Ten Books For Improving Ten Skill Sets During Different Parts Of Your Career

Everyone could improve professionally in some way, shape, or form. The good news is that each step in our careers often requires us to be good at just a few of them. For example, being an analyst at Forrester requires a very high degree of time management skills. However, as a retail executive, I was easily able to get my job done everyday by about 5:00. On the flip side, being successful in a retail environment required mastery of corporate politics, but that skill set isn't necessary in Forrester's highly collaborative and supportive culture.

Below are ten books that I found easy to read, provided a lot of value, and helped me improve my skills in different areas over the years.

Area To Improve: Focus

Recommendation: "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport

I read this book in 2018, primarily because I was constantly buried in the minutia of projects and at the height of traveling for client engagements. The combination of these elements made it a real struggle to get into the "deep state" I needed to write for long periods and output meaningful, thought-provoking research. This quote I think represents the value of this book the best: "Deep work is the killer app of the knowledge economy: it is only by concentrating intensely that you can master a difficult discipline or solve a demanding problem."―The Economist

Area To Improve: Career Management

Recommendation: "The Rules of Work: A Definitive Code for Personal Success" by Richard Templar

I know career management isn't often seen as a skill, but I assure you it is. I call it promotability, and it's probably the least understood skill of this list. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing that will guarantee a fast move up the corporate ladder, but if a person follows the guiding ideas in this book, the odds will certainly increase in his/her favor. I read the first printed version around 2005, when it had the subtitle "The Unspoken Truth About Getting Ahead in Business" and when I was shifting my career to corporate retail and an entry-level job. Around 2008, after three promotions in as many years, I started giving it to new team members on their 1 year anniversary. I still find some value reading it at the VP level, but the book is 10x more useful for those starting out or stuck in their career growth.

Area To Improve: Personal Growth

Recommendation: "Emotional Intelligence 2.0" by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves

Since creating healthy connections with others and positive attitudes within ourselves is a lifelong pursuit, there really is no bad time in your career to read this. Unless you are hermit living off the land with no intention of ever getting a paycheck, the insights and exercises in this book will likely mature you in some pretty meaningful ways. Some of you maybe familiar with Daniel Goldman's groundbreaking book "Emotion Intelligence" but I found that to be somewhat academic. I feel this book by Bradberry and Greaves is more about how to apply what is now commonly referred to as EQ into our lives. That said, I did read Mr. Goldman's book first, and it is hard for me to say that I would have been able to apply the learnings from "EI 2.0" successfully if I hadn't.

Area To Improve: Relationships

Recommendation: "How To Win Friends And Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

Being an entrepreneur for the first decade of my career, I was a late entrant into the world of corporate life. It was a bit of an adjustment to say the least - suddenly having to learn to "get along", "play nice", and "manage up." These were never skills I needed while being my own boss, and my first few annual reviews reflected that. I read a number of books to try and improve, but this classic was the only one that helped me make a permanent shift in my behavior, enabled me to be myself while respecting others, and to find success by valuing and nurturing relationships with my colleagues.

Area To Improve: Perseverance

Recommendation: "No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline" by Brian Tracy

I personally like the author's motivation mixed with information style of writing, but people seem to either love or hate this book. Yes, it has a fair amount of "You can do it!" language, but there are also moments that explain how damaging giving up can be to our mental state and to reaching our ultimate goals. When I was working on building myself up as a brand, this book was the catalyst for me digging in and getting it done. For those that are trying to accomplish long-term goals, or work on projects that require months of constant work, this book will likely help fuel the fire that burns through your procrastination so you can get things done.

Area To Improve: Time Management

Recommendation: "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen

This is a hardest book of the ten I am presenting here, but it can also be the biggest game-changer. What makes this book difficult is that it isn't a book of ideas, it is a book outlining a specific system for getting control of your life. I had to read the book four times, change some very specific ways of working, and even make some investments in office items and a cross-platform app to apply this method, but in the end it worked. I mentioned above that time management is a challenge when you are an analyst. I read this book (repeatedly) about four years ago, and since doing so my to-do list always feels manageable, and my work/life balance is much healthier.

Corporate Politics

Final Note: To read or to listen

Nowadays, you often have a choice between reading or listening to a book. Those that know me might think I'm about to get on a soapbox about the value of reading, but for most of the books above, listening to the audio version will probably do fine. None of them contain material that really require visuals.

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