On Leadership by John W. Gardner

I think I might consider this book to be my leadership bible. It’s absolutely tremendous. I highlighted so much of this book that you would think it was printed on orange paper. The best recommendation I have for it is the following passage (I can’t say it any better and there are many more passages just like it in the book):

“We cannot design a production line that turns out leaders. But we can offer promising young people opportunities and challenges favorable to the flowering of whatever leadership gifts they may have. Some will become leaders, partly from what we enabled them to learn and from challenges we set before them, partly from the self-knowledge we help them achieve. Beyond that, time and events will teach them. Mistakes and failures will teach them. And with respect to the very greatest leaders, a decent humility should remind us that we do not fully understand – may never fully understand – their emergence.”

Recommended for Officers