Leaders Are Readers Q2 2025

Leadership is currently being redefined by how leaders show up for the people around them. This quarter's reading list explores one powerful truth: People don't just want to be productive—they want to matter. As organizations grow more complex and change becomes constant, the most enduring leadership skill might be seeing, valuing, and connecting with others in small but deeply human ways. The books and articles discussed below aren't about optimizing performance for its own sake but about creating environments where people can thrive because they feel seen, needed, and supported.

The works that follow have challenged and grounded me. They're practical, thoughtful, and sometimes uncomfortably honest. They don't just contain good ideas; they offer essential tools for anyone who wants to build something meaningful in today's world of work.

The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance

By Zach Mercurio

If you're connected to me on LinkedIn, you know I am a big fan of Mercurio's work. I featured his first book, The Invisible Leader, on a 2023 list, and I've had the privilege of co-authoring an article with him on the subject of mattering.^Footnote1 It may seem biased to include his new book, The Power of Mattering, but the truth is that I'm selective with my time these days as I raise two young kids. I always say yes to working with Mercurio. Including this book is a nod to how special it is.

Many people feel overlooked, ignored, underappreciated, or even invisible in the modern workplace. Mattering is the experience of feeling significant to and valued by colleagues and co-workers—and adding value to their lives.^Footnote2 People who feel as if they matter are more engaged, motivated, and confident—and they have higher self-worth. On the flip side, those who experience "antimattering" slide into loneliness and acts of withdrawal, including complaining, blaming, gossiping, and generally disengaging.^Footnote3

What I love most about Mercurio's book is that he doesn't stop after detailing the importance of mattering. Instead, he offers clear and practical ways to create a culture of mattering right now.

Two parts of The Power of Mattering stood out for me. First is the "notice, affirm, and need" model.^Footnote4 I've seen the impact when leaders embrace mattering as a core responsibility. The second is about simple actions. "Mattering is created," Mercurio writes, "through small, repeated interactions."^Footnote5 Instead of being a book about changing systems and overhauling values, it's about telling people that you rely on them, showing them that they are an indispensable part of contributing to something larger, telling stories about their impact, and knowing their kids' names.

At times, I've nearly bowed out of talking about leadership entirely because, quite frankly, it's often overused as a pretext for selling books and workshops. Books like The Power of Mattering keep me engaged in the leadership circuit because they remind me that leadership is simply honoring the humanity of the people around us. Mercurio operationalizes that in a way that few others can.

I can't do justice to the incredible depth of the examples in the book, so I encourage you to pick up a copy.

The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work

By Simone Stolzoff

In recent decades, work has shifted from being a means to living well to being the end itself—while living well has become a rare side benefit. I hate this shift. The dangers of the modern approach to work are pervasive.^Footnote6 Yet, few people are brave enough to address the issue head-on. Simone Stolzoff effectively describes how so many of us feel daily.^Footnote7

The bottom line is that we're asking too much of work. I've wanted work to fulfill me as a person, give me a reason to wake up in the morning, and allow me to rest peacefully at night knowing that I mattered that day. Sometimes, work does provide these benefits. Sometimes, it doesn't. That's the point. Work was never designed to be our only source of fulfillment, but individuals and organizations have created a smoke screen to cover the truth.

Whether you are in a formal leadership role or not, the concept of a "good enough" job is powerful. Your job does not have to be perfect and give you meaning in every moment. It can simply be good enough. It can provide you with the resources you need to do the things you love, offer some good times, and bring you deep meaning here and there. But asking it to do all that—all the time—is a recipe for burnout and frustration.

Along the way, Stolzoff discusses the need to define personal values broadly, rethink the purpose of rest, promote time off as a key to thriving, redefine success, and put employment in its rightful place. The message is balanced and thoughtful.

I also love that Stolzoff puts another nail in the coffin of referring to work colleagues as "family." Work is not family, yet organizations and leaders use that term with the excitement of a kid on the last day of school. The truth is that being in full community isn't possible with someone who has the power to fire you. As an alternative, I suggest using the term "high-performing team." You work together toward a common goal with accountability and excellence.

The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness

By Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

A mentor once pointed out that I relied too heavily on the approval of others—a truth that has since shaped how I lead and how I live. Many leaders are probably a lot like me.

