1. Bossypants by Tina Fey
Topic: If the bossypants fit, wear them! Tina Fey takes a critical but humorous look at her career, life, media, and motherhood. The comedian discusses the important issues women in the workplace face every day. Best quotation: “When faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: ‘Is this person in between me and what I want to do?’ If the answer is no, ignore it and move on.”
2. Conscious Business by Fred Kofman
Topic: Holding on to your ethical values in business is an advantage, not disadvantage. The book advocates that success can emerge naturally when we hold onto and act on ethical values. Studies prove that men in the workplace act far more unethically than female employees. Therefore, the book’s stance on the role ethics play in business taps into a natural trait of character most women share. Best quotation: “Have you ever driven down the highway on cruise control, engaged in a conversation or daydreaming, only to realize you missed your exit?… Relevant details, such as your location and the actions needed to reach your goal, receded from the forefront of your mind. Your eyes were open, but you didn’t see. This is a poor way to drive — and an even poorer way to live.”
3. A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen
Topic: Women, take charge of your own lives! Quindlen looks at how women view themselves and their roles in society by charting some vaguely linked personal observations and encouraging women to take charge of their own lives. Best quotation: “You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on the bus, or in the car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart.”
4. Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton
Topic: Build on your strengths, ladies!
The book advises readers to concentrate on their strengths, not their weaknesses, which in the case of women in the workplace means that, instead of adopting a masculine approach to management, it is far more advantageous for women to concentrate on their own unique way of managing.
Best quotation: “From this point of view, to avoid your strengths and to focus on your weaknesses isn’t a sign of diligent humility. It is almost irresponsible. By contrast, the most responsible, the most challenging, and, in the sense of being true to yourself, the most honorable thing to do is face up to the strength potential inherent in your talents and then find ways to realize it.”
5. Home Game by Michael Lewis
Topic: Men struggle just as much while juggling parenthood and job. Lewis’s book takes a warts-and-all, humorous look at fatherhood from the male point of view. Women readers will recognize themselves in the struggling parent and be pleasantly surprised that men find it just as hard to juggle parenthood with workplace commitments. Best quotation: “If you remembered what new parenthood was actually like you wouldn’t go around lying to people about how wonderful it is, and you certainly wouldn’t ever do it twice.”
6. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Topic: Startups don’t fit into conventional concepts of management methods.
Ries’s book serves as a guide for starting up a business on a tiny budget. His advice will particularly resonate with female readers, who often yearn for, but don’t realize their dream of starting up a business.
Best quotation: “The first problem is the allure of a good plan, a solid strategy, and thorough market research… The overwhelming temptation is to apply them to startups too, but this doesn’t work, because startups operate with too much uncertainty. Startups do not yet know who their customer is or what their product should be… The old management methods are not up to the task.”
Featured photo credit: Reading Glasses On Book With Hot Tea Drink via stokpic.com
