Bound for the Boardroom

In her comfortable, conversational and easy-to-read style, Barbara B. Bergstrom points the way for the savvy business person to reach the ultimate goal. Her sense of humor peppered throughout this book brings about the perfect route to understanding just what it takes for aspiring executives to gain a seat in the boardroom. This guide has everything from non-gender contemporary business protocol (unlike the social graces you were taught at home) to the dining skills needed to navigate the executive dining room. "A business lunch is not about eating," says Bergstrom, an etiquette specialist and trainer. "Even what you wear says much about your executive presence in the United States and abroad." Professionalism is a vital component to business success, whether you're participating in a business meeting, conversing on the phone, giving a speech or presentation, or shaking someone's hand. You must learn the rules of the game of business and play the game better than your competition in order to win. In the highly competitive arena of business, management equates good manners with competence and poor manners with incompetence, even during the interview process for entry-level positions. If you are bound for the boardroom, you need to create a desire for customers, clients and business associates to want to do business with you based on mutual respect and civility. Without knowing and practicing the steps carefully outlined for you in Bound for the Boardroom you will find the boardroom door is closed to you and the key thrown away. Welcome to the "real world," where you just never know what others know and you don't.