Ask HN: Favourite books on leadership?

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Khaneman: It is not a book on leadership really, but on decision-making. It is backed by reproducible nobel-prize winning research and builds a ver clear mental model. My only quibble is that the author should call "system 1" "the intuitive mind" and "system 2" "the deliberative mind" for the sake of better affordance.

Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen: This is by the same group behind Getting to Yes. It presents a clear mental model for how to better predict the way your words will be perceived and how to avoid misperceiving what other people are trying to say.

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni: The first part of this presents a clear model the prerequisites for a team to be effective. The Second part presents a model of how to get agreement on mission and strategy. If you prefer a more allegorical/narrative style, the author has several books that teach different pieces of this book.

Each of these is available on Audible, if you find it easier to listen while commuting.

Coincidentally, I am just now rereading Certain Trumpets, a collection of 16 brief case studies by Gary Wills. An interesting feature is that, for each leader he also discusses an antitype. So for electoral leader Franklin Roosevelt, the antitype is Adlai Stevenson. For business leader Ross Perot, the antitype is Roger Smith, the GM executive also criticized in the documentary "Roger and Me" (the book came out in 1994).

The book is history/biography not how-to, but he makes some general observations. He emphasizes that good leaders are made possible by good followers, who are united by the same goal and recognize the leader's likelihood of reaching it. He also emphasizes that there isn't some generic talent for leadership. The talents required of a leader depend on what the goals are. So, in general, a good military leader might not be a good elected leader etc.

Paid to Think: A Leader's Toolkit for Redefining Your Future, by David Goldsmith

Truly a thought provoking read that will give you ideas to create an immediate impact your business. Here's a podcdast interview with the author > http://www.blogtalkradio.com/waynehurlbert/2013/01/04/david-...

How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business by Dave Hitz

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Castrate-Bull-Unexpected-Busine...

Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson [1]

A fascinating story about how to build and sustain success when the team keeps changing every year. Also very interesting is how to deal with multiple personalities and get them all working in one direction.

[1] https://www.alexfergusonleading.co.uk/

High Output Management by Andrew Grove [1].

Leadership requires good management of oneself, and this is an excellent book on management.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp...

I would say 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I will go as far as to say that if I had to read one book throughout my life this would be it. Love it.

One book that I found to be amazingly helpful about engineering leadership / management is http://leadingsnowflakes.com/