Type in the word “leadership” on the Google search engine and you will find over 21 million entries. Visit your local bookstore and you’ll find hundreds of titles on the topic, written by management gurus, entrepreneurs, and, of course, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. With so much leadership advice out there, how does a busy, ambitious woman find the information that will most help her own career?

I am excited to report that I have found the golden needle in the leadership haystack. It is Her Place at the Table, a new book by Deborah Kolb, Judith Williams and Carol Frohlinger, experts on leadership and negotiation for women. The book is a practical, relevant, honest guide for aspiring women leaders at all career levels.

Her Place at the Table provides real life case studies of women negotiating their roles at high levels of organizations. Through these anecdotes, the authors address five key challenges that often hamper women’s advancement: Gathering intelligence to make informed decisions, Enlisting backing from key allies, Negotiating the resources you need to succeed, Recruiting buy-in from teammates, and Making your value visible. How do the authors advise women to address these tough challenges? By focusing on our strengths. It is a positive, inspiring message that is also extremely strategic…and, as the anecdotes demonstrate, it is a strategy that produces strong results.

Why is this book so different from other leadership advice books for women? The authors conclude each chapter with specific guidelines so each reader can customize her own leadership plan. First we learn from other women’s stories, then we get to apply the lessons immediately. My favorites “strategic moves” included “Figure out who feels threatened,” “Bite off a small piece of a big pie,” and “Solve problems people don’t know they have.” I’ve applied some of these strategic moves to advantage already.

Junior and mid-level women may feel intimidated by the book’s high-level examples, but the authors do a good job of relating their advice to leaders at all stages of professional development. Leadership is, after all, not just about a job title, but an attitude of career ambition and achievement. Her Place at the Table makes it very clear that career success does not just happen – women need to be strategic about managing our careers every step of the way.

Kolb, Williams and Frohlinger are negotiation experts, true advocates for women and compelling storytellers. Whatever table you aspire to, this book will help get you there.

www.liwomen.com
October 2004