Many people got into their leadership roles because, at some point, pleasing others and always doing their best was rewarded. Yet, when applied universally, those same habits can quietly wreak havoc on a person. The Courage to Be Disliked focuses on having the courage to let go of the need for the approval of others and embrace our present self.^Footnote8

Based on the work of Alfred Adler, a student and contemporary of Sigmund Freud, The Courage to Be Disliked takes the form of a conversation between a disgruntled youth who is deciding what to do with his life and a wise philosopher.^Footnote9 The youth is seeking fulfillment to counter the desolation and meaninglessness he feels. In response, the philosopher offers insights into peoples' self-destructive tendencies, such as feeling meaningless because they are fulfilling the narratives they've been told about themselves. The philosopher delves into how people use inferiority as an excuse to not reach their potential, why individuals abandon projects before they even begin, and how they can focus solely on tasks within their control and let go of the need to control others.

The greatest life lie, according to the book, is the belief that someone's past experiences define them or dictate their future.^Footnote10 The philosophy in the book addresses this by emphasizing the importance of living fully in the present moment rather than being constrained by the past or future.^Footnote11

Leadership may seem like an odd context for a book on choosing happiness and letting go of harmful mindsets, but leading is simply the work of being present and caring for humans. To be happy as a leader is to realize that the present moment is where the work is, not in ten-year visions or five-year strategic plans. Those are nice, but they are processes—not leadership.

The best leaders I know have enormous courage to be disliked—not because they don't care what others think, but because they know themselves, are present, and care deeply about the people around them. Plus, they read books like this one not only to help them understand themselves better but to show up more fully for others.

Putting People First: Human-Centered Approaches to Large-Scale Digital Transformations

By Shannon Dunn, Sherri Yerk-Zwickl, Sowmya Shankar, and Barron Koralesky

In recent years, the leadership space has become more "people first." Books, articles, and podcasts push the message that people matter most. Yet, organizations continue to operate as if people are widgets that produce things. Most individual leaders want to put people first, but the systems they operate in are too strongly focused on the opposite direction.

The authors of this article lean into an approach similar to that of Mercurio in The Power of Mattering. They get practical. They echo the power of small moments for creating well-being and caring cultures. I appreciate that this article isn't about the theory of change or caring. Instead, it's about the practice, written by people who live it daily. Each co-author is an acting leader in the higher education community, and the lessons they write about are drawn not only from their years of experience but from the input of nearly two hundred others who attended a session on the topic at a recent conference.

Being a human-centered leader during times of transformation involves honoring the humanity of the people on your team, checking in on how they feel about the change—not just what tasks they've completed—and creating a shared, informal space for people to gather.^Footnote12 The authors also emphasize the need for empathy and support in the face of change because change is hard for everyone.

If you've ever been involved in a transformation and had all the right spreadsheets, meeting agendas, and beautiful Gantt charts, but it still didn't go smoothly, this article is for you. Success has never been about those things; it is about the people.

Closing Thoughts

I stumbled on a "people first" theme this quarter. I admit that I'm biased toward leadership work with this focus because I can't see any other way to be successful in 2025. The pieces featured this quarter aren't only about you as a leader. They are also about the people you serve. Focusing on self-development is just as important as developing others. The days of task management as the sole path to success are behind us. Now, task management is simply a practice of laying the path. Walking the path happens only when people know they matter, have perspective and courage, and are cared for as individuals.

Be curious. Be well.

Notes

1. See Ryan MacTaggart, "Leaders Are Readers: Q2 Reading List," EDUCAUSE Review, June 29, 2023. Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. Zach Mercurio, The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance (Harvard Business Review Press, 2025), 12. Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩
3. Ibid., 1. Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.↩
4. Ibid., 5. Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.↩
5. Ibid. Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.↩
6. Natalie Pearce, "Burnout Is a Workplace Problem, Not a Worker Problem," The Future Kind Collective, April 21, 2021. Jump back to footnote 6 in the text.↩
7. Simone Stolzoff, The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work (Penguin Random House, 2023). I want to send a shout-out to my colleague Judy Lewandowski for recommending this book to me at the perfect time! Jump back to footnote 7 in the text.↩
8. Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Apparently, this book was a TikTok phenomenon in 2024. I missed the boat then, but if you overlooked it as a social media trend, I encourage you to take a deeper look. Jump back to footnote 8 in the text.↩
9. I really appreciated the audio version of this due to its conversational format. Jump back to footnote 9 in the text.↩
10. The greatest life lie was introduced by Adler. Jump back to footnote 10 in the text.↩
11. Kishimi and Koga, The Courage to Be Disliked. Jump back to footnote 11 in the text.↩
12. Shannon Dunn, Sherri Yerk-Zwickl, Sowmya Shankar, and Barron Koralesky, "Putting People First: Human-Centered Approaches to Large-Scale Digital Transformations," EDUCAUSE Review, April 30, 2025. Jump back to footnote 12 in the text.↩

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