To succeed in business today, you must be strong, smart, competitive, resilient, tenacious, and fearless. If you want to be heard at work, you must speak up. If you want to drive change, you need an action plan. If you want to keep your job in an increasingly competitive world, you must show on a daily basis how you add value to your company. In short, if you want to succeed, you need good, old-fashioned backbone. Using straight talk laced with wry humor, top business consultant Susan Marshall highlights skills every businessperson can learn and sharpen to become stronger, more confident, and more influential on the job.

"This book demands that you sit up straight and pay attention. It provides practical and insightful guidelines for gaining control in a workplace typified by chaos, complexity, and rapid change. Marshall challenges us to grow into ourselves—creating a backbone of conviction and strength that allows each of us to take command of our futures." —Paul Sanders, Director, Lessons in Leadership