Books can help you spring into action for career boost

Spring cleaning is a trope I like to use when it suits me: Spring clean your job search! Does your resume need a spring cleaning? Count on seeing that in a future column, but today I’m still reeling from springing ahead for daylight saving time.

Using “spring” in that context has put me in a different mindset this week. I’m not fussing today about refreshing something. Instead, I’m dreaming about growing a springy Tigger-tail (look that up, under Winnie-the-Pooh) to help me welcome spring with fresh eyes.

In that spirit, here are four books that have come across my desk recently that made me think new things.

“Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places That Bring People Together,” by Kevin Ervin Kelley, Matt Holt Books, March 2024, $28. I’m a space junkie — as in physical spaces, not outer space. I love floor plans, blue prints, diagrams and anything that lets me walk my fingers through rooms, imagining where the sun comes in. This book isn’t that. It’s better.

Instead of reprinting floor plans or describing the perfect window for a storefront, architect and designer Kevin Ervin Kelley has written a book to tell us why it all matters. If you believe that well-designed workspaces result in better work (not to mention happier workers), you’re already on board with his message.

In a dozen well-written chapters, Kelley proves the point with stories from decades of designing workspaces, museums, retail stores and other gathering places. His open, inquiring spirit balances well with his practical approach and leads to ways we can all improve the spaces we inhabit.

“Running Effective Meetings for Dummies,” by Joseph A. Allen and Karin M. Reed, Wiley, 2023, $29.99. And now for something a little more day-to-day in nature: meetings, and how to make them better (or how to make them disappear, if that’s in your power). If you’re going to strengthen a skill this spring, running meetings isn’t a bad one to tackle.

When I need some skill-building on a practical scale, I often start with a “for dummies” book. As a big-picture person, I like having the whole issue laid out in chapters labeled for the specific problem being solved. This dummies book doesn’t disappoint. The co-authors — a meeting scientist (Allen) and a professional writer (Reed) — have taken care to present the chapters in a logical sequence. I appreciated each of the four sections for different reasons, but pulled together they made a satisfying whole. If you could use a brush-up (or introduction) on running a productive meeting, this is a good tool to have by your side.

“How to Make a Few Billion Dollars,” by Brad Jacobs, Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2024, $24.95. OK, not interested in the small stuff, like meetings? Let’s zoom ahead to being billionaires! And that’s the last joke I’ll make about this book. Making billions of dollars isn’t something you do without a plan. A plan, strategy, discipline … Jacobs has some- thing to say on each of these points, and yes, he has even included a chapter on running meetings. Turns out, meetings are not small stuff when you’re on the path to billions.

Jacobs writes from his experience as a serial entrepreneur, with all seven of his companies having become billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar corporations. This is the quickest and possibly lightest book of today’s book selections in terms of writing style, but the concepts are fascinating. From “How to Rearrange your Brain” to discussions about the importance of over-communicating to your team, Jacobs’ book has the air of authenticity, being told by someone who has walked the walk.

“Rise Above the Story: Free Yourself From Past Trauma and Create the Life You Want,” by Karena Kilcoyne, BenBella Books, 2024, $26.95. You might imagine that a book about past trauma would be heavy, but that is not the case here. Kilcoyne combines storytelling with a step-by-step approach to dealing with the traumas, large and small, that might be holding you back.

Kilcoyne is not a trauma therapist. Instead, she developed this book from experience as a trial lawyer specializing in criminal defense. In that field, she saw patterns in the people she defended and the ways they were defined by their trauma stories.

Now, taking a tough but empathetic stance, she counsels a “no victim” approach, where each person takes responsibility for managing the trauma they’ve experienced so they can move forward. If trauma issues have been on your mind, this might be the task to spring into (or the spring cleaning to conduct).