Leadership & Other Soft Skills

Most people can use skills in leadership, teamwork, management, effective communication in their work and personal lives. This guide offers some resources for improving those skills.

Many academic disciplines explore aspects of all of these topics. But this guide's purpose is not to introduce you to the sociology of professions, cognitive psychology, organizational behavior, sociolinguistics, or other areas of study (interesting and important as those fields are). Instead, the books and other resources below are aimed at people who want to develop their own skills. Practical, not scholarly.

Most of the books are ebooks available through the University Libraries. A few are print books in the Gallagher Law Library.

In addition to books, there’s also information about LinkedIn Learning, a platform with thousands of video lessons on topics as varied as job-hunting and programming. (See the Varied Skills page, below.

To recommend other works for the guide, please send a note to lawref[at]uw.edu.

Graphic:

Poster promoting Federal Adult Schools by Sam Braun, for Federal Art Project, Ohio, 1937. Source: Library of Congress