Lean In: A Primer on Owning Your Power

978-0-385-34994-9.JPGBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

By now, you’ve probably had time to pick up Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In – or you’ve at least read a few of the reviews. My first take: I liked it, and more than I was expecting to. If you’re in a position to advocate for women at your company, it would be a great buy if only for its lengthy bibliography, which is basically a comprehensive list of every single study on the business-case for women at the top and the ways women are prevented from getting there – from stereotype threat to work/life issues to the tiara syndrome to false meritocracies and more. Her message about taking risks and expanding your ambition is also valuable.

Beyond that though, it’s an interesting read on how one woman’s personal understanding of feminism has taken flight alongside her growing acknowledgment of her own influence. It’s an experience that will probably resonate with many of our readers.

Over the past few years, I’ve done hundreds of interviews with senior women in the financial and professional services industries as part of our profile series. And over that time I’ve heard from more and more women who are coming to terms with their own power. They are realizing that they have the potential to make a difference for other women in their companies.

Sandberg writes that publishing the book and continuing to speak up about women is her own “lean in moment.” She realized that she has the power and the platform to make a difference, and she’s taking the initiative to do so. Many women have more influence than we realize on this matter, yet we shy away from using the f-word (feminism) or speaking up about implicit bias at work (no one wants to be seen as a complainer). But now we are seeing a groundswell of interest and enthusiasm for this issue (for example, Lean In debuted as a number one seller on Amazon‘s Best Sellers list). This could be a “lean in moment” for all of us.

“We can no longer pretend that biases don’t exist, nor can we talk around them,” she writes. How will you own your influence when it comes to gender equality?

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On Your Bookshelf: Glass Ceilings & 100-Hour Couples

BooksBy Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

If you are a professional woman with children, you have faced the decision about whether to keep working or stay at home. No matter which route you chose to take, most likely the bulk of household responsibilities still fall on your shoulders, and you have begun the inevitable balancing act of work and family.

There are endless articles, books and discussion about work/life balance. But those of us who are currently trying to walk that tightrope know – there is no balance. Something has to give, and more often than not, the woman is the one who gives.

In their book Glass Ceilings & 100 Hour Couples – What the Opt-Out Phenomenon Can Teach Us About Work and Family, authors (and working mothers) Karine Moe and Dianna Shandy highlight the growing trend of highly educated women who walk away from their rising star careers in order to focus on family.

I admit that it sounds nice. On days when I am in my car, taking my kids to daycare before going to work, I see other mothers waiting for the bus with their children and pushing strollers around the neighborhood and I sigh, thinking the grass is greener in the neighbor’s lawn. But I also know the reality – I’ve stayed home with three small kids for 12 hours at a time, and it’s no picnic. Stay at home moms work hard, too. So, what, then, is the answer? Through numerous interviews, research, and surveys, Moe and Shandy paint a picture of the road not taken for women on both sides of this decision. One constant that remained through all conversations, data, and feedback, is the 100-hour couples – the norm rather than the exception in America today – are most poised to fall off the tightrope and report the highest levels of stress.

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Playing for Success: A Conversation with Ellen Leikind

BooksBy Kathryn Nilsson Reichert (New York City)

Ellen Leikind is the founder of POKERprimaDIVAS, a company that provides corporate team-building programs that teach women how to play poker and use what they learn at the table to enhance their business skills. She is also a successful marketing executive who spent more than 15 years in the corporate world working for several Fortune 500 companies. The more she played poker, the more she saw the similarities with the larger game of business and personal fulfillment. Her new book, PokerWoman: How to Win at Love, Life, and Business Using the Principles of Poker, positions the card game as a metaphor for life.

TGH: Why poker?

EL: I decided to take a break from my career and during that time, I started to play poker again. And that’s when I started to see the connections between what you need to play poker, and what you need to survive in the boardroom and have a rewarding life.

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On Your Bookshelf: The Go-Getter Girl’s Guide

BooksBy Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

Don’t let the chick-lit cover fool you. The Go-Getter Girl’s Guide: Get What You Want in Work and Life (and Look Great While You’re at It) may look fluffy, but it is full of hard-nosed advice about how to strategize each step of your career. Author Debra Shigley is a Harvard-educated journalist and lawyer whose work has appeared in numerous publications and has been featured as a career/lifestyle expert on The View, CNN, and in The Wall Street Journal, along with other media outlets.

Although the book is primarily geared toward women just starting out, Shigley’s advice holds true for women at any stage in their career – especially women who want to be more polished, more professional, and move ahead. Go-Getter Girl (GGG) is code for Type A personality, and The Go-Getter Girl’s Guide (GGGG) is filled with stories of highly-educated, highly-motivated, and high-achieving women.

