The surprising key to motivation: 5 top books for leaders and managers

Do you understand what motivates people to do a great job? Daniel Pink says you’re probably wrong. 

Welcome to the modern world of leadership and management, where you’ve got to consider: if you have a growth mindset; whether your organisation is healthy; how to delegate properly; and the deceptively simple question of why your business exists. But help is at hand - in the form of these five excellent books. 

We love a bit of lifelong learning at FreeAgent, so we chatted to Mark Fraser, our Senior Learning & Development Consultant, about his favourite books for businesses and team leaders. “I think,” he says, “there’s always something you can pick up from any book. It doesn’t just have to be about leadership, a lot of the learnings are really easily transferable.”

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

This little book is all about motivation. “We used to understand motivation as only extrinsic or intrinsic,” says Mark. “But Pink says that way to think about motivation is dead. Long live what he calls Motivation 2.0.” 

The book distills motivation into three qualities: autonomy, mastery and purpose. “So any time you want someone to be really motivated to do something, you need to include opportunities for people to have their own input; to pursue new skills, knowledge and experiences; and to do work that has some sort of function to wider society.”

Mark recommends this book because “it’s an incredibly easy read. You could probably complete it within a week, reading like half an hour each morning. Dan Pink’s got a good written style that doesn’t feel too academic, it feels like you’re having a normal conversation.”

Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck

Mindset not only contains great leadership advice, it can also be helpful for your personal development. 

“Sometimes we can hold really limiting beliefs about ourselves,” says Mark. “Dweck defines this as a ‘fixed mindset’, where you might attribute a lot of your success in life to things like good luck, good timing or the natural gifts you possess. Typically, people with a fixed mindset will avoid challenges, play it safe, or maybe give up easily when they’re faced with an obstacle.” 

Dweck advocates for a “growth mindset” - based on the belief that all abilities and knowledge can be developed through hard work and consistency. “This really leads people to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth, try new things, and - to tie it back to Pink - to see effort as a path towards mastery,” says Mark. 

“Life would be very boring if we were stuck in easy mode all the time. Sometimes you’ve got to up the difficulty level to make it fun.”

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek cemented himself as a household name in business strategy with his 2009 TED Talk. And for good reason! “The TED talk is going to really grab your attention,” says Mark. “If you like the TED talk, keep going, dive further in. There’s a lot more examples in the book, and there are practical steps where Sinek talks about how to apply Start With Why in practice.”

Most companies, Sinek says, structure their marketing by first asking ‘what do we do’, then expanding to ‘how do we do it’ and eventually (but not always) ‘why do we do it’. That - he argues - is exactly the wrong way round. We should instead communicate from why to how to what.

Sinek points to Apple as an example of a company doing it right. “They start with ‘we believe in challenging the status quo and thinking differently’ (the why) and then ‘we do this by designing really sleek and beautifully-designed products’ (the how) but ‘we just happen to make computers’ (the what). It helps people in a business connect to what is actually being done,” says Mark.

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni

“I would highly recommend this book to any small business owner looking to create clarity within a small team, bolster responsibility and accountability, and focus on results,” Mark says. Lencioni talks about how business owners can form a “healthy organisation”. He recommends following four disciplines to achieve this: build a cohesive team; create clarity; overcommunicate clarity; and reinforce clarity. 

“I think one of the biggest takeaways for me is that it’s not enough to tell someone once. There’s a whole host of information competing for attention in people’s brains every single day. You can’t tell people the company strategy for the year and expect everybody to understand it. It’s important to keep your communication regular.”

Coaching for Performance: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership by John Whitmore

“Delegation is one thing I’ve seen managers and leaders struggle with,” Mark says. “That makes sense - it’s a loss leader. If you do it yourself, it’ll take five minutes. If you train someone else to do it, it’ll take 30 minutes - but in future instances, it’ll take them five and you’ll save those five minutes each month. So you need to trust yourself to take the initial hit and trust that the other person will develop their skills.” 

Whitmore helps you take on a coaching mindset. Rather than telling your direct reports what to do, you might ask a series of questions to help them find the solution for themselves. He uses the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options and Will) to help people create the plan they need. 

It’s been a gamechanger for Mark. “Now, if you come and ask me a question, I’ll probably say ‘that’s interesting, tell me what you think about that question first’. It’s even permeated my relationships outside of work.”

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