The B Words: 13 Words Every Woman Must Navigate for Success

by Tricia Kagerer

Overview

An executive VP shares thirteen challenges women face in the workplace, their impact, and strategies for women to overcome them and achieve success.

Navigating the workforce as a woman can feel like making your way through a minefield. Step too far in one direction, and suddenly, you’re considered bossy and overbearing and difficult to work with. Too far in the other, and you lose your power and voice. And if you try to stay in the middle, you could still be contributing to a long history of stagnant mind-sets that have hindered women from reaching true equality.

In The B Words: 13 Words Every Woman Must Navigate for Success, Tricia Kagerer uses her experience and the experiences of other women to help women of all ages and in all walks of life achieve their goals. Kagerer identifies the challenges as —both internal and external—each as a different “B” word, that hold women back both personally and professionally, then explores their impact and outlines strategies for overcoming them. Whether that means navigating difficult relationships with coworkers, building effective professional networks, or confronting one’s own limiting beliefs and biases, Kagerer’s advice shows how we can break through these obstacles and find our way to self-defined success.

This book fights for true equality in the workforce and calls for bridges to be built not only between women but between men and women as well, fostering open communication and understanding that will lead to a brighter future.

Praise for The B Words

“From balance and babies to badasses and bravery, this book packs a punch about living with intention.” —Sharon Orlopp, former Global Chief Diversity Officer, Walmart

“The B Words is a great guide, not only for women just starting out, but also for those who have been in the business for years.” —Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, author & keynote speaker

“A must-read for every male leader! Tricia is candid about the difficult situations women experience and rarely share.” —Jeffrey Tobias Halter, Corporate Gender Strategist & President, YWomen

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612544823
Publisher:	Brown Books Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/08/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	188
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Tricia Kagerer is the executive vice president of risk management for Jordan Foster Construction, a large construction organization that performs civil, multifamily, and general contracting across Texas. A construction industry expert and speaker on various leadership, risk management, and safety topics, and with degrees in business administration and communication-public relations, Tricia has a special passion for servant leadership and diversity in the workplace. Over the course of her more than twenty years in a historically male-dominated industry, Tricia has found herself too often in the lonely position of the sole woman in the room. It has become her mission to change that. She hopes The B Words: 13 Words Every Woman Must Navigate for Success will serve as a force for change, opening the door for the next generation of women professionals to spark a conversation, utilizing their unique voices to advocate for much-needed change, particularly in nontraditional industries like her own. Tricia Kagerer is a chartered property casualty underwriter (CPCU), a certified safety professional (CSP), a construction risk insurance specialist (CRIS), an associate in risk management (ARM), associate in claims management (AIC), a licensed Texas claims representative and commercial agent, and a past construction panel arbitrator with AAA. In her free time, Tricia enjoys skiing and spending time with her two dogs and cat. She and her husband, Marcus, have two grown-up children. They reside in Plano, Texas.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Self-Defined Success 7

2 Beliefs 11

3 Balance 33

4 Babes 43

5 Babies 63

6 Budgets 75

7 Bankruptcy 87

8 Bias 95

9 Bullies 105

10 Bitches 121

11 Bonds 129

12 Badasses 141

13 Bridges 151

14 Bravery 161

Acknowledgments 165

Notes 167

About the Author 173

Editorial Reviews

07/05/2021

Kagerer, executive vice president of risk management for a general contracting firm, offers a pragmatic guide for “young women, midcareer women, and women nearing retirement.” Kagerer shares her experience serving in leadership positions, and her counsel is organized into 13 thematic chapters concerning a topic that starts with the letter B. “Babies” covers family concerns and offers suggestions to women who do and don’t want children (things come back to “you must know yourself”). “Beliefs” aims to reframe women’s “limiting beliefs” about money, “Budgets” encourages women to take monetary decisions into their own hands, and “Bullies” surveys toxic workplace behavior (“Seventy percent of bullies are male bosses,” she writes). There’s no shortage of practical advice—avoiding self-deprecating humor as it gives “permission to dismiss” women, for example—and interviews with other successful women reinforce Kagerer’s ideas. Readers will appreciate Kagerer’s encouragement in dealing with conflict: “By getting to know yourself, you become more confident in how you react to things you can’t control.” Women having trouble navigating the workplace will find this a valuable resource. (Self-published)

Publishers Weekly