Recruiter Top 10 Books to Drive Your Professional Success

Recruiter Top 10 Books to Drive Yur Professional Success Welcome to Top 10, Recruiter.coms weekly rundown of the bestof the best in recruiting Every Friday, we release a list of some of our favorite people, things, and ideas dominating the industry. From awesome tech tools and cool companies to great books and powerful trends, no stone in the recruiting space will be left unturned.This WeekTop 10 Books to Drive Your Professional SuccessReaching your professional goals isnt easy and if it is, you may have your sights set a little too low.That being said, you can make it easier by leaning on the insights of experts. Theres a wealth of knowledge out there. You dont have to reinvent the proverbial wheel every time youre trying to negotiate a higher salary or convince your coach that youre the right person for the promotion.Todays installment of Top 10 is dedicated to 10 books that contain some of the most valuable professional knowledge out there. If you want to take your career to the next level ASAP, its time to pick up and read.1. Breaking the Rules and Getting the Jobby Angela CopelandIf you frequent this website, you may already be familiar with Angela Copeland, whose columns we publish on a weekly basis. If so, you know that Copeland favors a simple, direct style of career wisdom. While some professional gurus cloak their advice in thick layers of jargon and needless complexity, Copeland tells you up front what you need to know to get ahead.Breaking the Rules is particularly useful for those who want to improve the outcomes of their job searches. It focuses on practical steps you can take to catch the eyes of interviewers and really wow potential employers. If youre tired of being at the mercy of job boards and unresponsive hiring managers, start here.Read it.2. What You Arent Seeing The Inspiring Story of Herb Greenbergby Patrick SweeneyHerb Greenberg is the CEO and founder of talent management consulting firm Caliper. He lo st his eyesight at the age of ten, and in What You Arent Seeing, readers learn how Greenberg turned this life-changing event into a chance to uncover his full potential.The book traces Greenbergs life from his early days in Brooklyn to the founding of Caliper, but its mora than just a great biography which it truly is. Each chapter culminates in a psychological insight drawn from Greenbergs experience. Taken as a whole, these insights present readers with robust guidelines for living like a leader. As far as mentors go, few are as experienced and accomplished as Greenberg. While you may bedrngnis be able to convince him to meet up over coffee once a week, What You Arent Seeing is the next best thing. Read it.3. 7L The Seven Levels of Communication Go From Relationships to Referralsby Michael J. MaherThe case for why you should read 7L is pretty much right there in the title Some of the most powerful aids you can have on your professional journey are sterling referrals from trustwor thy sources. If you want to get those referrals, you have to know how to nurture strong relationships with others. Those relationships require communication, and 7L is all about communication.The book helps you learn how to transition from the old style of selling (find a list, make a phone call, hope you get someone, then hope to set up an appointment) to working with others to help them build their businesses. In return, they help you build yours, says Steve Turner of Solomon Turner PR. Since I have been following these strategies in the past six months, I have given out dozens of referrals. Our firms sales have also doubled.As an added bonus, 7L is written as a story, following a down-on-his-luck professional named Rick Masters as he gets back on his feet with the help of some valuable advice. That makes it a heck of a lot more interesting than your average career-oriented book. Read it.4. Getting To Yes Negotiating Agreement Without Giving Inby William Ury and Roger FisherNo ma tter what line of work youre in, you need to know how to negotiate. Whether you want to make a sale, get a raise, or just convince a colleague to help you out with something, negotiation skills are going to come in natel at some point. Getting to Yes is the ultimate negotiation text, offering a step-by-step strategy that you can employ in virtually any conflict.We are constantly negotiating in business, and you have to always keep in mind what your best alternatives are and be ready to walk away, says Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder and CEO of Mavens Moguls, who nominated Getting to Yes for our list.Truer words have never been spoken.Read it.5. The Courage Solutionby Mindy MackenzieEveryone in the corporate world, from the CEO to the security guard out front, wants to change something about their company, says the summary of The Courage Solution. But rather than waiting around for that change to happen, the book argues, you have to own that change and make it happen yourself.That may sou nd like its easier said than done, but The Courage Solution will show you just how to enact the very changes you want to see in your organization (or in your professional life more generally). Through taking ownership of your career, transforming your relationship with your boss, cultivating positive relationships with peers, and