfill our potential in a way that allows us to thrive rather than burning ourselves out in the process. My motto is I’d like to ‘save the world, but be back in time for tea.’ My fascination has led me down all sorts of intriguing avenues. I’ve become a stand-up comic (and taken four solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe), exploring how humor can help us tackle tough topics. I’ve researched mental health (I’m currently studying for an MSc in the Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health), I’ve studied elite sports, and I’ve been an Executive Coach to leaders of diverse organizations.
I found this book wonderfully confronting! We’ve all heard the cliché that when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade (grrr!), but this book helped me figure out HOW. It provoked me to reframe problems simply as contexts and celebrate constraints as clarity, helping me move forward.
Although it is very much a business book—full of plenty of corporate examples (I particularly loved the ones about growing crops and selling beer!)—I’ve found techniques like the ‘propelling questions’ useful more broadly, too.
An inspiring yet practical guide for transforming limitations into opportunities A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages And Why It's Everyone's Business Now is a book about everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for the constrained times in which we live. It describes how to take the kinds of issues that all of us face today lack of time, money, resources, attention, know-how and see in them the opportunity for transformation of oneself and one's organization's fortunes. The ideas in the book are based on the authors' extensive work as business consultants, and are brought to life in 35…
We have studied effective leadership for years, and could not be more passionate about developing our nation’s future leaders. As the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and as a professor in West Point’s leadership department, we both understand the importance to our Nation to produce the most competent and trustworthy leaders, who will lead our Nation’s future sons and daughters in the most challenging of circumstances. Character plays a huge role in building the best leaders, and The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity, does a masterful job showing how that occurs.
As the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin E. Dempsey was named one of the most influential leaders in the world by Timemagazine in 2015. Ori Brafman has multiple New York Timesbestsellers, and his work specializes in building organizational cultures and leadership. As the author of the great book Starfish and Spider, Brafman is also the founder and president of Starfish Leadership and co-founder of the Fully Charged Institute.
This is a book about leadership, and no one does it better than Marty Dempsey, and no one can capture it better than Ori Brafman. Dempsey has led American troops in harms-way over many of our Iraq and Afghanistan war years, and has advised our executive branch of government during these tough and challenging times.
If you want to see what outstanding leadership looks like, both at the tactical level in the crucible…
NAMED BY THE WASHINGTON POST AS ONE OF THE 11 LEADERSHIP BOOKS TO READ IN 2018
Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership examines today's leadership landscape and describes the change it demands of leaders. Dempsey and Brafman persuasively explain that today's leaders are in competition for the trust and confidence of those they lead more than ever before. They assert that the nature of power is changing and should not be measured by degree of control alone. They offer principles for adaptation and bring them to life with…
As a veteran of the United States Army Special Operations Command, my time in the army will always guide my actions. When I began my career in cybersecurity and later took on the role of President and Chair of Conquest Cyber, I looked to my military experience for guidance. The lessons I learned from leaders were much like those I’ve learned through these books, and they are lessons that will benefit any leader, business owner, or founder.
A newer favorite, Amp It Up is a book I wish I could have read as I first took the helm at Conquest Cyber. Even still, it's full of knowledge for anyone looking to lead or grow a company. While it is easy to fall into the mindset that you do not have the resources for rapid growth, it does not necessarily take consultants, added employees, or financial investment to grow a company to its full potential. This book shows you how to maximize the resources you have—eliminating mediocrity from your ranks and relentlessly elevating your mission.
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
The secret to leading growth is your mindset
Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is one of the tech world's most accomplished executives in enterprise growth, having led Snowflake to the largest software IPO ever after leading ServiceNow and Data Domain to exponential growth and the public market before that. In Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity, he shares his leadership approach for the first time.
Amp It Up delivers an authoritative look at what it takes to transform an organization for maximum growth and…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
I am passionate about helping people have the kinds of opportunities they want to have in their careers. I coach, teach, speak and write on how to do exactly that. The secret – it almost always involves getting out of your comfort zone, doing something that is a bit scary to you and that shakes your confidence a bit. However, you never want to be sitting alone trying to achieve something all by yourself. It takes a village to succeed. The art comes in knowing how to ask, getting over your fear of being vulnerable, building trust, knowing how to persuade each person you need, and much more. This is my life’s work.
This book gives exactly the lift you need to believe you can do more. There are inspiring, short stories of things leaders have done and the impact it left on the author. I like the personal take on each chapter. It’s very readable and very relatable. Read a chapter, share a chapter with your team, talk about what you liked with others. It’s a great way to get a quick uplift without fretting over not finishing the book.
