Here are 100 books that The Five Dysfunctions of a Team fans have personally recommended if you like
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
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I spent my first decade in business assuming the game was chess: play well, win. It took an embarrassingly long time to notice most rooms run on rules nobody wrote down. Power, persuasion, what breaks teams, who you measure yourself against. Each book here named a rule I was losing to without knowing it existed. And the deepest unwritten rule of all was the ladder itself: do the junior work, get trained, move up. Nobody questioned it because it had always held. I build AI tools for a living, and I can see it coming apart. Which is probably why I wrote a book about what replaces it.
I have used this book almost daily since 2016, not to manipulate anyone, but to get my perspective across so it actually lands.
It reshaped my advisory practice. I build liking by being personable and honest, reciprocity by giving real advice that sits outside the sale, and I notice scarcity everywhere now. The deflating part is watching someone's cognitive biases hold so firm that no amount of care moves them.
I would keep it away from anyone who persuades for manipulative ends, because in the wrong hands it is a manual. In mine, it is a way of thinking more carefully about my own thinking.
The foundational and wildly popular go-to resource for influence and persuasion-a renowned international bestseller, with over 5 million copies sold-now revised adding: new research, new insights, new examples, and online applications.
In the new edition of this highly acclaimed bestseller, Robert Cialdini-New York Times bestselling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion-explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy. With Cialdini as a guide, you don't have…
Reclaim your time and energy! Uncover actionable, sustainable strategies to boost productivity, prevent burnout, and achieve your goals—whether you're an individual contributor, team member, or leader. Today’s “always on” environment creates disengaged employees, stressed managers, and turnover-prone executives. But these challenges can become growth opportunities.
In 2014, I was laid off from my management role at Lowe’s Home Improvement. Instead of starting another job, I took several months to reflect on my leadership experiences and researched how leadership has evolved in the 21st Century. Based on a detailed analysis of 14 books, including the five I recommend, I wrote my first book that explains how to practice 21st-century leadership (now in its second edition). After publishing, I’ve written another leadership book, several blogs, and have been a keynote speaker. I now host the Unlabeled Leadership Podcast, which helps listeners learn how everyday people practice leadership.
A colleague of mine introduced me to this book and argued that Kouzes and Posner wrote the gold standard of leadership practices. After reading their research-based stories, I agree.
The authors write in a way that goes beyond theory by offering a practical guide by focusing on the five practices of exemplary leadership. These practices are applicable to anyone’s career! Through inspiring examples and actionable steps, I learned how to lead with integrity, inspire others, and drive higher performance more effectively.
Read the gold standard of leadership development. It can become your call to action!
The most trusted source of leadership wisdom, updated to address today's realities The Leadership Challenge is the gold-standard manual for effective leadership, grounded in research and written by the premier authorities in the field. With deep insight into the complex interpersonal dynamics of the workplace, this book positions leadership both as a skill to be learned, and as a relationship that must be nurtured to reach its full potential.
This new sixth edition has been revised to address current challenges, and includes more international examples and a laser focus on business issues; you'll learn how extraordinary leaders accomplish extraordinary things,…
I’ve founded companies, shut them down (then rebuilt my life), and coached hundreds of executives and founders through their own turning points. Those experiences taught me that resilience isn’t about bouncing back after hard things happen to you. It’s about being open to what can happen through you, including growth, clarity, curiosity, and conviction. That’s why I wrote Rethinking Resilience and why I return to these books often. Each one has helped me see strength, adaptability, and curiosity as intentional and sustainable traits—not something we summon only after crisis. I’m passionate about helping leaders move from reaction to intention and turn pressure into power, and I think this list captures that shift perfectly.
I adore this book, from the title to the contents.
(I love asking "what’s possible?” and then making it reality—that’s the very essence of a startup founder and CEO!) It’s creative, human, and endlessly quotable.
The Zanders show that true leadership isn’t about control, it’s about perspective. Their stories blend music, psychology, and life in a way that always pulls me out of scarcity thinking and back into imagining what’s possible.
Whenever I catch myself over-analyzing or trying to “power through,” I reread a chapter and instantly feel lighter, more creative, and more grounded in choice instead of pressure.
