60 Strategy & Leadership Books Written by Women

 60 Strategy & Leadership Books Written by Women

 

A few weeks ago, I tripped across Richard Branson's list of 70 Must Read Books. It's an excellent list but I noticed the lack of women authors and I commented on that, which led to a long stream of recommendations. 

In my domain of business, strategy, and leadership I've also noticed a gap in women authors and I thought it was worthwhile to compile a list that was not books targeted at women but books about strategy and leadership that happen to be written by women. There is some cross-over; obviously, the experience of being a woman in leadership today provides an experience worth discussing, but that is not the predominant focus of this list.

So here you are: 60 books about strategy and leadership, written by women and listed in no particular order so as not to overemphasize any one of them.

1. Mindset, Carol Dweck 
2. Blue Ocean Strategy, Renée Mauborgne 
3. 101 Reasons to Get Out of Bed, Natasha Milne 
4. In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules, Stacy Perman 
5. Lean In & Option B, Sheryl Sandberg 
6. The Change Masters and Confidence and many others, Rosabeth Moss Kanter 
7. Groundswell, Open Leadership & The Engaged Leader, Charlene Li 
8. Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World and others, Margaret Wheatley  
9. Rising Strong, Brene Brown 
10. Nimble, Focused, Feisty: Organizational Cultures That Win in the New Era and How to Create Them, Sara Roberts 
11. Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry, Jean Greaves, Tom Parks 
12. Key to Yourself, Dr. Venice Bloodworth  
13. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain 
14. Think Like a Leader, Herminia Ibarra 
15. Slide-ology and Resonate, Nancy Duarte 
16. Presence, Amy Cuddy 
17. The Shift, Hot Spots, The 100 Year Life, Lynda Gratton  
18. The Signals are Talking, Amy Webb 
19. Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O'Neil The 
20. Confidence Game, Maria Konnikova 
21. The Moonshot Effect, Kate Purmal and Lisa Goldman 
22. Branding Pays, Karen Kang 
23. The End of Competitive Advantage and many more, Rita Gunther McGrath. 
24. Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea into a Reality, Lori Greiner of Shark Tank fame. 
25. Multipliers, Liz Wiseman 
26. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Ducksworth  
27. Radical Candor, Kim Scott 
28. I'd Rather Be In Charge, Charlotte Beers
29. Think Like A Negotiator, Eldonna Lewis Fernandez 
30. ROAR: How to Build a Resilient Organization, Sandy Asch 
31. Bridge Builders, Maria Keckler 
32. #Value, Dr. Betty Uribe 
33. Leading by My Ponytail, Karen M. Walker and Julie Ducharme  
34. Purpose Driven Leadership: Building and Fostering Effective Teams, Brigette Hyacinth  
35. Business as Unusual and others, Anita Roddick 
36. Thanks for the Feedback, Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone 
37. The New Social Learning, Marcia Conner 
38. Show Your Work, Jane Bozarth 
39. Darling, You Can't Do Both, Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk 
40. How to Wow, Francis Cole Jones 
41. All the Leader You Can Be, Suzanne Bates 
42. Profit from the Positive, Senia Maymin & Margaret H. Greenberg  
43. Awakening Compassion at Work, Jane Dutton and Monica Worline 
44. Leading so People Will Follow, Erika Andersen 
45. Winning Well, Karin Hurt & David Dye. 
46. It's Not Rocket Science: 7 Game Changing Traits For Uncommon Success, Mary Spio 
47. Unfinished Business, Anne-Marie Slaughter 
48. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance The 
49. Transformational Consumer, Tara-Nicholle Nelson 
50. Thick Face Black Heart, Chin-Ning Chu 
51. A to Z: Your Navigator to Success, Joanna Thompson  
52. Rising to the Challenge, My Leadership Journey by Carly Fiorina 
53. Shift Into Thrive, Lynn Schmidt, PhD & Kevin Nourse, PhD 
54. Rookie Smarts, Liz Wiseman 
55. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs
56. Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity, Peggy Holman 
57. Hiding in the Bathroom: An Introvert's Roadmap to Getting Out There, Morra Aarons-Mele 
58. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik 
59. The New IT: How Technology Leaders are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age, Jill Dyche 
60. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal
    

The Author: Rachel Happe 

 

                                   

About:

Rachel has spent the last 20 years helping organizations implement emerging technologies to advance their business strategies.   She understands how networked communications environments can transform how people work, their productivity and their personal satisfaction by aligning their passions, skills and relationships.  Rachel co-founded The Community Roundtable to support business leaders developing their community and social business strategies. 

 

Clients including SAP, Aetna, BASF, CA, H&R Block, and CSC benefit from Rachel’s ability to make sense of abstract trends and her ability to see the implications that technical and operational decisions can have on people and processes. You can find out more at http://www.communityroundtable.com  During her career, Rachel has served in analyst, product management, product marketing and executive roles.  

 

Skills & expertise: Business strategy, community management, social business, social media marketing, product management, product marketing; product and market positioning, requirements gathering and definition, market research, cross-functional team management, facilitation of executive decision making, product design and prototypes, product launch, product collateral development, sales tool development, sales coaching, voice of the customer analysis, process design and implementation, and new product business plan development.