This is a terrible, cynical, awful book. And much like Machiavelli's The Prince, it is basically 100% correct in its thesis. Hewlett came out of a Welsh coalmining village to go through Cambridge, an econ PhD, then American academia, and then a pivot to thought leadership in talent development. Her big picture look is at the kinds of people who rise to the top of the political-economic sociopath factory that is American business, and especially women and minorities who are not rising to the top.

As much as we'd like to believe that the world is meritocratic and that good work speaks for itself, as you get higher up success is more and more defined by networks, and in particular the presence of a sponsor, a more senior leader who finds you opportunities, covers your mistakes, and sells you to their networks. In return, as a protege you make them look good, you do anything they ask, and you go above and beyond to demonstrate executive presence, and you deliver.

There are a few decent tips in this book, on avoiding perpetual lieutenant syndrome, saying 'yes' and doing caveats after, and the 2+1 rule, which is that you should have a primary sponsor as a manager (or maybe skip-level), a sponsor in an adjacent unit, and a third outside the organization entirely, in case things implode. Also, being a protege means regular check-ins, and balancing the reciprocal relationship.

As someone with a PhD who totally screwed up the networking part of the academic path, I've long said the only good plan for grad school is to find the professor in your vicinity with the biggest hat and make yourself a clone of them. This book offers some more details on how to do that.


A bigger hat

You weren't all that attached to your principles, were you?