Sally Helgesen

How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen is a practical and eye-opening guide for women looking to advance their careers. Helgesen, along with co-author Marshall Goldsmith, identifies 12 habits that often hold women back and offers actionable advice on how to overcome them. Reading it felt like having a career coach gently, and sometimes firmly, pointing out where I might be self-sabotaging without even realizing it.

I appreciated how the book combines research, real-life stories, and exercises to show more make the advice concrete and usable. It’s not just theoretical; you can actually put the strategies into practice immediately. I found myself pausing and reflecting multiple times, realizing that small behavioral shifts could have a big impact on career growth.

On the flip side, some of the examples felt geared toward corporate or office settings, which might make certain advice less relevant for women in other industries or freelance work. A few of the habits also felt a bit repetitive across chapters.

Even with that, How Women Rise is empowering, insightful, and full of practical wisdom. It made me more aware of patterns in my own behavior and inspired me to make deliberate changes. I would definitely recommend this book to any woman ready to step into her next role with confidence and intention. show less

How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith examines the habits women tend to develop that work in one part of their careers but don't translate well to other parts. Based on their years of experience coaching both men and women as well as research into women and men in the workplace, they've honed in on habits that women tend to adopt that men don't necessarily adopt while also referencing that both show more men and women develop habits that can stymie their advances in their careers. While there are moments the book feels a bit overly generalized, Helgesen and Marshall readily admit that there are women who don't adopt these habits and men that do. They deal with tendencies and how to address those tendencies rather than absolutes. One thing that sets How Women Rise apart from many self-help books is that it doesn't approach the subject from the concept of the broken or inadequate women. It fully acknowledges that many of the habits women need to change worked for them to get them to where they are even if they don't offer them the platform to move up to the next position. Most women who are looking to rise in the careers, and even those who are self-employed but find they'd like more out of their careers than they're getting, will likely benefit from reading How Women Rise because Helgesen and Goldsmith look at the bad habits from an approachable and honest point of view that gives insight as well as actions to be taken to turn bad habits into good habits. show less

This is a really worthwhile close look at how women act in business settings, and how very different from men their behavior is--and why.

I liked the way she pointed out what is helpful with our behavior (compassion) and what is *not* (feeling virtuous because we don't toot our own horn).

I wish there were a workbook. I definitely need to work on a few of these!

This was a book for the Nielsen women's book club.

RISING TOGETHER presents some common workplace triggers that hinder inclusion and collaboration and offers practical examples of how to overcome these obstacles to create and keep a diverse workforce.

I liked the premise of RISING TOGETHER. There’s a lot of useful information and things to think about. The book is presented in a logical format. I wasn’t keen on some of the dialogue examples though. They felt overly scripted and unnatural. Aside from these few areas, I felt that the book show more was a beneficial read and will likely reference it in the future.

RISING TOGETHER was a useful read and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for information on how to practice and promote collaboration, inclusivity, and diversity in the workplace.

Thank you to Hachette Go for the giveaway copy. show less