While I was waiting on my transfer flight from Stockholm to Sundsvall, I bought this book:

"Nice girls don't get the corner office, Unconscious mistakes women make that sabotage their careers", by Lois P. Frankel, an internationally recognized expert in the filed of workplace behavior and the empowerment of women.  

It seems a well-chosen title given the facts that women earn 72% of the salaries their male counterparts earn, while they work twice as hard, and given that only 7% of the largest companies in the Netherlands are headed by women.

This book is coaching women how to get ahead in business and in their career, but is especially interesting in its discussion of the unconscious mistakes that women make in their careers, some of which I want to highlight here as they caught my attention:



Mistake 4: Doing the work of others. Women will always do the work of someone else when they think no one else will.

Mistake 8: Waiting to be given what you want.  Women tend to work twice hard but a lot of times are afraid to ask for a raise.

Mistake 16: Needing to be liked. It critical that women understand the difference between being liked and being respected.

Mistake 41: Ignoring the importance of network relationships. Working hard, doing a good job, trying not to make any waves is not enough to grow a career.

Mistake 45: Failing to define your brand. Often women are just happy to make a contribution, while not being credited for what they do. Result: they tend to be overlooked when it comes to assignments or the promotions they deserve!

But the most important thing I learned from this book is "to quit being a girl," to grow into my role as a leader and to be a woman! Now that's empowerment.

This article was written by Marianne Spier, a manager at the Institute of Interactive Media in Amsterdam. She is a lecturer in cross media and responsible for developing international programs and partnerships with universities and companies abroad