The best 34 Promotion books

Through a combination of entertaining anecdotes, solid data and practical advice, Lean In (2013) examines the prevalence of and reasons for gender inequality both at home and at work. It encourages women to lean into their careers by seizing opportunities and aspiring to leadership positions, as well calling on both men and women to acknowledge and remedy the current gender inequalities.

• Anyone interested in understanding and remedying inequality at work
• Anyone who struggles with the challenges and expectations of combining a career with family
• Anyone – female or male – looking for solid career advice

You Can Negotiate Anything (1980) shows that negotiations occur in every walk of life and that it is vital to have the skills and understanding to deal with those situations. The book outlines the key factors affecting negotiation success, as well as ways of negotiating for win-win solutions.

• Anyone who has ever negotiated with their spouse, boss or the telephone company, and wants to get better at it
• Anyone who wants to protect themselves against abuse from aggressive negotiators
• Anyone who wants to negotiate for mutual satisfaction

Humble Inquiry (2013) sets out the basic principles of the art of asking the right questions in the right way. It examines how your approach to inquiry affects your relationships at the office, your ability to get quality work completed and, ultimately, your success as a leader.

• Anyone who wants to improve how they communicate at work
• Anyone who wants to be a great leader
• Anyone who wants to learn how to ask the right questions

This book focuses on the reasons why women often don’t make it to the top ranks in the world of business. Frankel explains how women unconsciously behave in ways that undermine their business aspirations and presents female readers with measures to consciously counteract their self-defeating behavior.

• Any woman who wants to make it in the business world
• Anyone who wants to know more about gender inequality
• Any woman who wants to learn how to be more assertive

If you want to design the best possible workplace, improve employee satisfaction and ultimately motivate your staff to deliver better results, look no further. The Best Place to Work will guide you through the process of improving your working environment, leading to more enthusiastic and productive employees.

• Anyone who’s interested in workplace design
• Anyone who’s concerned about employee satisfaction
• Managers who want to improve productivity

Power (2010) is a realpolitik guide to leading a successful career. It offers unusual insights and advice you wouldn’t normally find in other career literature, with tips and techniques you can start using now to achieve long-term success.

• Anyone who is launching a career
• Anyone who wants to get promoted
• Anyone who works in politics

The Peter Principle (1969) explains why you feel like you’re surrounded by incompetence at work – you are! This wry book reveals promotions for what they really are: a progression to our final level of incompetence. These blinks help us understand how corporate hierarchies really function, as well as offering advice on how to deal with our own incompetence.

• Anyone wondering why they’re surrounded by people who can’t do their job
• People with dry humor
• Those interested in how hierarchies really work

The Politics of Promotion (2015) offers insights into the ways women can prime themselves for promotion in any line of work. Filled with actionable tips and strategic career advice, it provides the political savvy you need to maneuver within the workplace and secure your next promotion.

• Women who want to move up the career ladder
• Anyone interested in the politics and dynamics of high-pressure workplaces

In StrengthsFinder 2.0 (2007) you’ll learn how to identify your skills and develop them to your advantage. Tom Rath presents a powerful framework to both cultivate your potential and match your strengths to your profession.

• People unsure of which field to work in
• Anyone who wants to better understand their co-workers
• Employers who want to better harness their employees’ potential

Conscious Business (2006) pushes beyond conventional measures of success to show you how to create a dynamic organization based on core human values. You’ll learn why companies that empower employees to align their work with the values they hold dear are the companies that succeed in today’s marketplace.

• People looking to make work more fulfilling
• CEOs and managers wanting to create space for values in their organizations
• Entrepreneurs who value more enlightened measures of success

Based on the work practices at Netflix, Powerful (2017) is a guide to building a work culture that can adapt to today’s fast-paced and ever-changing markets. It offers insights that are rooted in an unconventional way of managing people. You’ll discover eight practices of management that’ll help you create a successful work culture and business.

• Leaders and managers
• Entrepreneurs
• Anyone interested in the stupendous rise of Netflix

Ask For It (2008) gives women advice on how to successfully negotiate to get the jobs and salaries they want and deserve. These blinks outline the do’s and don’ts of negotiation so that those who aren’t used to asking for more can learn how to do so the right way.

