From one of my favorite business books Paid to Think by David Goldsmith: “Various studies have indicated a link between reading business books and earning more money…fifty-one percent of leaders spend more than four hours a week reading to stay informed.”

So two things to takeaway from this. First, if you want to earn more money, read more books (I recognize there isn’t a direct correlation here). Second, you should be aware that your hiring manager probably reads a lot. Most of their good ideas that got them into their management position, probably came from books they read. You will likely win some extra points if you drop a few (not all twenty) book titles or related concepts during your interview. Be prepared to be able to discuss any of them that you mention though. They might start digging and you will want to be prepared to answer tough questions. Mentioning books like this shows a hiring manager that you are interested in consistently learning about new ideas and applying them to your work.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of books that can score you points in an interview. These are just a few of the books that I’ve stolen ideas from. 🙂

1. Winning, Jack Welch: Jack was the CEO of General Electric for many years. He’s a no-nonsense leader with a lot of great practical advice.
2. The 5 Levels of Leadership, John Maxwell: Another classic leadership book. John was originally an Christian minister, who later became a leadership evangelist.
3. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell: More great stuff. Everybody loves lists, right?…
4. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell: Malcolm highlights some interesting concepts about how people stand out from the crowd. Tipping Point is also a great read.
5. The Gamification Revolution, Gabe Zichermann: Gamfication is pretty trendy around the office these days.
6. Tribes, Seth Godin: Godin is one of my heroes right now. This book inspired me in part to start this website/book adventure. The book focuses on helping you see the need to lead people with similar interests.
7. Platform, Michael Hyatt: Another famous blogger. Michael talks about leadership and online blogging/marketing.
8. The Innovator’s DNA, Jeff Dyer: The foundation for this book is Clayton Christensen’s book Innovator’s Dilemma. Jeff’s book takes these concepts and uses them to discuss how leaders can become more creative.
9. The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen: Read the original book. Any of the others in the series will make more sense if you do. Basically, mature companies continue to use the same technology because it works well. Then some other little company creates a new technology that helps them grow very quickly. The big company ignores them, because they think their size will save them, and it’s hard for big companies to change.
10. To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink: Daniel is known for studying motivation in the workplace. Drive is a nifty book too. In this book he talks about how we should all spend some time learning how to sell, not used car salesman selling, but authentically providing real solutions to people’s problems.
11. Paid to Think, David Goldsmith: A handbook for leading in a large corporation. This is where I first encountered the concept of wildly successful projects.
12. The Lean Startup, Eric Ries: This book describes how to create and grow a successful startup business. It focuses on iterative product development and testing with users. You pivot your product design based on feedback from from users.
13. Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi: Keith is the master of networking. He teaches readers how to reach out to their friends, family, and colleagues in order to advance their careers.
14. Great by Choice, Jim Collins: One of the business classics. Jim has done extensive business research to determine the key qualities of the leaders who guided their businesses through tough times and beat out the competition. Well-known concepts from the book include the twenty-mile march, 10Xers, leading above the death line, and SMaC recipes.
15. Influencer, Kerry Patterson: This book helps leaders understand how to build and organize centers of influence to drive change within an organization.
16. Crucial Conversations, Kerry Patterson: Another book by Patterson. There is some crossover in the concepts, but this book focuses more on best practices for approaching and holding difficult conversations.
17. Multipliers, Liz Wiseman: This book does a great job of describing how leaders can either hoard power and isolate their employees, or instead empower their employees to become problem solvers. The latter multiples the capacity of the organization to get much more work done.
18. The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins: This book works especially well for interviews because it shows that you’ve studied how to get up to speed quickly in a new job and start delivering value to the organization.
19. 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Rodd Wagner: One of my personal favorites. The Gallup Organization conducted over 10 million interviews across 114 countries to find out what helped employees feel satisfied and motivated. Applying these 12 principles will revolutionize your team and change your career.
20. Getting Things Done, David Allen: Hiring managers want to hear that you can deliver results. This book discusses how you can prioritize the work and maximize your output.

I would highly recommend all of these books. I’ve enjoyed each of them for different reasons. These and other business books have made me the manager I am today. I don’t claim to be the source of good ideas, but I know where to go to get them. If you would like more book recommendations, give me a call or send me a text.