Three Unconventional Leadership Books

Why the best leadership advice isn't in the management section

I'm a book nerd.

I can't help it, I love reading books.

After spending years reading every single management book that I could get my hands on, I realized something. The best leadership advice is rarely in the management section of the book store.

Here are the three books that I recommend every leader read in 2025.

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How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler

You don't know how to read a book because no one taught you how to read a book. Sure, you learned how to read, just not how to read a book.

How many books did you read last year? What do you remember from reading these books? Most important, how did each book change your life?

"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

-- Albert Einstein

Before you read any leadership book, you have to learn how to actually extract value from the time you invest in reading. There is no better resource than Mortimer's classic How to Read a Book. It stood the test of time. It works.

You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, "I understand," before you can say "I agree," or "I disagree," or "I suspend judgment.

— How to Read a Book

And here's the thing. The book is packed full of leadership insights as well. Here are three of my favorite:

1. The power of questions. As a leader, you can have longer lasting impact by asking questions instead of giving directives. Don't just wing it on the fly, prepare questions ahead of time. Develop your bank of "power questions" so that you always have a high-impact question at your disposal. Here is my favorite question to bring focus: "What problem are you trying to solve?"

2. Different levels of understanding. Sometimes you need a quick overview of a system ("inspectional"), other times you must deeply analyze architecture decisions ("analytical"), and occasionally you need to synthesize approaches across multiple projects or teams ("syntopical"). Great leaders mix-up going broad with going deep, depending on the situation.

3. Seek diverse perspectives. Adler's syntopical reading involves comparing multiple authors' views on the same subject. For engineering managers, this means seeking diverse perspectives on technical decisions, consulting multiple team members about problems, and comparing different approaches to similar challenges across the industry. Complex engineering problems rarely have single correct answers.

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Leadership is a large topic. As a species we've been perfecting it for our entire history. Don't limit your growth by looking only at management books.

Not all leaders are managers. But all managers have to be leaders. And parents also have to become leaders.

The best leadership book is written for the people who have to become a leader even if they don't think about leadership. It's for parents who are leaders for their children, whether they want to or not.

We are giving them the tools that will enable them to be active participants in solving the problems that confront them

— How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk

Here are my three favorite engineering management take-aways:

1. Don't problem solve. When an engineer comes to you with a problem in a 1:1, most managers jump into problem-solving mode. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. You have two jobs in such a case: A) Make the engineer feel seen; and B) Help them overcome the challenge on their own. This means active listening, asking questions, and providing support.

2. Build psychological safety. Instead of using blame-focused language, start a dialog. Describe what you noticed ("I" versus "You") and focus on the situation instead of the individual.

3. Give choices within boundaries rather than micromanaging every technical decision, offer structured autonomy. Instead of "You must use React for this feature," try "We need a frontend solution that integrates with our existing stack. Do you have suggestion that meets our requirements?" This maintains necessary constraints while giving developers ownership over their work.

Multipliers by Liz Wiseman

I've made the study of leadership my life's work.

Over my career I navigated myself to interact closely with a diverse spectrum of leaders. I worked closely with over two hundred leaders.

Here's what I learned: There is no right way to lead. There are wrong ways to lead.

Just like you can develop a sense for "code smells" as an engineer, you can develop a sense for "leadership smells" as a leader.

The best book that I've seen that will help you develop this sense is Multiplier by Liz Wiseman.

Here are my top-3 from this book, which is chock-full of practical tips:

1. Nurture talent. Great engineering managers attract top talent and help them grow, even if it means they'll eventually move to other teams or companies. Invest in your developers' skills, champion their career advancement, and create opportunities for them to shine. When you develop a reputation for growing people, the best engineers will want to work with you.

2. Stretch your team. Think like a parent buying shoes for a child. You don't buy shoes that fit perfectly today because the child will quickly outgrow them, but you also don't buy shoes so big they can't walk. Similarly, give your developers assignments that are slightly bigger than their current capabilities, requiring them to stretch and grow into the role. The challenge should feel achievable but demand they develop new skills to succeed.

3. Shine a Spotlight. Observe how your humans work and find their native genius. Then do two things: A) Label it, give it a name; and B) Shine a spotlight on their greatness. For the second part, make sure to adapt how you do it to align with how every person likes to be recognized.

One of my favorite quotes:

You can often spot Talent Magnets inside organizations because they are the ones who ignore org charts.

— Multipliers

Summary

The greatest leadership advice is out there in unconventional places. Expand your horizon, think deeply, ask questions, and apply it to your unique situation.

What books am I missing from my list?