30 Must-Read Books for CEOs

Who is a leader? Someone who goes ahead. If you manage people, you must feel confident in yourself, find common language with your team, find common language with your team, and not be afraid of difficulties. The most important key to a leader's success is self-development. And to become a leader, you must work tirelessly on yourself.

We've selected must-read books for CEOs to help you gain new skills and knowledge, develop leadership qualities, and achieve success.

CEO books: Inside the minds of giants

Reading about famous CEOs is worthwhile because their stories show real examples of success and mistakes. They help you understand how to build a team, make strategic decisions, and motivate people. These stories inspire your own development and train a leader's thinking. Such books provide practical lessons on management, strategic planning, and personal effectiveness that you can apply in your business or career.

The stories of real people are always inspiring, so here are some stories of successful CEOs:

'Masters of Scale' by Reid Hoffman, June Cohen, and Deron Triff offers real stories of scaling a business from leading entrepreneurs and founders of companies like Airbnb and Google.

'The Ride of a Lifetime' by Robert Iger is a memoir from the Disney CEO about creativity, innovation, and leadership with humanity.

'Invent and Wander' by Jeff Bezos (with Walter Isaacson) is a collection of essays and speeches from the founder of Amazon about thinking, innovation, and long-term vision.

'The Four' by Scott Galloway reveals how four major companies — Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google — have redefined the modern economy, people's thinking, and success models. Galloway analyzes their strategies, brand psychology, and impact on our lives, asking: Can we compete with such players or at least understand how they work?

Best CEO books on strategic thinking

Managing people and leading a team is an art that requires talent. An experienced manager of a large business and a novice entrepreneur are united by one category: they're both focused on developing the company and achieving results. Whether you've been running a company for years or have just started thinking about creating your own business, reading the best CEO books is equally valid.

In 'Good to Great,' Jim Collins argues that if you've been rising to a certain point and stalling for years, this book is your red flag. It shows what you're doing wrong and where you should start moving to break into the top business league. Collins explains how to take a company, a public organization, and government organizations and institutions from just good to the highest level. 

Collins analyzes the activities and structure of companies that have made a breakthrough; selected companies that, despite all the crises, have shown the best results in their field for fifteen years in a row. Among them are Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, and Philip Morris.

A top manager needs to think strategically, which means seeing the bigger picture, anticipating challenges, and making decisions for the future. It's also important to develop emotional intelligence to better understand yourself and your team, build trust, and create a healthy work environment. Being flexible and adaptable helps you respond effectively to changes. Strong communication skills are essential to clearly sharing your vision and motivating your team to move in the same direction.

'The 4 Disciplines of Execution' by Chris McChesney shows how to turn strategy into real results. It offers four disciplines that help focus on key goals, track progress, maintain team accountability, and ensure the implementation of plans.

To do this, the CEO learns from the best CEO books to identify key goals that move the business forward and discard everything unnecessary.