Ask the Expert Randy Prange is a business advisor and CEO of Insights, Inc., a nationally recognized strategic planning and business development firm. Secretarial Ceiling Q: I have been a secretary for 15 years and have recently obtained a professional designation, yet I am hitting a wall (or ceiling) in my career. I can do much more but my manager seems to like me just where I am. How can I ask for a promotion and get it? Sherma A: Dear Sherma, Finding your way through the business ranks is always a challenge, regardless of your status, training, or skills. After having worked in an administrative support position for 15 years, you may be experiencing a form of stereotyping that will be difficult to overcome while remaining in the same environment. Short of demonstrating a dramatic change in capabilities to your manager, and probably peers, they will continue to see you as the person they have known and relied upon for many years. Your shortest route to a promotion may well be elsewhere in the organization, or even at another company. Employment opportunities with a new manager or company will allow you to begin anew and present yourself as an upwardly mobile employee with contemporary skills. If you choose to remain in your current position and seek more responsibilities, a good approach would be to ask your manager for a special meeting located somewhere other than the normal work environment. Meet in a conference room you never use or ask for a meeting off-premises. Look around and identify the clothing being worn by the type of professionals you want to be equated to and wear a similar attire to this meeting (and from then on at your job) Try to break the psychological mold of your manager by presenting yourself as someone new to her. In this setting, your chances of "connecting" with her and creating a new impression may be better. At the meeting, be prepared. Make a brief presentation to her regarding your past skills and contributions. Identify your new capabilities and outline to her how they will be of additional value and benefit to her going forward. Connect the responsibilities you desire to have with potential success she may experience by having you filling a greater role on her team. Recently Asked Questions I'm ready to reenter the work force after six years, but I'm worried about how to compete again. Randy's answer My new boss is ten years younger than I am, not married and practically lives at work. I feel like he expects me to do the same. What should I do? Randy's advice While in the process of interviewing for a new job, I found out I was pregnant. At what point should I tell them the good news? Randy's Answer Submit your questions Disclaimer: The information in this column is intended to provide the reader with general ideas or concepts to be used as part of a broader base of knowledge they collect to determine their own best course of action and solutions most suitable for solving their workplace challenges. The information in this column is not guaranteed to be the appropriate solution for each individual. The information provided is based on personal observations and experiences of the writer that have been garnered over years as a business manager, owner and executive business coach and counselor.