Dancing on the Glass Ceiling : Tap into Your True Strengths, Activate Your Vision, and Get What You Really Want out of Your Career [Hardcover]

Candy Deemer (Author), Nancy Fredericks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 26, 2002

Going against the grain of three decades of popular business thinking, Dancing on the Glass Ceiling contends that women have been shooting themselves in the foot by trying to play like a man. Backed by research, interviews, and real-life experiences, authors Candy Deemer and Nancy Fredericks explain why relying instead on feminine-based skills such as intuition, relationship building and communication is more likely to get a woman where she wants to go in business above the glass ceiling. Written in a friendly tone and featuring quizzes and self-assessments, Dancing on the Glass Ceiling is a workshop in a book that gives women the inspiration and practical tools to help them truly transform their careers and their futures.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

How did 'Paramount Pictures' Sherry Lansing, Ogilvy and Mather's Shelly Lazarus, and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor make it to the top? Not by "playing like a man"! As you'll discover in Dancing on the Glass Ceiling, mimicking the macho leadership styles of successful businessmen may help you climb your way to the middle, but if you want to soar into the stratosphere of upper management, you have to play like a woman.

This comprehensive workshop-in-a-book shows you how successful women have reached their lifelong goals by relying on inherent, feminine-based strengths to distinguish themselves as leaders. Here you will find practical techniques for maximizing your feminine skills, including communication, team- and relationship- building, intuition, and the supportive mind-set that nurtures both companies and employees.

Authors Candy Deemer and Nancy Fredericks use real-life stories and advice from highly successful women and in-depth research to illustrate the effectiveness of this more natural feminine pathway to success. The book's insights, exercises, and techniques will help you strengthen and refine your innate feminine-based skills. You'll learn how to:

• Develop the confidence to be yourself as you pursue and achieve your true goals
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses through self-discovery exercises and introspection
• Work effectively with the less-than-perfect boss
• Match a company's corporate culture with your own personality
• Maximize the right brain, feminine skills that make you a dynamic leader
• Transform even the most mundane position into a fulfilling job
• Reinvent your skills as you move to higher management positions
• Bring more harmony into your career and your personal life

Why try to beat men at their own game when you can succeed so brilliantly by playing like a woman? Read and experience Dancing on the Glass Ceiling; learn to celebrate the powers you already possess and use them to make your dreams come true.

Go against the grain--and win--with the acclaimed wisdom of Dancing on the Glass Ceiling

"The authors have written a wonderful, insightful book to guide women to the top of the pyramid and to their fullest potential as leaders and women in the fullest sense of both terms."
--Mark Bryan, author of The Artists' Way at Work

"Freeing, insightful, validating, and, best of all, practical. Any woman who reads this book will be forever changed by it."
--Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends for Women

"Dancing On the Glass Ceiling shatters the old paradigms about women not being able to truly thrive in the male dominated corporate hierarchy.  This book will help career women design the work life they want and better yet, it will show them how to succeed at it.  Dancing On the Glass Ceiling is not about male-bashing; rather, it's about female empowerment.  Congrats on a refreshing approach to success by showing that women can be women in business...you go girls!"
--Neale S. Godfrey, author of  New York Times #1 bestseller, Money Doesn't Grow On Trees: A Parent's Guide To Raising Financially Responsible Children and Mom, Inc.: Taking Your Work Skills Home and Making Change--a woman's guide to designing her financial future

About the Author

Nancy Fredericks is the founder and president of Nancy Fredericks International, a leading corporate consulting firm. Her clients include Paramount Pictures and Unilever/Helene Curtis. Candy Deemer worked for 20 years in advertising in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and was the first woman to rise to various executive positions at DDB Communications Worldwide in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; 1st edition (November 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071406948
• ISBN-13: 978-0071406949
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,142,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly useful for women in business!, December 26, 2002

By 

Kirsten Lewis (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing on the Glass Ceiling : Tap into Your True Strengths, Activate Your Vision, and Get What You Really Want out of Your Career (Hardcover)

A highly useful must read for women in business! The authors are discussing subjects that are truly empowering for women in business. If all women in middle management read this book we would have many more female CEOs out there! This book addresses the fact that women have innate talents that are extremely instrumental in being effective leaders but that many women have almost unknowingly focused on being more like men in business (because that is mostly what they have been around) and that many women have unfortunately ignored important natural talents. The book gives great "how to do it yourself work" in all sections. There are also highly interesting examples of why women are mostly in middle management and how you can break that barrier in a balanced and fulfilling way. You will find plenty of inspiring examples of women at the top and women well on their way.

The section on networking (and expanding your career connections) is amazing! It's not the networking you hear of in regular women's groups - but it's what CEOs have been doing forever (which is also how they got to be CEOs).

In my opinion, this book will help make some great women leaders.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great professional AND personal advice, March 7, 2003

By 

Joanna Brody (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing on the Glass Ceiling : Tap into Your True Strengths, Activate Your Vision, and Get What You Really Want out of Your Career (Hardcover)

"Dancing on the Glass Ceiling" is the perfect combination of intuitive and practical advice - just like a woman! The real world examples make the information relevant to any working woman, and lend credibility to the authors' advice.
Jam-packed with great information - all of it useful - this book is well organized with easy-to-implement recommendations. This book is a terrific guide for not just your working life, but your overall life as well! After doing just one or two things the authors recommend, my life has shifted dramatically.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Any Working Woman!, February 19, 2003

By 

Jenna Sue (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing on the Glass Ceiling : Tap into Your True Strengths, Activate Your Vision, and Get What You Really Want out of Your Career (Hardcover)

The great thing about this book is that it's chock-full of examples of women who've succeeded in business by being WOMEN. I received it as a gift from a friend after I mentioned I was at a crossroads in my career, and I was amazed at how on-target it was as far as recognizing the special challenges we women face...and the particular strengths we have.

In a friendly, straightforward style, it helps women tap into how we can get ahead...WITHOUT acting like men. I especially liked the step-by-step exercises, such as one that helps you make a "mind map" to identify your goals/priorities (v. helpful in finding what you REALLY want to achieve in your career).

Women do have a special way of interacting that's based less on heirarchy and more in an interactive style of communicating. I loved how this book recognized that, and instead of apologizing for it, showed how it can be USED as a way to better relate to co-workers, get along with bosses, and motivate employees.

I can't recommend it enough for any woman who has found herself stuck in a job that isn't as fulfilling as she'd like it to be, or for someone who's on her way up but finds herself languishing just below "the glass ceiling."