The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List

Category: Quick Start

2007 Edition: Revised and Updated

by Josh Kaufman

Business schools don’t have a monopoly on worldly wisdom. If you're serious about learning advanced business principles, the Personal MBA can help. The Personal MBA recommended reading list is the tangible result of hundreds of hours of reading and research, and features only the very best books the business press has to offer. So skip the fancy diploma and $150,000 loan - you can get a world-class business education simply by reading these books.

To learn more about the Personal MBA, read the manifesto.

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10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale

When reading non-fiction, reading a book word-for-word is often a sub-optimal approach: non-linear reading strategies can help increase your reading speed while maintaining high comprehension. Developed by the Princeton Language Learning Institute, the effectiveness of the reading techniques that you’ll find in 10 Days to Faster Reading are supported by research and very easy to understand and apply. I know they work from experience: by applying these techniques, I was able to review hundreds of books in the process of creating the PMBA recommended reading list.

I’ve reviewed many reading skills programs, including one that cost over $200, and this book is the best: superior content at a very reasonable price. By reading this book and working each day to improve your reading skills, you’ll be able to work your way through the Personal MBA in record time.

(Bonus link: For a quick, free primer on effective non-fiction reading techniques, check out How to Read a Book (PDF) by Paul N. Edwards.)

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

If you want to enjoy your work and get important things done, it's best to capitalize on your strengths instead of spending time and effort trying to improve your weaknesses. The follow-up to Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the summation of a wide body of research conducted by the Gallup Organization on the subject of human talent. Gallup has identified 34 distinct, statistically-significant areas where people naturally tend to exhibit consistent, near flawless performance, and created an online assessment to help you discover your personal strengths.

Each copy of this book comes with an access code for newly-updated Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment, an online tool that helps you identify and understand your own unique combination of strengths. (Be sure to get a new copy in order to get access to the assessment: used or library copies probably won’t work.)

The assessment is short but very illuminating, and includes personalized action recommendations that show you how your strengths interact with each other. Personally, I found the results of the assessment uncannily accurate, and the action plan very useful.

In addition to explaining how we develop our individual talents, this book has a lot to say about diversity and why it is so important in business. Since everyone has a different combination of strengths, we all approach the world from a slightly different perspective. By working with people who possess a wide variety of skills and backgrounds and taking advantage of each individual's unique strengths, you’ll be far more likely to lead your project to a successful outcome.

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

The Personality Code by Travis Bradberry

Like every other person, you have a natural way of interacting and working with other people. Understanding your own personality and how you tend to relate to others can make it much easier to understand and get along with other people, particularly in challenging situations.

Based on seven decades of research and a new global study of more than 500,000 people, The Personality Code breaks down the intricacies of the human personality into 14 clear, statistically-significant archetypes. Using proprietary scientific and statistical methods, Dr. Bradberry and his colleagues have succeeded in developing an accurate assessment based on the long-standing DISC personality model that makes it easy to identify your personality type. This is not a book about "pigeon-holing" you into a group - it's about understanding yourself and others using a series of very useful mental models as a guide.

Each book includes access to a surprisingly short online assessment that quickly determines your personality type and explains how you naturally tend to relate with others.

In addition to taking the assessment and reading your profile, I recommend taking time to browse the sections detailing other personality types. Chances are, you'll learn a lot about your colleagues, your boss, and your friends - knowledge that will certainly come in handy as you work your way through the business world.

For best results, have everyone in your team take the assessment, and share the results with each other as a team-building exercise. (Buying a few of these books is much cheaper than using other DISC assessment vendors, who charge $50-100+ per test.) You'll learn a lot about what makes your colleagues tick, get along with each other better, and get more done as a result.

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

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