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I recently heard Gail Evans talk and she was great.  Her talk was inspiring and also very practical and prompted me to finally read her book, Play Like a Man Win Like a Woman.  (It is currently only $10.17 on Amazon!).  At the end of the book, Ms. Evans writes, "This book is about learning to make noise, and also, learning to make choices.  Think of my advice as clothes you are tyring on. Does the rule fit? Do you look good in it?  Is it you?"

I highly recommend this book to Ms. JD's readers.  It is short and very read-able.  It is sincere, to the point and very applicable.  She gives a lot of advice about how to win in business playing by male rules.  She is very good at pointing out differences between men and women and the reasons why the male approach is often more successful in the business context.  The big reason for that, however, is that men have made the rules. 

Here are some nuggets to give you a sense of the book:

Advice: Love your job.  Ms. Evans writes, "If you can love your business life, you'll be playing the game the way guys do.... Loving what you do is self-empowering.  It makes you more brilliant, it gives you the ability to become a visionary, it helps you become the best businesswoman you can be."

Advice: Don't always to help or you will get walked on.  Ms. Evans writes: "Offer [to help] only when you are certain that the task is a career opportunity." and "At different times, nearly all men will treat amost all women as though we're subordinate.  Be weary."

Advice: The standards are different.   She writes, "...we are being rigorously scrutinized for every thing we do that doesn't jibe with what men expect.... We're judged by male standards, not our own."  She goes on to say that women can cry, yell, have an affair with the secretary, etc, but not without consequences and those consequences are different for a woman than they are for a man.

At the end of the book, after going through the male business rules that we need to follow, as women aspiring to be successful, Ms. Evans says "Be a Woman".  She seems to say that we can play like the men but also use our female traits to be better than them, a point that I agree with.  She says:

"Use every one of your natural traits.  Use your win/win attitude about life to make everyone you work with feel like a valued member of the team.  Use your social skills.... Most of all, use your intuition."

further:

"So employ your female instincts to your advantage - as long as you understand the effect these will have on the men in your office. It's one thing to be privately nurturing with a male peer whose work is faltering, but don't do it in a public forum or you'll embarrass both of you."

Needlesstosay, the book is filled with great advice.  Get it, read it, underline it, apply it.