Inspirational Videos
Books
Leadership
Top Picks
- The Leader Who Had No Title (Robin Sharma) – anyone has the power to be a leader and be their best regardless of what title they have or money they make
- How Successful People Lead (John Maxwell) – 5 levels of leadership and how to be successful at each level (position, permission, production, people development, personhood)
- True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (Bill George and Peter Sims) – qualities and effectiveness of your inner company, true self leadership
- Turn the Ship Around (David Marquet) – how to turn followers into leaders (giving control to others)
Other Leadership Books
- Quiet (Susan Cain) – you don’t need to be extroverted and charismatic to be an effective leader
- The 48 Laws of Power (Robert Greene) – charisma and focus can help you lead
- Leading People (Robert Rosen) – business success lies in the competence, creativity, and commitment of its people with profiles of thirty-six extraordinary leaders
- The Leader of the Future (Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard) – 30+ essays with a perspective on leadership in the future
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Marshall Goldsmith) – how to climb the last few steps in your career ladder, what subtle nuances make the difference in executives
- The Effective Executive (Peter Drucker) – as important as what you do every day is what you choose not to do
- The Leadership Challenge (James Kouzes & Barry Posner) – leadership is a relationship that must be learned and nurtured
- The Truth About Leadership (James Kouzes & Barry Posner) – how trust, credibility, ethics and other core principles play a key role in effective leadership
- Tribes (Seth Godin) – a winning formula for stepping outside the status quo to do meaningful work
- First, Break All The Rules (Marcus Buckingham) – what the best managers do differently by focusing on strengths and finding the right fit for each employee
- The Discipline of Teams (Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith) – workbook for driving small group performance
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni) – fable with a model and actionable steps to overcome the five dysfunctions of ineffective teams
- On Becoming a Leader (Warren Bennis) – qualities that define leadership and the people & strategies that exemplify effective leaders
- The Definitive Drucker (Elizabeth Edersheim) – advice for tomorrow’s executives from the father of modern management
Personal Development
Top Picks
- Compound Effect (Darren Hardy) – small, smart choices, consistency and time lead to huge results over time (choices, behaviors, habits, momentum, influences, acceleration)
- Stop Saying You’re Fine (Mel Robbins) – how to get what you really want
- The Alchemist (Paulo Cuelo) – life is a journey so have a purpose, follow your legend and if you really want something bad enough, the universe will help you get it
- The Way of the Seal (Mark Divine) – think and act like an elite warrior to lead and succeed
- Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) – the 13 steps to riches (e.g., desire, faith, specialized knowledge, planning, decisions, persistence, etc)
- Presence (Amy Cuddy) – how to bring your boldest self to your biggest challenges and stop worrying about others, focus on impression we make on ourselves
- The Genius In All Of Us (David Shenk) – genetics don’t dictate our destiny, we can all influence our gene-outside stimuli interplay to do great things and shape our destiny
- No Excuses (Brian Tracy) – the power of self-discipline, how to overcome the past of least resistance and immediate gratification
- Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey) – how people grow, change, and become more effective in every aspect of human responsibility
- Start with Why (Simon Sinek) – first why (purpose), then how (process), then what (result) and why some people and companies are more influential, profitable, successful and command more loyalty
- Slight Edge (Jeff Olson) – the things that don’t look like they matter every day, really do
Other Personal Development Books
- The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (Robin Sharma) – step-by-step approach to achieving balance, courage, abundance and joy in life
- Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) – how to control your thoughts and emotions, remove stress and rise above distractions to maintain your principles
- Life’s Golden Ticket (Brendon Burchard) – inspirational parable about personal growth and change (second chance at transforming lives)
- Motivation Manifesto (Brendon Burchard) – reclaim your life and find your personal freedom
- So Good They Can’t Ignore You (Cal Newport) – don’t always follow your passion, sometimes you need to refine your craft
- Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell) – talent, intelligence, hard work, ambition are good but you also need luck, timing and your own background
- StrengthFinders 2.0 (Tom Rath) – identify and develop your strengths
- Follow Your Conscience (Frank Sonnenberg) – actionable advice on improving relationships, strengthening careers and the purpose of life
- Managing With a Conscience (Frank Sonnenberg) – how to improve through integrity, trust and commitment
- The Profit (Khalil Gibran) – 26 prose poetry fables about various topics of life and the human condition (love, marriage, work, happiness, pain, friendship, etc)
- Leading An Inspired Life (Jim Rohn) – foundational principles to achieve business and life success, achieve wealth and experience greater joy
- Essentialism (Greg McKeown) – figure out which personal and business pursuits are worth your time and energy, eliminate the rest
- Awaken The Giant Within (Tony Robbins) – taking immediate control of your destiny
- A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle) – awakening to your life purposes by living in the present to find true happiness
