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HBR Guide for Women at Work
Make your career what you want it to be.
Women regularly face unfair challenges in the workplace--from being passed over for promotion to being ignored in conversation. Unconscious bias and negative assumptions are working against them. As a woman, how can you break through these barriers and get what you want from your career?
The HBR Guide for Women at Work will help you identify and overcome the factors that are holding you back. It provides practical tips and advice so you can face gender stereotypes head-on, make yourself visible when opportunities arise, and demonstrate your leadership skills.
You'll learn
Speak up in meetings in a way that ensures your ideas will be heardWield influence by building the right relationshipsAdvocate for yourself--and for what you wantAlign yourself with mentors and sponsors to support your growthShow passion without being perceived as "too emotional"Create your unique vision as a leader
Women regularly face unfair challenges in the workplace--from being passed over for promotion to being ignored in conversation. Unconscious bias and negative assumptions are working against them. As a woman, how can you break through these barriers and get what you want from your career?
The HBR Guide for Women at Work will help you identify and overcome the factors that are holding you back. It provides practical tips and advice so you can face gender stereotypes head-on, make yourself visible when opportunities arise, and demonstrate your leadership skills.
You'll learn
Speak up in meetings in a way that ensures your ideas will be heardWield influence by building the right relationshipsAdvocate for yourself--and for what you wantAlign yourself with mentors and sponsors to support your growthShow passion without being perceived as "too emotional"Create your unique vision as a leader
218 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 23, 2018
39 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 19, 2020
There are lots of useful tips and the last chapter on how to avoid (unintended) patronising behaviours is very useful. However, I can't help but feel that some sections of the book encourage women to go the extra mile to just reach baseline equality. I know one has to be pragmatic but I was hoping to find advice on how to disrupt certain habits rather than comply.
Still very useful and a reference handbook to go back at different stages of your career.
Still very useful and a reference handbook to go back at different stages of your career.
March 22, 2025
Expected more from this book and in the beginning it was annoying me as there’s the constant message that the world is not moving forward towards equality at a fast speed and therefore women are the ones that need to keep adapting. Which is probably sadly very true. Some chapters have practical advice but I didn’t find the whole book to be consistent.
March 17, 2022
The Notes on HRB Guide for Women at Work...
IT'S HARD TO BE A WOMAN!
You must think like a man, act like a lady, look like a young girl, and work like a horse.
The Learning Goals for Women:
- Understand the biases preventing their advancement in the workplace—and the self-defeating
behaviors that those biases can trigger
- Come across as more confident by using more definitive, muscular language
- Promote their expertise and experience through a robust personal brand
- Share strong opinions without being perceived as pushy or emotional
- Turn “office housework” requests into real opportunities for growth
- Build a network of support, including relationships with mentors and sponsors
- Display leadership potential through vision and decisiveness
- Strike the right balance between an outwardly imposed “professional” appearance and one that is
authentic—especially for women of color
- Work through their hesitation to negotiate
- Respond to an inappropriate, sexist, or racist remark at work
- Encourage their organizations to change
SECTION ONE. Make Yourself Visible
(Chapter 1.- Chapter 3.)
Why You Aren’t Noticed for Your Accomplishments?
1: Being Overly Modest
2: Not Asking
3: Blending In
4: Remaining Silent
What we’ve found in our work is that career momentum for women is not about adding job skills but about changing everyday thinking and behaviors. The majority of high-performing women don’t need to make major changes. Small adjustments in how they think and act can improve not only how confident they seem but how confident they feel.
Disrupt Yourself—and the Way You Work!
- Challenge and Influence Authority
- Prepare, but Also Learn to Improvise
- Find Effective Forms of Self-Promotion
- Welcome a Less Prescribed Career Path
- Aim for Being Respected, Not Just Liked
You have learned to respect authority and rules. You believe the effort will be rewarded. You can adapt to others’ reactions and opinions. Now it’s time to build on those bedrock skills and actively pursue disruption, recognizing that because you are trying something new, you may not make the grade initially.
Develop and Promote Your Personal Brand!
What do you want to be known for?
How do you want to be seen in your organization?
In your field?
Your industry?
What’s your personal brand?
