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(Listed alphabetically by author's last name. Titles link to Amazon.com page for the book.)
It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff
Recommended by Don Hullinger
“Management technique books are everywhere, but I like that this one comes from the perspective of pulling together a team of non-committed employees and using stories and examples to support the methods. It isn't the typical ‘10 steps to better management’ blueprint. This book explores a philosophy of trust and inclusion. The audiobook was great; I appreciate that it was read by the author.”
Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model
by Marty Cagan, Lea Hickman, Chris Jones, Christian Idiodi, and John Moore
Recommended by Eduard de Vries Sands
“This book is a great guide on your journey from a traditional project-based organization to a modern, empowered product operating model. And to be clear, it is not about changing how we deliver technology. Instead, it is about introducing a new business operating model which includes tech delivery. I highly recommend this book!”
Lead Bigger: The Transformative Power of Inclusion
by Anne Chow
Recommended by Erin Williams
“Lead Bigger by Anne Chow is beneficial to executives because it provides a roadmap for leading with greater impact in an increasingly complex and diverse business world. The book focuses on:
1. Expanding Leadership Impact. Anne shares her experiences from early in her career and shows how leaders can scale their influence beyond their immediate teams and organizations, fostering a culture of innovation and inclusion.
2. Diversity and Inclusion as a Business Strategy. The book highlights how embracing diversity in leadership drives better business outcomes. It focuses on what things leaders should consider in order to enable a diverse and inclusive team.
3. Real-World Executive Insights. As the former CEO of AT&T Business, Chow brings firsthand experience and practical strategies for business growth and navigating challenges in leadership. She also shows a keen awareness of change management.
4. Future-Proofing Leadership. In an era of rapid change, Lead Bigger helps executives think long-term about leadership effectiveness, adaptability, and resilience. There is also some focus on successful hybrid work environments and perspectives on RTO for the sake of RTO.”
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
by James Clear
Recommended by Tim Crawford
“As CIOs, we constantly need to evolve and build new habits. James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, codifies how to understand and build habits. This knowledge is crucial for breaking down old habits and building new ones.”
Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide to Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World
by Dr. Lauren Cook
Recommended by Anonymous
“This book taught me about the anxiety that people go through. It also renewed my empathy for those with neurodiversity.”
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
by Adam Grant
Recommended by Michael Brown
“Originals is a book about going against the grain and succeeding. Corporations and humans tend to gravitate toward an equilibrium of doing business as usual. This book helps open your mind to taking calculated risks in order to create new ideas and fight the group-think mentality.”
The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More
by Jefferson Fisher
Recommended by Sriram Iyer
“This is the best communication book I have read since Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. The tips are simple and actionable. Buy it and use it in your daily conversations. It is powerful and effective.”
The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership
by Martha Heller
Recommended by Allan Sommer
“This book does a great job exploring the conflicting expectations that CIOs face.”
Technology Strategy Patterns: Architecture as Strategy
by Eben Hewitt
Recommended by Allan Sommer
"This book investigates strategic frameworks for making high-level architectural and technology decisions in large enterprises."
Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future
by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato
Recommended by Eduard de Vries Sands
“This book positions AI as an opportunity for our society and shows how human-centered AI enables a brighter future for all. It includes pragmatic examples, such as the democratization of education. It contains a call to action to embrace AI and influence the outcome, versus fearing it like the Luddites would.”
Recommended by Tom Kowalski
“Superagency provides excellent case studies showing why we should lean into AI and embrace the advantages it will bring society. Like what automobiles, electricity, hardware and software have done in the last century, AI can advance individual agency and human potential.”
How to Lie with Statistics
by Darrell Huff
Recommended by Paul Cottey
“I used this book in my Intro to Statistics course years ago. It talks about the misuse of statistics and covers correlation vs. causation, as well as several other topics critical to an IT leader's understanding and use of statistics.”
Alice and Bob Learn Application Security
by Tanya Janca
Recommended by Praveen Minumula
“I recommend Tanya Janca's book because it offers simple yet practical insights into building secure software. Application security is often treated as an afterthought. While working with clients across industries, I have seen firsthand how even basic security practices are overlooked. This book shows how security can be integrated into the development process from the start, with real-world examples and clear explanations.”
Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
by Claire Hughes Johnson
Recommended by Bryan LeBlanc
“This book isn’t just about scaling a small company into an industry leader. It also provides a laundry list of management ‘principles’ that are applicable to anybody managing people, particularly in a technology space. I find many of the anecdotes to be invaluable as a technology leader.”
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West
by Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska
Recommended by Tom Kowalski
“Alex Karp is the founder of Palantir. He explains how and why we should repurpose Silicon Valley for national purposes and the common good. Technology and the future of AI can contribute in a bigger way to national defense, American values, and security.”
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
by Gene Kim, Kevin Beher, and George Spafford
Recommended by Robert Dion
“I recommend The Phoenix Project for all IT teams and leaders looking to understand DevOps and the tremendous value this transformational IT operating model creates for internal and external customers. It’s a real page-turner, too!”
Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI
by Eric Lamarre, Kate Smaje, Rodney Zemmel
Recommended by Amish Patel
“Rewired is the best guide for large digital transformation. It explains how non-tech companies can become agile and operate like a tech company and can use technology as a differentiator and an enabler. The lessons and use cases are huge gems and offer a distinctive perspective for any CIO embarking on large scale transformation.”
Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team
by Andrew Laudato
Recommended by Mike Provost
“This is the best book I've ever read on building IT teams and, more importantly, IT leaders. Just about every key component of IT is covered. The information is delivered in easily digestible chunks with just the right amount of humor. It's easy to tell that IT is the author's passion!”
