Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career [Hardcover]

Robin Wolaner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2005

When Robin Wolaner entered into a joint venture with Time Inc. to launch her brainchild, Parenting, she made business history as a successful -- and rich -- woman in a male-dominated magazine industry. Now, for women who are wondering just what it takes to pull off their own triumphs in the fickle business world, Wolaner presents 80 Naked Truths that provide instantly gratifying lessons for ambitious women.

Presented in delicious, bite-sized nuggets, Wolaner's Naked Truths can be put into action regardless of experience, industry, or whether the reader is a one-woman start-up or a big-company employee. With wisdom and attitude, Wolaner reveals:

• Why showing honest emotion helps in the workplace
• The one thing women need to learn to negotiate successfully
• Effective ways to recover from a mistake
• Unusual advice for hiring and firing -- and for being hired and fired

For anyone who sees success on the horizon, Naked in the Boardroom will get her there on her own terms.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robin Wolaner Answers The Significant Seven

Robin Wolaner began her career as a copywriter at Penthouse, worked at Mother Jones and Runner's World, founded Parenting magazine, and launched Vibe and Martha Stewart Living. In Wolaner's new book, Naked in the Boardroom, she shares tales about making a successful go of it all. See the answers Wolaner gave for the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions that we like to run by every author.

Wolaner answers the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions

From Publishers Weekly

Wolaner rose from office temp to become president and CEO of Sunset Publishing before moving on to write, consult and serve on private corporate and nonprofit boards. Her own stories, and anecdotes from other achievers, are the basis for this chatty instruction manual for the distaff up-and-coming, which begins with the predictable assertion that women are generally different from men. The following chapters exhort readers to burn their career plans, listen to their guts, learn by example, benefit from smart moves, recover from bad ones, hire and fire well and manipulate situations to their advantage. Eighty-one "Naked Truths" punctuate her upbeat tale of mostly serendipitous and intuition-driven maneuvers. These aphorisms range from the obvious ("Return phone calls and emails") to the dubious ("If you undo a bad decision quickly, it doesn't count"). Sidebars labeled "Stripped-Down Wisdom" address corporate basics like how to dress, how to fire and how to cope as a working mother. In "Baring It," successful women recount their biggest mistakes and the lessons learned. Despite the book's intrusive theme of nudity, Wolaner gives some genuinely helpful advice, but often overplays the roles of ambition, networking and gut instinct at the expense of expertise, competence and plain hard work. (Mar.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Fireside; First Edition edition (March 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743262271
• ISBN-13: 978-0743262279
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #246,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Naked in the Board Room is a Winner!, March 20, 2005

By 

Eileen Bramlet (Northern VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career (Hardcover)

I loved reading Naked in the Board Room, which I'd characterize as a must-read for any woman who is pursuing a career. The book covers all the A-Z's of how to most effectively succeed in business, while simultaneously maintaining your morals and your sanity! Everything is included - from hiring to trusting your gut It's definitely "the book" to read this spring!

Eileen Bramlet

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I needed this book twenty five years ago., March 3, 2005

By 

Liz Perle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career (Hardcover)

Much ink has been spilled in the service of helping women succeed in business, but this book finally gets it right. Wolaner combines her own amusing and inspiring story with brilliant and accurate insights about the real nature of the business world and what it takes to thrive in it without losing your mind or identity. The result? The truest portrait with the wisest advice available. Every woman needs a mentor. Now, thanks to this book, every woman can have one.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real insight into management, March 3, 2005

By 

Stewart Alsop (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career (Hardcover)

Robin Wolaner speaks the truth about how to be an effective manager, including the fundamental concept that being human and emotional has a place in the office. I might be a guy, but I think it's one of the most useful business books I've read.