Control Your Narrative.
Share Your Ideas Publicly.
But if we don’t control our own narrative and show the world what we can contribute, odds are that very few people will actually notice.
With the right set of strategies, true talents will get known, recognized, and appreciated.
“Lean in, speak out, have a voice in your organization, and never use the word, ‘sorry’.”
~Trish Bertuzzi
SECTION TWO. Communicate with Confidence
(Chapter 4.- Chapter 7.)
How Women’s Ways of Talking Differ from Men’s?
Women, Find Your Voice!
Show Passion at Work Without Seeming “Emotional”!
For women, matters of perception are tricky, but here are some things you can do to minimize miscommunication and put your passion to work for you:
1: Be intentional
2: Know your audience
3: Use other tools of influence
4: Support what your gut is telling you
It can be tough striking the right balance between what others see as emotion and you see as passion. But by following the four tips outlined here, you can use your own strong feelings to be more persuasive and influential at work.
To Seem Confident, You Must Be Seen as Warm!
The study suggests that if women are to succeed in a biased world, encouraging them to be more confident is not enough. To get credit for having confidence and competence, and to have the influence in their organizations that they want to have, women must go out of their way to be seen as warm.
“The most successful entrepreneurs I know are optimistic. It’s part of the job description.” ~Caterina Fake
SECTION THREE. Build a Network of Support
(Chapter 8.- Chapter 12.)
Three Ways Women Can Rethink Office Politics:
1: Create Relationship Maps
2: Construct a Scaffolding
3: Think Bigger
You Need Many Mentors, Not Just One!
In order to form your own mentor board of directors—stocked with an assortment of talented peers, senior professionals, and junior colleagues—keep the following questions in mind.
What Do You Want to Learn?
Whom Do You Respect Most?
How Can You Spend More Time with Them?
How Can You Make the Relationship Reciprocal?
Professional success requires a myriad of skills, knowledge, and abilities, more than we could ever hope to learn on our own. That’s why mentors who can help us improve are so critical. Archetypal mentors—beneficent, all-knowing senior professionals—are in short supply these days. By updating our notions of mentorship and building a mentor board of directors, we can benefit from the knowledge of talented colleagues all around us.
The Right Way to Find a Career Sponsor:
- Be strategic in your search.
- Look beyond your immediate circle of mentors and managers.
Sponsors don’t just magically appear, like fairy godmothers (or godfathers), to hardworking Cinderellas. Sponsorship must be earned—not once but continually. But when you link up to the right sponsor, the result can change your career.
Break Out of the Girls’ Club!
- Seek Out Connections to Both Women and Men.
- Prepare for the Ask.
- Honor and Reciprocate Introductions Made by Women in Your Network
“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
~Madeleine Albright
Make Yourself Safe for Sponsorship!
There are ways you can ensure that your relationship with your sponsor appears professional and nothing more:
- Always telegraph professionalism.
- Meet your sponsor in public.
- Don’t hide your private life.
- Silence gossip by proving that you’re special.
Sponsorship is vital to fulfilling your potential, turbo-charging your career, and delivering your dreams. During economic downturns and corporate restructuring, it’s often the only thing between you and the door. So strengthen your career springboard—and your safety net—by finding a sponsor and signaling your professional relationship.
“You will be defined not just by what you achieve, but by how you survive.”
~Sheryl Sandberg
SECTION FOUR. Position Yourself for Leadership
(Chapter 13.- Chapter 16.)
“Feminine” Values Can Give Leaders an Edge
Empathy Is Innovation!
Vulnerability Is Strength!
The Upside and Downside of Collaborative Leadership
- Ask for permission
- Appear indecisive
- Fail to assert a strong point of view
Being a collaborative leader can be a tremendous asset when used judiciously. Women who can retain this core ability, while at the same time acting decisively to make things happen, will have the skills and demeanor to thrive.
Women and the Vision Thing
Women are still a minority in the top ranks of business. The reason? Their perceived lack of vision, according to Ibarra and Obodaru. In 360-degree feedback, women score relatively low on key elements of visioning, including ability to sense opportunities and threats, to set strategic direction, and to inspire constituents.