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
by Patrick Lencioni
Recommended by Benedict Winston
“Tech is easy; people are hard. This book is an easy read that helps you recognize the challenges of managing a team and the hard decisions you must make to ensure the team’s alignment to objectives. Having the right technical talent is not enough.”
The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
by Erin Meyer
Recommended by Jeffrey Modell
“This is not a new read, but it’s one of my favorite business books. The author explains how challenges come about in the multicultural/international corporate setting and how to address them. The author uses eight scales that are important differentiators across cultures. Packed with theory, examples, and countries shown on the scales, the book is one of the few business books that can’t be summarized in a few pages.”
Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
by Danny Meyer
Recommended by Rohinee Mohindroo
“This is a valuable read for IT leaders because it emphasizes the transformative power of hospitality principles, which can be applied to enhance both employee and customer experiences. It emphasizes the importance of IT leadership in creating a culture of hospitality when building a customer-focused team. Key insights include:
1. Enlightened hospitality, which prioritizes strong internal relationships and employee satisfaction as the foundation for exceptional customer service.
2. Happy employees create happy customers. When employees feel valued, supported, and their contributions are recognized, they are more likely to go above and beyond to meet customer needs.
3. Hospitality principles such as anticipation, attention to detail, authenticity, adaptability, empathy, and continuous improvement can be directly applied to IT.”
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
by Ethan Mollick
Recommended by David Espindola
“AI is the most transformative technology ever created, and as a tech leader you must understand the deep implications to business, the future of work, and to the broader society. In Co-Intelligence, Ethan Mollick invites us to bring AI to the table, writing, ‘You should try inviting AI to help you in everything you do, barring legal or ethical barriers.’ He talks about the effectiveness of human-AI collaboration, claiming that working with an AI co-intelligence outperforms all but the best humans working without an AI: ‘Now humans have access to a tool that can emulate how we think and write, acting as a co-intelligence to improve (or replace) our work.’ Perhaps more importantly, AI is pushing us to think deeper about what it means to be human. Mollick writes, ’There is a sense of poetic irony in the fact that as we move toward a future characterized by greater technological sophistication, we find ourselves contemplating deeply human questions about identity, purpose, and connection.’ There are many good books about AI out there, and I've read many of them. From my viewpoint, this is one of the best.”
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
by Cal Newport
Recommended by Anonymous
“Cal Newport explains how to shut out the noise of our electronics-filled, totally distracted world and explains how doing so regularly can make us more productive and more fulfilled in both our work and personal lives.”
Digital to the Core: Remastering Leadership for Your Industry, Your Enterprise, and Yourself
by Mark Raskino and Graham Waller
Recommended by Allan Sommer
“This book shows how to lead and adapt in industries disrupted by digital transformation.”
Truth from the Trenches: A Practical Guide to the Art of IT Management
by Mark Settle
Recommeded by Scott McCool
“Mark Settle is a brilliant, former seven-time CIO whose insights are spot-on and a joy to read. The book provides practical strategies and tactics for IT leaders' challenges. I’d also recommend Truth from the Valley: A Practical Primer on Future IT Management Trends.”
Who: The A Method for Hiring
by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
Recommended by Niraj Shekhar
“Hiring the right talent based on what you need to achieve is very hard to do objectively. The interview process doesn’t always measure someone’s potential in your open role. This book helped me articulate more than just the skills the role needed. It also helped me to ensure the individual has the right kind of experience based on what I need them to achieve in the next 3, 6, or 12 months. This is a must-read for executives who want to build the right team of leaders and doers.”
10x Is Easier than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less
by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Recommended by Prashant Cherukuri
“This book is a paradigm shift! It reveals why aiming for 10x growth is actually simpler and less stressful than striving for 2x growth. By focusing on what truly matters and strategically doing less, you unlock exponential results and achieve more freedom. A must-read for ambitious individuals seeking breakthrough success.”
The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder
by Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao
Recommended by Sharon Mandell
“As IT leaders, it’s our job to make friction go away, but often the systems we implement create more friction than they resolve. Understanding how this impacts your organization is critical and having it in the forefront of our thinking is essential to helping our companies succeed.”
The Indigo Story: Inside the Upstart that Redefined Indian Aviation
by Shelley Vishwajeet
Recommended by Lalit Chhablani
“This book shows how to run your business cost efficiently and how to make profit in the aviation industry.”
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It
by Chris Voss
Recommended by Brian Johnson
“As technology leaders, we often find ourselves leading others toward a different way of thinking. Leading is influencing and influencing is negotiating. From time to time, we also have to negotiate pricing with vendors in the technology space so that certain technologies can be embraced sooner in an organization’s maturity journey. Chris Voss does an excellent job translating the skills he acquired through a career as a professional negotiator into life lessons that can be applied by anyone. It’s a great read, and I am happy to recommend it to fellow technology leaders!”
The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
by Robert Waldinger, MD and Marc Schulz, PhD
Recommended by Geoffrey Langos
“Relationships underpin everything we humans need; understanding them and how they affect us is critical. Technologies come and go … some stay. This book has helped me understand how my relationships with others make all the difference.”
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter
by Michael D. Watkins
Recommended by Jeffrey Modell
“This is one of the best business books. It offers practical and specific directions for how to start a new job or role. I review and use it as a playbook each time I start a new role, and I provide it to all my new managers in advance of their start.”
Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge
by Melody Wilding
Recommended by Jim Blackwood
“We take for granted the need or desire to add projects or technologies to our resumes. Thinking about better ways to manage upwards in the organization is a good tool to have in our career backpacks.”
The AI-Driven Leader: Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions
by Geoff Woods
Recommended by Anthony Trask
“This book cuts through all the hype and provides tips and a solid foundation for incorporating GenAI into your daily strategy, idea creation, analysis, research, and decision-making workflows.”