Performance and Success
Top Picks
- Mindset (Carol Dweck) – success is the result of effort and the power of our mindset rather than talent
- Grit (Angela Duckworth) – how to be persistent and stick with your goals
- Smarter Better Faster (Charles Duhigg) – the secrets to being motivated, productive, decisive, innovative and happy
- Organize Tomorrow Today (Jason Selk and Tom Bartow) – 8 ways to retrain your mind to optimize performance (how elite athletes and business leaders climb to the top)
- The 4-Hour Workweek (Tim Ferriss) – success is about designing the life you want to have
- The Champions Mind (Jim Afremow) – how great athletes think, train and thrive
- High-Performance Habits (Brendon Burchard) – how extraordinary people become that way
- 5 Second Rule (Mel Robbins): how to get up and do anything that you want to do using a simple get-up-and-do-it tactic that is based on science
Other Performance and Success Books
- Executive Toughness (Jason Selk) – a mental training program to increase leadership performance and achieve any goal you set for yourself
- The As If Principle (Richard Wiseman) – your actions guide your emotions so if you want something, act as if you already have it
- True Success (Tom Morris) – the power of imagination and commitment in the pursuit of personal excellence
- Getting Things Done (David Allen) – basics of time management and organizing daily to-do’s to free up mental space for the big picture
- The Cheat Code (Brian Wong): Go off script to get more, go faster and shortcut your way to success
- The First 90 Days (Michael Watkins): What to do in your first 90 days of a new job to accelerate your success and the ROI others make in you
Motivation
Top Picks
- The Progress Principle (Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer) – motivation, happiness and productivity comes from small wins that happen every day
- Drive (Daniel Pink) – motivation comes from autonomy, purpose and mastery
- Eat That Frog (Brian Tracy) – 21 practical strategies for overcoming procrastination
Other Motivation Books
- Man’s Search for Meaning (Victor Frankl) – motivation comes from meaning more than happiness (define meaning for ourselves through action)
Psychology and Brain Science
Top Picks
- The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg) – why we do what we do and how to change habits
- Thinking, Fast & Slow (Daniel Kahneman) – system 1 (fast, instinctive, emotional thinking) v system 2 (slow, deliberate, logical thinking), prospect theory and framing choices
- Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) – how to achieve the flow state to get into the zone, achieve optimal performance and be more satisfied with what you do
Other Psychology and Brain Science Books
- Your Brain at Work (David Rock) – strategies for overcoming distractions, regaining focus and working smarter
- Decisive (Chip and Dan Heath) – biases in how we make decisions
- Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) – people can be irrational decision-makers
- Make It Stick (Peter Brown) – the science of learning (telling yourself what’s really important)
- The Willpower Instinct (Kelly McGonigal) – science of self-control and how it can improve your health, happiness and productivity
- Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Daniel Amen) – neuroscience and prescriptions for overcoming psychological and emotional hurdles
Emotional Intelligence
Top Picks
- Emotional Intelligence (Dan Goldman) – IQ must be complemented with self-control, motivation and persistence
- Primal Leadership (Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee) – the importance and power of emotionally intelligent leadership
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini) – six principles of behavior (reciprocity, commitment, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity)
- Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence (Erica Dwahan) – how to combine knowledge, ambition and human capital with global connections to create unprecedented value and meaning
Other Emotional Intelligence Books
- Give and Take (Adam Grant) – the most successful people benefit others
- How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie) – key to success is building strong relationships
Business
Top Picks
- Good to Great (Jim Collins) – why some companies and people make the leap and others don’t
- The Knowing Doing Gap (Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton) – how companies turn knowledge into action (avoiding the smart talk trap)
- In Search of Excellence (Thomas Peters) – 8 basic principles of management and lessons from America’s best-run companies
Other Business Books
- Great By Choice (Jim Collins) – why some companies thrive during uncertainty and unpredictability and others do not
- What Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success (William Joyce) – the management practices that truly promote long-term growth
- Indispensable (Joe Callaway) – how to become a company that your customers can’t live without
- Becoming a Category of One (Joe Calloway) – how companies set themselves apart from competitors and become market leaders
- The Starbucks Experience (Joseph Michelli) – 5 principles for turning ordinary into extraordinary including people-focused strategies and special experiences
- The New Gold Standard (Joseph Michelli) – how the Ritz-Carlton creates legendary customer experiences
- The Northbound Train (Karl Albrecht) – finding and shaping the purpose, direction and destiny of an organization
- What the Best CEOs Know (Jeffrey Krames) – lessons for transforming any business
- Mastering The Rockefeller Habits (Verne Harnish) – 8 practical actions to strengthen your business culture and grow your business
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done (Larry Bossidy) – how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered