MISTAKES I MADE AT WORK

High-achieving women share their worst mistakes at work—and how learning from them paved the way to success.

The cultural conversation around women in the workplace has reached a fever pitch. Women are being told to lean in, to assert themselves, to ask for more, to analyze their work/life balance. But despite all of this dialogue, there’s something that no one is talking about: advice on how to recover when you’ve stumbled. Everyone makes mistakes, but for many women, acknowledging them can feel like career suicide.

In Mistakes I Made at Work, Jessica Bacal interviews twenty-five successful women about their toughest on-the-job moments. These innovators across a variety of fields – from the arts to finance to tech – reveal that they’re more thoughtful, purposeful and assertive as leaders because they learned from their mistakes, not because they never made any.

Interviewees include: Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild Anna Holmes, founding editor of Jezebel.com Kim Gordon, founding member of the band Sonic Youth Joanna Barsch, Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company Carol Dweck, Stanford psychology professor Ruth Ozeki, New York Times bestselling author of Tale for the Time Being and many more.

Jessica Bacal is the director of the Wurtele Center for Work & Life at Smith College. She lives with her husband and two children in Northampton, MA.