31 Leadership Books Summarized in Under 10 Minutes

I’ve read a lot of leadership books.

To be honest, some of them are an absolute waste of time.

And then others are life-changing.

I’ve read about 31 good ones.

It took me quite a while to get through all of these.

But for you… It will only take a matter of minutes.

Because here’s the thing…

While these are great books that you should probably consider reading one day…

Most of the information is consistent.

It’s relatively easy to summarize what all of these books have to say about leadership because they're all built on universal leadership principles, or truths.

And while there are certainly countless leadership styles, tips, skills, and approaches…

That’s not what we ultimately need most.

Principles are the foundation we’re looking for.

Principles are better than practices.

After reading countless books on leadership, I think I can safely and confidently summarize leadership into four categories (or I prefer to refer to them as stages).

Each stage builds on the last.

And all four stages are cyclical.

Meaning they continuously feed into the next stage, creating a powerful leadership momentum.

Here’s the first stage.

STAGE 1: PURPOSE AND VISION

Every leadership book I have ever read affirms these two elements as the foundation of leadership.

This is where everything begins for a leader.

Every leader must have both a purpose for what they are supposed to do and a vision for how they might do it.

If you don’t know what your purpose and vision are, then you don’t know why you’re leading, what you’re leading, or where you’re leading.

That’s a problem.

It’s not going to work.

So, here’s the big question…

Can you clearly articulate your purpose and vision?

If not, start there.

Is purpose and vision common sense to you, or are they things you struggle with?

For now, know that this is the starting line of leadership.

You can’t lead without it.

It’s the foundation that you build the entirety of your leadership journey on.

Okay, here’s the second stage

STAGE 2: SELF-LEADERSHIP

This stage has everything to do with the leaders themselves.

It’s the stage where the leader internalizes their purpose and vision.

It’s where the leader allows the purpose and vision to guide them.

It’s where the leader develops a lifestyle driven by their purpose and vision.

Self-leadership, in essence, is self-discipline.

It’s the ability to pursue what one thinks is right.

Personal discipline. Personal formation. Personal growth.

This stage is all about developing YOU as the leader.

The battle is won or lost through a leader’s personal formation.

How can we lead others if we can’t even lead ourselves?

It’s possible that you can become a boss or manager without taking this stage seriously, but you’ll never be a leader without it.

Leaders take self-discipline seriously.

They take their personal formation into their own hands.

Leaders are constantly learning and growing.

The best leaders develop all aspects of their lives.

However, I’ve found that most leaders focus on three specific areas: Physical, Intellectual, and Spiritual.

There are certainly more categories to think about.

Such as financial, social, emotional, and so on.

But for whatever reason, a disproportionate number of successful and effective leaders find that when the physical, intellectual, and spiritual pillars of their lives are healthy, everything else seems to fall into place.

If you can keep these areas of your life healthy and growing, then you’ve more or less covered all the bases—body, mind, and spirit.

The goal in these areas, of course, isn’t perfection.

It’s not about having an amazing physique, a brilliant intellect, or being a spiritual guru.

Some of these things might be a byproduct, but they’re not the goal.

The goal is to be a person with self-discipline.

It’s about developing the ability to lead yourself toward a healthy lifestyle.

It’s only from this place of highly intentional self-leadership, inspired by purpose and vision, that leading others can become a reality.

Now we enter stage three.

STAGE 3: LEADING OTHERS

While STAGE 1 is primarily concerned with discovering your purpose and vision, and STAGE 2 is concerned with developing your self-leadership, STAGE 3 is where you move beyond just leading yourself to leading individuals around you.

To do this, however, you need to develop certain social and emotional skills.

Skills like communication, empathy, empowerment, and service.

Every leader, of course, has a different emphasis or arsenal of strengths, which is perfectly fine; however, all leaders must develop a degree of social and emotional awareness that enables them to lead effectively.

This is how you connect with people.

If you can’t connect with people, then you can’t influence people.

Influence is the ability to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone.

If you can’t influence, then you can’t lead.

But it extends beyond just connection and influence.

Leading others requires you to set your own needs aside.

Call it servant leadership, call it humility, call it sacrifice…

If there is one principle that stands above the rest in 31 leadership books, it’s that leaders die to themselves for the greater good.

Leaders aren't governed by their own self-interests.

You can’t lead others without embracing that simple truth.

Once you understand and master STAGE 1, 2, and 3.

You’re ready to move on to the final stage.

STAGE 4: ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP

So far, the first three stages have been about leading on a micro level.

This fourth stage focuses on leading at a macro level.

In many ways, this is the stage that most leadership books focus on.

And there is one word that pretty much sums up the entirety of this stage.

It’s a word that I’m sure you’ve heard before.

CULTURE.

By culture, I mean the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that define an organization's environment and how its members interact and work together.

99% of STAGE 4 leadership is centered around building and maintaining a healthy culture.

This is the leader's job.

A leader could spend 99% of their time doing this one thing.

Simon Sinek puts it this way, “So goes the leader, so goes the culture. So goes the culture, so goes the company.”

Brilliant and accurate.

So, what kind of culture are you, as the leader, creating?

Or you could say, what kind of culture are you, as the leader, allowing?

It’s your job.

Are you doing it?

Now…

Since the culture starts with you as the leader.

That means that your culture is a reflection of everything you do in the first stages we discussed.

Isn’t that interesting?

You see, these four stages of leadership are cyclical.

Everything comes back to your purpose, vision, and self-leadership.

The health of your team culture is almost always a reflection of your own health as a leader.

So, how is that going?

Are there any red flags?

Do you feel like you have a grip on those dynamics of leadership?

Hey.

If you want the full list of books, feel free to take advantage of my free resource list below.

Today was an insultingly brief summary of some remarkable books written by some world-class leaders.

Download the list and don’t just go through the books, but let the books go through you.

Keep fighting the good fight.