Product Description

Forget what you’ve heard. Nice girls can get the corner office.



As women, we haven’t always had the best role models at work. We’ve either worked for men or we’ve had female bosses who are, well, big bitches. Woman still don’t have much of a road map right now when it comes to taking charge at the office, so the team who brought you the national bestseller The Girl’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business is drawing one for us. Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio will teach you to be powerful without being possessive, to be opinionated without being brassy, and to have a strong voice without micromanaging. You’ll learn just how to own the role of queen bee in a positive way so that you can be more mentor than manager, one who leads, inspires, and motivates.

So, you finally got that promotion. You’re the boss now. The supervisor. The manager. The captain. The taskmaster. Those days of taking orders, running errands, and clock-watching are over. As exciting as all this might seem, once the rush of the promotion is over, you might be scratching your head wondering exactly what to do. Being the boss is never easy, but it's twice as hard for a woman. It seems like there's no middle ground. Either you're the dragon lady who rules with an iron fist or the mousey girl who gets drowned out at every meeting. When a woman wields authority and dares to make tough decisions, how often is the "B-word" bandied about by her employees? How can she strike that balance between pushover and dictator?

Fear not. You can do the job. All you need is a little helpful advice to send you on your way. Whether you supervise two as a shift manager or lord over an entire corporate empire, Caitlin Friedman and Kim Yorio will show you how to step gracefully into your new position of power. They’ll teach you how to motivate your team without alienating them, how to delegate without feeling guilty, how to deal with office politics and how to handle evaluations, promotions, and even firings. And for those of you who are already running the show, they can help you become the mentor your employees deserve.

Inside, there are self-assessment questionnaires to help you find out where you land on the bitch or wimp scale; interviews with prominent female bosses, human-resources directors, and therapists; and advice from a whole host of experts. In addition, there are funny and informative checklists and tips to make sure you’re the Good Witch around the office and not the Big Bitch. And, most important, Caitlin and Kim will teach you the secrets to owning your role and loving it. You’ve earned your promotion, so enjoy it!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38566 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Released on: 2007-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.com Review
Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio offer advice for "both the leader and the led" in this entertaining and useful guidebook for today's working woman. Through quizzes, personal anecdotes, and interviews, Friedman and Yorio help readers to identify their leadership style and share support and encouragement from experts to help women become better (and more comfortable) leaders. Want to know more? Check out Friedman and Yorio's "Top 5 Reasons to Buy This Book" for the inside scoop.

Top 5 Reasons to Buy The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch)

1. You just got promoted.
Yikes! Nobody ever taught you to be a manager. Your role models have been less than fabulous and you want to be better. We teach you how to be more mentor than manager. We show you how to be firm but fair. Armed with our book, you will learn how to get the best out of your employees.

2. Most management books put you to sleep.
No jargon and no need for an MBA. The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss Without Being a Bitch is a fun read that offers information without intimidation and includes all the advice you need to learn to lead, inspire and motivate. We include quizzes, tips, checklists and fun sidebars such as "Celluloid Bitches," and "The Girl’s Guide to Gossip" throughout.

3. Your manager is crazy.
You're not alone. In our "Good Witch/Big Bitch" boxes we share both the horrible and the heroic--stories from women from around the country who have seen it all and learned their lessons.

4. You're not a manager…yet!
Unlike most management books we speak to both leaders and the led. We offer tips and suggestions for dealing with issues such as micromanagement, taking credit for ideas, managing up to get the promotion, office politics and taking responsibility for mistakes.

5. Don't take just our word for it....
Good management is a life-long pursuit. We'd be foolish to believe we know it all, so to help us fill in the blanks we got on the phone with women from all over the country. We include interviews with coaches, human resource directors, other writers, supervisors, the supervised, mediators, and social workers to get their take on the challenges and opportunities of being the chick-in-charge.

