When a heavily pregnant Marissa Mayer, a former executive from Google, took over as CEO of beleaguered Internet company Yahoo earlier this year, many saw it as proof positive that the glass ceiling – the invisible barriers that keep women from getting to the top spot – had been irrevocably broken.

But away from the hallways of these Silicon Valley innovators – how does the situation look?

It’s a bit of a mixed picture according to Jean Rostollan, a former executive and co-author of the book Glass Walls: Reality & Hope beyond the Glass Ceiling. She says that while some companies are waking up to the fact that helping all employees realize their potential has a positive impact on the bottom line – there are still patterns of behaviour that can exclude both women and other minorities from having influence.

In this Process Perspectives podcast, Rostollan describes something she calls the "glass wall" which, she says, many women experience as they climb the corporate ladder. Here she explains what the glass wall is, how to recognize it, and offers practical advice on how you can not only understand but overcome negative patterns of behavior in the workplace.

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