• Women who want to be better negotiators
• Anyone who’s afraid to ask for what they want
• Women looking to further their careers

Feminist Fight Club (2016) sheds new light on the rampant sexism in the workplace and equips women with the tools to take down everything from mansplainers to personal feelings of self-doubt. It draws on modern-day examples as well as historical perspectives to illustrate how feminists can help in the fight for a more gender-balanced world.

• Women who want to build their careers
• Men concerned about the difficulties their female colleagues face
• Women dealing with sexism at work

The Eight Essential People Skills for Project Management (2018) is a hands-on guide designed to help team leaders diagnose and solve people problems in today’s increasingly horizontal workplaces. The fruit of years of first-hand experience, Zachary Wong’s playbook for effective leadership is packed full of actionable advice on how to boost motivation, confront underperformers and push through fear of failure.

• Entrepreneurs
• Leaders and managers
• Anyone fascinated by workplace psychology

Build It (2018) takes a look at one of the most important yet overlooked secrets behind business success: employee engagement. Drawing on a decade of research into 2,000 companies, Glenn Elliott and Debra Corey explore the tactics of some of today’s best-known firms to shed light on how they keep their workers switched on and productive. One common theme? They all tore up the HR rulebook, and this path-breaking book is designed to help you do just that.

We’re thrilled to announce that the authors have worked together with Blinkist to create this book-in-blinks for you.

• CEO’s and entrepreneurs looking to improve their businesses
• HR people looking to engage their employees
• Managers wanting to improve the performance of their team

The New Rules of Work (2017) is the definitive handbook for navigating the modern workplace. Authors Cavoulacos and Minshew recognize that the way we work has changed in tandem with the advancement of technology and that the way we think about career paths has evolved accordingly. Modern workers expect a job to do more than just pay the bills – work has to be fulfilling, too. Their New Rules will help you discover the career that fits you best and give you the tools to succeed in the modern job market – from application to promotion.

• Students and graduates still unsure of their career path
• Anybody stuck in a career rut
• Employees who started their careers under the “old rules” looking to understand the current landscape

Good People, Bad Managers (2017) argues that the culture of the modern American workplace is perpetuating bad management without our being aware of it. The current management culture of self-preservation leads to behavior that actively harms well-being, productivity and motivation. Culbert explores why so many good people are trapped in the cycle of bad management, and makes a case for cultural change in our workplaces.

• Managers looking to improve their business
• People who are interested in how work culture functions
• Those who want to challenge conventional management approaches

Catalyst (2018) is the ultimate A to Z guide to navigating one of life’s trickiest journeys: your career. Jam-packed with actionable insights rooted in author Chandramouli Venkatesan’s years of first-hand experience with today’s most successful corporate go-getters, these blinks shed light on key topics from picking the right boss to the value of taking it slow and becoming an effective leader.

• Ambitious professionals
• Executives and managers
• Coaches and work psychologists

The Fearless Organization (2018) delves into psychological safety and how the workplace can become an environment in which everyone feels confident enough to pitch in and do their best. These blinks explain why people hold back on sharing their ideas at work, how this harms businesses, and how leaders can encourage a culture of openness, questioning, and experimentation that leads to learning and innovation. 

• Forward-thinking leaders who want to encourage innovation and learning
• Human resources managers looking to get the most out of their talent
• Team players interested in creating a supportive workplace

Mastering the Game (2018) aims to level the playing field for women and people of color in the world of business – the traditional purview of white men. This book lays bare the unwritten rules of the game and outlines strategies diverse professionals can use to get unstuck at work.

• People who have felt marginalized at work
• Social activists who want to create a fairer and more inclusive world
• Allies who want to be even more empathetic

Bargaining for Advantage (1999) is a guide to becoming a more efficient and intelligent negotiator. Combining insights from negotiation research with tried-and-tested tactics by some of the world’s leading business experts, this is a book for anyone who wants to improve their bargaining skills.

• Businesspeople whose work involves negotiating
• Dealmakers looking to improve their bargaining skills
• Fans of self-improvement and corporate strategy

Give & Get Employer Branding (2020) is a handy introduction and guidebook into the world of employer branding. You’ll find all the basic information you need to reinvigorate your employer brand in order to attract the best candidates and turn your current employees into loyal and eager ambassadors for your organization.

• Anyone working in human resources
• Managers who want to attract better candidates
• Executives tired of wasting time and money on ineffective recruitment techniques

The Squiggly Career (2020) covers research and tips on how to best navigate a career full of frequent transitions and modern-day challenges. If we learn to identify our own strengths, values, goals, and motivations, we can apply them more often at work – and notice when they’re being neglected. The authors reveal how to network by helping others, the merits of starting a side project, and how to make the most of the newfound control we have over our careers.

