Reinforcing our professional abilities and skills enhances our job satisfaction as well as our performance significantly. Hence, if you’re seeking professional excellence, you may find these 5 readings pretty useful.
Even if we’re happy with our position and job performance, there’s always something new we can learn. We can and we must, if professional excellence is what we are seeking: a new way to deal with issues, a new practical management tool, success stories that can serve as a reference…
Hence, in this article we introduce you to these 5 books which, each in its own way and from a variety of perspectives, may inspire you and provide you with a brand new vision on how to be, in every respect, a better professional:
The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
Although it won´t change the world, this book is at least likely to have such a great influence in its readers that they will make the world a more peaceful and qualified place.
It is a catalogue of recommendations comprised of 32 points which, turned into habits, will help you to improve your efficiency at many levels. Not surprisingly, Stephen Covey´s been dubbed the American Socrates, since by means of a very clear method he makes us reflect on our deeds and improve them through personal and interpersonal leadership, empathic communication or cooperation.
Focus, by Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman sets “focus” on paying attention to achieve excellence, but with a completely new approach. This book may help you to slow down and get yourself out the frenzied pace of the so-called era of permanent distraction for a moment, and learn how to cultivate attention as a way to achieve self-control and as a tool to empathize with everything around you.
This reading teaches you how to optimize your decision-taking process by connecting with your intuitions and the world in order to be a better leader.
Good to great, by Jim Collins
What kind of leadership is required to make a company great? This book is a must-read if you want to shed light on many topics regarding personal development; a true international best-seller presenting highly interesting conclusions about strategy and management.
It is a study on the results of several companies which were capable of making a shift from good to extraordinary in just a few years. The hedgehog concept, the culture of discipline, technology accelerators… these are some of the mantras the author handles to uncover the keys to excellence and discover why some companies excel and others don’t.
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
Both in life and professional endeavours, sometimes petty situations get together and suddenly bring about a change, becoming of crucial importance. This is the starting proposition for the Canadian journalist and sociologist Malcom Gladwell to develop his tipping point theories.
Knowing how epidemics work, how fashion trends are set or how do rumours spread may help you to ascertain the effects of your actions and the decisions you take. Through this entertaining and interesting study, this business guru teaches us how to discover the turning point from which something becomes a success.
Huellas de gigantes (Steps of the Giants), by Gonzalo Martínez de Miguel and Nacho Soriano
Cicero said that “to be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child”. History serves largely for that, to help us learn from someone else’s brain, to be inspired by others´ experiences as told by them.
This is the leitmotiv of “Huellas de gigantes”, a text in which the authors make use of the lives of great historic figures such as Julius Caesar, Francis of Assisi or John Fitzgerald Kennedy to make us reflect on our own way of acting and leading. An enjoyable, interesting reading from which you will learn not only about History but also about the best practices on leadership.