This week I released my book, Advice to My Younger Me: Career Lessons from 100 Successful Women.  It distills the wisdom shared in more than 100 podcast interviews over the past 5 years into nine action steps to propel your career forward.

The “been there, learned this” advice includes:

• Be the architect of your career. No one cares about it as much as you should.
• Do your Right Work. Leverage your strengths to achieve your best results.
• Take smart risks. Start small and take them often.
• Say no. This allows you to say yes to what matters to you.
• Invest in relationships. Build and nurture career-enhancing connections.
• Ask for help. It will enable you to reach your full potential.
• Be visible. Don’t be a well-kept secret.
• Get feedback. It will help you do your job better.
• Stay in the workplace. The costs of leaving are more than you may realize.

You can read the first chapter of the book, Be the Architect of Your Career, by downloading it here.

You can buy the book here.

But there was lots of good advice that didn’t make it into the book.  Here are five more pieces of great advice:

1. Make a good friend at work. According to Shasta Nelson, guest on Episode 16, if you have even one person at work that you would say is a good friend, you are seven times more likely to be engaged at your job. If you have friends at work, you will take fewer sick days, will brainstorm more freely, and will be more committed to your organization.
2. Your value to your company is based on your results. Your value is not what you need to keep a roof over your head or when you got your last raise, as Nora McInerny pointed out in Episode 48. Frame any request for a raise in terms of money saved, money earned, or goals achieved.
3. View people through a “lens of compassion”.  When someone upsets you at work – your boss is harsh, your colleague constantly interrupts you - Nataly Kogan suggests in Episode 59, that you make up a story of what this person might be struggling with in their own life. Maybe his cat threw up as he was hurrying to get out the door this morning or her car broke down on the way to work and she missed an important meeting.
4. Listening is a skill to be cultivated.  You don’t learn anything when you are talking (except maybe to be more succinct). Listen to learn, not to respond. Bring your full and complete attention to what the other person is saying. Approach conversations with what Susan Bird in Episode 49, calls “beginner’s ears”.
5. Take advantage of “mini-opportunities” to share your accomplishments. Kelly Hoey says in episode 83, that just because it’s your neighbor or another parent at your kid’s pre-school doesn’t mean it’s not a meaningful networking opportunity. The mommy network could alert you to a new job or invest in your business. Share some details about what you are working or a recent accomplishment with people other than work colleagues.