Improve Your Skills With the Best Professional Development Books
Here Is the Top Professional Development Book of 2022
Professional WordPress: Design and Development – Best Professional Development Book Overall
WordPress is a popular term that many people think of when it comes to web development. Many sites are built on the WordPress backbone and professionals who understand how WordPress works can work on sites themselves and better work with WordPress professionals on joint projects. There’s a good chance that having experience with WordPress will improve your chances of landing a job in the business industry, especially if you’re working closely with other programmers.
Even if you don’t directly work on web design, if you’re involved with a department dealing with WordPress, getting familiar with the terms and concepts of WordPress design and development will make communication and progress much smoother. Knowing about WordPress can go a long way, even if you’re not aiming to be a programmer yourself.
Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching – Runner-Up
Being a teacher is considered one of the noblest jobs in modern society. Teachers are responsible for educating the next generation of humanity, and their every word could potentially influence the way the world works in the future. As such, many teachers take their jobs seriously, and one of the best ways to make sure teachers do their job correctly is by improving their professional practices. This book outlines a general foundation on how one should go about teaching.
Teaching can be difficult for many professionals, and many students are critical of unprofessional practices performed by teachers. Learning about professional standards and building upon them will allow teachers to gain respect from the students and further enhance their learning experience at the same time.
How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development – Honorable Mention
The professional services and consulting industry is unique in its own right. Unlike retailers, manufacturers, and the like, you aren’t offering a tangible, visible product – instead, you’re selling something that, while it has value, can’t be “held” or “felt” like a typical product. This makes service-based businesses quite tricky for novices and even some veterans to the field.
With this book, one should understand a more pragmatic approach to this specialized industry. For individuals used to the merchandising system, it may be challenging to adapt to service-based work, but this guide should, at the very least, point you in the right direction.
Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice – Also Consider
Nursing is often viewed as a very knowledge-based career – knowing about the human body, various medicines, and the like. However, learning how to improve as a nurse isn’t always taught in universities, as this isn’t exactly necessary to be a nurse. As such, many nurses end up learning how to further their careers on their own, often in the dark. This book serves as a guide of sorts to help improve one’s career in the nursing scene, a feat that isn’t as abstract and mysterious as some may think.
Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook
Compared to other jobs, teachers are few and far between. However, even fewer still are the high-level educators and administrators that create, supervise, and improve curricula. Because of this, few sources exist for such professionals to improve their craft. This book is an exception – it provides ideas and templates for educators, workshop leaders, and the like. It gives them a general idea of how activities and workshops can be created efficiently and practically.
The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals
Professional development is often the topic of discussion for many professionals, but human development doesn’t get as much spotlight. For professionals in the fields of social work, counseling, and the like, human development is just as vital to understanding as professional development. This highly-rated book covers in-depth topics surrounding human development.
Unconscious Bias in Schools: A Developmental Approach
Racism is a problem that’s been around for centuries, and many experts believe that racism exists at much higher levels than once thought. Schools and educational facilities are common examples of spaces where racism exists but in a subtler manner. Teachers and educators looking to understand this unconscious bias in the status quo can turn to this book for guidance.
Most Favored Professional Development Books Buying Guide
Professional development books offer professionals looking to further their careers some of the best material to start with. Though some may agree that experience is the best teacher, professional development books offer insights and knowledge that otherwise would have gone unrealized in many people’s minds. Professional development books still hold immense popularity by guiding the professional towards career improvement to this day. Here’s what you need to know should you choose to buy one.
What is a professional development book?
A professional development book is designed to help guide, educate, and inform professionals who seek to improve their professional careers. Some books offer industry-specific insights, whereas other books are more general-use and concern attitudes and mentalities surrounding professional careers.
Why do you need professional development books?
Here’s why any professional should have at least a few professional development books at home.
They inspire you to improve
Many professionals wish they could do better but simply don’t know how to do it. And this isn’t exactly their fault - if they’re working in environments where growth and productivity aren’t inherently encouraged, it can be difficult. With professional development books, however, one can rekindle the flame that caused them to take up their career in the first place, making them strive to be the best that they can be in the field.
They offer unique insights
Even if you think you know a lot about your industry, there’s a good chance that you don’t. In fact, many professionals who have worked in their industries lack critical knowledge of certain elements or concepts. With professional development books, one can more easily grasp concepts that would seem foreign otherwise and give insights on ideas they likely wouldn’t have thought of.
They’re a good way to stay productive
If you’re done with a day’s work, you may think that relaxing on the television or on your phone may be a great way to spend the evening. And while this isn’t wrong by any means, you can still aim to be productive while still relaxing in your downtime. Reading professional development books is a great way to pass the time and relax, especially if you’re going at your own pace rather than trying to finish the whole thing at once. You can take your time reading them, and you’ll find that they’re just as enjoyable as browsing social media.
Things to consider when buying professional development books
Remember to keep these tips in mind when buying books for professional development.
Topic
Professional development books focus primarily on professional development, but many of these books are industry-specific and aren’t exactly ideal for all walks of life. For example, a WordPress book may not be informative for someone who does fishing as a career. Similarly, learning about educational systems may not concern one who writes code for a living. These sorts of industry-specific insights are incredibly valuable for the field they’re related to but almost entirely unnoteworthy in others.
Because of this, you’ll want to pick a book that most closely relates to your field. You may also want to find books concerning industries and fields of work relating to departments that you work closely with to understand better how they function and operate. Learning their ins and outs will inform you of their typical pitfalls, common trends, and so on.
However, there is one exception to this rule, and that concerns general personal development books. These books aim to improve one’s professional career mentality, which benefits anyone working professional jobs. They don’t offer any insights on anything specific to your field, but they’re worth reading no matter what job you currently have.
Length
Books can’t be read in a matter of hours, especially if you have a busy career. You’ll likely only have an hour or two a day to read your books, which means that it may take you a while to complete an entire 500-page book on professional development.
If you want more concise information, getting shorter books should provide more compacted ideas. However, you won’t get more insight into the specifics unless you really dedicate weeks of your time reading a single book. If you’re the type who gets bored reading a single book, you can also consider getting a few books and reading them in circulation whenever you feel a little burnt out.
Author
Finally, let’s talk about authors. Many of the most popular authors have their books fly off the shelves because of their name, but that doesn’t mean they’re unqualified. Rather, these authors gained their popularity due to their insights, knowledge, and known success, prompting people to think highly of their work.
However, this shouldn’t be the gold standard for professional development books. Even though it may be a great read, you may not find exactly what you’re looking for. Often, authors outline their own version of personal development, which may not be viable for everybody reading. Instead, look for books that closely relate to your lifestyle, career, and so on, with the author’s name being a nice little bonus at the end.
If you want to learn about the mind and to think of a certain individual, though, then by all means, buy their books. These are some of the best ways to understand how millionaires, CEOs, and other successful individuals improve their careers so that you may follow suit. Just remember that if their methods don’t apply to you, the text will end up serving more as inspiration rather than instruction.
Professional development books price range
Professional development is a vital component in any career, and this sort of knowledge doesn’t come cheap. Most books regarding professional development will cost you $30 or more for hardbacks. If you want to save a little money, you can buy audiobooks or e-books instead, which cost $10 or less depending on the title. This knowledge, however, is arguably priceless, so it’s definitely worth every penny.
How we choose the best best professional development books
Our professional development books are chosen based on their topic, author, and customer reviews.
