Reading List

Chief of Staff of the Air Force

Professional Reading List

book

Leaders Eat Last

by Simon Sinek

I hold Simon Sinek in high regard due to his thoughts on how great leaders inspire others to take action.  As current and future joint leaders, you will succeed or fail based on the culture you instill in your teams.  In my experience, the best leaders make it a priority to ensure the needs of their teams always rise above their own … this book is spot on. 

book

Chief

by Scott H. Dearduff

Our Airmen have been continuously engaged in global combat operations for over 26 years. Chief Dearduff led our warriors in the toughest conditions…exemplifying selfless leadership in the most dire circumstances.  He knows that our men and women serving in our military are the Nation’s treasure, and the leadership lessons you’ll glean from his experiences leading them will benefit you more than you’ll ever know.

book

Team of Teams

by General Stanley McChrystal

General McChrystal is one of our generation’s finest combat commanders and we have a lot to learn from his perspective on leading units in 21st century combat.  He shows that innovation is not limited to the realm of technology or capability—we can, and must, constantly develop new ways of organizing teams to harness the power our Airmen inherently bring to the fight.  Further, we can learn a lot from how he looked at information sharing and data fusion … we need to think about this as we lead and support the joint force in multi-domain combat operations.

book

The Effective Executive

by Peter F. Drucker

We would be sorely remiss if we didn’t look outside of the military for great books on leading teams.  This book does an excellent job of pointing out the simple—and often overlooked—principles of leadership that we must get right when we find ourselves responsible for leading teams of Airmen, joint partners, or coalition forces.  From task prioritization to time management to optimization of team members—this book offers insights that we all need in our leadership tool kit.