Grace Meets Grit: How to Bring Out the Remarkable, Courageous Leader Within

by Daina Middleton

There is no mistaking that inequality in the workplace is still prevalent in the form of salary inequity and unequal representation in leadership and board positions. Too often conversations about inequality can lead to men and women believing they are alike. Women and men are not the same, biologically or psychologically, and these differences lead to significant dissimilarities in how each approaches leadership situations. Grace Meets Grit navigates the previously unexplored subject of gender differences in the workplace specifically applied to critical leadership behaviors. Leadership behaviors are what make us all successful in the workplace. They are how we are evaluated against our peers and what we use to solve problems when working in teams. We also know that the most effective organizations work diligently to optimize these leadership behaviors. Through stories of extraordinary, courageous women, Grace Meets Grit shows how to compensate for your innate style by "dialing up" leadership qualities you may not naturally possess. Middleton empowers women, in particular, to embrace their innate qualities and anticipate and apply behaviors expected of their male counterparts to help level the playing field. The end result is fewer misunderstandings in the workplace and higher performance from both individual leaders and teams.

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2016

About the author

An expert in the digital marketing space and marketing professional with more than 20 years in the industry, Daina Middleton is the global CEO of Performics, one of the largest search and performance media agencies delivering performance marketing solutions and quantum business results for a list of blue chip clients by applying innovation and solving complex challenges.

Marketing in the Participation Age is a new marketing philosophy based on the Intrinsic Motivation Theory that people are motivated to seek challenges, to discover new perspectives, and in doing so, the activity itself stimulates their desire to actualize their individual human potential.

Daina believes marketing and consumerism are undergoing a transformational change and tools, processes and language need to evolve as a consequence. She is known for thought leadership in the social marketing space - creating a new marketing lexicon including "participant marketing" - and has developed several ground-breaking market intelligence tools where brands can utilize social listening to effectively compete in interactive marketing. Participant marketing shifts the philosophy about how brands and people connect, creating new roles and equal status. Through her many years of client experience, she is also driven to redefine marketing to focus on performance, where agencies are compensated for the results they deliver for brands.

Reviews

[Hallie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concepts in this book are absolutely valid - I see the difference in leadership styles between what is termed grace vs grit here, every day. The concepts are valid, but I found myself annoyed at the generalizations of male vs female usage of the styles. I would have much rather had the book focus on the pure differences between the styles, how to flex between the two, etc, rather than harping on the general gender associations with each.

[Kim Bondy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I eventually gave up on this one. I'm not a fan of people implying that "all women's this" or "all men do this". After awhile I felt like I would just skip sections and keep going, but I found myself skipping a lot of sections. I picked up the book for leadership strategies and found myself annoyed because I felt like the book was implying as a female that I'm doomed to be misunderstood.

[Sharon Siepel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, but a bit repetitive. Lots of good and useful information for both men and women in the workplace. Personal and historical examples serve as a source of encouragement. Worth reading.

[Jill Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slower towards the end but overall really nice actionable ways to be both.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful but anchored in generalizations. Also, a bit repetitive. Still, I took away some valuable knowldege.

[Dawn M. Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. I loved the stories of pioneering women and Daina's personal stories that made what she was talking about that much more real. It was like picking up a mentor each time I picked up the book.