Fiona Elsa Dent - How to Thrive and Survive as a Working Woman: The Coach-Yourself Toolkit

A book written for those seeking to thrive and survive in pursuit of their career. It will resonate with women, whatever their personal stage of life and career. By drawing on extensive research, experience of working alongside many women, theory and history, the authors have created a rich treasure trove that stimulates interest, personal reflection and provides a sound practical toolkit. Pick it up as a good read or take up the challenges of raising your self-awareness to explore your life and career from different perspectives. Whatever your purpose, engage with the conclusion and go for it.

Dr Mary Holmes. Director. Development Solutions (Headspace). Ltd .

The book makes significant leaps in womens development with rather less attention given to surviving as so many books offer, and instead a far greater focus on thriving with an ethical core to the authors messages to be true to yourself, believe in yourself and pay attention to how you work. The tools and tips stay true to this theme; its a book written for women by career women who have observed, researched and experienced much of what they write about, so their advice is practical and, importantly, kind.

Kate Cooper, Head of Research & Policy, Institute of Leadership & Management

Reflecting the real life experiences of many contributors to their research, Dent and Holton present a critical appraisal of ongoing challenges for women in the workplaces of the 21st century. In its chapter-by-chapter steps through a range of essential skills and qualities, the book provides a practical toolkit combining techniques of self-analysis, useful strategies, and constructive tips on how women of all ages and at any stage of their working life can manage and overcome such challenges.

Although aimed at working women, this is a book which many will find invaluable in their lives. For men, it provides a perspective which will allow them to play their part in making the workplace more inclusive and fairer for all. Like all truly helpful how to books, its not a once-only read: its a book to keep using over lifetime.

Tony Montes, Senior Advisor for Talent Management in ADCO UAE

The main lesson I have taken from reading this book is the importance of strategizing my own personal development. As a full time working mum I often put aside my own development needs, but these tools have given me the direction I needed to invest the time and focus to achieve the executive positon I am aiming for. The hints and tips given, in particular utilising the career coaching model, have been invaluable. Through the book, I realised the importance of taking ownership of my career and to have the confidence to challenge and understand the nuances of business development at senior levels. I feel now I have the tools and motivation to concentrate on my own career trajectory and balance work and home life by more productive means. I have been inspired to re-think my own coaching principles to relay onto my staff and I would highly recommend this book to any women who is currently career planning for senior roles.

Jo Di Cristofaro, Regional Skills Manager, Ingeus

This book is excellent; it provides a great insight into others experiences, as well as how they managed and adapted to those experiences. Id recommend this to anyone thinking about their career whether first, intermediary or final steps!

Nicola Denegri, Senior Consultant, Kissing With Confidence Ltd

How to Thrive and Survive as a Working Woman

How to Thrive and Survive as a Working Woman

The Coach-Yourself Toolkit

Fiona Elsa Dent and Viki Holton

Bloomsbury Information

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Contents

Fiona Elsa Dent is a management trainer, leadership coach, associate faculty at Ashridge, mother and grandmother. Fiona now has a portfolio career, having worked full time for more than thirty-five years. She was a faculty member at Ashridge for twenty-four years, and during her last ten years on the full-time staff held a role on the management team as director of executive education, in which she managed a faculty group and contributed to the strategic operation of the organization.

Fiona now enjoys a mixed portfolio of teaching, coaching, researching, writing and grandma duties. She still contributes to a variety of programmes at Ashridge, and also works for a range of clients as a management trainer and coach. She enjoys researching and writing, and since moving to a portfolio role has published two books in addition to this one. These are The Leaders Guide to Managing People and The Leaders Guide to Coaching and Mentoring , both with her co-author Mike Brent.

Viki Holton is a research fellow at Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School. She has a degree in Psychology and is a regular speaker at international and national conferences such as the British Academy of Management. She was involved with the Ashridge Centre for Business and Society for over eight years, and her special interests currently are leadership, HR and influence, team coaching, and diversity, as well as issues around womens careers and women as leaders. Viki is on the editorial board of the journals Gender in Management and Career Development International . For a number of years, she was a member of the board of the European Womens Management Development network and editor of the networks newsletter.

In addition to research, Viki also enjoys writing. She has written many articles, book chapters and research reports, as well as an earlier book on womens careers written in partnership with Fiona, and she has co-authored a book on team coaching. In her personal life, Viki enjoys gardening, travel and occasional trips to Caithness.

Many people have contributed to the writing of this book, not least the women who have taken the time to tell us their stories the 1,400+ women who completed our questionnaire and the women we interviewed. To all of them, a heartfelt thanks.

We also appreciated Kate Cooper at the Institute of Leadership and Management and Kate Kinninmont at Women in Film and TV, www.wftv.org.uk, for their support in circulating and promoting our survey within their networks.

We would also like to thank our colleagues at Ashridge, and in particular Jan Rabbetts, Carol Long, Sharon West and Mike Dell.

Over recent years, we have worked with, and coached, a number of working women across many different sectors, jobs and levels. We hear many good stories about how things have improved for women at work, and there are still many firsts where a woman has stepped into a role that had previously only ever been held by a man. However, it is also clear that women sometimes do not thrive and survive at work because of the challenges and barriers that they continue to face. There is not yet equality in every organization, and womens career opportunities and development are often not as good as for their male colleagues. This book offers a coaching toolkit to help overcome such problems it is focused on the individual and essentially is about how to be your own career coach!

So, lets take a look at some of the good news. For working women in the twenty-first century, things have never been better! There is no doubt that the opportunities and choices available to women have never been greater. Today (2015), there are some seriously impressive women in all walks of life business, technology, politics, the voluntary sector, sport and the media, to name a few. Some examples of key appointments for which it is the first time a woman has held the role include: