Book Review: Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office

I've just finished reading this book and thought that a lot of its tips were blog-worthy. Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage Their Careers by Lois P. Frankel (Warner Business Books, 2004).

First, for all my gentlemen readers, this book has lots of tips you will find helpful as well, so don't be turned off by the title. You can even read this in public and maintain your manly street cred: the hardcover version I have only lists the title on the spine and the title seems very soft-porn, no? Uh, anyway... it's been a long semester and these days I'm easily entertained by the faintest of double entendres.

The basic premise of this book is that to get ahead in the corporate world we need to act like adults, not children (or in Frankel's words, "stop actin' like a girl and be woman").

While the gendered premise of her book is both useful and annoying, I think all ex-grad students should read it. After years of being told that we have to wait for the okay from our advisor/department/funding agency/university to do things, we have a hard time re-envisioning ourselves as autonomous adults. This book not only draws attention to the unconscious habits we do that keep us in this child-like position, but most usefully, it provides concrete suggestions and scripts for breaking these habits. It's the coaching tips that sold me on this book.

I think few of Leadfoot's readers need to be told that they should not decorate their office cubicle like their living room (mistake #26), though we all know people (specifically women) who break this rule. But other suggestions like "don't ask the boss if you can do something, just do it" (mistake #59) are good tips for all us workplace newbies. Frankel also spends a fair bit of time on networking--both how to do it and how to maintain relationships ("mistake 3: working hard," "mistake 13: failing to capitalize on relationships," "mistake 36: ignoring the quid pro quo" etc). I mention this because I know we all are freaked out by our seeming lack of professional networks.

My favorite tip, I think, is "mistake 44: striving for perfection." The coaching tip that sticks with me "strive for 80% perfection. The difference between 80% and 100% won't be noticed by most people but will buy you more time to shift to other important tasks". Is it coincidental that I'm currently struggling through a dissertation chapter? Surely not.

Frankel divides the book into seven sections, with a self-assessment introduction and a concluding "best of luck to you!" epilogue. Now, I think I'm pretty savvy, but I found that I made a mistake in at least each chapter. You will probably see some yourself in some of the mistakes in each chapter as well, so even if the titles and subjects seem hokey, they're not. Chapter 2: How You Play the Game, Chapter 3: How You Act, Chapter 4: How You Think, Chapter 5: How You Brand and Market Yourself [trust me, this isn't as lame as it sounds], Chapter 6: How You Sound, Chapter 7: How You Look, Chapter 8: How You Respond.

Now, have I bought this book? Uh, actually not yet. I'm still deciding if it is worth the $15 and the book case real estate or if I should just take my library copy to a photocopier and xerox the mistakes that apply to me. But I have sent a copy to my sister. She is just coming off a horrendous work environment that included a manager who was sexually harassing her and then retaliating when she would tell him to stfu and stop it. Because of a number of circumstances, including the fact that she currently lives in the antebellum boonies, she couldn't go to the HR department and report him. Lucky for her, the manager was a total cokehead and stealing from the company to support the habit, so the police removed that problem from her life. Sadly she was not the one to report him; that would really have been some awesome karma. Still, the next time she has to deal with a krazy manager, perhaps she'll be better equipped to stop the buck from the get-go.

Definitely worth a read--I read it at night before going to bed and got through it in a week or so. Again, really the concrete coaching tips and suggested scripts sold me and I'll probably end up buying the book just so I have a cribsheet to work from for the next time I need to diplomatically, but firmly, tell someone to get their shit together.

Read any good career books? Let us know! Next on my reading list: What Color is Your Parachute? But if someone else wants to take that review, have at it.