Most CEOs will point you to their dog-eared copies of "Good to Great" or whatever management bestseller is making the rounds. Netflix Inc. (NFLX) co-CEO Ted Sarandos? He's reading 122-year-old sea adventure stories.

Why A Storm At Sea Beats A Management Manual

Sarandos, 61, told CNBC's Leaders Playbook on Wednesday that he rarely touches management books. Instead, he turns to fiction to understand leadership, particularly Joseph Conrad's "Typhoon," an 1902 novella about a steamship captain and his crew fighting their way through a violent storm.

"It doesn't sound like a management story on the surface, but I think it's the most powerful leadership story I've ever read," Sarandos said.

He revisits the book repeatedly, finding new insights each time. When he first read it, he thought the captain seemed reckless. Later readings revealed something deeper about leading when you can't see what's coming. "The real leadership test is: How do you manage through that?" he said.

From Fiction To A $100 Million Gamble

Sarandos wasn't just theorizing. About a decade into his tenure at Netflix, he greenlit two seasons of "House of Cards" for $100 million without getting CEO Reed Hastings' approval first. That's the kind of decision that either makes your career or ends it.

"If it succeeds, we could completely transform the business as we know it," he said. Spoiler alert: it succeeded.

Other Leaders Who Skip The Business Section

Sarandos isn't alone in drawing leadership lessons from unconventional sources. Lyft Inc. (LYFT) CEO David Risher credits his time working under Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos for driving Lyft to record performance in 2024. Gates taught him to focus on weaknesses rather than strengths, while Bezos drilled in customer obsession. That mindset shift helped Lyft post record-high annual ride numbers.

Investor Kevin O'Leary adopted a productivity framework inspired by Steve Jobs, centered on completing three critical tasks each day. He says it transformed how he worked and accelerated business growth.

And the late Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman, said in 2017 that the company's success came from ditching short-term, career-driven thinking for an owner's mindset focused on high-quality businesses with lasting advantages.

Turns out the best business lessons sometimes come from places that have nothing to do with business at all.