Essential Books

Mar 2025

Phil Venables recently posted a list of his go-to books, I’ve decided to share my own list. My focus is on the books I frequently read and provide to all team members as mandatory reading. I’ve shared this list multiple times over the past few years with readers seeking book recommendations. These are all in the books list already, but here it is: the list of essential books to read.

In no particular order:

  1. Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, Gen. Jim Mattis
  2. The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander, Pete Blaber
  3. Team of Teams, Gen. Stanley McChrystal
  4. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
  5. Deliberate Discomfort, Jason B.A. Van Camp
  6. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown
  7. The Light and Fast Organisation: A New Way of Dealing with Uncertainty, Patrick Hollingworth