Take Yourself to the Top

Laura Berman Fortgang, like fellow personal coaches including Cheryl Richardson (Take Time for Your Life) and Thomas Leonard (The Portable Coach), has distilled her knowledge into book form. (For the uninitiated, personal coaches are like personal trainers--only they work to motivate you to perform at your peak on the job, instead of in the gym.) Her corporate clients have included Johnson & Johnson, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Prudential Securities.

Berman Fortgang says you need to identify the hurdles that are holding you back--even if it's a boss more cognitively absent than Dilbert's--and then do something about them. That's easier said than done. She's also big on making a five-year plan, something that may actually require hours of self-analysis and/or the assistance of a career counselor. But for anyone who feels in a rut but is also truly devoted to investing the time it takes to improve professionally and is willing to take risks, Take Yourself to the Top could be the answer. Berman Fortgang writes like a kinder, gentler Tony Robbins; you get the sense that she's genuinely concerned with bringing out the best in people. And there's targeted information in here for everyone: salespeople, workers on the verge of burnout, wishful entrepreneurs, and those just struggling to make ends meet. Admittedly, the advice in this book takes much more self-discipline to follow than would a dozen sessions with a personal coach egging you on in person or over the phone, but then, you also save the $200-a-session fee.