In April 2007 the scholarly report “Behind the Pay Gap,” produced by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), gave the nation some sobering, unpleasant news: women still receive less pay than a man does for the same job.
Despite their M.D.s, J.D.s, and Ph.D.s, credentialed women still earn significantly less than their male mirror images. The disparity becomes detectable only year after college graduation and, after ten years have passed, the discrepancy has enlarged so much that women take home only 69% of what a man with her same qualifications does.
The report pinpoints several factors that may ameliorate the disparity. Two factors of particular interest include women’s development of more aggressive salary negotiation skills and more assertive responses to discriminatory gender practices.
Accordingly, in this climate, women must work just as hard to have their credentials honored, recognized, and supported as they did to secure the credentials in the first. Author and speaker Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., has traversed the debacle of equality in the workplace several times before, which produced her works Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage Their Careers and Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich: 75 Avoidable Mistakes Women Make with Money. Now she’s brought See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work to market.
See Jane Lead comments on some of the workplace practices that inhibit women and some the practices women can take to the workplace to propel them into even greater success. Frankel takes particular interest in the concept of female leadership, including those things that predispose women to being exceptional leaders and problems that arise in translating those inherent skills into a workplace leadership position.
Frankel disperses her 99 tips across nine chapters and about 266 pages of material, which include chapters such as “The Feminization of Leadership,” “If You Can Run a Household, You Can Be Strategic,” and “From Cheerleader to Coach: Motivating People to Achieve Their Best.”
I view Frankel’s book as touting a two-pronged thesis. First, she argues that the traditional “command-and-control, top-down leadership” style, created and demonstrated predominately by men, no longer represents an effective strategy. This is evidenced by the current decrease in American productivity, which primarily occurs under the auspices of white males. Further, because the workforce used to comprise only other white males and the workforce possessed less educated laborers, workers were more apt to acquiesce blindly to authority and the demands of hierarchy.
Women, however, Frankel argues, more routinely practice “values-based leadership,” which is more inclusive and cooperative than its male counterpart. And for this type of leadership, women naturally hold court; they practice creativity, communication, and motivation all the time, as per their training by society. Of course, women confront problems when they ineffectively implement these things—try to be too inclusive, too understanding, too deliberative.
From the plinth of her “Feminization of Leadership” chapter, Frankel’s approach involves convincing the reader of her inner leader by equating domestic and/or quotidian tasks with the heartbeat of leadership. Such as, “[y]ou’ve already taken risks if you’ve: taken the plunge and gotten married…” and “you’ve already been influential if you’ve: convinced an elderly parent to move to a nursing home…raised children who are drug-free…gotten a resistant husband or partner to attend a concert, ballet, or play.”
Frankel presents some novel exercises and approaches and does an excellent job citing other authority and further reading. She provides a “Women and Leadership Self-Assessment,” “The Difference Between Leadership and Management” table, “Strategic Worksheet For: Decreasing Attrition of Value-Added Employees,” “Facts/Feelings Model of Risk Taking,” “The Headline Communication Model,” and a “Coaching Effectiveness Inventory” test. In sum, Frankel furnishes both the tools and the knowledge to implement her wisdom.
Effectively, Frankel shows some humility and also uses her own experiences as a platform to teach some lessons about planning and managing businesses.
In sum, although this book isn’t necessarily about “taking charge at work,” isn’t a neat list of 99 points, and isn’t necessarily appropriate for those already well-established in workplace leadership roles, it does provide some valuable insights, some excellent exercises, and a comprehensive set of values, thoughts, and resources to harvest the inner leader that thrives in the hearts and minds of all women.
