Black Pens Bold Workplace Guide For Women
Cathie Black has never been shy about what she wants.
A year into her first job at Holiday magazine the then 24-year-old Black dared to ask her boss for an even bigger salary moments after her first-ever promotion.
Though she did not get as much money as she wanted, Black's publisher did up his first offer. Black learned that day that if she didn't take the risk and ask for a higher salary she had no chance of getting it. She quotes hockey great Wayne Gretzky who said, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take."
Black details that fateful day and her ascension to President of Hearst Magazines in her new best seller "BASIC BLACK: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)," a conversational survival guide offering advice for women trying to succeed in the workplace. Black's style is instructional and humorous as she offers tips on how to achieve "the 360° life" - a blend of professional accomplishment and personal contentment - and how women can seize opportunity in the workplace. Suggestions range from focusing on being respected rather than being liked, to not getting drunk at office parties.Photo Essay: Book Women
"I can't honestly say I imagined being the President of Hearst magazines. But after the first year I knew that I wanted my boss' job. And I believe that for a lot of people, especially women, we tend to sort of move up the ladder sequentially," said Black who was named one of Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Women in American Business" for the seventh straight year in 2006.
Black credits much of her success to a workplace epiphany to value herself based on her aspirations, not her limitations. Black told The Show Buzz she realized early on, "You know, I'm as smart as my boss. I think I can do this."
Black writes that having confidence in whatever skills you do have is often more important than having truly exceptional skills. Black argues the most self-defeating attitude people have about their abilities is: they're good at what they do, but they don't know it or don't believe it.
Dubbed "The First Lady of American Magazines" and "one of the leading figures in American publishing over the past two decades" by the Financial Times, Black made publishing history in 1979 when she took the job as publisher of New York magazine, becoming the first woman publisher of a weekly consumer magazine. But she does not consider the magazine industry to be a male-dominated workplace. "The entire magazine industry, I believe, is very open to talented, bright people who have big ambitions," Black said, "I think its gender blind by this time and it has been for quite a long time."
Black is widely acclaimed for her eight year tenure as president and then publisher of USA Today starting in 1983. In 1991 she became CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, the biggest trade group in the industry, before she joined Hearst.
Black juggles her hectic workday responsibilities with a home life that includes a husband, son, and daughter, though she admits "some days better than others." On Sunday mornings Black likes to unwind for a heavenly hour and a half sifting through Page Six and the New York Times before browsing the real estate pages.
By Karl Moats