My advice is to give everything you've got to the job you have and recognize opportunity when it knocks. Don't be afraid to go after it.
Throughout my career, I have never spent time thinking about the next job. I've spent time doing the current job to the best of my ability. I did that when I was a secretary, and I did that when I was a CEO.
Choosing people is the most important choice a manager or leader makes. I put wrong people in wrong jobs, or left them in jobs for too long.
•The workplace is not gender blind, but women get further by focusing on possibilities, not limitations.
•Quarterly reports are a look through the rearview mirror. Focus on leading indicators such as customer-satisfaction trends.
•You can't make everyone happy. Leaders motivate people to do things they resist.
•Focus on the job, not the next promotion. When opportunity knocks, go for it.
About Fiorina
•Born Cara Carleton Sneed in Austin. Attended high schools in Ghana, England, North Carolina and California, because her father, a law professor and later a judge, moved a lot.
•B.A. in medieval history and philosophy, Stanford, 1976; MBA, University of Maryland, 1980; Master's in management, MIT Sloan School of Management, 1989.
•Married, two stepdaughters.
•Secretary at real estate investment brokerage company, 1976-77.
•Worked 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies. CEO at HP 1999-2005. Fortune magazine's most powerful woman in business six years in a row, 1998-2003. Remains in top 10.
(Source: USA Today, October 16, 2006)
