Leadership Books
Last updated: February 13, 2025
The personal and professional qualities that go into making a good leader are not always obvious. And different situations often call for different qualities. In this section experts recommend books to unlock the secrets of good leadership.
Brett Wigdortz, is the founder and CEO of UK-based independent charity Teach First, which places graduates to teach in schools in challenging circumstances across England, to raise the attainment, access to opportunity and aspiration of its pupils. He argues that good leaders combine an iron will with a dose of humility and recommends books ranging from The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell to Exodus and the lessons we can learn from Moses’ leadership.
Alastair Campbell, former press secretary to Tony Blair when prime minister and director of communications for the Labour Party, takes his pick of the best books on leadership in politics and in sport.
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1
The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
by Plutarch -
2
The Greek Alexander Romance
by Richard Stoneman -
3
Atticus
by Cornelius Nepos & Nicholas Horsfall -
4
Agricola
by Harold Mattingly, James Rives & Tacitus -
5
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius (ed. James Miller, trans. Pamela Mensch)
The best books on Leadership: Lessons from the Ancients, recommended by Jeffrey Beneker
The best books on Leadership: Lessons from the Ancients, recommended by Jeffrey Beneker
Whatever modern leadership books may say about what’s required to be a good leader, for the ancients there was only one vital requirement: studying philosophy. Jeffrey Beneker, Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks us through what ancient biographies reveal about how to be a leader.
The best books on Leadership, recommended by Brett Wigdortz
Good leaders combine iron will with a dose of humility, says the founder of groundbreaking teaching charity Teach First. He traces leadership skills back to Moses, and tells us about books we can all learn from.
Alastair Campbell on Leadership
Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications chief, takes a look at leadership in politics and in sport, recognising that ordinary citizens can show courageous moral leadership
