The Top 10 Must-Read Management Books
By: Insaf Ali
Tags: Management Books, Book Recommendations, Book Review, The Blue Stars, Management And Leadership

The Top 10 Must-Read Management Books

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The concept of management is often very misunderstood. There are those that think that being a manager simply means you don’t have to do the real work, and there are those that believe that becoming a manager is simply an opportunity to increase one’s salary, to move up in the organization, to take on a little bit more responsibility, to get a new title, but ultimately, to move their career forward and earn more money.

Now, of course, the truth of the matter is, that great managers are highly skilled at what they do, and they play a critical role in their organization because they multiply the performance of everybody else around them.

So if you’re interested in becoming a manager or if you’re a new manager or even an experienced manager, the books in this list can help you upgrade your skills and become more effective at managing other people.

01. The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhou

Photo @ WeWork

Many people end up becoming managers often never intended to join management. They joined a team, the team started to grow. Somebody recognized that they had some leadership potential and they get promoted into the role of becoming a manager.

And, of course, this presents a very obvious challenge and that is they need to figure out the responsibilities of a manager and they need to develop the skills that are required to be a more effective manager.

And that might include things like, how to build trust with a team, what to focus on in the first few months, and how to get better results from other people.

Now, in my opinion, this is one of the very best resources for new managers.

It’s very actionable. It’s very approachable, and it covers all of the essential topics that new managers need to master if they want to be more effective at managing their team.

And while it’s certainly written for new managers, it also covers many topics that I’m sure even more experienced managers would enjoy if they’re looking to upgrade their skills and become even more effective at managing people.

So if you’re brand new to management, or if you’re looking for a great all-around resource, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book or buy an eBook for yourself. The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhou

02. First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

Photo @ Some People Juggle Geese

Every great manager seems to have their own unique style when it comes to managing their people.

And, of course, every team is a little bit different and every organization is a little bit different and this makes it very hard for new managers to identify the best practices that they can incorporate into their own management style in order to be more effective.

So Gallup conducted a massive study of over 80,000 managers, managers in large organizations, managers in smaller organizations, and even those in either higher up leadership positions or in frontline supervisory roles.

And so this book takes all of that valuable data and distills it down into revealing what the best managers have in common. And it also introduces a simple method that you can use to measure the current strength of your workplace.

And, of course, it covers many practical tips for how to upgrade your skills and make your workplace even more effective.

So if you’re looking for a great all-around resource for understanding what the very best managers have in common, then I recommend that you pick up a copy of this book.

If you want to buy an eBook click here First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

03. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

Photo @ Silvio Kusakawa

There are two kinds of dangers that people face when they’re working inside an organization.

There are outside dangers and there are inside dangers.

Now, when it comes to outside dangers, this would include things like direct competition, market conditions, and even alternative solutions.

And when it comes to inside dangers, this would include things like personal conflict, intimidation, and even humiliation.

This book explains how great managers build a strong circle of safety within their organization. And the goal here is to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce the inside dangers so that team members can focus more of their time and energy on addressing the outside dangers as individuals in the organization and, of course, as team members, by working much more collaboratively with other members of the team.

Now, if you’re interested in learning a little bit more about this book, I do recommend you to buy an eBook here Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

04. The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

The best managers don’t just facilitate collaboration between the various members of their team, they also look for opportunities to help individual contributors grow and improve their own skills so that the entire team can become much more effective.

Now, unfortunately, as a manager, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of giving advice or stepping in and taking action when somebody on the team brings up an issue or a problem or something that needs to be resolved.

And, of course, when we take action or when we offer advice, we really limit their own ability to grow.

And so what this book is all about is how to use a coaching mindset to facilitate growth in individual members of the team.

So the idea here is to, instead of giving advice or jumping in and taking action, we ask very useful questions to help guide their own process for discovery and growth.

So the book covers seven powerful questions that we can use to provide more of a coaching atmosphere where they can improve, they can solve the problem, and they can upgrade their skills in the process.

Now, not only does the book cover these seven questions and the theory and the ideas behind them, but it also provides very practical advice when it comes to changing your own habits so that when these situations come up, rather than jumping in with advice or action, you can build a habit around turning to coach and guiding their own growth.

If you interested in to read the book I will suggest you buy an eBook here The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

05. Measure What Matters by John Doerr

As an organization grows in size, it can become much more difficult to establish and communicate the strategic goals of the organization.

