Hardball for Women: Winning at the Game of Business

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely excellent
Review: As a woman who's worked in a "man's field" for 20+ years, I really thought I knew how to play hardball. Boy was I wrong. This book by Pat Heim and Susan Golant really showed me where I was making sometimes fatal errors and how to fix them fast. The result has been more respect at work from my male peers and enough confidence to ask for -- and receive -- a substantial raise. This is a must-have book. I just wish that I had found it many years ago.

Rating:
Summary: Takes the Scales off your Eyes - Now I see what's happening
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Takes the Scales off your Eyes - Now I see what's happening
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: I Needed This Book Years Ago
Review: Excellent!! One of my MBA instructors recommended this book to me. Pat Heim made me aware that I hedged, tagged, and smiled way too much. I no longer do those things. Great book!! I highly recommend it for everyone!!

Rating:
Summary: A must for women in business and for men who want to keep up
Review: Hardball for Women is an absolute must read for women who want to compete and succeed in the current business world. This book sheds light on how men and women conduct business differently and why. It then discusses how men play the business game and gives women the tools to succeed at, and eventually change, the game. To quote Dr. Heim, "...to change the game, we've got to get the power first..." Women of the world, if you are tired of having your abilities, education and ideas ignored by the current business world, read this book. Men, if you want to be able to survive in the business world of the future, you had better read this book, too!

Rating:
Summary: One of the better self help books out there
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the feedback; I'd appreciate more
Review: I appreciate badbettys kind words about Hardball. Once you've finished writing a book it has a life of its own. As the author I don't know how it impacts others lives. If any of you have feedback for me please contact us a [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Immediately useful
Review: I borrowed the book from a friend just as our unit went from having a woman manager to a male manager.When we (the manager and I) found ourselves at odds, I found this book explained the problem, and the solution in relevant, useful terms.Probably saved my position with the company.Riveting in its appliciability

Rating:
Summary: Opened my eyes!
Review: I liked this book so much that I bought 4 copies for friends who have similar frustrations. As a middle manager who is trying to figure out what the males around me are thinking, I came into work virtually every morning with a new story from "The Book" for a female co-worker and confidant.

Rating:
Summary: Gender Insight
Review: 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.