Book summaries
Leadership book summaries
Most leadership books describe a version of work I have never seen. These are the ones that survived contact with a real organisation — the Monday morning, the awkward one-to-one, the team that would not move.
Read them if you lead people and want fewer theories, more usable moves. Ratings are mine. I skip the ones that only sound good in a classroom.
Friday newsletter
Become the leader every company wants
Coaching tools from the best business books, to your inbox, every Friday.
Also see Best unconventional leadership books, Leadership books I recommended in 2021.
25 summaries
Dare to Lead
9/10 · 12 Aug 2026
Start With Why
8/10 · 12 Sept 2024
One Last Thing
8/10 · 1 Aug 2024
The Five Love Languages
7/10 · 2 May 2024
Creating Magic
10/10 · 16 May 2022
Multipliers
10/10 · 16 May 2022
Leadership
10/10 · 26 Dec 2021
High Performance
9/10 · 12 Dec 2021
Masters of Scale
7/10 · 5 Dec 2021
High Conflict
9/10 · 7 Sept 2021
Team Coaching At Work
8/10 · 13 Jul 2021
The Inner Game of Tennis
7/10 · 7 Jul 2021
Trillion-Dollar Coach
8/10 · 25 Apr 2021
The Making of a Manager
8/10 · 1 Apr 2021
Empowered
7/10 · 24 Jan 2021
The Great Mental Models
7/10 · 27 Dec 2020
Barcelona Way
8/10 · 12 Dec 2020
Cynefin
6/10 · 11 Dec 2020
Stand Out
7/10 · 10 Dec 2020
Forever Employable
13 Sept 2020
Superfast Lead at Speed
12 Apr 2020
Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps
22 Mar 2020
How to Lead in Product Management
14 Mar 2020
Knowing Doing Gap – How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
8/10 · 16 Feb 2020
Range - Why Generalists Triumph
1 Feb 2020
Work with me
If you're building this into 1:1s or a leadership programme, that's the work I do.
Coaching through AI change, manager-as-coach programmes, and the conversations leaders postpone until they become expensive. A 30-minute discovery call. No pitch.