First Look: Leadership Books for July 2026

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in July 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.

The Power of Pull: What You Need to Know About Customer Demand to Build a Successful Startup (and Why Most Founders Get It Wrong) by Rob Snyder

Rob Snyder followed all the traditional advice for launching a startup—he did his research, ran experiments, raised millions in venture capital—but his company struggled to get off the ground. In The Power of Pull, Snyder strips entrepreneurship down to one counterintuitive principle: Customer demand is all that matters. When entrepreneurs find real demand, they stop pushing their product onto an indifferent market, and instead customers pull the product out of the entrepreneur’s hands. Yet most founders misunderstand what demand is and how it works. With examples from early-stage founders, this book shows how to find real demand and create a fast-growing business.

All the Difference. Six Leadership Actions to Bridge Perspectives, Strengthen Teams, and Create Value by Susan MacKenty Brady, Stuart D. Kliman, and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Leslie C. Smith

Look around your team. You see people with different communication styles, perspectives, cultural norms, and capabilities. These differences are expressed in all kinds of ways—a casual gesture in a meeting, a colleague's opinion on a current event, an intense work style—and can often lead to friction, even conflict. You try to manage around them, but what if these differences are the key to your team's success? In All the Difference, the authors argue that leaders must shift their view: difference is not just noise to tolerate—it's the raw material for creating value. When difference isn't understood or acknowledged, it breeds disconnection, saps performance, and undermines your team's potential. What's needed is a leadership strategy for turning human difference into your organization's greatest strength.

The Why Not Advantage: How Small Probabilities Create Outsized Outcomes by Sanjay Manandhar

We are surrounded by data meant to ground us in reality: Nine out of ten start-ups fail. Most career pivots stall. High-stakes dreams are for the lucky few. But as entrepreneur and technologist Sanjay Manandhar reveals, these numbers describe groups, not individuals-they are descriptive of the past, not prescriptive of your future. The decisions that matter most-a career pivot, a startup, a long-shot opportunity-are not repeated trials. They happen once. And in those moments, your subjective variables are the ones that matter most. The Why Not Advantage introduces a practical framework to help you rethink risk, challenge assumptions, and act with intention-even when the odds seem against you.

The Price of Becoming: The Compounding Practices of High Performance by Ryan Hawk

Ambitious people know what they want to do and where they want to go, but they aren’t sure how to get there. Abstract advice feels good but ultimately changes nothing. Only concrete action can change habits, which in turn changes lives. The Price of Becoming is a clear guide with instructions for overcoming complacency, mastering communication, and making better decisions under pressure. Ryan Hawk draws from over 700 interviews with some of the world’s leading experts, leaders, thinkers, movers, and doers, to answer one powerful question: “What can I do today to build a better me?” Ryan distills their numerous insights, data, and direct personal experiences into a practical, actionable framework he divides into three sections: Learn—Fuel Your Intake Engine. Work—Take Action. Lead—Teach Others

The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza by Rick Rosenfield

The California Pizza Kitchen Story is a candid business memoir that traces the unlikely journey from federal courtrooms to the creation of one of the most influential brands in modern casual dining. More than a growth story, this book reveals the human realities of entrepreneurship: partnership dynamics, culture under pressure, betrayal and resilience, and the constant tension between creativity and control. Central to CPK’s success was the deliberate creation of a people-first culture, embodied in the ROCK values—Respect, Opportunity, Communication, and Kindness—and the belief that culture, not product alone, drives enduring success. Written in a direct, personal voice, The California Pizza Kitchen Story is both a memoir and a practical guide, offering lessons in leadership, reinvention, and how vision and values can turn an unconventional idea into a lasting brand.

For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:13 AM
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