Abstract
In her follow-up to Expect to Win (2010), Carla A. Harris, a Harvard Business School graduate and Vice Chairman of Wealth Management and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, seeks to provide readers with advice and tools to manage their careers in Strategize to Win. The trademarked tactics are explained, applied, and evaluated throughout three, 5-year units: Starting Out, Stepping Up, and Starting Over. More important, the strategies discussed in this book can be applied to any and every stage of a career, during any economic environment, and within any job market. Therefore, the target audience of Strategize to Win is almost any professional, but the information provided throughout the book makes it well-suited for academics whose job responsibilities crossover into career services and coaching. This work is especially targeted for college seniors and recent college graduates.
The book begins with a three-chapter section on “Starting Out” in a career; however, it provides more information about choosing a career and evaluating one’s value and experience rather than actually starting to work in a chosen field. Of particular value in this section are the three questions Harris encourages job seekers to ask themselves prior to searching for and choosing a career: (1) What kind of content do I want in my job? (2) What kind of jobs have this content? (3) What skills, experiences, or education do I need in order to be attractive for a job with this content? Although this information is well-organized and discussed in adequate detail, this activity can easily be replicated for people making a career change, or trying to move into a new position, and should not be relegated to just those starting out. These questions can elicit valuable information to job seekers and could be extremely helpful for college students to consider prior to graduation.
The remaining sections are titled “Stepping Up” and “Starting Over”; however, the content focuses more on strategies to implement once within an organization, overcoming challenges in the workplace, and choosing when to make a career-related change. All of the information presented in the subsequent sections can easily apply to entry-level as well as senior-level employees, and is not strictly related to moving up or moving on. Content such as cultivating performance and relationship currency, effective communication, managing change, and self-presentation provide value and advice to professionals in every market and again can be especially useful to young employees navigating the workforce for the first time.
Harris’ writing is clear, well-organized, easy-to-understand, and offers advice that can be applied immediately. Examples are used throughout the book and help further illustrate the more abstract concepts, and some personal experiences are peppered throughout as well. The themes presented are cohesive but there is also some information that could be repositioned to other areas such as networking in “starting out” rather than “starting over.”
In sum, this book achieves the goal of providing useful, strategic, and applicable information to all professionals. The content is informative, straightforward, but also inspiring, which helps remind readers that they can effectively achieve success in their careers over time. Furthermore, “Carla’s Pearls,” which are provided at the end of each chapter, help provide readers with a fast go-to resource for career advice long after reading the book.