The 11 best self-improvement books for product leaders
Personal growth is one of the most important things in your career and personal life. It is a result of combining your experience with what you learn. Reading these books will help you do it better and faster.
Atomic habits
An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
by James Clear
Why read?
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving — every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviours that lead to remarkable results.
320 pages, Avery 2018
Creative Confidence
Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
Why read?
Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the “creative types.” But two of the leading experts in innovation, design, and creativity on the planet show us that each and every one of us is creative.
“The Kelley brothers offer simple but effective tools for the “I’m not creative” set — business leaders and professionals seeking the confidence to innovate.”
— JOHN MAEDA
304 pages, Currency 2013
Make time
How to focus on what matters every day
by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
Why read?
Productivity experts Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky have created a four-step framework that anyone can use, packed with more than 80 tactics to help you design your day around the things that matter.
304 pages, Bantam Press 2018
A newsletter about making time for what matters, from Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.
The Laws of Simplicity
Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
by John Maeda
Why read?
Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.
117 pages, The MIT Press 2006
Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
Why read?
In this bestseller, Daniel Kahneman gives practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble.
512 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2011
Meaningful
The Story of Ideas That Fly
by Bernadette Jiwa
Why read?
A must read for any entrepreneur or marketer. It’s full of lots of “aha” moments with a concrete tool that you can implement immediately.
176 pages, Perceptive Press 2015
The Decision Book
Fifty models for strategic thinking
by Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschäppeler
Why read?
Every day, we face the same questions: How do I make the right decision? How can I work more efficiently? And, on a more personal level, what do I want? This international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used that will help you tackle these important questions.
176 pages, W. W. Norton & Company 2018
Talk like TED
The 9 public speaking secrets of the world’s top minds
by Carmine Gallo
Why read?
Ideas are the true currency of the 21st century, and Talk Like TED gives you a way to create presentations around the ideas that matter most to you, presentations that will energize your audience to spread those ideas, launch new initiatives, and reach your highest goals.
288 pages, St. Martin’s Griffin 2015
Tribe of Mentors
Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
by Tim Ferriss
Why read?
This is the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book — a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from 130+ of the world’s top performers. From iconic entrepreneurs to elite athletes, from artists to billionaire investors, their short profiles can help you answer life’s most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life.
624 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017
Lateral Thinking
A Textbook of Creativity
by Edward de Bono
Why read?
Through a series of special techniques, in groups or working alone, Edward de Bono shows how to stimulate the mind in new and exciting ways. Soon you will be looking at problems from a variety of angles and offering up solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. You will become much more productive and a formidable thinker in your own right.
272 pages, Penguin Life 2016
Start with Why
How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
by Simon Sinek
Why read?
Simon Sinek shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
256 pages, Portfolio 2011
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