The authors’ research suggests three explanations for women’s low visioning scores:
- Some women don’t buy into the value of being visionary.
- Some women lack the confidence to go out on a limb with an untested vision.
- Some women who develop a vision in collaboration with their teams don’t get credit for having
created one.
Regardless of the cause, women seeking more senior roles must be perceived as visionary leaders. They can start by understanding what “being visionary” means in practical terms—and then honing their visioning skills.
What “Being Visionary” Means?
Being visionary is a matter of exercising three skills well:
1: Sensing opportunities and threats in environment
2: Setting strategic direction
3: Inspiring constituents
How to Strengthen Your Visioning Skills?
- Appreciate the importance of visioning.
- Leverage (or build) your network.
- Learn the craft.
- Let go of old roles.
- Constantly communicate.
- Step up to the plate.
Finding Your True Self at Work...
Authenticity is what it feels like when you can bring your whole self to work—when your behavior matches your intentions.
“Trying to do it all and expecting it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy.”
~ Sheryl Sandberg
SECTION FIVE. Negotiate for What You Want
(Chapter 17.- Chapter 20.)
Why Women Don’t Negotiate Their Job Offers?
Research shows that women are more hesitant than men to negotiate their salary offers.
With more self-awareness as negotiators and evaluators of these biases and more women negotiating successfully for higher pay, we can close this gender gap.
Having the Here’s-What-I-Want Conversation with Your Boss:
- Gather Context Through Open Dialogue.
- Use “What If” Responses.
- Let the Conversation Evolve
No matter your perceived level of expertise in negotiation or which style you use to go about it, there is power in simply moving beyond your nervousness and starting a conversation with your boss about what you want. By doing so, you’ll begin to build both your skill level and your confidence, preparing you for future negotiations.
Negotiate for Yourself When People Don’t Expect You To...
How to Respond When You’re Asked to Help?
Four negotiation strategies that work:
1: Turn a request for help into a negotiation.
2: Ascertain the cost of your contribution.
3: Demonstrate the value of your help.
4: If the ask is more personal than professional, build in reciprocity.
Negotiating the conditions of your help is good for you as an individual and good for your organization. When you help without conditions, you train people to expect that you will continue to do so. But when you negotiate the conditions of your help, it can be a small win for you. And as we have found in our work, these small wins can start to accumulate into bigger gains.
“There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down. Because if you always have one eye on some future goal, you stop paying attention to the job at hand, miss opportunities that might arise, and stay fixedly on one path, even when a better, newer course might have opened up.”
~ Indra Nooyi
SECTION SIX. Navigate Difficult Situations
(Chapter 21. - Chapter 25.)
Keep Your Network Current!
Explain Why You’re Returning to the Workforce!
Reposition Your “Weakness” as a Strength!
Don’t Get Discouraged!
It’s unfair—but common—for talented professionals to be penalized for taking time off for caregiving. If you want to return to the workforce, you have to manage and overcome the unspoken assumptions about who you are and what you’re capable of. By making it clear that your skills are current, networking assiduously, showing that you’re motivated, and demonstrating that your caregiving experience is actually a strength, you can go a long way toward combatting pernicious stereotypes and reentering professional life on your own terms.
How to React to a Biased Performance Review?
When you’re in a performance review meeting with your boss that you feel is unfair, remain calm. Use the following tips to better understand your manager’s evaluation and what it was based on:
- Listen—really listen
- Dig for more details
- Research and follow up
- Looking Ahead:
- Define your responsibilities for the task.
- Identify who has the final authority.
- Determine outside resources to be consulted.
- Clarify who needs status updates and how often they need them.
Responding to an Offensive Comment at Work...
- Weigh the benefits of speaking up against the costs.
- Don’t make assumptions.
- Engage in discussion.
- Try alternative approaches.
- Or just call it out.
- Appeal to someone in authority.
Principles to Remember
Do:
- Weigh the consequences of not speaking up. Leaving a comment unaddressed may give the person
permission to do the same thing again.
- Recognize that if you are in a position of power, you have a responsibility to address offensive
comments.
- Ask questions that help the person reflect on what they said and clear up any misunderstandings.
Don’t:
- Neglect to think through the political costs, especially if you’re the target of the comment.
