There are two types of people in the world. One who stops learning after completing their schooling and the one who continuously tries learning something. Even if you belong to the first category or the second category you can always change your habits to benefit your best interests. Today we will be focusing on the latter category of people. Let’s know some of the Best Books for Professional Development.
You may wonder what’s the benefit of learning even after schooling? Continuous learning even after schooling helps you learn new things and keep yourself updated on the new changing world. It also helps you in your professional development, a career-focused development. This type of development focuses on learning new skills and ideas to keep yourself in touch with the changing market trends and learn new abilities to ace your career and academics.
If you already are a strong believer in professional development and looking for resources that can help you grow then you are at the right place. Here we have curated a list of books that focus on the topic of professional development and you can refer to them below.
Books on Professional Development
Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
‘The Tribe of Mentors’ written by Tim Ferriss, published on 21st November 2017, is a life-changing book that focuses on the lives of the top 100 successful people in the world. This book is packed with 100+ interviews of successful people and explains how they lead and grow in life. This book shares many personal experiences which you can relate to very easily. It’s a long book and would require a lot of time to read.
The book focuses on teaching its readers various life lessons that can help them grow in life. He wants his readers to develop the habit of asking questions as it helps readers to connect with others and get to know new things. He also wants his readers to understand that perfectionism doesn’t exist.
You can find this book on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $15.79
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $19.18
Kindle- $14.99
The Four by Scott Galloway
‘The Four’ written by Scott Galloway, published on 3rd October 2017, is a book that focuses on the four giant companies of the world namely Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon. He talks about how these four giants have become a part of our everyday lives. He gives various instances about how you can adapt to the changes that these top companies have brought.
Later in the book he explains how these four companies have an increasing impact on our lives and explains the importance of each giant. He explained the various ways they help us in our life. Google helps by providing answers to our questions, Apple’s products have helped in advancing the generation, Facebook helped in increasing our communication and connection with others, while Amazon helped us access different types of products and services on our doorstep.
He then provided the readers with many advantages and disadvantages of the four giants. This is a great book to understand how things work and how you can work to reach success.
You can find this book on Amazon as well
Hardcover- $12.98
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $11.39
Kindle- $12.99
The New Rules of Work by Alexandra Cavoulacos and Kathryn Minshew
‘The New Rules of Work’ written by Alexandra Cavoulacos and Kathryn Minshew, published on 18th April 2017, is the perfect guide to help you find your perfect job. The authors understand the hardships their readers have to go through while finding a job. Through their experiences, they devised certain new rules that help in finding the perfect job. Both Alexandra and Kathryn owned a career consultancy which taught them a lot of jobs and how people approach different opportunities to find the best match for themselves and this was the place that inspired them to write a book.
The book wants readers to pay close attention to the values they hold about themselves and the things that they value. This will help readers to find a job that aligns with their values. This book is best suited for people who feel that they lack a certain direction in life, or are working a job that they don’t like, or someone who is a new job aspirant, etc. These rules will allow you to make choices that aren’t controlled by the ego but are made consciously.
The book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $16.00
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $13.22
Kindle- $9.99
Powerful by Patty McCord
The book ‘Powerful’ written by Patty McCord, published on 25th January 2018, is a book that is quite different from the conventional policies that exist everywhere. Patty in the book tries to revolutionize the concept of doing business and hiring individuals, by presenting certain key ideas which are quite different from everyday thinking. This book is perfect for someone who works in an organization or even runs a business.
She is the chief talent officer of Netflix and her book focuses on the wrong hiring rules every organization follows. She describes the correct way a recruiter should behave in the work environment. Employees who don’t meet the company’s expectations should be fired immediately and those who lack certain skills need to be challenged in a way that will improve their performance.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $15.95
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $11.76
Kindle- $5.67
Unshakeable by Tony Robbins
The ‘Unshakable’ written by Tony Robbins, published on 22nd February 2017, is a perfect book for people who focus on investing their money. In this book, he gives his readers various practical ways through which they can invest their money and gain profits. He explains various investment options in detail and their market trends with the risks associated with them.
