100 books like Lions Don't Need To Roar

By D.A. Benton,

Here are 100 books that Lions Don't Need To Roar fans have personally recommended if you like Lions Don't Need To Roar. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Denise Brinkmeyer Author Of Project Orienteering: A Field Guide For Project Leadership

From my list on servant leaders who get things done.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the oldest child, and former teacher turned technology innovator. As the only girl, growing up with three brothers gave me the tenacity to overcome limiting beliefs. Information technology has helped me create an environment where I can help a lot of people. At the end of the day, what I love most is helping someone turn an idea into a tangible solution while motivating team members to see the beauty and joy in this type of service.  

Denise's book list on servant leaders who get things done

Denise Brinkmeyer Why did Denise love this book?

This book inspires me to look at how I spend my time at work. I do many things that could be automated so that I can spend more time doing things that machines are not great at. 

While I do not intend to work only 4 hours a week, I use the inspiration for this book to move from 75-hour weeks to a more practical 40-50 hours that allow me to have time for my non-business roles (wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, etc.). Note that some technologies are outdated, but the concepts are golden.

If you like this book, you might like his Tools of Titans, as well.

By Timothy Ferriss,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The 4-Hour Workweek as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A new, updated and expanded edition of this New York Times bestseller on how to reconstruct your life so it's not all about work

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan - there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.

This step-by step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:

* How Tim went from…


Book cover of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Curtis Jenkins Author Of Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living

From my list on accelerating your success.

Why am I passionate about this?

During a meeting in Fall 2020, a fellow business owner shared that they were about to lose everything and that no one would help them financially to get over this setback. This struck a chord with me, as I come from North Philadelphia and saw many small business owners struggle and ultimately lose their businesses. Thus, my personal goal is to help 1000 small businesses annually, giving them the gift of time, realizing their vision and mission, and leaving a legacy of prosperity. By supporting small businesses, I hope to make a positive impact on families, friends, and communities, creating a world of successful small business owners.

Curtis' book list on accelerating your success

Curtis Jenkins Why did Curtis love this book?

If you struggle with productivity and want to achieve extraordinary results, The ONE Thing is a must-read.

This book emphasizes the importance of focus and teaches you how to identify the one thing that matters most each day. By choosing the one thing that makes everything else obsolete or unnecessary, you can accomplish more in less time.

The book’s central message is that by focusing on one thing at a time, you can achieve extraordinary results in productivity, achieve your goals, and live a more fulfilling life. 

By Gary Keller, Jay Papasan,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The ONE Thing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

YOU WANT LESS. You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what's the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller paychecks, fewer promotions-and lots of stress. AND YOU WANT MORE. You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH-LESS AND MORE. In The ONE Thing, you'll learn…


Book cover of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Havard Mela Author Of Digital Discipline: Choosing Life in the Digital Age of Excess

From my list on how we get distracted and how to reclaim your attention.

Why am I passionate about this?

As someone who has felt the consequences of spending too much time online on distractions, I am compelled to share how much better life can be when we are conscious of the time we spend online. In my early twenties, I experienced digital addiction. I managed to turn things around by cultivating discipline and finding purpose in life. In the process, I developed a deep interest in neuroscience and psychology. My book explains how you can take conscious control of your life in a practical way based on my experience backed up by research.

Havard's book list on how we get distracted and how to reclaim your attention

Havard Mela Why did Havard love this book?

Deep Work is an excellent book for realizing how detrimental the typical employee’s work habits of checking email every 5 minutes, constant meetings, and other distractions are to their ability to perform high-quality work. Newport also shares good suggestions for reclaiming your focus and doing what he calls “deep work.” 

The book strongly advocates for the importance of having as much time as possible without distractions to achieve flow and perform optimally. This book helped me become much more conscious about how I work.