For busy professionals and lifelong learners seeking practical strategies for reaching new heights, Master Mentors distills 30 essential learnings from Seth Godin, Susan Cain, Trent Shelton, General Stanley McChrystal, and other top business minds and thought leaders of our time.
Mining the best and brightest revelations from FranklinCovey's global podcast, On Leadership with Scott Miller, Scott personally introduces you to 30 Master Mentors, featuring the single most transformative insight from each of them.
Depending on where you are in your journey, Master Mentors will:
Challenge your current mindset and beliefs, leading to what could be the most important career and…
As a consultant, author, and researcher, for several years I have been very passionate about the study of companies that are very successful in the marketplace, but that are also human-oriented. In other words, I am very interested in companies that are profitable, but at the same time, are kind, compassionate, and caring with their main stakeholders. I like that these companies continually aim to foster robust long-term relationships with these stakeholders, and look for win-win agreements with them. What I love about these companies is that they focus on the quantitative aspects of business (e.g., profitability, growth, etc.) but also in its qualitative aspects (empathy, support, gratitude, generosity, etc.).
I really like that this book discusses, in detail, the relationship between acting well in business and being successful. It grabbed my attention that this book thoroughly explores the main reasons that underpin the need for more human-focused organisations, such as: the value of humanised management, the upsurge of disruptive technologies, demographic changes, and others. It is very valuable that this text also provides the reader with very actionable ways to develop more humanised organisations. I found it interesting that various meaningful examples from the public, private, and non-profit sectors are dissected in a thorough manner, accompanied by a myriad of strategies to bring about significant shifts in these sectors.
Featuring a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Despite decades of research and evidence, there is still extreme scepticism that businesses can combine a more humane style of management with superior shareholder returns, or that busy managers can be guided effectively by both their heads and their hearts. Vlatka Hlupic has spent 20 years investigating this paradox, developing an insightful critique of why such strong evidence has had limited impact and providing an alternative, practical approach that any employer can implement in order to overcome the unique challenges faced by their organizations.
A clear correlation exists between companies that…
I am a physician with over 30 years as a healthcare executive recruiter and consultant. I have been responsible for launching the careers of future leaders—many are women who have defied the odds to become senior executives In every area of healthcare. Lessons Learned: Stories from Women Physician Leadersis actually the third iteration of a project that has followed the careers of women physician leaders over almost 3 decades. In the version, 33 women share the lessons they have learned along the way.
Despite the fact that women make up more than half of workers in this country, they still are underrepresented in leadership roles. One of the reasons is gender bias that sees a good leader as having so-called “male” attributes. I like this book because after carefully studying the issue for 5 years, the authors describe a new model called Centered Leadership which is not only suited to women, but is positive for organizational health. I especially like the fact that the book is filled with anecdotes from women with strong leadership experience in a variety of disciplines.
The Remarkable discoveries about what drives and sustains successful women leaders.
Based on five years of proprietary research, How Remarkable Women Lead speaks to you as no other book has, with its hopeful outlook and unique ideas about success. It's the new "right stuff" of leadership, raising provocative issues such as whether feminine leadership traits (for women and men) are better suited for our fast-changing, hyper-competitive, and increasingly complex world.
The authors, McKinsey & Company consultants Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston, establish the links between joy, happiness, and distinctive performance with the groundbreaking model of Centered Leadership.
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I am an international authority for my award-winning research on the Vested® business model for highly collaborative relationships. I began my research in 2003 researching what makes a difference in successful strategic business deals. My day job is being the lead faculty and researcher for the University of Tennessee’s Certified Deal Architect program; my passion is helping organizations and individuals learn the art, science, and practice of crafting highly collaborative win-win strategic business relationships. My work has led to seven books and three Harvard Business Review articles. I’ve also shared my advice on CNN International, Bloomberg, NPR, and on Fox Business News.
You might ask why I am recommending a book on change management for a book list on structuring business deals. It is because anytime two organizations come together in a business deal something will change within their organizations. All too often people rush to sign the deal and forget there that often hundreds of critical changes behind the scenes are needed for the deal to be a success long after the ink is dry. If you are structuring a big business deal this book will help you think two steps ahead to lay the foundation so the organization can implement the changes needed.
The international bestseller--now with a new preface by author John Kotter. Millions worldwide have read and embraced John Kotter's ideas on change management and leadership. From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented M&A activity to scandal, greed, and ultimately, recession--we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. It's the rule. Now with a new preface, this refreshed edition of the global bestseller Leading Change is more relevant than ever. John Kotter's now-legendary eight-step process for managing change with positive results has become the foundation for leaders and organizations across the globe. By outlining the process every…
