Books Every CEO, Leader & Business Owner Should Read

When CEOs, leaders, and business owners ask what books they must read, these are the books I recommend.

For every CEO, leader, and business owner:

1. Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business, by Gino Wickman. If you like this, you might also enjoy:

• Get A Grip: An Entrepreneurial Fable . . . Your Journey to Get Real, Get Simple, and Get Results, by Gino Wickman, Mike Paton
• Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, by Alexander Osterwalder
• Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm, by Verne Harnish
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, by Michael E. Gerber

2. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, by Jay Papasan and Gary W. Keller. If you like this, you might also enjoy Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen

3. Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. If you like this, you might also enjoy David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell

4. The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea, by Bob Burg.

For certain CEOs and business owners:

• For women and outsiders: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg
• For startups: The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
• For client development: Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty, by Patrick Lencioni
• For honing your message: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
• For CEOs who hate finance: Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential, by Greg Crabtree
• For training someone to manage your company: Make The Noise Go Away: The Power of an Effective Second-In-Command, by Larry G. Linne
• For the basics of managing people: The One Minute Manager, by Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson
• For marketing basics: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by: Al Ries, Jack Trout

Great non-business books:

• For examining life to find meaning: Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom
• For deep happiness: Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, by Dan Buettner
• For dads with daughters: Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know, by Meg Meeker
• For hiring and managing creative employees: Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent, by Nolan Bushnell

Books others recommended—I plan to read soon:

• The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande.
• Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
• Competing Against Time: How Time-Based Competition is Reshaping Global Markets, by George Stalk
• The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton M. Christensen
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Projects to Mainstream Customers, by Geoffrey A. Moore
• Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, by John Warrillow
• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni

Want more? Check out this list of business books from Ed Callahan.

Aaron Hall is a business attorney at Thompson Hall,
a law firm committed to helping companies strategize, get healthy, and grow.