By Cal Newport,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Deep Work as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Many modern knowledge workers now spend most of their brain power battling distraction and interruption, whether because of the incessant pinging of devices, noisy open-plan offices or the difficulty of deciding what deserves your attention the most. When Cal Newport coined the term 'deep work' on his popular blog, Study Hacks, in 2012, he found the concept quickly hit a nerve. Most of us, after all, are excruciatingly familiar with shallow work instead - distractedly skimming the surface of our workload and never getting to the important part. Newport began exploring the methods and mindset that foster a practice of…


Book cover of The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months

Curtis Jenkins Author Of Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living

From my list on accelerating your success.

Why am I passionate about this?

During a meeting in Fall 2020, a fellow business owner shared that they were about to lose everything and that no one would help them financially to get over this setback. This struck a chord with me, as I come from North Philadelphia and saw many small business owners struggle and ultimately lose their businesses. Thus, my personal goal is to help 1000 small businesses annually, giving them the gift of time, realizing their vision and mission, and leaving a legacy of prosperity. By supporting small businesses, I hope to make a positive impact on families, friends, and communities, creating a world of successful small business owners.

Curtis' book list on accelerating your success

Curtis Jenkins Why did Curtis love this book?

If you want to achieve your goals faster and accelerate your productivity, The 12 Week Year should be at the top of your list.

This book teaches you how to get more done in less time by compressing your goals into 12-week cycles. By doing this, you can experience a full year of experiences in 12 weeks, accelerating your ability to grow your business or achieve your goals.

The book’s core message is that time is your most valuable asset, and you should use it wisely to achieve your desired lifestyle. Reading this book can help you develop a mindset that focuses on achieving your goals faster and enjoying more of life’s experiences. 

By Brian P. Moran, Michael Lennington,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The 12 Week Year as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The guide to shortening your execution cycle down from one year to twelve weeks Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your "year" to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn't enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff…


Book cover of Secrets to Winning at Office Politics: How to Achieve Your Goals and Increase Your Influence at Work

Genevieve Hawkins Author Of Mentally at Work: Optimising health and business performance through connection

From my list on helping you thrive not just survive as a leader.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Executive who started life as an Occupational Therapist. As an undergrad, I had an innate curiosity around mental health, and what makes people thrive not just survive. This fascination sent me to university multiple times, and, as a self-confessed book nerd (my teams tell me one of my most common sayings is ‘There is a book you could read..’), constantly testing book theories at work. As an executive, I mentor up-and-coming leaders. This compilation of books represents the most common books I recommend to people to help them thrive at work as a leader. I hope you find them as useful as I have.  

Genevieve's book list on helping you thrive not just survive as a leader

Genevieve Hawkins Why did Genevieve love this book?

I remember vividly the moment, while researching change, when I read an article by Jeffrey Pfeffer on power in organisations. It was an ah-ha moment for me in making sense of some of the behaviours I was witnessing at work. Marie McIntyre, who studied with Pfeffer, wrote Secrets to Winning at Office Politics and writes in a much more accessible and practical way on understanding and working with these politics, while maintaining your own integrity. Many a mentee has said to me, ‘I’m not interested in the politics, I just want to do my job.' And my response to that is that if you want to be successful in your career, then you need to not just understand but work with the politics. But there are ways to do this, while still being you. And this book helps with how.

By Marie G. McIntyre,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Secrets to Winning at Office Politics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Office politics are a fact of corporate life. From new hire to experienced executive, everyone needs to learn how to effectively play the game to win. From sizing up the political climate in the office, to building positive relationships to increasing political power, SECRETS TO WINNING AT OFFICE POLITICS is the handbook for achieving on-the-job success. Marie McIntyre, organizational psychologist and corporate coach, reveals proven strategies to: - Turn adversaries into allies - Counter colleagues' powerplays - Develop an influence strategy - Cope with quirky bosses and annoying co-workers - Achieve personal and professional goals.


Book cover of Power in Organizations

Roberta Chinsky Matuson Author Of Can We Talk?: Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work

From my list on maximizing your talent.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m one of the world’s leading experts on the maximization of talent, who is the author of six books on leadership and talent. I’m also a LinkedIn Top Voice in Leadership and Workplace, and one of the few people who was a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, with Bill O’Reilly, who left the show unscathed.

