Welcome to the 3×5 Leadership Reading List
This is the 3×5 Leadership reading list – a compilation of the books that have most impacted my development across relevant leader development subjects. This list serves a mere option of recommendations you can consider.
We are all shaped by the books we read and I don’t believe one list is objectively right, the best, or better than any other. 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 check out the list for updates in time. If there is a book not on the list that you believe should be, be patient; I likely just have not gotten to reading it yet!
Happy reading!
On Leadership
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
Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results, by Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton
How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Herding Tigers: Be the Leader Creative People Need, by Todd Henry
Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude, by Raymond M. Kethledge & Michael S. Erwin
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by L. David Marquet
Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say — and What You Don’t, by L. David Marquet
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, by Kim Scott
The Effective Manager, by Mark Horstman
Memoirs
It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, by Colin Powell
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, by Jim Mattis & Bing West
A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service, by Robert M. Gates
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg
My American Journey, by Colin Powell
On the Human Condition
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, by Brene Brown
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck
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
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
Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution, by P. W. Singer & August Cole
Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, by P. W. Singer & August Cole
One Second After, by William R. Forstchen
Non-Fiction
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
Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, by Paul Scharre
Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers, by James C. Humes
Military Topics
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.
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
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller