A business will not outgrow the leader. Reading books is VITAL to your growth as a business owner!

In my line of work, many of my clients are CEOs of multi-million dollar companies. To be a successful business coach, I have to outlearn all of them. I am constantly reading- constantly feeding my brain. Out of the hundreds of books I’ve read on business, these are my top ten books I recommend:

1. Scaling Up by Verne Harnish:

Best overall book on business that I’ve read! This is the #1 book I recommend to my clients. It covers almost all areas of scaling a business in a very actionable way. Many CEOs have made fortunes from the concepts contained within this book. (Download an overview of Scaling Up.)

2. The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack

This book introduces an entirely different way of running a company. Jack Stack shares his secrets on how he transformed a failing business and into a money generating machine! He increased employee engagement by teaching his employees how to read the company’s financials and giving them a stake in the success of the business.

3. Predictable Success by Les McKeown

I love how this book provides insight into the growth stages that businesses go through, the pitfalls that accompany each stage, and how to blow through those pitfalls to reach the area to which all business owners aspire, called “Predictable Success.”

4. Great by Choice by Jim Collins

Good to Great is a well known classic masterpiece on how to build a great company. Great by Choice takes the Good to Great principles, taken from large publicly traded companies, and distills them into how mid-sized companies can become great.

5. 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Most leadership teams are dysfunctional. Patrick Lencioni brilliantly unpacks why they are dysfunctional and how to transform your leadership team into a highly trusting, aligned, accountable and committed group.

6. Hiring for Attitude by Mark Murphy

This is on of the bests books on the difficult challenge of assembling a championship team of A-Players. Mark Murphy provides succinct ways to transform your hiring results so that you substantially improve the quality of your team.

7. The Work of Leaders by Straw, Scullard, Kukkonen, & Davis

This book teaches you the primary focus of every leader. Great leaders must cast a compelling vision, align their team behind their vision, and execute superbly to accomplish the vision. Great leaders are made, not born.

8. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

This book is required reading at the Harvard Business School. It is a novel that brilliantly and engagingly teaches the theory of constraints. Success in business is accomplished by identifying primary constraints to growth and relieving those constraints. The Goal teaches you how to do both!

9. The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

Your company culture eats your company strategy for breakfast! Patrick Lencioni shows you how to create a healthy company culture that is accountable, engaged and committed to your vision. One of the great business books of all time!

10. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

It is the thousands of little decisions that we make every day that compound over time to put us where we are today. This books eliminates the excuse of blaming others or outside circumstances for our failures. Success is in our control. The Compound Effect provides the disciplines necessary to reinvent ourselves and tap into our full potential.

11. The 4 Disciplines of Execution by McChesney, Covey, & Huling

I couldn’t pick just 10, so here’s a bonus book! Execution is the process of transforming revenue into profit. This book provides the 4 disciplines
essential to superb execution and profit.

These are my top 11 books I’ve read on business. If you want to build a successful company, you must have an appetite for personal growth. Many business leaders have amassed great wealth by applying the knowledge contained within these books.