25 Books that offered me wonderful guidance as a School Leader

Here is a list of books that have influenced my thinking in different areas. They have been a very important source of guidance in my journey as a school leader. So I thought it would be a good idea to compile and share some of them for anyone who might benefit!

On Patient Optimism and Human Progress

1. Factfulness: Ten reasons we are wrong about the world and why things are better than you think - Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna rosling Ronnlund (2017)

2. Enlightenment Now: The case for reason, science, humanism and progress - Steven Pinker (2018)

3. The Rational Optimist: How prosperity Evolves - Matt Ridley (2011)

On Systems thinking

1. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practices of The Learning Organization - Peter Senge (1990, Revised 2006)

2. High Performance Organizations: 5 validated factors of competitive advantage that apply worldwide - Andre De Waal (2019)

3. Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as amazing as the people inside them - Gary Hamel and Michael Zanini (2020)

4. Learning to Improve:How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better - Anthony S. Bryk, Louis Gomez, Alicia Grunow, and Paul LeMahieu (2015)

On Strategic Thinking and Innovation

1. Zero to one: Notes on Start Ups or how to build the future - Peter Thiel (2014)

2. The Lean StartUp: How today’s Entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses - Eric Ries (2011)

3. The Innovator's Dilemma: When technologies cause great firms to fail  - Clayton Christensen (1997, revised 2013)

4. Failure to Disrupt: Why technology alone can’t transform education - Justin Reich (2020)

5. Measure what matters - John Doerr (2018)

On Learning and Knowledge

1. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School - National Research Council (2000)

2. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts and Cultures - National Academy of Sciences (2018)

3. Tools of Titans - Tim Ferris (2016)

4. The Knowledge Illusion: Why we never think alone - Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach (2017)

5. Switch: How to change things when change is hard - Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2010) 

On Human Psychology and Motivation

1. Drive: The surprising truth of what motivates us - Dan Pink (2018)

2. Give and Take: Why helping others drives our success - Adam Grant (2014)

3. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman (2011)

4. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck (2006)

On Creativity

1. A whole new mind: Why right brainers will rule the world - Daniel Pink (2006)

2. Originals: How non-conformists move the world - Adam Grant (2016)

On Communication

1. Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die - Dan and Chip Heath (2007)

2. StoryTelling with Data: A data visualization guide for business professionals - Cole Knaflic (2015)