Presenting twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity into all human endeavors, The Art of Possibility is the dynamic product of an extraordinary partnership. The Art of Possibility combines Benjamin Zander's experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and his talent as a teacher and communicator with psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander's genius for designing innovative paradigms for personal and professional fulfillment. The authors' harmoniously interwoven perspectives provide a deep sense of the powerful role that the notion of possibility can play in every aspect of life. Through uplifting stories, parables, and personal anecdotes, the Zanders invite us to become passionate communicators,…
The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be.
I’ve always loved solving problems. Over 30 years ago, I worked for a company that had high employee turnover and an inability to recruit. The problem was the worst in the company backbone—the employees who made us money. I moved from Finance to HR even though I didn’t know anything about HR. Quickly, I identified the root causes of our turnover, developed plans, and implemented them. Within six months, we’d shut down the exodus, which immediately made recruiting easier. Over the years I’ve worked with a wide variety of firms in many industries. I have demonstrated my process with continued success while moving beyond much of HR’s dogma.
I loved this book because it put the onus of building a well-run organization right where it belongs—on management.
I’ve had the opportunity to see multiple organizations work through this book with varied results. The results were based exclusively on how management individuals responded to the challenges presented in the book.
________________________________ Can a good company become a great one? If so, how?
After a five-year research project, Jim Collins concludes that good to great can and does happen. In this book, he uncovers the underlying variables that enable any type of organisation to make the leap from good to great while other organisations remain only good. Rigorously supported by evidence, his findings are surprising - at times even shocking - to the modern mind.
Good to Great achieves a rare distinction: a management book full of vital ideas that reads as well as a fast-paced novel. It is widely regarded…
Having begun my career in publishing, I worked for many years as a management consultant and trainer; alongside that, I have written and published many books offering advice on management, marketing, and job skills, like the time management book shown above, a bestseller now in its sixth edition. I have always thought management often fails by overlooking the importance of issues rather than finding things difficult; I hope my business writing helps identify priorities and shows that the deployment of various techniques and skills can be manageable–and useful.
This was perhaps the first bestselling business book and became a classic. Drucker coined many maxims, for example, saying that if you don’t know where you are going, any road will do. This is obvious, but how many flounder for lack of clear objectives?
Good, sound common sense is here that stands a new look in the present day, even if it comes from a time when legislation and political correctness made things more straightforward while leaving some current issues unaddressed.
The measure of the executive, Peter F. Drucker reminds us, is the ability to "get the right things done." This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results.
Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can, and must, be learned: Managing time Choosing what to contribute to the organization Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect Setting the right priorities…
I grew up in the 70s when a linear perspective was king, including the objectivity of science and elevation of the importance of men’s work, so I fought to become a female exploration geologist. I learned to conquer dangers and collect data to discover riches. I also learned that my feminine intuition and curiosity were invaluable in understanding the patterns in nature. My next career as a treaty negotiator for the Federal government introduced me to indigenous cultures, and I felt the familiar clash of circular and linear thinking once again. I dedicated myself to the study and work experience that would help me give language to this pattern.
What first gripped me was the insight into how North American Indians organized their societies. It was so interesting to see how it was advantageous to them to be free of the command-and-control leadership style in a competitive battle for economic gains. Instead, they relied on numerous pods of self-organizing systems where people chose who to follow based on what they admired in a person and understood the situation to require. It made them very nimble and creative.
This decentralized system might be the future of organizational leadership or at least a viable alternative. I love how the authors translate traditional wisdom into modern business practices. I really want to wrap my head around this.
If you cut off a spider's head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but now starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world.
What's the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and women's rights movements? What fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths?
Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom have discovered some unexpected answers,…
The Smart Mission brings together NASA’s most important lessons on how people, knowledge, and systems shape complex projects.
Drawing on decades of experience at NASA—including my time as the agency’s first Chief Knowledge Officer—this book explains why mission success depends less on process and more on culture, learning, and collaboration.…
I've been blessed in my career, beginning as a 16-year-old, being an assistant manager at 17, a general manager at 20, and the face of the franchise at the age of 30 for over 16 years. This has led to me learning how to get people more motivated to perform their work than they ever thought possible when they accepted the position. I spent over 30 years literally “growing up” with this company and in this business, having been exposed to some of the best companies within their respective industries, learning how they source, on-board, train, and retain their team members, as well as some of the most influential motivational speakers throughout the world.
