Be direct

Out of insecurity or lack of confidence, women and minorities often say things in passive-aggressive or indirect ways. They may lack confidence in their opinions or be afraid of hurting someone else's feelings. You waste everyone's time when you don't let your manager and your peers know what you need in order to succeed in your environment. Nobody can read your mind; it is up to you to take responsibility for your own work successes and failures.

Ask questions

Questions are your friends. If you don't understand something, ask for clarification. If you don't understand the explanation, ask again. If you are in a meeting and don't want to ask your questions in front of the whole group, write down your question and follow up with your manager or the appropriate party afterwards.

If you are not sure how to do an assignment, it is vital to ask questions until you feel confident about the tasks ahead of you. If you feel uncomfortable questioning your manager or if your manager is unavailable, ask peers to help you interpret the assignment or find out if co-workers have done a similar project in the past. After you get a better sense of what the project is about, return to the assigning manager with more focused questions. For example, you can say, "I just wanted to make sure I understand what you want -- should the analysis address the issue of [XYZ] by evaluating these two assumptions?"

Manage your workload and your manager

You might think that the more work you do, the more you will be valued. You might be tempted to keep accepting assignments and duties, regardless of their relevance to your role or their value. Stop! Be realistic about your ability to do high-quality work. Refuse work if you don't have time to do a thorough, thoughtful job. If you miss a deadline, your manager won't care that you had too much on your plate. Do not expect your manager to know your limits. If you have too much "essential" work, approach your manager, let her know that you're already pushed to your limit and ask her to help you prioritize your assignments. That's your manager's job!

Contribute your thoughts to work conversations

Women and minorities are often intimidated by the prospect of speaking up in a meeting. Maybe you were told all your life not to challenge elders. Maybe you assume that if someone talks firmly and confidently, that they know what they're talking about. Maybe you are afraid of looking silly or less than perfect in any way.

Snap out of it! In the professional world, you will be judged on your ability to speak up and express yourself in a clear, thoughtful, articulate way. It doesn't matter if what you say is "right" or "wrong." It's about participating in the dialogue as a confident, critical thinker. Emulate colleagues who are articulate, confident, proactive speakers. Notice how they express themselves: when they break into a conversation, how they phrase challenges in a non-threatening way, how they respond to criticism of their ideas. Do not view speaking up as a "challenge" to your superiors, but rather a demonstration of your thoughtful consideration of a work issue.

Accept praise and criticism with grace

While humility is a good characteristic, women and minorities are particularly harsh judges of their own performance. Celebrate your successes. When your peers, managers and clients compliment you, accept the praise with a smile, a nod and a sincere "Thank you! I appreciate your generosity." If you can't handle the limelight, as soon as you accept the praise, deflect the attention by sharing credit with your team. Often, people assume that everyone is just as talented as they are. This isn't true. Just because writing detailed, informative memos is easy for you doesn't mean that it's equally easy for all your peers. Don't underestimate yourself.

Learn from your failures, but don't dwell on them. Everyone makes mistakes, and you do yourself a disservice to dwell upon your missteps. Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean you aren't doing a fantastic job. Someone else in your position could have made twice as many mistakes. Don't take criticism as a personal attack. Just accept it as a lesson learned and don't make the same mistake next time.