Inside Knowledge : How Women Can Thrive in Professional Service Firms.

Front Cover -- Inside Knowledge -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Quotation -- Foreword -- The Kite -- Following the wind -- Touching the Sky -- You and Me -- Preface - Why You Need This Book -- Where this book comes from - my personal story -- How to use this book -- Why focus on the women? -- Generalisations and Geography -- From me to you -- 1 An Analysis of the Uneven Playing Field -- Why So Few Female Partners? -- The Individual versus the Organisation versus Society -- Resources -- 2 Why Should You Focus on Your Career Now? A Call to Be Conscious because You Are Important -- What Is in It for Me? -- Authenticity -- How We Learn -- My Challenges to You -- 3 Working to Get the Most Out of Your Time and Your Brain - Your Key Tools for Success -- How to Get the Most from Your Focus -- Your 'To Do' List -- Your Development File -- How to Get the Most from Your Energy -- How You Can Get the Most from Your Time -- Find Energy Bosting Slots in Your Diary -- Put in Recurring Time to Think and Plan -- Use Your Diary as a Tool -- How Do You Get the Most from Others -- Delegation -- Using Those Who Have Specialist Expertise -- Identifying and Using Your Support Network -- How to Get the Most from Your Mental Capacity -- How You Can Get the Most from Your Brain in Relation to Time -- When You Do Important Tasks -- Committing Vital Information to Memory -- Assumptions and Stereotypes -- My Challenges to You -- Further Resources You Might Find Useful -- 4 What Do You Offer Your Firm? -- Valuing What You Bring -- My Challenges to You -- Resources -- 5 Are You Ambitious? If So What Are You Ambitious for? -- What Are You Ambitious for? -- What Do You Want Your Life to Be Like in Three Years' Time? -- Where Does Your Work Fit into This Life? -- Are You Ambitious at Work? -- The Communication Mismatch -- Your Choice -- How to Express Your Ambition.

When to Express Your Ambition -- My Challenges to You -- Resources -- 6 Where Are You Starting from? Getting Feedback -- What Do You Know about How Others See You at Work? -- Why Is Feedback so Important? -- Avoiding misunderstandings -- Managing your career -- Understanding your strengths -- Understanding your weaknesses -- Promotions -- What Kind of Feedback Do You Need? -- A Simple Model for Attributable Feedback -- Is All Feedback Equally Important? -- Specific Feedback -- When Should You Ask for Feedback? -- Where Should You Keep Your Feedback? -- My Challenges to You -- Resource -- 7 Taking Stock -- My Strengths -- Weaknesses/Development Areas -- Opportunities -- Threats -- Review Your SWOT Analysis -- My Challenges to You -- Resource -- 8 Impression Management - What Do You Do and How Do You Talk about It? -- What Is Your Position - Peacock, Mouse or …? -- What Is Impression Management? -- Why Is Impression Management Important? -- What Do You Want Them to Be Saying about You When You Are Not There? -- Your Choice -- How Do You Manage the Perception Others Have of You? -- How to Talk about What You Are Doing -- Review This against the BEST Criteria -- Who to Talk to about What You Are Doing -- What Other Information Is Out There about You -- My Challenges to You -- Resources -- 9 Politics - How Do You Get Involved? -- The Clever Foxes -- The Inept Asses -- The Innocent Lambs -- The Wise Owls -- How to Use This Map -- My Challenges to You -- Resources -- 10 Stepping Forward -- Hurdles That Women Have to Navigate Their Way around before Stepping Forward -- So What? -- My Challenges to You -- Resources -- 11 Who Knows What You Do - Effective and Efficient Networking -- Key Questions for You -- Why Should You Carve Out Precious Time to Network? -- What Do You Need People in Your Network to Know about You?.

Who Needs to Know about You in Order to Achieve Your Goals? -- How Are You Going to Make the Connections? -- Internally -- Externally -- What Are the Available Opportunities to Network? -- Everyday Conversations at Work -- Networking Events -- Specific Networking Conversations -- My Challenges to You -- Resource -- 12 Sponsorship: The Sharp End of Your Developmental Network -- First Step - Roles in Your Developmental Network, a Purist's Guide -- Appraising Partner -- Supporters -- Mentors -- Sponsor -- Mixed Roles, the Reality -- What Are the Dangers? -- My Top Tips Are -- My Challenges to You -- Resources -- 13 Role Models -- Women assessing other women -- My challenges to you -- Resource -- 14 Finding Your Equilibrium -- What is your equilibrium? -- What does it take to be a successful partner? -- Due diligence - checking out what you think you know -- What is available to you in terms of information from the firm? -- What type of leader do you want to be? -- My challenges to you -- Resources -- 15 Being Commercial -- Within this strategic and commercial context what is your contribution? -- What are your competitors up to? -- Being commercial about your contribution, your value and your pay -- My challenges to you -- Resources -- 16 Developing Your Business -- Why is building relationships with clients important? -- How to be your client's trusted advisor -- The trust equation -- How to make productive relationships with clients that will lead to work -- Client relationship building events -- Cross selling work -- Hunting and farming -- Who can help you? -- Questions to reflect on -- My challenges to you -- Resources -- 17 Making the Most of Your Appraisals -- Being proactive rather than reactive -- How women talk about their achievements -- The appraisal conversation -- How to prepare for your annual appraisal discussions.

The relationship between you and your firm -- My challenges for you -- Resources -- 18 Preparing for Promotion Processes -- What is the process? What is needed, from whom and by when? -- Mobilising your support -- Preparing the paperwork -- Assessments -- Top Tips for Interviews -- Before the Day -- On the Day -- In the Interview -- Top Tips for Assessment Events -- Additional tips for group discussions -- Additional tips for case studies -- My challenges to you -- Resource -- Appendix Questions from promotion panels -- Example questions -- Wider Resources -- Video Talks -- Articles specifically about women in professional service firms -- Useful research studies with particular relevance to professional service firms -- Articles -- Books -- About the Author -- Index.

Inside Knowledge provides practical guidance for women working in professional service firms who aspire to achieve their full potential in what have traditionally been male work environments. It aims to help women thrive within these organisations, and to rise to a level commensurate with their knowledge, skills, experience and talent.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.