Leaders Are Readers: Q4 2024 Reading List

The year is coming to an end. It's a time to reflect on the past and set an intention for the future. Great leaders are needed for 2025—not because the year itself is unique but because it isn't. Outstanding leadership has always been and will always be required. The challenges will continue to be complex, the people unique, and the issues significant.

To celebrate the holiday season and the end of 2024, I'd like to share a few of my favorite books. Most of these books are about people who inspire me. I hope they provide the inspiration and guidance you need to meet your leadership goals in the coming year.

The Choice: Embrace the Possible

By Edith Eva Eger

At sixteen, Edith Eva Eger was forced to perform a ballet dance for Josef Mengele. She danced with her eyes closed, emboldened by a passion for art and movement, ending with a dramatic high kick that surprised even her. It was a beautiful moment—so beautiful that it saved her life.

Eger was a prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Mengele was the chief medical officer and had the power to decide who lived and who died. Hours before her forced performance, Mengele had sent Eger's parents to the gas chamber. She danced in the most horrible of places, against her will and with her life on the line.

The Choice traces Eger's incredible journey from childhood to Auschwitz to freedom from the camp and to the United States, where she raised a family, earned a doctorate, and built a life of service.^Footnote1 It is a story of human will—overcoming an unimaginably horrible past and choosing to live fully.

Although this isn't a typical leadership book, every leader would benefit from reading it. Eger encourages readers to take responsibility for their lives, make courageous choices, and overcome personal trauma. Her story shows how challenging and vital it is to move forward. Through her book, Eger teaches leaders about empathy and offers a perspective on what people are capable of—both good and evil.

If nothing else, The Choice is a beautiful story of the human soul and how to nurture it. Leadership is often perceived as something that can only be achieved by thinking more deeply or working harder than everyone else, but at its core, it is the practice of caring for oneself and others.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

By Tracy Kidder

Paul Farmer's story is another story of unwavering human will—not to survive, as in Eger's case, but to confront infectious diseases and health inequities in underserved communities. As a young man, Farmer traveled monthly between Harvard, where he studied, and Haiti, where he dedicated himself to improving health care in some of the world's most impoverished regions.

Farmer co-founded Partners in Health (PIH), a nonprofit organization that provides quality health care to underserved populations. Tracy Kidder's book traces Farmer's journey from Haiti, where he began treating patients with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS using a "whatever-it-takes" approach that challenged bureaucratic limitations and medical conventions. The lessons of Farmer's life center around "mountains beyond mountains"—a metaphor symbolizing endless global health and justice challenges that must be tackled one step at a time.^Footnote2 This book captures his relentless commitment to making a difference despite overwhelming odds and approaching work with decency and humility. His story inspires hope and underscores the work needed to achieve greater global health equity.

Like Eger's book, Mountains Beyond Mountains isn't a leadership book per se. But it might be the ultimate textbook on leading from where you are. Farmer had credentials—a joint MD and PhD in medical anthropology from Harvard—but no formal authority to enact the sweeping changes he brought about. He acted where he could, built evidence, and refused to quit. Leading from where you are isn't about clever tricks and catch phrases; it's a climb that requires tenacity—helping one person at a time until the impact is undeniable.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West

By Stephen E. Ambrose

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose dives deep into the familiar story of Lewis and Clark. It peels back the layers to explore the complexities and leadership challenges Meriwether Lewis faced. Typically condensed to a school lesson about the Louisiana Purchase and a trek across uncharted land, this story, when examined more closely, carries rich insights for any modern leader.

Lewis's leadership journey was nothing short of extraordinary. The situations most leaders struggle with today would pale in comparison to his. He took a group of underqualified, unknown people into unforgiving geographies. He had to prepare to meet and trade with Native American tribes—about which he had only heard rumors—in languages he didn't speak, all while delivering a message that wasn't his own, with no ability to contact those back home. And yet, he did it.

Lewis and Clark were products of their time. They weren't perfect and can be justly criticized when put under the social microscope of 2024. However, the resilience, ingenuity, and grit they displayed along the journey from St. Louis to the Pacific and back are worthy of any leader's attention.

Undaunted Courage brings to light the deep complexities of Lewis's leadership and life. He led with courage, had a direct friendship with the President of the United States, and lived a life of incredible adventure (social media would have loved him). But he also struggled with alcohol addiction, self-doubt, and worry, and he ultimately met with a tragic end.

Practical leadership lessons are abundant in Undaunted Courage. It explores how to assemble a group and turn it into a team, determine when disciplining a team member can serve the greater good (and how fine a line that can be), and work across differences to reach an objective. The book also illustrates the power of creative problem-solving and the importance of knowing when and how to let others lead. Lewis's perseverance in making Clark his equal in the eyes of Thomas Jefferson, their expedition crew, and the American people is an incredible leadership lesson in itself.^Footnote3 Ambrose's storytelling makes this book an insightful and thoroughly enjoyable read, perfect for a holiday break. You're bound to come away with ideas you can apply to your own leadership journey.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

By Cal Newport

You've never experienced burnout before, right? Oh, you have? Welcome to the club. Burnout in the knowledge economy is booming.^Footnote4

If you are looking for a more traditional leadership book as you ponder how you'd like to work in 2025, Slow Productivity by Cal Newport is a great choice. Newport argues that increased levels of burnout can be traced to something we all know is happening but would rather keep quiet about: a gradual shift to a phenomenon Newport refers to as pseudo-productivity, or "the use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort."^Footnote5

Leaders and their teams often fall into the pseudo-productivity trap without realizing it. It's the satisfaction at day's end when the to-do list is cleared, but the difficult project wasn't touched. Or it's assuming a particular team member is excelling because that person is active on email and in chat. If someone looks productive, they must be productive, right? Not necessarily. Making progress on the most important work might actually look like taking a walk outside (solvitur ambulando, as the Latin phrase goes), staring out a window, or, sometimes, doing nothing at all.^Footnote6

Here are a few of Newport's suggestions for avoiding the trap of pseudo-productivity:

• Focus on one project per day. Working on only one thing might seem unrealistic, but it underscores a critical point: we're spread too thinly across too many tasks. If you have a big project, you'll accomplish more by working on it in focused blocks than by squeezing it in between meetings or late-night TV shows. If a project is worth your time, it's worth your focus.
• Hold office hours or solution meetings. Instead of responding to every email and getting in the middle of giant threads, set aside time for office hours or weekly solution meetings. During these meetings, people can bring up the issues they are stuck on and work them out collaboratively.
• Embrace seasonality. It's natural to have periods when you are less productive. Instead of resisting, lean into these seasons as part of a healthy work rhythm.
• Create work cycles for yourself and your team. Consider implementing a six-week "go" cycle for focused work, followed by a two-week "no" cycle for rest or reflection. Creating these work cycles is a way of rejecting the "always-on" work culture.
• Create rituals around your most important work. I recently quit writing at my desk. I work from home and have a nice office setup, but I found it challenging to transition from my daily work tasks to writing in the same space. Now, I take my laptop to a different room to battle the blank page. What ritual could you build for your important work in 2025?

There are plenty of productivity books in the leadership space, but most perpetuate unsustainable habits. Newport's book is not one of those books. Instead, follow his lead and set a leadership goal of producing great things at a manageable pace, not a breakneck one, in 2025. You and your team will be better for it.

Bonus Entry: On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery

By Robert M. Poole

As election energy ramped up in the United States this fall, I found it refreshing to revisit Robert M. Poole's fantastic history of Arlington National Cemetery—a place many have been, but few have studied deeply. The history of this cemetery is not about any one leader, but it includes the stories of many of the nation's heroes and pivotal moments.

Arlington National Cemetery is located in Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. It is the final resting place for soldiers who died on active duty, retired members of the Armed Forces, and certain veterans and family members. It's also home to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded 24/7 by a dedicated unit of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, and the graves of John F. Kennedy and Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son. My wife's grandfather, who served in World War II, rests there too. It is a solemn, awe-inspiring place.

It is also a place that seems to rise above political turmoil. I don't identify anyone who walks the grounds of Arlington as either a Democrat or Republican; everyone is there as an American. This sense of unity reminds me that leadership can be embodied in a place just as much as in a person.

Poole's history is engaging and full of striking facts about the cemetery. For instance, did you know that Arlington House, located in the middle of Arlington National Cemetery, was home to Mary and Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, before it was seized by the U.S. Army to house troops and honor their fallen?^Footnote7 There's something poetic about how the legacy of a place can endure beyond the lives of the people who inhabit it.

On Hallowed Ground reminds us that our history matters. It reorients us to the places and names that have laid the groundwork for today's leaders.

Closing Thoughts

The theme for this quarter is all about inspiration and recentering one's focus. As one year ends and another begins, we can all benefit from extra encouragement to live fully, serve others, and bring hope to the world. It's easy to fall into negativity or victim mentality. It's harder but far more rewarding to seek hope, amplify quiet voices, and lift up what's good. I hope one of these books will help you do just that in 2025.

Be curious. Be well.

Notes

1. Edith Eva Eger, The Choice: Embrace the Impossible (Scribner, 2019). Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains (Random House, 2009). Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩
3. Steven E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (Simon & Schuster, 1997). Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.↩
4. A recent poll from the research think tank Future Forum found that 43 percent of U.S.-based knowledge workers reported feeling burned out. This is particularly prevalent among middle managers. The poll results also revealed that although 96 percent of CEOs believe they are providing enough support for employee well-being, only 69 percent of employees agree with them. See, Fall 2022 Future Forum Pulse (Future Forum, November 2022), 4. Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.↩
5. Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (Portfolio, 2024), 22. Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.↩
6. Solvitur ambulando means "it is solved by walking." It refers to a practical solution to a complex problem. Jump back to footnote 6 in the text.↩
7. Robert M. Poole, On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery (Walker & Company, 2009), 11. Jump back to footnote 7 in the text.↩

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Ryan MacTaggart is Associate Director, Professional Learning, at EDUCAUSE.