The first rule of negotiating a raise is to make it easy for your boss to say yes. That means anticipating objections and addressing them in advance. Smart negotiators rarely say, “I want more money.” Instead, they use facts to drive home their valuable contributions. Here’s how to prepare for your next salary review:

Do women have to be better than men to succeed in the workplace? Nearly half (45%) of all working women answered “yes” in a survey by Cisco and Gender IQ. Only 26% of men agreed with the statement. Other findings:

Imagine being at the top of your career, then very publicly and unceremoniously fired. It happened to Jeffrey Katzenberg, when, as a studio head at The Walt Disney Co., the company forced him to resign. As painful as it was, though, it was one of the most valuable lessons of his career. Why?

You may not realize it, but many small business owners adopt war principles to lead their companies to higher profits. Think about it:

What does it take to reach the top of your game professionally? Women, at least, can learn much from a new book, How Remarkable Women Lead, by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston. The authors spent five years on research and 100 in-depth interviews with women leaders from around the world. They discovered that women who excel share these five qualities:

I am obsessed with not wasting time and being as productive as I can. After all, my income is directly linked to my ability to produce quality work at a rapid rate.

Just doing your job isn’t enough these days. “With the reality of a tight employment market, adding value beyond your job description is a must for everybody,” says Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone. He recently offered a few tips on his blog for being indispensable in your workplace:

Heard about the “tipping point” or the “long tail”? If you want to know what ideas shape the minds of your company’s leaders, pick up the following books. And the next time someone talks about a tipping point, you’ll know exactly what she means.

Here are five tips from the Brazen Careerist on how to get promoted: (1) Think like a leader. (2) Lighten your boss's load. (3) Ask for forgiveness later. (4) Make things better. (5) Get a life.

When you’re thrust into working environments, you deal with all sorts of people on a daily basis. If you don’t get along with some of them, the hours can drag on. If these people are your bosses, the days can seem like torture. Here’s how to manage your manager.

Question: “I’m not sure whether to trust one of my co-workers. 'Amy' is helpful and considerate to me. She provides useful information and makes friendly, encouraging comments. However, some co-workers say Amy stabs people in the back because she wants to climb the corporate ladder. If Amy really is a skillful manipulator, how do I avoid being hurt by her tactics, especially when management thinks so highly of her?”

More than ever, top execs are seeking HR professionals with business skills to help shape organizational strategy. Here are the top business skills that experts and surveys say executives want in HR professionals ...

The Navy classified Larry Zeiger 4-F because of his bad eyes. His friends had all joined the service, so he was left behind, wandering aimlessly. The young man wanted to go into broadcasting. “What are you, a pipe dreamer?” a friend asked. "What are you, nuts? Get a job!” Zeiger finally landed a job as a radio disc jockey and a new name five minutes before the show: Larry King.

Couples we know here in Bergen County, NJ are absolutely frantic about getting their kids into a “good school,” i.e., an Ivy League college. I’m not, because I’m convinced that where you graduate from college and the grades you get don’t play much of a role in determining your success in life.

If the thought of mingling with a crowd of strangers makes you break out in a cold sweat, you’re not alone. But Sacha Chua, an enterprise 2.0 consultant, believes you don’t have to be an extrovert to network well. She even created a presentation geared toward “shy connectors” that’s spreading virally on the web.

Do economic events have you redefining your idea of the “perfect” job? Not so fast. A new Randstad Work Watch survey reveals that 83% of U.S. adults would not change their personal definition of the perfect job once the economy improves. And what are the most important attributes listed by Americans?

Keep those beginning-of-the-year resolutions with these tactics from organizing guru FranklinCovey:

To concentrate single-mindedly on a single task, without diversion or distraction, keep asking yourself these questions:

As the person closest to your work, you’re also the best one to identify ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with your job—which is exactly what most C-suite executives and business owners focus on. Just because they don’t ask for your innovative ideas doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Get your creative juices flowing with these five questions:

We’ve offered advice before about keeping your professional and personal networks from overlapping too much. Now a new survey from OfficeTeam reveals that people are still uncertain about the rules of online social networking. Here are tips for blending personal and professional friends on Facebook:

At work, numbers speak volumes. If you can’t show, quantitatively, that something is improving, then how can you really know it’s improving? It’s not surprising, then, that more admins are being asked to set SMART goals—specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals—to be evaluated against.

Stressed out, you say something you shouldn’t have. Or you overlook a detail that ends up dooming an entire project. If you’ve said or done something in the past year that jeopardized your career, you’re not alone. Here’s how to recover:

Projected starting salaries for administrative professionals could see a decrease by an average of 2.2% in 2010. The good news: If you’re good at adapting to unexpected situations and able to quickly learn new skills, you’re the sort of person who will still thrive.

When a control-freak boss monitors your every move, you and your co-workers may be tempted to rebel. Instead, don't let your annoyance show. “Getting visibly irritated when he leans on you will only make him think he needs to keep an even closer eye on you,” says Albert J. Bernstein, a clinical psychologist and author of Am I The Only Sane One Working Here? Here are more strategies:

List-makers know: The act of compiling to-do’s can help organize your mind. Two ways to use a task list: as a stress reliever and as a calendar.