In 2022, as they faced a tight labor market and a looming economic downturn, business leaders had a lot on their minds. With the year coming to a close, Fast Company asked executives which new business books they sought out for guidance and leadership advice. Many of them cited some of the year’s most influential business titles, including Tony Fadell’s “unorthodox guide” to making products and Andy Dunn’s memoir of leading Bonobos while struggling with bipolar disorder. Here are some of their recommendations for the top business books of the year:
BURN RATE: LAUNCHING A STARTUP AND LOSING MY MIND, BY ANDY DUNN
Allison Robinson, CEO of the Mom Project, calls Dunn’s memoir an “honest and raw account of the extreme personal toll that startups can take on founders and their families.” Mariel Reed, the cofounder and CEO of CoProcure, echoed that sentiment, adding that she couldn’t put the book down. “I’m glad more founders are sharing how the lines between their personal and work selves are often not so distinct,” she says. “It was a helpful reminder to observe, and be honest about, the exhilarating and often unhealthy or even dangerous sides of building a business.”
MOONSHOT: INSIDE PFIZER’S NINE-MONTH RACE TO MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE, BY ALBERT BOURLA
Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington says this book penned by the Pfizer CEO was one of her favorite reads this year. “It tells the incredible story behind the company’s sprint to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine in record time,” says Huffington. “But it’s also a deeply personal memoir and a great leadership manual about business transformation.”
Huffington also recommends Gallup CEO Jon Clifton’s Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It (“The warning signs about unhappiness were there long before anybody had ever heard of COVID-19”) and The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships With Their Jobs, by Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter. “Maslach is a true pioneer in the field of burnout, having been one of the researchers who first identified and studied the problem in the ’70s,” Huffington says. “[The authors] note that the conversation on burnout tends to focus on the individual. But this approach only addresses the symptoms of burnout, not the root cause. Burnout, they argue, is a systemic problem and needs solutions at the organizational level.”
THE MAN WHO BROKE CAPITALISM: HOW JACK WELCH GUTTED THE HEARTLAND AND CRUSHED THE SOUL OF CORPORATE AMERICA―AND HOW TO UNDO HIS LEGACY, BY DAVID GELLES
Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert praises this book by Gelles, a business reporter at The New York Times, as an insightful dive into “the need for capitalism to evolve beyond the version modeled by ‘CEO of the century’ Jack Welch.” Gellert also recommends Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less, by the founders of Axios, for its pointers on how to communicate more clearly. “In these dynamic times, people want clarity, not certainty,” he says.
DO HARD THINGS: WHY WE GET RESILIENCE WRONG AND THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF REAL TOUGHNESS, BY STEVE MAGNESS
“Magness is a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes,” says Liana Douillet Guzman, the CEO of Folx Health. “In this book, he makes the case for transcending discomfort, paying attention to your body, embracing reality, and responding instead of reacting to cultivate resilience and achieve high performance.”
TAKE BACK YOUR POWER: 10 NEW RULES FOR WOMEN AT WORK, BY DEBORAH LIU
Winnie CEO Sara Mauskopf describes this book as a “must-read” for both men and women. “It’s backed with research that illuminates the real obstacles women face in the workplace,” she adds. “But it also includes some of the most actionable and realistic solutions to overcome these hurdles.”
ESSENTIAL LABOR: MOTHERING AS SOCIAL CHANGE, BY ANGELA GARBES
This book examines the state of caregiving and “the particular demands our society makes of moms, which fall especially hard on women of color,” says Adrianne Nickerson, the cofounder and CEO of Oula. “Angela Garbes is a stunning writer, and her first book, Like a Mother, combines a well-researched exploration of the science and culture of pregnancy and birth with a moving, funny memoir,” she adds. “This book asks: What if we recognized mothering as the essential, highly skilled work that it is, and changed the world accordingly?”
Nickerson also recommends Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, collected by Amy Schumer and Christy Turlington Burns. “The essays in it do such a beautiful job of tying together personal experiences of birth and the larger systemic issues that shape those experiences for better or worse,” she says.
