dispatches from the new world of work

Cool Friend: Wolaner

Most recently an executive committee member at CNET, Robin Wolaner has had an eclectic career in publishing, with experience at Penthouse, Runner's World, and Mother Jones, and as the founder of Parenting magazine. She left CNET to write Naked In the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career, which recently came out in paperback. Tom blogged about it, and he said:

I unflinchingly anoint it a "Top 5" biz book for the last couple of years. Namely: Naked in the Boardroom, by entrepreneur and wildly successful BigCo exec Robin Wolaner. It is by far ... the best book on strategy and tactics for women aiming to make it big in business—big biz or entrepreneurial biz. Moreover, I think any male ... can learn an enormous amount from this book.

Read Robin's interview here. You may also like to visit her book website, nakedintheboardroom.com.

Cathy Mosca posted this on 07/12/06.

Comments

Good stuff. Thanks.
I'm heartened by her rejection of:
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While today you enter the workforce believing that you can have any position to which you aspire, you are still told to put on a business face, to make decisions based on analysis instead of personal beliefs and gut instincts, and, especially, to leave your emotions behind when you enter the office. Let's face it: The message is that to succeed, you should be more like men.
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Strong parallels with Roddick:
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Roddick shatters the myth that women have to become men to succeed in business. The very comments that the stereotypical man makes about women's emotions - caring, sensitivity and intuition - are shown by Anita Roddick to be the ingredients that will change the notion of business.
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Guys are too often assholes.

Posted by gulliver at July 12, 2006 9:46 PM

Thanks Gulliver. I heard Anita Roddick speak almost twenty years ago and was inspired. I am honored to be compared to her.

Posted by Robin Wolaner at July 13, 2006 12:17 AM

Good luck with our book Robin - I will order the book

Anita Roddick also inspired me. I agree with Gulliver that she as much as anyone changed the perception of women in business. I have had male bosses and female bosses and the best of both always have one great quality. They understand feelings of people working for them. I am an avowed 'soft' fan. As far as I am concerned â€˜softâ€™ really is hard and that style does not mean missing objectives - quite the opposite. As a manager/leader you still hit the targets - probably more quickly and people on the journey are often smiling rather than looking stressed, under pressure and watching their backs. This is not a skill unique to women ...its just that generally speaking women are better at it than us men. Who wants an obituary that reads â€“ â€˜he/she was a real hard case who frightened people into doing stuffâ€™

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 13, 2006 2:04 AM

WOMEN - ahh ... to be born female in the USA - ka-ching - everyone clamoring to enrich all things OPRAHesque female.

Meanwhile the YING factor spends le USA into massive debt while providing dining snacks into chronic OBESITY ... while the olde girls' network dino fossil hullucinates victimhood ... via ka-ching best seller "books" ... and the low testosterone crowd cheers for "soft" ... re-imaging hard as neg masculine.

Posted by Sean at July 13, 2006 8:25 AM

Trevor, I love the line "soft really is hard" and plan to use it often!

And Sean I'd comment on your post if I understood it. Would that my book were Oprah-esque enough to sell like the ones she recommends.

Posted by Robin Wolaner at July 13, 2006 9:54 AM

"Soft is hard" - that is Dr. Peters line - & his mini-me senior clone Trevor steals anything that isn't bolted down in the name of UK socialism -- :>}.

Robin ... "Oprahesque" - baby sell to women - they buy & consume most anything they get turned on to - like TP suggests ..."love & play to women consumers - that is where the money is - ala Willie Sutton on bank robbing ..." :>}

Posted by Sean at July 13, 2006 11:53 AM

Thanks for that Robin.

Sean - you always say such nice things about me. I think you are secretly angling to become the founder member of my fan club in the US :-)

Socialism - right on man!! - We'll keep the red flag flying here! :-)

Finally - I admit it - I unashamedly steal good things that anyone else says and use them but hoenst ..... now and again ...just occasionally I have an original thought :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 14, 2006 6:16 PM

Agree Anita Roddick is a fantastic role model-for women and men, not only for succeeeding as a woman on her own terms, but also for proving you can be ethical and successful and have an exciting brand to boot!!

It does sometimes worry me (as Dad of sons of 11 and 7) that the rhetoric of feminine=good and masculine=bad is accepted without question by some highly influential and intelligent people, and increasingly so. I think there is a tendency to overplay differences in gender, when differences in individual personality/values/experience are just as significant. I mean, I've worked with some horrible men AND women and some brilliant women AND men.

Posted by tomjam at July 17, 2006 9:54 AM