Congratulations! With your promotion, you’ve become one of the growing numbers of women advancing steadily and surely up the corporate ladder. Studies show that from 1974 to 1998, there was a 1,000 percent increase in the number of women managers in the United States. It’s a trend that surely holds true for the Philippines as well.

Unfortunately, while more and more women are entering junior management positions, the higher echelons remain an enclave of male executives. Why are fewer career women making it to the top? Several factors keep them from breaking the glass ceiling, including stereotyping, discrimination, lack of role models, and difficulties combining a management role with family responsibilities.

Still, this is the best time for women aiming for new career heights, when the corporate world order is changing and company upheavals, high management turnover, and rapid work life changes are par for the course.

Here are rules for successfully navigating the high corporate seas.

1. Take a stand. Cultivate the personal strength to make difficult decisions or to speak out on an issue you feel strongly about despite opposition to your stance.

2. Be principled. Avoid playing political games and work from principles. Establish credibility through a good track record and demonstrated competence.

3. Be inclusive. Whenever possible, take a consultative approach in decision-making, but be prepared to make a choice without consultation if necessary. Be sure you have a recovery plan should your decision turn out wrong.

4. Control your emotions. Clamp down on your emotions. If you’re angry, don’t respond for 24 hours. If you can’t wait, remain cool and answer in a calm manner.

5. Strive for balance. You will be pulled two ways as you must remain loyal to the higher chain even as you need to take care of your subordinates. Acknowledge the conflict and try to strike a balance between the two.

6. Cultivate emotional stability. Emotional intelligence (EI) is key to effective people management, and this involves self-awareness, speaking from the heart without being offensive, integrity and empathy, self-control, and honesty with ourselves and others.

7. Trust and delegate. The higher up you go the more you realize you can’t do it all. Learn to trust your team mates and to believe they can do a good job—maybe even a better job. You need to encourage variety in perspectives and approaches or risk a narrow viewpoint and missed opportunities.

8. Lighten up. True, it’s tough being a woman who has to prove herself in a male-dominated environment, but taking yourself too seriously can take the joy out of your work and may even lead to burnout. A healthy sense of humor lets you go farther in your office relationships than if you are always so intense and competitive.