100 books like Just Be Honest

By Steven Gaffney,

Here are 100 books that Just Be Honest fans have personally recommended if you like Just Be Honest. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

Nicolas A. Valcik Author Of Strategic Planning and Decision-Making for Public and Non-Profit Organizations

From my list on showing leadership through someone's own story.

Why am I passionate about this?

Leadership is always the key to success in strategic planning for any organization. Great leaders can drive their organizations to success, while poor leadership can crater the organization and take generations for it to rebuild. A good leader is essential in the aspect of providing good morale for the employees of the organization. Good leadership factors cause the organization to be seen as cutting edge and as an organization that others want to go work for in an effort to be better themselves. An organization with a superior strategic planning process, will have great leaders and employees to not only formulate the plan, but also execute the plan successfully.  

Nicolas' book list on showing leadership through someone's own story

Nicolas A. Valcik Why did Nicolas love this book?

This book is great for leaders who are coming into a new situation, or are currently in an evolving work environment. Any environment is going to have change, and leaders have to recognize and adapt when change occurs.

To be successful, a leader needs to ensure that the operations of their area can adapt and deliver to their clients. William Bridges' book is geared to assist managers and leaders with those changes and assists them with the key issues to be mindful of during a transition. This book is one that every manager and leader should have on their bookshelf.

By William Bridges, Susan Bridges,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Managing Transitions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The business world is constantly transforming. When restructures, mergers, bankruptcies, and layoffs hit the workplace, employees and managers naturally find the resulting situational shifts to be challenging. But the psychological transitions that accompany them are even more stressful. Organizational transitions affect people it is always people, rather than a company, who have to embrace a new situation and carry out the corresponding change.As veteran business consultant William Bridges explains, transition is successful when employees have a purpose, a plan, and a part to play. This indispensable guide is now updated to reflect the challenges of today's ever-changing, always-on, and globally…


Book cover of The Change Monster: The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change

Tina Kuhn Author Of The E Suite: Empathetic Leadership for the Next Generation of Executives

From my list on leadership during a transition.

Why am I passionate about this?

As I moved up in leadership, I found I was not prepared to manage people during uncertain and difficult times. Transitions bring about the worst in people. They get fearful and that causes bad behavior by triggering defense mechanisms. The books I listed are a progression of books that helped me to understand how transitions and change affect people and gave me a framework to continue to learn and increase my leadership skills. I then decided to write about new insights I gained in leadership to help others and have published two books and am writing articles on Medium.

Tina's book list on leadership during a transition

Tina Kuhn Why did Tina love this book?

I believe that good leadership is all about being able to manage change and transformation. This book added to my knowledge on managing change. It helped me to understand empathy and learn to understand and master the emotions of those who stand in the way of change. Ms. Duck goes through each step of a workplace transformation and describes strategies to successfully navigate through the process.

By Jeanie Daniel Duck,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Change Monster as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Powerful Look at Corporate Change and Why Mergers, Reorganizations, and Transformations Succeed or Fail

“[One of the] best business books of 2001 . . . [a] useful and intelligent tool for coping with the inevitable metamorphoses of business (and life).” —Miami Herald

“Provocative imagery . . . useful questions for managers to ask themselves.” —Harvard Business Review

“The Change Monster not only talks intelligently about the social dynamics and emotions of people [in change efforts], it does so with wisdom, insight, and practicality.”—Daniel Leemon, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Charles Schwab Corporation

“A practitioner’s primer on revitalization…


Book cover of The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

Tina Kuhn Author Of The E Suite: Empathetic Leadership for the Next Generation of Executives

From my list on leadership during a transition.

Why am I passionate about this?

As I moved up in leadership, I found I was not prepared to manage people during uncertain and difficult times. Transitions bring about the worst in people. They get fearful and that causes bad behavior by triggering defense mechanisms. The books I listed are a progression of books that helped me to understand how transitions and change affect people and gave me a framework to continue to learn and increase my leadership skills. I then decided to write about new insights I gained in leadership to help others and have published two books and am writing articles on Medium.