From Publishers Weekly
Since the early 1980s, studies have shown that the techniques utilized by successful men in leadership roles do not have the same effects when practiced by women in similar contexts. It is commonly known that when a woman behaves like her male counterpart, she is often negatively labeled as cold, tough, etc. In addition, women have fewer female role models to whom they can turn for advice and assistance. Friedman and Yorio help readers through this dilemma by compiling personal anecdotes, pop culture references and an array of interviews with female leaders in various fields in an attempt to offer the support and encouragement women need to excel as leaders. The authors state that the patience, strength, wisdom, resourcefulness and nurturance that society cultivates in women might actually make females better managers than males. The book is filled with numerous examples of management styles as well as quizzes to determine if the reader is a "Good Witch" or a "Bad Bitch" with regard to her own leadership skills. Leaders of any gender will find solace in reading these stories from the trenches and may learn some new tips to improve on their own leadership skills as well. (Apr. 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–This crash course in management covers the gamut in perky prose, from hiring to firing and everything in between. The authors provide examples of their principles with stories from their experiences as bosses and with reports of other female executives. Interviews with successful businesswomen add insight into techniques on which the chapter focuses. Other stories about bosses who were either good witches or bad bitches provide juicy anecdotes. Not all issues will apply to every teen in a leadership position, but young women will find this a handy guide. Whether student-body president or yearbook editor, or at work in another environment, teens will find tools, techniques, and advice that they can use to lead people more efficiently and effectively.–Jane S. Drabkin, Chinn Park Regional Library, Woodbridge, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Female manager
As a first time manager, I was thrilled to see advertisement for this book. It really was the title that attracted me to it. I was delighted to learn that my intuition about my employees behavior was not my imagination, and this book nailed it. It was interesting to read about people behavior, gossip, reluctunce of male counterparts to cooperate in workplace. This easy to read book was pure blessing with its down to earth advice and excellent reference index. Once I finished reading this book, I was able to continue my management education thru referring to other book materials that address leadership issues and what is means to be a female manager. This is great book for both managers and employees. It does not matter is you work in corporate world or you own your business. Advice from this book applies to all work environments.

Some Valuable Advice - and Some Things to Ignore
The full name of this book is The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch). The title bothers me - it seems a marketing ploy to catch people's attention while perpetuating a stereotype which is more suitable to the 1980s than the current decade. There are thousands of great female bosses out there. Over half of all graduate students are female. I've worked for many companies and never have had a problem because I'm female - or had a problem with females in management.

That being said, I know many women have trouble in a position of power - and I know that some people still have an issue with women being *in* power. Heck, there are still people around who look down on people for having dark skin. So if this book helps people in that situation, it's doing a good thing.

One indicator of the mindset of the authors is that the book is about 200 pages long - but they explain that they originally had a chapter on "why being a boss sucks" and that one chapter ALONE was over 200 pages and had to be drastically trimmed. What an awful attitude to have!! That's like having a book for moms with a gigantic chapter on "why being a mom sucks". As we all know, the things you focus on end up being the things that take over your life. If you focus on all the awful things about being a boss, that is not a healthy way of living. Heck, why not choose a different career path then, one that does not involve management, if you truly hate being a boss so much? Some people simply are more happy not having control over others. That is fine.

I'm not saying that you should ignore the challenges of being a boss. Certainly, there are challenges! But they are simply skills you need to learn to master, not "being a boss sucks" situations.

What are some of the challenges? The book tells you that as a woman you are likely to "freak out" and must not do that. You must take responsibility for your team, on caring well for them. You have to give credit to them, not steal it from them. You have to stay "consistent, loyal and unbiased". You have to be firm but fair. Learn to delegate.

The book tells you these things via little stories, and by proving lists. For example, as a boss you should post this above your desk: make a to-do list, set goals, stick to deadlines, keep your word, get it in writing, be proactive, think of the entire company, contribute to your team, focus on the big picture, be your own cheerleader, sell yourself stick up for yourself, don't be personal, network, and find a mentor. The book gives you little mantras. Give constructive feedback, not personal criticism. Leave everyone's self esteem intact.

However, the book is not as great at providing actual solutions. It sends you a lot of messages, but does not provide a lot of concrete help. It says many times to be calm, cool and collected at all times - but doesn't give any advice for women who are emotional. It tells you not to be friends with your subordinates, not to drink with co-workers, and (I kid you not) to have all of your minions snap to attention when you enter a meeting room. It apparently is a bad sign if they keep talking when you enter, rather than all looking immediately to you and waiting with hushed breath for your next precious word.

I definitely agree that many of the suggestions here are good ones, if common sense. Praise in public, criticize in private. Don't focus on blame, focus on improving and fixing things. If you apologize, apologize specifically "I am very sorry for xxxxxx" rather than generically.

And I suppose if for some women the "chatty girl" approach of the book gets across a message that they did not understand or absorb otherwise, that is a good thing. We all learn in different ways, and we all have different styles.

Still, it bothers me that women would focus on the mindset of "I have to be careful not to be a bitch" - or that women would focus on the "being a boss sucks" idea. Again, if you have something stuck in your mind, it affects how you act and how others act towards you. It is far more productive to focus on "being a mentor to others is a fantastic opportunity" - and then find ways to make that happen and to handle any challenges that stand in your way. I would much rather see more books come out with that focus.

Bitches, man
I bet any woman in the workforce will not only have female bosses from hell stories, but will also be able to recount times when they've been accused of attitude when that really was not the case. Is it possible for a woman to be powerful without being a bitch? Yes. Is it always the case that nice girls don't get the corner office? Not at all. Is this hard thing to pull off? Most definitely. But this new book makes it much easier with sound advice, true stories from an array of businesswomen, and tips for how to be a good (and successful)"chick-in-charge." And with more women working, more female bosses and more chiquitas owning businesses than ever before, it's a necessary book.