
Edfolio
Top 5 Books on... Continuous Development
This December, we're sharing a top business book recommendation for each of the skills in Edfolio's Leadership Skills Matrix. This is the framework of skills which underpins our leadership and management training.
Our final theme is Continuous Development. This theme is broken down in to five key skills: Reflecting & Challenging, Overcoming Difficult Situations, Developing Talent, Innovation & Testing New Ideas and Planning for the Future.
We recommend a business book for each one below.
Reflecting & Challenging
The Grid by Matt Watkinson
Combining practical guidance with real-world examples, The Grid provides the mental scaffolding to help leaders and managers evaluate and refine ideas, reduce risk, address challenges and collaborate more effectively. Just keep a pen and paper handy - you will want to take notes!
Buy from Amazon | Buy from Blackwells
Overcoming Difficult Situations
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Sometimes, the most insightful books aren't handbooks, but biographies. In Shoe Dog, Nike founder Phil Knight charts his course to creating a global brand. As Bill Gates said about this book, it's a "refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like: messy, precarious, and riddled with mistakes."
Buy from Amazon | Buy from Blackwells
Developing Talent
Talent Magnet by Mark Miller
Mark Miller has written this book based on the observation that what keeps and attracts top talent is different than what attracts and keeps typical talent - and it's top talent that really makes a difference to businesses. Miller uses a business fable to make his case about what top talent really wants and how you can implement it.
Buy from Amazon | Buy from Blackwells
Innovation & Testing New Ideas
Invention: A Lift by James Dyson
James Dyson is one of the most famous names in British business - a name, in fact, that is synonymous with innovation and new ideas. In his memoir, Dyson reveals how he came to set up his own company and led it to become one of the most inventive technology companies in the world.
Buy from Amazon | Buy from Blackwells
Planning for the Future
Uncharted by Margaret Heffernan
We are addicted to prediction, desperate for certainty about the future. But the complexity of modern life won't provide that - certainly not in the world of business. In this new book, Heffernan challenges us to resist the false promises of technology and efficiency and instead mine our own creativity and humanity to chart our way to the future.