Here are the emotions-at-work related books we’re most excited to read this year. There is so much to look forward to!
From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America by Howard Schultz (January 2019)
We open our book, No Hard Feelings, by sharing that when Howard Schultz returned to lead Starbucks in 2008, he cried in front of the entire company. Schultz is a great example of an emotionally intelligent and selectively vulnerable leader. In his upcoming book, Schultz examines what a leader’s responsibilities are to both their organization and to society. The book is “part candid memoir, part uplifting blueprint of mutual responsibility, and part proof that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport (February 2019)
We love Cal Newport’s writing on how to reduce work stress: “Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world.” In his new book, Newport introduces a philosophy for technology use to improve our lives by deciding what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.
Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization? by Aaron Dignan (February 2019)
Aaron Dignan runs an organizational consulting firm called The Ready. In his new book, Dignan shares how The Ready and other organizations are “inventing a smarter, healthier, and more effective way to work. Not through top down mandates, but through a groundswell of autonomy, trust, and transparency.”
The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhou (March 2019)
When Julie Zhou became a manager at age 25, and she had no idea what she was doing. Now she is one of Facebook’s top product design executives, and she’s learned that great managers are made, not born. We’ve loved following Zhou’s writing about leadership on her popular blog "The Year of the Looking Glass," and are eagerly awaiting more tips and wisdom.
Work Wife by Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur (March 2019)
Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur started the popular fashion and design website Of a Kind (which was acquired by Bed Bath and Beyond). In this book, Cerulo and Mazur “bring to light the unique power of female friendship to fuel successful businesses. Drawing on their own experiences, as well as the stories of other thriving ‘work wives,’ they highlight the ways in which vulnerability, openness, and compassion—qualities central to so many women’s relationships—lend themselves to professional accomplishment and innovation.”
Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon (April 2019)
In Austin Kleon’s first book, Steal Like an Artist, he inspired millions of people to tap into their creative side. In addition to to his writing, we love the design aesthetic of Kleon’s books. Now in the same inimitable style, he gives “advice and encouragement on how to stay creative, focused, and true to yourself in the face of personal burnout or external distractions.”
The Scout Mindset: The Perils of Defensive Thinking and How to Be Right More Often by Julia Galef (June 2019)
We love Julia Galef’s podcast Rationally Speaking, in which she speaks with experts about the lines between reason and nonsense, likely and unlikely, science and pseudoscience. In The Scout Mindset, Galef encourages readers to approach ideas like a scout: survey the landscape and try to gather as much information as possible before coming to a conclusion. Her book draws on a range of stories from Warren Buffett's investing strategies to subreddit threads.
Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna (June 2019)
Jerry Colonna is a former venture capitalist who’s become a beloved coach to entrepreneurs (he’s known as the “CEO Whisperer”) through Reboot, the coaching firm he co-founded. We interviewed him for our book, and immediately thought “we hope Jerry writes a book, because we want to read it.” In his book, Jerry guides readers through radical self-inquiry to help them understand how their emotions might affect their relationships. Jerry believes “work does not have to destroy us. Work can be the way in which we achieve our fullest self.”
The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World by Jamil Zaki (June 2019)
Jamil Zaki is a Stanford psychologist who studies empathy. In his book, he argues that empathy is not a fixed trait—something we’re born with or not—but rather a skill that anyone can strengthen through effort. Zaki uses case studies to illustrate his argument, including a story of how NICU nurses learned to fine-tune their empathy so that they don’t burnout.