Career forward : strategies from women who've made it

Career forward Strategies from women who've made it

Grace Puma

Book - 2024

"At a time when many long-held workplace structures and beliefs are changing, Career Forward is a beacon for women aspiring to achieve success and satisfaction in rewarding careers. Drawing on decades of experience reaching the top of Fortune 500 companies, Grace Puma and Christiana Smith Shi show women how to maximize their career journeys, get paid what they're worth, navigate the shifts that occur in any company, build a leadership identity, and have a full life in and out of work. The authors challenge negative stereotypes about female ambition, and urge women to be bold, follow their dreams, and seize the chance to lead "big" lives. The secret is to focus on career first, job second. Instead of chasing a better job ...title or a salary bump, the goal should be a long-range career path that leads to success. "Career forward" means keeping a focus on the future and recognizing that being good at your job is often not enough--that you should take every opportunity to boost your connections, take on "difficult" assignments, and work actively to broaden your skills. Packed with personal anecdotes and wisdom from women who've been there, and featuring quizzes and checklists for self-evaluation, Career Forward provides a wealth of valuable lessons, including the value of thinking of yourself as a "growth stock" and, instead of chasing the elusive work-life balance, living a well-rounded 360-degree life that fully embraces both. Offering a refreshing response to anyone who wonders whether working hard is really worth it, Puma and Smith Shi's emphatic answer is "yes," because by correctly following the blueprint in Career Forward, the rewards will far outweigh the effort"--

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Subjects
Women > Employment.
Women executives.
Women > Psychology.
Career development.
Work-life balance.
Published
New York : Scribner 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Grace Puma (author)
Other Authors
Christiana Smith Shi (author)
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition
Physical Description
xiii, 239 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-229) and index.
ISBN
9781668018606
9781668055823
  • Introduction: At the Top of Your Game
  • 1. We Have Something to Tell You
  • 2. Career Forward
  • 3. Grow Your Professional Equity
  • 4. Get Full Value
  • 5. The Underdog's Superpower
  • 6. Steer into the SKID
  • 7. What Makes You Special?
  • 8. Your 360-Degree Life
  • 9. Lucky Like a Duck
  • 10. Facing the Forks in the Road
  • 11. Shaping Your Leadership Identity
  • 12. Own Your Ambition
  • 13. Meet the Moment
  • 14. It's Worth It
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Geared towards women on the path to leadership, Puma and Shi's guide to moving up and the authors' extensive knowledge could benefit people of all genders. They sketch out almost every corporate situation and its solutions, with great analyses and a host of considerations. How to decide whether to accept a promotion? Think about the career complications and the relationships that will be affected. Need to up your negotiating skills? Self-branding centers on professional differentiators, not a slogan or a phrase. As for the questions of luck and being in the right place at the right time, take control by staying ready and responsive and thinking five moves ahead. Both former corporate chieftains, Puma and Shi know their stuff, have experienced career ups and downs, and remain passionate about their work and committed to performance. These are approachable, knowledgeable, and easy-to-digest work and life lessons.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this energizing debut manual, Puma, former COO of PepsiCo, and Shi, former president of Nike's consumer-direct division, advise women professionals to further their careers by focusing on long-term goals. The authors illustrate their guidance with personal anecdotes, as when Shi stresses the importance of boosting one's future employability by seeking on-the-job opportunities to acquire new skills and tells how during her tenure as a management consultant she specialized in retail clients and pursued related research projects so she could one day take a leadership position at a retail company. Lamenting that "the average woman worker loses more than $530,000 because of the gender wage gap" over her lifetime, the authors encourage readers to negotiate for higher salaries by making a highball initial ask and backing up the request with "tangible examples that show why you deserve the compensation." Elsewhere, the authors address adjusting to a new boss, the importance of networking, and "when and how to turn down a job that doesn't support your career goals." The combination of helpful anecdotes and rousing encouragement ("Own your ambition and be bold about it") makes for a sensible program on how women can achieve their professional goals. Readers will feel inspired. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Feb.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Two former executives offer advice for women seeking long-term career satisfaction. Puma, former executive vice president of PepsiCo, believes that a woman's passion for her career is just one of the many factors that can lead to success. In collaboration with Shi, a former Nike executive, Puma provides a detailed framework for how women can thrive at work and in the lives they build outside that arena. The authors begin by observing that in the post-pandemic world ("nearly 12 million women left their jobs in the early months of the pandemic"), working hard just to maintain a company's profitability no longer appeals. What does appeal is working toward overall personal fulfillment. According to the authors, this goal can be achieved through adopting a "360-degree life" mindset that neither neglects nor hides all the activities and personal/family situations that also comprise a working woman's life. They suggest that a commitment to excellence and to bringing value to every job interaction are two of the most important investments women need to make in their careers. Both create "professional equity" that maximizes the chances of receiving employer concessions to the flexibility that women need to pursue outside interests while also tending to themselves and to those who may depend on them. The authors also emphasize that while a career-forward attitude is always necessary, so is one that allows women necessary leeway to "lose the guilt" they may feel about advocating for their own needs, especially with bosses and colleagues. Women workers will no doubt appreciate the authors' advice and take heart in a vision of career success that helps balance out the lean-in mentality that has--quite unintentionally--led to high rates of burnout among high-performing women over the last decade. A thoughtfully upbeat and humane business book. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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