- Assume the person meant to offend you or anyone else; it’s possible that they are clueless.
- Accuse someone of being biased. That’s likely to put them on the defensive and unlikely to change
their behavior over the long term.
What to Do If You’ve Been Sexually Harassed?
Older Women Are Being Forced Out of the Workforce...
Managers need to recognize and root out these biases against older women to ensure a workforce where all generations are embraced for the talents they bring. For 50 to truly become the new 30, we need a workplace that provides equal opportunities for women of all ages.
“Growth and comfort do not coexist.”
~ Ginni Rometty
SECTION SEVEN. Advice for Leaders and Managers
(Chapter 26. - Chapter 29.)
Reframe Diversity by Teaching Inclusivity to All...
... inclusion is leadership in action.
...inclusion is good for business.
Tackle Bias in Your Company Without Making People Defensive...
- Strategic opportunity:
Are you positioning gender as a problem or as an opportunity?
-Positive branding:
Are you using language that accuses or language that invites the audience to build skills and enhance leadership impact?
- Authentic leadership:
Are you engaging with the majority of your managers on things they understand are central to both their individual and company success?
Or are your efforts perceived as politically correct, tick-the-box exercises?
The goal is more-engaged employees and moreconnected customers. You probably can’t repeat that too often. Leaders need to keep everyone’s eye on that ball while drawing everyone into the game.
Best-in-class companies are moving on from an era of overfocusing on women as the solution to balance. Now they are focusing on managers.
The Men Who Mentor Women...
Some of the key behavioral themes associated with gender-inclusive leadership that support women’s career advancement are:
- Using their authority to push workplace culture toward gender equality
- Thinking of gender inclusiveness as part of effective talent management
- Providing gender-aware mentoring and coaching
- Practicing other-focused leadership, not self-focused leadership
Through behaviors like these, men can begin to change organizational cultures from the top down. Acknowledging the crucial role that men can play in creating gender equality is necessary to truly engage the entire workforce in conversations surrounding equality and fairness at work
Stop “Protecting” Women from Challenging Work!
Managers can improve the feedback they give and start leveling the playing field at the team level with a few simple steps:
- Before you begin evaluations, either written or verbal, outline the specific criteria you are employing to evaluate individuals. Articulate the specific results or behaviors that would demonstrate mastery. Use the same criteria for all employees at this level.
- Set a goal to discuss three specific business outcomes with all employees. If you can’t think of those outcomes for a particular employee, dig deeper or ask the employee or their peers to provide
more details.
- Systematically tie feedback—either positive or developmental—to business and goals outcomes.
- When evaluating people in similar roles, equalize references to technical accomplishments and capability. Notice when detail is lacking for a particular employee, and make an extra effort to determine whether something, either a skill or a developmental need, has been missed.
-Strive to write reviews of similar lengths for all employees. This helps ensure a similar level of detail—and therefore of specifics—for everyone.
These small wins, or what we call micro-sponsorship actions, offer pathways to equal access to leadership.
All people like to be treated with courtesy and respect.
“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”
~ Arianna Huffington
“Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career.”
~Meg Whitman
IT'S HARD TO BE A WOMAN!
You must think like a man, act like a lady, look like a young girl, and work like a horse.
The Learning Goals for Women:
- Understand the biases preventing their advancement in the workplace—and the self-defeating
behaviors that those biases can trigger
- Come across as more confident by using more definitive, muscular language
- Promote their expertise and experience through a robust personal brand
- Share strong opinions without being perceived as pushy or emotional
- Turn “office housework” requests into real opportunities for growth
- Build a network of support, including relationships with mentors and sponsors
- Display leadership potential through vision and decisiveness
- Strike the right balance between an outwardly imposed “professional” appearance and one that is
authentic—especially for women of color
- Work through their hesitation to negotiate
- Respond to an inappropriate, sexist, or racist remark at work
- Encourage their organizations to change
SECTION ONE. Make Yourself Visible
(Chapter 1.- Chapter 3.)
Why You Aren’t Noticed for Your Accomplishments?
