The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the Wall Street Journal with data from Nielsen BookScan.
1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths
by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.
2. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
by Eric Ries. A scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate.
3. StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution
by Marcus Buckingham. Introduces the next-generation strengths assessment from the co-author of Now, Discover Your Strengths
, the book that launched StrengthsFinder.
4. Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women’s Paths to Power
by Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath, and Mary Davis Holt. Distills the six faulty assumptions (or “rules”) most women follow that get in the way—then delivers the correlating new rules that promise to clear that path.
5. Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius
by Sylvia Nasar. The author of the A Beautiful Mind
tells the story of the making of modern economics and of how economics rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate.
6. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
by Patrick Lencioni. The author targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. When the instructional tale is over, Lencioni discusses the “five dysfunctions” (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results) and provides a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings.
7. Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money
by Geneen Roth. The author of Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
explores how emotional issues with money mirror those with food and dieting.
8. Start Something That Matters
by Blake Mycoskie. Presents the six simple keys for creating or transforming your own life and business, from discovering your core story to being resourceful without resources; from overcoming fear and doubt to incorporating giving into every aspect of your life.
9. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
by Jim Collins. The author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
examines the question “How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?”
10. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
by Dave Ramsey. Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host.
