I am a marketing manager in a small FMCG company. I was recently assigned a project that unfortunately did not go well. My supervisor handed over the project to one of my peers, and now I'm afraid I will probably never get another opportunity. What should I do to get out of the mess I have landed myself in? My track record has been quite good so far. Should I look for another job?

It is difficult to comment without knowing the work culture of your company and your boss' personality. It is most likely that your boss is not happy with you at present. If he is a reasonable person and knows you have potential, he will definitely give you another chance. Since you have a good track record, I suggest that you speak to your boss, discuss your feelings with him frankly, and let him know that given another opportunity, you will not make the same mistakes. If the discussion does not go as well as you intended, and you sense that he has written you off, then you may contemplate a job change. If that is not the case, your decision will be a premature one. It is important however, that you don't give up.

I face a peculiar problem at the office: every time the head of my department directly asks me for a favour, my immediate boss gets upset. It is a difficult thing for me to handle. I can't upset the department head as he is responsible for my appraisal and I obviously can't afford to annoy my immediate boss. If the situation worsens, I might have to start looking for another job. Is it possible to keep both of them equally happy?

Given your present situation, it is necessary to keep both of your bosses equally happy. Unless, of course, you are politically savvy enough to figure out who is going to be more powerful in the future and accordingly decide to humour that person more. Your immediate boss is probably getting annoyed because he is feeling threatened by your proximity to the head of the department. The best way to tackle this would be to inform your immediate boss whenever the department's head gives you work and seek advice whenever possible. This should make him feel involved. If things get too difficult, you could confide in the head of the department. Then again, such a course of action could have some unintended consequences. Try and be a good subordinate and wait for your bosses to realise your worth.

I have recently become the marketing head of my company. I was a junior manager in the same company earlier. Most of my peers are still around, but their attitude has changed drastically. They try to bypass me, make snide remarks and tend to ignore my requests. How can I change the situation without taking the matter up with my boss?

What you've described is a very natural reaction among peers when a colleague gets promoted over them. The first thing you should do is to prove that you have been promoted on the basis of merit. Also have informal, one-to-one sessions with your colleagues (preferably, outside the office), so that you can identify trouble-makers. Above all, be firm and make your team-members understand that you will be an understanding boss provided there is no negligence towards work on their part. It is a good thing that you do not want to approach your boss in this regard. This will work in your favour. You'll need a lot of maturity, patience, and assertiveness to handle the situation. If it works, these very people may turn out to be your greatest supporters.

I am a 45-year-old management graduate from the Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi. I have not been working in the corporate sector for the last 15 years and would like to start working now. I have been involved in social work all these years, and have experience in knowledge-management. What kind of jobs should I look for and what information should I include in my resume?

You could try consulting or joining a start-up. You could even approach non-profit organisations, which may be ideal given your background and experience. But you will have to accept a lower salary or position. As for your resume, mention your qualifications (and grades, if you have been academically strong), your work experience, including major accomplishments, and, if possible, some references. Mention your involvement in social work to show that you have been keeping busy.

Tarun Sheth, a senior consultant at the Mumbai-based recruitment and training consultancy firm Shilputsi, addresses your career concerns every fortnight. Write to Help,Tarun!!! c/o Business Today, F-26, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001.

Shattering the Glass

Anita Ramachandran, CEO, Cerebrus Consultants, talks to BT's Bhaswati Chakravorty on why we see so few women in the top echelons of corporate India.

Q. Why do we not see many women at the top in corporate India?

A. Women are themselves responsible for the situation. Ideally, it takes 12-15 years to climb the corporate ladder and reach the top. In India, most women work for five-to-eight years on an average and then drop out when they either find it difficult to strike a work-life balance or have their first child.

Do women get concessions at work?

Most companies do not proactively address the problems that women face but are sensitive to the problems of their employees. For example, ICICI and HLL offers flexi-timings. At HLL a woman can even go home in the day to nurse her newborn.

How do concessions affect careers?

Performance is what matters. If a company values an employee, they try to accommodate her problems on a temporary basis. In cases where women work shorter hours, they make up for it by taking a cut in their pay. When they return to work later, they are treated at par with the others. But, if taken advantage of, concessions certainly affect career prospects.

The Company Man--Reborn
A fieldguide for employers grappling with people issues in the new economy.

In managing generation-X, management maven Bruce Tulgan made the radical proposition that the 'stubborn independence' of young workers signalled the begining of the free-agent revolution-the triumph of Me Inc over the organisational man. Now, in this second book, Winning the Talent Wars (Nicholas Brealey, Rs 873.75), Tulgan proffers some suggestions on how companies can actually retain talent in a free-agent context. ''Our ongoing research has allowed me to watch the free-agent mindset sweep across the workforce and create a staffing crisis facing employers today,'' says Tulgan and goes on to list a set of organising principles for employing people in the new economy. Tulgan's take: in the new economy the best people are the most likely to leave because they can. And they are likely to leave long before they've paid a return on the company's investment and training. His advice: get people into meaningful roles, make every person a knowledge worker, and most importantly, train them for one mission at a time. Tulgan reserves his last word for the concept of lifetime employment which he praises, then quickly buries. Corporations, he concludes, need to aim for a new type of life-time relationship with employees that would be routinely adjusted through ongoing negotiations.

-Bhaswati Chakravorty

Women Who've Made It A roster of some illustrious names at the top.

Naina Lal Kidwai Lalita Gupte Shanti Ekambaram Vibha Desai Naina Lal Kidwai Vice-Chairman & Head (Investment Banking), JM Morgan Stanley Lalita Gupte Managing Director & COO, ICICI Sangeeta Talwar MD, Mattel Toys India Achal Khanna Country Head, Polaroid India Gayatri Sirur Managing Director, ITC Bhadrachalam Finance & Investments (IBFI) Meenakshi Madhvani CEO, Carat India Shanti Ekambaram Executive Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Vibha Paul Rishi VP (Marketing), Pepsi Vibha Desai Vice President, O&M Syeda Imam Ex. VP & National Creative Director., Contract Advertising (India)