Summer is coming to an end. For some, the new season has already started; for others, a few days remain before returning fully to the September routine.
It's also a good time to take a step back. After switching off, travelling, spending time with loved ones and perhaps already reading a few books on the beach, why not use these last days of summer to slip a book into your bag that will also get you thinking about your professional practice?
Being a good contract manager isn't just about knowing your contract well. You need to understand its mechanisms, negotiate, grasp the project's constraints, communicate with very different stakeholders and keep the right posture when situations become tense.
We have therefore selected five books, five reads and, above all, five skills to cultivate as you prepare for the new season. These reads will naturally stay with you well beyond this period, throughout the year.
1. Improving your contract management practice
"Contract Management Standard (CMS), 4th edition", Commerce & Contract Management Institute (CCM Institute).
Let's start with contract management itself.
For those who, in an already busy year, haven't yet had time to look into the CMS, this end of summer might be the right moment.
Published in 2025 and jointly developed by the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) and World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC), this fourth edition of the Contract Management Standard is the first truly international standard for contract management. The CMS provides a shared language and framework for structuring contract management practice.
It covers the entire contract lifecycle, from the pre-contract phase through to contract execution, and identifies the main activities, tasks and skills associated with each stage.
What can contract managers take from this?
This is probably the read in our selection most directly connected to our day-to-day practice. The CMS allows you to step back from your own methods, compare them against an international standard and see how our discipline is structured worldwide today.
A particularly interesting read for benchmarking your practice and, why not, identifying a few good ideas to put into practice as the new season begins.
The CMS is available in English on the websites of the Commerce & Contract Management Institute (CCM Institute) and World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC).
But understanding contract management isn't enough. You also need to know how to discuss contract terms, defend your interests and build the compromises needed for its proper execution.
2. Negotiating
"Never Split the Difference", Chris Voss and Tahl Raz (Belfond).
The title goes almost against what we spontaneously associate with negotiation. Negotiating doesn't necessarily mean seeking, at all costs, a compromise halfway between each party's position.
Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, sets out an approach in which listening to and understanding the other party play a central role.
His method relies in particular on tactical empathy and active listening. It encourages you to look for what actually lies behind the other party's stated position and to see a 'no' as not necessarily the end of the negotiation. On the contrary, it can be the real starting point of the discussion.
What can contract managers take from this?
Negotiation runs through the entire life of the contract. Contract amendments, variations, deadlines, liability, claims or simply day-to-day disagreements: the contract manager is negotiating constantly.
And when working on a project that still has months, or even years, to run, insisting on winning a negotiation at the expense of the relationship and the project's execution isn't always a victory.
The value of this book lies precisely in inviting us to move beyond a pure power struggle, to better understand what drives the other party and to build our negotiation strategy accordingly.
3. Managing projects
"The Project Manager's Toolbox", Jérôme Maes and François Debois (Dunod).
The contract manager rarely works alone. They are part of a project and must understand its mechanisms to support it effectively.
In its latest edition, this book brings together 80 tools and methods directly applicable to project management. It covers scoping, costs, timelines, risks, monitoring execution, predictive and agile approaches, and team engagement, among other topics.
What can contract managers take from this?
An effective contract manager must understand the constraints of those they support. Knowing the project's mechanics better allows you to identify the contractual consequences of operational decisions earlier, and to step in at the right time rather than in an emergency.
But the value of this read goes a little further. Some of the methods and tools used in project management can also be applied to contract management. Structuring your management approach, tracking risks, using dashboards, organising actions and anticipating deadlines are all good practices the contract manager can draw on to become more efficient in their own day-to-day work.
This is also how the contract manager stops being someone consulted only when a contractual problem arises, and gradually becomes a genuine co-pilot of the project.
4. Communicating
"Words Are Windows (or They're Walls)", Marshall B. Rosenberg (La Découverte).
The contract manager sits at the centre of many interfaces. Project teams, legal, procurement, finance, suppliers, partners or clients: much of their effectiveness depends on their ability to circulate the right information and, above all, to get the right message across.
In this book on nonviolent communication, Marshall B. Rosenberg sets out an approach based on observing facts, expressing needs, listening to the other party's needs and formulating clear requests. A particularly useful method when exchanges become more difficult or positions start to harden.
What can contract managers take from this?
Identifying a risk, raising an alert or building a contractual position is only part of the job. You also need to get the message across, gain the other party's attention and, when necessary, prompt them to act.
Communication therefore plays an essential role in contract management practice. Word choice, how facts are presented, the ability to listen to the other party's position and to clearly state what you expect can profoundly change how a message is received.
This is particularly true in tense situations. The contract manager must be able to take a sometimes firm position without shutting down dialogue. On this front, the approach put forward by Marshall Rosenberg offers particularly useful tools.
5. Keeping the right posture
"Emotional Intelligence and Management", Ilios Kotsou (De Boeck Supérieur).
Let's deliberately end a little further from contract management itself.
Ilios Kotsou, an author and researcher in the psychology of emotions, looks at how we can better identify, understand and regulate our own emotions, as well as better understand those of others. The book applies these mechanisms to the professional world, particularly to decision-making, leadership, and managing relationships and conflict.
What can contract managers take from this?
Contract management is a role that can come under considerable pressure. A major project delay, an internal disagreement over the strategy to adopt, discussions around liability, managing a significant claim or a particularly tense meeting with a client or supplier are all situations in which technical expertise alone is no longer enough.
Emotional intelligence also starts with better self-knowledge. Knowing how to identify your own reactions, stepping back before responding, understanding what puts you under pressure and retaining your capacity for analysis in difficult moments are all genuine professional skills.
You also need to know how to listen, detect tensions and understand what may be driving the reactions of those you're dealing with.
Because behind every contractual matter, there are people facing their own challenges, constraints and interests. When these dimensions are misunderstood or insufficiently taken into account, relationships can gradually deteriorate and end up weighing directly on the project's execution.
One role, several skills
These five books cover quite different subjects, and that is precisely what interested us about this selection.
Seen through the lens of contract management, they become complementary. Some help deepen skills directly linked to the role, while others invite us to work on more cross-cutting dimensions that are just as important in day-to-day practice.
- Deepening your contract management practice.
- Negotiating better.
- Understanding and supporting the project.
- Communicating better.
- Working on your posture and emotional intelligence.
This diversity ultimately reflects the reality of the role fairly well. Contract management is a deeply cross-functional discipline, requiring a combination of solid hard skills with equally essential soft skills to effectively support projects and their teams.
Of course, none of these skills is developed simply by reading a book. It's a matter of continuous improvement that stays with us throughout the year and, more broadly, from year to year.
But these final days of summer, while the pace is still a little different from what awaits us in September, may be a good opportunity to open a book, pick up a few ideas and start the new season with fresh momentum.
Happy reading, and here's to a great start to the new season!