Grow Wherever You Work: Straight Talk to Help with Your Toughest Challenges - Hardcover

by Joanna Barsh (Author)

Powerful, unvarnished advice for growing through the work challenges all aspiring leaders face

The business world is full of catchphrases: follow your passion; think positive; be authentic; suck it up; take risks; network. All well-intentioned, but let's be honest. This inch-deep advice just isn't very helpful. How do real people succeed in the real world of work? That's the question bestselling author Joanna Barsh sets out to answer--not by asking motivational gurus or well-established CEOs but by diving into the trenches with today's boldest, brightest, up-and-coming leaders.

Distilling the stories of important work challenges from more than 200 rising leaders in 120 companies, this hands-on guide helps you grow through the challenges you face--not despite them. You'll learn how to:

* Handle rising pressure and recover from colossal mistakes

* Bounce back from poor performance reviews and use them to up your game

* Get people on board with you and your mission

* Deal with office villains like a superhero

* Take uncomfortable risks and dare to challenge

* Grow when everything is falling apart around you

* Know when it's time to find another position

Packed with raw experiences and on-the-job coping strategies from a rich diversity of voices--immigrants and first-generation Americans; blacks, Hispanics, and Asians; Ivy League alums and high school grads; and parents, some of whom are single--from all industries, this book offers the kind of nuts-and-bolts, real-world insights you won't find anywhere else. Using these proven strategies, you can accelerate your growth with every new challenge. Best of all, you'll be able to take the lead in your own career and build a future that works for you.

This is how ordinary people turn challenges into extraordinary opportunities for action--and how you can Grow Wherever You Work.

Back Jacket

There is no straight path to success; we learn and grow from our mistakes. Joanna's book of wise stories and guidance can help all of us get closer to our full potential and dreams. --Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, and Founder, LeanIn.Org and OptionB.Org
"Joanna draws upon decades of experience as a leadership advisor, along with real-life stories from high performers, to provide professionals at any stage of their career with an empowering and very practical toolkit on how to grow through challenges and drive toward purpose at work."--Dominic Barton, Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company
"Practical advice from a role model of purpose, passion, and perseverance!"--Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit and Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
"Joanna Barsh has written a remarkably engaging and wise book about how to deal with the most vexing workplace challenges. Grow Wherever You Work offers brilliant and field-tested advice so you can respond with grace and competence to ugly hurdles such as working with the office villain and surviving with stretches when everything seems to suck--and for rising to the occasion when it is time to take a big risk. This is the best book of its kind I can recall." --Robert I. Sutton, New York Times bestselling author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide and Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford Business School
"Almost every obstacle that you'll face at work has been faced before--and chances are that Joanna Barsh has helped tackle them. In this useful book, she draws on her 35-year-career to coach us to learn from the major challenges of our careers."--Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals and coauthor of Option B
"A prominent thought leader on talent and leadership, Joanna helps us turn difficult work challenges into personal and professional growth, spinning gold from inspiring stories, valuable coaching, and the caring mentorship we all want and need. Treasure this book!"--Eileen Naughton, VP HR, Google
"How do you survive a disappointing performance review? What do you do if your team won't listen? What if work just plain sucks? Top business leader Joanna Barsh has answers to these and other pressing questions that plague us all, as well as the experience to guide you calmly through."--Jessica Bacal, author of Mistakes I Made at Work and Director, Smith College Wurtele Center for Work & Life
"As a business school professor and former college president and corporate executive, I picked up this book with anticipation and enjoyed it immensely. I immediately sent it to my daughter (a 37-year-old corporate executive) as some of the most useful work advice I have come across in years. She couldn't put it down!" --Len Schlesinger, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School, President Emeritus, Babson College, and former Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, Limited (now L) Brands

Author Biography

Joanna Barsh is a Director Emerita at McKinsey & Company, where she's worked for 32 years, as well as the Executive Chairman of FORTUNE Women's Leadership Council. She is an in-demand speaker and presenter, both nationally and internationally, and has worked closely with Lean In, the International Council of Women's Business Leaders, and other proactive groups.