15 Books HR Leaders Will Love in 2026

The year ahead brings familiar challenges for HR teams, like tighter talent markets, new AI tools, and employees expecting workplaces that communicate clearly and lead with purpose. With so much shifting at once, it helps to have voices you can return to for a little inspiration. 

This year’s reading list brings together books that do exactly that. From practical hiring frameworks to research-driven insights on decision-making, culture, and AI, these 15 titles offer ideas you can apply immediately. If you’re looking to stay sharp and grounded while navigating the uncertainty of 2026, these are the books worth keeping close. 

2026 HR books to add to your bookshelf

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear 

Why it’s a top book for HR/business /teams:  Atomic Habits distills how tiny, consistent changes compound into big results. For HR leaders and managers, it offers a simple but powerful framework to build better habits around communication, feedback, onboarding, and workplace culture. If you want to shift how your team works (more consistency, less burnout, stronger habits), this book gives you actionable, day-to-day levers. 

About the author:  James Clear is a writer and speaker whose work focuses on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His writing breaks complex behavioral science into simple, practical tools, which makes his guidance helpful for busy leaders seeking to influence culture and long-term performance. 

2. The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek 

Why it’s a top book for HR/leadership/organizational strategy:  As organizations face constant disruption, The Infinite Game offers a mindset shift: from short-term wins to long-term vision and resilience. For HR and business leaders, that means prioritizing sustainable culture, continuous learning, and people-first strategy over quarterly metrics and reactive hiring. 

About the author:  Simon Sinek is a well-known leadership thinker and author whose work often explores purpose, motivation, and organizational behavior. His approachable writing style and emphasis on vision-oriented leadership make his ideas accessible to managers at all levels. 

3. The AI-Driven Leader by Geoff Woods 

Why it’s a top book for HR/business/leadership:  The AI-Driven Leader shows how executives, people ops leaders, and team managers can treat AI as a strategic thought partner. It teaches how to integrate AI into decision-making, talent strategy, and operational workflows so organizations gain speed, clarity, and competitive advantage. 

About the author:  Geoff Woods is the founder of “AI Leadership,” a consulting and coaching organization aimed at helping executives and businesses leverage AI to scale growth, increase performance, and overcome complexity. 

4. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin 

Why it’s a top book for HR/leadership/teams:  Extreme Ownership translates combat-tested leadership principles into practical guidance for any team or organization. Its core message — leaders must own every outcome, good or bad — pushes teams toward clarity, accountability, and performance. In a workplace era where teams are distributed and leadership is diffuse, this book offers a powerful mindset for driving results and building trust.  

About the authors:  Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are former US Navy SEAL officers. They served in some of the most intense combat operations in Iraq as part of SEAL Task Unit Bruiser. After their military careers, they co-founded a leadership consulting firm, applying their battlefield leadership experiences to business and organizational contexts.  

5. The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier 

Why it’s a top book for HR/leadership/teams:  The Coaching Habit gives leaders and managers a simple but powerful toolset to transform how they lead: from directing and advising, to coaching and enabling. By helping people ask better questions rather than defaulting to advice, it fosters autonomy, clarity, and trust. 

About the author: Michael Bungay Stanier is a well-known leadership coach and founder of a global training company focused on helping organizations build coaching-capable cultures. Over the years, he’s coached thousands of managers on how to shift from “telling” to “asking.” 

6. Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart & Randy Street 

Why it’s a top book for HR and recruiting:  This book is a proven, structured hiring system built on data and disciplined interviewing. “Who” shows teams how to reduce hiring mistakes, define outcomes clearly, assess candidates more rigorously, and build long-term talent pipelines. 

About the authors:  Geoff Smart and Randy Street are leadership consultants and founders of ghSMART, a firm specializing in CEO assessment, talent advisory, and organizational leadership research. They’ve spent decades studying hiring patterns across Fortune 500 companies, private equity, and high-growth organizations. 

7. Hiring for Attitude by Mark Murphy 

Why it’s a top book for HR leaders:  This book argues that the number one predictor of success isn’t résumé or experience — it’s mindset. Murphy presents data showing that most hiring failures come from cultural misalignment rather than technical gaps.  

