Lois P. Frankel knows there is a glass ceiling, but she also believes that if a woman wants to know who is undermining her chances for promotion, sometimes she needs to look in the mirror.

In her new book, “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers,” the Pasadena career coach explains how certain behaviors that are traditionally taught to girls can make them too timid or even too accommodating to move up in the workplace. Those behaviors might not stop them from doing their own jobs well, but they can prevent them from being recognized as executive material.

In an interview, Frankel offered several examples of the most common strategic mistakes that female workers make:

• They work too hard. And no, she’s not kidding.
  
  “They are willing to do whatever it takes to meet a request,” Frankel said, “no matter how unreasonable.”
  
  Although it is certainly appropriate for anyone to work overtime on key projects, Frankel said that women often won’t say no to colleagues who ask them to do extra work, nor will they ask the boss for priorities even when they are spread too thin.
  
  What ends up happening is that their work gets taken for granted, with more and more expectations and less and less recognition. And the quality of work ends up suffering.
  
  My two cents: Bosses appreciate employees who do grunt work, but you won’t be seen as someone who is strategic or innovative — the type of person who is likely to get promoted. Besides, if the bosses promote you, they’ll have to find someone else to grunt in your place.
  
  Most bosses are too busy to appreciate how many tasks an individual employee performs. They’re far more likely to notice how the quality of your work has slipped instead of how the quantity has increased (unless there are some obvious statistics, such as sales figures).
  
  
• They skip too many meetings. No, she is not kidding about this one, either, even though a lot of corporate meetings can make your head hurt.
  
  Women often believe they can be more productive if they ignore some meetings and keep doing their work, a perfectly rational belief. But Frankel says that if they miss the meetings, they’re also missing the chance to get better known by their boss and their boss’ boss. The people who get promoted are the ones who are known by The Powers That Be, and often that recognition comes from attending meetings.
  
  “These meetings are about meeting and greeting — being seen. These meetings are not about productivity.”
  
  That doesn’t mean you should attend every meeting on earth. Just think about whether the meeting might give you a chance to improve crucial relationships within the company. (Hint: If the meeting has been called by someone up the ladder, go to it.) Even if the agenda isn’t significant, your agenda is.
  
  
• They make statements sound like questions. With apologies to Alex Trebek, doing that is likely to put you in career jeopardy — without any lovely parting gifts.
  
  Instead of saying, “Let’s spend more on marketing,” some women will ask, “Should we spend more on marketing?” That is likely to backfire, Frankel says.
  
  “You set yourself up to either hear ‘no,’ to have someone argue with you or to have someone steal your idea.”
  
  Another habit along the same lines is to ask for permission to do something — opening the door for the boss to say no — rather than simply stating that you will do it. Bosses who need to object will still say something, but this lessens the temptation.
  
  “Guys will ask forgiveness before they ask permission,” Frankel said.
  
  As I’ve written before, inviting your boss to think is inviting disaster.

The author acknowledges that many of the mistakes she lists are common for both sexes, such as avoiding workplace politics, failing to take advantage of good relationships and using too many words to explain your position.

“That usually comes from some kind of insecurity,” she said. “The fewer words you use, the more you toughen your message.”