Book Review: Nice Girls don't get the corner office

I am a huge fan of reading, however since I started my studies I haven’t had a lot of time left for this hobby. So if I can combine the pleasure of reading with the chance to get helpful advice for my future career, I have to use the opportunity. Such an opportunity is the book Nice girls don’t get the corner office – 101 unconscious mistakes women make that sabotage their career  by Lois P. Frankel. The author is the president of Corporate Coaching International and has immense experience in Business Coaching. She realized that women often unconsciously make mistakes that have detrimental effects on their future career development and keep them from advancing. In her opinion, the root of evil is how women act “in certain stereotypical ways, such as being polite, soft-spoken, compliant, and relationship-oriented” because we have been taught to do so since early childhood. But whether you are about to start your career or you feel stuck in your current position, Ms. Frankel offers a lot of advice on how to change your behavior.

About the book

The book offers a self-assessment test that enables you to find out which of the eight categories Ms. Frankel talks about is causing the most problems for you. She also mentions the Unconscious Competence Model which pictures the challenge of moving from a state of low competence and low consciousness to a state of high competence and low consciousness. At first, you do not know what you are actually doing wrong and finally in the end, the right thing will come naturally to you. This model can be applied to many of the mistakes that are mentioned throughout the book.

Mistakes women make

For each of the eight categories of mistakes, you can find a short introduction followed by the most important mistakes women typically make. The categories range from How you play the game, How you act, How you think, How you brand and market yourself to How you sound, look and respond. What I like most about the book are the many real-life examples that are given and that really facilitate finding yourself in the described situations. The book is an easy read and you can fit in a couple of mistakes each night before you fall asleep! Not every mistake may be relevant for you, but there are definitely some things you do without even noticing their effect on your aspirations. Additionally, there are also a lot of men out there who have to deal with the same issues. 

The TOP 5

These are the five mistakes that are most important in my opinion:
Obediently Following Instructions – Simply following instructions without thinking about the big picture will not always be the most successful solution for a problem!

Striving for Perfection – Well, we all know this one. It is fine to check a finished project, but do you really need to waste time by going over it a second or third time?

Refusing High-Profile Assignments – If there is an opportunity to take over an important customer/ assignment/ position even though it might cost you a lot of time, you should usually take it over. These are the opportunities to show people what you are capable of!

Expressing Statements as Questions – One of the mistakes I am always working on. Instead of simply telling co-workers about an idea, you would camouflage the statement as a question to be on the safe side in case people don’t like the idea. But doing so also means that you lose ownership of your ideas!

Polling Before Making a Decision – Ms. Frankel talks about a negative implementation of participative decision making. While it is good to let several people participate in the decision making process, being unable to make quick decisions on your own when they are needed, is a negative characteristic.

So if you want to have an informative and helpful bedtime story, how about trying this book?

Carolin