Each year around traditional vacation time, I look forward to sharing a fresh batch of books that inspire reflection, fuel leadership, and help us all move toward becoming our best selves.
These 10 selections for 2025 continue to reflect the themes I care about most and emphasize all the time with the executives I coach: courage, calling, clarity, and character. As always, these selections offer timely wisdom for business, relationships, and personal growth—with a mix of practical advice and powerful stories.
Whether you’re heading to the mountains, the beach, or just carving out a quiet Saturday morning, I hope at least one of these picks speaks to where you are right now—and where you’re going next.
- The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks. This book is a deeply personal and philosophical exploration of what it means to lead a meaningful life. Brooks argues that many of us spend the first part of our lives climbing the “first mountain”—focused on success, career, achievement, and personal happiness (all the things society tells us we should want). But once we get there, we realize the view isn’t all that great. That’s when the “second mountain” comes into view—a life built on commitment, purpose, and service to others. On this second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered, and we can discover how to truly make a positive difference in our world.
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. This is a powerful guide to doing less but better—focusing on what really matters and eliminating what doesn’t. This isn’t about getting more done in less time; it’s about getting only the right things done. (This spoke to my personal mantra for 2025: Achieving More by Doing Less. I absolutely loved this book!) The new 10th anniversary edition features a 21-day challenge.
- The Soul of a Leader: Finding Your Path to Success and Fulfillment by Margaret Benefiel. This book offers a thoughtful, spiritual approach to leadership that emphasizes authenticity, integrity, and discernment. Drawing on real-life examples from business, nonprofits, and academia, Benefiel encourages leaders to quiet the noise, listen deeply, and lead with purpose. It’s ideal for anyone seeking to align their external leadership with their internal values and calling.
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. “Deep work” is the ability to focus without distraction on cognitively difficult tasks. It’s a skill most of us need to hone. This book explores the benefits of focused, meaningful work in a world full of distraction and shallow productivity, and it shows you how to achieve that through a training regimen designed to change your mind and your habits. We all need to read this book!
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. This is a practical and insightful look at the habits and behaviors that hold high achievers back from the next level of leadership. This is a classic from 2007, and it is still a must-read.
- The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities by Patrick Lencioni. This powerful leadership fable challenges leaders to examine their true motivations and embrace the responsibility of leadership. I love everything Lencioni writes; he is one of my all-time favorite authors and thought leaders. In fact, I’ve read all his books. (His Getting Naked book is on my Top 50 Books to Read list.)
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Money matters—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—generally are taught as math-based skills. But we don’t make most financial decisions strictly based on spreadsheet data. The 19 stories here (with timeless financial principles woven through) offer fresh and engaging takes on how people think about wealth, greed, and happiness.
- Daring Greatly by Brené Brown. “Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experiences.” That one sentence from this book was highlighted nearly 30,000 times by Kindle readers. This is a transformative work on courage, vulnerability, and how daring to show up can redefine success and connection and help you lead better. (Brown’s The Gift of Imperfection is also on my Top 50 Books to Read list.)
- Master of Change by Brad Stulberg. Change is always going to happen. How you respond to change—whether it’s personal or in the wider world—can mean the difference between success and failure. This timely framework for adapting to change focuses on intentionality, groundedness, and clarity—especially during life’s biggest, most chaotic transitions.
- Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness by Steve Magness. What does it really mean to be tough? The traditional model is based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any signs of weakness. Magness argues that that model is failing us. Instead, we should be experiencing discomfort, leaning into it, and creating space for thoughtful action. This interesting book blends science and storytelling to redefine toughness and grit as quiet strength, purpose, and long-term resilience.
Wherever this year takes you—whether you’re leading a company, navigating change, or simply trying to live with more intention—I hope some of these books will meet you right where you are. Great books don’t just inform us: They inspire us to think differently, act more boldly, and live more fully.
And that’s how you do what you do better.
Here’s to a year of deeper insight, stronger leadership, and meaningful impact.
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