5 Books Every Leadership Team Should Read

A Common Question I get asked when teaching Leadership Teams centers around what books a Leadership Team should be reading together. So I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 here:

1. The Up the Middle Church by, well, me.

I know it sounds self-promoting, and you can judge me if you want to, but I really believe that if a church or church planting leadership team will go through this book chapter by chapter, they’ll be better for it. Dozens of teams have said so over the past few years.

2. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.

This is a leadership textbook and every leadership team needs to have it in their psyche as a common language. I fear the young leader who has not read this staple.

3. Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Although its 10 years old and some of the data is outdated, it still introduces a vocabulary that is essential for any leadership team to have.

4. The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

This book is the backbone for how teams actually make healthy decisions in an organization. I don’t know where our leadership decision making abilities would be without this book.

5. Rework by Jason Fried and David Hannson.

I really didn’t want to like this book. As an author this book has everything wrong with it, but as a leader of a team and the primary shaper of our organization’s culture, this book has everything right with it. Get it. Read it. Digest it. It’s worth it. (Minor Vulgarity Warning though)

I hope you noticed the repetition of the idea of introducing vocabulary terms to your team. Words shape culture in an organization like little else does. So reading the right books together to have a common language is essential.

Happy reading,

#AddingValue

@MatthewKeller