THE NOWHERE OFFICE: REINVENTING WORK AND THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE, BY JULIA HOBSBAWM
“How do you help your employees recognize they have power to shape the future?” says Michael McCarroll, the cofounder and CEO of Teamraderie. “With all the talk in 2022 of hybrid work, return to office, and the rest, many workers feel the future ‘happens’ to them—but they can’t shape it. In The Nowhere Office, the case is made for the momentous opportunity upon us today and the role each of us can play in creating more positive, effective, and productive ways to work in the future.”
BUILD: AN UNORTHODOX GUIDE TO MAKING THINGS WORTH MAKING, BY TONY FADELL
“It’s not just a great book for CEOs; it’s relevant for builders at any stage of their career,” says Analisa Goodin, the founder and CEO of Catch+Release. “The book offers pointed, practical, and actionable [advice], from one of the most inspiring business leaders. From solving customer pain points to executing on a broader vision, Fadell reminds readers of some of the most important aspects of building.”
SWEET SUCCESS: A SIMPLE RECIPE TO TURN YOUR PASSION INTO PROFIT, BY CANDACE NELSON
“Taking the ‘non-playbook’ approach and reinventing how you conduct business is the secret to sustainable success,” Bobbie cofounder and CEO Laura Modi says, after reading this book. Modi also offers a more nontraditional recommendation in December 2021’s Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World, by Eve Rodsky. “As a founder, everything was creative,” she says. “As a CEO, you need to make space for it. I found this book to be incredibly helpful on how I [can] accomplish that in a tangible way.”
WHEN WOMEN LEAD: WHAT THEY ACHIEVE, WHY THEY SUCCEED, AND HOW WE CAN LEARN FROM THEM, BY JULIA BOORSTIN
“I’ve long been a fan of Julia Boorstin on TechCheck and I was so excited when she released [this] composite of stories from over 60 female CEOs and leaders,” says Lauren Makler, the CEO of Cofertility. “As someone who recently founded a women-led reproductive health company, I’m grateful to have a book that offers me a front-row seat to some of my greatest role models in business and how they’ve navigated the highs and lows of being a female entrepreneur.”
SLOUCHING TOWARDS UTOPIA: AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, BY J. BRADFORD DELONG
“[This book] recounts the overall trajectory of the world and lays out why, despite all the attention to problems and some massive setbacks, humans are ultimately resilient and there is reason for optimism,” says Zocdoc cofounder and CEO Oliver Kharraz. “The lesson is that massive setbacks can’t stop human ingenuity from ultimately prevailing, and it’s up to us to determine whether we allow these setbacks to put us on a negative or positive path. It’s been a refreshingly optimistic read amid somewhat bleak times.”
For those of us compiling resolutions for the new year, Kharraz has another recommendation—In Emergency, Break Glass: What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World, by Nate Anderson—that may prove relevant. “This book draws on Nietzsche’s work and applies it to our modern lives,” he says. “It puts the focus on setting your own values and leaving your imprint on your own life and the world around you.”
THE NO CLUB: PUTTING A STOP TO WOMEN’S DEAD-END WORK, BY LINDA BABCOCK, BRENDA PEYSER, LISE VESTERLUND, AND LAURIE WEINGART
“I’ve been moved by The No Club,” says Sarahjane Sacchetti, the CEO of Cleo. “These four women committed to saying ‘no’ to requests that were not in alignment with where they wanted to go in their careers, as they saw themselves with endless to-do lists while they still trailed behind their male peers. It’s full of practical tips both women and employers can put into practice.”
THE POWER LAW: VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW FUTURE, BY SEBASTIAN MALLABY
According to Summer Health CEO Ellen DaSilva, this book is “a deep dive into the history of the venture capital industry” and offers unique insight into the mindset of investors. “I was particularly enlightened by descriptions of what it’s like to be in the ‘room where it happens’ and recommend this read for anyone who plans to raise venture funding over the life span of their business,” she says.
THIS IS HOW THEY TELL ME THE WORLD ENDS: THE CYBERWEAPONS ARMS RACE, BY NICOLE PERLROTH
“Digital technologies have transformed so many industries for the better, but reliance on imperfect, human-built digital systems renders all companies vulnerable to security threats,” says Connie Chen, the COO of Lyra Health. “Every company, no matter what size or industry, needs to obsess about data security and protecting their members and customers.”
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