4. Be visible

You do not have to spend your Friday nights drinking with your boss to get noticed, as long as you play it smart.

Show up at office parties, linger for an hour, before heading off. Most of the time, your early departure will go unnoticed.

You can be visible by turning up in other people's conversations. If someone says he likes your work, ask if you can use him as a reference. Start building focus groups of influential people that you can test your ideas on. If one of those ideas takes off, no one will be able to challenge your claim to it.

Ultimately, says Ms Horan, mastering politics is a 'key leadership skill' no matter what type of organisation you work in.

'You have to have it. If you don't, you will find yourself derailing at some point in your career.'

For women struggling with work-life balance, she dangles another upside to organisational savvy.

'Women work a lot harder than they need to. If they embrace the political side and the unwritten rules of their organisations and delegate and prioritise a lot more, then they can have balance.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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