Office Dynamics has put together a list of books for administrative assistants and executive assistants that will help you with your professional development and personal life.
Because we had so many great choices, we decided to make it a little easier for you to find what you are looking for by breaking the blog into two sections.
The first half of the blog contains titles that are dedicated towards the administrative assistant and executive assistant while the second half of the blog contains titles that are general to career and business but very applicable to the administrative profession.
This list has been hand-selected by Joan Burge, founder and CEO of Office Dynamics International, who has 20 years of experience in executive assistance and 34 years as a professional administrative trainer. These books have helped her grow, and it is our hope they will help you, as well. With that, let’s dive in!
Administrative Books
1. Joan’s Greatest Administrative Secrets Revealed by Joan Burge
In Joan’s 5th book for administrative assistants and executive assistants, the red-lipstick-wearing Rock Star and pioneer of administrative excellence exposes the game-changing truths and unwritten rules you need to know in order to maximize your potential.
In an unapologetic, uncompromising, no-holds-barred style, Joan shares never-before-revealed career stories and life lessons in a tell-all book that will challenge your perspective and teach you how to master your craft and triumph in today’s business environment. What are you waiting for? The world is waiting for you.
This is Joan’s newest book for administrative assistants and is great for all levels.
Click here to purchase Joan’s Greatest Administrative Secrets Revealed.
2. Executives and Assistants Working in Partnership by Joan Burge
Crafted by Joan Burge, this book serves as a self-guided, self-paced coaching tool. It explores the crucial dynamics between executives and their assistants, focusing on effective collaboration and mutual success.
Readers will find actionable strategies and real-world insights to enhance their working relationships. This guide is an indispensable resource for assistants eager to elevate their roles and executives looking to empower their right-hand allies.
Click here to purchase Executives and Assistants Working in Partnership.
3. Who Took My Pen…Again? By Joan Burge, Nancy Fraze, and Jasmine Freeman
Amazon Best Seller
This book is for executive assistants written by executive assistants! Overflowing with secrets, tips, and tools of the profession, this book is a ready resource created by those who “walk the walk and talk the talk” of the complex administrative professional role.
Inspired by the Office Dynamics’ 18th Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence, themed The Path Forward: Adding Value Every Day, the authors drew on the attendees’ knowledge as well as their own years of experience to develop the content for this book.
Who Took My Pen … Again? offers practical, creative strategies for achieving success and building leadership attributes, compiled from the diverse experiences of high-achieving administrative professionals in a wide variety of businesses and industries, representing four generations of experienced and highly-seasoned executive assistants. It will change your life.
Click here to purchase Who Took My Pen…Again?
4. The Executive’s Competitive Edge by Joan Burge & James Bristow
Written by two executives. this book serves as a comprehensive guide for executives to maximize the potential of their relationship with their executive assistants. The book emphasizes viewing executive assistants not just as support staff but as strategic partners capable of contributing significantly to organizational success.
The book covers several vital aspects of this partnership, starting with understanding the role of an executive assistant as a multifaceted professional involved in strategic planning, project management, and stakeholder management. It highlights the advantages of cross-training executive assistants to enhance their ability to support strategic initiatives and adapt to changing business needs.
Click here to purchase The Executive’s Competitive Edge: Why You Need to Leverage the Talents & Time of an Executive Assistant.
5. Become An Inner Circle Assistant by Joan Burge
Earn Inner Circle status, thrive in your profession, and be visible and recognized as a star performer. Joan Burge brings almost 35 years of experience in the administrative field to this groundbreaking book!
The words Inner Circle conjure up visions of an exclusive group of people whose achievements are admired and rewarded. The Inner Circle Assistant title doesn’t show up on any organizational chart, but she’s the woman or, the man, of the hour.
The people who support company trendsetters have the opportunity to move into an Inner Circle, and this book outlines the steps to get there, as well as thrive in the position. It is a book of strategy and workplace philosophy that will help administrative professionals become top performers in work and in their careers. This book for administrative and executive assistants is filled with road maps for success, scoring quizzes, real-life stories, and examples.
Click here to purchase Become An Inner Circle Assistant.
6. Underneath It All by Joan Burge
In this cutting-edge book, Joan Burge intimately shares with administrative professionals the bottom line to achieving success and maintaining your edge in a worthwhile career.
Joan Burge gets to the core of what’s ‘underneath it all’ when it comes to living a life of significance as an administrative professional and individual. In a chaotic world where everything seems urgent and important, Joan has learned through the difficult journey of helping her husband battle pancreatic cancer, what matters most. She intimately shares with administrative professionals the bottom line to achieving success and maintaining your edge in a worthwhile career.
You’ll read why it’s essential to maintain your competitive advantage and how continual improvement makes it possible. You will explore key points with Joan that lead to success in the administrative profession, and you’re likely to wonder who switched on the lights.
Click here to purchase Underneath It All.
7. The Innovative Admin by Julie Perrine
If you want to be the admin every executive wants by their side, The Innovative ADMIN is for you! You’ll learn how to embrace innovative thinking that makes you invaluable to your boss, your co-workers and your company. The Innovative ADMIN empowers you to become the best you can be by enhancing your capacity for innovation! Innovation isn’t just for technology – it’s the key to your career future.
Click here to purchase The Innovative ADMIN.
8. Become A Procedures Pro: The Admin’s Guide to Developing Effective Office Systems and Procedures by Julie Perrine
Does taking time off lead to more stress than relaxation because you’re worried what will (or won’t) happen at the office while you’re gone? Are you looking for a way to demonstrate the skills and value you contribute to your organization and team? Do you want to be ready to act if your dream job suddenly becomes available?
