Hardball for Women: Winning at the Game of Business

I am not a big fan of self-help books, but bought this at a friends recommendation and found it very helpful despite my lack of enthusiasm typically for "pop psychology/sociology". I have often found myself confused as to why I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do in order to be successful: working hard, being what I thought was a good "team player" and serving my organization, and yet I kept finding myself being attacked, hurt, and even demoted. This book explains the "rules" and gives insight into how to play the game that exists in todays American workplace. I'll know that women have really made headway in the workplace when there are self help books out there teaching men how to "play the game" in a woman's cultural world too, but till then, women in the workplace need books like this.

This book was recommended to me during my first year of MBA school when I was trying to understand the men I was forced to work with and their seemingly impossible behavior. It unravels the game of office politics and sets forth an achievable and sensible set of behaviors to guide all working women on the path to success. Now after having acheived my second promotion in two years post-MBA working in a male-dominated industry, I credit much of my success to playing by the rules of the game of business as set forth in this book (being an avid golfer doesn't hurt, either!) The rules are designed by men and based on the rules of their childhood games, rather than ours. Neither way is better, it's just different, and in order to survive in the business world and be successful it is imperative that women understand the rules of the game in order to be effective players. Your mother doesn't teach you these rules, neither do MBA professors nor your male colleagues. You must get this valuable information from somewhere, and this book is an excellent resource. This book is my work "bible" and I find myself referring to it often depending upon the particular work challenge I'm facing at the time. Kudos to Pat Heim. No working woman who aspires to be successful in business should be without this valuable and insightful guidebook to a man's world.

I read Hardball for Women in 1995, when I was a manager at a very large Fortune 500. The book was recommended by a VP -- now I am one. I highly recommend this book not only because it gives one insight into a businessman's world, but more importantly, a woman's. Most woman managers already know how to suceed in a male dominated business -- its dealing with other woman, particulary those at a lower level, that can be painfully difficult. The book's most critical message is that woman are raised to keep the playing field level -- men are not. Moreover, men view work as a game with structure and rules, ever vegilant to keep their own sucess in the forefront. If you don't think there is merit to gendar differances, the next time you negoatite salary with a man, note the differences from negotiating with a woman -- a man will ask you for more money at least 7 times before he even considers the offer - a woman will ask twice, if at all. I highly recommend this book, and I plan to keep passing it along to other women.

As women we view the world through what our childhood games and expectatations have taught us. Pat Heim does a great job of opening our eyes to how the "boys" view the world. Since men have shaped the business world like their childhood games, it makes a lot of sense that women have to be aware of the unwritten rules. One of the most important eye-openers to me had to do with hierarchy and winning in contrast with "let's-all-get-along" and consensus. No wonder women get mired at the middle management level, and as managers are viewed as mother figures or babysitters. Any woman who wants to penetrate the higher echelons of management needs to understand the dynamics portrayed in this book. This book is vastly superior to "Games Mother Never Taught You", because it does not tell women to be just like men, but rather to adapt the game to our own unique advantages while being aware of how the boys do it.

The most important point I took away from this book is the notion that in developing your own "management persona," you need to take into account several factors, among them the rules of the game being played currently in your office; the way you tend to want to relate to the people you work with, for, and who work for you; how to adapt your work style for different situations at hand; and eventually, how to change the game once you're in a position to do so. Pat Heim's assertion that understanding and living by (often male-dominated) work culture is like traveling in a foreign country (you have to go by that culture's rules and manners) doesn't imply that women have to be men. Rather, by understanding certain "traditions," the wise person will have a better time moving around getting along in that culture and perhaps transforming it once she's become familiar enough with and accepted within it. Highly recommended for any woman who wants to move up the ladder.