With the dynamics of the modern workplace constantly in flux, today’s business leader needs to be more agile and aware than ever. The following books are designed to help senior managers navigate change
Following on from our tech must-reads for the modern business leader, Business 4.0 has compiled a list of essential books addressing the strategic, cultural, and psychological side of senior management. From improving communication among colleagues, to understanding how our minds really work, the following books will help you tackle tough decision-making with greater confidence.
Now We’re Talking: How to Discuss What Really Matters by Sarah Rozenthuler
If you’re the type of person that dreads awkward conversations about internal politics, conflict within your team, performance reviews or redundancies, this book is perfect for you.
Research suggests that 70% of managers avoid having difficult conversations, and this not only impacts performance, decision-making, engagement and collaboration, but also drains your energy and enjoyment of your job on a personal level.
“The book will help you to overcome the challenges of difficult conversations”
This new book by Chartered Psychologist, Sarah Rozenthuler, is a finalist in the 2025 Business Book Awards. It will help you to overcome the challenges of difficult conversations and use ‘authentic dialogue’ tools so you can move from breakdown to breakthrough. Read it to learn how to:
- Use the Four Secrets so you can better tackle the conversations you dread most
- ‘Find your ground’ and prepare to have a difficult conversation
- ‘Build a bridge’ and create rapport
- ‘Read the room’ and intervene effectively
- ‘Hold space’ and navigate conflict
The Power Trap: How Leadership Changes People, and What to Do About It by Nik Kinley
We have a messed-up relationship with power. While power is an essential part of every leadership role, it is also a toxic partner that changes everyone who holds it. And often, in ways that make being a good leader much harder. In The Power Trap, author Nik Kinley reveals what power does to people, and how it both affects them as leaders and the people they lead. Incorporating the latest neuroscience, the book offers clear lessons for how to successfully manage power.
“Nik Kinley book provides a plan for how we can have a healthier relationship with power”
Ultimately, this book provides a plan for how we can have a healthier relationship with power, so that as individuals we can be better leaders, and as organisations and societies we can be better led. The book includes:
- Lessons on successfully handing power
- How to ensure that we’re giving people to people who are able to thrive with it
- Ways to identify people who are at risk of falling to power’s dark side
Strategy and Leadership as Service: How the Access Economy Meets the C-Suite by Sara Daw
Sara Daw has published the first research on how the access economy has created a new way of working for the C-Suite in her book Strategy and Leadership as Service – How the Access Economy Meets the C-Suite. It presents a practical, alternative vision of the future of work for senior executives that is being globally adopted by businesses.
Fractional leaders offer an alternative, working in traditionally full-time C-Suite roles, but on a flexible and affordable basis. They’re able to help businesses access the specialised skills needed to grow, which might have been unobtainable in the traditional C-Suite way of working.
“Readers will discover how to build work cultures rooted in authenticity and resilience”
Sara is Global CEO of The CFO Centre and The Liberti Group, the world’s largest network of fractional leaders. She has also been included in the E2E Female 100 Track in 2025, which recognises the fastest female-led businesses in the UK. The book includes:
- Why leaders are moving to the fractional leadership model
- What is key to making fractional partnerships a success
- Why the access-economy model of leadership is booming now
Flow Leadership: Unleash the Power of People, Purpose, and Performance by Gaelle Devins
Flow Leadership, authored by Gaëlle Devins, Chief Customer Officer & Member of the Executive Board at Breitling,offers a much-needed solution to plummeting global employee engagement rates. In the book, Devins presents a radical human-first approach to leadership built on the research-backed 3P Assessment Model, emphasising the three essential elements of all successful teams: People, Purpose and Performance.
Readers will discover how to build work cultures rooted in authenticity and resilience by putting the people firmly back at the heart of all they do – and, through this, attract and retain top talent, stand out from the competition, and supercharge the productivity of their teams.
“Flow Leadership is an uplifting and fresh take on how to lead in the modern world of work”
Offering a highly practical framework for how leaders can apply the power of flow at work, which can be implemented by anyone regardless of seniority level, Flow Leadership is an uplifting and fresh take on how to lead in the modern world of work.
Make Your Brain Work: Perform at a Higher Level by Amy Brann
Make Your Brain Work, written by leading neuroscience expert Amy Brann, shines a much-needed light on how our mind really works, and how we can better tap into its incredible potential to function at the top of our game, create lasting change and lead happier, more productive lives.
The book provides a powerful roadmap to gain maximum impact from minimum effort, helping us to excel at work, adopt life-changing positive habits that stick, and leave stress, anxiety and overwhelm in the past.
“Amy Brann provides a powerful roadmap to gain maximum impact from minimum effort”
Packed with evidence-based insights, Make Your Brain Work distils the latest key findings in modern neuroscience into actionable habits, techniques and strategies to better harness our most powerful – and misunderstood – organ. Readers will learn how to:
- Improve memory, learning and retention capacity
- Build incredible focus
- Develop resilience
- Foster creativity
- Beat stress and overwhelm
- Motivate both themselves and their colleagues
- Unlock their full potential
The Authentic Organization: How to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Gina Battye
Studies suggest that when people don’t feel safe at work it impacts their performance, their wellbeing, and ultimately often makes them leave the organisation. But safety goes far beyond the physical environment of the workplace, and more often it is a lack of ‘psychological safety’ that has a less visible but farther-reaching impact.
“Learn how to create an environment where everyone feels safe to bring their authentic selves to work”
Written by Gina Battye, founder of The Psychological Safety Institute, this book is a practical guide to help you create a working environment where all individuals can feel safe to bring their whole authentic selves to work. It is equally relevant to leaders, managers and HR professionals, and outlines steps to take to cultivate an inclusive and forward-thinking workplace where talent can really thrive. Read it to discover how to:
- Measure how psychologically safe your workplace really is
- Bring your authentic self to work
- Navigate workplace interactions and conflicts
- Create a highly conducive environment for teamwork, collaboration and innovation