The 8 Best Career Growth Books of 2021

There are a ton of different ways to grow your career. Career growth can be as simple as talking with your supervisor about your goals or as complex as applying for your dream job and interviewing your way to a more advanced position.

At Leadership Essentials, we are fortunate to have front row seats to the launches and successes of several career development books. Some of our best career growth books have been around for years, while many have just been released in the past 12 months.

If you’re looking to take your professional life to the next level, we recommend that you add these books to your bookshelf!

Focused on Career Growth? Read These Books...

1. Recalculating

by Lindsay Pollak

No one comes out and says it but after our turbulent entry into 2020, we know it’s true: recalculating is a HUGE part of career growth. In Recalculating, New York Times bestselling author and researcher Lindsay Pollak teaches career starters, switchers, and advancers how to be an effective “recalculator” so they can withstand an unplanned or unwanted disruption to their professional aspirations. Focusing on the fundamentals of career growth, Pollak provides information from experts to help you succeed in all aspects of the job search from the in-person and virtual interactions to the online and offline representation of your personal brand.

2. The Five-Week Leadership Challenge

by Patrick Leddin

If you’re looking for a little more guidance to jumpstart your career growth, look no further than The Five-Week Leadership Challenge! Written by a professor at Vanderbilt University, The Five-Week Leadership Challenge is a book that doubles as a comprehensive leadership development program. Offering seven daily readings, discussion questions, and exercises for each of the five steps of the collegiate program, you’ll learn how to build your influence at work and grow your career for life. This book is designed to help you gain perspective, discover your purpose, determine priorities for yourself and others, create plans, and inspire performance.

3. Sparked

by Jonathan Fields

Can you really build a career around your personality? The Sparketype assessment is like the Enneagram but for people who are committed to finding fulfillment in their careers. Now, you can discover exactly how to use your results to make real changes in your career path with the corresponding book written by Sparketype developer Jonathan Fields. Whether you’re a Maven who lives to learn or a Sage who is gifted at sharing insights with others, you’ll find suggestions for how to secure a more meaningful career inside Sparked!

4. Ultralearning

by Scott Young

You want to advance your skills, but you don’t have a budget for teachers or tuition. What is there to do? Ultralearning is one of our favorite books in our store because it inspires readers to learn new skills faster so they can have an immediate impact on their career. The Wall Street Journal bestseller will teach you nine principles of ultralearning—a strategy for acquiring skills and knowledge that is both self-directed and intense. Author Scott Young doesn’t simply make bold promises here. He shares the exact strategies he used to complete MIT’s four-year computer science curriculum in twelve months and learn four languages in one year.

5. The Conscience Code

by G. Richard Shell

Surveys show that more than 40% of employees report seeing ethical misconduct at work, and most fail to report it. When your values are at odds with the values of your workplace, you’ll lack motivation to improve at your job and your career. Wharton School Professor G. Richard Shell released the essential guide to standing up for your values at work, The Conscience Code, which comprises 10 rules to protect your integrity in the workplace. Daniel Pink says “This powerful and practical book brings the science of persuasion to the problem of doing the right thing—showing leaders at every level how to stand up for their deepest beliefs.”

6. Writing Without Bullshit

by John Bernoff

Learning to say what you mean in a bold, direct way can boost your career. Writing Without Bullshit is The Elements of Style for the Internet era; an essential tonic for the career of every serious businessperson. Written by a professional business writer of more than 30 years, this book belongs on the desk of anyone who must write in any capacity as a requirement of their job. Use Writing Without Bullshit to replace jargon in your emails, write social media posts that get read, and create promotion-worthy reports. Above all, learn to treat the reader’s time as more valuable than your own. Embrace that, and your customers, your boss, and your colleagues will recognize the power and boldness of your thinking.

7. Master Mentors

by Scott Miller

Mining the best and brightest revelations from FranklinCovey’s global podcast, On Leadership with Scott Miller, Scott personally introduces you to 30 Master Mentors including Daniel Pink, Susan Cain, and Seth Godin, featuring the single most transformative insight from each of them. This book is like a staircase. Since many of the Master Mentors are bestselling authors, each chapter is like a step that leads you to another exhilarating read for growing your leadership!

8. Creative Directions

by Jason Sperling

There are more and more people in creative fields now, but very few people are talking about the challenges of managing creative people or becoming a creative manager. So we were pleased when Jason Sperling’s debut title Creative Directions hit our desk. A soon-to-be management classic, this book is a snackable, easy-reference guide for managing creative teams. A collection of insights from dozens of star creative leaders in the entertainment industry, readers can open the book to any page and find some actionable or inspirational insight or strategy about managing people, being a leader, managing clients and higher-ups, handling creative work, and optimizing a creative career.