30 Must-Read Books for Aspiring IT Leaders

Brian P. Watson Avatar

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Looking for some instructive, inspiring books to read? The Society of Information Management has a few suggestions.

Each year, SIM releases a list of must-read books for aspiring IT leaders. The choices, though, might surprise you–and if you’re looking for books on IT, look elsewhere. Instead, SIM’s list offers a mix of top works on leadership, team-building and strategy, along with some classics and new releases.

Why not fill the list with IT books? "At this point in many careers, IT skills per se are not critical success factors," Bob Rouse, a SIM Regional Leadership Forum executive board member told CIO Insight last year

Here’s SIM list for 2009:

1. How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

2. Brain Rules:12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School, by John Medina

3. Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations, by John P. Kotter

4. The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World for the Next 5, 10 and 20 Years, by James Canton

5. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

6. Leadership Passages: The Personal and Professional Transitions That Make or Break a Leader, by David L. Dotlich, James L. Noel and Norman Walker

7. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath

8. Leadership is an Art, by Max DePree

9. Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

10. The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria