cover image See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work

See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work

Lois P. Frankel. Business Plus, $22.99 (279pp) ISBN 978-0-446-57968-1

The latest from the bestselling author of Nice Girls Don't Get Rich delineates the attitudes and obstacles that keep women from reaching the top, and provides effective strategies for using and overcoming them. Though many of the book's premises polarize the sexes, they do so in the service of sound advice and strategy, including how to articulate a vision, when to take risks and never to underestimate the power of the ""likability quotient."" As for the promised list of 99 tips, they're spread throughout the book, springing up in the midst of Frankel's occasionally long-winded text (e.g., six page of former employees' praise for deceased makeup entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash) and are grouped according to utility (""Creating High-Performing Teams,"" ""The Leader as Coach,"" etc.). Tips are bolstered by familiar-seeming anecdotes and exercises (team effectiveness surveys, self-assessment tests, a communication-style classification quiz), but Frankel effectively teaches women-without turning soft or saccharine-they needn't give up charm, compassion or a nurturing nature in order to kick ass. Though much of Frankel's hard-earned wisdom could benefit the Dicks of the business world just as well as the Janes, this businessgirl-power manifesto is passionate, well-researched and authoritative.