1: Being Overly Modest
2: Not Asking
3: Blending In
4: Remaining Silent
What we’ve found in our work is that career momentum for women is not about adding job skills but about changing everyday thinking and behaviors. The majority of high-performing women don’t need to make major changes. Small adjustments in how they think and act can improve not only how confident they seem but how confident they feel.
Disrupt Yourself—and the Way You Work!
- Challenge and Influence Authority
- Prepare, but Also Learn to Improvise
- Find Effective Forms of Self-Promotion
- Welcome a Less Prescribed Career Path
- Aim for Being Respected, Not Just Liked
You have learned to respect authority and rules. You believe the effort will be rewarded. You can adapt to others’ reactions and opinions. Now it’s time to build on those bedrock skills and actively pursue disruption, recognizing that because you are trying something new, you may not make the grade initially.
Develop and Promote Your Personal Brand!
What do you want to be known for?
How do you want to be seen in your organization?
In your field?
Your industry?
What’s your personal brand?
Control Your Narrative.
Share Your Ideas Publicly.
But if we don’t control our own narrative and show the world what we can contribute, odds are that very few people will actually notice.
With the right set of strategies, true talents will get known, recognized, and appreciated.
“Lean in, speak out, have a voice in your organization, and never use the word, ‘sorry’.”
~Trish Bertuzzi
SECTION TWO. Communicate with Confidence
(Chapter 4.- Chapter 7.)
How Women’s Ways of Talking Differ from Men’s?
Women, Find Your Voice!
Show Passion at Work Without Seeming “Emotional”!
For women, matters of perception are tricky, but here are some things you can do to minimize miscommunication and put your passion to work for you:
1: Be intentional
2: Know your audience
3: Use other tools of influence
4: Support what your gut is telling you
It can be tough striking the right balance between what others see as emotion and you see as passion. But by following the four tips outlined here, you can use your own strong feelings to be more persuasive and influential at work.
To Seem Confident, You Must Be Seen as Warm!
The study suggests that if women are to succeed in a biased world, encouraging them to be more confident is not enough. To get credit for having confidence and competence, and to have the influence in their organizations that they want to have, women must go out of their way to be seen as warm.
“The most successful entrepreneurs I know are optimistic. It’s part of the job description.” ~Caterina Fake
SECTION THREE. Build a Network of Support
(Chapter 8.- Chapter 12.)
Three Ways Women Can Rethink Office Politics:
1: Create Relationship Maps
2: Construct a Scaffolding
3: Think Bigger
You Need Many Mentors, Not Just One!
In order to form your own mentor board of directors—stocked with an assortment of talented peers, senior professionals, and junior colleagues—keep the following questions in mind.
What Do You Want to Learn?
Whom Do You Respect Most?
How Can You Spend More Time with Them?
How Can You Make the Relationship Reciprocal?
Professional success requires a myriad of skills, knowledge, and abilities, more than we could ever hope to learn on our own. That’s why mentors who can help us improve are so critical. Archetypal mentors—beneficent, all-knowing senior professionals—are in short supply these days. By updating our notions of mentorship and building a mentor board of directors, we can benefit from the knowledge of talented colleagues all around us.
The Right Way to Find a Career Sponsor:
- Be strategic in your search.
- Look beyond your immediate circle of mentors and managers.
Sponsors don’t just magically appear, like fairy godmothers (or godfathers), to hardworking Cinderellas. Sponsorship must be earned—not once but continually. But when you link up to the right sponsor, the result can change your career.
Break Out of the Girls’ Club!
- Seek Out Connections to Both Women and Men.
- Prepare for the Ask.
- Honor and Reciprocate Introductions Made by Women in Your Network
“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
~Madeleine Albright
Make Yourself Safe for Sponsorship!
There are ways you can ensure that your relationship with your sponsor appears professional and nothing more:
- Always telegraph professionalism.
- Meet your sponsor in public.
- Don’t hide your private life.
- Silence gossip by proving that you’re special.
Sponsorship is vital to fulfilling your potential, turbo-charging your career, and delivering your dreams. During economic downturns and corporate restructuring, it’s often the only thing between you and the door. So strengthen your career springboard—and your safety net—by finding a sponsor and signaling your professional relationship.
“You will be defined not just by what you achieve, but by how you survive.”