• Job-hoppers looking for direction
• College grads wondering what the next step is 
• Anyone seeking insight into the new job market

How to Lead Smart People (2019) offers practical advice for leadership in today’s shifting global landscape. In these blinks, leaders can learn how to cultivate a team dynamic that both challenges and inspires.

• CEOs and managers who want to earn the respect of their employees
• Junior and mid-level managers seeking a promotion
• Leaders and team members aspiring to become more effect communicators

Inclusify (2020) offers some valuable guidance for managers and CEOs who would like to increase the diversity of their workforce. Facts show that diversity is a powerful contributor to success on a variety of levels. Inclusify introduces the proven steps that the biggest and best businesses are taking to be more inclusive and more successful.

Who’s it for?

• Managers who want happier employees
• People seeking ways to create safer workplaces
• CEOs who want to create more competitive businesses

Remarkable (2021) is a playbook for professionals looking to advance their careers. It’s not about getting ahead by any means, though. Covering topics like self-promotion, mistakes, and disagreements, it makes a compelling case that the best way to move forward is by staying humble and working with – and for – your team. 

• Managers and leaders
• Entrepreneurs and self-starters 
• Team players

We Should All Be Millionaires (2021) shows how women can attain financial success by casting off impostor syndrome and demanding that they be paid what they’re really worth. Here, you’ll learn how the ability to earn, save, and manage money has been denied to women – and why that’s a bad thing for the world as a whole.

• Women looking to empower themselves with wealth
• Those looking to found companies of their own
• Any woman who has been underpaid and overworked

Radical Candor (2017) is a roadmap for leaders looking to establish the best possible relationship with their employees. Its insightful approach to management shows how to create a working environment where great ideas emerge, individuals reach their full potential, and employees are proud to follow their boss.

• Managers and business leaders
• Coaches and organizational psychologists
• Entrepreneurs and self-employed people

Cues (2022) is about the signals we send unconsciously and how they affect the way others perceive us. The book is geared toward improving your professional life by managing the cues you send and responding appropriately to the ones you receive. 

• Professionals looking to achieve their goals
• Those interested in the science of communication
• People who want to improve their professional relationships

The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication (2023) addresses the fear of public speaking. It offers tried-and-true techniques that can transform any beginner or average speaker into a trusted and effective communicator.

• Anyone trying to improve their communication skills
• Speakers addressing anyone from small groups to stadium crowds
• Leaders and organizers looking to inspire their teams

The Great Money Reset (2023) is a plain-talking, practically focused handbook aimed at empowering everyday people to take the financial steps necessary to build their dream lives. Simple strategies explain how to bring your financial life into alignment with your values, desires, and dreams, to put a truly fulfilling life within reach.

• Daydreamers who’d love to make a big life move but don’t know how to fund it
• Office workers who are ready to take bigger professional risks
• Anyone who feels too financially stuck to try something new or adventurous

Sell Like Crazy ( 2019 ) is a comprehensive guide that unveils step-by-step strategies for attracting your ideal customers and converting them into loyal, high-paying clients. It presents a proven blueprint for escalating your customer acquisition efforts and outlines a consultative approach to significantly enhance conversion rates.

• Entrepreneurs seeking sales growth
• Marketers seeking conversions
• Business owners looking for new customers

StandOut 2.0 (2015) delves into the nuances of individual strengths and how to harness them for career success. Building on an assessment tool, the book identifies nine strength roles and offers actionable advice to help individuals find their talents and win at work. Through the identification and application of these strengths, individuals and teams alike can find their edge, achieve heightened productivity, and stand out in work and in life.

• Professionals pursuing strengths-based development
• Managers enhancing team dynamics
• Career-seekers looking to identify unique strengths

The Unspoken Truths for Career Success (2023) doesn’t view the world of work through rose-tinted glasses. With challenges from toxic office cultures to remote work, hybrid schedules, and the ever-elusive work/life balance, building a successful career is a challenge. But it’s not insurmountable. By embracing practical strategies, you can overcome commonplace career hurdles and thrive in today’s workplace. 

• Young professionals navigating remote or hybrid work environments
• Executives developing modern, millennial-focused workplace strategies
• Anyone seeking career advancement and personal growth insights