Any good book that offers meaningful advice about leadership does not sugarcoat how difficult it can be to bring people together and rally them to help an organization—or a school—succeed.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to find or simply stumble upon some excellent books about leadership. But there is one book that rises above all the rest and is my all-time favorite: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a fascinating take on how President Abraham Lincoln created a cabinet of advisers of varying personalities and perspectives who engaged in spirited debates in meetings but ultimately helped the president navigate what was arguably one of the most painful periods in American history.
As I reported for a story about fearless leadership in education for our Big Ideas report, I wondered: What do educators and management experts think are the best books ever written about leadership?
To get that conversation started, I asked the people I interviewed for the Big Ideas essay and other experts to name and explain their picks. Their responses—which have been edited for length and clarity—are below.
But, equally important, we want to know about you. What’s on your bookshelf and why? Share your favorites and tell us why, here. (We will publish a selection of your responses on edweek.org at a later date.)
This is my favorite leadership book of all time. Using a fictional story of a leader, the book conveys profound wisdom about self-awareness and systems thinking—crucial leadership competencies. The book’s story and suspense [help] readers begin to appreciate the ways in which they currently deceive themselves and inadvertently cause harm they did not intend to cause.
The central message is that leadership fails when leaders cannot see their own role in problems and improves when they treat others as people rather than obstacles or objects.
Some key points:
- Self-deception. Leaders can be blind to their motives, mistakes, and impact on others. Nearly all of us inhabit a self-protective mindset that leads to blame, justification, and seeing others (effectively) as objects.
- Self-betrayal. We routinely ignore our sense that we should help or respect someone, then we rationalize that choice.
- Accountability. Effective leaders must own their contribution to conflicts instead of blaming others.
It is extremely challenging—psychologically (cognitively and emotionally)—to change habitual routines that are well established by adulthood. We are both hardwired and socialized in ways that reinforce our unawareness of our own distorted thinking. Yet, for many of us, the desire to overcome the negative effects we might be having on others, especially in longer-duration personal and professional relationships, is high. The key question we must confront, if we feel that desire, is how willing are we to work on it? Because there is no question about it: It IS work.
——Amy Edmondson
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School; Author of The Fearless Organization
Leadership on the Line is my favorite book because it cuts through the usual platitudes of management and delivers a brutally honest, deeply human guide to navigating real organizational change. I was first introduced to this book while serving as a high school principal, and throughout my career, I have continually used it as an anchor when leading through complex, high-stakes problems.
It offers a crucial distinction between simple technical fixes and adaptive challenges requiring fundamental shifts in mindsets, values, and culture completely transformed how I approach executive leadership. Rather than viewing leadership as a matter of authority, the book reveals the real risks of pushing communities out of their comfort zones and provides the strategic framework needed to guide teams through uncertainty. Above all, it grounds every hardship of leadership in a profound sense of purpose, reminding us that tackling difficult problems is ultimately a labor of love dedicated to contributing to the lives of others.
——Carol Birks
Superintendent, Allentown, Pa., School District
Why this book: I read it early in my school leadership career as I was working through some school-level challenges that also were in conflict with my own experiences and, at times, even my own personal values. Palmer’s book helped me work through this cognitive dissonance in a way that allowed me to accept that there were a variety of paths toward creating classrooms and schools where the needs of the students could be at the center of every aspect of the endeavor.
——Patrick Burke
Former principal, South Burlington High School, Vt.
This book has probably had the biggest impact on my leadership journey. We read it as a book study with our leadership team, and, honestly, that’s where I saw the biggest change.
It helped me understand myself in a way I hadn’t before. I began to understand why I naturally approach things the way I do and what I bring to a team. But even more importantly, I began to understand the people I work with. When you know someone’s strengths, you start to see them differently. You recognize what they naturally bring to the table instead of focusing on the ways they may approach something differently from you.
That has been a complete game-changer for our leadership team. We’re all different, and when you work closely together, you’re going to step on each other’s toes sometimes. Now, when we get frustrated with one another, we actually go back to our strengths book. We’ll look up the strength of the person we’re frustrated with and try to reframe our thinking before we react. Instead of thinking, “Why are they doing this?,” we can stop and think, “This is how their strength is showing up.”
For me, that’s what makes this book so meaningful. It didn’t just give us a vocabulary for talking about leadership—it changed the way we see ourselves and each other. And I think when you can help people see the strengths in themselves and in the people around them, you build a much stronger team.
——Nicki McCann
Superintendent, Caldwell Parish School District, La.
“Battlestar Galactica,” TV series
“Battle Star Galactica” is a show that is brutal about the reality of trade-offs. It shows crisis after crisis, pitting good values against each other and forcing leaders to make extremely hard choices in rampant uncertainty—uncertainty where there’s no clear good and bad side. It also is brutally honest about the pressures leaders face when the stakes are highest.
The whole premise of the show is the imminent extinction of the human race. It takes everything the different leaders have to overcome the challenges that test them. To top it all off, the show features multiple leaders who run different things that have to work together. Different groups of people who have to build uneasy coalitions for the greater mission they all serve, which is just their own survival.
I haven’t seen any other work of fiction or nonfiction plumb the depths of leadership challenges as well as “Battle Star Galactica.”
——Mónica Guzmán
Founder, CEO of Reclaim Curiosity
Author of I Never Thought Of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.
I have a few—but this is the one that I really like.
While the book is about how to manage conflict and find possibilities out of conflict—it is also a great road map to being a good leader. He brings to life the need to get up on “the balcony,” see problems from a different way, engage multiple perspectives, and build bridges. I think all of his lessons over his years as a world-renowned negotiator serve us well as leaders and people who have to manage constant conflict.
——Katy Anthes
Director of FORWARD, an initiative of the Public Education and Business Coalition that works with education leaders to help their communities move beyond conflict and political polarization.
I’ve really enjoyed this book. It draws from ancient teachings and spiritual wisdom to lift up timeless lessons on the importance of leadership qualities such as humility, vision, teamwork, and lifelong learning. It’s a great reminder that the answers to leadership’s greatest challenges can be found even in sources from thousands of years ago.
——Jeff Wetzler
Co-Founder of Transcend, a nonprofit education innovation organization that works to create more effective learning environments for students; Author of Ask
When I encountered this book about 15 years ago, it was the first time I read about the connection between organizational trust and performance. Sinek weaves together evidence-based approaches with personal vignettes of inspiring leaders who insist their teams feel connected to a collective mission.
In our education sector, where we frequently focus on new initiatives and activities, this book focuses on leaders’ own clarity of purpose and their ability to communicate and manage toward a set of wildly ambitious outcomes. If we believe in the commitment of public school to educate every student, this is the time for wild ambition.
——Caitlin Sullivan
CEO, Co-Founder of Leading Now, a nonprofit that supports superintendents as civic leaders
One of my favorite lessons on [leadership] comes from The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu: The best leaders lead so unobtrusively that people believe they accomplished things themselves.
Lao Tzu believed that effective leaders (and teachers, I’d add) do not seek attention or constantly assert authority. Instead, they create conditions that enable others to act, contribute, and take ownership.
It’s a remarkably modern conception of leadership: The leader’s success is measured less by how indispensable the leader becomes than by what other people become capable of doing.
——Ken Futernick
Host of podcast Courageous Conversations About Schools
