Here are 100 books that Talking on Eggshells fans have personally recommended if you like
Talking on Eggshells.
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I am a graduate of West Point and a student of military and political leadership. From that foundation, I devoted much of my professional life to researching power and influence and understanding how leaders create impact in business and life. As an educator, counselor, and founder of an international firm on executive development, I created courses on influence to help others become more effective at management and leadership through the ethical uses of influence. I want passionately to know the difference between towering leaders like Abraham Lincoln and manipulative scoundrels like Bernie Madoff, and I’m fascinated by what influences people to take one path rather than another.
Whether you are selling yourself or a product, communicating your message effectively is a key to success, and it doesn’t matter if you are trying to influence people through logical persuasion or appealing to their values. Storytelling is as old as humanity and has been a moving and lasting way to communicate. Kindra Hall’s bestselling book on storytelling is a fascinating textbook on the art and science of creating and delivering stories that resonate with audiences and influence people’s decisions. This is one of the best books I’ve read on how to craft compelling messages.
A clear framework of ideals and a concise set of actions for you to take complete control of your own story, utilizing the principles behind the world's most effective business storytelling strategies..
You keep hearing how story is the latest-and-greatest business tool, and that storytelling can do everything-from helping leaders better communicate to motivating sales teams and winning customers away from competitors.
But what stories do you need to tell? And how do you tell them?
In Stories That Stick, Kindra Hall, professional storyteller and nationally-known speaker, reveals the four unique stories you can use to differentiate, captivate, and elevate:
In Love It or Lose It, I share the wisdom and techniques I’ve gained over decades of helping people declutter their lives. Alongside my colleague, Maggie Bedrosian, we offer a roadmap for those feeling overwhelmed by the physical and emotional weight of clutter. This book isn’t just about tidying…
As a kid I used to sit around the table, hearing my French grandparents share stories about life during the Second World War and helping the French Resistance movement. I remember seeing my mum sitting down to interview my French grandad about his life and getting captured near Dunkirk as a young French soldier. That’s where my love for storytelling was born. By the age of 26 I had interviewed over 100+ government officials and business leaders across 7 countries. By 2021 my podcast The Unconventionalists won “best-interview podcast” at the podcasting for business awards. I wrote Glow in the Dark, to help entrepreneurs and business leaders impact the world with their story.
I reviewed this book a while back (when I still had a hipster beard) but it's a great book that dives into why storytelling is so important and shares examples of leaders who have used storytelling as a great tool to influence and empower. It's also a powerful reminder that, as humans, we've been using storytelling since the dawn of time to communicate and influence. If you need convincing as to why you should add storytelling to your arsenal, read this book.
How did an American immigrant without a college education go from Venice Beach T-shirt vendor to television's most successful producer? How did a timid pastor's son surmount a paralysing fear of public speaking to sell out Yankee Stadium, twice? How did the city of Tokyo create a PowerPoint stunning enough to win them the chance to host the Olympics?
They told brilliant stories.
Whether your goal is to sell, educate, fundraise or entertain, your story is your most valuable asset: 'a strategic tool with irresistible power', according to the New York Times. Stories inspire; they persuade; they galvanize movements and…
I am a leader in analytics and AI strategy, and have a broad range of experience in aviation, energy, financial services, and the public sector. I have worked with several major organizations to help them establish a leadership position in data science and to unlock real business value using advanced analytics.
Data scientists and analytics specialists are great at building models and algorithms, but often wrap them in a presentation or dashboard that diminishes their value and reduces the likelihood of their work being adopted. This book encourages practitioners to always consider the last mile and to pay as much attention to presentation and aesthetics as we do to the model itself.
Master the art and science of data storytelling-with frameworks and techniques to help you craft compelling stories with data.
The ability to effectively communicate with data is no longer a luxury in today's economy; it is a necessity. Transforming data into visual communication is only one part of the picture. It is equally important to engage your audience with a narrative-to tell a story with the numbers. Effective Data Storytelling will teach you the essential skills necessary to communicate your insights through persuasive and memorable data stories.
Narratives are more powerful than raw statistics, more enduring than pretty…
In Love It or Lose It, I share the wisdom and techniques I’ve gained over decades of helping people declutter their lives. Alongside my colleague, Maggie Bedrosian, we offer a roadmap for those feeling overwhelmed by the physical and emotional weight of clutter. This book isn’t just about tidying…
We are relatable women who have successful careers in a predominately male industry. We have run businesses, built teams based on trust and inclusion, become authors, speakers, and advisors, while simultaneously raising children with our also working husbands. This is not done with ease or without making trade-offs, but we will share our stories and hope to inspire other women. We believe in supporting women in all areas of our lives and we love to lift up the ones who have impacted us.
