First Look: Leadership Books for August 2025

HERE’S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.

Scaling Innovation: How Smart Companies Architect Profitable Growth by Madhavan Ramanujam and Eddie Hartman

The brutal truth: most startups and scale-ups don’t fail because of bad products. They fail because they never figure out how to grow fast―and profitably. Some chase market share at all costs, burning cash on customers who won’t pay enough to sustain the business. Others over-monetize too soon, pushing away the customers they need to reach scale. Still others obsess over customer loyalty, missing larger markets and monetization potential. And then there are those who assume a great product will sell itself, only to realize too late that pricing, packaging, positioning and value selling matter just as much. The true winners take a different approach. They adopt a Profitable Growth Mindset, refusing to choose between market expansion and monetization―instead, they dominate both. Instead of relying on instinct or momentum.

Confident by Choice: The Three Small Decisions That Build Everyday Courage by Juan Bendaña

What if you could summon genuine confidence anytime you need it? Being happier, building better relationships, overcoming fear: the missing link between you and everything you want to achieve is self-confidence. The problem? Confidence is hard to build, and even when we do, it often feels temporary and forced.
After years of research and working with over 250,000 individuals, Juan Bendaña uncovered the four myths about confidence that actually cause and reinforce self-doubt. Confidence is not linked to genetics, extraversion, insecurities, or competence. To combat these myths, Juan Bendaña developed the Confidence Cycle, a repeatable flywheel that will help you gain and sustain confidence in every aspect of life through three key decisions: Decision #1: Micro-Energy, Decision #2: Micro-Courage, Decision #3: Micro-Action

Aware: The Power of Seeing Yourself Clearly by Les Csorba

Great leaders don’t just see the path ahead—they see themselves clearly first; mastering self-awareness is the difference between thriving at the top and blindly leading toward failure. Great leaders aren’t just skilled strategists—they’re deeply self-aware. In Aware, Les Csorba, reveals how identifying blind spots and having the courage to address them can determine the success or failure of a leader and their organization. Drawing from decades of experience as a Partner with Heidrick & Struggles, the worldwide recruiting and leadership consulting firm advising top executives and Fortune 500 corporate boards—and his time serving as Special Assistant to the President in the White House —Les shares how self-awareness, paired with bold action, separates exceptional leaders from those who fall short.

Distancing: How Great Leaders Reframe to Make Better Decisions by L. David Marquet and Michael A. Gillespie

Be yourself. Be fully present. Be in the moment. This is a message we hear constantly. While this may be beneficial some of the time, the biggest obstacle to making wiser decisions that actually drive lasting success is ourselves. Being fully immersed in our own limited point of view biases our decisions toward defending our previous actions and maintaining our self-image. We need to exit our me-here-and-now self and get an outside perspective that sees us and the situation we are in objectively. We need a coach. This book shows us how to become our own coach by using a mental technique called psychological distancing.

Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know by Angus Fletcher

Tap into your hidden intelligence and transform your life. How are some people so much smarter than the rest of us? Where do visionary creatives and savvy decision-makers like Vincent van Gogh, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Maya Angelou, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Wayne Gretzky, Warren Buffett, and William Shakespeare get their extraordinary mental abilities? In 2021, researchers at Ohio State’s Project Narrative, renowned for collaborations with NASA, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley, announced they had the answer. They named it Primal Intelligence. And they published scientific proof that Primal Intelligence was impossible for computers—but could be strengthened in humans. Intrigued, U.S. Army Special Operations developed Primal training for its most classified units. The Army then authorized trials on civilian entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, managers, salesforces, coaches, teachers, investors, and NFL players. Their leadership and innovation improved significantly. They coped better with change and uncertainty. They experienced less anger and anxiety. Finally, the Army provided Primal training to college and K-12 classrooms. It produced substantial effects in students as young as eight.

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* * *“You can’t think well without writing well, and you can’t write well without reading well. And I mean that last “well” in both senses. You have to be good at reading, and read good things.”

— Paul Graham, Y Combinator co-founder

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