6 Books That Can Revolutionize Your Thinking in 2024

Got a little downtime in the next few weeks? It could be the perfect time to do some deep thinking about your business—away from the day to day grind of people, customers, orders, and operations—time to think and work ON the business for a change.

Team Sauce is doing the same. And this past year, we identified some key resources that rocked our world and helped us level up our business. Take a look at our list below and see if you recognize any of these issues—everything from accountability to candor. Grab a quiet corner and pick up one of these game-changing business books that we have read, implemented, and given a big thumbs up—from all of us here at Team Sauce!

6 Powerful Books That Will Challenge You in 2024

6. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Why we love it:

• “In most every organization, the struggle of ‘ownership’ is a persistent, yet intangible presence. We try to solve the ownership and responsibility challenge by holding people accountable without really grasping what that means with any certainty. Does it really just boil down to incentives or firing people? Enter the wisdom in Extreme Ownership—lessons from badass Navy Seal team leaders about what it really means to delegate, trust, and be accountable within and to your team. Everyone on your team should read and discuss how to embrace and apply these insights to build a high performing team that lives and breathes ownership and accountability.” 
  -Shawn Karol Sandy, Sauce Agency Chief Revenue Officer
  
  
• “As a leader, when the people on your team aren’t performing the way you need them to, it is ultimately your responsibility to fix that. Sometimes that means coaching them through to peak performance but other times it means accepting that they are not going to be able to improve to the performance level needed for the team as a whole to succeed. In a business, this means letting this person go and finding someone who is able to perform in the role so that the team can succeed. This is a hard learned lesson, especially when you truly care about the people on your team, but at the end of the day, as the business leader it’s up to you to take extreme ownership of the situation to do what’s best for the business as a whole. In short, this book is great because it allows you to process through and see that as a business owner, the buck stops with you; so, if things aren’t going the way you need them to, you have to make those hard decisions for the sake of the whole.” 
  -Kim Garmon Hummel, Sauce Agency Chief Growth Guide

Get your copy of Extreme Ownership here

5. Atomic Habits by James Clear

Why we love it:

• “If you want to form a new habit, you’ll have to do the thing you want to do multiple times in a row BUT what happens when you miss an instance of reinforcing your new habit? Well, if you have ADHD and perfectionist tendencies like me, you might tell yourself you’ve failed and let that feeling win out. Until I read this book, that’s exactly what I did, but to paraphrase James Clear’s words– if you miss once that’s okay, you’re human but if you miss twice, you’ve just started a new habit of not doing the thing you set out to make a new habit of doing; so, don’t miss twice and you’ll be on your way to making and reinforcing those good habits!”
  -Kim Garmon Hummel, Sauce Agency Chief Growth Guide

• “I’ve listened to this at least 3 times and every time, I come away with another nugget to apply to changing my habits—meaning, building better habits, and ditching negative ones. The key to changing your life is recognizing the repeated actions that either contribute to your success, health, wealth, joy, relationships…or detract from them. Atomic Habits gives you practical tools to be able to wrangle your habits and change your life!” 
  -Shawn Karol Sandy, Sauce Agency Chief Revenue Officer

Get your copy of Atomic Habits here

4. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Why we love it:

• “What makes a daring leader? Brené Brown points to vulnerability and empathy as key elements in effective leadership. Weaving stories of humanity and empathy into her research, she declares emphatically that embracing vulnerability is not a sign of weakness—it’s a willingness to admit when answers are not clear. I love that this book provides actionable strategies for building trust, resilience, and collaboration within teams. It’s a book I return to again and again—and one that we reference often when we need to ‘rumble’ or remember to live BIG—which means leading with boundaries, integrity, and generosity.”
  -Kim Garmon Hummel, Sauce Agency Chief Growth Guide

Get your copy of Dare to Lead here

3. The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni

Why we love it:

• “If you’ve found yourself mentally drained and exhausted at the end of your work day, chances are, you’re spending an abundance of time outside your particular zone of working genius. I was questioning why I was so drained at work this year—chalking it up to merging two businesses and flexing new process muscles, but when I read Patrick Lencioni’s book—told in a relatable fable—and our team took the Working Genius assessments, the lightbulb lit up. Out of necessity, I’ve been spending the bulk of my time in my highest frustration zones. 
  After we reviewed our team’s individual results, we were able to work towards strategies and alignments to make sure each individual was able to perform their role within their working genius type and limit the amount of brain drain and emotional burnout that comes from working in your competency and frustration zones. It’s a game changer when you understand the individuals on your team, their performance, and the dynamic of your team as a whole.” 
  -Shawn Karol Sandy, Sauce Agency Chief Revenue Officer
  
  
• “In full vulnerability, I’ll share that leading a team is more than I anticipated. We’ve used several types of assessments—DISC, Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, Strengths tests, etc.—but The 6 Types of Working Genius is different. It’s more actionable. Everyone has parts of their job that energize them and parts that drain them. Understanding the working genius types for Team Sauce has allowed me to be a better leader because I’m able to manage my own expectations of a person’s ability to execute on a particular task or assignment based on their genius type. So, if I assign a task to invent something new to a team member whose frustration is invention, I know to expect this task to take longer and be more draining to that person than if their genius type was actually invention. If you haven’t read this book yet, that probably sounds like a foreign language; so, go read it and know that you will be glad you did!” 
  -Kim Garmon Hummel, Sauce Agency Chief Growth Guide

Get your copy of The 6 Types of Working Genius here

2.  Radical Candor by Kim Scott

• “My favorite takeaway is that great leaders don't care about being right, they care about getting it right. And that means it's everyone's responsibility to ensure the ones calling the shots have the information they need to make the right call. In order to make that happen, everyone on the team must feel supported and empowered to share ideas, opinions, and information, even (and perhaps especially) when they contradict a leader's idea or plan. If you see something, say something - and know that information is welcome." 
  -Ashley Burgess, Sauce Agency Operations 
  
  
• “It can be difficult to critique others and help them process the implications of the feedback but as a leader in business, it’s the job. When you don’t offer feedback because you don’t want to hurt the person’s feelings, you are actually setting them and yourself up for failure. What’s worse is that you are robbing the person—who you are supposed to be leading—of an opportunity for personal and professional growth. So, even though it can be uncomfortable at first to “say the hard stuff”, it’s some of the most important work a leader is responsible for. I’ll also add that I started reading this book before reading Dare to Lead by Brené Brown and couldn’t get into it. I circled back to it after reading Dare to Lead and it was just the right message at the right time.”
  -Kim Garmon Hummel, Sauce Agency Chief Growth Guide

Get your copy of Radical Candor here

1. Think Again by Adam Grant

Why we love it:

• “We humble humans are biologically programmed to hold on to our beliefs because they reinforce what we’ve learned to be true about ourselves and the world around us. Ideas, people, or thoughts that challenge what we have held onto so tightly are scary. Learning how to unlearn and rethink our position or beliefs takes deliberate and intentional effort. Adam Grant gives you a playbook here in Think Again to recognize our blind spots, embrace continuous learning, and effectively enlist others. It reinforces the value of adaptability, openness to change, and a growth mindset—all crucial elements for success in business, relationships, and life.”
  -Shawn Karol Sandy, Sauce Agency Chief Revenue Officer

Get your copy of Think Again here

Got a new year's resolution to crack open more books? Use this list as a launch pad to create dynamic change in your organization!