He talks about index funds that provide you a market index which helps to choose the right type of index fund to invest in, the power of compounding, and the art of diversification where you divide your investments into small sizes to avoid larger risks. In the book, he explains four simple concepts, methods of investing that you can use to your advantage. He also wants people to control their impulses which will save a lot of money. This will help them from impulse buying or investing and you can park your money in assets that bring you value.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $7.99
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $12.49
Kindle- $4.53
The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
‘The Dichotomy of Leadership’ written by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, published on 25th September 2018, is a book that focuses on leadership and how you can use this attribute to your best interests. The book has various experiences and suggestions given by SEAL leaders and their techniques to master leadership skills. The book wants its readers to understand the contradictions that come with leadership and how they can work with these contradictions and problems.
Leaders have an inherent ability to accept their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions and this habit should be developed by everyone. Leaders also can build effective relations and protect their team which is an important skill that you should develop. But getting emotionally attached to your team members can hinder your performance and thus you need to maintain a balance between the two. This is what Jocko Willink and Leif Babin refer to as the dichotomy of leadership.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $9.66
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $15.98
Kindle- $4.00
Insight by Tasha Eurich
‘Insight’ written by Tasha Eurich, published on 26 July 2018, is a book that focuses on self-awareness, its importance, and how you can develop it in your everyday life to grow professionally and personally. Being self-aware gives you the strength to accept yourself the way you are and this thus provides you the courage to accept others’ perceptions about you.
The author also wants the readers to have multiple perspectives. This will help you look at things from different perspectives and be more accepting of the different variations. You also need to find the right people. A right person often refers to someone who supports you, is honest with you, and doesn’t wish to harm you. These are ones whom you should connect with more often, and ask questions.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $21.59
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $11.99
Kindle- $12.99
Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
‘Principles: Life and Work’ written by Ray Dalio, published on 19th September 2017, is a book that focuses on the origin and importance of principles in everyday life and the business world. According to him, principles are more important than values during the decision-making process. Everyone needs to develop certain principles that represent their values. This will make the decision-making process a lot easier.
In his book, he gives certain steps through which you can align your principles and values to your best interest. He even focuses on the type of decisions people make and their impact on their lives. If you want to improve your life and make sound decisions that you don’t need to regret later then this book is the right choice for you. But the very first you need to develop is the skill of Hyperrealism, the ability to see reality the way it is.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $15.48
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $8.94
Kindle- $8.43
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker
‘Barking Up the Wrong Tree’ written by Eric Barker, published on 16th May 2017, is a book that focuses on busting certain success myths. The book is quite successful in busting those myths. The author also talks about three great concepts that can determine your success. The first concept is about grades and how they aren’t the defining factors of your success. You can be successful and have bad grades at the same time. Having good grades is an ability and thus if you use it to your advantage you will be successful.
The second concept is about extroversion and introversion and who is more successful. Whether extroverts’ qualities make them successful or an introvert’s knowledge and humbleness make them successful? The third concert was about the number of hours you work and it’s a correlation to your success. All these concepts are explained in detail by Eric in his book.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $11.11
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $14.20
Kindle- $3.63
Leaders: Myth and Reality by General Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone
‘Leaders: Myth and Reality ‘ written by General Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone, published on 23rd October 2018, is a book that focuses on leadership and is a great read for people who are interested in leadership. The book contains real-life biographies of various successful people who are excellent leaders. The book includes a total of 13 short biography stories and each story touches on a different aspect of leadership.
In the book, the authors also talk about how there are different misconceptions and myths about leadership and they have traveled from one country to another. These myths convey false information. McChrystal even explains that leadership isn’t all about influencing others and gaining a sense of power over them. True leadership refers to a safe place where both followers and leaders work towards the growth of everyone.
This book is available on Amazon as well.
Hardcover- $16.59
Audiobook- $0 with Audible membership
Paperback- $15.87
Kindle- $15.99
These were some books written by well-known authors that focused on professional development.
Conclusion
We should always work towards learning new things and ideas, this keeps our mind engaged and we learn a lot during the process. Professional development is an important aspect of every person’s life. If you aren’t a keen reader then you can consider other options that will lead to professional development like – attending seminars, talk shows, engaging in a group reading, talking to experts, etc.
