REVIEW: ‘What Do You Need?’ by Lauren Wesley Wilson

That wasn’t the answer you wanted. Beating around the bush, hemming and hawing, those aren’t answers. A solid yes or no, that’s what you require, a simple affirmative or negative, but you may not get it. Is the answer hung up somewhere, or is it being withheld? You may never know but author Lauren Wesley Wilson says you should never stop asking. In her new book “What Do You Need?” your career might depend on it. A little over a decade ago, new-grad Lauren Wesley Wilson took a job she thought she might like. As it turned out, though, she was the only woman of color in the organization and that held her back; there were, for instance, things that her white colleagues knew that she didn’t, “extras” that would’ve eased her way, insider info that would’ve made it possible for promotions and better contact-making. That was a valuable lesson: being “a first-and-only” really does matter in the workplace, a fact that spurred Wilson to try something audacious. She invited a small number of women to a get-together in May of 2011 to ask one another “What do you need?” and to share personal and professional answers. From that gathering,...