POWER UP

By Antoinette Dale Henderson

Do you ever feel like you can’t quite get your voice heard in the workplace or even in life and you’re not quite doing yourself justice? This is a very common feeling for women all over the world, young and old, and Antoinette has coached many to help them get over this. This book is a guide to finding and harnessing your inner strength and pulling yourself up to your full height. Which makes it a useful one to gift to any woman who tends to undervalue herself or can’t seem to get a promotion.

It’s not a short book – in fact at 444 pages it’s pretty hefty. But there’s so much useful stuff in it. Like how to stop yourself apologising before you put forward an idea in a meeting, how to control your voice so it doesn’t get shrill or start wobbling. How to cultivate and harness relationships so you feel a sense of strength and solidarity. How to sit or stand assertively so you’re less likely to get undermined or talked down. How to negotiate. All that stuff that many women (and indeed men) struggle to do.

There’s a lot of theory in it too, but if you feel like life’s too short to read reams about power, stick to the many advice-y bits so you can learn, once and for all, how to tackle all those ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ moments when we kick ourselves because we felt ‘weak’. This book makes you feel strong. No wonder it’s just been shortlisted for a diversity award.