Workplace Warrior: Insights and Advice for Winning on the Corporate Battlefield

A linguistics professor turned cofounder, president and CEO of the successful software company Evolutionary Technologies, Hammer believes the lessons she has learned in business can help others succeed. As a single mother of two young children in 1979, she realized that her chances of achieving financial security in the academic world were slim, so she returned to school and honed her computer skills. By 1991, she was experienced enough from her management positions in software development to spin off her own firm with a partner whose strengths complemented her own, despite several brushes with failure and battle scars from her abrasive and opinionated style. While she sprinkles the book with personal anecdotes, a more detailed biography would have added credibility to her insights, which are closely tied to her experiences. Much of the book explores the three stages that, according to Hammer, executives progress through--apprentice, warrior and adventurer--with an emphasis on the ongoing need to assess the corporate terrain in private and public companies from an economic standpoint. Strongest when it focuses on specific situations (such as how to respond to sabotaging colleagues), her slightly rambling guidance on effective communication in the workplace, strategies for dealing with conflict and ways to attract support will be of most use to readers seeking a model for calculated risk taking and canny politicking as they strive to take control of their careers. Agent, Karl Weber. (May)