building more effective teams, you can alter your company and your life for the better. In The Courage Solution, Mackenzie teaches you how to do all this and more.Read it.6. Sales Management.Simplified.by Mike wingertDont let that title full you even if youre not in sales management, theres a lot you can learn from this book. Dont believe me? Taylor Dumouchel of Peak Sales Recruiting says that Sales Management. Simplified. has helped everyone in her office.Although this book may seem specific to one industry, it can provide insights across all industries, Dumouchel told us. This book tops my list because it encourages leaders to take full responsibility f or the performance of their teams, gives no-nonsense tips for world-class sales management, and roots it all in real life-stories.If you want to someday become a leader, you need to start acting like one now. Let Weinberg help you with that.Read it.7. Essentialism The Disciplined Pursuit of Lessby Greg McKeownBut wait isnt career success about having it all? Why pursue less?Because its better to be great at doing a few things than it is to be alright at doing a lot of things.McKeowns book is all about The Way of the Essentialist, which replaces the I have to do everything mentality with the pursuit of the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.The premise of the book is that the path to attaining success and maintaining your sanity is to focus on the essential and ruthlessly eliminate the rest, says avid groupie Marissa Russell, a career coach who runs The High Achieving Woman. As a solopreneur, it is so important for me to focus on what matters most instead of taking on more than I can handle. This book has been invaluable in helping me to accomplish the highest-impact tasks I have while simultaneously being able to maintain peace of mind.Read it.8. Love Is the Killer Appby Tim SandersAccording to Love Is the Killer App, the secret to success is becoming a lovecat a kind, intelligent person who shares their knowledge, network, and compassion with others. Perhaps that sounds a little pie-in-the-sky for you, but fear not Sanderss bestseller isnt some New Age nonsense. At its core, its a book about how to be a better networker. The advice you receive from this book might be unconventional, but youll definitely walk away with a better handle on how to network than you ever had before.I recommend this book because its a quick read, but also because it teaches people how to network in a way that doesnt feel icky, says Sharon DeLay, owner of BoldlyGO Career and HR Management. It gives very helpful information about how to approach people, what to say, an d what not to say. It also makes the point that networking is less about asking people for something and more about building enduring, helpful relationships. Read it.9. The Freak Factor Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weaknessby David J. RendallEveryone tells you that if you want to succeed in business, you have to overcome (or at least compensate for) your weaknesses.Except David J. Rendall. If you ask him, hell tell you that you should amplify those weaknesses. According to his philosophy, what makes us weak is what makes us strong, and what makes us strange is what makes us exceptional.Dave believes that we should take inventory of our natural stronger traits (sometimes considered to be weaknesses) and harness those for a more satisfying existence, says Tricia Lucas, cofounder of Lucas Select, Inc. Focus on what is naturally good about yourself instead of focusing on efforts to become mediocre at something someone else is telling you to be better at. We are taught from an ear ly age to work on areas of weakness in order to conform to normality. Dave tells us to break that mold and embrace the freak within.Though it seems counterintuitive, it makes a lot of sense when you really think about it. There are probably a million people out there who share your strengths. But your quirks and eccentricities? Those are what make you unique. If you know how to leverage those, you can become truly irreplaceable.Read it.10. Team of Teams New Rules of Engagement for a Complex Worldby General Stanley McChrystalIn our hyperconnected, highly globalized world, the agility of small groups matters more than ever. At the same time, large organizations have reach and resources that are also necessary for success in the contemporary business climate. In Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal draws on his experience leading the Joint Special Operations Task Force against Al Qaeda to propose a strategic business framework that combines the best of both worlds the power of lar ge companies and the speed of small startups.But even if youre not running a startup or sitting in the C-suite at a multinational corporation, Team of Teams will be a powerful read for you. Its exploration of transparent communication and decentralized authority will teach you a lot about how to take charge of your career while still fitting into your employers bigger vision. (A big thanks to Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat and the author of The Open Organization, for nominating Team of Teams for our list.)Read it.mc_embed_signupbackgroundfff clearleft font14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. 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