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 The book, in the same vein as "Lean In" by Facebook Chief
Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, took Norway by storm this
year, selling 16,000 copies in a country where a non-fiction
book is considered a hit if it breaks through the 800 mark.
The title is one of her father's favourite expressions, meant to
encourage her to avoid unnecessary perfectionism. "He would say:
'Anita, when you try something out, it only has to be good
enough for the bastards'," she told Reuters.
Traaseth does not provide a how-to guide to success. Instead,
she reflects on the challenges she has faced, like growing up
with a mother who was bipolar and took her own life. She also
tells of the time she lost her job and felt ashamed as she
queued up for benefits.
Traaseth, 42, spoke with Reuters about the book, which has just
been published in English.
Q: Why did you want to write this book?
A: This was based on a blog on leadership I set up (tinteguri.com)
and a Norwegian publisher got interested. I had never dreamt of
writing a book. Now that I have written it, my aim is to share a
contemporary story about what is like being a female CEO in
2014. I did not want to do it the traditional way. I wanted to
explain my life, how my courage was formed. I wanted to have a
look at my CV not from the perspective of "look how good I am"
but more from a perspective of vulnerability and the importance
of lessons learnt.
Q: How did you write the book?
A: It took me nine months to write the book, like a pregnancy. I
wrote every evening from 9:30pm to 1:30am. I did it at the same
as heading Hewlett-Packard and at the same time as having three
daughters. So it is possible.
Q: Why the title?
A: It is an expression my father, a sailor, has. It has helped
me avoid the "Good Girl" syndrome. He would say: "Anita, when
you try something out, it only has to be good enough for the
bastards." If you strive to make everybody happy and you are
never satisfied with yourself, you are never going to be happy
and you are never going to be valuable for anyone around you. At
some point, you have to set your own limits, be satisfied with
who you are and do what you believe in.
Q: In the book, you talk about the importance of being
vulnerable. How is it important?
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A: If you want to be a credible leader or person, it is
important you understand your own story, what kind of values and
background have formed you. Not only remembering the victories, but
really reflecting on the situations that were painful, that were
defining moments is important. The more open you are about your own
situation, the safer you become as a person.
Q: Since 2003 Norway has a law dictating that at least 40
percent of the board members of a listed company must be female. But
only three percent of listed firms are led by women. Why do you
think that is?
A: In Norway, the biggest goal was to get women into the work
force, so now 75 percent of women are working (against 57 percent on
average in OECD countries). Of them, seven out of 10 are choosing to
work in public services, and many work part-time as they work in the
very demanding health sector. So they are not applying to positions
in business. And they don't apply to the line management positions.
This has been a man's world for so many centuries. It takes more
than 10 years of a quota law to change this. It will take
generations.
Q: Did the quota law help?A: The quota law was an important
tool, but it is not enough. We still have a long way to go in
Norway. The law was good to put women, and to get diversity, into
the boards. But what you need to do is to build the talent pool
within an organisation. Because you can be 'quotad' into a board,
but you cannot be 'quotad' into a management position. You have to
want it and you have to learn the game.
When I say game, people say, 'But I don't want to be part of a
cynical game'. It is not a cynical game. It's like sports. If you
want to be a national-level athlete, you make a decision that you
will train a lot, with people who are better than you, that you will
lose often and you will not be in the top three. And you will have
years of training ahead of you. Leadership is training.
Video: Traaseth discusses her book http://reut.rs/ZfyrGr
(Editing by Michael Roddy and Andrew Heavens)
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