Nancy Austin
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and business consultant, best known for co-writing the bestsellers A Passion for Excellence (1985) and The Assertive Woman (1975). Her books have sold approximately one million copies, and been published in seven languages.
Biography
Austin was born c. 1949 in Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, the oldest of three children. Her parents were both from Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
-- her father was in mortgage banking, and her mother was a homemaker. Austin received a BA and 1977 MBA from UCLA, became a member of Alpha Phi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Phi International Women's Fraternity was founded at Syracuse University on September 18, 1872. Alpha Phi currently has 152 active chapters and over 200,000 initiated members. Its celebrated Founders' Day is October 10. It was the third Greek-letter organization founded for women. In Alpha...
http://www.texasalphaphi.org/omega/notables/popup-famous/culture.shtml
, and was affiliated with the Neuropsychiatric Institute, where she was part of a team that was brought together to study and improve the community mental health system in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
She married Bill Cawley c.1975, becoming stepmother to his 8-year-old son, Jeff. 1975 was also the year that she wrote The Assertive Woman, which continues to be in print 30 years later. It has been translated into several languages, and sold approximately 420,000 copies.
She worked for four years at Hewlett Packard Company in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, where she ran the company's management-development seminars. In 1983, she co-founded The Tom Peters Group, the Palo Alto-based consulting and research firm, and in 1985 she founded "Nancy K. Austin, Inc." in Northern California. In 1985, Austin and Peters wrote A Passion for Excellence, which soared to #1 on The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
bestseller list and sold more than 500,000 copies in its first six months.
Austin was also President of Not Just Another Publishing Company, a coach for managers and health-based practitioners, and a frequently-invited keynote speaker to international business conferences, speaking both to corporations and to government groups such as the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
. She has given hundreds of talks in the United States, Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America, and is a contributing editor to Working Woman and Inc. magazines.
She presently lives in Capitola, California
Capitola, California
Capitola is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, on the coast of Monterey Bay. The population was 9,918 at the 2010 census.-History:...
with her husband and son.http://www.profilebooks.com/author.php?author_id=120. She is also on the board of directors at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
.
Books
- The Assertive Woman: A New Look (co-written with Stanlee Phelps)
- June 1975, Price Stern Sloan
- 1975, Impact Publishers. ISBN 0-915166-21-6
- 1982, Impact Publishers. ASIN B00072QQRW
- Revised edition, 1987, Impact Publishers. ISBN 0-915166-61-5
- 3rd edition, June 1997, Impact Publishers. ISBN 1-886230-05-6
- 4th edition, 2002, Impact Publishers. ISBN 1-886230-49-8
- A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference, 1985 (co-written with Tom PetersTom PetersThomas J. "Tom" Peters is an American writer on business management practices, best-known for In Search of Excellence .-Life and career:Peters was born in Baltimore, Maryland...
)- April 1985, Random House. ISBN 0-394-54484-6
- 1986, Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-38348-1
- January 4, 1989 (reissue), Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-38639-1
- May 31, 1994, Gardners Books, ISBN 1-86197-589-9
Selected articles
- Working Woman
- November 1995, "Management's New Numbers Game"
- March 1996, "Beyond the Trick Question"
- Inc. magazine
- April 1997, "What Balance?"
- May 1998, "Buzz"
- October 1999, "Pure Internet Play"
- 1099
- August 7, 2000 "Drum Machine" (about Michael Bayard)
- List of all Austin's articles at 1099
- Incentive, "The Competitive Edge: Work-Life Paradox", September 1, 2004
External links
- AOL Chat, May 29, 1996 "Ask the Headhunter" forum