As more and more bureaucracy creeps in, progress can slow, and it can be harder for teams and even individual contributors to have a clear sense of what they should be focused on in order to move the overall organization forward much more effectively.

So this book is about a better system for setting and executing the strategic goals of an organization. It’s called Objectives & Key Results, also known as OKR’s.

And this is a proven system that’s been used by Intel, by Google, and even by organizations like the Gates Foundation.

So if you’re looking for a system to improve transparency, collaboration, and communication within a business, and if you want to take a larger organization and have it operate much more like a nimble startup, where everybody understands what they should be doing in order to move the organization forward, then I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this book and that you use OKR’s within your own organization.

If you are interested to buy a copy of I will suggest you buy an eBook here Measure What Matters by John Doerr.

06. The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Great leadership often involves striking a balance between two different extremes.

Examples include empowering versus micro-managing, confidence versus humility, and leading versus following.

This book is about how to find that balance when it comes to dealing with the various dichotomies that you will almost certainly experience as a manager or as a leader.

And the book covers 12 principles that you’re going to want to cover if you want to be more prepared for handling these different kinds of situations.

And it organizes these 12 principles into three groups so that you can focus on balancing your people, balancing the mission, and balancing yourself.

And not only does the book provide a lot of information and advice when it comes to each one of these principles, but it also covers practical, real-world experiences so that you can get a better sense of how you might apply these ideas within your own business or organization.

Buy an eBook here The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.

07. Multipliers by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown

At a high level, there are two distinct approaches to managing a team.

The first is to be the genius that everybody turns to when they’re in a bind.

And the second approach is to focus on unlocking the genius in everybody else on the team and allowing them to take more control and to be more capable.

This book is all about focusing on that second approach. It’s about empowering others and focusing your time and energy on making sure that they’re able to accomplish as much as possible.

So you’re looking for ways to make them smarter, more capable, and more effective, both as an individual and as a team.

So if you’re at all struggling with empowering others, or if you want to become a multiplier, or if you’re concerned that you might be an accidental diminished, this book can help make sure that your efforts are focused on empowering others and allowing their genius to shine through, so the entire team can be more effective.

Buy an eBook here Multipliers by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown.

08. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

Photo @ Butter My Books

A recurring theme in management is the need to build a very strong internal culture.

And this is for the very simple reason that people are much more effective when they’re collaborating with each other than when they’re working in isolation. And so, even though this is a theme that has come up in some of the other books on this list and is quite popular in leadership and management, if you’re looking for an alternative perspective or a different take on how to build a strong internal culture, or if you simply want to round out your understanding of how to build a strong internal culture, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle.

This book focuses on three fundamental skills of great organizations, including building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose.

So if you’re looking for a second perspective, or if you haven’t read any other books on how to build a strong internal culture, I recommend that you pick up a copy of this book.

Buy an eBook here The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.

09. Your Brain at Work by David Rock

Photo @ Rick Kettner

More and more businesses today rely on the focus and creativity of their people, and yet, more than ever before, we have to deal with distractions and stress, and other challenges that we didn’t have to face just a few short decades ago.

And so this book is about how to help others work more effectively by understanding how the brain works.

It starts out with many practical tips on how you can improve your own personal productivity and focus and creativity, but it goes on to explain how, as a manager, you can unlock these capabilities in everyone on your team, and at the same time, make it easier for them to collaborate so that they can work together much more effectively.

So if you’re interested in understanding how the brain operates so that you can make your team much more effective, then I highly recommend you buy an eBook copy of this Book here Your Brain at Work by David Rock.

10. Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street

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One of the most important responsibilities for managers is hiring and retaining great people.

A great hire can take the organization to that next level, whereas a weak hire can really hold it back for months or in some cases, even years. So it’s very important to not only find the right people but to put them in the right positions within the team or the organization as a whole.

Now, unfortunately, most managers don’t really have a proven system for how they go about acquiring new talent.

They might have some favorite questions they like to ask during an interview, or they might have read a few articles on the kinds of things they should focus on when interviewing candidates, but most managers don’t really have a proven system, they just do their best and hope that they end up with the right people.

This book covers what’s called “The A Method for Hiring.”

It’s a practical and actionable guide when it comes to things like defining the outcomes that you want, generating a flow of great talent, and asking the right questions to ensure that you end up with the right candidate for the right role within your organization.

In my opinion, this is an absolute must-read for anybody that is hiring new members to the team or to the organization as a whole.

Buy an eBook here Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street.

Anyway, those are 10 of the very best management books that you can read.