Lichtenberg, Ronna

PERSONAL: Female. Education: Graduated from Harvard Business School.

ADDRESSES: Office—Clear Peak Communications, 19 W. 21st St., Ste. 905, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—RonnaL@askronna.com

CAREER: Writer, consultant, and public speaker. American Council of Life Insurance, assistant director of social research; Prudential Securities, Inc., senior vice president; Clear Peak Communications, founder and president, 1996–.

WRITINGS:

(With Gene Stone) Work Would Be Great If It Weren't for the People: Ronna and Her Evil Twin's Guide to Making Office Politics Work for You, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1998.

It's Not Business, It's Personal: The Nine Relationship Principles That Power Your Career, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2001.

Pitch like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including O and Redbook. Contributor to Web sites, including Ka-Ching.com and iVillage.com. Contributor to television programs, including Weekend Today and Lifetime Live.

Author's works have been translated into seven languages.

SIDELIGHTS: In 1996, after a lengthy career as an executive for Prudential Securities, Inc., Ronna Lichtenberg founded Clear Peak Communications, a management consulting firm specializing in helping clients develop and maintain profitable and successful business relationships. While working on projects in organizational redesign, post-merger repositioning of brands, and women's initiatives, Lichtenberg frequently appeared on cable and network television news shows as a business expert. Two years after launching her firm, Lichtenberg published her first book for businesspeople, Work Would Be Great If It Weren't for the People: Ronna and Her Evil Twin's Guide to Making Office Politics Work for You.

With coauthor Gene Stone, Lichtenberg suggests in Work Would Be Great If It Weren't for the People that success in the workplace depends on understanding human dynamics. Even the hardest-working and most reliable employees will have trouble advancing unless they know how to interact effectively with their coworkers, the authors contend. The book, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer called "a witty and cynical guide to office politics," presents a plan for success that starts with cooperation as the first means of reaching solutions to workplace problems. When cooperation does not work, however, Lichtenberg and Stone suggest cultivating an "evil twin" personality capable of using office politics to handle bullying managers, spiteful coworkers, and rampant gossip without remorse. According to Booklist contributor David Rouse, Lichtenberg and Stone "warn that office politics should be played only as a last resort," and offer "useful strategies for overcoming workplace barriers to career and job goals."

It's Not Business, It's Personal: The Nine Relationship Principles That Power Your Career proposes that every business transaction has a personal element, and cultivating personal interactions is critical to business and individual success. The person who is told "It's not personal, it's business" when passed over for promotion or laid off should not believe it, Lichtenberg suggests. She offers nine guiding principles to help people manage the personal interactions they face in business every day, including "Don't Waste Time on the Wrong People," "Choose Your People like You Choose Your Socks," and "Observe the Rules of the Role." Rouse, in another Booklist review, noted that while some of Lichtenberg's suggestions "sound harsh in the abstract," she "successfully uses humor and practical, realistic examples to blunt their edge."

Lichtenberg focuses on the fundamental differences in the business styles of men and women in Pitch like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed. She states that there are "pink" styles and "blue" styles of self-presentation in business—as well as combinations of the two—that determine how people interact in the business world. Pink styles focus on building rapport with people before conducting business, whereas blue styles are more intent on simply getting the job done. These styles determine how people make their "pitch" to personal and professional colleagues to gain support, enter into business transactions, and exert influence. Although Lichtenberg finds merit in both, she endorses the pink style, and provides advice for how women can use that style of interaction to their greatest advantage. "Lichtenberg's latest contribution to fem-biz lit offers an intellectually and emotionally challenging prescription," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Library Journal reviewer Susan Hurst called Pitch like a Girl "a funny and heartfelt how-to manual for women on selling themselves without selling out." Hurst concluded that the book is "likely to boost one's sales skills and self-confidence."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April, 1998, David Rouse, review of Work Would Be Great If It Weren't for the People: Ronna and Her Evil Twin's Guide to Making Office Politics Work for You, p. 1287; December 15, 2000, David Rouse, review of It's Not Business, It's Personal: The Nine Relationship Principles That Power Your Career, p. 768; December 15, 2004, Barbara Jacobs, review of Pitch like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed, p. 696.

Fortune, May 28, 2001, "Yes, Your Boss Was Dissing You" (interview), p. 190.

Indianapolis Business Journal, April 15, 2002, Elizabeth Lindseth, review of It's Not Business, It's Personal, p. 63.

Library Journal, December 1, 2004, Susan Hurst, review of Pitch like a Girl, p. 132.

Marketing to Women: Addressing Women and Women's Sensibilities, February, 2005, "Women, Men Use Different Styles at Work," review of Pitch like a Girl, p. 8.

Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1998, review of Work Would Be Great If It Weren't for the People, p. 60; December 11, 2000, review of It's Not Business, It's Personal, p. 71; December 20, 2004, review of Pitch like a Girl, p. 50.

South Florida Business Journal, July 27, 2001, review of It's Not Business, It's Personal, p. 8.

ONLINE

Ronna Lichtenberg Home Page, http://www.askronna.com (April 12, 2005).