“Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career,” by Robin Wolaner (Fireside, 224 pages, $20)
An ambitious female entrepreneur or executive can have it all. She just can’t have it all at once, says the founder of Parenting magazine and Time Warner’s first pregnant divisional chief executive officer.
“No one is a fully competent working mother,” Robin Wolaner writes in “Naked in the Boardroom,” a personal memoir about her career in magazine publishing and media development.
That’s Naked Truth No. 67 in her catalog of 80 such axioms that women can use to navigate the treacherous crosscurrents of business.
“There will be many instances where a new mother feels incapable of doing anything right, whether it be presenting a nipple to the baby or presenting a strategic plan to the board,” writes Wolaner, who had her children in her late 30s and early 40s.
To cope, Wolaner advises working mothers to focus on what they do well and forgive themselves for doing other things less well.
“Celebrate your victories: When you manage to juggle the needs of your infant with those of your job, tell lots of people. Mainly you will be trying to hide the little defeats, so making noise when things work out is important,” she writes.
Wolaner tells about how excited she was to return to work six weeks after giving birth to her first child – until fatigue almost overwhelmed her. But she does not write expansively about how tired she was because she does not want to “give fodder to bigots who think that women should be penalized in the workplace because they don’t function as well around childbirth.”
She emphasizes returning to work six weeks, not six months, after childbirth. It’s easier, she writes, to leave a younger infant who does not yet recognize you. Naked Truth No. 66 pertains to returning to work: “Bring all your best business practices to hiring a nanny. They are more important than vice presidents or senior managers, and harder to fire.”
Only a few of Wolaner’s naked truths have to do with juggling professional life and motherhood.
Wolaner’s naked truths cover most areas of business and employment. Although the book focuses on the challenges of women in the business world, much of Wolaner’s practical wisdom is gender-neutral.
For example:
-“Sometimes it’s better to be female in business, sometimes it’s worse, but it’s rarely the same.”
-“Terrible things can happen to a woman in business; the victims let it ruin their careers, the victors move on.”
-“Vive la difference. When being female is an advantage, use it.”
-“When you know something is right and inevitable, don’t put it off to protect your emotional well-being. Like tearing off a Band-Aid: Get it over with.”
-“Many business ethics decisions are in the gray area, with arguments on both sides. In the end, you need to do what makes your gut feel good.”
-“Choose your teachers based on talent and personal connection, not upon hierarchy or shared gender.”
Wolaner has a lot of interesting things to say about mentoring. Her advice is to not seek perfection in mentors but absorb what they have of value to impart to you and disregard their imperfections. Her 28th naked truth is about the value of learning from the bad behavior of unsuitable role models.
“My best mentors have been antimentors, the men whose behavior taught me what not to do. They may be antimentors, but I am not antimen. Some of my best friends, and everyone I have ever slept with, are men. I’m sure it’s coincidental that the worst people I’ve experienced in business are men too,” Wolaner writes.
Despite its title, “Naked in the Boardroom” is a worthy entry in the growing catalog of books that seek to address the concerns of women in business.
—
(c) 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Visit the Star-Telegram on the World Wide Web: www.star-telegram.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-03-10-05 0619EST
Comments are no longer available on this story