We love getting good news from our Visual Marketing contributors. Here’s something we’re excited about: Michelle Villalobos, who taught us that headshots don’t have to be typical, recently published a book:  The Stiletto In Your Back: The Good Girl’s Guide To Backstabbers, Bullies, Gossips & Queen Bees at Work. Her book is based on a special report she created in 2010 called “Why Women Play Dirty.” Addressing the issues women often have in the workplace is important to Villalobos:

“It is important to address these issues and bring them out into the open because the very nature of female rivalry is under the surface. If we can shed light on it, admit what’s going on, and if each of us takes responsibility for our part in it, then we are ALL more likely to get ahead.”

The book, the first in a series called “Good Girl’s Guide To…,” addresses serious female work relationship issues that can keep a woman from succeeding professionally. It explains the evolutionary, sociological and psychological underpinnings of female rivalry, as well as the 7 archetypical female “bullies” and their techniques. Villalobos provides 8 tactics to manage  behavior to help readers be less vulnerable, more aware, and fully able to confront antagonists.

“I wrote this book because I had been delivering the workshop “Communicate Powerfully Without Being a Bit%&” and every time, women in the audience would (hesitantly) ask me about female-female work relationships, saying that they found working with women was actually harder than working with men, due to the under-the-table nature of female rivalry and aggression,” said Villalobos, “They asked about jealousy, envy, gossip, backstabbing, etc… and the truth is I didn’t know much about it. So I made it my business to learn. I ended up fascinated with the subject and did an in-depth research paper about the topic, which I released as “Why Women Play Dirty” about 3 years ago, and that project just morphed into this one. ”

What’s Next, Michelle?

Villalobos is already hard at work on her next book. It’s a variation on the topic of “Shameless Self-Promotion,” and should be available as an ebook by the end of the year, and a hard copy early 2014.