Managers can improve their leadership skills by reading and digesting certain books that cover all areas of practicing management. Some of the best books that must be considered for business owners include:
1. “Good to Great”. Author: J. Collins
This is one of the greatest books on leadership. It was written, as well as published in the Harvard business concepts. The author, has written this book following some five year researched he worked on, personally, and this involved identifying the companies that grew from great to perfect results. He then compared such organizations to average business companies, in order to find out the main different perspectives between them. He was able to conclude on 5 solid advice that he called “Level 5 Leadership” and Management Strategy. Working on such advices will definitely transform your organization from average to super-achiever.
2. “Now, Discover Your Strengths”. Authors: M. Buckingham and D. Clifton
One of the popular personalities whose life has been transformed by this book is Lori Goler- the chief HR of Facebook social media Network. She reported that the book had transformed the philosophy of Personal Management. The general idea of this book — organizations can performance better through the help they offer their employees in pinpointing their unique talents. According to Clifton, the book co-author, an organization can conduct assessment of their staffs to achieve this. This book is also based on researches conducted on more than two million staffs from different organizations. When harmed with a bigger understanding of your own skills, you will be better equipped to become a better business leader.
3. “Meditations”. Authors: M. Aurelius and G. Hays
This is one of the top best books for managers, because it focuses more on emotions. The book comprises of a collection of personal writings, though they were not intentionally written for publishing. In this book Marcus focused on behaviours and qualities that make a great and smart leader. Marcus’ advices in this book will remain relevant for many decades to come.
4. “Mindset”. Author: C. Dweck
Book author works as a psychologist at the University of Stanford, and he had made so much waves especially among educators and parents when he published the book “Mindset” in 2006. Well, it became a bestseller, because all ideas are applicable in all areas of businesses. In this book, author believes that having a “Growth” mindset in which you believe that your skills and talents can be developed through hard work, will definitely lead to much more successes. Secondly, having complete believe in your competencies can also help facilitate growth and development of your business. One other takeaway from this book is that organizations must encourage their employees to learn and grow through their firm control over mindset.
5. “Things Fall Apart”. Author: Ch. Achebe
This book is a post-colonial novel that teaches business leaders not to be protagonists in their approach to handling issues. Though the book centers on a typical African community, but business owners can learn a lot from the main character who fell tragically from being a hero to a villain through a protagonist approach to issues.
6. “Drive”. Author: D. H. Pink
This book takes a critical look on how rewards and punishments affect the morale of employees and recommend that rewards should be continuous in order to sustain employee motivations and help organizations achieve short and long term goals.
7. “The One thing I Need to Know”. Author: M. Buckingham
This is a Best seller that focuses on the main qualities that make a leader relevant and respectful. The book suggests that leaders must look inward and improve their psychology in order to become more responsible and accepted to employees.
8. “How to Win Friends, and Influence People”. Author: D. Carnegie
80 years after it was first published, this book remains one of the best management books of all time. Warren Buffet, one of the richest people in the world had named this book, one of his favourite as it helped him get through some difficult times in his high school days. Dale, the author of this book focused more on capitalizing your interaction with people, because it will be crucial to your success as a potential great leader, and entrepreneur. This book encourages entrepreneurs to talk about themselves, instead of trying to dominate all conversations. This means you must emphasize the things you agree with others, in order to win their loyalty and support. Overall, this book will help build your self-confidence as well as inspire your business team.
9. “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader”. Author: H. Ibarra
This book is about leadership and management. The book is packed with unconventional advices for all aspiring and current business owners and leaders. Ibarra, the author of this book, is also a Professor at the INSEAD business school, and he suggests that business owners can act first and think – this will help them learn more through experimentation. Aside the fact that it is one of the top rated management books, it can also help consulting firms to help their clients. A chapter of this book emphasizes on dangers of being too authentic at business or work. In general, this book reminds that, being an effective manager means you have to get away from your comfort zone.
10. “Thinking Fast and Slow”. Author: D. Kahneman
This is one of the best project management books for entrepreneurs and business owners. The book was written by CEO of Business leadership consultancy firm, and being a psychologist, who has won many Nobel prizes in Economics. He believes that successful project management involves two systems: System #1 – The fast and intuitive. And System #2 – the slow and deliberate. This is one of the best books on management, especially for entrepreneur who wants to avoid cognitive biases that can influence management behaviour, negatively. This book can help you identify all psychological stumbling blocks, and it provides strategies to overcome such problems. Workly is a time management app for business that simplifies many business operations. It can work as time tracker for monitoring day to day activities of organization staffs and can also assist as an administrative and HR tool. The app can be integrated effectively into other business tool for more effective running.