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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 A "must read" for organizational leadership success October 5, 2004
John D. Baker (Scottsdale, AZ United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Her Place at the Table: A Woman's Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success
By Deborah M. Kolb, Judith Williams, and Carol Frohlinger
Deborah M. Kolb is professor of management at Simmons Graduate School of Management and former director of the Program for Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Judith Williams is a former investment banker and co-author with Professor Kolb of Everyday Negotiation. Carol Frohlinger is an attorney and consultant to corporations on the retention and advancement of women.
The authors are principals in The Shadow Negotiation, LLC, an e-learning company that provides negotiation training for women. Readers of The Negotiator Magazine will know them for their works which have appeared many times in this publication (most recently in the September 2004 edition).
Her Place at the Table is an extraordinary work by three talented authors who understand their topic and know how to bring it to life for their readers. As the authors correctly note in their introduction, "the stories in this book carry substantial lessons for anyone - male or female - trying to puzzle through the challenging landscape of today's organizations" (p.15). They are right on target. This book is a "must-read" for every person at any level in an organization.
Having spent many years in a wide range of organizational settings, this is one of those unusual books that not only rings true on every page, but offers a realistic strategy for achieving success to leaders at every level of the hierarchy. If you are just starting out in an organization or poised on the ladder for the top job you will find solid practical and indispensable advice on leadership success.
The book draws upon Kolb, Willliams and Frohlinger's extensive experience in working with women in organizations. Using interviews and discussions with more than 100 women across a wide spectrum of leadership positions, the authors present and examine the key challenges, the probable traps along the way and the strategic moves that leaders must negotiate to achieve success. What emerges is an outstanding hands-on guide to the process that is precise and illustrated with well-told and aptly applied experiences from their interviewees.
This book arrives at a time, as the authors point out, when women in the United States hold over 50 percent of the middle rank positions in management and the professions, but occupy only one percent of top leadership positions. Obviously, this work will be a valuable contribution to the success of women and men seeking to fill these management positions.
The authors begin by exploring the reality that "a woman seeking to establish herself at the leadership table ... must negotiate her way through a number of tests that her male colleagues often bypass" (p.3). A brief discussion of these gender hurdles forms the important context for the larger work.
The focus of the book is on negotiating "five key challenges critical to ... [the] ... ability to lead" (p.14). Its "lessons," the authors correctly note, apply to "... anyone -male or female- trying to puzzle through the changing landscape of today's organizations" (p.15).
Research tells us, the authors state, that 64% of persons who take new leadership positions from outside an organization do not succeed. That is a staggering figure in light of the fact that both the organization that hired the candidate and the new employee did so in the hope of success for both parties. Experience also shows us that disappointing results occur far too often for individuals promoted from within organizations.
What, then, do these lost opportunities tell us? They make the central case that more than talent is required to achieve leadership success. This book addresses that other critical dimension.
One of the interviewees sums up this other dimension when she states the critical importance to success of a leader's "ability to read the political tea leaves" (p.18). This book shows the reader how to read those leaves and how to use what they reveal in their essence.
The authors identify five major areas of concern for the organizational leader. The first of these focuses on the gathering and use of information early in the process so that conditions and expectations that will enable the leader to succeed can be negotiated wisely at the outset of the engagement. The authors suggest how to obtain the crucial information, warn of potential traps that others have encountered along the way and then identify proven strategies and methods to turn the information to effective use to build a platform for success. It is solid stuff.
They then turn to four more critical areas, each centering on strategies to create an overall plan for negotiating the key conditions necessary to achieving leadership success. The areas that follow concern: positioning of the leader and the mission; identifying and acquiring necessary resources; achieving buy-in and blunting resistance from peers and reports; and, lastly, not only achieving results, but assuring that they are recognized as important organizational achievements.
In each area, traps and strategies and clearly described implementation methods are always central. The result is an extraordinary handbook for success.
The authors provide chapter and book summaries that should be useful to readers, an extensive bibliography for further reading on the topics and a careful index.
My highest recommendation. This book is a "must read."
John Baker, Ph.D.
Editor
The Negotiator Magazine
www.negotiatormagazine.com
Highly Recommended ! February 23, 2005
Rolf Dobelli (Switzerland)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Women in leadership positions will thank authors Deborah M. Kolb, Judith Williams and Carol Frohlinger for their strategic advice. Their book, solidly based on the experiences of 100 women in leadership jobs, clearly identifies obstacles women face in gaining legitimacy as leaders. The authors explain how women executives' incorrect - and possibly unconscious - assumptions increase their troubles. The book teaches readers to make their assumptions explicit and to overcome obstacles with step-by-step deliberate solutions. For instance, the book counsels you to get as much information as you can before taking a new position, and then to really think about what you have learned. The main chapters enumerate five major ways to gain respect and credibility as a leader, but the authors also provide advice on negotiation and some relevant questions for job hunters to ask. Although it gets repetitive, the authors accompany the final outline of major points with specific recommendations you can implement. We recommend this book to women in business who want to move up, or who already have.
From One Woman to Another February 22, 2006
G. Hess (Pikesville, MD United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a woman in corporate America, I found this book to be provide some extremely wonderful information. It was as if the authors had interviewed me directly to come up with those traps. Since completing the book, I have changed the way I approach projects, and have found the steps in the book to be extremely helpful! The format was so easy to follow, and I related to so much of the information-especially the common traps.
When being smart just isn't enough October 18, 2004
Science nurd (Athens, GA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What a thought-provoking book! Although written primarily for women entering leadership roles in large corporations, it also has relevance for those of us in less traditional and not-so-high-powered jobs. The book is designed to be read before you take on a new position or accept a major responsibility. It provides a framework for realistically evaluating the challenges of the situation and negotiating up front for the "stuff" (people, resources, support) that will be required for success. Noone who reads it can ever again blindly waltz into a demanding work situation and just assume it will all work out! The book is organized around examples, making it easy to see the relevance to one's own situation and also making it interesting to read. Summaries at the end of each chapter and in the appendix help reinforce the lessons of the book, and keep the main points clearly in focus.
A book for leaders at all levels September 28, 2004
Lindsey Pollak (New York, NY)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Her Place at the Table is a practical, relevant, honest guide for aspiring women leaders at all career levels. The authors provide case studies of women negotiating their roles at high levels of organizations, then conclude each chapter with specific guidelines so each reader can customize her own leadership plan. A few of my favorite lessons included "Figure out who feels threatened," "Bite off a small piece of a big pie," and "Solve problems people don't know they have."
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. 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 can help get you there.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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