Essentialism
– Greg McKeown
Personal Development, Professional Development
Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.
Good to Great
– Jim Collins
Business, Professional Development
How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? Are there those that convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? If so, what are the distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
Over five years, Jim Collins and his research team have analyzed the histories of 28 companies, discovering why some companies make the leap and others don’t.
The Effective Executive
– Peter F. Drucker
Leadership Development
The measure of the executive, Drucker reminds us, is the ability to “get the right things done”. This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results.
Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can – and must – be mastered.
Extreme Ownership
– Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Leadership Development
Since it’s release in October 2015, Extreme Ownership has revolutionized leadership development and set a new standard for literature on the subject. Required listening for many of the most successful organizations, it has become an integral part of the official leadership training programs for scores of business teams, military units, and first responders. Detailing the mindset and principles that enable SEAL units to accomplish the most difficult combat missions, Extreme Ownership demonstrates how to apply them to any team or organization, in any leadership environment.
The Art of War
– Sun Tzu
Personal Development, Professional Development
The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy. It has had an immence influence on eastern military thinking, business tactics and beyond. Sun Tzu suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that particular environment. He thought that strategy was not just planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. He Strongly believed that planning works in a controlled environment but in a changing environment competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations. Widely regarded as one of the most important books ever to have emanated from the Eastern civilization, The Art of War is a must read for any business enthusiast or strategist.
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader
– Herminia Ibarra
Leadership Development
You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you’re busy executing on today’s demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership skills, but it’s easy to let immediate problems and old mindsets get in the way. Leadership and development expert Herminia Ibarra shows how managers and executives at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves.
Start with Why
– Simon Sinek
Leadership Development
Start with Why shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way – and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with why.
Lead like a Women
– Deborah Smith Pegues
Leadership Development
In Lead like a Woman, former Fortune 500 executive Deborah Smith Pegues shows that your uniquely female qualities can position you for success – if you know how to use them. She’ll teach you to embrace 12 traits that can help you excel as a leader, and she’ll also help you eliminate 12 tendencies that could be hindering your progress.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
– Stephen R. Covey
Personal Development, Professional Development
This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen R. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity – principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
– Patrick Lencioni
Leadership Development, Professional Development
Lencioni offers explicit instructions for overcoming the human behavioral tendencies that he says corrupt teams (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results). Succinct yet sympathetic, this guide will be a boon for those struggling with the inherent difficulties of leading a group.
Blue Ocean Strategy
– W. Chan Kim
Business, Innovation
Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating “blue oceans” – untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any organization can use to create and capture their own blue oceans.
The Serving Leader
– Kenneth Jennings and John Stahl-Wert
Leadership Development
On one level this is the most practical guide available to implementing serving leadership; on a deeper level, it is a book about the personal journey of growth that real leadership requires. Great organizations are great because they’re filled with people who freely choose to do their very best. It’s a maddeningly simple concept, yet it’s stunningly hard to execute. Jennings and Stahl-Wert show leaders how to earn that kind of commitment.
Zero to One
– Peter Theil
Innovation
Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.
Start
– Jon Acuff
Personal Development
There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives listeners practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.
A Life of Excellence
– Richard E. Simmons
Personal Development
A Life of Excellence, is a short, insightful book about how to live more effectively and wisely in the most important areas of life. Richard E. Simmons, III confronts the question, “Why is there such a gap between the life I have aspired to and dreamed of, and the life I am actually living now?”. Simmons says “My hope is to help you dramatically shrink that gap”.
Building a StoryBrand
– Donald Miller
Business
Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.
Overcome and Lead
– Anne Beiler
Leadership Development
Overcome and Lead recounts the powerful stories and essential lessons learned from Anne Beiler’s time as the founder of Auntie Anne’s(R), the world’s largest pretzel franchise. As a former Amish girl with an eighth-grade education, Anne had many obstacles to overcome as she transformed into one of the first female founders of an international franchise-the greatest obstacle, however, was herself.