~Sheryl Sandberg
SECTION FOUR. Position Yourself for Leadership
(Chapter 13.- Chapter 16.)
“Feminine” Values Can Give Leaders an Edge
Empathy Is Innovation!
Vulnerability Is Strength!
The Upside and Downside of Collaborative Leadership
- Ask for permission
- Appear indecisive
- Fail to assert a strong point of view
Being a collaborative leader can be a tremendous asset when used judiciously. Women who can retain this core ability, while at the same time acting decisively to make things happen, will have the skills and demeanor to thrive.
Women and the Vision Thing
Women are still a minority in the top ranks of business. The reason? Their perceived lack of vision, according to Ibarra and Obodaru. In 360-degree feedback, women score relatively low on key elements of visioning, including ability to sense opportunities and threats, to set strategic direction, and to inspire constituents.
The authors’ research suggests three explanations for women’s low visioning scores:
- Some women don’t buy into the value of being visionary.
- Some women lack the confidence to go out on a limb with an untested vision.
- Some women who develop a vision in collaboration with their teams don’t get credit for having
created one.
Regardless of the cause, women seeking more senior roles must be perceived as visionary leaders. They can start by understanding what “being visionary” means in practical terms—and then honing their visioning skills.
What “Being Visionary” Means?
Being visionary is a matter of exercising three skills well:
1: Sensing opportunities and threats in environment
2: Setting strategic direction
3: Inspiring constituents
How to Strengthen Your Visioning Skills?
- Appreciate the importance of visioning.
- Leverage (or build) your network.
- Learn the craft.
- Let go of old roles.
- Constantly communicate.
- Step up to the plate.
Finding Your True Self at Work...
Authenticity is what it feels like when you can bring your whole self to work—when your behavior matches your intentions.
“Trying to do it all and expecting it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy.”
~ Sheryl Sandberg
SECTION FIVE. Negotiate for What You Want
(Chapter 17.- Chapter 20.)
Why Women Don’t Negotiate Their Job Offers?
Research shows that women are more hesitant than men to negotiate their salary offers.
With more self-awareness as negotiators and evaluators of these biases and more women negotiating successfully for higher pay, we can close this gender gap.
Having the Here’s-What-I-Want Conversation with Your Boss:
- Gather Context Through Open Dialogue.
- Use “What If” Responses.
- Let the Conversation Evolve
No matter your perceived level of expertise in negotiation or which style you use to go about it, there is power in simply moving beyond your nervousness and starting a conversation with your boss about what you want. By doing so, you’ll begin to build both your skill level and your confidence, preparing you for future negotiations.
Negotiate for Yourself When People Don’t Expect You To...
How to Respond When You’re Asked to Help?
Four negotiation strategies that work:
1: Turn a request for help into a negotiation.
2: Ascertain the cost of your contribution.
3: Demonstrate the value of your help.
4: If the ask is more personal than professional, build in reciprocity.
Negotiating the conditions of your help is good for you as an individual and good for your organization. When you help without conditions, you train people to expect that you will continue to do so. But when you negotiate the conditions of your help, it can be a small win for you. And as we have found in our work, these small wins can start to accumulate into bigger gains.
“There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down. Because if you always have one eye on some future goal, you stop paying attention to the job at hand, miss opportunities that might arise, and stay fixedly on one path, even when a better, newer course might have opened up.”
~ Indra Nooyi
SECTION SIX. Navigate Difficult Situations
(Chapter 21. - Chapter 25.)
Keep Your Network Current!
Explain Why You’re Returning to the Workforce!
Reposition Your “Weakness” as a Strength!
Don’t Get Discouraged!
It’s unfair—but common—for talented professionals to be penalized for taking time off for caregiving. If you want to return to the workforce, you have to manage and overcome the unspoken assumptions about who you are and what you’re capable of. By making it clear that your skills are current, networking assiduously, showing that you’re motivated, and demonstrating that your caregiving experience is actually a strength, you can go a long way toward combatting pernicious stereotypes and reentering professional life on your own terms.
How to React to a Biased Performance Review?
When you’re in a performance review meeting with your boss that you feel is unfair, remain calm. Use the following tips to better understand your manager’s evaluation and what it was based on:
- Listen—really listen
- Dig for more details
- Research and follow up
- Looking Ahead:
- Define your responsibilities for the task.