If the answer is “yes,” then you need to create your administrative procedures, and this book can help!
Click here to order Become A Procedures Pro: The Admin’s Guide to Developing Effective Office Systems and Procedures.
9. The Organized Admin by Julie Perrine
Are you struggling to create order in the disorganized chaos that is your workspace? Do you want more effective systems for keeping yourself and your executive organized? Do you want to better understand your unique organizing style?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, The Organized Admin is for you!
Click here to purchase The Organized Admin.
10. Not “Just An Admin!” by Peggy Vasquez
In this book, Peggy will empower you by sharing her knowledge and experience, entertain you with humor, and inspire you through passion. Peggy’s objective is to help administrative assistants feel valued and know their contribution makes a difference. It is her desire to eliminate the saying, “I’m just an admin.”
Click here to purchase Not Just An Admin.
11. The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch Up and Start Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life!) by Chrissy Scivicque
In business, the advice to “be proactive” is repeated like a sacred mantra. And yet, no one ever bothers to explain exactly what that means or how to do it…until now.
The Proactive Professional reveals all the missing pieces of the proactivity puzzle and offers a step-by-step actionable framework for becoming proactive at work and in life.
Click here to order The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch Up and Start Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life!).
12. Build Your Professional Development Plan Workbook – The Ultimate Career Planning Tool by Chrissy Scivicque
**Also includes bonus material: Build Your Professional Portfolio Guide**
Created by career coach, Chrissy Scivicque, this step-by-step guide helps you create and implement an effective, personalized professional development plan. This workbook offers detailed training on specific, proven techniques and strategies that will help you grow your professional skills and achieve your career goals. It includes comprehensive instruction on how to create and implement an effective career plan, along with tools, templates and resources so you’ll have everything you need to achieve the professional success you long for now and in the future.
With this workbook, you won’t just LEARN IT, you’ll DO IT.
Click here to order Build Your Professional Development Plan Workbook – The Ultimate Career Planning Tool.
Professional and Personal Development Books
This is the second half of the blog that has books for administrative assistants and executive assistants but is a bit more generalized in consideration to professional and personal development. These titles come highly recommended from the Office Dynamics team.
13. The Founder & Force Multiplier by Adam Hergenrother and Hallie Warner
Entrepreneur Adam Hergenrother & his Chief of Staff, Hallie Warner, take us behind the scenes of a $1B entrepreneurial organization to show you how to grow your business and career to epic proportions using the power of strategic partnership.
Click here to order your copy of The Founder & Force Multiplier.
14. How to be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life by Pat Williams and Jim Denney
This book takes an honest but positive look at the man behind the myth. For the first time, the book pulls together all the various strands of Disney’s life into one straightforward, easy-to-read tale of imagination, perseverance, and optimism. Far from a preachy or oppressive tome, this book scrapes away the minutiae to capture the true magic of a brilliant maverick.
Click here to purchase How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life.
15. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
No gimmicks. No Hyperbole. No Magic Bullet. The Compound Effect is a distillation of the fundamental principles that have guided the most phenomenal achievements in business, relationships, and beyond. This easy-to-use, step-by-step operating system allows you to multiply your success, chart your progress, and achieve any desire. If you’re serious about living an extraordinary life, use the power of The Compound Effect to create the success you want.
Click here to order The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.
16. 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do by Amy Morin
Amy reveals that healthy, mentally tough people don’t insist on perfection; they don’t compare themselves to other people; they don’t see vulnerability as a weakness; they don’t let self-doubt stop them from reaching their goals. Wise, grounded, and essential, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do can help every professional flourish—and ultimately improve our society as well.
Click here to order 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.
17. Good to Great by Jim Collins
This book explores how companies transition from being average to exceptional. One of the central concepts is the “Level 5 Leadership,” which refers to leaders who combine personal humility with professional will, focusing on the company’s success rather than their own. These leaders prioritize getting the right people on board before setting the direction, fostering a team that can confront harsh realities while maintaining faith in the company’s future success.
Click here to order Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
18. Successful Women Speak Differently: 9 Habits That Build Confidence, Courage, and Influence by Valorie Burton
The most successful women are often not the most talented, the most gifted, or even the most experienced. What these women have is a knack for communicating that opens doors and gives them influence. Gleaning from powerful research, bestselling author and life strategist Valorie Burton unearths practical insights you can put to work in your life immediately.
Click here to order Successful Women Speak Differently: 9 Habits That Build Confidence, Courage, and Influence.
Bonus Book
The Meeting Planning Process — A Guide to Planning Successful Meetings by Mary Jo Wiseman
The Meeting Planning Process — A Guide to Planning Successful Meetings by Certified Meeting Professional, Mary Jo Wiseman, offers a common-sense approach to managing the meeting planning process based on the knowledge and experience she garnered over a 20+ year career as a corporate meeting and event coordinator.
The author’s systematic approach to project management helped her stay focused on the task at hand while handling multiple details, projects, and deadlines throughout her career, and she wants to share her knowledge with others.
The Guide offers a practical overview of the entire planning process for meeting professionals at all levels and is especially beneficial for the novice planner and/or the administrative or executive assistant who is called upon to plan meetings over and beyond their normal day-to-day responsibilities. The guide also includes handy templates developed by the author.
Click here to get a hard copy of The Meeting Planning Process — A Guide to Planning Successful Meetings.
Click here to get a downloadable eBook copy of The Meeting Planning Process — A Guide to Planning Successful Meetings.
