Customer Reviews

Climbing the Ladder in Stilettos: 10 Strategies for Stepping Up to Success and Satisfaction at Work

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This author shares principles that not only lead one to the path toward success, but also insights that are sure to benefit the reader's attitude. While written by a woman - ostensibily FOR women, the stories, truths, and principles in this book are sure to inspire and motivate any reader. What a great book from a first-time author! Highly recommended for fans of Maxwell, Collins, et al.

I am just now 25 years old and this book is peeling back so many layers of understanding. I have bought a few books in the past about women in the workplace (nice girls, etc.) which have lost me within just a few chapters because I didn't feel like they were talking about me - who I really am. But "Climbing The Ladder In Stilettos" is just the opposite. By the time I was done with the first chapter I knew that this was a book that would be well worth my time from start to finish. The purpose statement exercise and the concept of being an `agent of wholeness' have really stuck with me. Now halfway through the book I am already thinking of reading it a second time to pick up on all of the concepts that I am not getting the first time through. There is so much relevant and helpful material here.

If you're a woman in the working world looking to rise to the top and to encourage self-determination, Climbing the Ladder in Stilettos: 10 Strategies for Stepping Up to Success and Satisfaction at Work is the key to doing so gracefully. Chapters use stories from women who made that climb to provide case histories of success, from how to create a personal purpose statement to guide you through the business world to establishing business and personal contacts to encourage this rise. Get to the top without losing sight of the bottom line of values using CLIMBING THE LADDER IN STILETTOS.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I wish this book existed when I first started on my career 20 years ago as a financial services executive. FINALLY, Lynette is leveraging her seminars to show professional woman of any age how to integrate their work and personal lives. It isn't just about success. It's about satisfaction. That's something we've always felt but never known how to articulate. You almost feel like she's reading your mind! Lynette Lewis has it all. She's warm, funny,incredibly smart, wise and she's been through the storms. No one can say it the way Lynette can. Anyone starting a new job, any college student just about to graduate, any human resource person who needs to understand the hearts and minds of capable, professional, aspiring women needs to read this book. It should become a part of every professional woman's permanent library.

This book is more like three books in one, packed full of inspiring perspective, great insights, and most of all, practical action steps and tools. Rather than telling us as women to stifle our feelings and responses in the work place, the author addresses our feminine emotions and needs in an honest, truly transparent way and gives practical methods to help us adjust our perspective and press forward to continually develop the unique person God intends for us to be--women of God with high integrity and positive influence. This book will remain part of my personal library as a resource for life.

Have you ever felt that you were running around in circles, getting nowhere in your job? Do advancements seem to go to others and frustration becomes your mind frame? Do you hate to get up in the morning and face a job that seems to be going nowhere? Women in the professional working world often face challenges that can zap the life out of them and leave them feeling discouraged and unfulfilled. They cringe as others work their way up the ladder of success while they battle for daily existence. Does this sound like you? If it does this book is for you.
In this new work by author Lynette Lewis you will find strategies to help you succeed in the work force while allowing you to actually enjoy your work; isn't that a plus? Our author tells stories from her own experiences and other women who have made it to the top of the ladder without compromising or demeaning themselves in anyway. Strategies that do not use unethical practices or ways that one day may come back and cause more harm than they ever did good.She breaks down her information into ten primary points that seem to be every working women's nightmare. Here you will find sound advice, practical and easy to implement flowing from the author to you in a down-to-earth matter leaving you feeling as though you just got up from having a cup of coffee with a good friend whose advise you will gladly receive.
Climbing the Ladder in Stilettos is a book that will inspire and encourage you; filled with stories of success, overcoming adversities and challenges and brimming with practical proven answers that truly will make a difference in the world you live.

The glowing reviews of this book seem to come from women who are entering or re-entering the workforce, and I'm not surprised. Lewis offers a review of the basics, packaged attractively for the 21st century. Midcareer professionals are more comfortable in sneakers and flats, anyway.

Lewis begins with a premise that I recognize among my own career strategy clients: Most of us are yearning for something. Very few folks are content (although I have gotten a call from a past client: "I'm happy now: What do I do?!").

So Lewis sets about offering a much needed answer to a question most folks don't articulate: What do we do while we're waiting in the wings?

In reading the book, I recommend taking away an attitude, rather than specifics of logistics. For instance, if you're in between jobs, you do have opportunities to explore, but many job searchers need to find a place to perch, fast. They need money. And while What Color Is Your Parachute deserves to remain on the best-seller list, mid-career midlife professionals will benefit more from books like Working Identity and Second Acts.

Ultimately, she says, while on your job, use the opportunity and never stop looking. Good, basic advice. Not new but always worth repeating.

I especially liked her discussion of her own long search for a spouse and family. When invited on blind dates she learned to ask questions before agreeing to meet a new man. I find this process applies to many arenas of life, such as networking opportunities. The challenge is to go out a lot at first, without asking too many questions, and then sort out what will be truly useful.

I do have some qualms about the chapter on mentoring. Unless you're especially well-connected, these days you have to pay for mentors, especially if you're setting up an entrepreneurial venture.

As for a Personal Board of Directors, I love the idea, but question whether most people will be able to put this Board into place. In her book Tough Choices, Carly Fiorino shows us how a bad board can be destructive; unless you can recruit strong, selfless board members, you might be better off hiring your own consultants and coaches.

On Lewis's Board, her web site committee includes a designer and a woman who's "between jobs" who appears to be a strategist. Are these folks donating their time? Seems a bit much to ask, if they are. I can't help nothing a key website committee omission: a copywriter!

Finally, the image of climbing the ladder in stilettos will appeal to certain types of women, perhaps a clever way of identifying and reaching the book's target market. These days I see more and more women wearing tasteful flats to work. I defy convention by attending networking events in a nice pants outfit with my white sneakers. I can't walk across the room in Manohlo Blahniks. And while I admire the homage to shoes in Sex and the City, that image (and the show) are *so* over!

Ladies, this book is for YOU! It will inspire, motivate, and encourage you to become the woman you truely are. It doesn't matter where you are in life, this book is for you!! The book is written like you are having a conversation with a friend. You get to read about Lynette Lewis's life as well as other women that have climbed the ladder of success. Christmas is right around the corner, don't just buy one for yourself, also buy them for your family, friends, and co-workers! Every women needs to read this book!!

This book is a great resource for women. I really enjoyed all the practical steps that Lynette included to raise the bar to success and satisfaction on the job.

As a new mom taking time out of the work world, I was a bit nervous that reading this book would arouse those desires of being "out" more. But in fact it did just the opposite! This is the most helpful book I've read during this new season of motherhood and since finishing it, my love for this season has grown more and more, seeing it as a gift rather than a sacrifice!