- Identify who has the final authority.
- Determine outside resources to be consulted.
- Clarify who needs status updates and how often they need them.
Responding to an Offensive Comment at Work...
- Weigh the benefits of speaking up against the costs.
- Don’t make assumptions.
- Engage in discussion.
- Try alternative approaches.
- Or just call it out.
- Appeal to someone in authority.
Principles to Remember
Do:
- Weigh the consequences of not speaking up. Leaving a comment unaddressed may give the person
permission to do the same thing again.
- Recognize that if you are in a position of power, you have a responsibility to address offensive
comments.
- Ask questions that help the person reflect on what they said and clear up any misunderstandings.
Don’t:
- Neglect to think through the political costs, especially if you’re the target of the comment.
- Assume the person meant to offend you or anyone else; it’s possible that they are clueless.
- Accuse someone of being biased. That’s likely to put them on the defensive and unlikely to change
their behavior over the long term.
What to Do If You’ve Been Sexually Harassed?
Older Women Are Being Forced Out of the Workforce...
Managers need to recognize and root out these biases against older women to ensure a workforce where all generations are embraced for the talents they bring. For 50 to truly become the new 30, we need a workplace that provides equal opportunities for women of all ages.
“Growth and comfort do not coexist.”
~ Ginni Rometty
SECTION SEVEN. Advice for Leaders and Managers
(Chapter 26. - Chapter 29.)
Reframe Diversity by Teaching Inclusivity to All...
... inclusion is leadership in action.
...inclusion is good for business.
Tackle Bias in Your Company Without Making People Defensive...
- Strategic opportunity:
Are you positioning gender as a problem or as an opportunity?
-Positive branding:
Are you using language that accuses or language that invites the audience to build skills and enhance leadership impact?
- Authentic leadership:
Are you engaging with the majority of your managers on things they understand are central to both their individual and company success?
Or are your efforts perceived as politically correct, tick-the-box exercises?
The goal is more-engaged employees and moreconnected customers. You probably can’t repeat that too often. Leaders need to keep everyone’s eye on that ball while drawing everyone into the game.
Best-in-class companies are moving on from an era of overfocusing on women as the solution to balance. Now they are focusing on managers.
The Men Who Mentor Women...
Some of the key behavioral themes associated with gender-inclusive leadership that support women’s career advancement are:
- Using their authority to push workplace culture toward gender equality
- Thinking of gender inclusiveness as part of effective talent management
- Providing gender-aware mentoring and coaching
- Practicing other-focused leadership, not self-focused leadership
Through behaviors like these, men can begin to change organizational cultures from the top down. Acknowledging the crucial role that men can play in creating gender equality is necessary to truly engage the entire workforce in conversations surrounding equality and fairness at work
Stop “Protecting” Women from Challenging Work!
Managers can improve the feedback they give and start leveling the playing field at the team level with a few simple steps:
- Before you begin evaluations, either written or verbal, outline the specific criteria you are employing to evaluate individuals. Articulate the specific results or behaviors that would demonstrate mastery. Use the same criteria for all employees at this level.
- Set a goal to discuss three specific business outcomes with all employees. If you can’t think of those outcomes for a particular employee, dig deeper or ask the employee or their peers to provide
more details.
- Systematically tie feedback—either positive or developmental—to business and goals outcomes.
- When evaluating people in similar roles, equalize references to technical accomplishments and capability. Notice when detail is lacking for a particular employee, and make an extra effort to determine whether something, either a skill or a developmental need, has been missed.
-Strive to write reviews of similar lengths for all employees. This helps ensure a similar level of detail—and therefore of specifics—for everyone.
These small wins, or what we call micro-sponsorship actions, offer pathways to equal access to leadership.
All people like to be treated with courtesy and respect.
“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”
~ Arianna Huffington
“Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career.”
~Meg Whitman
December 27, 2019
Uninspiring, how much more women are supposed to bend to be considered equal to men.
