1. Social media is a symptom, not a tactic - Seth Godin

Almost all of you who read this article are on social media. Some of you aspire to grow your follower counts and "personal brands", treating it as the ultimate goal with official statements like "4000 followers by the end of July". But is it really the right thing to pursue?

In this short but highly intriguing blog post, marketing legend and best-selling author Seth Godin argues for the opposite. If you are so good at your craft the world cannot ignore you, a large following is a byproduct. As I argued here, the best way to get the reach you want is to deserve it, not manipulate it.

Maybe you have spent the last couple of months trying to optimize your profile, posts, threads, and network, obsessing over the analytics. I hate to break it to you but you could have spent this time making your work truly remarkable instead. You will be amazed at how many doors will open if you focus with great intensity on your product/service/contribution.

As Godin writes: "Brands with ten or twenty times the social media impact almost never have ten or twenty times as many people working as “social media specialists.” Tesla with no PR department and massive success illustrate this perfectly. On the contrary, Mona Lisa does not tweet but is astronomically influential.

This article gave me the right perspective to limit social media to the bare minimum and focus on improving the boring but valuable work. I recommend the same to you.

2. The Untethered Soul - Michael Singer

Although spiritual in nature, this book provides an extremely practical guide to breaking free from stresses, worries, and obstacles to enlightenment. As long as you stay open, welcome everything that happens, and see pain as energy flowing out to you, you will get there.

3. The Power of Full Engagement - Tony Schwartz

As I argued here, energy management is more important than time management. This book shows you how to best gain energy by satisfying your physical, emotional, mental, and purpose needs.

4. Presence - Peter Senge et. al.

This book presents a powerful framework for solving crises in organizations. The U-process of sensing what is going on, being in total presence, and then doing the natural actions from there, has proven to be highly effective.

5. Reinventing Organizations - Frederic Laloux

Frederic Laloux presents in this book an alternative to the standard organizational structure. Using TEAL, your organization can now organize by itself, empowering anyone in it.