The 25 Best Leadership Bloggers

Anyone who has ever tried to lead people will tell you leadership is more like art than science. And as with art, perfecting the craft of leadership requires studying under a master. Of course, an aspiring leader must have a foundation of communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills, but owning the tools and knowing how to use them to maximum effect are two different things. The blogosphere is full of leaders with either outstanding leadership knowledge or strong writing ability, but far fewer have both.

These 25 bloggers earn our endorsement as the best of the best:

1. Dan McCarthy.

   This director at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics can be found blogging at Great Leadership. McCarthy has a conversational style that is easy to read but that does not prevent him from conveying some hard-earned business knowledge for both current and aspiring leaders, from a guy who has clearly been both.

2. Michael McKinney.

   Too often we think of leadership as the sole purview of bosses and CEOs. Michael McKinney and his blog Leadership Now are here to remind you — with articles on ethics, personal development, lessons from Abraham Lincoln, and more — that leadership can be practiced by anyone.

3. John Maxwell.

   With more than 19 million books on leadership sold, his blog needs no other name than John Maxwell on Leadership. He uses the site to bring leaders “timeless and timely” teaching, tell you what he’s reading, and offer his thoughts on leadership today.

4. Bob Burg.

   Fresh off his latest business leadership book entitled “It’s Not About You“, bestselling author and speaker Bob Burg freely shares on his blog the type of insights that politicians, professional athletes, and millions of his readers have been receiving from him for years.

5. Michael Hyatt.

   The tagline for the blog of this author and publishing company chairman is “Intentional leadership.” In addition to helping leaders be thoughtful and purposeful, he also blogs several times a week about productivity, social media, and his personal area of expertise, publishing.

6. Todd Nielsen.

   We appreciate the fact that Nielsen even has a personal mission statement, but especially his pledge to always try to learn new things and better himself. You can enjoy the fruits of his lifelong learning pursuits and his experience as a CEO, COO, president, and VP at his blog, A Slice of Leadership.

7. Wally Bock.

   Experienced manager and author Wally Bock is the voice behind the Three Star Leadership Blog. He believes learning to lead is both a lifelong process and an “apprentice trade” that you learn from people who have led. His blog is designed to teach leaders how to be natural and easy.

8. Dan Rockwell.

   Rockwell’s blog is named after his alter ego, the Leadership Freak. He heads up a nonprofit; nothing freaky there. The only thing that might be considered unusual about him is his self-directive for delivering valuable leadership advice in less than 300 words, a welcome change in a crowd of long-winded bloggers.

9. John Hunter.

   The man behind the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog regularly posts with his takes on the writings on management philosophy pioneer Dr. W. Edwards Deming. But in addition to having good leadership insights to impart, he also writes about psychology, the art of managing people, and process improvement.

10. Dr. Ellen Weber.

    Dr. Weber brings her Ph.D. in education to bear on the topic of leadership, the result being the unique blog Brain Leaders and Learners. She’s helped develop the Multiple Intelligence Teaching Approaches system, a teaching format designed to harness brain power to reach greater potential.

11. Susan Mazza.

    Inspired by a note left behind by her father to honor his memory with acts of kindness, Mazza soon set out to prove the connection between good deeds with good leadership. Random Acts of Leadership is the marriage of the two, where she writes to give people the tools they need for success in work and life.

12. Benjamin Lichtenwalner.

    After witnessing first-hand management practices at Fortune 500 companies based on fear and borrowing from the future, Ben Lichtenwalner discovered the key to long-term success in a business is “servant leadership.” Thus was born The Modern Servant Leader blog, where Lichtenwalner seeks to help leaders understand and adopt the practices for leading by serving.

13. Ed Batista.

    Leaders who need help transitioning into a big change and graduate business students at Stanford who need leadership coaching turn to Ed Batista. Early on in his management career, he discovered the value in coaching for leaders, and he’s been extolling its virtues ever since.

14. Steve Farber.

    Farber recommends treating leadership like an extreme sport, with all the hard work, fear, and exhilaration that comes with it. He’s written three groundbreaking leadership books, but his blog is where you’ll find his interviews with great leaders and his up-to-date takes on issues facing today’s leaders.

15. Tanveer Naseer.

    A scientific background influences Naseer’s unique approach to business coaching. He tries to help people develop their leadership skills by looking at the processes by which organizations work. His informative articles often have an inspiring bent, like “Do You Dare Your Employees to Dream?” and “How Are You Helping Your Employees To Be Your Organization’s Heroes?”

16. Scott Eblin.

    The Next Level is executive coaching expert Scott Eblin’s manual for helping leaders step their business game up. His blog is another way, in addition to speaking and writing, that Eblin shares his invaluable wisdom on leadership based on his and others’ experiences.

17. Gwyn Teatro.

    Teatro believes the quality of leadership at a company has a huge impact on the quality of work produced. However, she acknowledges that while we all have bosses, the person we have to answer to at the end of the day is ourselves. You’re Not the Boss of Me is where she records her practical, interesting thoughts on leadership based on 35 years of experience.

18. Mark Sanborn.

    Leadership guru and bestselling author Mark Sanborn writes from the philosophy that leadership is power with people, not over them. His blogs posts run the gamut of business topics, from brand leadership to global leadership.

19. Mary Jo Asmus.

    This former Fortune 100 exec focuses on the importance of relationships between leaders and subordinates. She’s in her fifth year of blogging from the website for her leadership solutions firm, with articles like the introspection-prompting “Thought-full Thursdays” and “Difficult conversations require your head and your heart.”

20. John Baldoni.

    What makes Baldoni a great blogger is not only his own articles (which frequently appear on Inc.com), but his aggregation of articles collected from around the web. Of course, if you stuck to just the writings of this author of 10 books on leadership, you’d still be doing good for yourself.

21. Terry St. Marie.

    Commonly known as Terry Starbucker (the name of his blog), Terry’s leadership philosophy is grounded in positive thinking, as his e-book “Leadership From a Glass Half-Full” proved. His blog is a great source of information for modern-day leaders.

22. Geoff Snyder.

    For leadership advice applicable to just about all walks of life, written from the heart and out of a love for helping leaders grow, look no further than Geoff Snyder’s blog on leadership development and team collaboration.

23. Nicole De Falco.

    Saying What You Mean is De Falco’s blog that is written with the premise that influential people, not just people with formal authority, are the ones who get things done. The articles do not fail to live up to that interesting premise, making it a blog well worth reading.

24. Ron Edmondson.

    Perhaps an unlikely source of valuable leadership advice, Pastor Edmondson was a business owner for 30 years before joining the ministry. He has a lot of helpful, non-religious insight on subjects rarely mentioned elsewhere, like how to lead people older than you and how to prepare for the time your followers don’t need you anymore.

25. Jim Estill.

    Since 2007, Estill has been writing about using time management principles in leadership on his CEO Blog, Time Leadership. He has produced a wealth of information on the subject based on his experiences on the board at Research in Motion (RIM) and as CEO of a Canadian company.

This article was first published in Online College.