Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I came across this book by accident. Book like this one don't land on display tables of major bookstores. There's no bright, glossy cover. In fact, the cover layout looks like a downsized edition of Harvard Business Review. The book includes just eight articles from previous HBR issues. They're not new. But they *are* unique.
The best chapters:
"Courage as a Skill," or "How to decide when and how to speak out." Sometimes you can't afford to keep silent but often you can still keep your job.
"The Right Way to be Fired" offers excellent advice to contrast the tenure mindset with the assignment mindset when thinking of jobs. If you're at a level where you get contracts, they say, think of your contract as a pre-nup and plan for the possibility of divorce or dissolution. They don't add that our infrastructure of health and unemployment benefits are tied to a tenure mindset, even as the corporate world moves to an assignment mindset.
The chapter on resilience includes the fascinating insight that corporate resilience differs from individual resilience; a team of resilient individuals is not the same as a resilient team.
The chapter on story-telling is a gem. I've encouraged my own clients to develop a "spin" on their stories but this chapter goes much further. Telling your story means presenting your background in terms of your new career, without lying or embellishing.
I also liked the chapter on telling your career story and of course Herminia Ibarra's now classic article, "How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Job." Ibarra's essay has now evolved into one of the best career change books you will find anywhere.
Flaws? The first chapter is a little bland - more of the "same old, same old" about holding your job in a recession while still cultivating a Plan B. In my experience, while these moves may help, often politics and favoritism take over during turbulent times. Additionally, one author encourages readers to review their Myers-Briggs test scores along with their 360 feedback to gain insight. The 360 feedback may be helpful but Myers Briggs doesn't seem much better than astrology. In fact, one article in this book recounts an executive's visit to an astrologer, with results that turned out to be even more accurate than any Myers Briggs would be.
Highly recommended for career coaches and counselors as well as anyone with an interest in career issues, practical or theoretical. Just two or three of these articles will be worth the price of the book.
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