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Agile Leadership Reading List

Agile Leadership empowers teams, fosters innovation, and drives an organisation toward adaptability and success in an ever-changing business landscape. Our Agile leaders reading list is curated to help leaders at all levels develop the mindset, skills, and strategies necessary to lead with agility. Explore key areas such as business agility, leadership, organisational culture, and change management to inspire growth and continuous improvement within your organisation.

Introduction to Business Agility

Business agility goes beyond implementing Agile frameworks—it’s about reshaping the entire organisation to adapt quickly to market changes and customer needs. This section introduces business agility and explores how organisations can become more responsive, innovative, and customer-focused. Learn how to lead teams in building flexibility and resilience in every part of your business.

The 6 Enablers of Business Agility

The 6 Enablers of Business Agility

Karim Harbott

The Age of Agile

Steve Denning

Doing Agile Right

Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, & Steve Berez

The Invincible Company

Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, & Frederic Etiemble

Humanocracy

Gary Hamel & Michele Zanini

Leadership & Management

Agile leadership requires a shift from traditional top-down management styles to one that is collaborative, empowering, and people-centred. This section offers resources on effective leadership and management practices within an Agile context. Explore the mindset of servant leadership, how to create alignment without control, and ways to foster team autonomy and accountability.

Turn The Ship Around

Turn the Ship Around!

L. David Marquet

Leadership agility book

Leadership Agility

Bill Joiner & Stephen Josephs

Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Handbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle

Trillion Dollar Coach

Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg

Leaders Eat Last book

Leaders Eat Last

Simon Sinek

The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results by Stephen Bungay

The Art of Action

Stephen Bungay

The Future of Management

Gary Hamel

Your Brain at Work

David Rock

Management 3.0

Management 3.0

Jurgen Appelo

Organisational Culture

A successful Agile transformation starts with culture. In this section of our Agile Leadership reading list, you’ll find resources on creating and nurturing an Agile culture that encourages transparency, collaboration, and continuous learning. Discover how to lead by example, shape behaviours that support Agile values, and create an environment where experimentation and innovation can thrive.

Competing Values Leadership

Kim S .Cameron, Robert E. Quinn & Jeff DeGraff

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture

Kim S. Cameron & Robert E. Quinn

The Culture Code

Daniel Coyle

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness by Frederic Laloux

Reinventing Organisations

Frederic Laloux & Ken Wilber

Organizational Culture and Leadership

Organizational Culture and Leadership

Edgar Schein

What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture by Ben Horowitz

What You Do Is Who You Are

Ben Horowitz

Organisational Structure

The traditional hierarchical structure can be a barrier to agility. Explore how Agile organisations structure themselves to support cross-functional collaboration, faster decision-making, and scalability. Learn how to break down silos, create more flexible teams, and design structures that enable responsiveness and better alignment with customer needs.

Team of Teams Agile Leader Reading List

Team of Teams

General Stanley McChrystal

Lead and Disrupt

Lead and Disrupt

Charles O’Reilly & Michael Tushman

Reinventing the Organisation

Reinventing the Organization

Arthur Yeung & Dave Ulrich

Large Scale Scrum

Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS

Craig Larman & Bas Vodde

People & Engagement

People are at the heart of any Agile transformation. This section focuses on employee engagement, talent development, and fostering a people-first approach to leadership. Learn how to create a motivating work environment, support team development, and encourage engagement and ownership across the organisation.

Build it The Rebel Playbook

Build It

Glenn Elliot & Debra Corey

Agile People Pia-Maria Thoren

Agile People

Pia-Maria Thoren

Corporate rebels

Corporate Rebels

Joost Minnaar & Pim de Morree

No Rules Rules - Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

No Rules Rules

Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer

First Break All the Rules

First, Break All the Rules

Marcus Buckingham

Drive Dan Pink

Drive

Daniel Pink

Delivering Happiness Zappos

Delivering Happiness

Tony Hsieh

Maverick

Maverick

Ricardo Semler

Governance & Funding

Agile governance and funding practices support faster decision-making, experimentation, and value-driven delivery. This section provides insights into adapting traditional governance and budgeting models to align with Agile principles. Learn how to implement lean governance structures, allocate funding in more flexible ways, and ensure continuous investment in initiatives that deliver the highest value.

Testing business ideas

Testing Business Ideas

David Bland & Alex Osterwalder

The Invincible Company

Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, & Frederic Etiemble

The Lean Product Cycle

The Lean Product Lifecycle

Tendayi Viki, Craig Strong & Sonja Kresojevic

The Lean Startup

The Lean Startup

Eric Ries

Implementing Beyond Budgeting

Implementing Beyond Budgeting

Bjarte Bogsnes

noprojects Reading list

#noprojects

Evan Leybourn & Shane Hastie

Leading the Change

Leading an Agile transformation requires strong leadership skills. Discover how to drive and sustain organisational change effectively, strategies for overcoming resistance, building buy-in, and leading your organisation through the complexity of change. Learn how to be a visionary leader who champions Agile principles and helps others embrace the journey toward business agility.

Start with why Simon Sinek

Start with Why

Simon Sinek

XLR8 Accelerate John P. Kotter

Accelerate

John P Kotter

dual transformation

Dual Transformation

Scott D. Anthony, Clark G. Gilbert, & Mark W. Johnson

This reading list offers an overview of the essential areas Agile leaders should prioritise. For more insights into Agile and Scrum roles, explore our other reading lists, tailored to help you expand your expertise and achieve your objectives.