Setting your New Year’s Resolutions? Did you add exercise more frequently to your list? We are here to help you!
Many studies show that exercising your brain is a key to professional development. One of the best ways to do this is to read a good book. In this age of podcasts and blogs, it is still a good idea to set aside time to go deeper than surface information and picking up a good book gives you more in-depth insight and provides ideas for your personal growth.
To help you get started with this new brain exercise routine, we compiled a list of 12 business books our team found noteworthy this year and hope one makes it to your reading workout list in the future.
1. Radical Candor
By: Kim Scott
Recommended by Mindy Murphy
Radical Candor is a great read for anyone in management or thinking about a career in management. It is chock-full of insightful advice on how to challenge people directly while at the same time show you care personally.
2. The Energy Bus
By: Jon Gordon
Recommended by Matt Sunshine
Being positive is a choice. Surrounding yourself with positive energy and positive people can help you overcome even the most difficult obstacles and a “can do” attitude may just turn your team around. Great book for both personal and business life.
3. The Four Tendencies
By: Gretchen Rubin
Recommended by Dani Buckley
I love this book and have found the concepts useful both from a professional and personal perspective. It narrows down the four different tendencies around how we uniquely respond to expectations and are motivated to take action, make decisions, meet deadlines, and create habits. Every person is either an Upholder, Obliger, Questioner, or Rebel – and once you know the tendency of others you can use this information to motivate, manage, and coach your team (as well as yourself!) toward success in a way that aligns with their personality and isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.
4. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em
By: Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans
Recommended by Beth Sunshine
Since employees who walk out the door cost their companies up to 200 percent of their annual salaries to replace, retention is one of the most important issues facing businesses today. And with so many surveys reporting that employees are unhappy and not working up to their full potential, engagement is a second serious and costly issue. This book is packed with simple strategies managers can use to address their employees’ real concerns and keep them engaged.5. Business for Punks
By: James Watt
Recommended by Kurt Sima
This book provides some excellent insight about company mission and culture … not your typical business book filled with traditional BS thinking.
6. Lean In
By: Sheryl Sandberg
Recommended by Tirzah Thornburg
I would recommend this book for working women, especially those managing a staff and those who are also parents. I think men, particularly those with a spouse who works and those with daughters can benefit from and learn gender sensitivity from Lean In.
7. Younger Next Year
By: Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge
Recommended by John Henley
There are lots of great messages in this book to keep you sharp. For example, exercise Over 50 is your way of sending a constant growth message to your brain to overcome your body’s desire to become old, fat, sick, and stupid.
8. Unfu*k Yourself
By: Gary John Bishop
Recommended by Kim Alexandre
It’s a friendly reminder that we all have strengths and need to get rid of the negativity and focus on positives.
9. A Passion for Wisdom
By: Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins
Recommended by Greg Giersch
A good survey level book that can always apply to management.
10. Primal Leadership
By: Daniel Goleman and Richard E. Boyatzis
Recommended by Beth Sunshine
An essential book on leadership that builds on Daniel Goleman’s earlier Emotional Intelligence work. If you want to be a better leader, Primal Leadership will help you understand emotional intelligence and how it plays the most critical in leadership. You will also walk away appreciating why your current methods may not have garnered the results you had hoped for. This book dives into the scientific aspects that determine how different leadership styles affect people and it provides a clear path for you to achieve powerful results with the people you lead.
11. Raving Fans
By: Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles
Recommended by Stephanie Downs
A great book on the importance of not just having satisfied customers, but the need to make them raving fans.
12. Bring Your Human to Work
By: Erica Keswin
Recommended by Deborah Fulghum
Caring about people leads to success in business and this storytelling book details how top companies understand the importance of being human and caring about those you work with. It is so easy to be the boss, but are you prioritizing the wellbeing of your people? This book will help you rethink engagement practices.
We hope you enjoy one (or all) of these great books in 2019, and they help you reach your goals and achieve great success this year!
