Round three of Summer School is here, and this batch of professional development books covers even more ground: sales without the pressure, leadership through conversation, breaking patterns that keep you stuck, and even a parable about starting over after loss. As always, every pick comes from someone in the Innovation Women community putting these ideas to work in real life.
Succeed Without Selling: The More You Think About Selling, the Less You Will Sell by Diane Helbig
Curiosity, not closing, drives the sales philosophy at the center of this book. It argues that the best salespeople succeed by staying genuinely interested in the people they’re talking to rather than pushing toward a transaction. Author Diane Helbig walks through the full sales process, from prospecting and discovery to referrals and strategic alliances, with separate guidance for sales managers, direct sellers and service providers. The book also includes practical tools like sample scripts and proposal templates, aimed at small business owners and sales professionals looking to grow without relying on traditional high-pressure tactics.
The Pattern Loop: Why You Keep Repeating the Same Patterns—And How to Get Out by Kim Groshek
Trace your recurring thoughts, reactions and conversations back to their root. In this guide, Groshek frames repetitive patterns not as failures of discipline but as loops that serve some protective function, and walks readers through recognizing the moment they’re pulled back into one. Central to the approach is what Groshek calls the ARCH Method, a structured way of making one deliberate decision at a time to break the cycle rather than relying on willpower alone.
The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom From Working Women for Success That Matters by Carol Enneking
Author Carol Enneking conducted interviews with more than 70 working women to anchor the book’s central thesis: that having excessive options for how to build a career and a life has made balance harder to find, not easier. She identifies common traps that keep women chasing an unrealistic version of “having it all,” often at the expense of health and relationships and offers strategies for restoring balance without giving up ambition.
Your Voice Matters: A Guide to Speaking Soulfully When It Counts by Lauri Smith
When most of us were raised to suppress our voices, shrink and stay quiet, how can we get any real communication done? In this book, Smith unpacks what specifically gets in the way of speaking with authority in high-stakes moments. She offers a step-by-step guide to claiming a seat at the table, backed by exercises and tools meant to move readers past rehearsed talking points and toward something more instinctive.
Courageously You: Seven Simple Frameworks to Create a Life You Love by Michelle Thompson
The frameworks that make up the core of this book are drawn from Michelle Thompson’s 17 years of personal recovery and hundreds of hours coaching women through their own breaking points. She builds the material around her own account of hitting rock bottom and restarting from there, framing transformation less as reinventing yourself and more as returning to who you already were before autopilot took over.
Katherine’s Quest: One Woman’s Journey to Elation by Pat Alva-Kraker
A woman rebuilding after losing her marriage, home and business is the setup for this parable-style self-help book, which follows Katherine as she discovers her late uncle’s journal tucked away in an old trunk. Inside, she finds his seven keys to happiness, and the story traces how she applies them while working her way back to a stable, fulfilling life.
When People Rise: HR Secrets for Small Business Growth, Success and Legacy by Susan S. Mahaffee
Susan S. Mahaffee makes the case that trust, compassion and integrity aren’t just values but practical business strategies, ones that work better than management by metrics alone. She and a group of contributors draw on stories from their own experience to argue that people perform better when they feel seen and valued, aimed at small business owners and HR professionals looking to move away from reactive management.
Conversation Secrets for Tomorrow’s Leaders: 21 Obvious Secrets Leaders Do Not Use Enough by Dr. Mindy L. Gewirtz, Steve Hamilton-Clark and Carrie E. Gallant
Thousands of hours of executive coaching went into identifying the 21 conversation practices at the center of this book, each one drawn from patterns the authors saw repeatedly holding leaders back. The book presents the idea that most meaningful work happens through conversation, not process, and pushes leaders to move away from traditional command-and-control structures toward something more collaborative and adaptive. Gewirtz, Hamilton-Clark and Gallant tie the approach to broader shifts in how organizations operate post-pandemic, arguing that building trust with employees, shareholders and the surrounding community now matters as much as any formal strategy.
Visit the Innovation Women Bookstore to find even more professional development books from our speakers and experts.
