Up, Up and Away! Reviews of Two Business Books to Inspire Women

For this second installment of business book reviews, our editorial staff has reviewed two of their recent favorites:

1. Trade Up! Five Steps for Redesigning your Leadership and Life from the Inside Out, by Rayona Sharpnack
2. Spiral Up: and other Management Secrets Behind Wildly Successful Initiatives, by Jane Linder.

As you might imagine from their upwardly mobile titles, both books provide advice and encouragement to women looking to move up in the ranks at work, and harness the power and confidence to succeed in life. Sort of like the literary version of buying a coveted handbag or treating yourself to some full-fat ice cream, both of these books are a great start to a career pick-me-up.

Rayona Sharpnack, Trade Up! Five Steps for Redesigning your Leadership and Life from the Inside Out
Reviewed by Saadiah Freeman

As a woman working in finance, I generally regard books about women in business, particularly books in the ‘how-to-succeed’ genre, with more than a hint of trepidation. Will the book offer suggestions so basic that they are virtually useless? Or (worse still) will it insist that, without a radical overhaul of my wardrobe/mannerisms/personality, I am doomed to certain failure in my career?

Thankfully, Rayona Sharpnack‘s new book, Trade Up! Five Steps for Redesigning your Leadership and Life from the Inside Out, does neither. Although the author, as the founder and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Leadership, draws extensively on her client base of female business leaders to illustrate the book’s principles, in many ways Trade Up! is equally relevant to anyone, male or female, who is aiming to achieve a goal or bring about a significant life change. The book is refreshingly free of prescriptive, one-size-fits-all advice, instead encouraging readers to examine their own belief systems – which Sharpnack calls ‘context’ – with a critical eye.

The book’s central theme is that most people have deeply entrenched contexts that affect their ability to achieve their goals, and that by changing these contexts, individuals can empower themselves to create the outcomes they desire.

Although the idea that beliefs shape reality is not a new one, Trade Up! offers a clear and accessible discussion of the benefits of modifying existing belief structures in order to create positive change, and also offers practical advice on how to achieve the desired result.

Sharpnack’s analysis is complemented by anecdotal examples of some of the concrete ways that people’s belief systems hold them back from success. For instance, she argues that people who don’t believe they can reach a particular goal typically fail to take the necessary practical steps towards it. This approach will appeal to skeptics who might otherwise dismiss the book as just another positive-thinking manifesto.

Another strong point of the book is its emphasis on working with existing beliefs to create new contexts that are more empowering, but still resonate with people’s fundamental perceptions of themselves. Despite the slightly worrying reference to “five steps” in the subtitle, Trade Up! doesn’t resort to patronizing “do’s and don’t’s.” It’s an invigorating and inspiring read for women (and men) who want to achieve their life and career goals without sacrificing their individuality in the process.

Jane Linder, Spiral Up.
Reviewed by Nicki Gilmour

I saw Jane Linder, the author of Spiral Up, speak at an Financial Women’s Association (FWA) event in January 2008. What she had to say really resonated with me as a serial entrepreneur in start up environments.

Her recent book, Spiral Up, explores what it takes to achieve extraordinary results or as she puts it, the secrets to “ wildly successful initiatives.” The main message of the book is that conventional management approaches might ensure that the job gets done on time, but following a detailed plan with no creative room to maneuver means that nothing exceptional happens but failure is usually avoided. Alternative approaches taken more often by passionate people seem to yield amazing unimaginable results. These approaches have shared characteristics, which Dr. Linder explores through examples.
The book’s main thesis is that there are five keys to making your project or business a cut above the rest. Broken down simply, these points are:

1. Reach beyond your grasp. Take your business objectives personally and don’t accept the common view.

2 Make space. This chapter addresses the fact that over-planning a project can reduce the range of where the project can go. Space is a mindset. Serial entrepreneurs have an ability to frame a big area, nurture a sense of autonomy and liberate enough time and effort to pursue it.

3. Get it right. Execution matters, but your vision for what you decide to execute matters ten times more. Wildly successful initiatives get it right, they find solutions that work, products that sell, and strategies that win.

4. Energize people. This is my favorite chapter in the book, as it discusses the need for a strong emotional bond among team members. Here, the author describes how to cultivate the interpersonal “in it together” feeling that is so necessary in “under the radar” projects.

5. Spiral Up- Finally, create plateaus where results can be seen then continue to grow without limitations. Very often these projects keep going and expanding without a definite end.

Any one who has grown a business in a non-linear way will appreciate this book. It reinforced my long-held belief that the extraordinary can be done with a vision that translates into a good product and a team of tenacious and dedicated people who believe in the project. Look at theglasshammer.com – it’s a perfect example!