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Author promotes female success – "Quit being a girl."

Lois Frankel had some simple advice for today’s working woman: Quit being a girl.

"You can’t be a little girl. You can’t be the nice little girl you were taught to be in childhood," Frankel told a crowd of more than 50 people — only two of whom were men — Thursday night at the Metropolitan Events Center. The event was presented by the Chamber Serving the Broomfield Area and Money Sense, and sponsored by Front Range Community College.

By Alicia Wallace, Camera Business Writer

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/national_intl_business/article/0,1713,BDC_2464_3266607,00.html

At the event, Frankel discussed her latest book, "Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers," and provided advice and tips for local professional women to improve their business skills and work relationships.

The idea for the book was born after Frankel had a conversation with a woman executive who said she felt her office’s meetings were a waste of time.

Not going to meetings and not confronting people, Frankel said, were "some of the stupid things women do to sabotage themselves."

Some of the behaviors women display in the business realm are the product of childhood messages, media messages and social reinforcement.

Whether women spent their childhoods learning to be caregivers or arguing over the dinner table for sport, Frankel said they bring what they know best into the business world.

However, those strong traits may backfire, she said.

"Whatever your greatest strengths are, they’re also going to become your greatest liabilities," she said.

If the woman is independent and she takes that to the extreme she could end up not delegating and become a control-freak, Frankel said. Couple that with a working world where women receive less pay and respect than their male counterparts, and the woman could lose career momentum, Frankel said.

"I know there’s a glass ceiling. I know there’s discrimination, but most of us aren’t going to do a thing about it," she said.

Frankel said women need to have control over their own behaviors and treat the working world like a sports field, she said.

"If you don’t play within the bounds, you aren’t going to get the ball very often," she said.

Nancy Clark, an investment representative for the Broomfield office of Edward Jones, said she got a lot out of Frankel’s advice and plans to apply it to her work. She said she was once the only woman coach at a college and said she has experienced the tight boundaries of the work field.

"I can really see where I have no limits, but now I just have to take this advice and not hurt myself," she said.

Contact Camera Business Writer Alicia Wallace at (303) 473-1332 or [email protected].

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