8 of the best books to help empower others

red_icon
AUTHOR
Walking the Talk

Looking to change your thinking? Searching for the special something inside you? 

Builds trust and allows decisions to be made by those closest to the action with our list of the best books for leaders wanting to learn how to empower others. 

Here are 8 of Walking the Talk's recommended empowerment reads. 


Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment: How to Improve Quality, Productivity and Employee Satisfaction | William C. Byham - best business books
Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment: How to Improve Quality, Productivity and Employee Satisfaction | William C. Byham

"Most managers know that revitalization in their companies must occur from the ground up. But how to get that message to employees without applying the kind of pressure that makes them even less productive? The answer is empowerment. In this motivating book, you will find specific strategies designed to help you encourage responsibility, acknowledgment, and creativity so that employees feel they "own" their jobs. It's all here, in an accessible guide for the successful managers of tomorrow"

Read this book. . .

  

Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It | James M. Kouzes - best business books

Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It | James M. Kouzes

"As the world falls deeper into economic downturns and warfare, the question of credibility (how leaders gain and lose it) is more important than ever. Building on their research from The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner explore in Credibility why leadership is above all a relationship, with credibility as the cornerstone, and why leaders must "Say what you mean and mean what you say."

Read this book. . . 

 

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't | Simon Sinek

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't | Simon Sinek

"Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. "

Read this book. . .

 

 

Best books for empowerment - Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler - best business books

Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace | Ricardo Semler

"Semler turned his family's business, the aging Semco corporation of Brazil, into the most revolutionary business success story of our time. By eliminating uneeded layers of management and allowing employees unprecedented democracy in the workplace, he created a company that challenged the old ways and blazed a path to success in an uncertain economy."

Read this book. . .

  

 

How Google Works | Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg - best business books

How Google Works | Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg

"Both Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google as seasoned Silicon Valley business executives, but over the course of a decade they came to see the wisdom in Coach John Wooden's observation that 'it's what you learn after you know it all that counts'. As they helped grow Google from a young start-up to a global icon, they relearned everything they knew about management."

Read this book. . . 

  

 

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead | Laszlo Bock - best business booksWork Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead | Laszlo Bock

"From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work-and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed."

Read this book. . . 

 

 

 

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us | Daniel H. Pink - best business books

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us | Daniel H. Pink

"Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world."

Read this book. . .

  

Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow | Tom Rath & Barry Conchie - best business books

 Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow | Tom Rath & Barry Conchie

 

 "For years we’ve been inundated with bleak forecasts about the future. But in this electrifying new book, author Byron Reese debunks the pessimistic outlook as dangerous, and shows instead how technology will soon create a dramatically better world for every person on earth, beyond anything we have dared to imagine. "

Read this book. . .

 

Download our ebooks

 

For further insights view our selection of case studiesebooksreports and white papers or contact us to learn how we can transform your culture.

 

Subscribe for blog updates

How To Improve Your Post-Pandemic Leadership

How To Improve Your Post-Pandemic Leadership

What are the main challenges facing people managers in the Future of Work? When we look at the Future of Work now, essentially what we’re
How to strike the right balance on empowerment

How to strike the right balance on empowerment

Empowerment is a cultural challenge that we hear from many of our clients. As a leader it can be tricky to find the right balance between
Your role as a leader in culture change

Your role as a leader in culture change

We’ve talked in a previous article about the importance of the leadership shadow on culture change. But we often find leaders don’t