The Goddess of Go-Getting: Your Guide to Confidence, Leadership, and Workplace Success

The Goddess of Go-Getting: Your Guide to Confidence, Leadership, and Workplace Success

With more than 25 years of experience in business, strategy, and empowering others, and as a recognized thought-leader and sought-after international speaker, Rita takes us through her life journey and childhood experiences of growing up in London as a second-generation Assamese girl, to becoming one of the first women on Goldman Sachs' equities trading floor in London, to spearheading business development in global CNS drug development, to becoming a multi award-winning entrepreneur with the founding of Uma. With plenty of anecdotes, stories, and examples, The Goddess of Go-Getting™ offers a unique insight into Rita's illustrious career as a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, highlighting the importance of confidence, communication, and ownership in that process. The Goddess of Go-Getting tells the compelling story of Rita's journey with candor and authority as she calls for policy and societal changes that support the backbone of the economy. "Rita's passion to develop and empower women and minorities in the workplace shines through on every page. Packed full of tips and tactics from Rita's inspiring journey, this book is a fascinating read, and not to be missed!" - Professor Stephen Bach, Executive Dean, King's Business School, King's College London "In The Goddess of Go-Getting , Kakati-Shah has masterfully brought to life the multitude of challenges faced by vulnerable people, especially women...[S]he proposes a direction for our society that is getting more and more diverse. It is a welcome attempt at deepening our inter-cultural conversation, something that we all can learn from." - Mr. Randhir Jaiswal, Consul General of India in New York "...[A] number of myths about diversity are debunked...[in this]...thought-provoking, useful and authentic handbook for all involved in the corporate world, covering themes that are highly topical and set to remain so for the foreseeable future." - IndieReader "This book by the wonderful Rita is full of practical and purposeful advice on accountability, allyship, mentoring, and the critical steps to overcoming fears that we can all take (as leaders and colleagues) to hire, progress and retain great talent BECAUSE of our unique differences in age, sex, color, creed, plus physical and cognitive abilities - definitely worth a read!" - Harriet Green OBE, Global Business Leader and Former Chairman & CEO, IBM, Asia Pacific "Rita Kakati-Shah is a woman of the world but, more importantly, she is a woman of the people. This book is rare in its balance of the pragmatic tips and skills needed to succeed at work with the broader picture of why we need to rethink our approaches to advancement and inclusion. Rita's work celebrates diversity while offering the unique global lens of her life and work. She brings healthy doses of humanity and humor to the Uma approach, and her efficient prose and captivating storytelling leave you with so many applicable lessons from the ultimate goddess of go-getting herself." - S. Mitra Kalita, CEO, URL Media, Columnist, Time magazine author, Pulitzer Prize winner and former CNN, LA Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal RITA KAKATI-SHAH is a renowned thought leader who helps corporations attract, retain, and develop previously marginalized or overlooked pools of talented employees. As a successful finance professional Rita personally experienced what it was like to navigate the workforce as a woman of color. Her experiences in that area were helpful when she hit an equally pervasive obstacle: that of returning to paid work after raising her children. As a result of hearing about similar experiences of other individuals who faced a variety of obstacles in returning to or thriving within the workplace, Rita developed Uma, an international strategic coaching, consulting, and training platform that empowers confidence, inspires success, and builds leadership and resilience in women and minorities through diversity, inclusion, and retention strategies. Rita began to work with numerous groups of minority employees: returning veterans, mothers returning to paid work after having children, new fathers who struggled with taking paternity leaves, women looking to reach senior leadership, people of different races, life circumstances and backgrounds, including C-Suite men and senior leadership who just couldn't retain their employees—all of whom offered valuable skills to their workplace but often weren't able to contribute as best as they could due to lack of flexibility, confidence, perception, bias, or decency. Rita focuses her coaching and corporate training on building confidence and taking ownership, while learning how to communicate concisely, negotiate wisely, and thereby developing a strong sense of belonging. It turns out that corporations recognize that more employees than not at some point in their lives face a life situation that requires a level of flexibility, understanding, and decency from their employer, and that