Book Review- How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
“Please don’t be too hard on yourself” — “Women are much harder on themselves than men are. They tend to worry more about their perceived faults and feel greater pressure to improve. This can be useful because it makes you willing to change. But getting caught up in self-reproach, or beating yourself up for being a flawed human being, is always counterproductive. You can’t lead, and you can’t make helpful improvements in your behavior, if you’re constantly berating yourself”.- Marshall Goldsmith.
One such self-help book recommended by a friend was the last read titled “How Women Rise”.
This women-specific book that attempts to "tell” how to tailor a woman's “professional suit.” For me, the book is more like a “directory of the habits” that should be part of every woman's lifestyle, whether working at home or at the office. That said, women often face various external barriers as they seek to advance in their careers, which shapes their work experience. Because experience shapes behaviour, they may begin to influence how they respond, and responses, over time, become habits.
The book is easy to understand. The authors share specific stories for each habit of a working female falling into one of the habits and how she overcame it. The habits entailed in the book are-
Habit 1: Reluctance to Claim Your Achievements
Habit 2: Expecting Others to Spontaneously Notice and Reward Your Contributions
Habit 3: Overvaluing Expertise
Habit 4: Building rather than leveraging relationships
Habit 5: Failing to Enlist Allies from Day One
Habit 6: Putting your job before your career
Habit 7: The Perfection Trap
Habit 8: The Disease to Please
Habit 9: Minimising
Habit 10: Too Much
Habit 11: Ruminating
Habit 12: Letting Your Radar Distract You
The book has no ground-shattering formula for success (because there are none - I guess!).
The only “red” flag in the book's script is that although there were some valid habits in this book, overall, it felt very patronising and broadly stereotypical. It kept asserting that women need to change to fit society's expectations rather than society changing its perceptions of a successful leader or of women in general. It turns more about “us vs them” (the mindset I never understood).
Overall, the book is a good read, as it has some good stories. It is a definite read for young girls just entering the workplace or for those “seasoned” women who require some revision of “good habits”.
Read this book long ago ! It broadly explains the status quo in terms of society’s outlook and women’s apprehensions but has no ground breaking solutions to offer.
ReplyDeleteI second you, Ekta.