How to Grow a Backbone : 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work [Paperback]

Susan Marshall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

To succeed in business today, an individual must be smart, competitive, resilient, tenacious, and fearless. In short, he or she needs a good, old-fashioned backbone. In How to Grow a Backbone, Susan Marshall, a top business consultant and former executive, outlines skills that readers can develop and perfect to become stronger, more confident, and more influential on the job. Using straight talk laced with wry humor, the author draws upon actual business situations from a variety of companies and industries to show how a strong backbone can change not only the outcome of the situation, but also how one is perceived.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Business consultant Marshall shares her advice from working with numerous businesses striving to improve their management structure. Focusing on the difficulties in today's business environment, she wants to help listeners learn how to succeed by building a stronger backbone, defined as a firm and resolute character, and the courage to make and stand by unpopular decisions. After a sound explanation of the three components of backbone competence, confidence, and the ability to take risks the author further develops these elements in her ten backbone-building strategies (e.g., turn meetings into discovery sessions, associate with others on purpose, determine the power sources, and decide and say what you think). The unique exercises strengthen this surprisingly refreshing addition to the overly burdened management genre. The steady narration by Anna Fields slows the pace at times and dulls the attention span, so look for the hard copy to be requested. Recommended for public libraries. Dale Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Business consultant Susan Marshall has held positions in advertising, marketing, employee development, and general management.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809224941
• ISBN-13: 978-0809224944
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Put it on your list, May 17, 2001

By 

Ron Retzke (Brookfield, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Grow a Backbone : 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work (Paperback)

I found this book to be different than the typical management book. Rather than filled with the usual platitudes, it contains some real world advice on how to deal with and capitalize on situations that occur in a corporate environment. The book starts a bit slow, but it gets moving once it gets into the 10 strategies. The author has a nice conversational, straight-talking style of writing. The exercises and advice at the end of each chapter are excellent. I would recommend this book for new graduates starting in management and for seasoned veterans.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything you can be, September 25, 2000

By 

Jack Quinn (Toms River, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Grow a Backbone : 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work (Paperback)

Marshall has written an exceptional book, a smart and practical book that reflects a very intelligent and perceptive grasp of business action and the people who are the action-eers. People run businesses and businesses are only as good as the people that run them. "How To Grow A Backbone" is at once very revealing and very familiar. We will all find ourselves somewhere in this book...for better or worse. We may smile or grimace at the unerring precision with which Marshall cuts straight to the bone, through all the usual fat, and shows us how much backbone we really have, I really have, you really have. Most important, she shows us how to grow what we're missing. Every CEO should read this book and then issue it to his staff, to everyone on the staff including the mail boy and the sweeper. If that CEO is big enough, smart enough (and secure enough) to encourage, to allow, to require, to inspire, his people to grow backbone, that boss will have one hell of a spinning business. Action, forward motion, innovation and fun the way business should be fun, going a mile a minute, breaking through. Everyone who dreams of being more than they are, or of being a CEO, should quit dreaming and dig into "Backbone". This is no "guru magic" that pumps you up for a week, this is the straight answer for anyone who has the courage to try to be what he or she can be. Miss Marshall will show you the way. "How To Grow A Backbone" is a lean, no nonsense bible for the feint of heart who want to grow the lion inside them. It's more than a business book. It's for anyone who hears their Jiminy Cricket whispering, you could have, you should have, why didn't you? Anyone who wants to know how to grow the seeds of character we all possess, who wants to be somebody, must read "How To Grow A Backbone". WARNING: Read only if you want to be better than you are.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even if you are not spineless, September 22, 2000

By 

tom "tom" (Milwaukee, Wi United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Grow a Backbone : 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work (Paperback)

There are lots of books on how to manage, lead, and direct. Susan Marshall has produced a great book on how to WORK.

The only problem with this wonderful book is its title. Everytime that I suggest to a friend that they should read it, they react as though I am saying that they are spineless.

As a guy with a backbone as big as the Ritz [he thinks], I have learned much from Ms. Marshall's book. The truth be known, I have found several areas in which I need to grow.