They say experience is the best teacher. But why wait until you are “experienced enough”—and probably made a lot of mistakes — when you can learn from the wisdom and experiences of others through books written by or about them? As a leader, books are your most inexpensive resources for learning leadership skills, competencies, relationship and project management, and other skills you need for effective team management.

Want to learn how to make your team a high-functioning, cohesive and result-driven team? Here are five must-read books by amazing authors for you.

1. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Published in 1936, the book is the grandfather of contemporary leadership and management self-help guides. Carnegie uses stories from businesspeople and politicians to explain how to excel at communicating with people and influencing them to work towards achieving a set goal. The principles seem vague at first, but the in-depth explanations show practical steps you can take to implement them. The book is perfect if you want to learn how to develop collaboration and cohesiveness amongst your team members.

2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Through the story of a CEO faced with the challenge of reconstructing a team in shambles, you will understand the workings of a team and obstacles that may threaten its very existence. The book introduces the pyramid of five dysfunctions that impedes a team’s effectiveness and success and also gives practical models that can be used to correct the pyramid of dysfunction. The result of a successful correction is a team with smooth operations and exponential outcomes.

3. HBR’s 10 Must-Read on Managing Yourself by Peter Drucker, Daniel Goleman, and Clayton Christensen

Straight out of Harvard Business Review’s archives, the book is a compendium of ten articles by leading management thought-leaders. It is a definitive guide on organizing a team, strategy, time management, and how you can maximize your competencies as a leader.

4. The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun

Project management is one of the core components of coordinating and managing a team. With his wealth of experience from working projects at Microsoft and Internet Explorer, Berkun explains practical methods to ensure that your projects are implemented successfully and on time. He also explains how to employ mindset-shift, creativity, leadership, and problem-solving to achieve results.

5. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Team Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek

Using military principles, the book compares successful and non-successful teams and explains the factors that affect each type. The author highlights the importance of a people-centric kind of leadership—that the goal of a true leader should be catering to his team. If a company is going to exploit its biggest strength – the people – it must first earn their loyalty and commitment by supporting and respecting them.

While you can learn a great deal from reading books, you cannot implement real change in your team unless you apply the principles you’ve read.