Top 10 Management Books Every Leader Should Read in 2025

Right Kind of Wrong, Multipliers, Radical Candor, High Output Management, and seven other must-reads make up this year’s sharpest list of management books. They’ll help you rethink how you lead, how you listen, and how you accomplish tasks without burning out your team or yourself.

If you’ve been second-guessing your decisions or wondering what outstanding leadership is, this blog gives you the answers in the form of 10 brilliant, battle-tested books.

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The Top 10 Management Books to Read in 2025

There’s no shortage of management advice, but most of it doesn’t stick when things get messy. These books stand out because they focus on what actually happens on the ground. This includes messy decisions, difficult teams, and unclear goals. 

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If you’ve ever had to lead under pressure, push back on bad ideas, or rebuild trust after failure, the lessons inside these pages won’t feel like theory. 

Here are the top 10 management books worth your time in 2025.

1. Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well

Author: Amy Edmondson

(Source: Amazon)

Most leadership books talk about learning from failure, but few actually teach you how to fail well. Right Kind of Wrong breaks that down. Amy Edmondson doesn’t glorify mistakes. 

She shows how smart risk-taking and “intelligent failure” are necessary to grow, adapt, and keep teams moving forward without burning out or playing it too safe. It's not about avoiding failure; it's about knowing which failures are worth having and using the right risk management strategies. 

Where You’ll Use It

Let’s say you’re building a product that flopped during beta testing. Instead of hiding the failure, this book helps you structure the post-mortem. This is done in a way that promotes team trust and leads to smarter decisions next time, rather than fear. 

It's especially useful for startup founders, product leads, or anyone working in agile environments.

About the Author

Amy Edmondson is a Harvard Business School professor best known for her research on psychological safety in teams. She’s spent years studying what makes people speak up, or stay silent, especially after mistakes. This book is a natural extension of that work, helping leaders reframe failure as part of high-performing cultures. 

Also Read: What is Product Development? Everything You Need to Know About

2. This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans

Author: Seth Godin

(Source: Amazon)

​​This Is Strategy doesn’t hand you a 12-step framework or a jargon-filled playbook. Instead, Seth Godin strips it all down. He reminds you that strategy isn’t something you build in a boardroom, it’s something you commit to when things get uncomfortable. 

It’s a short, sharp guide to making better long-term choices by learning how to say “no,” pick the hard path, and stop confusing activity with progress.

Where You’ll Use It

You’re in a meeting where every team wants to chase a different KPI, or you’re leading a brand stuck in "tweak mode" but avoiding bold moves. This book gives you the clarity (and the courage) to stop reacting and start focusing. It’s a gut-check for product managers, founders, and marketing heads/managers tired of just keeping busy.

About the Author

Seth Godin is a bestselling author and entrepreneur known for cutting through noise. From Purple Cow to The Dip, his work is built around making smarter choices in uncertain environments. This Is Strategy continues that theme: clear, honest, and meant to be read in one sitting, yet applied over a career.

Also Read: Everything You Need to Know About Performance Marketing

3. What Matters Next: A Leader’s Guide to Making Human‑Friendly Tech Decisions

Author: Kate O’Neill

(Source: Amazon)

This book you reach for when tech decisions start snowballing into ethical grey zones. Kate O’Neill doesn’t preach or scare, she simply points out how easy it is to forget the human being on the other side of your product. It’s a call to slow down, ask better questions, and design with conscience, not just convenience.

Where You’ll Use It
You’re approving a feature that might nudge users into addictive behavior, or you’re working on AI automation that could replace entire workflows. This book helps you pause and rethink the long-term effects before launching the next “big” thing. Perfect for tech leads, designers, policy heads, and anyone shaping user experiences at scale.

About the Author
Kate O’Neill is a tech humanist and strategist with a background in digital innovation and a bias toward empathy. Her work focuses on making technology more aligned with human values, and this book is her blueprint for responsible leadership in 2025 and beyond.

Also Read: The Ultimate Toolkit for Lead Software Engineers: 30+ Tools to Boost Productivity in 2025

4. Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

Author: Liz Wiseman

(Source: Amazon)

If you’ve ever watched a team shrink under pressure or stall despite talent, Multipliers explains why. Liz Wiseman shows how some managers accidentally drain energy and creativity, while others spark it without micromanaging. This isn’t another “be nice” manual. It’s a clear playbook for making smart people even better at what they do.

Where You’ll Use It

You’re leading a high-performing team in tech or product development, and things feel stuck. This book teaches you how to shift from being a bottleneck to becoming a multiplier. This is a skill that defines strong leadership in product management and across the software engineering industry.

About the Author

Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor known for her work on leadership and team intelligence. With years at Oracle and extensive fieldwork, she brings real, actionable insights for managers ready to lead with impact.

Also Read: 10 Most Popular Type of Management Style: Understanding and Choosing the Right Approach

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5. High Output Management

Author: Andrew S Grove

(Source: Amazon)

Written by former Intel CEO Andy Grove, High Output Management isn’t padded with theory. It’s a sharp, practical guide from someone who ran one of the world’s most disciplined companies. It breaks down everything from hiring and team productivity to decision-making and meetings, in a way that’s surprisingly readable and painfully relevant.

Where You’ll Use It
If you’ve ever felt like your day is full but your output isn’t, this book resets how you think about effectiveness. It’s the kind of management book that doesn’t just sit on a shelf; it shapes how you run teams, projects, and even your own calendar.

About the Author
Andrew S. Grove was a Hungarian-American engineer who survived war and revolution before helping build Intel into one of the world’s most iconic tech companies. Known for his “only the paranoid survive” mindset, Grove brought a rare mix of precision, discipline, and real-world grit to the way he led, managed, and wrote.

