Top 5 Leadership Books for College Students

Top 5 Leadership Books for College Students

1) Exploring Leadership for College Students who Want to Make a Difference, 3rd ed – Susan R. Komives, Nance Lucas, and Timothy R. McMahon
If you are a college student interested in learning about leadership and how to practice it, this book is for you. The book details the five key attributes of successful leaders, and is filled with stories set on a college campus to help you learn what you need to know.
2) The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts you Need to Know – James Kouzes, Barry Posner
This is an excellent short summary of 25 years of research by the authors on “the least you need to know” to practice effective leadership anywhere. While the authors are experts in the field of business, this book is focused for a general audience and is highly applicable for someone reading their first book about leadership.
3) Influencer: The Power to Change Anything – Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
Influencer is designed to teach people who are already practicing leadership what they need to know to get a group of people all moving in the same direction towards common goals. While the books above describe leadership, this book focuses more on the specific actions necessary for helping a group become successful over the long term.
4) The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative – Stephen Denning
I am a big fan of this book, as I believe a key part of leading others is how to cultivate narratives to use for teaching and focus. Much more than simply story-telling, the focus of the book how to inspire action in others. Denning highlights a number of key points to address as you consider how to communicate with the groups that you lead and work within.
5) The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr – edited by Clayborne Carson
While not technically a book about leadership, per se, Carson has organized Dr. King’s writings and speeches in a coherent story about King’s journey from childhood to leading one of the most impressive leadership stories of the 20th Century in the United States – the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
A common myth about leadership is that it is an innate quality. Yet, this is far from true…leadership qualities are learned. Hopefully, some of these books will help you to develop and become the leader you aspire to be.

*Originally posted on the Career Skillet website (Permission granted by Jill Bowers).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Power of a Handshake

The Art of Self-Disclosure

Strategies for Communication and Organization When Struggling in Classes During the Pandemic