Book Aims To Bring Women To Leadership Table

 Auburn Hills, MI - There have been hundreds of books on leadership, most written by men and based on men’s experience. Very few draw upon the several decades of experience from women who are developing new leadership styles that tap the innate strengths of the female gender. Author Anne Doyle, whose credentials include locker room leadership, as one of the first women TV sports broadcasters, and pushing up against the auto industry’s renowned “steel ceiling” at Ford Motor Company, resolves to change all this with her new book Powering Up! How America’s Women Achievers Become Leaders.

“The United States has become a nation of women Achievers. Yet, despite having legal rights and educational and economic opportunities that most of our global sisters only dream of, American women are Leadership Underachievers,” Doyle says. “I’m tired of the glass ceiling, the mommy track and the good-old-boys network. We’ve been treading water for over a decade as the numbers of accomplished women in the middle keeps growing. It’s time to regain our sense of urgency and begin reaching across generational, economic and racial lines to lift one another into leadership positions.”

Doyle names and defines three very different cohort groups of accomplished, aspirational women in the workforce today, calling them: the Pioneering Interlopers (mid-50s and older), the Influential Insiders (mid-30’s to early 50s) and the I’ll-Do-It-My-Way Innovators (early 30s to college-age). With chapters as intriguing as “Why Girls Don’t Rule,” “Size Matters” and “What Do Men Have to Do With It,” she pokes holes in the widely-held perception that women are already leading. She then spells out 7 Practices that she believes women Achievers must master to become effective Leaders.

“Anne Doyle is a new voice on the national scene, but her book, Powering Up!, is all the evidence you’ll need of how in tune she is with the issues and realities women leaders of every generation face today,” says Marie Wilson, founder and president emeritus of The White House Project, who was one of 125 influential women interviewed for the book.

Doyle’s insight comes not only from her own significant experience in leadership hot seats, but through her involvement with the prestigious International Women’s Forum. As a member of the IWF, one of the preeminent global networks of accomplished women, Doyle has relationships with formidable female leaders from around the globe. “The message from our international sisters is nearly always the same,” Doyle says. “American women underestimate our ability and responsibility to raise our voices and take our places on the global stage. The world is calling for us to step up to leadership.” This is not a women-only or anti-male book, however. Powering Up! is a must-read for every man who is married to, works with or works for high-achieving women. I couldn’t put it down,” commented Jim O’Connor, the former Ford Motor Company Group Vice President of Marketing and Sales who worked closely with Doyle in the auto industry.

Powering Up! is a call to action, urging women to take the bold steps necessary to become the leaders they are meant to be. But readers are also reminded that leadership is a team sport. “Every woman for herself is a losing strategy,” cautions Doyle. “A few lone women, no matter how exceptional they are, have little influence or ability to impact important decisions in predominantly male groups. It takes critical mass to shift group think. That’s why we need women pouring into leadership roles in the huge numbers that we have seen them take on the professional world."

As a cultural tribe, women have the ability to collectively rise or continue treading the same professional waters. Powering Up! inspires women to think bigger than their individual ambitions and recognize how interdependent they are. Through powerful language, memorable stories and remarkable new role models, this is a book whose time has come.

The trajectory of Anne Doyle’s entire life has been toward empowering women. A trailblazing TV news and sports broadcaster, Doyle was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame for her role in opening sports locker rooms to women reporters. She earned her business stripes with Ford Motor Company, where she rose to Director of North America Communications and was named one of the “100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry.” A contributing columnist for ForbesWoman.com, she is the founder and principal of Anne Doyle Strategies, a leadership and communications consulting practice. Most recently the mother of a college-age son ran for and won a seat on the Auburn Hills, Michigan City Council, where she was the #1 vote getter.