50 books to help develop your skills in 2022

As a young team, Embryo recognises the importance of personal and professional development, not just for the progress of individual members, but also for the progress of Embryo as a company as a whole. Our team regularly partake in a wide range of initiatives to ensure we’re constantly challenging ourselves to get the most out of each other. From taking part in networking events with organisations like Manchester Young Professionals to internal goal-setting.

Another great way for young professionals to develop their personal and professional skills is through reading. However, with millions of books getting published each year, it can be difficult to know which books you should spend your time reading. This is why we’ve compiled a list of 50 books you should read this year to develop yourself personally and professionally.

*Disclaimer: I’ve not read them all, but the ones I haven’t read I’m adding to my list as they come highly recommended. 

1. Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear – This book regularly tops Amazon’s most read non-fiction book of the week.
2. Be More Pirate: Or How to Take On the World and Win by Sam Conniff Allende
3. Grow Your Agency To The First £5m And Beyond by Spencer Gallacher and Pete Hoole – A great book filled with many ideas on how you can make small changes to your business that can have big impacts.
4. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
5. Mindset: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfil Your Potential by Dr Carol S Dweck
6. Building A StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller – One I’m currently reading.
7. The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team by Patrick Lencioni – a bestseller that can help individuals and teams to prioritise working together and overcoming behavioural tendencies that can limit success. Want to see it applied in practice? Here’s how our Head of PPC applied the book to our award-winning PPC team.
8. The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume by Josh Kaufman
9. Hooked: How to build habit-forming products by Nir Eyal
10. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz
11. Who Moved My Cheese? By Dr Spencer Johnson
12. Release Your Brakes by Jim W. Newman
13. Liquid Thinking: Inspirational Lessons From The World′s Great Achievers by Damian Hughes
14. Top Dog: Impress And Influence Everyone You Meet by Andy Bounds and Richard Ruttle – A great book for junior team members, or those who need to build confidence in communicating with seniors.
15. Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
16. The Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg and David Mann
17. Playing Big: A Practical Guide For Brilliant Women Like You by Tara Mohr
18. It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques From The Best Damn Ship In The Navy by Captain D Michael Abrashoff
19. Bold: How To Be Brave In Business And Win by Shaun Smith and Andy Milligan
20. Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential by John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut
21. Talk Like Ted: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo
22. The Making Of A Manager: What To Do When Everyone Looks To You by Julie Zhuo
23. This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See by Seth Godin
24. Zero to One: Notes On Startups, Or How To Build The Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
25. Hyper Focus: How To Work Less And Achieve More by Chris Bailey
26. So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
27. Money: A User’s Guide To Taking Control Of Your Personal Finances
28. Happy Sexy Millionaire: Unexpected Truths About Fulfilment, Love and Success by Steven Bartlett
29. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
30. Grow Your People, Grow Your Sales: A Leader’s Guide to Creating A Growth Mindset Culture by Leigh Ashton
31. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money And Stand Out From The Crowd by Allan Dib
32. The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
33. The Discomfort Zone: How to Get What You Want By Living Fearlessly by Farrah Storr – A great book that will have you thinking about how you can challenge yourself each day to be a bit braver.
34. The Five Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
35. Get Your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knight – curious as to why you should add this to your list? Take a look at this review from our head of paid social.
36. Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity And Get Discovered by Austin Kleon
37. Measure What Matters: OKRs The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth by John Doerr – If you’re unsure what OKRs are or why you should be tracking them, then take a look at this blog from our operations manager here.
38. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
39. Shoe Dog: A Memoir By The Creator Of Nike by Phil Knight – An inspiring book that takes you through the origins of one of the world’s biggest brands, and how to be successful in business.
40. Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By And Get Your Financial Life Together by Erin Lowry
41.  Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World by Cal Newport
42.  Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? By Dr Julie Smith
43.  Manifest: 7 Steps To Living Your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi
44.  The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson
45.  It’s All In Your Head by Russ
46.  The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme To Help You Achieve Success, Confidence, Success and Happiness by Professor Steve Peters
47. How To Own The Room: Women And The Art Of Brilliant Speaking by Viv Groskop
48.  Good Vibes, Good Life: How Self-Love Is The Key To Unlocking Your Greatness by Vex King
49. Rebel Ideas: The Power Of Thinking Differently by Matthew Syed
50.  Harvard Business Review: On Managing Yourself

So now you have an extensive list of books and probably a large Amazon shopping basket, I hope you enjoy reading and learning a few things. However if you’re thinking I’d love to learn more, but I simply don’t have the time then I recommend you take a look at Blinkist, an app that has over 5000 non-fiction books that are summarised into ‘blinks’ of the key learning points and examples. You can then read the blinks on the app, send them to a Kindle or listen to them as audiobooks. Allowing you to ‘read’ a book in as little as 15 minutes.

Once you’ve started to read your way through the list, or if you’ve got other recommendations then we’d love to hear from you, so get in touch and drop us an email.