By Charlie Winn, leadership coach at Orchard Coaching. Updated November 2026.
Most of the business owners I work with aren’t short of leadership ideas. They’re short of time to sit with any of them and work out which one matters for their business right now. So the book gets bought, sits on the desk for a few months, then goes on the shelf with the others.
This list is the books I keep bringing up in coaching sessions, because they say something an owner of a 40 to 100 person business actually needs to hear. I’ve updated it for 2026 and kept my earlier picks further down, because they still hold up.
My advice on reading hasn’t changed: read, reflect, talk it through with someone, then give a couple of things a go. A book you’ve argued about with your leadership team is worth ten you’ve finished on your own.
Quick picks
| Book | Author | Best for | The key idea |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Stephen Covey | Any leader | Lead yourself before you lead others |
| Essentialism | Greg McKeown | Stretched owners | Do less, but better |
| The Ideal Team Player | Patrick Lencioni | Hiring and team building | Humble, hungry and people smart |
| Rocket Fuel | Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters | Owners holding every decision | Visionary and Integrator roles |
| The Invisible Leader | Zach Mercurio | Owners building a business that runs without them | Purpose leads when you’re not in the room |
Where to start: if you’re new to leading people, start with The Growth Mindset Edge (in my earlier picks below). If you own the business, start with The Invisible Leader.
1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Everyone’s heard of it. Far fewer have read it properly, which is a shame, because Covey makes an argument most leadership content skips: effectiveness comes from principles, not techniques.
What I keep coming back to is his progression from dependence to independence to interdependence. You have to build your own discipline, clarity and sense of responsibility before you can lead anyone else well. Your team will not operate at a level you don’t demonstrate yourself. That’s confronting, and it’s also where the work starts. (More on this in 5 habits that change how you lead your business.)
Read it if you want the foundation under everything else on this list.
2. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
The owners I meet aren’t lacking commitment. They’re lacking room to think. The diary is full, the day gets away from them, and the important work keeps sliding into the evening.
McKeown’s case is that doing less, but better, is a discipline rather than a luxury. Be deliberate about where your time goes, and get comfortable saying no to things that are perfectly good but not yours to carry. For an owner who’s proud of being able to do everything, that’s a harder read than it sounds. (I wrote more on this in why less is the most powerful leadership strategy.)
Read it if you’re stretched across everything and quietly wondering what you’d drop if you were honest about it.
3. The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni
Once you’re leading yourself reasonably well, the question becomes whether you’ve got the right people around you, and whether you can say out loud what “right” actually means.
Lencioni tells it as a story, which makes it an easy read, and lands on three virtues: humble, hungry and people smart. It gives you and your leaders shared words for hiring, for development conversations, and for the conversation about someone who’s good at the job but hard on everyone around them. That’s usually the conversation being avoided.
Read it if you’re hiring, reshaping a team, or sitting on a conversation you know you need to have.
4. Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters
The right people is only half of it. They also need to be in the right seats, and in most growing businesses the seat causing the trouble is the owner’s.
Rocket Fuel looks at the Visionary and Integrator partnership and why a growing business needs both, rarely in the same person. If you’ve ever finished a week knowing nearly every decision came through you, this one will sting a bit and then be useful. (See also you hired more people, so why is everything still landing on your desk?)
Read it if you suspect you’re holding roles that should belong to someone else.
5. The Invisible Leader by Zach Mercurio
If you only pick up one book from this list, make it this one.
Mercurio’s argument is that purpose is the invisible leader. It’s what guides how your people behave when you aren’t in the room, which is most of the time once you’re past thirty or forty staff. He’s not talking about a values statement on the wall. He means purpose that’s genuinely understood, so your team can make a call on a Tuesday afternoon without ringing you.
For an owner trying to build something that outlasts them, that’s the whole game.
Read it if you want the business to hold its shape without you in the middle of it.
My earlier picks (still worth reading)
These were my top five in the first version of this list. They’re more general, and a good fit for people early in their leadership.
People Follow People by Sam Cawthorn
Cawthorn is an Australian speaker who wrote Bounce Forward after a serious road accident. People Follow People sets out the traits of influential leaders, and it’s more practical than most general leadership books. It makes you rank what you think matters before he gets into the detail.
The Growth Mindset Edge by Jackie Beere
Leaders who keep growing keep learning. Beere covers why we get stuck, how to shift how we think, and ends with a chapter on growing others. This is where I’d start if you’re new to leading people.
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Leaders create the environment where others reach their potential. Coyle sets out what leaders need to bring for a team to perform. If you lead a team, read this one.
Team Work by Ray McLean
Read this after The Culture Code. McLean focuses on group dynamics, gives you a framework to use with your team, and covers some one-on-one skills too.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell
Maxwell sets out 21 principles for how leaders build engagement. It’s easy to read and handy to come back to. Read it once you have a few years of leading behind you.
Also worth a look: Scaling Up by Verne Harnish and Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty.
What all of these books point to
Read these back to back and the same three things keep surfacing. They’re the three I use to work out what’s actually broken in a growing business.
Clarity is who owns what: decisions, roles, accountability. Without it, decisions stall, get made twice, or quietly don’t get made at all, and your leaders start checking with you to be safe.
Courage is having the conversation instead of avoiding it. The feedback you’ve been sitting on. The manager who isn’t cutting it. The honest look at your own blind spots.
Cadence is the rhythm and shared language that keep everyone rowing the same way, and make it safe to ask the question nobody wants to ask out loud.
- Courage without clarity is confronting people with no direction to give them.
- Clarity without cadence is a plan that fades by the third week.
- Cadence without courage is a diary full of meetings where the real issue never gets named.
Most owners I work with are strong in one or two. The growth usually sits in the one they avoid.
How to get more from a leadership book
- Read with your leadership team. Pick one book a quarter and give each leader one chapter to bring back to the group.
- Pick one idea to try. Not five. Try it for a month, then review.
- Talk it through with someone outside the business. A coach or peer will ask the question your team won’t.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best book to read to become a better leader?
For a new leader, The Growth Mindset Edge by Jackie Beere, because it builds the habit of learning everything else depends on. For an owner of a growing business, The Invisible Leader by Zach Mercurio.
What leadership books should a new manager read first?
Start with The Growth Mindset Edge, then The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Once you lead a team, add The Culture Code and The Ideal Team Player. If you’re building new leaders in your business, see our Emerging Leaders Program.
What leadership books do business owners and CEOs read?
The ones I see most on owners’ desks are Rocket Fuel, Scaling Up, Essentialism and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Rocket Fuel is the one that most often changes how an owner sets up their role.
Are leadership books worth reading if I don’t have time?
Yes, if you read for one idea at a time. A single chapter you act on is worth more than a book you finish and forget. Audiobooks work well for owners who drive a lot.
Should I read leadership books with my team?
Yes. Reading the same book gives your leaders a shared language, which is often what’s missing when a leadership team isn’t pulling in the same direction.
Which of the three, clarity, courage or cadence, is weakest in your business right now?
If that’s a hard question to answer, let’s talk it through. I work with owners and leadership teams of growing businesses through leadership coaching and executive coaching in Sydney.
Developing leaders who create leaders.