In these thought-provoking times books can help and encourage us in many ways. If you are a business owner or manager, they can be a source of inspiration, provide hints and tips, along with much needed business strategies.
By providing the right knowledge together with new ways of thinking they can help improve your success rate, give new insights and help you develop the necessary skills along the way. Reading can provide context around your everyday challenges, create opportunities and open- up your mind to new choices, some of which you may not have even considered.
Your mindset, your belief system, is a limit on your success in business. When you pick up and read books such as business biographies, you can pick up the traits that allow individuals to succeed in business. Things like grit, persistence, determination and of course resourcefulness.
Similar to joining our leadership programmes, where you are surrounded by business owners and managers from different industries with different experiences and ideas, knowledge in books can inform you if someone has learnt what not to do in a certain business situation (by putting their hand in the fire) you can thus learn that same lesson, without suffering the same pain or misfortune. This knowledge can help you reach your goals quicker and give you confidence.
We know some people succeed in business while others often get left behind. Many studies have shown that some of the most successful people, nearly all of them had something in common – they read books. Lots and lots of books.
So, here is our list of books suggested by some of our 20Twenty Team to hopefully give you a head start:
1. Re-inventing Leadership, Dr Paul Thomas
2. The Game Plan: Your Guide to Mental Toughness at Work, Steve Bull
3. The Leader’s Way: Business, Buddhism and Happiness in an Interconnected World, Dalai Lama
4. The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management, Prof Steve Peters
6. Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan
7. Winners and How they Succeed, Alastair Campbell
9. Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking, Matthew Syed
Post by: Jackie Whittaker, 20Twenty Business Development Manager, Bangor University
Related Links
TED Talks: What it takes to be a great leader – Recommended Reading List