Roberta's book list on maximizing your talent

Roberta Chinsky Matuson Why did Roberta love this book?

Power in Organizations changed my life. This book was required reading for me in grad school. What I learned from this book is that there is office politics in every organization and that the company I was working for had way more politics than any one person should have to handle. Upon completion of this book (and grad school), I quit my job and traveled around the world, where it took me a year to recover from the politics that was going on all around me. I wish I read this book before I entered management. I’m sure I would have been better prepared to manage the people above me, as well as my peers.

By Jeffrey Pfeffer,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This book aims to synthesize current knowledge on power in organizations, and to develop a reasonably consistent theoretical perspective that can guide analysis and understanding of power phenomena. Throughout the book, hypotheses are proposed which have no empirical evidence to support them.

The perspective of this book is basically sociological. Power is seen as deriving from the division of labor that occurs as task specialization is implemented in organizations. When the overall tasks of the organization are divided into smaller parts, it is inevitable that some tasks will come to be more important than others. Those persons and those units…


Book cover of A Walk in Wildflower Park

Nina Kaye Author Of Take a Moment

From my list on strong female leads who’d make great dinner guests.

Why am I passionate about this?

I spent my twenties mostly devouring women’s fiction and romance novels with female leads, but I also stepped outside my preferred genre. Being a strong lead doesn’t necessarily mean saving the world or doing something heroic (though obviously that helps!), it’s about strength of character, being real, and being able to fight on when things get difficult. I always dreamt of being an author, but only started writing properly when I developed a debilitating long-term health condition. I used writing to support my rehabilitation and this led to me finally achieving that dream – so in a way, I see myself as a strong female lead in my own story. 

Nina's book list on strong female leads who’d make great dinner guests

Nina Kaye Why did Nina love this book?

This is so much more than the cosy romance the cover and title promise. It’s a wonderful story bursting with friendship, office politics, drama, and mystery. When Anna’s loser of a fiancé gets cold feet, focusing on her career as a project manager seems a safe way to move on. But when two unwelcome faces join her workplace, Anna’s suddenly got a lot on her plate – and that’s before the mysterious texts start appearing from a guy who calls himself C.

Anna would be a guest at my dinner table because she feels like a kindred spirit. Like me, she’s driven and ambitious, as well as someone who doesn’t take any nonsense – and she’s good fun. I could definitely see us sharing and comparing office horror stories over a few G&Ts. 

By Bella Osborne,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Walk in Wildflower Park as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Walk in Wildflower Park was originally published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one package.

'Pure escapism - full of wit, warmth, humour, and a moving look at the friendships and relationships that make us all tick.' Debbie Johnson, bestselling author of The Comfort Food Cafe series

Life's not always a walk in the park...

Anna thought she'd found The One - until he broke off their engagement exactly a year before their wedding day. Hoping new surroundings will do her the world of good, she moves in to a place of her own on…


Book cover of The Atrocity Archives

Heide Goody Author Of Oddjobs

From my list on the horrors of the workplace.

Why are we passionate about this?

We've been writing together for over ten years now. A theme that we’ve come back to lots of times is the horrible workplace with its bosses from hell. Feedback from readers tells us that the ways in which we’re made miserable at work are universal and it can be fun to examine them in fiction. We doubled down on the theme in the Oddjobs series of books. We both love to read and write horror, and we spend time with lots of horror authors, so this list came together very easily.

Heide's book list on the horrors of the workplace

Heide Goody Why did Heide love this book?

Possibly the most perfect fusion of horror and the workplace, the Laundry Files books show us a bureaucratic British intelligence service where even reading a training manual wrong will result in your brains leaking out of your ears. A fusion of Cold War spy novels and Cthulhu-ish horror, The Atrocity Archive introduces us to put-upon spy/clerk Bob Howard. It’s uncertain whether endless form filling, petty managers, or horrors from the dark side of the moon are most likely to drive him mad.