Kathy loved this book by Jane Dutton, and found herself exclaiming, “Yes!” as she read through this book that validated the energy she did receive abundantly through small moments of connection at work!
As a senior executive, Kathy could have thousands of people in her organization. Wanting to know each and every one of them was a luxury she could not afford, so she did her best to make those opportunities she did have for meaningful connections, no matter how brief, to count for her and the other person with whom she was interacting.
Jane systematically provides the science of how and why this works, along with so many useful tools for those to whom this does not come naturally!
Corrosive work relationships are like black holes that swallow up energy that people need to do their jobs. In contrast, high-quality relationships generate and sustain energy, equipping people to do work and do it well. Grounded in solid research, this book uses energy as a measurement to describe the power of positive and negative connections in people's experience at work. Author Jane Dutton provides three pathways for turning negative connections into positive ones that create and sustain employee resilience and flexibility, facilitate the speed and quality of learning, and build individual commitment and cooperation. Through compelling and illustrative stories, Energize…
I began my journey in communications as a competitive public speaker in high school and college, culminating in a national championship. That experience inspired me to help others develop their public speaking and presentation skills, especially effective point-making, which is fundamental to communication success but rarely addressed by trainers. Nowadays, I’m thrilled to combine my skill, experience, and passion in my work as a speechwriter and speech coach for organizations ranging from American Express to State Farm Insurance, as well as a speechwriter for a major nonprofit and contributor to media outlets including Harvard Business Review,Fast Company, and Newsweek.
With Influence and Thrive, Lucille leverages in-depth research, personal experiences, and smart conclusions in a very readable way.
Her voice and identity shine through each chapter, and it’s clear that she put her heart and soul into this project. Her book is also impressive in scope, covering everything from speaking to writing to emailing. I also appreciate how Lucille analyzes communication techniques from people she admires, then extracts and summarizes the key learnings.
This one has lots of valuable takeaways that readers can apply right away to their communications.
Effective communication will never go out of style. It will outlive the critics, survive shifting trends, and thrive in this tech age.
As a professional, entrepreneur, or business leader, you must amplify your communication skills to accelerate your career, grow your business, or sharpen your credibility.
As a corporation, you must use purposeful communication to nurture trust, coax employee engagement, boost your reputation, and steer actions to profitability.
But how can you get the results you deserve with effective communication and position yourself for long-term success?
In this book, you'd find the latest insights on non-verbal communication, public speaking, and…
I’m a philosopher by training and professor of economics, ethics, and public policy at Georgetown University’s business school. My work often begins by noting that philosophy debates often take certain empirical claims for granted, claims which turn out to be false or mistaken. Once we realize this mistake, this clears the ground and helps us do better work. I focus on issues in immigration, resistance to state injustice, taboo markets, theories of ideal justice, and democratic theory. I’m also a native New Englander now living near DC, a husband and father, and the guitarist and vocalist in a 70s-80s hard rock cover band.
This is not only one of the best books on politics, but on people’s behavior in social media and beyond. Grandstanding, Warmke and Tosi say, is the use of moral language for the purpose of self-promotion.
For example, my neighbors put up political signs that say “No human is illegal” even though those same neighbors (unlike me) in fact advocate closed borders, suppose immigration restrictions, and want to deport illegal immigrants. (In contrast, I actually advocate open borders, though my lawn remains silent about my politics.)
The point of this behavior is like praying in public—it’s about trying to impress other people and convince them you’re a good person.
Today, people are in a kind of moral arms-race with each other, each trying to prove they’re better than others. This explains why people are dismissive of evidence, tend to have over-the-top, exaggerated emotional reactions, make exaggerated moral complaints, or invent…
We are all guilty of it. We call people terrible names in conversation or online. We vilify those with whom we disagree, and make bolder claims than we could defend. We want to be seen as taking the moral high ground not just to make a point, or move a debate forward, but to look a certain way-incensed, or compassionate, or committed to a cause. We exaggerate. In other words, we grandstand.
Nowhere is this more evident than in public discourse today, and especially as it plays out across the internet. To philosophers Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, who have…
As someone who’s lived through burnout and now helps people prevent it, I know firsthand that productivity isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters, when it matters, without sacrificing your sanity, health, or relationships. Reclaim Your Workday was born from years of coaching teams and leaders to focus deeply, communicate clearly, and work sustainably in our always-on world. These books challenge the myth of hustle culture and offer practical ways to reclaim your time, attention, and energy—so work supports your life, not the other way around.
Before I even finished, I had changed some of my email templates and newsletter and signed up for a demo. This book brilliantly teaches how to deliver powerful messages concisely and clearly—cut the clutter!
The authors provide actionable tips and real-world examples, making implementation easy. Whether you're writing emails, reports, or social media posts, Smart Brevity will help you make every word count.
