What Every Successful Woman Knows

How to break into the highest levels of corporate power and seize the top spots Women have made important inroads into the corporate world, but the true power in corporations remains overwhelmingly in the hands of the men. Only 12% of corporate officers are women, and less than a third of those have profit-and-loss responsibilities. What Every Successful Woman Knows offers 12 proven strategies for women who have set their sights on the executive suite. Derived, in part, from in-depth interviews with more than 200 successful senior corporate women, these strategies embody an array of critical dos and don’ts—from building a power base to avoiding becoming a generalist (multispecialize instead)—and a range of key tactical behaviors, such as bonding with your boss, exuding authority, and seizing the significant and dumping the insignificant. Together these strategies constitute a coherent action plan for getting the power in an organization and wielding it effectively.

Success secrets of today's most prominent female executives

12 Proven Strategies Women Can Use to Break Through the Walls of Power­­and Land Today's Top Corporate Jobs

• FACT: Only two of the Fortune 500 companies are headed by women
• FACT: Only 83 women versus 2,267 men hold the clout titles in corporate America­­chairman, CEO, vice chairman, president, COO, SEVP, and EVP
• FACT: Only 2.7 percent of the top-earner spots in the Fortune 500­­63 positions out of 2,320­­are held by women

The statistics, while stark, are not insurmountable.

What Every Successful Woman Knows reveals 12 strategies women must follow to break out of their career stalls and vault into the top corporate echelons. More than 200 women­­senior corporate executives­­share insights into what it takes to get and keep the power in today's business world. Turn to any page in this practical guide for tips and techniques on:

• The importance of forming professional alliances, and making them count
• Five tips to effective listening, and ten tips on the art of presenting
• A four-step strategy to creating a signature style­­then making that style an asset to the firm

Nearly a century after winning the right to vote, woman are still fighting for the right to attain and wield corporate power. What Every Successful Woman Knows goes straight to the source­­successful women­­to determine what they did to climb the corporate ladder, and how other women can follow their examples to permanently shatter the glass ceiling.

Despite the inroads women have made into middle and upper corporate management in the past decade, true corporate power in the United States remains an overwhelmingly male alliance. And as the education levels, capabilities, and relevant experience of women rise, so do their frustrations at being left behind as their male counterparts reap the rewards.

What Every Successful Woman Knows shows women how to acquire the training, political savvy, and navigational skills they need to take their rightful places as corporate leaders. Based on interviews with more than 200 corporate women who candidly reveal both their successes and what they might have done differently­­and bolstered by the unique perspectives of its co-authors, a man and a woman who have both been business insiders, senior executives, and canny observers of corporate America­­What Every Successful Woman Knows is a useful, helpful resource for today's corporate woman. It establishes nothing less than a comprehensive women's power agenda, a roadmap for breaking out and going after real corporate power.

More than just discussing the questions of what women must do to achieve corporate success, What Every Successful Woman Knows concentrates on how. Its twelve success strategies constitute an effective action plan for gaining recognition and equality in executive offices and corporate boardrooms. Look to its hands-on, specific guidelines and strategies to discover how to:

• "Fit in" with the organizational culture­­and succeed
• Develop a branding campaign when the brand is You
• Navigate the political shoals and currents­­and emerge a winner
• Manage and control sex and relationships at the office
• Become a multispecialist­­and create your own fast track

What Every Successful Woman Knows doesn't simply dwell on the already well-documented gender inequities in corporate America. Instead, it takes a proactive approach that shows women how to overcome top-level gender biases. By detailing long-range strategies for driving change, building power bases, and reaching for the top jobs in any organization, it will increase the odds of women moving above and beyond prevailing corporate hierarchies­­and reaching the critical, decision-making positions of power.