The Leader's Bookshelf

By: R. Manning Ancell, ADM. James Stavridis USN - Ret.

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

For the last several years Adm. James Stavridis and his co-author, R. Manning Ancell, have surveyed over 200 active and retired four-star military officers about their reading habits and favorite books, asking each for a list of titles that strongly influenced their leadership skills and provided them with special insights that helped propel them to success in spite of the many demanding challenges they faced. The Leader's Bookshelf synthesizes their responses to identify the top 50 books that can help virtually anyone become a better leader.

Each of the works - novels, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, management publications - are summarized and the key leadership lessons extracted and presented. Whether individuals work their way through the entire list and read each book cover to cover, or read the summaries provided to determine which appeal to them most, The Leader's Bookshelf will provide a road map to better leadership.

Highlighting the value of reading in both a philosophical and a practical sense, The Leader's Bookshelf provides sound advice on how to build an extensive library, lists other books worth reading to improve leadership skills, and analyzes how leaders use what they read to achieve their goals.

©2017 James Stavridis and R. Manning Ancell (P)2017 Tantor

Excellent Book about Books

The last chapter is an excellent overview of what makes successful leaders and why reading fills your leadership tool bag.

If you like civil war history this is a must read

It is on the list of one of the books to read from the Leader’s Bookshelf by Adm. James Stavridis

excellent leadership material

I discovered this book through the CNO reading list and I am looking forward to having read all the books in this list.

Start here.

If you’re a military officer and looking for a book to read on leadership, start here.

Absolutely Phenomenal!

Having now read 8 books by Admiral James Stavridis, I'm surprised every time that each one is better than the last. In The Leader's Bookshelf, Admiral Stavridis provides not only great summaries of works on leadership, but he also provides valuable expert commentary from someone who has excelled in leadership at every stage of his career. Throughout the book, The Admiral emphasizes little things that leaders can do to make themselves successful. My only recommendation is that this wonderful leadership book should include summaries of other James Stavridis books, such as Sailing True North and To Risk It All! You can't go wrong with any of his works!

Advanced leadership development

If you’re bored of the same old leadership mumbo jumbo, this is a great book that shares more books for those looking for something at the 401 level. Well written, salient points, thoughtful explanations of the authors and relevant leadership highlights to wet your whistle, or not. Just what I needed to continue my lifelong pursuit of development and study on the topic of leadership.

Primarily for Military Leaders

Good overall, but focused on military leadership. Some of the books can be applied o civilian leadership, but most could not be. Maybe law enforcement, but definitely not civilian/ business. I am in law enforcement, which is paramilitary and a hybrid of civilian/ military and some of the books apply, but many do not, The book was billed as accessible to all walks of life. I would not recommend this to non-military or non-law enforcement readers. Some I had already read. A few I purchased based on this book. A PDF of the book lists listed in the audiobook would also be helpful.

Be prepared to expand your TBR list.

This is a book for anyone who reads books on leadership topics. The recommendations in this book are well vetted. The synopsys given of each title gives the reader enough information to decide which title to seek out without taking away from the experience of actually reading the book. Checking this one off my TBRL just added dozens more.

Inspiring

Will definitely try to tackle some of the recommend reading on this list. Stavridis is what all leaders should aspire to be.

Mostly about warfighting

This is a good book. It was not the book I had hoped for. When they said it was for all kinds of people I expected more diverse subject matter. I think the audience for this are military members and enthusiasts. It dives deep into leadership in conflict and warfighting. It does this very well. I enjoyed the book. I'm a combat vet and look forward to chasing after the recommended titles. The book was billed as accessible to all walks of life. I would not recommend this to non-military friends or co-workers due to its content.