This book took our customer service performance in our company to levels we had never seen before. All of our leaders read this book and then the magic began.
The premise is that satisfied customers just are not good enough. They need to be “raving fans’ of us meaning, they actually become advocates of your business! This led to sales and traffic that exceeded our peers in all measurable ways while truly making our work more fun than we ever thought.
A straightforward and snappy guide to successful customer service from the author of the bestselling The One Minute Manager.
Raving Fans, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day - in an extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organisation or business, deliver stunning customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results.
Raving Fans is written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager and uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a…
The books on this list arrived at different moments in my life, but each one helped me see myself, my body, and my relationship with food in a new way. Some taught me about habits. Others helped me understand compassion, emotional healing, boundaries, and personal growth. Together, they brought light to my journey from chronic dieting and self-criticism to greater trust, freedom, and body–mind harmony.
What I loved about this book is how practical and hopeful it is.
It was a powerful reminder that lasting change does not come from dramatic transformations, but from small, consistent actions repeated over time. The book reinforced the idea that meaningful results are often built through simple daily habits that may seem insignificant in the moment but create powerful change over the long run.
This perspective deeply resonated with me and reinforced my belief that sustainable transformation begins with small steps rather than perfection.
The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 4 million copies sold!
Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the…
I’ve always loved solving problems. Over 30 years ago, I worked for a company that had high employee turnover and an inability to recruit. The problem was the worst in the company backbone—the employees who made us money. I moved from Finance to HR even though I didn’t know anything about HR. Quickly, I identified the root causes of our turnover, developed plans, and implemented them. Within six months, we’d shut down the exodus, which immediately made recruiting easier. Over the years I’ve worked with a wide variety of firms in many industries. I have demonstrated my process with continued success while moving beyond much of HR’s dogma.
This was one of the first business books I read after getting out of school.
I recommend it to everyone, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone who wouldn’t benefit from it. I took comfort in those areas in which I was already following his advice. I also worked on those areas that I was lacking in, and it made me a better person, employee, and manager.
New York Times bestseller - over 25 million copies sold The No. 1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century
"[Thirty] years after it first appeared, the wisdom of The 7 Habits is more relevant than ever. On an individual level people are burning out, and on a collective level we are burning up the planet. So Dr. Covey's emphasis on self-renewal and his understanding that leadership and creativity require us to tap into our own physical, mental, and spiritual resources are exactly what we need now." Arianna Huffington
One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written,…
To create innovative, collaborative, and high-performing organizations, we need a new leadership model.
Speaker, consultant, and former Silicon Valley executive Minette Norman is committed to inspiring leaders by sharing some of the most important things she learned over the decades she spent in the corporate world, such as: every human…
I was a business school professor for 38 years, always fascinated by how organizations could (or couldn’t) adapt to their changing environments. Over the course of my career, I observed and studied how organizations sought to adapt to major disrupting forces such as new information-processing technologies, internationalization, downsizing, new organizational forms, digitization, and artificial intelligence. Today’s global business environment is complex, dynamic, and highly interconnected. The only way to adapt is through collaboration–organizations must be able to quickly respond to any environmental change by identifying appropriate resources wherever they may exist and efficiently marshaling them into a desired response and eventual solution. In competitive terms, this is called a “relational advantage.”
Nike is one of the most recognized companies in the world. Known for its innovative products and its focus on high performance, the Nike mystique intrigues everyone. I love this book because it tells the story of Nike from the very beginning. Few people are aware of the many obstacles this company overcame to become the powerhouse it is today.
A new company must be innovative just to survive, and Shoe Dog describes years of struggling and experimentation at Nike simply to gain traction in its business. The massive scale the company now enjoys is built on collaborative partnerships with athletes, designers, suppliers, and many others in its vast ecosystem.
'A refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like ... It's an amazing tale' Bill Gates
'The best book I read last year was Shoe Dog, by Nike's Phil Knight. Phil is a very wise, intelligent and competitive fellow who is also a gifted storyteller' Warren Buffett
In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the boot of his Plymouth, Knight grossed $8000 in his first year. Today, Nike's annual…
