Good leaders are readers.

5 min readJan 20, 2021

It should come as no surprise that my guests on the Leadmore Podcast have consistently shared book recommendations that have helped shape their thinking as leaders, problem solvers, and overall as human beings.

Here are 21 books recommended by leaders to add to your toolkit for 2021:

For when you need some personal or professional development:

Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Ambitious Women by Kate Northrup

This recommendation from entrepreneur and leader Maddie Peschong shares practical strategies to help women set boundaries, manage their workload, and increase their success.

2. Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons by Lewis Schiff

Matt Paulson, an entrepreneur and community organizer, recommended Schiff’s look at how legendary business leaders set their priorities, what skills they focus on, and how they find success. “It kind of says, here’s all the standard conventional advice that people give, and here’s the truth about each of those rules,” Paulson said.

3. The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks

Soona CEO Liz Giorgi recommended this to anyone who wants to be a leader. “It is the book that I turn to again and again and again because it reminds us that we are the only person that can jump off the cliff into our ambition, but we are also the only person who can decide not to go do that, too,” Giorgi said. “We have to get comfortable with the scope of our ambition and the size of our ambition.”

For when you’re facing an uphill battle:

4. The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts by Rhiannon Beaubien and Shane Parrish

This book, recommended by Ben Milne, walks through nine different models for problem-solving with a goal of changing how you think and behave when it comes time to solve problems in your life and business.

5. Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Longtime educator Rick Melmer recommended this book, which follows the lives of four presidents — Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson — and shows how they identified as leaders and led through disruption.

6. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

Take obstacles and turn them into a path forward with this read recommended by Brett Hagler.

For when you want to take an active approach to fighting racism:

7. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

This book recommended by Taneeza Islam asks the reader to imagine what an antiracist society might look like, and then it takes the next step of helping show how that society can be built. “I am a believer that we’re all racist in some way and that’s OK,” Islam said. “We need to acknowledge that in order to be able to move forward and understand how to shift into becoming — this word that they’re using now — antiracist.”

8. The Racial Healing Handbook by Anneliese A. Singh

Augustana University President and former congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin recommended this book, which aims to provide a historical and day-to-day context for conversations about race and privilege. One of the book’s goals is to help develop racial consciousness and conscientiousness.

For when you need some self-reflection:

9. Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance by Bob Buford

This recommendation from Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken focuses on the halftime transition in which one moves into the second half of the “game of life” and how to make the second half even better than the first.

10. Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYong

Leader Brent Beshore recommended this read, which pulls from a Christian tradition to look at why humans are drawn to false substitutes for true happiness and goodness.

For when you’re looking to solve complex problems:

11. The Deadliest Enemy — Our War Against Killer Germs by Michael T. Osterholm

As we all continue to work and lead through the coronavirus pandemic, this 2018 book recommended by former state epidemiologist Dr. Lon Kightlinger gives another perspective on the threats infectious disease pose and possible solutions to the complex problems those diseases create.

12. Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery

Journalist Charles Montgomery explores the relationship between urban living and the science of happiness as a way to understand and improve our own communities in this read recommended by David Whitesock.

For when you need to channel some creative energy:

13. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry by Camille T. Dungy

Philosophy professor David O’Hara recommended this collection of poems from 93 different poets, which takes the readers on a journey through generations of African American history.

14. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Get your suspense fix with this fictional tale of a woman who lies to claim an inheritance that doesn’t belong to her, as recommended by Charlotte Snyder.

15. Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman

Written by a historical gastronomist, this book explores the history behind the eight flavors that unite American food: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and sriracha in a recommendation from Laurel Farrer.

For when you need to escape to another era:

16. This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Former Gov. Dennis Daugaard recommended this historical fiction story of four Minnesota orphans embarking on a journey during the Great Depression.

17. Middlemarch by George Eliot

Also subtitled “A Study of Provincial Life,” Eliot gives a realistic depiction of life in various socioeconomic classes in 1870s England in this book recommended by bestselling author Kim Scott.

18. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Another Kim Scott recommendation, Woolf’s stream of consciousness writing here tells the story of a large family in their summer home on an island west of Scotland before the start of World War I.

For when you need inspiration:

19. No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox

This memoir recommended by Kendra Gottsleben follows Michael J. Fox’s journey, strength and resiliency as he lives with Parkinson’s disease.

20. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik

Liz Giorgi also recommended this look at feminist icon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, which provides an intimate look at Ginsberg’s life, career, and dissent collar game.

21. My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

Speaking of influential female Supreme Court justices, philanthropist Jen Ford Reedy recommended this memoir from Sotomayor, the first Latinx person and the third woman appointed to the nation’s highest court.

For more recommendations, stories, and great advice from leaders, listen and subscribe to the Leadmore Podcast in your favorite podcast app.

Have a favorite leadership book that didn’t make this list? Tell me about it on Twitter at @johntmeyer.