Career Advice from America's Most Successful Women in Speaker Fawn Germer's book

Career Advice from The Top

The NEW Woman Rules on Driving Your Career

How did America’s most successful women make it to the top? They drove their careers in ways most of us don’t. Fawn Germer interviewed more than 50 of the most accomplished women in American business — many of whom are on the Fortune 50 list of America’s Most Powerful Women, and some of whom will be there soon. From them, she learned their success strategies and tips and boiled them down so the rest of us can move faster and higher. If you are looking to stop wasting time and start advancing your career, pay attention to the wisdom of the most successful women leaders around.

From The New Woman Rules

• A career is not a ladder, but a highway with off-ramps and on-ramps and turns that will take you to interesting places. You may want to go north, but you can get there by heading east.

• Sometimes, the way to go up is to go down. Or sideways.

• Take on projects that you can put your name on.

• Create a voice within your organization. Have your fingerprint or handprint on something different in the organization.

• Be a change agent.

• Embrace risk.

• Don’t be afraid to take on a challenge—even if you fear you don’t know enough about it. You will learn it through your leadership of others.

• You are in charge of your own destiny. There is no pre-set path to success.

• Give yourself permission to promote yourself rather than waiting for somebody else to promote you. Don’t wait for a promotion to take on new responsibility.

• You can always go home. You can’t always reconstruct an opportunity. Have run at it and give up later if it is necessary, but an opportunity may never again.

• You are not always ready for a promotion. You are not the No. 1 person until have the job. You can’t practice for it until you do it.

• Don’t be afraid to go lateral. Go for the best experiences.

• Always ask what you can do better.

• Work in an environment that has a culture that is consistent with your values.

• Merchandise your success. Don’t be humble about your results.

• It is not the responsibility of senior management to notice your results.

• You will be rewarded for your willingness to be bold and go after something.

• Speak up for yourself. Don’t always accept the immediate response. Continually push the envelope, but do it in a way that doesn’t alienate people.

• Ask your boss and boss’s boss how you are doing against your objectives. way, they know what you are doing.

• It is okay to say no. It doesn’t mean you will never have another opportunity.

• If you stay in a demeaning situation or one that holds you back, you will mediocre.

• Life is too short to do work that you are not passionate about.

• This is a marathon. It is not a sprint.

Download Women’s Leadership Speaker Fawn Germer’s Career Advice from The NEW Woman Rules