Best Books for Personal & Career Growth

1. Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance  

Angela Duckworth, a pioneering psychologist, shows anyone striving to succeed (in any area of life) that the secret to outstanding achievement doesn't lie in talent but a unique blend of passion and persistence, which she calls "grit".  

Read this to get inspiration and tips to guide you through any situation in your life or career.  

2. Atomic Habits 

With over 160,000 reviews on Amazon, a well-deserved 4.6-star rating, and over a million copies sold – you won't regret reading this famous piece.  

The author, James Clear, is one of the world's leading experts on habit formation. He reveals practical strategies to teach you how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master tiny behaviours that lead to remarkable results.  

Like the Grit suggests above, these tips can be valuable for your career, but in other areas of life such as goal setting, fitness, relationships, learning, etc.   

3. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World  

Here's another gem on your career growth list!  

Deep work dives into the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Focus is more complicated and harder to achieve in our distracted world. Solid focus can help you achieve your goals quicker and sooner.  

This is a perfect read if you feel like you keep getting distracted, starting one thing and moving to another, or struggling to complete tasks. Deep work will help you improve at what you do, provide a sense of true fulfillment and will become your superpower in our increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy. 

4. More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are  

If you need a bit of reassurance, a confidence boost, or a gentle push – this book will be valuable. Elaine Welteroth has climbed the media and fashion ranks and has broken barriers across many intersections. She draws on her wealth of business and life experience to remind women to look inward and upward and give every woman a much-needed reminder that we're more than enough.  

"A guide for young people who want to find their voice, a crash course for those who want to challenge the status quo, and an adventure for all of us." – Malala Yousafzai. 

5. Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges 

You might have heard of Amy Cuddy through her well-known TED talk about "power poses". Building on this topic, her book Presence delves deeper into accessing our power and reaching a state in which we stop worrying about the impression we're making on others and instead focus on the impression we're making on ourselves. This mastery skill will help you in any job, career, or situation.  

Presence is all about individual stories about those who learned to overcome and thrive in stressful situations that once scared them. You will learn how to confidently approach challenges instead of holding fear and abandoning them without achieving what you set out to achieve.  

6. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit  

This book is critical for such a list because knowing when to quit is as essential for success as knowing when to start.  

Seth Godin, a marketing wiz and the author of 20 international best-sellers, proves that winners are just the best quitters. He argues that winners quit fast, often, and without guilt—until they commit to beating the right ‘Dip.’  

You might be in a Dip -a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it's a Cul-de-Sac-a total dead end. What sets superstars apart is the ability to tell the two apart. As you embark on your career journey, you should have the knowledge to determine between the two and spare yourself the time and effort.  

7. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 

Daniel Goleman, one of the leading names and authors in popular psychology, celebrates the 25th-anniversary edition of the number one, multi-million copy international best-seller that taught us how emotional intelligence is more important than IQ – 'a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea' (Harvard Business Review). 

Daniel explains thoroughly how and why our emotional intelligence (not IQ) plays a significant role in thought, decision-making and individual success. Qualities such as self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, motivation, empathy and social deftness are vital qualities that mark people who excel, whose relationships flourish, who can navigate difficult conversations and become stars in the workplace.  

Invest time reading this to learn how to nurture and strengthen your emotional intelligence before starting your career; your future self will thank you.  

8. How to Win Friends and Influence People 

This is another powerful and super popular read, offering solid, time-tested advice that has led many people to success in both their business and personal lives.  

In your career, your connections and relationships are just as valuable as knowledge, experience or qualifications, so developing people skills will help you, no matter what industry you're in. 

9. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

There's no better negotiator out there than Chris Voss, the former FBI international hostage negotiator. Lucky for all of us, he generously shares a field-tested approach to high-stakes negotiations—whether it’s in the boardroom or at home.  

Whether we realise it or not, we all have to negotiate daily. We must do it when deciding where to have dinner, what movies to watch or where to travel for our holiday. Of course, many have to negotiate at work as well. We must be prepared and know what we're doing to get assigned the best tasks, deals, and contracts.  

In this practical guide, Voss shares nine effective principles—counterintuitive tactics and strategies—you, too, can use to become more persuasive in your professional and personal life. 

10. The Culture Map – Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures

These days, no matter where you live, chances are high that you might work with people from different cultures and backgrounds. This can be an enriching experience, and you can learn a lot from people from various parts of the world.  

In your career, however, people can come into work with different ideas and expectations surrounding work. This is where culture comes in, and the more you know, the better you can understand your colleagues or boss. 

We live in a globalised work environment where people work together in-person or remotely. In The Culture Map, Erin Meyer provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business. She combines an innovative analytical framework with practical, actionable advice for succeeding globally.  

Sources: 

1. GRIT - Nirvedha. https://nirvedha.com/grit/  
2. Book Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear - MERA FM. https://www.merafm.com/book-review-atomic-habits-by-james-clear/ 
3. Popular to Favorite Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport - Video Dailymotion. https://lrpapi.dailymotion.com/video/x7dq4qm  
4. 4. More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They – Spiralverse™. https://www.spiralverse.com/products/9780525561613) 
5. Phillips, C. (2018). Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges. Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 34(3), 44-45.   
6. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). https://investorhunt.co/best-startup-books/the-dip-a-little-book-that-teaches-you-when-to-quit-and-when-to-stick  
7. Emotional Intelligence - Woollahra Libraries - OverDrive. https://woollahra.overdrive.com/media/292038  
8. Never Split the Difference | Litsy. https://www.litsy.com/web/book/98944/Never-Split-the-Difference-Negotiating-As-If-Your-Life-Depended-On-It   
9. MGMT 440 MJ International Management - LibGuides at Campbell University. https://guides.lib.campbell.edu/c.php?g=1086497&p=8755875