Tina's book list on leadership during a transition

Tina Kuhn Why did Tina love this book?

Nigel Travis, chairman of Dunkin’ Brands, discusses why the most effective leaders have people around them with a diversity of thoughts, opinions, and approaches. Travis believes the best way for organizations to succeed in today’s environment is to embrace challenges and encourage pushback. He maintains that everyone in an organization must be able to question the status quo, to talk in a civil way about difficult issues, and to debate strategies and tactics without fear of reprisal.

I love the practice of what he calls “coffee chats,” to open his thought aperture. The attendees were able to ask him any questions within the bounds of civility. As he said, “The purpose of the coffee chat is to provide an open and safe forum for people to ask questions, share information, articulate ideas, express opinions, and surface disagreements.” 

By Nigel Travis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Challenge Culture as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The Challenge Culture is a must-read for employers and employees alike, and promises to get ideas for long-term success percolating.' - Robert Kraft, chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group

'Nigel's career, vision and humanity are very refreshing' - Claude Littner, former Chief Executive of Tottenham Hotspur and author of Single-Minded: My Life in Business

Challenge is essential for survival and sustained success in today's volatile world.

We live in an era when successful organisations can fail in a flash. But they can cope with change and thrive by creating a culture that supports positive pushback: questioning everything without disrespecting…


Book cover of Compassionate Leadership: How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way

Tina Kuhn Author Of The E Suite: Empathetic Leadership for the Next Generation of Executives

From my list on leadership during a transition.

Why am I passionate about this?

As I moved up in leadership, I found I was not prepared to manage people during uncertain and difficult times. Transitions bring about the worst in people. They get fearful and that causes bad behavior by triggering defense mechanisms. The books I listed are a progression of books that helped me to understand how transitions and change affect people and gave me a framework to continue to learn and increase my leadership skills. I then decided to write about new insights I gained in leadership to help others and have published two books and am writing articles on Medium.

Tina's book list on leadership during a transition

Tina Kuhn Why did Tina love this book?

I like this book because of the real-life examples of big company CEOs balancing empathy, compassion, and caring with good business acumen. During uncertainty and change, it is harder but even more important to have empathy and compassion for employees. The authors show that leaders with empathy and compassion foster much higher levels of employee engagement, performance, and loyalty in their employees. Authors Hougaard and Carter also provide tools to help managers at all levels.

By Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter, Marissa Afton , Moses Mohan

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Compassionate Leadership as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Leadership is hard. How can you balance compassion for your people with effectiveness in getting the job done?

A global pandemic, economic volatility, natural disasters, civil and political unrest. From New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it can feel as if the world as we know it is coming apart. Through it all, our human spirit is being tested. Now more than ever, it's imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion.

But in hard times like these, leaders need to make hard decisions-deliver negative feedback, make difficult choices that disappoint people, and in some cases lay people off. How do…


Book cover of The Infinite Game

Sean Lemson Author Of One Drop of Poison: How One Bad Leader Can Slowly Kill Your Company

From my list on avoid being the leader everyone wants to leave.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have worked for some really toxic leaders in my lifetime. Over the decades, I’ve figured out that even well-intentioned people can be toxic leaders without knowing it. As a team and leadership performance coach for the past 15 years, my job has been to help leaders show up as people others want to follow; to help employees feel cared for, and as a result, be intrinsically motivated to care about their company’s mission. These books represent the figurative fuel in my tank for this work, and I hope you find them useful.

Sean's book list on avoid being the leader everyone wants to leave

Sean Lemson Why did Sean love this book?

Simon Sinek exposes how the twisted incentives of short-term profits are causing leaders to steer their companies off course. The book had a huge impact on me because it starkly revealed and explained the game my clients are really playing despite their claims to the contrary.

Because of this book, I was able to connect these motives to some of the worst toxic behaviors I observe in leaders and better understand why they behave this way. As someone often tasked with helping them change course, this book really helps me meet leaders where they are and help them move in a better direction.

By Simon Sinek,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Infinite Game as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The New York Times-bestselling author of Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, and Together Is Better offers a bold new approach to business strategy by asking one question: are you playing the finite game or the infinite game?

