9 Influential Business Books You Need to Read

Regularly reading has many benefits, including strengthening the brain, reducing stress, helping to prevent cognitive decline and alleviating depression. We compiled a list of the best influential business books to not only improve your brain function but improve your business practices as well. All written in 2021, these books will inspire, motivate and expand your knowledge on everything business. These best sellers and trending books provide the best tips that will keep you wanting more. Check out our list of influential business books below and give it a share if you love the recommendations. Enjoy!

Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots by James Suzman

James Suzman outlines a history of “work” from the origins of life on Earth to the present day. He answers questions like, are we hard-wired to work as hard as we do, and did our stone-age ancestors live to work and work to live? Suzman draws insights from archaeology, anthropology, economics, evolutionary biology, zoology, and physics. He explains that while we have grown to find meaning, joy, and purpose in work, our ancestors worked significantly less and thought very differently about work for most of human history than we do now.

Change Your World: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make a Difference John C. Maxwell

Change Your World guides you through the process of taking action and making an impact right where you are. It helps you target the desire of your heart, whether it’s more positive workplaces, more engaged communities, more connected families, or better neighborhoods. John C. Maxwell and Rob Hoskins, global leadership and development icons, deliver the practical and inspiring roadmap to get you started being the change you want to see. Change Your World outlines how to identify your cause, live out values that will make a difference, become a catalyst for reform, join the right team or recruit your own, work with others to make a difference, and measure your impact while continuing to improve.

Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe.

In work Won’t Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe examines that specific work should be done out of passion versus pay. Jaffe dives into the common phrase “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” and uncovers how employees are strained to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do what they love. The book is told through the experiences and lives of workers in various industries, from unpaid interns to overworked teachers to nonprofit workers to professional athletes. Jaffe argues that understanding the trap of the labor of love will demand people’s worth is valued while empowering them to work less.

Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Sanjay Gupta

Neurosurgeon Dr. Sanyjay Gupta offers a book for everyone, young and old. Top scientists worldwide provide insights that can help heighten and protect brain function while maintaining cognitive health at any age. Keep Sharp debunks common myths about mental decline and aging, explores whether there’s a “best” exercise or diet regimen for the brain, and explains whether it’s healthier to play video games that test processing speed and memory or engage in more social interaction.

Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross

Acclaimed psychologist Ethan Kross examines the silent conversations people have with themselves. He interweaves groundbreaking brain and behavioral research from his lab throughout the book. Kross explains how our conversations shape our lives, relationships, and work. He warns about giving in to chatter, negative and disorientating self-talk, which can sink our moods, tank our health, cause us to fold under pressure, and strain our social connections. The good news is, though, that we are already equipped with the tools to make our inner voice work in our favor.

Huddle: How Women Unlock their Collective Power by Brooke Baldwin

CNN news anchor Brooke Baldwin examines the phenomenon of “huddling” when women lean on one another. Baldwin explores huddling in activism, politics, Hollywood, the arts, everyday friendships, and sports where women provide support, inspiration, empowerment, and the strength to solve problems or enact meaningful change. Huddle explores droughts in America’s history where women have not huddled together and recent movements where women have huddled together well. Throughout her exploration of how women huddle, Baldwin learns that huddling is not a new phenomenon, and women have been doing it for generations and will continue to.

What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society by Minouche Shafik

As a society, we are bound together through social contracts such as caring for others, paying taxes, and benefiting from public services. Shafik takes readers through stages of life many people experience, including getting educated, working, raising children, growing old, and falling ill. She demonstrates how a reordering of society is possible. Pulling from examples and evidence worldwide, Shafik reveals how every country can provide citizens with the basics to have a decent life and contribute to society. What We Owe Each Other is powerful, thought-provoking, and hopeful.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant proposes a new set of intelligence in our ever-changing world, the ability to rethink and unlearn. Although intelligence is typically seen as the ability to think and unlearn, Grant is an expert at opening people’s minds. One of the guiding principles he lives by is arguing like he’s right while listening as if he were wrong. With rigorous evidence and bold ideas, he examines how people can encompass the joy of being wrong, bring refinement to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners.

How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman

Milkman draws on her research and the work of her world-renowned scientific collaborators to share strategic methods for recognizing and conquering common barriers to change, such as spontaneous actions without thinking, delaying things that need to be done, and forgetfulness. Milkman outlines why timing can be everything when it comes to making a change, how to turn temptation and laziness into assets, and that giving advice, even if it’s about something you’re struggling with, can help you achieve more. How to Change offers a priceless, science-based blueprint for accomplishing your goals.

We hope you enjoyed our list of influential business books and have found the next book you plan to dive into to fill your reading time. Know of a great business book from 2021 that we missed and needs to be on our list? Share it with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Face-book! Don’t forget to share our list with your friends, colleagues, and social media!