This book has been all that I hoped for and more. The book, in a nutshell, basically says that to get ahead in life, in career, in everything, women need to stop acting like little girls.
Replete with examples from Ms. Frankel’s consulting clients, this book gives practical, no-holds-barred evaluations of such behaviours as feeding people at the office, working too hard, asking questions instead of making statements, and “asking permission.” That last was a revelation to me.
As Ms. Frankel points out, we are all raised in a society that says you should get proper approvals before taking a step—any step. But men learn when to ask and when to just go ahead. Men learn how to apply the rubric “It’s easier to get forgiveness than to get permission.” Ms. Frankel points out that children, not adults, ask for permission to do perfectly rational things. I had never considered how detrimental to my career the habit of asking permission had been. But I decided to give Ms. Frankel’s suggestions a try. They worked!
If you are feeling frustrated by the glass ceiling, if you feel stuck and can’t figure out why you can’t get further in your career ambitions (and if you’re a female), this book is definitely worth the investment. It opened my eyes to things I did that I never even thought about, things that presented an image of an incompetent child—not a competent, composed, and capable woman. My image is now improving, and yours can too.