Want to learn the ideas in How Women Rise better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen, Marshall Goldsmith here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of How Women Rise
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on How Women Rise, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Sally Helgesen, Marshall Goldsmith.
1-Page Summary of How Women Rise
Overview
When it comes to professional women, there are still glass ceilings. Women have made progress, but they face challenges that men don’t. Men are praised for taking risks and being assertive whereas women are expected to be nice and supportive. Many women adapt by developing bad habits in an effort to prove their worth at work. By understanding your own unconscious learned behaviors, you can eliminate the unhelpful traits that hold you back from success as a woman in business.
There are some key points in this passage that you should know. First, being an expert is not always a good thing for your career. Next, women have unfair expectations placed on them from school to the workplace. Finally, taking up more than one chair will help your career move forward faster.
Big Idea #1: Women struggle to claim their own accomplishments.
Several years ago, one of the authors, Sally Helgesen, decided to interview successful professional women. She wanted to find out what was holding back younger female professionals from advancing in their careers. The verdict was unanimous – younger women struggled with saying “I.”
It’s common for women to be reluctant to take credit for their achievements. The author discussed this with several female professionals in accounting, consulting and law. They all agreed that younger women employees were conscientious, consistent and delivered work of a very high standard. However, they lacked confidence when it came to taking credit for their accomplishments.
For instance, the author has noticed that women prefer to share credit for their success rather than take full credit. This is a problem in many workplaces and at every level of the hierarchy.
Although it is considered polite to be modest, being overly self-deprecating can harm your career. Over the course of their careers, both authors have noticed that men tend to distrust women who are self-deprecating about their achievements. If a woman demonstrates this tendency in a management role, she also risks diminishing the accomplishments of the team she leads. As a manager, any failure to claim credit on behalf of her people will demoralize and resent them because they worked hard for those successes.
Big Idea #2: Women are taught to please, but it’s harming their careers.
Nobody’s perfect, but a lot of people still strive to be. They want to make others feel good and always try to please them. This is known as the “disease to please,” and it’s particularly common among women.
Women are socialized to please others. They receive praise from their parents and teachers for being agreeable, helpful and obedient. Boys don’t get that same kind of reward when they’re young.
This need to please continues into adulthood. Women are often placed in entry- and mid-level roles where they must focus on assisting others, regardless of whether their success depends on being assertive.
While women are often praised for being nice, excessive niceness can hold them back. Women who want to please others will take on tasks they don’t need and avoid saying no because it could upset someone else. This mindset is especially harmful in the workplace, as leaders must assert themselves to succeed. It’s also unhelpful at lower levels of the corporate ladder, where employees aren’t necessarily leaders but still have to assert themselves.
If you want to be successful, don’t let your desire for approval by others get in the way of being direct and decisive.
