Book Review: Blitz the Ladder

"Climbing the corporate ladder is a long and hard battle, so much so that many choose not to take the challenge" A successful climb "starts with the realization that you can't do it alone."

With this, author Todd Rhoad sets the stage for the focus of his book, Blitz The Ladder: A Team-Based Approach to Getting Ahead in Business.

Rhoad discusses traditional career development resources, tapping the power of perception, and introduces the Blitz approach. The goal of the Blitz approach is "to actively promote all members of a team until reaches a position of authority. Once one member reaches an influential level, their efforts become directed towards elevating the other members of the team. This continues until all members reach their goals."

The core of the book is focuses on Ten Blitz Principles: career self-reliance, shared responsibility, trust and communication, to name a few.

There is a lot of information in Blitz and it is not a quick, nor easy read. I had difficulty grasping the concepts at first but taken piece by piece, Rhoad offers some great advice for career advancement.

Whether you buy into the Blitz concept or not, you have to agree that "understanding your own abilities is vital to your mobility in climbing up the corporate ladder," and that "understanding how others see us is extremely critical if we are to authenticate the work and personal connections . . ."

Valuable insights such as these, sprinkled amongst the ideas, research and explanatory diagrams, offer value to the reader.

You can find out more about Blitz The Ladder, Todd Rhoad and the Blitz team right here.

Quit Standing Beside Your Power

Listen up.

Do you routinely defer the floor to others before you are finished? Giggle when nervous or, worse yet, laugh uncontrollably? End your statements with a lingering request for support? Do you work to be seen as the always-agreeable-can-get-along-with-anyone person on the team? Start your recommendations with qualifiers such as, "I am not sure you are going to like this idea, but." Not ask all of your questions because you feel you may have taken up too much meeting time already? Do you do any variations of the above on a regular basis?

Yes? Well, stop that right now.

When communicating, be prepared and be professional. Articulate your position and state the reasons why. Don't soften a message that needs to be heard and don't think for a minute that you deserve any less respect than the person sitting next to you.

Quit standing beside your power and step into it. Now.