Clear communication saves time, reduces stress, and boosts productivity—skills every professional needs.
The big idea: If you want to get heard in the information age, you need to change the way you write. Now. Smart Brevity will teach you how.
Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity - think Strunk and White's Elements of Style for the digital age.
I love books that shift my perspective, expand my thinking, and ultimately, change the way I work, lead, parent, and live for the better. That said, I am not usually drawn to self-help books because they can be very prescriptive in a “one size fits all” kind of way, and not necessarily backed up by a lot of research or evidence. In running a financial coaching company, I’ve seen what happens when you change a person’s perspective—almost inevitably, they end up following suit by proactively doing the work necessary to improve their lives. These books all have the power to do that for readers who are open to it.
This book gave me such a huge epiphany that it changed how I communicate. I think about it every single day and consciously try to apply it in all areas of my life.
The author reveals that people tend to have one of two communication styles: candor, where they are very opinionated and generally dominate conversations, doing more talking than listening, and curiosity, where they tend to step back, question themselves, and become easily swayed by the more dominant personalities in a meeting or on a team.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and the key is finding balance, both within yourself and within your teams. When you figure that part out, you can achieve things you never thought possible.
OPEN, BALANCED DIALOGUE--THE KEY TO PEAK TEAM PERFORMANCE
In a world of rapid-fire change, it's more important than ever to build teams that work well when the pressure is on-and quality communication can mean the difference between success and failure.
Conversational Capacity provides the communication tools you need to ensure that your team remains on track even when dealing with its most troublesome issues, that it responds to tough challenges with agility and skill, and performs brilliantly in circumstances that would incapacitate less disciplined teams.
Praise for Conversational Capacity:
"This book blows the lid off everything you have learned about…
My career and life were changed by Robert Cialdini’s work on influence. There are only a dozen people in the world who have been personally trained, certified, and endorsed by Cialdini to teach his methodology on influence and persuasion. I’m fortunate to be in that very select group. I’ve authored three books and given a TED Talk on influence. My LinkedIn Learning courses around influence in sales and coaching have been viewed by more than 500,00 across the globe. I take Cialdini’s influence concepts and marry them with my 35+ years of business experience to give organizations practical ways to ethically influence people.
Robert Cialdini’s work on influence changed how I go about trying to influence people. Gallo’s revelations radically changed how I present to audiences.
Throughout the book Gallo shows why Steve Jobs was such a masterful influencer from the stage. As I read, I found myself continually taking notes on how I would change my presentations. By the time I was done, I’d taken seven pages of type-written notes!
The change in audience reaction was immediate! If you’re serious about improving your presentation style, there’s no better resource than The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.
"The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs reveals the operating system behind any great presentation and provides you with a quick-start guide to design your own passionate interfaces with your audiences." Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points and The Activist Audience
Apple CEO Steve Jobs's wildly popular presentations have set a new global gold standard-and now this step-by-step guide shows you exactly how to use his crowd-pleasing techniques in your own presentations. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is as close as you'll ever get to having the master presenter himself speak directly in your ear. Communications expert Carmine Gallo…
I'm a writer, lecturer, biologist, ecologist, and two-time Fulbright Scholar (to India and Malaysia). I'm now a fiction writer, but I’ve always been a storyteller who writes in a historical framework. While I feel an almost compulsive obligation to keep faith with the facts, my main objective is to tell a story—as dramatically, suspensefully, and entertainingly as I can. My first non-fiction book, Papyrus: the Plant that Changed the World was featured as a clue on Jeopardy. It tells the story of a plant that still evokes the mysteries of the ancient world.My most recent book, The Pharaoh's Treasure is about the origin of paper and the rise of Western civilization.
This book by Standage is less about papermaking and more about gossip, sharing social media, and how papyrus paper allowed for the emergence of the first social media ecosystem in the world. It also serves as a justification for the Kingdom of Paper.
Almost three thousand years after the beginning of which came ‘Cicero’s Web’ which served as a social medium. Cicero, the Roman orator and insatiable letter writer, in the 1st Cent BC created a papyrus paper web that provided an example later used by the early Christians, and with the advent of pulp paper would serve the world until the time of Gutenberg in 1450, after which paper reigned for over a half-century until 1969 when Internet traffic began.
It follows the use of letters. pamphlets, books, and newspapers as paper fueled the growth of social media during the evolution of Western civilization.
From the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses, the story of social media from ancient Rome to the Arab Spring and beyond.
Social media is anything but a new phenomenon. From the papyrus letters that Cicero and other Roman statesmen used to exchange news, to the hand-printed tracts of the Reformation and the pamphlets that spread propaganda during the American and French revolutions, the ways people shared information with their peers in the past are echoed in the present.
Standage reminds us how historical social networks have much in common with modern social media. The…
