These are some of my favorite reads:
(Click on the titles to be taken directly to Amazon)
For career-development:
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter: Great read on how to get more from your team–with practical advice that can also apply to parenting.
Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace With Today’s Nontraditional Workforce and The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance In the Changing World of Work: Originally recommended to Heather by a mentor, these two books give great insight into the changing workforce and how employees and corporations should look at the “employee life cycle”.
What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers: As working parents it’s extra important that we are fulfilled by our careers. This book helps the reader dig deep into him/herself to help explore possible career changes.
slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, and DataStory: Nancy Duarte is one of my favorite authors, and these are must reads if you do any type of presentations.
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
High-Impact Tools for Teams: learn great frameworks on how to foster collaboration and effective problem solving and how to improve team dynamics and psychological safety.
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Recognition can’t be one-size fits all. Learn how to identify appreciation languages, and how you can use that information to better engage and recognize your team.
For inspiration:
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead: Believe the hype. This won’t give you a formula that will solve your problems, but will make you think.
How Great Women Lead: A Mother-Daughter Adventure into the Lives of Women Shaping the World: This book not only has great leadership advice from women of all walks of life, but is an interesting view into a unique journey of a mother and daughter working together to write it.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln: While this book was slow to start and is quite long, one you get a few chapters in it’s not only extremely interesting, but it has so many great examples of how to leverage the power of differences and the importance of timing for controversial messages and acts.
Originals: How Non-Confirmists Move the World: This book has great insights on what it means (and what are factors that contribute) to be original. There are also some very interesting insights on how parenting can influence originality.
For self-development:
The Confidence Code: This book is a great reflection on why confidence is so important–backed up by research and evidence. It also has great tips on how to build your confidence.
Work + Life: Author Cali Williams Yost does a great job of helping the reader work through different options to creating a business case for asking your employer for different flexible options.
Restore Yourself: The Antidote for Professional Exhaustion: A quick and easy read to help you think through what restores you and what depletes you. Good read for anyone, and a thoughtful exercise that should be done often in your life.
The Five Languages of Love: Excellent book on communicating and relationships. It’s relevant for both your personal and professional relationships.
For entrepreneurship:
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses: This book gives a great overview of how to start a business through small iterations. Great for any one with an idea they want to test the market for.
Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers: This book is also great for entrepreneurs. It’s Business Model Canvas is just one of the great tools that help you think through your business model, customer, and market.
These are some my favorite links:
irelaunch: for general tools, resources, events, and information about returning to work after a career break
Maybrooks.com: a great resource to find flexible jobs
Daily Worth: Great read to increase your financial health
Working Mother: Short, informative articles designed for the working mother
Forte Foundation: Named “Forbes Top 100 Websites for Women”, this website has a wealth of education, career advice, webinars and more
Meg Jay: Why 30 is not the New 20: One of Heather’s favorite TED talks. A must watch for mothers with daughters, girls of all ages, and women re-entering the dating world.
The Daddy Juggle: A WSJ that gives a father-oriented perspective on working parenthood.
Sheryl Sandberg’s Commencement Speech to 2016 UC Berkeley Graduations: Such a great speech with amazing life advice applicable to all