Women's Professional Network

KariSable.com

True Crimes

KariSable.com

Professional Women's Network

Articles

Tools & Resources

Women's Professional Organizations

47% of the workforce is female
Females in the Information Technology workforce have dropped from a peak of 40% in 1986 to 29%
Women are overwhelmingly absent from senior IT management
Women are leaving IT at twice the rate of men
The labor shortage for skilled IT workers is acute

70% of the poor people in the world are female.
66% of home based businesses are owned by women.
Amusingfacts.com

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins -- Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job. In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. The First 90 Days provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly. Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period. Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without.

The Leadership Challenge, 3rd Edition by James M. Kouzes (Author), Barry Z. Posner (Author) -- In the 1980s and again in the '90s, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner published The Leadership Challenge to address issues they uncovered in research on ordinary people achieving "individual leadership standards of excellence." The keys they identified--model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, encourage the heart--have now been reexamined in the context of the post-millennium world and updated in a third edition. "What we have discovered, and rediscovered, is that leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women," write Kouzes, chairman emeritus of the Tom Peters Company, and Posner, dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. "People make extraordinary things happen by liberating the leader within everyone." After explaining their concept and methodology, the authors detail the five essentials noted above in a pair of chapters apiece that bring clarity to their theories with case studies and recommended actions. The specificity of each (motivating through "the meaningfulness of the challenge, not the material rewards of success," for example, and being able to "accept the mistakes that result from experimentation") is enhanced by advice on sustaining the commitment and making leadership skills accessible to all. The results remain as relevant as when they were first published. --Howard Rothman

A Girl's Gotta Do What a Girl's Gotta Do by Kathleen Baty -- Sassy single gal, high-powered exec in high heels, carefree college co-ed, harried soccer mom--no matter who you are, you deserve to feel secure doing your own thing anytime, anywhere. With a little help from the Safety Chick, it's a cinch. Sharing lessons she's learned--the hard way--along with proven tips from a battery of experts in street smarts, Kathleen Baty gets specific about what to pack for a business trip, where it's safe to shop online, when to report a creepy co-worker, and how to tell that guy who's bothering you at the bar to get lost--for good. Complete with step-by-step instructions on how to stop an assailant dead in his tracks with your words, your hands, or, if necessary, a few easy-to-use self-defense weapons, this book is a master class in personal safety for women of all ages.

Fairy Tales Can Come True: How a Driven Woman Changed Her Destiny by Rikki Klieman, Peter Knobler -- More than a decade after abandoning her lifelong goal of becoming an actress, Rikki Klieman, 35, was named one of America's top 5 female trial attorneys by Time magazine for her work in criminal defense. She defended clients ranging from accused drug smugglers to media moguls to Christian Scientists Ginger and David Twitchell, whose beliefs were put on trial after the death of their child. She waged a war with Boston police and the FBI during negotiations for the return of fugitive Katherine Ann Power a 60's radical. The life of a defense attorney began to damage her health and happiness. She suffered from exhaustion, chronic back pain, and two failed marriages, but considered these afflictions to be part of "the price of the prize." After decades as a practicing attorney, she joined Court TV, where she gained national prominence covering the O.J. trial and she went on to host Court TV's daily show Both Sides. Now, at midlife, in her loving marriage to LAPD chief Bill Bratton, she has the balance many seek but few find. Her story proves fairy tales can come true and that great love and success can go hand in hand.

Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom-- And What You Can Do About It by Jamie Court Enron. Tyco. Arthur Andersen. These companies have turned "corporate" into a four-letter word as headline after headline reveals shocking stories of executives stealing money from investors. But money isn't all that corporations steal. In Corporateering, Jamie Court shows how corporations routinely and quietly rob us of our personal freedoms, including privacy, security, the right to legal recourse, and more. In fact, "corporateering"-the act of prioritizing commercial gain over individual, social, or cultural gain-is everywhere in our lives. Court offers empowering strategies for counter-corporateering so we can reclaim our private lives, our right to health and safety, and other personal liberties.