Flickr photo by National Rural Knowledge Exchange
They say leadership can’t be taught, but it can certainly be learned. So why not learn from the best ‒ women who’ve done the research or already climbed the corporate ladder and have hard-won lessons to share?
We’ve got a short-list of the year’s best books for women in leadership to inspire you to have your best year yet, professionally-speaking.
Advice for Future Female CEOs
Wall Street Journal news editor Joann S. Lublin interviewed dozens of high-powered women ‒ including sitting CEOs Mary Barra (GM), Ginni Rometty (IBM) and Denise Morrison (Campbell Soup) ‒ for Earning It: Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World (Harper Business). This nitty gritty guide will tell you how to get ahead in a male-dominated workplace from real women who’ve done it.
A Do-It-All Guide for Working Moms 
Do you struggle to shoehorn all your job and family responsibilities into a workweek? Time management expert Laura Vanderkam spoke to 143 professional women ‒ who have a young child at home and a salary over $100K ‒ to find out exactly how they do it in I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time (Portfolio). It’ll help you find extra time in your schedule that you might have missed.
Career Move Manifesto
Let career coach Jenny Blake be your guide as you figure out your next career move. Even if you’re not looking to make a move yet, Pivot: The Only Move that Matters is Your Next One (Portfolio) will help you lay the groundwork now with a 4-step approach, so you’re one step ahead.
Blueprint for a Gender-Balanced Corporation 
Finish Line COO Melissa Greenwell has made it to the C-Suite and has written Money on the Table: How to Increase Profits Through Gender-Balanced Leadership (Greenleaf Book Group Press) to help you get there too. In a nutshell, her advice is: Speak first; stop apologizing; stay in control; give up the guilt; and play to win. But you’ll want to read ‒ and perhaps share with your employer? ‒ her powerful case for why companies must make hiring more women executives a priority.
A Roadmap for Women Leaders
Executive coach Monique Svazlian Tallon is determined to close the gender gap and has written Leading Gracefully: A Woman’s Guide to Confident, Authentic & Effective Leadership (Highest Path Publishing) to offer exercises, tips, resources and personal experiences of female executives as a how-to for getting it done.
Women’s Empowerment Tool Kit
With a foreword by Hillary Clinton, Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose (Mariner Books) serves as a powerful reminder of how every woman can make a difference. Authors Melanne Verveer and Kim K. Azzarelli, co-founders of a women’s global leadership forum, empower and inspire with personal stories of trailblazing women.
Decision-Making Primer
Psychologist Therese Huston has discovered that a woman’s decision-making process is different from a man’s. In How Women Decide: What’s True, What’s Not, and What Strategies Spark the Best Choices (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), she’ll give you research-based strategies to help you make better decisions, personally and professionally.
Witty, Yet Helpful Office Manual
Journalist Jessica Bennett tackles the war on inequality in the workplace with wit and real-workplace strategies in Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace (Harper Wave). She blends the personal stories of her real-life fight club ‒ that is, she and her co-workers sharing sexist job frustrations ‒ with advice (and scripts) on how to handle sticky sexist situations.
Career Manual for the New Feminist
Author Sallie Krawcheck, one of the highest ranked women to have ever worked on Wall Street, draws on her experiences to help women in Own It: The Power of Women at Work (CrownBusiness). Now founder of women’s digital investment platform Ellevest, she tells how to stop playing by the rules men created, and rewrite them for yourself. Available Jan. 17, 2017
Leadership Lessons for All Women
When her daughter turned 13, entertainment executive Nina Tassler wanted her to grow into an empowered young woman. She asked a diverse group of mothers ‒ including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Nancy Pelosi, Mia Hamm and Geena Davis ‒ their best advice they’d given their own daughters for What I Told My Daughter: Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women (Atria Books), inspiring for daughters of any age. Available April 11, 2017
