Leadership is not just a matter of attitude. To be able to lead a work team or a large organization well, it is necessary to know several topics that are addressed by the Psychology of Organizations and by the Psychology of Work .

The Eight Best Books for CEOs and Corporate Directors

In this selection of books for CEOs and leaders anyone can learn the basics about what it means to be in charge of such a complex system as a company.

1. CEO, career and succession: climbing to the top

This book, written by Guido Stein Martínez and José Ramón Pin , presents the process of becoming a CEO and staying in that position through a sports metaphor related to climbing and mountaineering.

But the pages of this book do not just talk about how to know if you are ready to take on a position of high responsibility, as if becoming a CEO were a matter of self-interest alone; it also addresses the issue of how to ensure that, when you retire, the succession is successful and the objectives pursued by the organization remain within your reach.

You can buy this book here.

2. Influence

This book by Robert Cialdini has already become a classic in the psychology of persuasion. It offers several of the keys needed to take advantage of what we know about the persuasive arts and to know how to keep our guard up against them. There is a reason why it also appears in the selection of psychology books.

To learn more about this title or buy it, click here.

3. How to think like a CEO

One of the books for CEOs that put us in the shoes of an organization’s head to find out what psychological characteristics need to be developed to face the kind of challenges these people face. After conducting multiple interviews with several company leaders, D. A. Benton presents a series of 22 traits that define the way of thinking of a CEO and shapes them in this book in a clear and didactic way.

If you’re interested, you can buy this book here.

4. The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz is known for having been the CEO of Opsware , one of the first companies to exploit the potential of cloud computing. As an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley,

Ben had to fight hard to put his company on the map, and in this very interesting book he presents precisely that facet of the business world: that of difficult decisions, managing pressure and sources of anxiety , and the different strategies with which all this can be managed in the best possible way, and why not, with a pinch of humour.

One of those books whose reading is mandatory if you are a CEO or an entrepreneur with a project with potential.

You can buy the book here.

5. The Black Swan

Another classic, especially for startup CEOs, is The Black Swan , by Nassim Nicholas Taleb . Its pages address a question that is both disturbing and has direct implications for the business world: how do those windows of opportunity arise that nobody sees coming and in a matter of days or weeks disrupt the market forever?

The rise of YouTube, changes in geopolitics, the emergence of new types of opinion leaders… S on unforeseen phenomena but which can elevate some projects and bury others without anyone concretely deciding that this should be so.

To buy the book or look for more information, you can click here.

6. Flow in business

This book for CEOs and leaders by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is an application to the organizational field of what this researcher discovered in his studies on the phenomenon of flow, a cognitive and emotional state in which the balance between one’s abilities and the required difficulty is in balance and the task triggers the worker’s creative and productive potential. It is also included in the selection of books on positive psychology.

You can buy it by clicking here.

7. How to manage the work climate

The work climate is a factor that is too often forgotten by CEOs. This book teaches the theoretical and practical foundations to understand what the work climate is and what logics operate in it.

If you’re interested, you can order it here.

8. Leading Teams

One of the best books for leaders, by J. Richard Hackman , a reference in the Psychology of Organizations. Among the pages of this book, he explains what leaders can do to create work environments in which all the members of a team can maximize their abilities and performance.

You can buy this book here.