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Praise for Trade Up! "Rayona Sharpnack is uniquely qualified to shake up your personal and professional paradigm with her new book,
Trade Up! At her Institute for Women's Leadership, Rayona has helped an entire generation of top women leaders to find their best selves. Now we can all benefit from Rayona's methods, her ideas, and her wisdom. Trade Up! will leave you invigorated, inspired, and ready for the? most meaningful years of your life."
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Carol Evans, CEO,
Working Mother Magazine "I highly recommend
Trade Up! for every leader--from MBA students to seasoned CEOs. In this book Rayona demonstrates her gift for making the 5 most important skills of sustaining great leadership come alive!"
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Carol Bartz, chairman of the board, Autodesk
"Rayona has a powerful way of cutting to the chase and providing a meaningful context for leadership success. Her message is quite clear: leadership is not for the faint of heart. You must jump in with both feet and commit if you truly want to make a difference. If you're looking for ways to up the ante in terms of your leadership capacity, this book is for you."
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Larry Downey, CEO, Teva Neuroscience
"Trade Up! is a leadership book that belongs in everyone's hands--CEO, COO, manager, or those of you navigating the crossroads in your everyday life. It's cogent, warm, inspirational, and pragmatic. I unequivocally recommend Rayona Sharpnack and her work to anyone who is interested in living a life of purpose, calling, and being a contribution to others.
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Richard Strozzi-Heckler, author,
The Leadership Dojo and
Being Human at Work "If you are ready to soar to new heights this book will provide you with the tools, insight, and methodology to ascend beyond your imagination."
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Angela Airall, CLO, Girl Scouts USA
"Essential reading! In today's intense 24/7 environment, we have to know ourselves or we'll get eaten alive. Rayona provides a primer for developing profound self-knowledge."
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Sally Helgesen, author,
The Female Advantage and Thriving in 24/7
List of contents
Introduction: Beyond Business as Usual 1
1. It's All About You 35
Step 1. Reveal Your Prevailing Context
2. From Bug Soup to Butterfl y 65
Step 2. Own Your Context
3. I Am the Author of My Own Story 103
Step 3. Design a New Context
4. Practice Leads to Mastery 125
Step 4. Sustain Your New Context
5. Traversing the Spiral 157
Step 5. Engage Your New Context
Epilogue: Ruminations and New Beginnings 193
Acknowledgments 197
About the Author 199
Index 201
About the author
Rayona Sharpnack is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Women's Leadership (IWL), where she teaches and mentors some of the most powerful leaders in the world through her IWL workshops-Women Leading Change and the advanced Executives Leading Sustainable Change. She has been training both women and men in the principles and skills of leadership since 1992 and is a popular speaker.
Summary
Silicon Valley wunderkind Rayona Sharpnack has been a schoolteacher, tennis champion, manager and player for a women's professional softball team, and a celebrity who coaches some of the most successful leaders in business.