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6. The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever

Author: Michael Bungay Stanier

(Source: Amazon)

The Advice Trap flips the idea of leadership on its head, instead of giving answers, it teaches you to pause, listen, and ask better questions. It’s a sharp, witty take on why constantly “fixing” things often does more harm than good, especially when managing teams.

Where You’ll Use It
If your default mode is jumping in with solutions (and let’s be honest, most managers do), this book shows how to build stronger teams by staying curious. It’s especially useful during one-on-ones, performance conversations, and any moment you feel tempted to take over instead of support.

About the Author
Michael Bungay Stanier is a bestselling author and leadership coach known for making coaching simple, practical, and actually enjoyable. He’s helped leaders at Google, Microsoft, and nonprofits rethink the way they lead, starting with saying less.

7. Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean

Author: Kim Scott

(Source: Amazon)

Radical Candor makes a bold case for blending direct feedback with genuine care. It’s not just another entry in the long list of management books. It tackles the uncomfortable truth that most leaders either stay too nice or swing too harsh. This one shows how to challenge your team directly, without losing their trust or respect.

Where You’ll Use It
Ideal for tough feedback moments, performance reviews, or coaching conversations that usually go sideways. If you often hold back to avoid conflict or overcorrect and come off cold, this book teaches a better balance.
About the Author
Kim Scott has led teams at Google and Apple and has spent years coaching CEOs and managers. Her approach to leadership is built on firsthand experience, helping people lead without being liked less or feared more. This one stands out among management books for its clear voice and real advice that sticks.

Also Read: 15 Highest-Paid CEOs in the World in 2025: Get CEO Salary and Qualifications Insights

8. Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You

Authors: Frances Frei & Anne Morriss

(Source: Amazon)

Unleashed is a refreshingly honest take on leadership that shifts the focus from controlling outcomes to opening up the potential in others. Unlike many management books that center the leader, this one is about what happens when you build trust, clarity, and real confidence across the team, not just at the top.

Where You’ll Use It

Perfect for team leads and founders who feel stuck between giving direction and letting go. Whether you're scaling a team or fixing a broken culture, this book gives a framework to lead boldly without micromanaging.

About the Authors

Frances Frei is a professor at Harvard Business School and Anne Morriss is a leadership coach and great entrepreneur. Together, they’ve worked with teams at Uber, WeWork, and Netflix, bringing tough love, straight talk, and rare warmth into the world of management books.

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9. The Psychology of Leadership

Author: Sébastien Page

(Source: Amazon)

Author: Sébastien Page

The Psychology of Leadership explores what’s really going on inside your head and your team’s when you lead. It’s not just about motivation or charisma. This book digs into cognitive biases, group behavior, and emotional signals that shape leadership decisions every day, making it one of the more insightful management books on the shelf.

Where You’ll Use It
Great for those moments when logic doesn’t explain team reactions, or when your gut tells you something’s off. It helps decode team dynamics, tricky conversations, and even self-doubt, all using practical psychology.

About the Author
Sébastien Page is a behavioral strategist and organizational consultant who works with global teams to improve how they lead, decide, and collaborate. His background in cognitive science brings a sharper edge to the usual leadership advice found in traditional management books.

10. Management in Times of War

Author: Kostiantyn Koshelenko

(Source: Amazon)

Written by a Ukrainian official managing teams and systems through actual wartime disruption, it gives a raw, no-frills look at how to keep people moving, motivated, and safe when everything around them is breaking. Among modern management books, this one hits different.

Where You’ll Use It

If you're managing during a crisis, be it layoffs, burnout, or sudden change, this book shows how to lead with clarity when clarity feels impossible. It's a field guide for high-stakes decision-making under pressure.

About the Author

Kostiantyn Koshelenko is Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Social Policy. His lived experience of leading through uncertainty gives this book a level of urgency and realism few management books offer.

If these management books are the fuel, the following section shows you exactly what skills they'll ignite.

Unique Skills You’ll Build by Reading Management Books

If you're stuck giving vague feedback, handling unmotivated teams, or feeling unsure when it’s time to make a tough call, you’re not alone. These are the exact gaps that great management books help close. 

From sharpening your communication to building emotional discipline and thinking strategically under pressure. Each book is a crash course in a skill you didn’t know you were missing. 

Below, we break down the key skills you’ll pick up and where they’ll actually come into play.

Also Read: Motivation Theory in Management: Theories, Workplace Applications, and Challenges

Once you’ve soaked up these lessons, upGrad can help you put them into action with hands-on training and career-focused guidance. 

How upGrad Can Help You Apply These Management Lessons!

If you want to build teams that think for themselves, Multipliers and The Advice Trap have your back. For sharper communication and honest leadership, turn to Radical Candor and Unleashed. Books like High Output Management and This Is Strategy sharpen planning and execution. And if you're leading through change, What Matters Next and Management in Times of War prepare you for the real stuff no one talks about.

To go from reading to doing, upGrad’s courses can help. You’ll work on real case studies, get expert feedback, and build habits that stick. Here are some additional free courses to get you started:

• Introduction to Business Analytics
• Introduction to HR Management and Strategy
• Building Digital Transformation Strategies
• Introduction to Entrepreneurship

Not sure where to start? Get personalised guidance from upGrad’s experts based on your career goals. Or drop by an upGrad offline centre near you to explore programs and speak with mentors.

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Reference:
https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/why-ceos-are-seeking-reverse-mentoring-from-their-juniors-fs0sc9xr6