Grow Wherever You Work: Straight Talk to Help with Your Toughest Challenges

by Joanna Barsh

Powerful, unvarnished advice for growing through the work challenges aspiring leaders face--from a bestselling author

The business world is full of catchphrases: find your passion; follow your North Star; think positive; be authentic; suck it up; take risks. All well-intentioned, this inch-deep advice just isn't very helpful. How do real people succeed in the real world of work? That's the question bestselling author Joanna Barsh sets out to answer--not by asking motivational gurus or well-established CEOs but by diving into the trenches with today's boldest, brightest, up-and-coming leaders.

Distilling the stories of work challenges from more than 200 rising leaders in 120 companies, this hands-on guide helps you grow through the challenges you face, not despite them. Representing a rich diversity of voices--immigrants and first-generation Americans; blacks, Hispanics, and Asians; Ivy League alums and high school grads; parents, some of whom are single--this book shows you how to succeed using these challenges to accelerate your growth. These include: handling mounting pressures, dealing with colossal mistakes or very difficult people, bouncing back from poor performance reviews, taking uncomfortable risks, navigating workday blues and blahs, and much more.

This is how ordinary people turn challenges into extraordinary opportunities for action--and grow wherever they work.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Self Help

273 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2017

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm usually not a fan of these professional development books. They all tend to say the same things - take some risks, communicate effectively with others by considering their needs, find a mentor, don't stay in a situation that makes you sick, etc. Good advice, but not really necessary to read sixteen million times. (This is why I always say I should write one - they're simplistic in format and writing, and basically rehash the same themes every other book in the section discusses, and yet they sell like crazy.) This one is the quarterly pick for the women's business network book club at my office, so I picked it up. I have to give some credit to the author, though - she seems to realize it's skimmable re-telling of old info, and her global organization is great: bullet points, bold take-away lessons, mostly personal stories from a diverse selection of workers in different fields to exemplify the lessons, and very little of her own pointing out the obvious. For these reasons, I would recommend picking it up... if you're in the market for this sort of thing.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried reading this, I did, but maybe it was the ARC copy but the book is a jumble of paragraphs that have little to no flow from the last one read.
I knew that the author would be writing about various examples of different people to be able to properly showcase solutions but a lot of it seemed incoherent to me and some solutions such as "quit your job and move on" may sound cliche doesn't also work as bills don't wait for I've to find a dream job

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend for entry level through senior employees, this book helps you navigate the challenges you may face in your job and offers insight into turning the challenges into success.

[Mondana · Rating 1 out of 5]

It doesn’t flow well. It doesn’t necessarily apply to most careers and a lot of it is advice I already knew.

[Richard Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of cool first hand accounts here. It touches on basic work-related self help concepts. The text, however, is just that: basic. Other books touch on these concepts in greater detail.

[María López Moreno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historias cortas de profesionales que ayudan a la autora a desarrollar sus ideas sobre crecimiento profesional. Un poco escueto, y sin mucho fondo.

[Andy]

DNF.