10 Books You Need to Read in 2022 to Take Your Business to the Next Level

1. Mastering the Virtual Sale: 7 Strategies to Expand Your Business in the New Economy (Kerry Johnson)

The pandemic has changed the way the world does business and selling virtually is key to a successful business in the post-pandemic world. Yet, virtual selling remains difficult for most teams as its harder to build trust through non-verbal communication. Kerry Johnson’s book defines 7 strategies you can use to expand your business through virtual sales by creating trust using virtual platforms.

2. Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact (Liz Wiseman)

Team building in a remote or hybrid setting can be difficult for business leaders since cultivating relationships with employees and identifying star talent might take longer. Liz Wiseman’s book outlines how leaders can be impact players and identify others that can help them super-charge their teams on the ground. She outlines 5 key behaviors to look out for that make impact players stand out from typical contributors and under performers.

3. Workplace Jazz: How to IMPROVISE 9 Steps to Creating High-Performing Agile Project Teams (Gerald J. Leonard)

Workplace behaviors and the cultures that emerge from them have a huge impact on employee performance, turnover, and feelings of workplace isolation and burnout. Gerald J. Leonard, a musician and business leader, takes case studies, metaphors, and improvisation techniques from Jazz music and translates it into actionable strategies to build a connected project team to drive business results.

4. Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways to Build a More Inclusive World (Rohit Bhargava & Jennifer Brown)

Diversity remains a top-of-mind issue for many businesses, especially as more socially conscious employees seek opportunities that align with their personal values. While many organizations have published numerous think pieces on the subject, Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown’s book highlights ways to take real action towards building a more diverse and equitable workplace by engaging with business owners, disabled leaders, diversity officers, VCs, start-up founders, and others.

5. The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World (Dorie Clark)

Dorie Clark, a leading business thinker and professor at Duke University, reframes the way we think about success in “The Long Game.” Professionals in various industries feel perpetually rushed and behind as they shoot for instant success. Clark argues that we need to refocus our attention to smaller tasks and goals over time to create lasting success and value.

6. Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success (Gary Vaynerchuk)

Returning with his sixth book, Gary Vaynerchuk argues for the importance of emotional intelligence and soft skills and shows how they can help accelerate a business. Soft skills are hard to measure and quantify, but Vaynerchuk lays out twelve traits that led to his success and the half is a recognition that there is always a trait for leaders that can be improved.

7. Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It (Ethan Kross)

We all have our inner voice, a tiny yet sometimes loud voice in our heads that is sometimes called “self-talk.” At times it can be an anchor and our inner coach as we make business decisions, and other times, it can be our most intimate critic. Ethan Kross, a psychologist, explains how we can harness those inner voices to shape our work and lives overall.

8. The Leading Edge: Dream Big, Spark Change, and Become the Leader the World Needs You to Be (Holly Ransom)

Books on leadership are a dime a dozen, but Holly Ransom’s book stands out as it examines the leadership we need in the 2020s as the world faces complex challenges ranging from political division to consumer mistrust. Ransom’s book breaks leadership down into three digestible principles: mindset, method, and mastery, and she emphasizes you first need to learn how to lead yourself before you can lead others.

9. Evidence-Based Recruiting: How to Build a Company of Star Performers Through Systematic Repeatable Hiring Practices

Recruiting is an essential part of building your business, especially with The Great Resignation in 2021, and more and more hiring managers scrambling to figure out how to find top talent as remote hybrid workplaces become the norm. Atta Tarki makes the insightful argument that data and analytics and an evidence-based approach need to be leveraged in recruiting for businesses to thrive.

10. Elevated Economics: How Conscious Consumers Will Fuel the Future of Business (Richard Steel)

As the world comes back to life after the height of the pandemic, consumers have also changed significantly, and our economy is becoming more and more value-driven. Richard Steel highlights that the future of business relies on companies valuing environmental and social sustainability and taking actions towards creating more sustainable business practices.

Melissa Chan, Ph.D. is a Project Manager of ECA Partners. She can be reached at [email protected]