11 Helpful Leadership Books for Women

“The best books for new leaders have frequently turned out to be their pillars,” Even if everyone is looking for their ideal match and leadership attitudes have evolved, it is frequently crucial to have a trustworthy mentor. It takes a lot of work for women who establish their own businesses and are typically self-made to take a fantastic idea and see it through to completion. Even though there is independence, which eliminates many formal aspects of office work, many of them severely lack a mentor or leadership training.

The nature of work has changed since the time of our forefathers. Many people in today’s world are given the responsibility of leading teams without any training or expertise. And as a result, a huge percentage of them have never had to manage the time of others, provide constructive criticism, or—worst of all—fire someone.

We are unable to provide official training, regrettably. However, the article that follows will provide a summary of 11 helpful leadership books for women.

Leadership Books for Women

1. The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo

Everything a new manager needs to know—from hiring to firing, managing time to managing people—is covered in this book. A classic, albeit less enjoyable to read than some of the other works on our list. This book is for people who recently earned a surprise promotion and are starting right away. Consider it a reference handbook and keep a copy nearby so you can quickly peruse it if you’re unsure.

2. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Many of you have definitely heard of Brené Brown and listened to her well-known TED Talk, but what if you’ve been intending to read Dare to Lead but haven’t yet? Big error. The result of a seven-year investigation of leadership and courage is this book. Brown’s discoveries underlie her practical and thoughtful advice to leadership that equally amounts – daring and conscientious.

3. Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams

It’s challenging to be a leader. It takes wisdom and guts to convince peers and yourself—that you are able to exercise leadership and accomplishing more. Lead from the Outside covers the particular difficulties faced by women, people of colour, the working class, LGBTQ individuals, and millennials who are eager to effect change. Abrams dissects the roles that passion, risk, wealth, and loss play in leadership using her anecdotal thoughts.

4. The Likeability Trap by Alicia Menendez

This book explores the unsolvable conundrum that women encounter at work. Women who are warm are viewed as paper tigers at work whereas powerful women are blamed for being frigid. As a distinguished writer, Menendez explores this central paradox and encourages readers to let go of conventional wisdom and rethink leadership rather than self-reinvention. Anyone who is tired of worrying excessively about being liked at work has to read it.

5. Power Moves by Lauren McGoodwin

Power Moves is the essential manual that gives professional women a sense of complete understanding so they may forego preparing and perfecting and move to progressing. It addresses the major problem young professionals face, namely job advancement and changes. Power Moves provides readers with specific goals to work toward, such as improving their performance, avoiding harmful contrast traps, rejecting the illusory “perfect job,” embracing their inner sceptic, managing their finances, and filtering out background noise.

6. HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

You can rely on The Harvard Business Review to condense a lot of knowledge into a useful guide. Workplace and how meetings are conducted has evolved from the classic “meeting room” concept. As such, most people don’t appreciate spending time in conference rooms. Before you start hosting your own meetings, read this if you find them boring, too. Your team will appreciate it. Just in case you ever have to preside over a meeting, you should read it.

7. Originals by Adam Grant

Developing good ideas is only one aspect of leading; you also need to maintain them over time. The book provides guidance on how to keep innovating without succumbing to hivemind. Although adopting a nonconformist mindset may seem illogical in a shared work setting, it’s that kind of outlook that will cause things to change. The book is written in particular for individuals who believe, or wish to believe, that success can be achieved by busting a few rules.

8. The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

Any woman seeking a significant career move can find great benefit in this book. Numerous studies have demonstrated that women frequently lack self-assurance in their own abilities, particularly when compared to their male peers. You will learn how to identify those feelings, comprehend them better, and develop coping mechanisms by reading this book. In other words, it will assist in overcoming self-doubt and effectively utilising confidence.

9. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My Own Words is a fascinating look into the life of one of America’s most significant women, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is witty, interesting, serious, and funny. Women who want to be amazed, inspired, and grateful should read this book. It is jam-packed with anecdotes, particularly on what Ruth Bader Ginsburg achieved for women, up until the very end.

10. Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader by Herminia Ibarra

Your daily workload will increase as a new leader, and you may discover that you obsess more about present problems and worries than you do about developing long-term solutions. Ibarra’s book claims that’s a deadly error. The finest leaders consciously choose to take charge, intentionally schedule time to develop their leadership abilities, and seize the chance to assume accountability while also growing personally as necessary. That is to say, it’s about taking action rather than reacting.

11. Thrive by Arianna Huffington

Any book written by Arianna Huffington is likely to be included in a list of books about leadership and women. She does, after all, set an example. The basic idea behind this book is as follows: Huffington experienced a severe fall at the height of her tiredness and immediately understood that if she continued working as she was, her life and health were in danger. This book—a manual for caring about yourself as much as your work—is the outcome of that “aha!” moment.

TAKEAWAY

That sums up the list of 11 helpful leadership books for women. We should all be aware of the fact that great leaders are created, not born, through perseverance and hard effort. You can begin by reading any book on this list if you want to live up to and succeed in executive and leadership roles. 

Even though there is more diversity in the workplace, discrimination still arises, and women frequently struggle to speak up, be heard, and get the respect of their coworkers, and superiors. The fact that there is still a significant gender gap in leadership roles is partly due to the fact that many females are still taught to support and follow rather than challenge the existing norm.

The goal of these works is to identify tactics, skills, and behaviours that boost professional women’s chances of becoming inspirational idols as well as competent leaders.

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