The Top 6 Books You Should Read in November

Between now and January 1, we will see hundreds of new book titles released. All are trying to capture people’s attention and energy to change and be better in the New Year. 

Every month we publish the top five most impactful new must-reads. These books will make you think, feel, and perhaps do things differently. So, give these books a shot; if you want to get better at what you do, you won’t be disappointed you took a little time to read and learn from these thought leaders.

This month picking just five books to be on this list was hard work. There are many great books out right now, but decisions had to be made, so you get six books this month instead of five. You can thank us for the bonus book later. 

Why do some people break through and make an impact while others get stuck going through the motions?

In every organization, there are Impact Players—those indispensable colleagues who can be counted on in critical situations and who consistently receive high-profile assignments and new opportunities. Whether they are on center stage or behind the scenes, managers know who these top players are, understand their worth, and want more of them on their team. While their impact is evident, it’s not always clear what makes these professionals different from their peers.

In Impact Players, New York Times bestselling author and researcher Liz Wiseman reveals the secrets of these stellar professionals who play the game at a higher level. Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, Wiseman explains what the most influential players are doing differently, how small and seemingly insignificant differences in how we think and act can make an enormous impact, and why—with a little coaching—this mindset is available to everyone who wants to contribute at their highest level. 

2. From Start-Up to Grown-Up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business, By Alisa Cohn

Every start-up founder feels overwhelmed and uncertain at various times. The key to managing the relentless turmoil of a start-up is learning to manage yourself. 

From Start-Up to Grown-Up gives you, the founder and CEO of a great start-up, the knowledge and experience that executive coach Alisa Cohn has gained from helping companies such as Etsy, Foursquare, InVision, and The Wirecutter become headline names. Growth of your company begins with growth within you. The book provides you with effective and practical ways of maximizing your strengths, defusing your triggers, controlling your self-doubt, and building on your motivators. With these self-management tools, you can then turn your attention to managing your team by ensuring the flow of communication and finding the joy of delegation and the soul in meetings. Finally, you gain practical tools for managing the company and ensuring the overall effectiveness of your team and strategy; using specific scripts, you need to have delicate or difficult conversations.

Filled with stories drawn from the author’s experience, From Start-Up to Grown-Up helps you build a company with a set of core values that everybody lives by and where everyone shares a vision of where the company is going and how to get there.

3. Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook: How to Launch, Lead and Sponsor Successful Projects (HBR Handbooks,  By Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez 

The one primer you need to launch, lead, and sponsor successful projects.

We’re now living in the project economy. The number of projects initiated in all sectors has skyrocketed, and project management skills have become essential for every leader and manager. Still, project failure rates remain extremely high. Why? Leaders oversee too many projects and have too little visibility into them. Project managers struggle to translate their hands-on, technical knowledge up to senior management. The result? Worthy projects are starved of time and resources and fail to deliver benefits, while too much investment goes into the wrong projects. To compete in the project economy, you need to close this gap. The HBR Project Management Handbook shows you how.

In this comprehensive guide, project management expert Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez presents a new and simple framework to increase any project’s likelihood of success. Packed with case-studies from many industries worldwide, it will teach you how to manage your organization’s projects, strategic programs, and agile initiatives more effectively and push the best ones ahead to completion. Timeless yet forward-looking, this book will help you win in the project-driven world.

4. Work Made Fun Gets Done! Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results, By Dr. Bob Nelson and Mario Tamayo

Bob Nelson, author of the multimillion-copy bestseller 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, and human performance expert Mario Tamayo offer hundreds of practical, creative tips for helping employees—and their managers—make work more fun.

According to the employees that work for firms listed in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” the most defining characteristic of these organizations is they are all “fun” places to work.

Fun is the secret sauce every business needs to engage better and motivate its employees today. Work Made Fun Gets Done! Gives readers simple, practical ideas for instantly bringing fun into their work and workplace. Based on examples from scores of companies like Zoom, Pinterest, Bank of America, Zappos, Honda, Microsoft, and many more, this book provides clear examples of precisely what managers and employees alike can do to lighten the tone in the work environment and allow employees to have more fun at work.

Work and fun have typically been considered opposites, but this book proves they can be integrated in ways that produce more motivated workers—and exceptional results.

5. Get Different: Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored!, By Mike Michalowicz

From Mike Michalowicz, bestselling author of Profit First, Clockwork, and Fix This Next, a practical and proven guide to standing out in a crowded market.

Many business owners are frustrated because they feel invisible in a crowded marketplace. They know they are better than their competitors, but when they focus on that fact, they get little in return. That’s because, to customers, better is not actually better. Different is better. And those who market differently win.

In his new marketing book, Mike Michalowicz offers a proven, no-bullsh*t method to position your business, service, or brand to get noticed, attract the best prospects, and convert those opportunities into sales. Told with the same humor and straight-talk that’s gained Michalowicz an army of ardent followers, with actionable insights drawn from stories of real-life entrepreneurs, this book lays out a simple, doable system based on three critical questions every entrepreneur and business owner must ask about their marketing.

Get Different is a game-changer for everyone who struggles to grow because their brand, message, product, or service doesn’t stand out and connect with customers—the long-anticipated answer to the defining business challenge of our time.

6. VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life, By Todd Cherches

VisuaLeadership [noun]: The art and science of applying visual thinking and visual communication tools, tips, and techniques, to turn your vision into reality.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, and finding the right words takes time, and time is money, then wouldn’t it follow that business leaders could make more money—in less time—if they took a more “visual” approach to how they manage and lead?

Okay, it’s not quite that simple…but VisuaLeadership will forever change the way you think and communicate by showing how you can quickly and easily leverage the power of visual imagery, mental models, metaphor, analogy, storytelling, and humor to help you take your game to a whole new level.

The French novelist Marcel Proust famously wrote that “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” So, if your vision is to become a better communicator and presenter, a more innovative thinker, a more productive performer, a more efficient manager, a more effective coach, or a more visionary and inspirational leader, then this exciting new book will open your “mind’s eye” to a whole new world. 

If you have a book that has impacted you and your business, please share it with us and tell us how it helped.