Telling people how to manage their careers has been fertile ground for authors ever since the first job guru took to papyrus scrolls to advise Nubian quarriers to “follow your passion!” This year was no exception, as it saw the usual flood of self-help tomes offering to help you make Dale Carnegie look like a slacker.
Herewith, a roundup of some that are worth a look. It’s not a best-of list, nor do we claim it includes every such book worth reading. But each has something worthwhile to offer, whether it’s advice on personal branding, ruminations on the meaning of work or tips for anxious public speakers. (And harried shoppers take note: They’re perfect for last-minute giving.)
“Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand To Achieve Career Success,” by Dan Schawbel (Kaplan)
With one out of 10 people out of work, it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd — to be the person others think of when they’re asked for referrals. Dan Schawbel went from being an ambitious but unemployed college grad in 2006 to becoming a personal branding guru for Generation Y.
“Me 2.0” is, for all practical purposes, an instruction manual for developing your personal brand and then leveraging that brand to command your career. There’s no heavy, heady text in this book; its chapters are short and it’s highly motivational. Though the book is geared toward the Gen Y crowd, its content is worthwhile for anyone who wants to become recognized in his or her field. — V.B.
“The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work,” by Alain de Botton (Pantheon)
British writer de Botton offers a panoramic view of the working world and what toiling for a living means in people’s lives beyond the paycheck. In a series of graceful essays examining a range of jobs including cookie production, accounting and rocket science, de Botton acknowledges the immense frustrations that work can produce but ultimately concludes it’s essential to happiness.
“I was inspired,” he writes in his opening chapter, “to attempt a hymn to the intelligence, peculiarity, beauty and horror of the modern workplace and, not least, its extraordinary claim to be able to provide us, alongside love, with the principal source of life’s meaning.” He largely succeeds. — B.M.
“You Majored in What?
Mapping Your Path From Chaos to Career,” by
Katharine Brooks (Penguin)
Once upon a time, earning a degree in engineering meant you’d become an engineer; a degree in English meant you’d become a writer or an English teacher, and so on. But the days when specific degrees locked you into specific professions are gone, and most career paths aren’t linear, says Brooks, who directs Liberal Arts Career Services at the University of Texas. So why use linear theory to plan your career? Chaos theory is a better approach, she argues.
While the term “chaos theory” might seem a bit daunting, Brooks simplifies it through her Wise Wanderings system, which encourages readers to do things like draw mind maps, tell stories and make charts in a playful way. At the end, readers are expected to not only have discovered a range of jobs they might enjoy, but to also be in position to show employers why they’re a choice candidate. Though this book was written with recent college grads in mind, the exercises within it also lend themselves to workers who have reached a dead end in their current professions. — V.B.
“Blue Collar
and Proud of It,”
by Joe Lamacchia (HCI)
“Shop Class as
Soulcraft,” by Matthew Crawford (Penguin)
Lamacchia and Crawford have two very different perspectives — the former is a landscaper with acute ADD who barely made it through high school, the latter is an intellectual motorcycle mechanic with a Ph.D. in political philosophy. And the books are very different — Lamacchia’s is in large part a guide with projected job numbers and addresses of trade organizations; Crawford’s is a rumination that references Marx and Heidegger.
Their subject matter is the same, though: the satisfaction of working with your hands and the problems created by a society that looks down on manual labor, whether its crumbling infrastructure or armies of discontented office drones. It’s a worthwhile topic and one worth considering, especially if you’re among the ranks of the latter.
— C.E.
“Who’s Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program To Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success and Won’t Let You Fail,” by Keith Ferrazzi (Random House)
It’s not breaking news that it’s ill-advised to go it alone in the business world; lone rangers have been personae non grata since “teamwork” became a managerial mantra a couple decades ago. And while mentoring has been in vogue since before the 1990s, there’s not much to say about it that hasn’t already been written.
What Ferrazzi introduces in “Who’s Got Your Back,” though, is a program that leverages “lifeline relationships,” a type of peer connection that up until now has been more commonly found among members of Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous. The idea isn’t simply that we all need somebody to lean on, but that it’s key to establish close, committed relationships with three individuals who know and care about us enough to call us on our stuff, give us honest feedback and hold us accountable to our goals. Agree to do the same for them, says Ferrazzi, and everyone benefits; not only are you more likely to stay on course, says Ferrazzi, but you’re also more likely to feel good about your behavior as you reach for the brass ring. — V.B.
“Trust Agents: Using the Web To Build
Influence, Improve Reputation, and
Earn Trust,”
by Chris Brogan
and Julien Smith
(Wiley)
Social networking pioneers Brogan and Smith go way beyond telling you how to establish your footprint on the Web — they lay out the steps you should take and the rules you should follow to create and maintain effective digital relationships. Of special note is their straightforward guidance on humanizing your social network. Namely, answer your e-mail immediately (not to is like giving someone a blank stare after they’ve asked you a question, they write); ping your network members often (drop them e-mails, write on their Facebook walls, send out tweets), be gracious when saying no, etc. — V.B.
“Working for You Isn’t Working for Me: The Ultimate Guide to Managing Your Boss,” by Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster (Portfolio)
At a time when leaving a job probably isn’t the most attractive option, no matter how much it sucks, this book could be a godsend for folks who don’t see eye to eye with the person in charge. Contending that an employee’s relationship with the boss is the No. 1 determinant of worker satisfaction, the authors offer solid, practical advice for dealing with problem managers and making bad situations better.
Crowley and Elster identify 20 bad boss archetypes (“Control Freak,” “Yeller”), then provide coping strategies. They stress that while a worker might suffer the brunt of a bad boss’ wrath, the ultimate source of the bad behavior is the boss, not the worker. In other words, don’t take it personally! — B.M.
“Confessions of a Public Speaker,” by Scott Berkun (O’Reilly)
Part confessional, part “how-to,” this entertaining book is a godsend for anyone who would rather have an appendectomy without anesthetic than address a group in public. Berkun, a Microsoft executive turned professional public speaker, puts his readers at ease by revealing the mishaps he’s endured (being heckled by drunks, speaking to empty rooms, having a group of Parisian executives fall asleep en masse while he was speaking, even having a Russian SWAT team remove someone from the room during a speech). Then he gives some useful pointers. Focus on the things you can control, he says — like arranging the audience in an undersold auditorium to sit together, so you don’t feel like you’re speaking to a bunch of empty chairs, or engaging an audience by throwing out trivia questions. And keep things in perspective.
“Most people listening to presentations around the world right now are hoping their speakers will end soon,” he writes. “That’s all they want. They’re not judging you as much as you think because they don’t care as much as you think.”
— V.B.
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You,” by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten (Portfolio)
Each year, literally thousands of business books are published, and quality control inside the batch is — to put it mildly — not assured. Covert and Sattersten, who run 800-CEO-READ, sifted through thousands of biz books to come up with an insightful hall-of-fame list.
Each book is summarized neatly, and the authors break down their list into categories that focus on self-improvement, leadership, sales and other areas. Some choices are solid, if unsurprising (“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”), while others wander off the beaten path (Michael Lewis’ “Moneyball”). If you’re looking for New Year’s resolution material, this is a good place to start. — B.M.