By Charles Stross,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Brilliantly disturbing and funny at the same time' Ben Aaronovitch on the Laundry Files

'Tremendously good, geeky fun' Telegraph on the Laundry Files

NEVER VOLUNTEER FOR ACTIVE DUTY . . .

Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob's under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe - but then he went and got Noticed.

Now, Bob is up to his neck in spycraft, parallel universes, dimension-hopping terrorists, monstrous elder gods and the end of the world. Only one thing is certain: it…


Book cover of Personal Days

Weike Wang Author Of Joan Is Okay

From my list on workaholics who still have time to read.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fascinated by work, especially women at work. I am an immigrant, a child of immigrants, a former scientist, and for most of life, have been conditioned to work because if I could not work, then why else was I here? Yet work is not strictly an emblem of immigrant grit or the model minority mindset. It can be made funny, surreal, existential, and it’s a rich subject to tackle. More often than not, work is treated as taboo. It’s ignored or deemed too prosaic to discuss.  Who wants to see what goes on inside the factory? I do. I’m obsessed with stories that showcase the factory. 

Weike's book list on workaholics who still have time to read

Weike Wang Why did Weike love this book?

Here is a dark comedy for the office worker. Office dysfunction is unique but also ubiquitous and lends itself well to, of course, Kafkaesque and Orwellian absurdity. One day, people just start getting fired, which leads to growing paranoia and more dysfunction. I like stories that don’t explain too much. Thanks to the pandemic, life, especially work life, has become increasingly amorphous and unreal. What is balance anymore? Where is the line? It’s refreshing to be immersed in a world even more bizarre than the one that workaholics now seem to be living in. 

By Ed Park,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Ever wondered what your boss does all day?Or if there is a higher - perhaps an existential - significance to Microsoft Word malfunctions? This astonishing debut is a scathingly funny look at a group of office workers who have no idea what the unnamed corporation they work for actually does.When it looks like the company may be taken over, fear of redundancy unleashes a deliciously Kafkaesque plot full of the tedium and mistrust of corporate life and the backstabbing bitchiness of our survival-of-the-fittest instincts. We meet Pru, the ex-grad student-turned-spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety follows him into…


Book cover of Mastering the Basics: Simple Lessons for Achieving Success in Business

Todd Dewett Author Of Dancing with Monsters: A Tale About Leadership, Success, and Overcoming Fears

From my list on how people skills support great leadership.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m fascinated by the relationships component of leadership. I’ve worked for major service firms, taught MBAs for years, advised many teams and organizations, and educated millions via my courses on LinkedIn Learning. When I look at performance, I see the same issues popping up over and over: people issues! You can know a lot about how to run a team operationally or how to roll out a change step by step – but it’s all for nothing if you don’t know how to positively relate to and lead others. Communication, motivation, empathy, etc. – these are the essential people skills required to allow you to actually add value with your business knowledge.  

Todd's book list on how people skills support great leadership

Todd Dewett Why did Todd love this book?

Most leadership books are hyper-focused on one or two very finite and well-defined topics. 

Dean’s book intentionally takes the opposite approach. It’s like someone came up to this person who has had huge sales and general executive success and asked them to name their top twenty tips for having an effective career. But instead, Dean explodes with a few hundred amazing tips. 

From grand ideas such as “always be learning” and “fostering relationships” to very specific ones such as “be reliable” and “don’t show off or gloat,” this is an amalgamation of tried-and-true career wisdom delivered in an easy-to-digest manner. 

I imagine anyone reading this book will come away with several new maxims to live by. Bottom line – this is fast, useful advice.  

By Dean Karrel,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Are you limiting your potential because you haven't mastered workplace skills, office politics, and career development?

Do you ever feel pressured to learn the latest strategies just to stay ahead of your peers? Are there times when you feel intimidated by colleagues with fancy titles or advanced degrees who don't shy away from sharing their opinions? We can all fall into the trap of getting caught up in a competitive and stressful work environment and the result can negatively impact our confidence and ability to maximize our potential. Based on business lessons and techniques that Dean Karrel learned throughout his…


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