Liz Jones – Founder, Conker
Mrs Moneypenny’s Career Advice for Ambitious Women – Heather McGregor
A practical, pacy and punchy toolkit. A masterclass in how to succeed and stay sane. A fiercely practical, eternally upbeat and utterly enjoyable textbook for success, incisive, self-deprecating and hilarious.
Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
If you are a woman, or the parent of girls, you must read this. I like the way Sheryl Sandberg uses her own experience, backed by facts from creditable research. She doesn’t just moan about life, she has ideas about how to actually make things better. And unlike many people who write such books, she doesn’t pad it out – she sticks to the point.
The Squiggly Career – Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis
A practical and excellent guide for anyone who wants to take charge of their career, play to their strengths and design a career on their own terms to maximise their chances of a happy and rewarding work life. It all starts with knowing yourself and your values – with simple exercises that make you think deeply about who you are and what you want to spend all that time at work actually doing.
What colour is your parachute? – Richard Bolles
The world’s most popular job search book – long-trusted guidance with up-to-the-minute information and advice for today’s job-hunters and career-changers.The 100 year life – Andrew Scott
Not only is the world as we know it changing beyond all recognition, but the way we lead our lives too. This book could not be more timely or necessary – it makes the compelling case that as our lives become longer and healthier, the future might just be very, very different from what we have known until now.
From the authors of The Glass Wall, ‘Belonging’ is made up of hundreds of interviews with organisations and business from around the world, and shares learnings that will help organisations work together to build the workplace we want to see, where everyone feels they belong.
NABS recommends: Belonging by Kathryn Jacob & Sue Unerman
Paul Carolan – Managing Director, Archipelo
The Chimp Paradox – Dr Steve Peters
The reason I recommend this book and coach with it constantly, is that it helps people understand themselves better. If you know how your brain works, you’ve got far more chance of managing it (and more able to ‘choose’ your reactions as a result). Steve Peters takes something very complex and explains it in a way that is really easy to understand, and he also suggests simple and effective actions and exercises. I have personally experienced positive change using The Chimp Paradox, and it has helped almost every coachee I’ve worked with in the past 3 years
Pippa Glucklich
Eating the Big Fish – Adam Morgan
A classic that everyone in our industry should read at least once, whichever section of the business you are in – we all work with, and for, brands. It was published as a marketing text many moons ago in 2001 but still wholly relevant today. The core focus is on challenger brands – how to disrupt, get noticed and tell their story in order to successfully overtake their larger and more established competition (aka the Big Fish). Thought provoking, clear and useful and not for the mundane!
Good To Great and Built To Last – Jim Collins
Two books (a series) by the legendary Jim Collins, arguably amongst the best business books ever written, hugely inspiring and motivating.
Must-reads for all current and aspiring leaders. Both books are classics but remain incredibly valuable and enlightening.
‘Good To Great’ is based on 10 years plus of in-depth evidence from the best and most successful companies of the 20th century. This makes it an even more compelling read and it’s not just the author’s theories and opinion. Easy to read – more akin to a novel than a business book – with some surprising findings which might just challenge your thinking and give you come cracking ideas to steal and apply to your own business.
Equally excellent, ‘Built To Last’ is the sequel which examines in detail other visionary and companies that have sustained success over a long period of time and compared them with their less successful competitors.
Blah Blah Blah – Dave Buonaguidi
A practical and excellent guide for anyone who wants to take charge of their career, play to their strengths and design a career on their own terms to maximise their chances of a happy and rewarding work life. It all starts with knowing yourself and your values – with simple exercises that make you think deeply about who you are and what you want to spend all that time at work actually doing.
Richard Bon – Clear Channel
Mission – Michael Haymen & Nick Giles
How purpose can help you succeed in our unstable, fast-changing & challenging environment (given to me by Cephas Williams, founder 56 Black Men)
Work like a woman – Mary Portas
Get past the title & this booked is packed with helpful nuggets for guys & girls.
Overthrow II – Eatbigfish & PHD
Building on the success of “Eating the big Fish” by Adam Morgan & explores the 10 different challenger strategies.
Sarah Parkes – Global
Eating the Big Fish – Adam Morgan
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
Coaching for Performance – John Whitemore
On Leadership – Allan Leighton
Developing Mental Toughness – Adrian Moorhouse
Will it make the boat go faster? – Ben Hunt-Davis and Harriet Beveridge
A classic that everyone in our industry should read at least once
Pippa Glucklich on "Eating the Big Fish"
Andrew Goldsmith – The Guardian
Factfulness – Hans Rosling
Humankind – Rutger Bregman
Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
The Tipping Point and Talking to Strangers – Malcom Gladwell
Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
Paid Attention – Faris Yakob
The Choice Factory – Richard Shotton
Joy of Work – Bruce Daisley
Give and Take – Adam Grant
Notes on a Nervous Planet – Matt Haig
“It has helped almost every coachee I’ve worked with in the past 3 years”
Paul Carolan on "The Chimp Paradox"
Ed Couchman – SNAP
Culture eats strategy – Curt Coffman
How Brands Grow – Bryon Sharp
Super forecasting – Philip Tetlock
The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle
Start with Why – Simon Sinek
Matt Adams – Brainlabs
The Sleep Revolution, Arianna Huffington
In an industry that can burn long hours, a reminder of the value of sleep and the restorative effect it can have on your body and mind is a welcomed intervention.
James Appleby – PHD Media
Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times, by Nancy Koehn
If you thought all books about business and leadership are dull, then try this. It’s five short stories about important leaders in history and the moments at which their leadership was needed the most. From Ernest Shackleton to Rachel Carson via Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And if you don’t know who all those people are, that for me was part of the message of the book – that great and much needed leadership can come from the least expected places.
Women and Power: A Manifesto, by Mary Beard
Without doubt one of the most powerful and eye-opening books I’ve ever read. It is not only a clear and detailed argument drawing us back through ancient history to understand how we came to be where we are as a society, but a rallying cry to make things better. I found myself moving from feelings of disbelief and horror at some of the stories of horrendous misogyny throughout history to relief that it could no longer happen in our society to the realisation that of course it does, just in different and often more insidious ways.
Factfulness: ten reasons we’re wrong about the world and why things are better than you think by Hans, Ola and Anna Rosling
When I finished reading this on holiday two years ago, I wished I had never read it and could start again. It is a brilliant way of looking at stats (nothing complicated or dull, don’t worry) and the patterns we all see in them, and why we are usually wrong. It is a very positive and inspiring book that I would recommend to anyone, but in our part of the world, it has specific relevance. I think we can be guilty of using numbers to leap to old (and possibly even wrong) conclusions, so this books helps us to ask different questions of the data. Sadly Hans Rosling passed away just before the book was published but he left behind a great body of work including his TED talks, which also blew me away.
The first 90 days, by Michael D Watkins
If you are starting a new job or a new role, this is a great guide to getting up to speed. In taking you through various practical steps, it starts to get to the heart of the value exchange between ourselves and our companies. When am I taking and when am I giving back, and how should I balance these things together?
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, by Alain de Botton
I’m a big fan of all of his books, covering broad topics from architecture to travel and philosophy itself. In this one, the School of Life contributor asks some incisive and probing questions about why we work and how it can make us feel. He talks to all kinds of people on his quest but my favourite remains the opening chapter in which he visits United Biscuits HQ . I also found ‘Status Anxiety’ by the same author very thought provoking along similar lines.