The Top 10 Must-Read Books for Your Career

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is (finally) to tackle that list of must-read books you’ve carried around since circa 2007; scrap it and start with ours. We polled our favorite women in business and culled the web for today’s top picks. Here is an eclectic mix of books to sharpen your business and personal focus in 2014.

1. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead – Sheryl Sandberg
When the COO of Facebook who ranks on Fortune’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business tells women to “lean in” to get what they want, it is worth paying attention. Sandberg’s personal anecdotes inspire a connectedness with readers who relate and admit, “I’ve been there too.” With practical advice on everything from negotiation techniques to boundaries, Lean In is a can’t-miss for women.

2. Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life – Barbara Stanny
Despite all the talk of the gender gap effecting womens’ incomes, the number of women earning six figures or more is climbing. Stanny, a journalist, speaker and financial educator, spells out the seven key strategies for women to increasing their earnings.

3. Small Move, Big Change: Using Microresolutions to Transform Your Life Permanently – Caroline L. Arnold
Arnold, a Wall Street technology strategist, wife and mother, uses personal successes and failures to illustrate how her microresolutions system can transform lives. Those people tired of personal failures and work successes or vice versa learn to alter their approach to change and to resolutions. Arnold cites her personal successes and those of friends and colleagues to illustrate the success of her microresolutions system.

4. Outliers: The Story of Success –Malcolm Gladwell
What makes high-achievers different? Gladwell asks and answers the question, not from the perspective of what high-achievers do but instead ooking at where they are from, including their family, their culture and their upbringing. You may recognize Gladwell from his other works including: The Tipping Point, Blink, and David and Goliath.

5. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently – Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization orchestrated a large, in-depth study of great managers from a variety of situations. They present their findings and explain the integral role front-line managers play in a company’s success through the cultivation and retention of the best employees. The book offers a real measuring stick managers can use today.

6. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – David Allen
Fast Company calls him the “the personal productivity guru” and what David Allen offers in this highly recommended book is a plan to get where you already know you need to be. In a 24/7 world where most people are constantly plugged in, productivity will actually lag without adequate time to relax and clear one’s mind. Creativity and productivity, Allen says, soar with clear minds and organized thoughts. Here is your personal plan for reassessing, prioritizing and moving forward in a constantly changing environment.

7. Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More without Settling for Less – Robert Sutton and Hayagreeva Rao
About Scaling Up Excellence, due for release February 4, 2014, Amazon states, “…Sutton and Rao identify the key scaling challenges that confront every organization. They tackle the difficult trade-offs that organizations must make between “Buddhism” versus “Catholicism” — whether to encourage individualized approaches tailored to local needs or to replicate the same practices and customs as an organization or program expands.”  James Strock of ServetoLead.org describes the book saying, “A universal topic that could be slow-going in the hands of many academics is expressed in ways that can add value for anyone.

8. Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success – Adam Grant
Wharton professor and LinkedIn Influencer, Adam Grant, categorizes leadership styles as takers, matchers and givers and demonstates the effect of those styles in the workplace.  Grant notes that givers, while sometimes taken advantage of, more often than not, come out on top. Not sure where you rank? You can begin with a quiz at www.giveandtake.com .

Give and Take is one of Oprah’s riveting reads and a must-read from Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

9. The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from Imposter Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It – Valerie Young, ED.D
To every woman who has ever diminished her own success by assuming she was promoted only because people like her or perceived criticism as evidence of her shortcomings, this book is for you. Learn to overcome your self-doubt and take ownership of your successes.

10. The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives – Katie Couric
Who better to share advice than a woman who has interviewed thousands of people from foreign leaders to rock stars to business giants to American presidents and learned their secrets of success and failure? A lighter read than some of our recommendations but no less inspirational, Couric discusses courage, passion, tenacity and more, through personal stories and those of some of the most influencial people in the world.