Failing Forward
– John C. Maxwell
Personal Development
The major difference between achieving people and average people is their perception of and response to failure. John C. Maxwell takes a closer look at failure – and reveals that the secret of moving beyond failure is to use it as a lesson and a stepping-stone. He covers the top reasons people fail and shows how to master fear instead of being mastered by it. Listeners will discover that positive benefits can accompany negative experiences – if you have the right attitude.
Designing Your Life
– Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Personal Development
In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create lives that are both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of whom or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.
Integrity
– Dr. Henry Cloud
Personal Development
In Integrity, Dr. Cloud explores the six qualities of character that define integrity. He uses stories from well-known business leaders like Michael Dell and sports figures like Tiger Woods to illustrate each of these qualities. He shows us how people with integrity: are able to connect with others and build trust, are oriented toward reality, finish well, embrace the negative, are oriented toward increase, have an understanding of the transcendent.
Dare to Serve
– Cheryl Bachelder
Leadership Development
When Bachelder was named CEO of Popeyes in 2007, the stock price had slipped from $34 in 2002 to $13. The brand was stagnant, the team was discouraged, and the franchisees were just plain angry. Nine years later, restaurant sales were up 45 percent, restaurant profits had doubled, and the stock price was over $61. Servant leadership is sometimes derided as soft or ineffective, but this book confirms that challenging people to reach a daring destination, while treating them with dignity, creates the conditions for superior performance.
Shoe Dog
– Phil Knight
Business and Innovation
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.
Emotional Intelligence
– Daniel Goleman
Personal Development
Emotional Intelligence provides the evidence for what many successful people already know: being smart isn’t just a matter of mastering facts; it’s a matter of mastering your own emotions and understanding the emotions of the people around you.
#GIRLBOSS
– Sophie Amorusa
Leadership Development
A #GIRLBOSS takes her life seriously without taking herself too seriously. She takes chances and takes responsibility on her own terms. She knows when to throw punches and when to roll with them. When to button up and when to let her freak flag fly. As Sophia writes, “I have three pieces of advice I want you to remember: Don’t ever grow up. Don’t become a bore. Don’t let The Man get to you. OK? Cool. Then let’s do this.”
How to Win Friends and Influence People
– Dale Carnegie
Personal Development
Learn:
- The six ways to make people like you
- The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking
- The nine ways to change people without arousing resentmentAnd much, much more!There is room at the top, when you know…How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Dare to Lead
– Brene Brown
Leadership Development
Brené Brown has taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong, and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers, and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead.
The Innovator’s Dilemna
– Clayton Christensen
Innovation
His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic best seller – one of the most influential business books of all time – innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right – yet still lose market leadership. Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. No matter the industry, he says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices. Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, The Innovator’s Dilemma gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.
Built to Sell
– John Warrilow
Business and Innovation
A business parable about how to create a start-up that won’t trap you when you want to sell it. According to John Warrillow, the number one mistake entrepreneurs make is to build a business that relies too heavily on them. Thus, when the time comes to sell, buyers aren’t confident that the company-even if it’s profitable-can stand on its own.
Pursue three criteria to make your business sellable:
- Teachable: focus on products and services that you can teach employees to deliver.
- Valuable: avoid price wars by specializing in doing one thing better than anyone else.
- Repeatable: generate recurring revenue by engineering products that customers have to repurchase often.
21 Days to a Big Idea
– Bryan Mattimore
Innovation
In 21 Days to a Big Idea: Creating Breakthrough Business Concepts, Mattimore takes readers through a disciplined creative process to create original and practical new business concepts. By investing less than an hour a day for twenty-one days, you will: 1) learn a new toolkit of creative thinking strategies and problem-solving techniques that can be used for solving a wide variety of both personal and professional challenges, and 2) generate more than a dozen new concepts from which to choose the highest potential/winning idea for a new start-up.
