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Welcome to Reading Lists, comprehensive book guides from the Strategist designed to make you an expert (or at least a fascinating dinner-party companion) in hyperspecific or newsworthy topics, from microdosing and psychedelic therapy to French cooking. Here, a selection of books to help boost your career, whether you’re looking to make more money or get promoted.

So you’ve decided it’s time to ask for more money at work. Good, because asking for a raise or a promotion is a totally normal thing to do, especially if you’ve been at your job for a year (or more) without having done so. The question now is both very simple and yet often confounding: How? What’s the best way to approach your boss? And how do you show that you’ve earned it?

Fortunately, learning how to negotiate and advocate for yourself in the workplace is well-trodden territory in the world of self-help business books. But to find the titles that will actually help you advance your career and give you the confidence and concrete tools you’ll need to finally set up that meeting with your boss, we asked nine executive coaches and career strategists to share the career books they’d recommend to those gunning for a promotion or getting ready to ask for a raise. Because it’s such a large canon, the reading lists we got back varied widely, so we’ve included the four titles that each came recommended by two or more of our career strategists, along with four honorable mentions to round it out and cover every step of the process.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck $17 now 41% off $10 Once you decide to ask for a promotion or a raise, you have to have the right mindset and figure out the best way to frame your work, which is where this title, by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, can come in hand. “In this book, Dweck demonstrates how the way we think about our abilities — our beliefs and attitudes — has a dramatic influence on our success,” explain Justin Shaddix and Zach Handler, executive coaches and co-creators of Double Dragon Coaching. Dweck emphasizes the importance of having a growth mindset, through which every challenge can be reframed as an opportunity, in order to succeed and find — or create — your ideal career path. Denise Spatafora, founder of Be Clear, Inc., explains it a little differently: “This book has [you] begin looking at what I would call replacing fear with curiosity, and an ongoing willingness to grow.” And ultimately, professional growth is what getting a promotion is all about. $10 at Amazon Buy $10 at Amazon Buy

Strategist honorable mentions

Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High $20 now 15% off $17 To better deal with the emotional stakes of negotiation, Lindsey Honari, founder of Lindsey Honari Coaching, recommends this now-classic career book, originally published in 2002. “Many of us do not like to upset others or react negatively when confronted ourselves,” she says. “This classic can give one the language and preparation needed to have conversations that help one [get] unstuck and move forward.” It offers concrete tips to help these conversations be productive, rather than abrasive, and to prepare for high-stakes negotiations, such as those in which money is involved. $17 at Amazon Buy $17 at Amazon Buy

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, by Adam Grant $18 now 33% off $12 Some self-help and career book aficionados might know Adam Grant as the author of Originals and a member of the Lean In board. But according to Cohn, this is the book that first put him on the map. “It talks about the surprising phenomenon where both the highest and lowest performers in an organization tend to be ‘givers,’” he explains. These givers are employees who are able to give their time or share their network with others, among other things, and this kind of generosity can help you go far in an organization or in your career; the trick is in how they do it without getting called a doormat. “To advance, Grant argues that you want to be the type of giver who creates boundaries, learns to master the ‘five-minute favor,’ and avoids burnout,” says Cohn, rather than being a taker or going tit-for-tat with colleagues. This title would be especially helpful for those just beginning to prepare to ask for a promotion or trying to define their role within a company. $12 at Amazon Buy $12 at Amazon Buy

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story misstated Adam Grant’s bibliography.

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