I used to teach a leadership / management course.  Yup, those who can’t do, teach.  Also used to live close to Harvard’s bookstore.  Really cool actually.  You can really develop a reading list from walking around.  The business leadership section was staggering.  If I wasn’t struggling with coming up with a comprehensible dissertation, I would have read more of these books.

I made peace with the following approach.  It is somewhat simple (or maybe simplistic), but it’s at least a starting point.  I would say, to be somewhat effective as a leader, a combination of the following is helpful (I did teach all of these in class).

Harvard Business School Literature, John Kotter – Normative, often needs good to perfect conditions to actually implement.  Does not fully work in extraordinary situations.  Does not fully account for human nature.

48 Laws of Power – Amoral, not immoral.  Read this. Trust me.  With discretion and meditation.  A few pages at a time.  Humbling.

Servant Leadership – Very tough sell, but it unfortunately is the way to keep one’s soul and actually lead effectively.  Again, tough sell, I didn’t expect my students to really buy into it.  Worth the try.

If I were more experienced, I would have done more Sun Tzu, Godfather, and John Boyd.  In the bullpen – Musashi, Zhuge Liang, Gracian, Machiavelli, Taoist work.