Quiet Power: Negotiating Careers, Change, and Choice — front cover. Foreword by Simona Scarpaleggia, Former CEO, IKEA Switzerland. By Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa.
Out now · Paperback & Kindle

QuietPower

Negotiating Careers,
Change, and Choice

Foreword by Simona Scarpaleggia, Former CEO, IKEA Switzerland

Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa

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Available on Amazon · Coming soon on Lulu

What if negotiating your career were not about becoming louder, tougher, or more like someone else?

About the book

The moments that shape a career

Quiet Power is a practical and personal guide to the moments that shape a career: asking for recognition, responding to change, making difficult decisions, handling self-doubt, building trusted relationships, and standing up for what matters.

Drawing on Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa’s international leadership career and the candid stories of professionals across generations, cultures, and industries, the book explores how identity, values, power, and workplace dynamics influence the way we negotiate.

These stories reveal that negotiation does not happen only around a formal table. It happens when you accept a role, question a decision, ask for support, recover from a setback, or decide that it is time to leave.

This is not a book about winning every conversation. It is about understanding your own power and finding a way to negotiate that feels like yours.

Inside the book

Stories to recognize yourself in. Tools to use on Monday.

11Chapters
14Stories
9Strategy Sheets
9Journal Prompts
  1. 1Where the Story Really StartsUnspoken assumptions, power dynamics and hidden costs
  2. 2Values Under PressureIdentifying your core values — and holding on to them
  3. 3The Twin Saboteurs – Plus OnePerfectionism, procrastination and impostor syndrome
  4. 4The NegotiateHer Detective MethodReading the situation, generating options, engaging actively
  5. 5Know Who You’re Dealing WithThe Big Five personality traits, and adapting how you communicate
  6. 6Tools of the TradeYour BATNA, your reservation point, and finding the ZOPA
  7. 7The Practice of PreparationA choice mindset and your own rituals of readiness
  8. 8Build Your Jedi CouncilThe relationships that strengthen your position
  9. 9Read the Room (Even If It’s on Zoom)Presence, signals and connection through a screen
  10. 10Future-Proof Your VoiceNegotiating through automation and change
  11. 10.5Still BecomingA closing note on standing up for yourself and others

Every chapter moves from story to practice

  1. A story
  2. Strategy Sheet
  3. Journal Prompt
  4. Key Takeaways
  5. Your Next Move

Closing with the NegotiateHer Toolkit, a journal question index, Meet the Storytellers, and a Book Club Guide.

From the foreword

It shows you that quiet is not the opposite of power. Quiet can be power when used with intention.

Simona Scarpaleggia Former CEO, IKEA Switzerland

The book

Front & back

Front cover of Quiet Power: Negotiating Careers, Change, and Choice, by Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa.
Front
Back cover of Quiet Power, with the book description, a photograph of Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa with her dog, and her biography.
Back
Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa, smiling, seated with her dog.
About the author

Dr. Gitanjali Ponnappa

Gitanjali has spent almost three decades in international leadership and consulting, including as a partner at a Big Four firm and in senior roles at Accenture. Originally from India, she now lives and works in Switzerland. She is the founder of NegotiateHer.

She speaks with leadership teams, runs sessions on building negotiation confidence, and hosts the NegotiateHer Podcast.

  • Ex-EY Partner
  • Marshall Goldsmith certified coach
  • Harvard negotiation course
  • Schranner Professional Negotiator
Get your copy

Choose your edition

Paperback
Trim
6 × 9 in
Pages
274
ISBN
978-3-9526676-1-3
Publisher
NegotiateHer GmbH
Buy on Amazon
Kindle
Format
eBook
Reading
Adjustable text size and background
Language
English
Publisher
NegotiateHer GmbH
Buy on Amazon
Coming soon
Hardcover & paperback on Lulu

6 × 9 in · Hardcover ISBN 978-3-9526676-3-7 · Paperback ISBN 978-3-9526676-7-5

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Book clubs

Read it together

Quiet Power closes with a Book Club Guide — Talk, Reflect, Practice — with questions to open up your group’s own stories of negotiating careers and change.

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Teams & bulk orders

Bring this work to your team

Ordering copies for your company or community, or looking for a session on building negotiation confidence? Gitanjali works with leadership teams directly — write to success@negotiateher.com.

Email the team Book an intro call