July 27, 2023
I read this to see if any solutions had been arrived at (and provided in this guide) from the time I original began working decades ago. It is a series of articles, many of them based on studies, on a variety of topics: "Why You Aren't Noticed for Your Accomplishments," "Develop and Promote Your Personal Brand," "Finding Your Voice," "Finding Multiple Mentors," "Older Women Being Forced Out of Work." Here's the bad news. With all efforts made to improve equality and reducing the sequelching of the "other voice," nothing much has changed in all of these years. These things are phased in under new ways and means now, and studies are showing it's worse than ever. What this book is lacking is a stronger "....and this is what you can do to avoid these pitfalls" approach.
Every section may have one bit of help "don't be so emotional in speaking of something you're passionate about (a flaw in women, but not men.)
Women need to show "warmth" without it coming across as mothering or nurturing; i.e weak. Here's one thing a few studies showed about "that" problem. Large computer companies had engineers studied for warmth in their personalities. Cold men who were competent in their work could remain cold and suffer no consquences. Women who were equally competent and lacked warmth were punished in evaluations and promotions. However, women who also showed warmth and were competent could also be punished, based on the "type" of warmth. Lose-Lose.
Sadly, there is very little to help more in the workplace other than some stabs at fitting in, which may prove useless. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Every section may have one bit of help "don't be so emotional in speaking of something you're passionate about (a flaw in women, but not men.)
Women need to show "warmth" without it coming across as mothering or nurturing; i.e weak. Here's one thing a few studies showed about "that" problem. Large computer companies had engineers studied for warmth in their personalities. Cold men who were competent in their work could remain cold and suffer no consquences. Women who were equally competent and lacked warmth were punished in evaluations and promotions. However, women who also showed warmth and were competent could also be punished, based on the "type" of warmth. Lose-Lose.
Sadly, there is very little to help more in the workplace other than some stabs at fitting in, which may prove useless. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
January 21, 2019
It is good support as reminder how to a woman can and should behave at work. It has been proven that majority of woman at work do not know how to negotiate or show valuable are their work.
This Guide will walk you through different real situation and provided way how to handle, respond it.
Also last part of the book, it is for manager whom works with woman, and they should built a professional and responsible relationship .
This Guide will walk you through different real situation and provided way how to handle, respond it.
Also last part of the book, it is for manager whom works with woman, and they should built a professional and responsible relationship .
July 18, 2019
I picked this book up at the airport before I went on a trip and I thought no time like the present to learn more about the workforce. While I am still in college this was an interesting read to learn about how women are viewed in society as well as how to advocate for yourself. I read this while I was traveling so I had a lot of free time. However, as mentioned in other reviews, you don't have to read the entire book, you can just read the chapters you need at the time.
October 6, 2024
Harvard Business Review has a variety of books consisting of article compilations about certain topics. Women at Work provides advice on topics such as gender biases, developing confidence at work and have your voice heard and respected, expanding networks to include people outside of your organization, securing a sponsor who can help you forward your career, and leadership development. A quick but informative read as you can expect from HBR books.
May 3, 2019
It’s still very relevant! I like the cases talked in the book. It’s served as a good reminder of some social norms happening at work place that I sometimes tend to forget while focusing too much on the work itself....
September 28, 2021
A very good book, a pragmatic approach. Albeit a gruesome reminder of the gender inequality that prevails to this day in the workplace, and that we will endure for many years to come. For however long negationism and inaction are the preferred methods of dealing with this matter.
May 19, 2019
Well curated articles on a variety of topics. There’s no need to read cover to cover; you can dip in and out of the topics that suit.
November 30, 2020
Punchy and to the point helpful advice! Very actionable
August 22, 2024
Useful book for women in business. Provides useful tools and tips to navigate every day challenges of living in a- more often than not-patriarchal world.
June 14, 2021
How women rise is still my fav women in business book
Really interesting articles - especially at the start of the book - and didn’t expect you to dismantle the whole system but work with it. The article format meant it didn’t have a clear narrative or conclusion but still really interesting
Really interesting articles - especially at the start of the book - and didn’t expect you to dismantle the whole system but work with it. The article format meant it didn’t have a clear narrative or conclusion but still really interesting
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April 22, 2019Location: PTI IRC
Accession No: DL030712
Accession No: DL030712
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews