Should You Play the Role of June Cleaver or Miranda Priestly to Win at Work?

(Editor’s Note: If you are offended by the b-word, you might want to click away from this article.  There are a few choice curse words within this lesson. You nice girls might get a little offended.)

Whether women should play the nice girl role or act like a bitch in business is a debate as old as time itself.

As an empowered career woman you want your own slice of Aretha’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T pie.

But, you don’t know as a business strategy whether you should unleash your inner female dog or let your nice girl run free.

As more women enter the executive suite in record numbers, I ask you, who wins in business: the June Cleaver, baking-cookies-nice-girl, or the Miranda Priestly, Devil-Wears-Prada-acting bitch? Read the rest of this entry »

How to Win Playing the Office Politics Game

Dear Career Vanity,

I’m a Technology Sales Executive working for a conservative, “IBM-type” company that has 1,500 people within our division and only 19 female managers.  My appraisals are stellar and I’ve worked hard to earn a great promotion and reputation within the organization.

After an incident, where I passionately disagreed with a senior level executive about a process that would save the organization millions of dollars in research and development, I realized that I might now be perceived as defensive and unfortunately emotional.

How do I maintain my middle ground when I believe something is right, without taking the easy way out? I want to play the game at work, but not without sacrificing my dignity and reputation. Read the rest of this entry »