The summer months are an opportune time for professionals to take time out, reflect, and many look to expand their knowledge with books that will keep them occupied during this period. The difficult task is often finding the books that will resonate with professionals and motivate them to aim higher.
So what books are Irish professionals currently reading? We put the question out to professionals and here are the results. We got back an eclectic list of fiction and nonfiction, spanning everything from classics to newcomers, and business topics to biographies.
Results:
Our overall results allowed us to compile a reading list of the top 3 books Irish professionals are reading right now according to each area of specialisation. The majority of Irish professionals who participated in this survey are Senior Level / Executive / Director Level and the reading list has been mostly influenced by professionals working as leaders in their industries.
Employment level
Accounting & Finance Professionals
Give and Take by Adam Grant
This landmark book opens up an approach to success that has the power to transform not just individuals and groups, but entire organizations and communities.
7 habits of Effective People by Stephen Covey
Internationally bestselling author Stephen R. Covey offers a principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems.
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman reveals the truth about our intuitions and rationality to teach us how to better our lives. He explores the fascinating flaws and marvels of human behaviour and reveals to us the common errors in people’s beliefs.
Marketing & PR Professionals
Getting Things Done by David Allen
This internationally best-selling volume teaches you how to keep a clear head, relax and organise your thoughts while implementing the organisational methods taught in the book.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed.
Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age by Gini Dietrich
This book will teach you how to communicate honestly, responsibly, openly, and authentically…and truly earn the trust of your customers, stakeholders, investors, and communities.
Human Resources Professionals
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The World Controllers have created the ideal society. Genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon Semi-Morons, man is bred and educated to be content with his pre-destined role.
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra
This book offers advice to help you: redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions; diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a bigger range of stakeholders; become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar leadership style to evolve; and much more.
Smartcuts by Shane Snow
The writer analyses the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.
Consulting & Advisory Professionals
A Positive No by William Ury
A Positive No has the power to profoundly transform our lives by enabling us to say Yes to what counts–our own needs, values, and priorities.
Exodus by Leon Uris
Passionate summary of the inhuman treatment of the Jewish people in Europe, of the exodus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to Palestine, and of the triumphant founding of the new Israel.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
This book shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our everyday life.
All That Man Is by David Szalay
A collection of short stories highlights the stories of nine men. Each of them at a different stage of life, each of them away from home, and each of them striving – in the suburbs of Prague, beside a Belgian motorway, in a cheap Cypriot hotel – to understand just what it means to be alive, here and now.
Legal Professionals
The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte
A guide to creating success on your own terms, The Fire Starter Sessions reframes popular self-help and success concepts to cut through dull thinking and fear, and get straight to one’s core desires, pragmatism, and courage — and burn some illusions to a crisp.
Execution – The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck
The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results, whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job.
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.
IT & Tech Professionals
Disrupted by Dan Lyons
This is a memoir about Lyon’s experiences as a middle-aged career journalist who takes a job in marketing a start up.
Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built by Richard S. Tedlow
The pre-eminent business historian of our time, Richard S. Tedlow, examines seven great CEOs who successfully managed cutting-edge technology and formed enduring corporate empires.
The Distracted Mind by Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen
This book explains why our brains aren’t built for multitasking and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology.
