The 8 Best Leadership Textbooks

Kevin Cashman's The Pause Principle teaches management in a way that most wouldn't expect in the fast-based business world. He wants you to pause and breathe, to step back and see your company and your problems more objectively so that you can move forward with purpose.

Andrew J. DuBrin's Research Findings, Practice, and Skills comes with everything from self-testing exercises to thoughtful chapter-opening anecdotes. If you want a college-level guide that has a strong focus on fundamentals, this is for you.

The Servant as Leader is a pamphlet written by Robert K. Greenleaf in the late '70s that contains a single essay. Greenleaf's philosophy places others' needs first and teaches the importance of delegating responsibility to employees whom you can trust.

Kevin Cashman, who coaches CEOs professionally, wrote Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life to focus on authenticity as a director. This edition, which has sold over 100,000 copies, includes new case studies and independent research.

Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal's Reframing Organizations is a thorough take on the business world and focuses on creating a productive company culture. It's based around a four-frame model: structure, human resources, politics, and symbolism.

This copy of James Kouzes' and Barry Posner's How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen is the 25th anniversary edition, which should tell you how canonized this advice is. The updated version redefines the authors' classic work for a modern world.

The Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads is a collection of essays that includes Peter F. Drucker's influential piece “What Makes an Effective Executive.” If you enjoy the book, analogous titles include "On Managing People" and "On Managing Yourself."

Peter G. Northouse wrote Theory and Practice in a way that gives the average reader genuine insight into the major ideas behind organizational philosophy, without becoming too complicated. Each chapter even has consistent formatting to help you compare principles.