About the author:  Mark Murphy is a leadership researcher, CEO of Leadership IQ, and frequent contributor to Forbes, Bloomberg, and Fast Company. His work examines employee behavior, performance, engagement, and organizational dynamics. 

8. The Talent Fix by Tim Sackett

Why it’s a top book for talent teams:  The Talent Fix offers a blunt, modern look at recruiting realities, from tech and automation to branding and process. Sackett challenges outdated practices and gives recruiting leaders hands-on frameworks to scale hiring, measure quality, operationalize TA, and build credibility with the business. 

About the author:  Tim Sackett is a well-known TA leader, speaker, SHRM influencer, and HR blogger. His work focuses on talent strategy, recruiting optimization, and integrating HR into core business operations. 

9. Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, & Avi Goldfarb 

Why it’s a top AI-for-workforce-strategy book:  This book reframes AI as a cost-reducing prediction tool. It’s valuable for HR and talent leaders who want to use AI in forecasting turnover, matching candidates to roles, and planning workforce needs. It gives organizations a framework for when and where AI makes sense. 

About the authors:  Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb are economists, researchers, and business advisers specializing in innovation, AI, and market behavior. 

10. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein 

Why it’s a top book for HR, learning, and workforce strategy:  “Range” argues that broad curiosity, adaptability, cross-disciplinary thinking, and diverse skill sets outperform narrow specialization. For talent and HR, it’s a lens for hiring and development that values agility, learning capacity, and nonlinear career paths. 

About the author:  David Epstein is a science and investigative journalist who writes on performance, learning, psychology, and education. His work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, ProPublica, and NPR. 

11. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant 

Why it’s a top book for leaders and HR teams:  Grant shows how valuable it is for leaders to pause, reassess, and reconsider long-held assumptions. The book offers clear examples of how rethinking can improve team dynamics and problem-solving, giving HR and people leaders useful tools for navigating change with more insight and less rigidity. 

About the author:  Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, Wharton professor, bestselling author, and recognized voice on workplace psychology, collaboration, motivation, and leadership. 

12. The AI-Savvy Leader by David De Cremer 

Why it’s a top book for HR/leadership/business:  The AI-Savvy Leader offers leaders a human-centered framework for integrating AI into organizations. It helps HR teams and executives think through what AI adoption means for culture, decision-making, and organizational agility. 

About the author:  David De Cremer is a professor and researcher known for his work on leadership, behavioral ethics, and the social implications of emerging technologies. He brings academic rigor and real-world insight to questions of how businesses should adopt and govern AI in a way that centers people and values.

Selections from previous years' HR books lists:

13. Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock 

Why it’s a top HR and leadership book:  Work Rules! blends behavioral science, people analytics, and practical experiments from Google’s People Operations to show how to build an engaged, high-trust workforce. It’s helpful for HR and recruiting leaders who want to create performance systems rooted in fairness and bring data-driven thinking into talent decisions. 

About the author:  Laszlo Bock is the former SVP of People Operations at Google, where he helped shape one of the most well-studied talent cultures in the world. He later co-founded Humu, applying behavioral science “nudges” to help organizations improve performance and workplace experience. 

14. Radical Candor by Kim Scott 

Why it’s a top book for HR, managers, and team culture:  Radical Candor teaches leaders how to give feedback that is both caring and direct. For HR teams and people managers, it provides a framework to reduce avoidance, build trust, and create teams where communication is clear and compassionate rather than guarded or abrasive. 

About the author:  Kim Scott is a former executive at Google and Apple, a leadership advisor for high-growth companies, and co-founder of Radical Candor LLC. She has coached executives at Dropbox, Twitter, Qualtrics, and other major organizations on creating candid, connected workplaces. 

15. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle 

Why it’s a top people-leadership and culture book:  The Culture Code breaks down why some groups thrive. For HR, managers, and hybrid-work leaders, it provides science-supported frameworks to build healthier, more cohesive, and higher performing cultures. 

About the author:  Daniel Coyle is an award-winning author who studies talent, learning psychology, and elite teams — from Pixar and Navy SEALs to sports dynasties and creative collectives.