Play Like a Man Win Like a Woman: What Men Know About Success That Women Need to Learn

Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman is described as being helpful for women. I am sure that is the case.

Not being a woman, I have to share its benefits from my perspective.

I have enjoyed being a mentor for many working women, and this book does a nice job of addressing the kinds of issues that these women have brought up with me as well as the ones that I have brought up with them. In the past, I have provided copies of How to Be a Star at Work as a way to assist these women. In the future, I will provide this book, as well.

Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman does an excellent job of explaining how the emphasis on relationships and results need to be balanced at work. That is a juggling act that seems to confuse many women, and I found this book to be accurate and constructive in this area.

Interestingly, I find that a lot of men miss these points, too. In these cases, the results are usually overemphasized at the expense of the relationships. I will also recommend this book to male colleagues and subordinates, both to make them more effective and to improve their understanding of how to communicate with female colleagues.

Basically, the book is all about miscommunication and misconception stalls that occur at work, especially the ones that tend to occur among men and women. The book is very effective in exploring those stalls and inproviding sound advice for overcoming the same stalls.

The only weakness I found in the book is that some subtle points about business interactions were missed. A lot of male aggressiveness and bluffing was described as just being acceptable, while the same thing by women is unacceptable. What Ms. Evans missed is that there is usually a kind of kidding humor involved to let everyone know that the aggressor is simply indicating a strong desire to play, backed up by self-confidence. That posture takes the sting out of the aggressiveness. When some women are aggressive, they may forget to use the kidding humor and relaxed tone that makes the aggressiveness tolerable to all.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the book is that it permits the reader to choose her/his own goals (and those may not be material success or power) while adapting the advice to one's own personality and preferences. Basically, any advice we get that suggest we act like the individuals we are is good advice.

After you read and apply this book, I suggest that you think about applying it to nonwork situations, as well. Your focus on relationships versus results may be out of balance in those circumstances, too.

Find the perfect balance!