How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job

Goldsmith (What Got You Here Won’t Get You There) and Helgesen, a women’s leadership coach, deliver a tiresomely downbeat guide to everything women are doing wrong in the workplace. In this diluted rehash of Goldsmith’s previous book, which highlighted mistakes people make at work, he and Helgesen attempt to outline the habits that keep women from reaching their goals. All the usual suspects appear, such as women being reluctant to claim achievements, expecting achievements to be noticed spontaneously, overvaluing expertise, failing to make early alliances, and expecting perfection of themselves. There’s little new in the book, and the presentation is unpleasantly scolding; the authors focus heavily on the tired trope that in order to be more successful, women should behave more like men. In a particularly clumsy move, the book relies heavily on examples that relate to diets and clothes. Women readers looking for ways to succeed and thrive in the workplace are unlikely to find much of value here. [em](Apr.) [/em]

Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly referred to Helgesen as a former CEO of the Girl Scouts of America.