In The Infinite Game, Sinek applies game theory to explore how great businesses achieve long-lasting success. He finds that building long-term value and healthy, enduring growth - that playing the infinite game - is the only thing that matters to your business.


Book cover of The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance

Joseph A. Allen Author Of Running Effective Meetings For Dummies

From my list on guidance for meeting and collaborating well.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always wondered why meetings are so terrible. And, why we spend so much awful time in them. So, in my graduate studies, I decided to try to figure that out. What makes meetings good and what makes meetings bad? Then, over the course of a couple decades, I wrote what constituted about 25% of all the science on the topic of workplace meetings. It may be self-proclaimed, but I am the Meeting Doctor. Just like you go to a physician for an illness, I’m who people go to when their meetings are sick and need a cure!

Joseph's book list on guidance for meeting and collaborating well

Joseph A. Allen Why did Joseph love this book?

So, you’re trying to make your meetings better, but every self-help book out there seems to fall short of your expectations. Well, try some science! This book is all about the science of effective meetings. What they are, what they look like, and how everyone can participate in and lead good meetings. Based on the best science by author, Steven Rogelberg, PhD, and his many colleagues, former students, and research collaborators, this book provides best practices that work. They’ve been tested and they really, actually, work!

By Steven G. Rogelberg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Surprising Science of Meetings as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A recent estimate suggests that employees endure a staggering 55 million meetings a day in the United States. This tremendous time investment yields only modest returns. No organization made up of human beings is immune from the all-too-common meeting gripes: those that fail to engage, those that inadvertently encourage participants to tune out, and those that blatantly disregard participants' time.

Most companies and leaders view poor meetings as an inevitable cost of doing business. But managers can take heart: researchers now have a clear understanding of the key drivers that make meetings successful. In The Surprising Science of Meetings, Steven…


Book cover of Coaching A to Z: The Extraordinary Use of Ordinary Words

Michael Bungay Stanier Author Of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

From my list on unexpectedly useful books about coaching.

Why am I passionate about this?

Coaching is a wonderful technology that can help people be a force for change… and is often wrapped up in mystic and woo-woo and privilege that makes it inaccessible and/or unattractive to too many. I want being more coach-like—by which I mean staying curious a little longer, and rushing to action and advice-giving—to be an everyday way of being with one another. Driven by this, I’ve written the best-selling book on coaching this century (The Coaching Habit) and have created training that’s been used around the world by more than a quarter of a million people. I’m on a mission to unweird coaching.

Michael's book list on unexpectedly useful books about coaching

Michael Bungay Stanier Why did Michael love this book?

Moon realizes that certain words are particularly helpful and powerful in making conversations better (all conversations, not just coaching ones). It’s one short word per letter (“Difference”, “Might”, and “Yet” are three of my favourites), and this feels like a collection of twenty-six precise tools that can help any type of discussion more elegant, more curious, more filled with potential and more useful.

By Haesun Moon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Coaching A to Z as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Your indispensable guide for coaching mastery.

Language is a powerful tool that can unite, engage, and move people to action. It's all in what you choose to say, and how you say it.

In this practical, accessible guide to having more powerful conversations, leading evidence-based coaching expert Haesun Moon offers a set of powerful words or phrases-one for every letter of the alphabet-to help you move others toward greater purpose and accomplishment. Based on her extensive research with the University of Toronto and Harvard Medical School, Moon shows you how to apply each of these concepts to transform the way…


Book cover of Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

Pamela Slim Author Of The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You

From my list on to build a business worth running.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a 25-year business coach, I have often assigned clients the task of wandering through a book store and acting like a heat-guided missile, letting themselves notice what topics and books they are naturally drawn to. For me, even as a liberal arts major with no entrepreneurial experience when I started my consulting business 25 years ago, I was always drawn to the business, psychology, and entrepreneur section. The world of work is my playground, and I am fascinated by how to help people build a powerful body of work while sustaining themselves financially and having a deep quality of life. 

Pamela's book list on to build a business worth running

Pamela Slim Why did Pamela love this book?

