Pushback: How Smart Women Ask—and Stand Up—for What They Want

Book description

Popular leadership blogger gives the low-down on standing up for yourself

In Pushback, top leadership consultant Selena Rezvani argues that self-advocacy is critical to success. Yet women initiate negotiations four times less often than men, resulting in getting less of what they want—promotion opportunities, plum assignments, and higher pay. This book shines a light on the real rules of holding your own and pushing back for what is rightfully yours. Drawing on interviews with high-level leaders, Rezvani offers readers in the first half of their career the unedited truth about how women have asked their way to the top and triumphed—and how you can too.

  • Includes interviews with top business leaders such as Marie Chandoha, CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management; Cindi Bigelow, President of Bigelow Tea Company; Fizzah Jafri, COO at Morgan Stanley; Rosemary Turner, President at UPS; and Irene Chang Britt, Chief Strategy Officer at Campbell's Soup

  • Offers a reliable and methodic approach to negotiating and navigating tough conversations

  • Highlights compelling facts and research from the world of psychology and leadership

Insightful and accessible, Pushback is a timely resource for savvy women who want to leverage their skills, promote themselves effectively, and fast track their careers.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. More Praise for Pushback
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Foreword
  7. Preface
  8. Chapter 1: Why Push Back?
    1. Women Leaders Get There by Asking
    2. Women's Distaste for Negotiating
    3. The Cost of Not Asking for What We Want
    4. Pushback and Economic Power
    5. Young Women and Pushback
    6. Women and Negotiating—a Natural Fit
    7. A Four-Step Model of Negotiation
    8. Shoot for the Moon
  9. Chapter 2: Find Your Pushback Style
    1. Trust Your Gut
    2. Your Body of Knowledge
    3. Meet Your Inner Risk Taker
    4. Make a Plan and Make a Start
    5. Won't We Be Punished?
    6. Pushback and You
    7. Your Personal Pushback Style
    8. Do You See Pushback as a Challenge or a Threat?
    9. Go Get It!
  10. Chapter 3: Prepare Psychologically
    1. Who Do You Think You Are?
    2. Your Negotiating Roots
    3. The Locus of Control
    4. Good Girls Don't Ask
    5. The Relationship Trap
    6. How Do You Do Conflict?
    7. The Effect of Fact Finding on Emotion
    8. What Do You Want and Why?
    9. Know Your Power
    10. Find Invisible Guides
    11. Attitude's Role in Aptitude
    12. Role-Play
    13. Get in the Mood
    14. Channeling Your Own Emotions
    15. Look for the Dual Agenda
    16. Go For It!
  11. Chapter 4: Do Your Homework
    1. A Tiered Approach to Preparation
    2. Asking Is Also About Conceding … or Is It?
    3. Practice or Perish!
  12. Chapter 5: Maneuvering Through the Conversation
    1. Understand the Architecture of Deal Making
    2. Open the Conversation Assertively
    3. Set the Pace
    4. Think Co-Investment
    5. Court Your Counterpart
    6. Establish Your Credibility
    7. Anticipate Pushback
    8. Be a Relentless Problem Solver
    9. Appeal to Their Sense of Fairness
    10. Appeal to a Higher Power
    11. Say It Like They'd Say It
    12. Call on Your Conviction
    13. Exercise Silence
    14. Use Your Body
    15. Reach for Expansive, Deepening Questioning
    16. Calling on Delays
    17. De-escalate Deadlocks
    18. Conceding
    19. Managing Bullying and Belittling
    20. Close the Deal
    21. Never Undervalue Your Power
  13. Chapter 6: Follow Up
    1. Do Your Own Postmortem
    2. Initiate a Feedback Exchange
    3. Confirm the Terms
    4. Mulling a Decision Over
    5. Handling “No”
    6. Hear “No” as “Not Yet”
    7. Stay Oriented Toward the Positive
    8. Stay in the Game
    9. Don't Drop the Connection
    10. Don't Be Afraid to Toughen Up
    11. Keep Expanding the Pie
    12. It's a Small World After All
    13. Never Stop Building the Trust
  14. Chapter 7: Push Back to Own Your Career
    1. Overcoming Inertia
    2. See Yourself as a Change Agent
    3. Go Ahead, Be an Opportunist
    4. Be in the Service Business
    5. Leave Some Room to F%$* It All Up
    6. Mentors, Sponsors, and Sages
    7. Refusing, Rebuffing, and Saying “No”
    8. Move Ice Cubes, Not Icebergs
    9. A Model of Continual Improvement
    10. Because No One Else Will Do It for You …
  15. Acknowledgments
  16. About the Author
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Pushback: How Smart Women Ask—and Stand Up—for What They Want
  • Author(s): Selena Rezvani, Lois P. Frankel
  • Release date: April 2012
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9781118104903