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100 Coaching Book Recommendations, Part 1: Entrepreneurship, Job Search, Career Change, Leadership and Real-Life Examples

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Books make excellent holiday gifts, especially for yourself. As an executive coach and avid reader, here are my picks for the best in career and business coaching books:

Entrepreneurship: Start A Business, Grow A Business

  1. Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant by Kim, W. Chan and Renee Mauborgne
  2. Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
  3. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hseih
  4. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
  5. The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business by Carol Roth
  6. The Entrepreneur's Trap: How to Stop Working Too Much, Take Back Your Time and Enjoy Life by Tina Forsyth
  7. Escape From Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim
  8. Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty by Patrick Lencioni
  9. The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham
  10. The Monk and The Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living by Randy Komisar
  11. Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track – And Keeping It There by Les McKeown
  12. Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham
  13. The Suitcase Entrepreneur: Creat freedom in business and adventure in life by Natalie Sisson

Leadership and Management

  1. The Feiner Points of Leadership: The 50 Basic Laws That Will Make People Want to Perform Better for You by Michael Feiner
  2. Forget A Mentor, Get A Sponsor: The New Way To Fast-Track Your Career by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
  3. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box by Arbinger Institute
  4. The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t by Robert Sutton
  5. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
  6. Setting The Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
  7. Standing Ovation Presentations by Robyn Hatcher
  8. The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
  9. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter

Sales and Marketing

  1. Get Clients Now by CJ.. Hayden and Jay Conrad Levinson
  2. Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  3. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
  4. Roadmap To Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy by Kristin Zhivago
  5. Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
  6. Word of Mouse: 101+ Trends in How We Buy, Sell, Live, Learn Work, and Play by Marc Ostrofsky

Job Search

  1. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need by Daniel Pink
  2. Brag: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus
  3. Fire Your Boss by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine
  4. For Executives Only: Applying Business Techniques to Your Job Search (Five O’Clock Club) by Bill Belknap and Helene Seiler
  5. Harper's Rules: A Recruiter’s Guide to Finding a Dream Job and the Right Relationship by Danny Cahill
  6. Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future by Dan Schawbel
  7. Negotiate This!: By Caring But Not T-H-A-T Much by Herb Cohen
  8. The New Job Security: The 5 Best Strategies For Taking Control of Your Career by Pam Lassiter
  9. Smart Networking: Attract A Following In Person and Online by Liz Lynch
  10. The Rare Find: How Great Talent Stands Out by George Anders
  11. They Don't Teach Corporate In College by Alexandra Levit

Career Change and Alternative Career Thinking

  1. Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live by Martha Beck
  2. I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How To Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher and Barbara Smith
  3. Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries by Peter Sims
  4. Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter
  5. One Person/ Multiple Careers: The Original Guide to the Slash Career by Marci Alboher
  6. The Renaissance Soul: How to Make Your Passions Your Life – A Creative and Practical Guide by Margaret Lobenstine
  7. Shift: Let Go of Fear and Get Your Life in Gear by Jeffrey Hull
  8. U-TURN: What If You Woke Up One Morning and Realized You Were Living the Wrong Life? by Bruce Grierson
  9. What Should I Do With My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson
  10. Working Identity: Unconventional Stregies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra

Biographies and Real-Life Case Studies of Business and Career Success

  1. Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet by Michael Wolff
  2. This Business Has Legs: How I Used Infomercial Marketing to Create the $100,000,000 ThighMaster Craze by Peter Bieler
  3. Leaving Microsoft To Change The World by John Wood
  4. Masters of Enterprise by H.W. Brands
  5. Motherswork: How A Young Mother Started A Business On A Shoestring And Built It Into A Multi-Million Dollar Company by Rebecca Matthias
  6. One Day, All Children…: The Unlikely Triumph Of Teach For America And What I Learned Along The Way by Wendy Kopp
  7. Play Money by Laura Pedersen
  8. Rags to Riches: Motivating Stories of How Ordinary People Achieved Extraordinary Wealth by Alan Lavine and Gail Liberman
  9. Start Small Finish Big by Fred DeLuca and John P. Hayes
  10. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
  11. Use What You've Got, and Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom by Barbara Corcoran

Did I miss one of your favorites? Share your recommendations in the comments!

In my next post, I’ll share 40 more book recommendations for life success, productivity and time management, peak performance and personal finance.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is co-founder of SixFigureStart® career coaching. She has worked with executives from American Express, Citigroup, Condé Nast, Gilt, Goldman Sachs, Google, McKinsey, and other leading firms. She’s also a stand-up comic, so she’s not your typical coach. Connect with Caroline on Google+.