At a recent “Lean In” book club at our Manilla offices, we couldn’t help but bring up the topic of negotiating and asking for a raise. Clearly, it’s an issue where there are a lot more questions than answers. Many women I know work under the assumption that if you work hard and follow the rules, rewards will automatically follow. That was my mantra early in my career. On the other hand, men are known to work hard and aggressively pursue increased responsibilities, promotions and pay increases. Much has been written about why women shy away from negotiating and asking for what they deserve. In this article, I break down that penultimate challenge into a series of steps that lay the groundwork and hopefully more than prepares you to make “the ask.”

Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In, reinvigorated the discussion regarding gender diversity in the workplace. I have a personal interest in increasing the number of women in technology-related careers. That said, it’s important to look at diversity holistically — it’s not just about men and women. When I recently took a Bikram ( hot) yoga class, I looked around the room of 50 or so people and thought, there is a lot we can learn about diversity right here. Stay with me as I draw from this experience to illustrate what we should aim for when we pursue diversity in the workplace.

A major milestone in my career was the transition from being a high-performing individual contributor to my first management role. I waited longer than many of my peers to make this change. It felt so good and safe to be only in charge of me and tackle each assignment with gusto. It was a daunting proposition to step away from the hands on work and trust others to get the job done.

I learned last week that a former colleague and manager had passed away at the young age of 67. Geoff and I worked together at the Charles Schwab Corporation for more than six years. Over the last several years, we kept in touch through email and holiday cards. In his honor, here are six leadership tips I learned from Geoff.

With the heightened attention on women in technology and Sheryl Sandberg’s new book “Lean In,” I decided to take a different approach and ask men in technology for their perspective. This topic is a personal interest of mine, but I find that it is discussed more among women and less so in mixed company or with men directly.

While I am the consummate list maker, I have never had a five-year career plan. However, I always try to look ahead and make conscious choices with regard to my professional development. There are a wide range of examples from big decisions, such as deciding to change jobs, relocate, or switch industries, to smaller decisions, such as learning a new skill, attending a conference, or wearing the blue pants or black skirt to the meeting. When I reflect on the twists and turns that are my career journey, I have few regrets. It’s been the right mix of intention and opportunity. When Generation Y’ers ask my advice on how best to pilot their career, I typically share these tips.

We all experience stress, and there’s no cure to make it go away completely. After all, not all stress is bad stress. But when it gets to be a real problem — keeping us up at night, making it hard to focus on anything else, preventing us from being happy — there are ways to reduce it. I’ve experimented with a number of stress-management techniques, and they may be able to help you, too.

Although 57 percent of the professional workforce is made up of women, only 25 percent of technology professionals are women. How do we close the gap?

In the 30 years I’ve worked in technology, I have benefited tremendously from mentors, and I have deeply cherished and appreciated their immense contributions to my professional development. My last post addressed the definition of a mentor and your role in driving the mentoring experience. Now I’d like to share some valuable tips I have learned from others and still live by today.

It’s that time again — time for resolutions and commitments for the new year. It’s also time for a fresh perspective full of optimism and excitement about the future and the impact we can have on ourselves, and on those around us. In this article, I share my list of technology career commitments for 2013.