5 Books Every Technology Leader Should Read in 2026
Five books for leading through constant change: owning outcomes, creating operational discipline, building trust, understanding AI, and navigating uncertainty.
Read the recommendation → Recommended reading
Books I recommend.
Books that have shaped how I lead teams, set strategy, and think about technology's role in a business. I keep the list short and update it occasionally.
100% Responsibility
A short, practical book on personal accountability: taking full ownership of your actions, decisions, and outcomes.
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Atomic Habits
Clear turns the science of habit formation into methods you can use; small, consistent actions compound into meaningful outcomes.
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Better, Simpler Strategy
A direct approach to strategy: create value for customers, employees, and shareholders, and strip away the complexity that gets in the way.
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Change the Culture, Change the Game
A methodology for building accountability throughout an organization, based on the observation that when culture shifts, results follow.
Read the recommendation →Character & Culture: A Field Guide to Culture Change
A field guide connecting individual character to organizational culture, with practical steps for building a workplace based on trust and respect.
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Eat That Frog!
Tracy's short book on procrastination: do your hardest, most important task first, before the day gets away from you.
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Good to Great
Collins's research on what separates good companies from great ones: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action.
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Extreme Ownership
Willink and Babin draw on their Navy SEAL experience to make one uncompromising point: leaders own everything in their world, no excuses.
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Implementing World Class IT Strategy
High's guide to aligning IT strategy with business goals so technology investments serve the company, not the department.
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Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate MUDA
The standard workbook on value stream mapping: a step-by-step method for finding and eliminating waste in a process.
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Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others
Sobel and Panas collect questions that open real conversations, with short stories showing each one used in practice.
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Selling to Zebras
The Kosers argue that most sales effort is wasted on the wrong prospects, and show how to define and pursue your ideal customer profile.
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Sideline C.E.O.
Smith interviews successful coaches and distills how they motivate teams, handle pressure, and build winning cultures.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Covey's principle-centered approach to effectiveness, built on character rather than technique. Still the foundation decades later.
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The Ideal Team Player
Lencioni's model of the three virtues that make a strong team member: humble, hungry, and smart about people.
Read the recommendation →QTNT
Gillis offers a simple formula for quantifying your workplace contributions and communicating that value to employers.
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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Lencioni's fable about why teams fail, starting with absence of trust. A model I have returned to when building leadership teams.
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The SPEED of Trust
Covey makes the case that trust is an economic driver, not a soft skill. This book changed how I approach leadership relationships.
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The Truth About Employee Engagement
Lencioni's fable on the three root causes of job misery: anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurement, and what managers can do about them.
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Traction
Wickman's guide to the Entrepreneurial Operating System: practical tools for running a business on vision, people, data, issues, process, and traction.
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World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs
High's five principles for running an IT organization that contributes to business success, from infrastructure through strategic alignment.
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