Awesome Leadership

A curated list of the best resources about leadership for executives, managers, and aspiring leaders at every level.

Inspired by awesome lists. Maintained by Rework.

Contents

Articles

Books

  • Good to Great by Jim Collins - Research-based framework for Level 5 leadership and building enduringly great organizations. (classic)
  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni - Foundational model for building trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. (classic)
  • Radical Candor by Kim Scott - How to give feedback that is both caring and direct without being a jerk.
  • Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek - Why great leaders sacrifice themselves for their teams, and how to build that culture.
  • The Journey of Leadership by Hans-Werner Kaas et al. (McKinsey) - McKinsey's CEO leadership program methods, published in 2024, for leading from the inside out.

Videos & Talks

Tools & Software

  • Lattice - People management platform with performance reviews, goals, and 1:1 tools for leadership development.
  • Culture Amp - Employee engagement and leadership effectiveness surveys used by 6,500+ companies.
  • 15Five - Weekly check-in and performance platform built around continuous leadership feedback cycles.
  • Hogan Assessments - Scientifically validated personality assessments used by 75% of Fortune 500 for leader selection and development.
  • BetterUp - AI-powered leadership coaching platform pairing executives with professional coaches.
  • Leapsome - People enablement platform combining performance reviews, learning, and leadership development.
  • Torch - Leadership development platform offering structured coaching and mentoring programs for managers to executives.

Templates & Frameworks

Case Studies & Real-World Examples

  • Microsoft (Satya Nadella) - When Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft was losing relevance — its market cap had been flat for a decade and its internal culture was defined by "stack ranking," where employees competed against each other rather than collaborated. Nadella replaced the competitive culture with a growth mindset framework inspired by Carol Dweck's research, made "learn-it-alls" the standard over "know-it-alls," and publicly modeled vulnerability by acknowledging what he didn't know. Between 2014 and 2024, Microsoft's market cap grew from $300 billion to over $3 trillion — the most dramatic leadership-driven company transformation of the era. Source

  • Google (Project Oxygen) - In 2008, Google's data team set out to prove that managers don't matter — and proved the opposite. Project Oxygen analyzed performance reviews, feedback surveys, and nominations for top manager awards to identify what made the best managers different. The top finding wasn't technical skill — it was psychological safety and coaching. Google used these findings to redesign its manager training program, and teams with highly rated managers subsequently showed 5% higher retention and 10% higher productivity. Source

  • Netflix - Netflix's "Freedom and Responsibility" leadership culture, documented in its famous Culture Deck by Reed Hastings and Patty McCord, became one of the most-shared corporate documents of the 2010s. The core idea was that high-performing adults don't need rules — they need context. Netflix eliminated annual performance reviews, vacation policies, and expense approval processes, replacing them with leader-set context and radical transparency. Netflix's employee NPS scores consistently rank among the highest in Silicon Valley and the company scaled from DVD mail to a $200 billion streaming business under this model. Source

  • PepsiCo (Indra Nooyi) - Indra Nooyi served as PepsiCo's CEO from 2006 to 2018 and built her leadership reputation around what she called "Performance with Purpose" — the idea that a company must deliver financial results and societal good simultaneously. Under her leadership, PepsiCo's revenue grew from $35 billion to $63.5 billion while the company shifted 50% of its portfolio toward healthier products. Nooyi's practice of writing personal letters to the parents of her executive team is now studied in leadership programs as an example of recognition beyond performance. Source

  • Patagonia - Patagonia CEO Yvon Chouinard built a leadership model where mission clarity drove every business decision, including turning down profitable product lines that didn't align with environmental values. The company's employee turnover rate is under 4% — well below the retail industry average of 60% — because people know what they're working toward. Patagonia's 2022 decision to transfer ownership to a trust dedicated to fighting climate change was the most extreme example of values-driven leadership in modern business history. Source

  • Bridgewater Associates (Ray Dalio) - Bridgewater's "radical transparency" leadership model — where all meetings are recorded, all performance feedback is public, and disagreement is not just tolerated but required — produced the world's largest hedge fund with $150 billion in assets under management. The model is polarizing and not universally applicable, but Bridgewater's track record over 40+ years demonstrates that radical honesty, when paired with genuine psychological safety, can sustain high performance at scale. Ray Dalio documented the principles behind this model in his book Principles (2017). Source

Communities & Newsletters

  • YPO - Young Presidents' Organization - Global executive leadership community of 35,000+ CEOs with chapters in 142 countries.
  • Chief Executive Network - Peer advisory groups for C-level leaders focused on strategy, leadership, and business growth.
  • Reboot - Leadership coaching community combining executive coaching, podcasts, and the Reboot Podcast with Jerry Colonna.

Rework Resources

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Contributing

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