Books

If you only read one career book, ever, read this.  The best strengths framework out there, based on years of extensive research data.  Plus, take the assessment online for free and learn your top five strengths.

Classic tome making the case that success is born from strengths, and that spending your energy & effort trying to fix your weaknesses will produce failure. Great companion to Now Discover Your Strengths

Extensively researched and proven tactics for increasing your resilience by identifying and eliminating hidden limiting beliefs. Use with yourself and your team; there is also a great chapter on helping teach kids to be resilient.

The best how-to book on negotiating ever written. Bad negotiations divide up the pie; outstanding negotiations change the game entirely by increasing the size of the pie so that everyone gets more, and by setting the groundwork for additional successful negotiations over the long-term.

It’s you job, even a career – but it’s just a game, not your identity as a human being. Learn to play the game.

Strategies and tactics for wielding power in alternative ways. Great ideas for men and women alike, for anyone who works in an office, in conflict situations, with partners or with collaborators.

Practical to-dos for the first 90 days in your new position. The first 90 days are the critical make-or-break period to lay down the foundations for success or to crash and burn. While the book is written with leaders of people in mind, anyone can make an impact in a new role by applying this advice.

I’ll admit, I bought this sight unseen because I love Strunk & White. This is not by Strunk & White. But it is fresh and helpful. Stop over-engineering your resume.

A great interview is really just a great conversation, and a conversation is a two-way street. You’d better be ready to ask some questions of your own. Incidentally, failure of the interviewee to ask great (or any) questions is one of the top red flags for interviewers — beating out even personal appearance, overemphasis on money, and being late to the interview. Better get prepared to rock it, yo!

Yes, yes, “The Secret” gave all this attracting desired outcomes business a bad name. But these processes really do work. Vitale’s book has a lot of great techniques, and reminds us to be bold: just ask.

More on attracting desired outcomes, this time from the only MBA class with its own alumni association.

Here we continue our attraction theme, but with a quantum physics twist: What the Bleep Do We Know? (DVD.) Interesting support from the scientific community, noted psychologists and PhDs. Also from a chiropractor and someone who is channeling someone else from beyond the grave.

This is a classic with real, practical techniques for vividly visualizing what you want and need. These exercises have wide ranging applications for relaxation, stress relief, focusing on positive health outcomes, attracting career or material success.