Amidst the peach text and call-out boxes, Shigley sets the tone early with a chapter titled, “The Work World Can Be a Cold Hard Place – You Must Learn to Deal with It.” It’s true. Women do encounter issues at work that men do not. The GGGG discusses what to do if you have the occasion to cry at work and why it’s so important to maintain a sunny disposition no matter what (“fake it until you make it”). Other advice is common sense, but bears repeating, like not venting at work, avoiding gossip, and treating your coworkers with respect.

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Five Top Books for Working Women

BooksBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

Wondering what to put on your holiday gift list? Well, there’s always more space on the bookshelf for a great career-boosting book. Here’s our round-up of the best business books for women at work.

  1. Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham.

    This is a practical guide to identify ‘what a strength is’ and how to put your strengths to work. “It is great for individual contributors and a powerful tool for managers looking to motivate teams and change the dynamic of the dreaded performance management discussion, which is so often focused on weaknesses,” says Camille Mirshokrai, Director, Global Leadership Development at Accenture. “This book is especially timely because Gen Y is focused on feedback, and this book can help managers channel that feedback in productive ways for the individual and the company.”

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On Your Bookshelf: Encore – Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life

By Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, MI)

Books

“The first of 77 million baby boomers turned 60 in 2006, and every day, another 8,000 join them.” A large portion of the American workforce is reaching a stage of life where society considers them to be too old to work, yet lengthening lifespans make them too young to retire. They are simultaneously encouraged (or forced) to leave their midlife careers to make way for younger workers, while discouraged from drawing benefits by increasing Social Security age minimums and unable to go without income because of plummeting 401k values. Many take “bridge jobs” – retail positions with Walmart or Home Depot to span the years until they can retire completely. “Joseph Quinn, professor of economics at Boston College, estimates that as many as one-third to one-half of older Americans hold some kind of bridge job before retiring completely. Retirement, he observes, has become ‘a process, not a single event.’”

Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures, believes that while bridge jobs benefit both employers and employees, they shouldn’t be the only choice for “the largest, healthiest, best-educated population of Americans ever to move through and beyond their fifties.” As the author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, he outlines several compelling arguments for why 50+ knowledge workers should work longer (if they are able) and have an encore career – and how, as a society, we can only reap the benefits of boomers and future generations working longer and happier.

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On Your Bookshelf: Outliers – The Story of Success

By Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, MI)Books

It is an age-old question–what is the secret of success? In Outliers – The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell sets forth his theory that success is a mixture of timing, talent, opportunities, circumstances, intelligence, attitude, cultural background, and hard work.

Supported by case studies and in-depth research, Gladwell uses examples ranging from youth sports to Beatles music, form Bill Joy and Bill Gates to the garment industry workers and New York lawyers, and from the Hatfields and the McCoys. His smooth, narrative style draws readers in as he marches through history, analyzes cultures and dissects parenting styles.

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Confessions of a City Girl: Navigating the Testosterone-laden Financial Industry

What does it mean to be a City Girl today? Can City Girls have it all? Barbara Stcherbatcheff (a.k.a. City Girl), who has worked in banking and derivatives in London for over five years, tackles these questiosn and more in her new book called “Confessions of a City Girl.”

TheGlassHammer.com has 10 signed copies of the book to give away. To win, simply join The Glass Hammer social network and post a comment or discussion. The ten members who’ve posted the most thought-provoking comments/discussions win a copy of the book. This competition ends Friday, so join today!

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Women occupy a special place in the City of London. There aren’t many of us, but the successful ones have overcome exceptional odds.

I started my financial career bright-eyed, with a suitcase full of hopes. I was looking for fortune, freedom, and maybe even love. And amazingly, I found it all, but not without some challenges.
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What’s your point, Honey? A Documentary About Female Leadership

By: Nicki Gilmour
Six years ago, with the support of the The White House Project, CosmoGirl! launched Project 2024, an initiative to get more young women involved in politics so that we could see a day when just as many women as men run for the highest office in the country – getting beyond gender to agenda. “What’s your point, honey?” puts a new face on political leadership by introducing seven possible contenders coming down the pipeline, while revealing inequalities that still exist today.

I caught up with film-makers Amy Sewell (Mad Hot Ballroom) and Susan Toffler to chat about feminism, leadership and their reasons for making the documentary. They are both highly engaging women and have explored interesting themes in this film highlighting different perspectives such as what children think of equality, having a female president, how father’s want the best for their daughters, and how generation Y is responding to the world around them.
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Book Review: Samantha Power Talks (And Writes)

111515924_cd0b07f0c2_m.jpgA few years ago, I attended a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to honor women in communications and the author Samantha Power introduced one of the honorees. Someone asked me who she was. I told her that Ms. Power was a professor at Harvard and an author who had won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for her first book, “A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide.” I also told her that while a book about genocide didn’t sound like an easy read, Ms. Power’s writing made it a fascinating topic. I urged all eight women at my lunch table to buy her book.

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