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From culture and creativity to talent and trust, these reads will up your leadership game.

6 books to read if you want to be a better leader

[Photo: Fotografía de eLuVe/Getty Images]

BY Next Big Idea Club2 minute read

It’s quite a balancing act, being a good leader. You don’t want to be too overbearing or too aloof, too professional or too personal, too fawning or too critical. So where does that sweet spot lie?

Fortunately, a few leaders among leaders have written books about this very topic. Armed with the knowledge from the six reads below, you’re sure to become the leader of your team’s dreams.

Download the Next Big Idea App for “Book Bite” summaries of hundreds of new nonfiction books like these—all prepared and read by the authors themselves.

The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed

By Daniel Coyle

With reflections, exercises, and practical tips that will prove invaluable to companies, athletes, and families alike, The Culture Playbook is an indispensable guide to ensuring that your team performs at its best. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Daniel Coyle, in the Next Big Idea App

Emotion By Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike

By Greg Hoffman

A former Nike Chief Marketing Officer shares his philosophy and principles on how to create an empowering brand that resonates deeply with people by unlocking the creativity within your organization and unleashing it out into the world. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Greg Hoffman, in the Next Big Idea App

Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership

By Susan MacKenty Brady, Janet Foutty, and Lynn Perry Wooten

Powered by the latest research, boots-on-the-ground experience, and advice from 24 of the world’s most successful leaders, this book captures seven practices that help you understand and leverage your unique personal powers so you can thrive in leadership. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-author Susan MacKenty Brady, in the Next Big Idea App

A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness

By Roger Martin

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A renowned CEO advisor covers the entire breadth of the management landscape—illuminating the true nature of competition, explaining how company success revolves around customers, revealing how strategy and execution are really the same thing, and much more. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Roger Martin, in the Next Big Idea App

Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

By Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross

Identifying underrated, brilliant individuals is one of the simplest ways to give yourself an organizational edge, and this book will show you how. Talent is both for people searching for talent and for those who wish to be searched for, found, and discovered. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-author Tyler Cowen, in the Next Big Idea App

Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others

By Stephen M.R. Covey

People don’t want to be managed; they want to be led. Trust and Inspire is a new way of leading that starts with the belief that people are creative, collaborative, and full of potential. Indeed, people with this kind of leader are inspired to become the best version of themselves and to produce their best work. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Stephen M.R. Covey, in the Next Big Idea App


This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.


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