Get Boss curates the personal and professional experiences of Cynthia Sharper, owner of SharperWorks LLC and associate director of a MAC University career center. Cynthia shares life lessons and wisdom accumulated from fourteen years of providing career advice to job seekers of every age, demographic, and nationality. This includes individuals with physical and mental disabilities as well as ex-offenders. In her private practice, Cynthia coaches career changers and middle managers into executive roles while providing curricular and instructional oversight for the career and life planning course at her University.
Despite Cynthia's bandwidth, Get Boss speaks directly to the woman in search of a better life. She helps women define success on their own terms, after committing to a series of spiritual, emotional and physical renovations. As such, Get Boss teaches women to alchemize the sting of personal and professional failure into meaningful career progress. From the heart of one powerful woman to another, each reader of Get Boss is invited to rekindle the purity of her potential, her story, and her dreams.
Every chapter has at least one reflective exercise and weaves labor market research with career development strategy, global perspective, spiritual insight, positive psychology, and gritty detail.
Chapter one, Get Thankful, acknowledges that career development, though the right of every woman, is also a luxury in many parts of the world. Readers are challenged to make a gratitude list and examine any lingering areas of ingratitude or feelings of hopelessness.
Chapter two, Get Your Mind Right, analyzes self-talk, toxic consumptions, and mental health. Topics like self-esteem are also explored while leaning on positive psychology theories and visualization to help correct self-sabotaging behaviors that start as thoughts.
Chapters three and four, Get Ready and Get Started transition the reader from deep reflection to action and accountability. Women will also clarify personal and professional goals while using tools like the Eisenhower Matrix and the SMA(A)RT goal-setting method. Both chapters prime women to take complete ownership of their lives and career objectives.
Chapter five, Get Focused on Service, emphasizes the importance of a humble, serving spirit while acknowledging low-waged women in the service industry. These women are encouraged to turn the hard-earned skill of quietly (and excellently) serving others into micro or macro enterprise. It is well known that the most respected leaders are excellent servants first.
Get Love, chapter six, is probably the most empowering chapter, inviting women to get real about abusive partnerships and behaviors at home and work. It pays homage to women that are trafficked for sex and labor - acknowledging that what affects one woman affects the collective. In solidarity, readers are encouraged to study the Power and Control Wheel and complete exercises to strengthen self-love and acceptance.
Chapters seven and eight, Get Learned (pronounced learn-ed) and Get Connected, prompt women to identify gaps in their skills. Readers are also encouraged to upgrade their industry knowledge through training and/or degree programs. The networking chapter helps women identify potentially overlooked connections while recognizing social capital in relationships and everyday interactions.
Chapter nine, Get Boss, offers an emotionally charged integration full of hope and high expectations. Readers are invited to pick an area of healing from each of the eight preceding chapters and commit to twenty-one days of boss behaviors to rebalance those areas.
After the journey, and perhaps multiple reads, students of Get Boss will leave with a fresh, actualized commitment to self, family, and career.
