Best Management Books – Leadership and management skills are important when you want to start and run any business. Additionally, if you want to become an effective manager you have to develop managerial skills. You can learn management skills by classroom training or on-the-job training. However, reading books is one of the best ways to learn leadership and management skills.
If you are eager to learn management skills, here is a list of 10 Best Management Books. I am sure that reading these books will help you in achieving expertise in management and leadership skills.
10 Best Management Books
#1 Corporate Chanakya
Author – Radhakrishnan Pillai
Corporate Chanakya is one of my favorite books on management. This book describes the ideas of Chanakya for leadership, management, and training. Chanakya was a multi-fold personality who was a master in identifying leaders and grooming them. The book contains vital information compiled from Kautilya’s Arthshastra along with practical examples.
The book is divided in three sections leadership, management, and training. The subsection of book includes topic such as organizing and conducting effective meetings, dealing with tricky situations, decision-making, the powers of a leader, etc. This book brings back ancient Indian management wisdom in a modern format.
Also Read – 10 Best Business Books for 2020
#2 How to Win Friends and Influence People
Author – Dale Carnegie
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a self-help book. It is one of the best-selling books all over. This book will help you to lead towards success. This book is divided in four sections. (1) Fundamental Techniques in Handling People (2) Six Ways to Make people like you (3) How to win people To Your Way of Thinking (4) Be a Leader – How to change people.
From a management perspective, this book is like gold. There are many useful examples and principles in this book that can be learned and applied at your workplace as well as personal life.
#3 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Author – Stephen R Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a best-seller self-help book. As the name suggests, this book talks about the Habits of highly effective people. This book explains how these habits make a person more effective personally and professionally. The book also explains how assumptions and perceptions hinder success in business and personal relationships.
The 7 Habits defined in this book are – Be proactive, Begin with the end in mind, First thing first, Think win-win, Seek first to understand, then to be understood, Synergize, and Sharpen the saw.
#4 The one-minute manager
Author – Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
The One Minute Manager is a short book on management. This book talks about three techniques of an effective manager: one-minute goals, One-minute praising, and one-minute reprimands. The book is about personal development. However, it is a very basic book. If you are a beginner you should read The one-minute manager.
#5 The great game of business
Author – Jack Stack Bo Burlingham
The Great Game of Business is a very old book. This book talks about how business works. It is a highly recommended book for the CEO or senior executive of the company. This book will surely help you in increasing your business acumen.
#6 Emotional Intelligence
Author – Daniel Goleman
Emotional Intelligence is a different type of book. In this book, the author gives the perspective that the emotional quotient is more important compared to the Intelligence quotient. The people with EQ is likely to have better leadership skills, mental health, and job performance. EQ can be taught. EQ is not really intelligence but it is one type of behavioral trait. This book was a bestseller in the New York Times.
#7 The Six Sigma Way
Author – Peter Pande
The Six Sigma Way is a book that helps you to implement Six Sigma in your organization. Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools that help organizations to reduce risk and enhance operational excellence. This book gives practical examples. It also provides a checklist for the entire process of Six Sigma. If you want to maximize the impact of your change and improvement efforts, you should read this book.
#8 Who Moved My Cheese?
Author – Dr. Spencer Johnson
Who Moved My Cheese? is a motivational book for business. This book helps you to deal with change in your work and your life. If you want to move out of your comfort zone this book is for you. The book shares the story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese.
#9 Decisive – How to make better choices in life and work
Author – Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Decisive – How to make better choices in life and work is one of the best books that helps you to make better choices in life and work. The book talks about how to overcome natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions. After reading this book you will be confident in making any decision in life.
#10 Scaling up excellence – Getting more without settling for less
Author – Robert I. Sutton & Huggy Rao
Scaling up Excellence is the book for achieving higher levels and excellence. This book shares stories from successful leaders and organizations. The book is full of rich examples, powerful studies, and actionable insights for anyone who wants to create an effective organization.
