Leading Ladies is not a consortium of opinion from multiple authors or dozens of impersonal interviews. It is one personal story of success captured on paper with very specific recommendations that have been lived and measured in a competitive marketplace. There is no surmising about the potential of success that might come from these methods; the success is proven and documented.

Leading Ladies is ideal for busy women. It is not pages and pages of pedantic scholarly data which requires extreme concentration. It is simply easy, quick reading for women who want answers that are actionable.

Spalla writes Leading Ladies from the heart. Women on their journeys need to be reminded that success is not defined by how quickly you move up the ladder but how you define your success path and impress that ethic upon others. So many books with similar themes focus on “WIIFM” (What’s in it for me?). Many books assume an adversarial, hostile stance as though to suggest that leadership is a fight, instead of a privilege. This one aspect more than anything else sets Leading Ladies apart as a dynamic book of leadership. Both the way it is crafted and the story it tells capture the very essence of leadership at its best.

Will the market support another book on leadership for women?

Absolutely! Here are three reasons:

• Women have barely scratched the surface of their leadership potential. They want and need more information that is useful and practical.
  
• The demands for good companies to diversify will only become more intense. Women in roles of leadership will increase in the decades to come.
  
• As leadership styles evolve for women, the stereotypical roles and politically correct restrictions of past years will become less and less defining. Women need help in defining their natural styles and the available sources to do so are scarce.

What if I told you in the hour or so it will take you to read this book that I will dispel every notion you ever had about being female in the workplace? What if I could show you a more natural leadership path than the one you’re presently on? What if I told you that women’s leadership skills have just begun to be understood? Or that your femininity (despite what you’ve been told) is your best asset! Wouldn’t you be curious?

This book is for women who wish to be dynamic leaders, whether of a company, a team, a country, or a cause. We’re not talking management duties here. We’re talking leadership… a thin spot of real estate where no one else is telling you which decision to make; where no one else is taking the blame; where no one else is cleaning up your messes; where no one else is sticking out his or her neck as far as yours; and no one else is forging the vision. The kind of leadership this book divines requires that you put on a brand new coat, that you fly at thirty thousand feet where the perspective is wide and breathtaking, that you prepare for a lonely journey, and that you expend the ultimate effort in emotional maturity. If you are female and want to be a dynamic leader, this book is for you.

Women in the workplace whether young or old, new or tenured, at the top or somewhere in the middle are striving for new information on how to move up the corporate ladder; if they are already on the way, they want good solid information about how to progress. They need women who are mentors; women with success under their belts; women who have concrete how-to’s to share. Leading Ladies has the potential to be that kind of survival guide for women at any level of management. It is a true story backed up with factual data and experience. There is no theory in this book; it has all been lived.

Author Linda Spalla has crafted her very personal story in a compelling, quick read for busy females who have little time to carve out their leadership styles. Women promoted to management or leadership positions stumble and fumble into an awkward style based on what they observe (traditional roles), what they absorb (it must be right if it’s working for the guys) or what is politically correct (I’ve just gotten this position and I don’t want to screw up). Spalla says women should instead sort through the daily array of what they are feeling and experiencing to arrive at a more natural “way to be”, using femininity as an asset to developing compelling leadership skills. Step by step, Linda walks through thirty tips that she used daily for nine years as the President and CEO of WHNT-TV. These tips have proven success. There are no wasted words or pedantic theories in Leading Ladies. The message is freeing, exciting and a relief to women who finally discover a definition to the style they have felt comfortable with but have been afraid to pursue. This book says, “Yes, it’s okay to be the woman you are! In fact, leaders who happen to be women can be women in the fullest degree.”

Leading Ladies does not suggest that men are poor leaders or that women are better leaders than men. It states clearly that women can be effective because of not in spite of their femininity. In fact, the book would be an excellent read for any leader, male or female.

Linda shares the particulars of her story throughout the book; her power of appeal is that she is “anywoman.” She’s not Oprah or Jackie or Barbara Walters; she is the neighbor next door or the principal at school or the president of the bank. Linda started at the bottom as a secretary for the television station and worked her way slowly and steadily to the very top over a twenty-five year period. The touching personal anecdotes, the pathos of her life, the shining enthusiasm of her spirit jump off the pages as the reader feels and sees herself walking down the very same paths, facing the same struggles, laughing and crying together.

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