The Nia Guide for Black Women: Achieving Career Success on Your Terms

Rating:
Summary: Sista Girl Advice for the Office
Review: Are you questioning your worth at the office? Not sure about your place in the corporate world? The NIA Guide for Black Women will facilitate discovering your purpose and realizing your goals. It provides sound advice and practical knowledge in creating a working environment that supports your career goals while cultivating your heritage.

The NIA Guide for Black Women brings the vast amount of information from www.niaonline.com into book form. Part One discusses the Sole Sister in the office syndrome and provides ideas for coping with issues that sisters deal with most in corporate America. Part Two offers suggestions on recreating your corporate mindset by updating your resume, refocusing your career goals and dealing with setbacks that you may face. Part Three provides details on how to take your career to the next level by creating opportunities, polishing your presentation skills, getting noticed by the boss through joining professional organizations and getting published. Part Four advises you to develop your "own" old girl network, enjoying the climb up the corporate ladder while pulling up those not as fortunate.

This concise guide is a resource that will elevate your career to the next level. The thought-provoking exercises at the end of each chapter will aid in focusing your energies on change. It is full of personal stories of success, examples of leadership, career empowerment strategies and current data on African-American women in the corporate arena. The NIA Guide for Black Women is a great source of information regardless of your career choice, ideas for your future, and family responsibility.

Reviewed by Monique Bruner for Loose Leaves Book Review

Rating:
Summary: Plan your work, work your plan
Review: Sheryl Huggins, editor-in-chief, and Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, founder and CEO, have been instrumental in the success of the Nia Online website (www.niaonline.com) and now they have packaged their wonderful resources and offered it to us in the NIA GUIDE FOR BLACK WOMEN: Achieving Career Success on Your Own Terms. When translated "Nia" means purpose. We are encouraged to know our purpose and be in tune with ourselves to achieve our career goals. We must be real with ourselves by asking; "What am I here to do?" and "What can I do to effect a change?"

The NIA GUIDE offers sound advice from many successful African American women ranging from broad categories as Keeping Your Pride and Sanity, A Sister's Map to the Corporate Minefield and Tips for Taking It To the Next Level. It is insightful and requires personal reflection. Within the three categories are 13 individual flowing chapters that discusses being the sole woman of color in the workplace and how to embrace our uniqueness while maintain a positive role within the workforce. The reader is encouraged to be able to talk the talk and be prepared to speak the language necessary for the job you want. Corporate America is compared to a game of football and all to often, we don't come to play. We are reminded the key to Corporate America is to understand the game and play it to win! Even if we stumble along the way, we must learn to turn setbacks into comebacks by turning the lemons handed to us by life into lemonade. In the racism and sexism chapter, Paula Sneed, the Group VP of Kraft Foods, states "Racism and Sexism in the workplace is so prevalent, we have to be able to use the fact that we are women and women of color to our advantage. [Others] want to see it as a negative and therefore set the bar low. They don't know what we can accomplish." As Daphne Jones states, "the proverbial glass ceiling is really a concrete ceiling and you have to find a way to chisel yourself through."

This book is small, but mighty. An introspective writing exercise is included to further delve into one's situation at the end of each chapter. Also, additional resources and websites at the end of each chapter are referenced for further examination. No matter your chosen career path, individual choices and goals, The NIA GUIDE is a great resource!

Reviewed by Nedine
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers