The hero in an old-time western always wears fancy boots. He’s also chivalrous, good to his horse, polite to ranchers and kind to small children. Bandits and even cold-blooded gunslingers are treated fairly, while the boots get scuffed but are still fancy.

You can be like that hero by becoming a partner to the women in your workplace, authors David G. Smith and W. Brad Johnson explain in their new book, “Good Guys.”

A few decades ago, James Brown sang “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” and that extends to the world of work today. For many years, the workplace was made by men, for men, and that’s always been a challenge for women. So how can you help change this? How can you “be a good guy to women at work?”

The first way, Smith and Johnson say, is to pay attention. It’s hard to know there’s a problem if a problem doesn’t affect you, so watch carefully and “get involved” by becoming an ally for the women in your workplace. That can be as easy as acknowledging their contributions to your team or as extensive as recommending qualified women for better assignments or even becoming a mentor.

In your day-to-day work, always include the women on your staff in projects, actively ask for their input and keep your eye open for potential. Just remember experiences of inequality extend to racial issues, as well as those of gender, and that not all women have the same experiences.

If you are in a position of leadership, be aware that there’s always more you can do to be an ally for women in the workplace:

Speak up if you overhear something inappropriate and don’t tolerate stereotypes or outdated biases.

Re-work meetings by purposefully including women’s voices in them.

Strive to alter the culture at work through transparency and accountability. Your office and your business will be better with those changes.

There’s really one word to describe “Good Guys,” and that’s awkward.

You might even wonder, at first, if this book, with its advice for men hoping to (gasp!) make friends with women at work, suggestions on bringing spouses to off-hours work events to avoid wifely “feelings of jealousy,” and a stuffy list of “ally slang” might belong in the humor section.

Much of the best advice is so wildly moth-eaten that it feels like it came straight from a 1940s business correspondence course. This includes no-brainer counsel regarding listening to female co-workers, believing them, not flirting, sitting inoffensively in a chair and suggestions for hand-signals that might stop unnecessary mansplaining. It also has a chapter on equitability at home, in housework and child care and, unbelievably, notable cringe-worthy things you shouldn’t say about women at work.

If you have absolutely zero experience with women – at work or otherwise – this book is an OK – if not very shaky – start. If you’ve already gotten to the point of being a good leader, a mentor, a CEO or president of your business, though, you can give “Good Guys” the boot.

Terri Schlichenmeyer’s reviews of business books are read in more than 260 publications in the U.S. and Canada.