Book Review: I’d Rather be in Charge: A Legendary Business Leader’s Roadmap for Achieving Pride, Power, and Joy at Work by Charlotte Beers

Posted: February 27, 2012 in Periscope Post
By: Cari Guittard



Charlotte Beers’s new book, I’d Rather Be in Charge, offers up some important lessons for women in business.

One of the most profound, defining moments of my career was when I worked as a Special Assistant to Charlotte Beers during her tenure as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs during the Bush Administration.

If you’ve seen the film The Devil Wears Prada, you’ve got an idea a sense of what working for her was like – she the driven, sharp, take-no-prisoners Diva, and I the lowly, unstylish staffer who had no idea what I was up against. Over time, though, I grew to appreciate and relish her toughness and tenacity. She seemed hardest on those who were closest to her, in an effort not to admonish, but to make you better. She was always about pushing people to excel and find their own potential even if it meant long days and nights, some of which ended in tears from exasperation and exhaustion.

So much of what Beers tried to accomplish at State post 9/11 has been misunderstood, distorted, and often inaccurately reported. Her distinguished advertising career – where she shattered one glass ceiling after the other – is often minimized and diminished by the media, and male journalists in particular, as seller of Uncle Ben’s Rice and Head & Shoulders. Really. Is that the best they can do when encapsulating a lifetime of leadership, taking risks, and performance in the corporate world over decades in traditionally male dominated industries?

I always wondered why she never fought back openly against her critics – but then she had bigger fish to fry, as we say in Texas. Which was why I was eager to read her recently published book, I’d Rather be in Charge. The book takes the reader into her world, the world of Mad Men and Women, and shares story after story of her growing up in the advertising industry. Throughout the stories, she weaves in lessons learned and practical insights for women mapping their careers and navigating leadership roles in business. She shares some exceptional, useful communications advice on how to be persuasive, engaging and learn to leverage influence – these tips alone are worth the price of the book.

Beers also spends considerable amounts of time on showing how to build a road-map for self-knowledge, which far too many of us spend too little time on. The book is geared towards mid-career women who are transitioning into or aspiring to leadership roles. The benefits however are much broader and I would recommend this to women at every career stage – even my graduate students who are just beginning their careers – as there are several critical insights we can all take to heart and utilize.

If there is one word to describe Beers – at least from my time working with her – it is “fearless”. A term I wish more women embodied and would wear proudly. I remember one example of this distinctly when I worked for her at the State Department: The White House called prior to a press conference with Beers, asking me to kindly ask the Under Secretary not to say certain things and then not to wear her trademark short leather mini-skirt and form-fitting sweaters.

Beers was never shy about speaking her mind – which more often than not threw many of the straight-laced career foreign service officers and political appointees off kilter. She was also never shy about being feminine and wearing exactly what she wanted to at State – a land where there is very little color, form-fitting attire, and creativity. I remember not even taking a pause and saying, “The Under Secretary will not be scripted, she will speak her mind and share her opinions. If the White House has a problem with this they can take it up with her directly. And on the point of the mini-skirt, if I had the Under Secretary’s legs I’d be wearing one myself.”

There are endless lessons I learned from my time working for Beers which have made all the difference in my career. I am thankful she has now put some of these lessons down for others to benefit from her wisdom, experience, and candor.

Cari E. Guittard, MPA is Adjunct Faculty for the Hult International Business School Dubai and the University of Southern California. Guittard specializes and teaches graduate courses in Corporate Diplomacy, Global Engagement, Negotiation, and Managing Geopolitical Risk. Guittard resides in San Francisco, CA.

Hidden Power: Women who aspire to lead globally – the view from Dubai

Posted in Periscope Post
February 24, 2012


Hidden Power: Women who aspire to lead globally – the view from Dubai

By: Cari E. Guittard
February 24, 2012

Women in the Middle East are just beginning to realise their business potential.

Last December, I travelled to Dubai where I taught at the Hult Pocket MBA for Women Who Aspire to Lead seminar. The Hult Pocket MBA for Women was a 2-day intensive which brought 60 mid-career women from throughout the region to Hult International Business School’s Dubai campus for an extraordinary learning experiment.

The setting was an intimate, transformative and engaging platform, unlike any I’ve ever experienced. Demand for this seminar was overwhelming — nearly 300 were placed on a waiting list for the free seminar and others asked if we would reprise the course in Cairo, Tunis, Manama, Doha and Riyadh. Given the turmoil and upheaval over the past year in the region, it is gratifying to see the Middle East is hungry for programs that empower and advance women in business and women as leaders.

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See


The global faculty and presenters assembled to teach in the pocket MBA ranged from social and behavioral psychologists, to global management, communications, finance, and HR. Dr. Amanda Nimon-Peters, Managing Director and Founder of Sara Black International, led the course with an opening discussion of influences contributing to self-belief and self-doubt, factors that subconsciously affect performance in women. She guided us through experimental social psychology research which included a candid discussion of stereotypes, the negative effects they have on women in the workforce, and how they contribute to self-sabotage on a subconscious level.

She further underscored the importance of role models for women and noted that they increase a woman’s belief in her ability to succeed particularly when women have overcome relevant difficulties on their paths to success. Unfortunately, there are too few women in senior leadership identified and showcased for more junior women to emulate. When it comes to leadership role models, men dominate the headlines.

In my session on Global Skillsets, Global Mindsets, I shared research from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Global Mindset Institute. The research resonated with the class, as many women shared their difficulties in balancing what they felt were expected “masculine” traits with their innate “feminine” traits in the workplace. Finding balance and adapting while navigating a global career is the Holy Grail of success. Additionally, these are skillsets women, and in particular mothers, are incredibly adept at, though we are never taught to promote those traits and in many cases taught to diminish them early on. As women, we need to seek out more opportunities like the Hult Pocket MBA to better understand, develop and leverage these skillsets as well as nurture a network that supports our continued learning in this space.

The Hidden Power of Women in Business & The Men Who Get It

We ended the Pocket MBA with a powerful panel on Men Who Contribute to Boosting Women’s Careers, or what I like to call The Men Who Get It. Here were three educated, successful men married to equally sharp, successful women. They shared frank views on the balance of power in their relationships and the positive benefits they derived from having a working and succeeding spouse. One shared how he had sacrificed his career for his wife to pursue an expansive global corporate role and the fulfillment he obtained by looking after their children full-time. The panel’s sensitivity to work-life balance and deep appreciation for women’s contribution to and strengths in business was evident and applauded. It is also important to recognize that we were having such a discussion in the UAE which is leading the region when it comes to women’s rights and the empowerment of women.

There was nothing pocket-sized about the energy in the room during our Pocket MBA. When women get together like this, transformation occurs. We acknowledged that we spend so much of our lives focused on what we think we’re supposed to do, that we rarely discover what we’re meant to do. Many of the participants in the Pocket MBA shared that this two-day intensive sparked in them the confidence to seek out a new direction, an exploration into finding their true passions and to develop their unique talents and abilities.

Whether they know it or not, women yield a tremendous amount of power and influence in business globally. Unfortunately, more and more women in the mid to senior career levels – just when they are beginning to take the leadership reigns — are opting out. Much of this power is hidden, underestimated, and undervalued many times by women themselves.
It is important to reflect on the impact women have in business and to find a way to capture and hold up stories of relevant female role models, abolish stereotypes, and find new creative ways to support and empower them. Even the smallest of efforts can make an extraordinary impact.

I flew a very long way to inspire and leave an impact on a group of women who are just beginning to realize their own power in the global workforce. What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would learn from them and how I would be the one leaving inspired, optimistic and energized for the future.