I spent the first 20 years of my adult life doing what most of us do - chasing money and status within hierarchies. I even went...

I spent the first 20 years of my adult life doing what most of us do - chasing money and status within hierarchies. I even went to an all women's graduate school where I was taught how to succeed in a hierarchy - by learning "to think and behave like a man." I took it seriously and learned what I was taught. However, when I went out into the workforce full of the promise of creating and fulfilling well-founded strategies, I discovered that corporate rhetoric and behaviors are seldom connected.
No matter how I tried to work toward utilizing the business management skills I had been taught, I finally had to accept that they (and I) never quite fit.
M.B.A. courses speak of principled and visionary business leadership. However, in practice, hierarchies are fundamentally about competition - both within and without. Eventually, I came to understand that I am not about competition...winning without accomplishment bores me. Instead, I seek to learn, understand, empower, and collaborate.
For years I wondered what was wrong with me - why I found the hierarchy so meaningless.
Eventually, I began to wonder if perhaps it wasn't me that needed changing - perhaps we ALL needed some straight talk about what is really happening in our hierarchies and some strategizing about how to create more enriching organizations.
As it turns out, I'm not the only one eager for such discussions. To receive notification when my book is published early 2010, become my fan on allvoices or twitter - or connect via facebook.