When your business begins to gain momentum and scale, you need to build both communication infrastructure and process to motivate your employees, partners, and customers. Drawing from decades of award-winning work at their firm Duarte, Nancy and Patti give creative, specific advice about how to be an inspiring and effective leader.

By Nancy Duarte, Patti Sanchez,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Illuminate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Change can be fear-filled in prospect but fearsome in effect. With Illuminate, Duarte and Sanchez light our path through that crucial transition dazzlingly' ROBERT B. CIALDINI, author of Influence

To envision the future is one thing, getting others to go there with you is another. By harnessing the power of persuasive communication you can turn your idea into a movement.

In Illuminate, acclaimed author Nancy Duarte and communications expert Patti Sanchez equip you with the same communication tools that great leaders like Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to move people.

In this visual and…


Book cover of Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact

Alan Stein Jr. Author Of Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best

From my list on maximizing potential and improving performance.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a professional keynote speaker and author that has studied the pillars of high performance for most of my life. This journey started through basketball, as I was able to work with, work alongside, and observe many of the game’s top players and coaches and witness firsthand the disciplines, rituals, and routines they modeled in pursuit of optimal performance on and off the court. That transitioned into the business world where I not only watched these foundational principles be applied by executives and entrepreneurs… but I applied them to my own life and business as well. 

Alan's book list on maximizing potential and improving performance

Alan Stein Jr. Why did Alan love this book?

The brilliance of Exactly What to Say is in its brevity and simplicity. It was built on the premise that when you ‘change your words you change your world’ and how what we say heavily impacts our ability to influence others. It is full of practical, actionable concepts on word choice and phrasing that can be implemented immediately by anyone looking to the effectiveness of their communication. While this book is a quick read–it is incredibly profound and powerful. 

By Phil M Jones,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Exactly What to Say as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Often the decision between a customer choosing you over someone like you is your ability to know exactly what to say, when to say it, and how to make it count. Phil M. Jones has trained more than two million people across five continents and over fifty countries in the lost art of spoken communication. In Exactly What to Say, he delivers the tactics you need to get more of what you want.


Book cover of The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations

Gary DePaul Author Of Nine Practices of 21st Century Leadership: A Guide for Inspiring Creativity, Innovation, and Engagement

From my list on contemporary leadership books that guide us in the new normal.

Why am I passionate about this?

In 2014, I was laid off from my management role at Lowe’s Home Improvement. Instead of starting another job, I took several months to reflect on my leadership experiences and researched how leadership has evolved in the 21st Century. Based on a detailed analysis of 14 books, including the five I recommend, I wrote my first book that explains how to practice 21st-century leadership (now in its second edition). After publishing, I’ve written another leadership book, several blogs, and have been a keynote speaker. I now host the Unlabeled Leadership Podcast, which helps listeners learn how everyday people practice leadership.

Gary's book list on contemporary leadership books that guide us in the new normal

Gary DePaul Why did Gary love this book?

A colleague of mine introduced me to this book and argued that Kouzes and Posner wrote the gold standard of leadership practices. After reading their research-based stories, I agree.

The authors write in a way that goes beyond theory by offering a practical guide by focusing on the five practices of exemplary leadership. These practices are applicable to anyone’s career! Through inspiring examples and actionable steps, I learned how to lead with integrity, inspire others, and drive higher performance more effectively.

Read the gold standard of leadership development. It can become your call to action!

By James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Leadership Challenge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The most trusted source of leadership wisdom, updated to address today's realities The Leadership Challenge is the gold-standard manual for effective leadership, grounded in research and written by the premier authorities in the field. With deep insight into the complex interpersonal dynamics of the workplace, this book positions leadership both as a skill to be learned, and as a relationship that must be nurtured to reach its full potential.

This new sixth edition has been revised to address current challenges, and includes more international examples and a laser focus on business issues; you'll learn how extraordinary leaders accomplish extraordinary things,…


Book cover of Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
Book cover of The Change Monster: The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change
Book cover of The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in communication, honesty, and leadership?

Communication 73 books
Honesty 20 books
Leadership 401 books