37 Books to Better Your Mindset and Personal & Professional Practices

*Disclosure: Just so you know, I only recommend products I have or would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links by which, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.

Must-Reads on Consulting, Entrepreneurship, IT, Strategy, Agility, Project, Product, Psychology, Sales, Leadership & Life

Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great – Carmine Gallo – Great tips for speaking, writing, and communicating by the guy who wrote Talk like Ted
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges – Amy Cuddy – Fantastic read about overcoming “impostor syndrome” and bringing an authentic personal power into your interactions
To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others – Daniel H. Pink – Not in sales? Think you don’t have to sell? Think again.
Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World – Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall – Sometimes, basic truths are unexpectedly counter-intuitive. These are the ones about work.
Rise: 3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career and Liking Your Life – Patty Azzarello – Some of the best practical career advice you can get, especially for those just starting out or making a switch.
How to Persuade and Get Paid: The Sales Workshop for Everyone – Phil M. Jones – This one’s an audiobook. A wonderful workshop on how to organize your approach to persuasion and sales. As you can imagine: it’s delivered very well, too.
Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact – Phil M. Jones – I recommend audio for this one, too. It offers some quick hit concepts on how to leverage language to influence.
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your Life Depended on It – Chris Voss – Learn about the psychology behind negotiation and practical tactics to use in a variety of scenarios (and hear some neat FBI stories, too).
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Greg McKeown – More practical than “minimalism”, this looks into how we can prioritize better.
The Phoenix Project: A Novel about DevOps, IT and Helping Your Business Win – Gene Kim, Kevin Behr & George Spelford – Are you in IT? The story starts off with a scene that will make you sweat. Then, follow the characters as they learn some important principles and ways of working.
EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches – Dave Ramsey – from the finance guy who started from scratch, this has some great entrepreneurship and leadership (get it? EntreLeadership?) stories and lessons learned
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love – Marty Cagan – New to agile and product? Start here. Experienced in this area? Read it anyway.
Move: How Decisive Leaders Execute Strategy Despite Obstacles, Setbacks, and Stalls – Patty Azzarello – Leading a large initiative, transformation, or project? This one has insights and tactics you won’t want to miss.
Tools of Titans: Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers – Tim Ferriss – Exactly as the title suggests. A good one to have for some quick-hits.
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea – Bob Burg & John David Mann – A narrative about not just doing business well, but doing business right.

The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done – Stephen Denning – How organizations are effectively leveraging Agile concepts to perform (the second half is a little heavy on shareholder issues and shortcomings, read the first half for the good stuff).
Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success – Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness – Another one where the title says it all.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – David Allen – A classic. Great method for, well…GTD.
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box – The Arbinger Institute – another great lesson-via-narrative about leadership beyond what you think it means.
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation – Tim Brown – Involved in innovation? This one’s great to kick off any quest in design thinking.
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? – Seth Godwin – Another classic, one of Seth’s best. Learn about the role that truly runs in between.

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results – Gary Keller & Jay Papasan – An idea about how focus yields success.
The Five Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur – Ryan Westwood & Travis Johnson – Research-based insights about the tough qualities it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday – History and philosophy teaches us that our Egos won’t necessarily help us win and might even cause us to lose big.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Daniel H. Pink – The psychology behind our motivations and a look at concepts like Autonomy, Master, and Purpose.

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman – A compilation of the work by who is arguably one of the most impactful contributors to psychology and economics in the modern age. (You’ll want to get a physical copy, there’s a lot to unpack here).
The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business – Josh Kaufman – I didn’t go to business school, so this one’s a nice reference to have on hand.