The 20 Best Management Books Every Leader Should Read (and the five I keep coming back to) » beSlick

If being a successful manager was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Let’s not kid ourselves – management is hard work, can be hugely stressful and takes great responsibility. However, these challenges are all too often misinterpreted.

Management shouldn’t be about working 24/7 and taking on the burden of your whole company’s workload. Instead, your focus should be on improving yourself as a person, being open to new methods, and taking innovative routes to success.

Great management skills are vital for inspiring a happier workplace culture and more productive employees. You should be rousing your teams to work towards common goals, and implementing the right process improvement strategies for growth. In turn, these factors will lead to greater financial rewards.

Simple, right? Well, I’ll be the first to admit that such achievements don’t happen overnight!

So, how to get there? In this article we’ll look at some basic traits that better leaders share, before diving into the 20 best management books that have inspired my own journey to success.

How to become a better manager?

Any manager worth their salt should know that there’s always room for improvement, and not just for themselves. Great managers don’t just dish out tasks, offer advice or send their staff on a variety of personal development courses. Those at the very top are able to get their teams to improve all by themselves.

A good manager will want to take responsibility for their company as a whole, but shouldn’t want to take responsibility for every task. Building a team that can be trusted to make the right decisions and share their concerns openly is key to this – as is empowering them with the right process management software to help them thrive.

Having an open-mind and a willingness to change makes the most effective managers of all. Networking, taking courses, and gaining practical experience are all excellent learning platforms. However, they’re not the only option available. To really develop, every leader should be reading and absorbing different perspectives on how to improve both themselves and their organization.