This is the 3×5 Leadership reading list – a compilation of the books that have impacted my development the most across my favorite subjects to read about. The list serves an option of recommendations others can consider. We are all shaped by the books we read and I don’t believe one list is right, the best, or better than any other list. My hope is that these books can impact you the way they have me.
This is a “living” list; it will continue to evolve and grow as I keep reading. So, come back and routinely check out the list for updates.
Within each category, books are listed in order of recommended preference, with the top book in the category being my top recommendation. If there is a book not on here that you believe should be, be patient; I likely have not gotten to reading it yet!
The 3×5 Leadership Reading List
Leader Development
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, by Stephen R. Covey
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, by Daniel Coyle
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, by John Maxwell
How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, by Colin Powell
Herding Tigers: Be the Leader Creative People Need, by Todd Henry
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier
The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization, by John Maxwell
Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.), by Peter Northouse
Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath
Military Leadership
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by L. David Marquet
Leaders: Myth and Reality, by GEN (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal
Taking the Guidon: Exceptional Leadership at the Company Level, by Nate Allen & Tony Burgess
Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach, by COL (Ret.) Dandridge M. Malone
Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy For Leaders, by LTC (Ret.) Arthur S. Collins, Jr.
A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service, by Robert M. Gates
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal
The Challenge of Command, by Roger H. Nye
The Patton Mind, by Roger H. Nye
Military History
This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness, by T. R. Fehrenbach
Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor, by Clinton Romesha
Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, by Jim Frederick
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, by Rick Atkinson
East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950, by Roy Appleman
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, by Michael Gordon & GEN Bernard Trainor
Carved From Granite: West Point Since 1902, by Lance Betros [for USMA graduates]
Fiction
Once an Eagle, by Anton Myrer
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, by Steven Pressfield
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, by P. W. Singer & August Cole
One Second After, by William R. Forstchen
Understanding the Human Condition & Human Growth
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, by Brene Brown
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World, by Bob Goff
Other Nonfiction
LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, by P. W. Singer & Emerson T. Brooking
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, by Donald Miller
Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization, by Parag Khanna
Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World, by Ian Bremmer
The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder, by Peter Zeihan
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, by P. W. Singer
Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, by Paul Scharre