Resilient Leader Reading List
Leadership can feel like a marathon, full of challenges and long, winding roads. As leaders, building our resilience isn't just about bouncing back from setbacks; it's about cultivating the inner strength, clarity, and mental toughness to effectively lead and inspire our teams.
We've curated a reading list of top books on grit, performance, and leadership resilience to help you on that journey. They all offer practical insights on building the mental toughness and self-awareness needed to thrive in an ever-changing world. From classic philosophy to modern psychology and powerful personal stories, this list will help you strengthen your inner compass.
This is simply a collection of our top recommendations for further reading. We don't receive any affiliate revenue or compensation from these suggestions.
Whole-Person Leadership & Balance
Integrating five dimensions of wellness (physical, emotional, social, spiritual, mental) into leadership.
The Power of Full Engagement, Tony Schwartz & Jim Loehr
Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal.
The Mind of the Leader, Rasmus Hougaard & Jacqueline Carter
Explores how to lead with three core mental qualities, mindfulness, selflessness, and compassion, to create more human-centric and successful organizations.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown
This book provides practical recommendations for a pursuit of "less but better,". Teaching you how to eliminate non-essential tasks to focus on what truly matters.
Resilience & Stress Management
The Resilient Life, Dr. Susan Biali Haas
Provides a science-based guide for leaders to break the cycle of being overwhelmed by making small, intentional shifts in their daily lives.
The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It, Jennifer Moss
Describes burnout as a systemic organizational problem, not an individual one, and provides leaders a playbook to address its root causes.
Stress-Proof: The Scientific Solution to Protect Your Brain and Body, Mithu Storoni
Translates cutting-edge neuroscience into practical, strategies for reducing chronic stress.Corporate Athlete (from HBR), Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz
Focuses on training your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy like an elite athlete to sustain peak performance.