How Women Rise

January 22, 2018
Goldsmith (What Got You Here Won’t Get You There) and Helgesen, a women’s leadership coach and former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., deliver a tiresomely downbeat guide to everything women are doing wrong in the workplace. In this diluted rehash of Goldsmith’s previous book, which highlighted mistakes people make at work, he and Helgesen attempt to outline the habits that keep women from reaching their goals. All the usual suspects appear, such as women being reluctant to claim achievements, expecting achievements to be noticed spontaneously, overvaluing expertise, failing to make early alliances, and expecting perfection of themselves. There’s little new in the book, and the presentation is unpleasantly scolding; the authors focus heavily on the tired trope that in order to be more successful, women should behave more like men. In a particularly clumsy move, the book relies heavily on examples that relate to diets and clothes. Women readers looking for ways to succeed and thrive in the workplace are unlikely to find much of value here.

February 15, 2018
Leadership coaches counsel professional women on how to free themselves from unproductive patterns of behavior that sabotage their career advancement.Helgesen (The Web of Inclusion: Architecture for Building Great Organizations, 2005, etc.) and Goldsmith (Management/Dartmouth Tuck School of Business; Triggers: Creating Behavior that Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be, 2015, etc.) team up in this self-help guide to getting ahead as a woman in male-dominated executive circles. The authors argue that men and women typically present different self-limiting behaviors in business, with women more likely to take on too much work and take too little credit for their achievements. True to the self-help genre, the work assures its readers that they need no outside help or special skills beyond their eagerness to advance. The practical approach encourages women to develop a greater self-awareness of their worst behaviors and then stop doing them. The list of errors to eradicate range from the predictable (negativity) to the unexpected ("overvaluing expertise"), and the authors emphasize that some of the behaviors, including perfectionism, might have served women well earlier in their careers. Helgesen and Goldsmith's collective coaching style abounds with positive energy, and the brisk lessons alternate with anonymous anecdotes from real-life clients. Of the 12 bad habits holding women back, they suggest that readers take aim at two or three of their own most damaging tendencies rather than address them all. Stopping short of suggesting how women might proceed differently than men once they become leaders, the authors advise the ambitious to begin with what lies solely under their control, eliminating the negative consequences of habitual, often unconscious behaviors in order to gain the power to affect much larger conversations. They offer the kind of advice that women further along in their careers might wish they had known, from sidestepping the pitfalls of negative office culture to leveraging alliances with co-workers.A concise, upbeat guide for women who have grown bored or impatient with their positions as well as for those new to the professional world and its leadership roles.

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April 15, 2018

Leadership expert Helgesen (The Female Advantage) and executive coach Goldsmith (What Got You Here Won't Get You There) join forces to identify the unique advantages women have in the workplace plus 12 habits that keep them from rising to their goals. Through case studies and research, the authors recognize differences between men and women (and even among women) that hold women back in their careers. For example, women tend to value the enjoyment of their work (in addition to position title and salary most often prized by men) but generally undervalue themselves by failing to take credit for their achievements. Examples of other limiting behaviors include "Failing to enlist allies from Day 1" (yes, even before we 100 percent understand our jobs) and suffering from the "Disease to please" (never saying no). For every habit, the authors define the issue, provide scenarios, examples, and a fix. What makes this book helpful is Helgesen's knowledge of women in leadership paired with Goldsmith's leadership expertise. Women in the workforce will surely identify with at least one of the suggested habits and benefit from the solid career guidance. VERDICT Recommended advice for women who have been "leaning in" but still feel stuck.--Jennifer Clifton, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis

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