Book Recommendations

GREAT READS / 2024 Speaker & Steering Committee Book Recommendations

Lisa Bragg | 2024 Spark Speaker

Bragging Rights: How to Talk About Your Work Using Purposeful Self-Promotion

A Book by Lisa Bragg

Journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman delve into the anatomy of confidence. Drawing on scientific research, expert opinions, and personal stories, they explore the significance of confidence for women and how it can be cultivated. The book unravels the neurological basis of confidence, its role in success, and the reasons it often eludes women. Readers will uncover actionable strategies to boost self-assurance, shatter self-imposed limitations, and step into their power. For those who’ve ever doubted their abilities or felt their confidence waver, this book provides science-backed insights and practical steps to reclaim and fortify that inner strength.

BUY THIS BOOK

Mark Black | 2024 Spark Speaker

The Resilience Roadmap: 7 Guideposts for Charting Your Course in a Chaotic World

A Book by Mark Black

Change and disruption have become constants in our lives and work and they aren’t going away. Whether it’s a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, or the mounting demands on our time and energy, there is no shortage of reasons to feel anxious and stressed. In the face of so much change, will you fold under pressure or rise to the occasion? Mark Black is a heart and double-lung transplant recipient turned four-time marathon runner. He knows a thing or two about successfully channelling change into growth. A leading expert in the field, Mark believes resilience will be the most critical success skill of the twenty-first century. In this book, he reveals a framework for developing and employing resilience in all areas of your life

BUY THIS BOOK

Jessica Doyle-Mekkes | 2024 Spark Speaker

I’m Speaking: Every Woman’s Guide to Finding Your Voice and Using It Fearlessly

A Book by Jessica Doyle-Mekkes

I’m Speaking is every woman’s guide to creating a clear, confident voice that is authentically hers and then using it fearlessly. Full of effective, efficient, brain-science-based ways to make positive changes to your voice, in your head and coming out of your mouth, I’m Speaking also teaches the reader how to fearlessly use that voice, personally and professionally: ask for what you want and get what you need, speak up against toxicity, communicate everything better, have the difficult conversations, and cultivate resilience.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by Keka DasGupta | Spark 2024 Speaker

Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream

By Whitney Johnson

Whitney Johnson, popular Harvard Business Review blogger, has a goal: to help us identify and achieve our dreams. Her belief is that we can each achieve greater happiness when focusing both on our dreams and on other people in our lives. In this inspiring book, Johnson directs her attention to teaching women, in particular, a three-step model for personal advancement and happiness. She first encourages us to DARE to boldly step out, to consider disrupting life as we know it. Then she teaches us how to DREAM, to give life to the many possibilities available, whether to start a business, run a marathon, or travel the world. She shows us how to “date” our dreams (no need to commit!) and how to make space for dreams. Finally, Whitney’s model brings out the businesswoman in her; she teaches us to DO, to execute our dreams. She showcases the importance of sharing dreams with others to give them life, creating your own “dream team.” Rich with real stories of women who have dared to dream, DARE, DREAM, DO offers a practical framework to realize one’s true potential.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by Megan Troyer | Spark 2024 Steering Committee Member

Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

By Liz Wiseman

Multipliers is a book that contrasts two types of leaders: “Diminishers” and “Multipliers.” Diminishers drain energy, stifle ideas, and limit the potential of their teams by always needing to be the smartest person in the room. In contrast, Multipliers amplify the intelligence and capabilities of those around them, inspiring their teams to achieve extraordinary results. This book advocates for more Multipliers, especially in times when leaders are expected to accomplish more with fewer resources. It emphasizes how leadership style, particularly one that nurtures and elevates others, is key to fostering innovation and driving performance.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by Carolynn Oliver | 2023 Spark Committee Member

Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy

By Joan Magretta

Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy” by Joan Magretta distills the core ideas of Michael Porter’s influential work on competitive strategy. The book simplifies and clarifies Porter’s key concepts, including his famous frameworks like the Five Forces Model, the Value Chain, and competitive advantage. It serves as a practical guide for managers and business leaders to apply Porter’s principles to achieve sustained success in competitive markets, focusing on how companies can position themselves strategically to outperform rivals.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by Carolynn Oliver | Spark 2023 Steering Committee Member

Fearless Leadership: High Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck

By Carey D. Lohrenz

As an aviation pioneer, Carey D. Lohrenz learned what fearless leadership means in some of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Here, her teams had to perform at their peak―or lives were on the line. Since leaving the Navy, Carey has translated those lessons into a new field by helping top business leaders, from Fortune 500 executives to middle managers, supercharge their performance in today’s competitive business environments. Lohrenz walks you through the three fundamentals of real fearlessness–courage, tenacity, and integrity–and then reveals fearless leadership in action, offering advice on how to set a bold vision, bring the team together (as wingmen, not Top Gun mavericks), execute effectively, and stay resilient through hard times.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by Karen Thierson | Spark 2024 Steering Committee Member

Gutsy

By Natalie Frank

Gutsy is your guidebook to uncovering the audacious courage within you and making an impact on this world that only you can make. This book will help you learn to turn off the expectations of others, ask for what you deserve, stick your neck out, and be brave enough to take that next step. The gap between where you are and where you want to be is never as wide as you think it is. Gutsy will turn your momentary pause into forward progress with a heavy dose of radical curiosity, audacious courage, and abundant grace.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by Karen Thierson | Spark 2024 Steering Committee Member

Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

By Howard Schultz

In Pour Your Heart Into It, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz shares the passion, values, and inspiration that drive this fascinating company. Placing as much importance on employees as on profits, paying as much attention to creativity as to growth, motivated by enduring principles including “Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you”, and “Everything matters”, Starbucks is living proof that a company can lead with its heart, nurture its soul, and still make money.

BUY THIS BOOK

Recommended by DeeAnn Pruys | Spark 2024 Steering Committee Member

The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance

By Katty Kay & Claire Shipman

BUY THIS BOOK