Drive
– Daniel Pink
Leadership, Personal, Professional Development, and Innovation
Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money – the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink. In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction – at work, at school, and at home – is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.
Lean In
– Sheryl Sandberg
Leadership Development
In Lean In, Sandberg fuses humorous personal anecdotes, singular lessons on confidence and leadership, and practical advice for women based on research, data, her own experiences, and the experiences of other women of all ages. Sandberg has an uncanny gift for cutting through layers of ambiguity that surround working women, and in Lean In she grapples, piercingly, with the great questions of modern life.
The ONE Thing
– Gary Keller
Personal and Professional Development
If you want less on your plate and more for your life and career, tune in to the #1 Wall Street Journal best seller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. The ONE Thing will bring your life and your work into focus. Authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan teach you the tricks to cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time, dial down stress, and master what matters to you.
SPRINT
– Jake Knapp
Business and Innovation
In a Design Sprint, you take a small team, clear your schedules for a week, and rapidly progress from problem, to prototype, to tested solution using the step-by-step five-day process in this book. A practical guide to answering critical business questions, Sprint is a book for teams of any size, from small startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to nonprofits.
The First 90 Days
– Michael D. Watkins
Professional Development
By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You’ll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation.
Execution
– Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Professional and Leadership Development
Larry Bossidy is one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, with a track record for delivering results. Ram Charan is a legendary adviser to senior executives and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companies are successful and others are not. Together they’ve pooled their knowledge and experience into one guide on how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered.
How Will You Measure Your Life
– Clayton Christensen
Professional and Personal Development
In this groundbreaking book, Christensen puts forth a series of questions: How can I be sure that I’ll find satisfaction in my career? How can I be sure that my personal relationships become enduring sources of happiness? How can I avoid compromising my integrity – and stay out of jail? Using lessons from some of the world’s greatest businesses, he provides incredible insights into these challenging questions.
The Power of Habit
– Charles Duhigg
Professional and Personal Development
In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential.
Give and Take
– Adam Grant
Professional Development
For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: Passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today’s dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.
Mindset
– Carole Dweck
Professional and Personal Development
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, PhD, discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.
Grit
– Angela Duckworth
Professional and Personal Development
In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople – both seasoned and new – that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called “grit”.
Quiet
– Susan Cain
Personal Development
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled “quiet,” it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society. This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.
The Start Up of You
– Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
Innovation and Professional Development
In this invaluable book, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Ben Casnocha show how to accelerate your career in today’s competitive world. The key is to manage your career as if it were a startup business: a living, breathing, growing startup of you.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
– Michael Gerber
Innovation
The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed, and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.
Energy Leadership
– Bruce Schneider
Leadership Development
Awaken your potential by harnessing the power of your energy. Whether you’re looking to create profound change in your personal life or build a conscious work culture humming with creativity, innovation, and unimaginable growth, you’ll find the practical Energy Leadership framework and Core Energy Coaching skills contained within this book to be an invaluable resource on your journey.
How Women Rise
– Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
Professional Development
Sally and Marshall identify the 12 habits that hold women back as they seek to advance, showing them why what worked for them in the past might actually be sabotaging their future success. The very habits that helped women early in their careers can hinder them as they move up. Simply put, what got you here won’t get you there…and you might not even realize your blind spots until it’s too late.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
– Marshall Goldsmith
Professional and Leadership Development
The Harvard Business Review asked Goldsmith, “What is the most common problem faced by the executives that you coach?” Inside, he answers this question by discussing not only the key beliefs of successful leaders, but also the behaviors that hold them back. He addresses the fundamental problems that often come with success–and offers ways to attack these problems. Goldsmith outlines twenty habits commonly found in the corporate environment and provides a systematic approach to helping you achieve a positive change in behavior.
The Four Tendencies
– Gretchen Rubin
Professional Development
People fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so using this framework allows us to make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress, and engage more effectively.