A new year brings with it new opportunity for you to better yourself and learn new things. It’s a time to grow and look for ways to learn new skills that can help you, personally and professionally. Think of what you read like you would a diet, you want to ingest food of good quality that will benefit your body. When it comes to reading, you want to feed your mind with insights and notions that will empower you and help you become a better version of yourself as a person and businessman. Read through our list of the best business books you need to pick up this year.

These books can help you achieve the gains you’re looking for at home and at work, and they should be high up on your reading list for 2020. Let’s get to the best business books of 2020. Or, check out these other book recommendations!

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The Best Business Books 2020

1. Measure What Matters by John Doerr

Doerr is a venture capitalist and one of the early investors of Google. He developed a framework over the years for goal setting. This framework aims to help any organization find the proper way to set realistic goals and achieve strategic results for the sustainable growth of their business. Early Googlers are among the companies that used his system known as OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). OKRs were used for setting, communicating and observing goals during a process of hypergrowth. If you’re looking for a leadership process for your organization, this is the book to read!

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2. The Right It by Alberto Savoia

Alberto Savoia’s research focuses on the reason why most startups fail. It boils down to developing what he calls “the wrong it.” Execution is not the problem, rather failure comes from wasted effort, time and capital in developing an idea that the market doesn’t want. Alberto Savoia thought of a methodology called Pretotyping, which minimizes the risk of developing unsuccessful products or services, by manufacturing experiments that allow entrepreneurs to gather real-world data, to assess whether their product will work in the current marketplace.

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3. Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World by Rand Fishkin

If you’re familiar with digital marketing, the name Rand Fishkin won’t be foreign to you. He’s the founder of Moz.com, the most important and authoritative blog on search engine optimization. He is not only idolized by SEO practitioners, but also many whom are trying to build a successful business from the ground up. This is a must-read for any aspiring founder or anyone that is running a startup business. You will learn a lot from Rand Fishkin, lessons that you can apply to your own business and work.

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4. The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success by Maria Ross

When your team members come to you with issues, you want to try to get under the surface and understand how you can get on their level. Empathy is an absolute necessity for any business to function. This book is a great tool on the way empathy plays into the leadership, brand, and culture of companies, big and small.

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5. The Non-Obvious Guide to Emotional Intelligence by Kerry Goyette

Leading in this day and age isn’t just about setting and meeting your goals. It’s about connecting with your people, your customers, and the world around you. That’s a lesson you should always try to keep at the top of your mind. Goyette’s book explores how to develop more effective relationships, build better environments, and lead in a more purposeful manner.

6. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Purpose by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

If you want to learn how to focus on what matters most both at home and in the office, then this is the book for you!  Writers Keller and Papasan ask you to ask yourself, “What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” This book teaches you how to master what matters most, which has already helped sales teams boost sales, companies have more productive training, and much more.

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7. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

This book from Target challenges the belief that the world’s most successful people are specialists in their profession of choice (whether it be sports, business, tech, science, or the fine arts) — and began their pursuit early in life. It’s the generalists who are primed to succeed, even those with a late start, says author David Epstein. He breaks it all down by sharing the stories behind generalist stars such as Duke Ellington, J.K. Rowling and Roger Federer.

8. Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual by Jocko Willink

A field manual is the perfect guide for new leaders, who have less time than anyone to read through great big books on leadership. The military uses field manuals to provide simple, step-by-step instructions for coping with myriad unfamiliar situations. The author Willink, a onetime Navy Seal commander, takes that approach in his book with subjects like dealing with imposter syndrome, handing out punishment, and giving feedback.

 

9. Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don’t by L. David Marquet

Language is one of the biggest leadership subjects of all. Readers can apply lessons from Marquet, a nuclear-submarine-commander-turned-consultant, simply, immediately and every day. As Marquet explores in his book, understanding distinctions between good and bad word choice and phrasing can improve the relationship between you and your workplace. For example, try delivering information (“I’ll start again at 11 a.m.”), instead of instruction (“Be back by 11 a.m.). It’s that simple.

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We hope you enjoyed reading our picks for the best business books to read in 2020.

Looking for more educational articles? We have a great articles on investing and the best e-commerce platforms.