The Secret Handshake

Now in paperback, the insider's guide on how to win a place within a company's powerful inner circle, based on the insights and advice of top executives at corporations across the country. Most people on a career track aspire eventually to becoming part of a corporation's or business's inner circle-the influencers and decision makers who determine the direction of the company, and who receive the greatest perks in compensation. But breaking in, as many of us suspect and as management expert Kathleen Reardon confirms, is not so easy. You have to understand what those in the inner circle are looking for, and successfully identify the unstated rules that the corporation operates by. Many rules of business are conveyed via hint, or worse, not at all. Over the past two years, Professor Reardon has gone inside the inner circle of dozens of Fortune 500 corporations and midsized businesses around the country, from IBM to Microsoft, from Northrup to Cigna, to find out what those rules are, and how those who are part of the decision making ranks view and evaluate the employees under them. As a result, THE SECRET HANDSHAKE, for the first time, is able to take readers inside the corporate boardrooms and address what it takes, from the perspective of those already on the inside, to get noticed, network, persuade others, master the art of the quid pro quo, manage conflict, and get ahead. By showing readers how to master the tactics and skills necessary to successfully move up through the corporation, THE SECRET HANDSHAKE is sure to appeal to people who want to get ahead wherever they stand in the corporate hierarchy. DISCUSSES WHO TO TRUST IN THE CORPORATION-AND WHY-AND HOW MUCH: Reveals how to effectively maneuver within corporations, how to read between the lines, and what the upper echelon is really looking for in determining who "gets in" to the inner circle. EXHAUSTIVELY RESEARCHED: Based on extensive interviews with top executives and high level managers at corporations across the country, as well as the author's years of experience as a business consultant to firms such as Toyota, Xerox, IBM, ATandT, and Cigna.