Celebrate the Russian New Year by catching up with friends and networking new contacts at the Financial Women’s Association vodka tasting.
Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine
In the ideal world, you would use January to reflect on goals accomplished and to set the stage for next year’s performance review and bonus discussion. However, if it’s January and you haven’t prepared for this year’s bonus talk yet, then you need to focus on last-minute moves:
- Find out exactly what bonus decisions have already been made
Are the final bonus figures still being calculated or are the checks already in payroll? If your company’s culture is open to this type of inquiry, ask your manager when the bonuses are determined and where your group is within the process. Aside from your manager, experienced colleagues or your mentor may know this information. Where you are in the bonus decision cycle impacts what you can negotiate for. If your department has just received the allotment for its group, then lobby away. If the checks are already cut, then you have to accept that the die is already case and start setting the stage for next year. - Find out how the company is doing overall
Is the company having a banner year or have targets been missed? Read those company status memos that you may have tossed aside. Read the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, press releases and industry news analyses. Even if you are a star individually, the total company pool impacts your share and more importantly impacts how you should ask for your share. Being aggressive during a down year may rub people the wrong way. Definitely ask for what you deserve but temper your style based on the company mood. If it’s a big profit year, then you should feel more confident to ask away. Read more
Contributed by Lauren Davis
Lina is a bit of an anomaly among first year MBA students at Harvard Business School (HBS).
Attending Harvard on an academic fellowship, Lina already has a summer position lined up with a prestigious investment bank. So, while her classmates are scurrying to presentations and networking events for summer employment, she is thinking farther ahead about her long term employment prospects. “It’s tempting to think the decision is still two years off,” she says, “but I know I have to start making some decisions now.”
Lina worked in finance for several years after college, taking a position in New York at one of the largest global investment banks. Her decision to pursue a private sector finance job surprised her friends and family, who knew she aspired to work in public service and give back to the community in her native Jamaica. When she visited her home country over vacation, she endured some teasing about selling out and becoming “part of the system.” She admits that she had a hard time coming to terms with her decision, saying, “It took about a year for me to stop apologizing for myself.”
2007 might not have been a good year for the market overall, but there is some good news. This past year, Fortune 500 companies with a female CEO at the helm did better than ever.
A recent story by Del Jones of USA Today, entitled “Female CEOs Make More Gains in 2007,” analyzed financial performance data from Fortune 500 companies in 2007 and concluded with some encouraging news for women in business. First, women-led companies increased from 9 to a record high of 12 this past year, making up 2.4% of the Fortune 500. That might not seem like enough, but the better these women perform, the more they will lay the groundwork for future female CEOs.
There’s more good news. For the second year in a row, stock performance of female-led companies at least mirrored that of companies led by men. While women also lead many medium and small businesses in the United States and abroad, this study focused only on the largest public companies. However, these highly visible companies set the trends in business that investors and entrepreneurs take note of, and so the performance of these female CEOs is carefully monitored by industry observers.
The Glass Hammer would like to recognize the top six highest performing female CEOs on 2007, calculated according to the methodology of the USA Today study, which measured the overall stock price gain of female-run Fortune 500 companies.
- Patricia Woertz, Archer Daniels Midland. ADM stock climbed 45% in 2007 with Ms. Woertz at the helm, making her company the top performing female-led company in the Fortune 500. Appointed to run the $36 billion agribusiness conglomerate in 2006, Ms. Woertz used her background in the petroleum industry to make the company a leader in alterative energy by transforming organic material into ethanol fuel and biodiesel. Way to go green and make green!
- Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo. Pepsi stock rose 21% in 2007, under Ms. Nooyi’s leadership. Appointed as CEO of the soft-drink giant in 2006, Ms. Nooyi was CFO and President at Pepsi before reaching the top job. Ms. Nooyi was responsible for the company’s $108 billion stock market valuation as well as implementing a company wide diversity initiative that is looked to as a model by many other large companies.
- Andrea Jung, Avon Products. Avon stock climbed 20% in 2007, with Ms. Jung as CEO. Appointed CEO in 1999 and Chairman in 2001, Ms. Jung helped the global beauty company generate over $9 billion in revenue last year. In addition to developing new growth strategies and brand initiative, Ms. Jung is responsible for increasing Avon’s charitable work with breast cancer research and providing opportunities for women in developing countries.
- Meg Whitman, Ebay. Ms. Whitman became head of this online auction company in 1998, but it did not grow large enough to be a part of the Fortune 500 until 2005. Still, since going public in 1998, the company’s stock has risen 1,549%, making Ms. Whitman the all time career leader among female CEOs, as measured by the performance of their company’s stock. Beating back competition from Yahoo! And Amazon and trying to aggressively weed out fakes has been a recipe for success for Ms. Whitman, whose personal holdings in the company are valued at over $1.6 billion.
- Christina Gold, Western Union. Under Ms. Gold’s leadership, Western Union’s stock was up 8% in 2007. She became CEO in 2006 after Western Union was spun off from First Data. As the head of the $4 billion money transfer, bill pay and prepaid services company, she has helped to expand the company, which now provides services in over 200 countries and territories.
Congratulations to these high-performing female CEOs in 2007. In a bad year for many companies, these women proved that they have the experience, wisdom and insight to grow and improve their companies and increase stock prices, even in an uncertain economy. We look forward to hearing about the next generation of female CEOs following in their footsteps.
Every year, I host a traditional holiday party called the Black and White Soiree. It’s a gathering of about 60 friends in my small vintage apartment. My friends Alanna and Megan help with the cooking because, as my mother would say, I am domestically challenged. I managed to make cookies but I told people they were for only decoration. They didn’t look edible although they managed to disappear, along with the other hors d’oeuvres.
Each year at the party, we raise money for a different charity. This year, we asked our guests to make an optional donation to breast cancer research. In honor of our charity, Megan found light pink M&Ms that I put out in crystal cocktail glasses. Then we also served Oreos, marshmallows and Hershey kisses to follow the theme. It was a classy affair made even fancier by the dress code. I requested black and/or white attire, no jeans.
The party took place on Saturday, December 15th, and Chicago had a horrible snowstorm that night. I remember looking out the window around 3 p.m. wondering if anyone would show up because of the weather. In the end though, I was impressed with the turn out. Inside we stood in my warm orange-spiced kitchen while a blizzard spun snow around us. I kept the keg on the porch so we never forgot how nice it was to be indoors. The room was filled with the scent of cloves and wine.
Most people drank sangria, except for those who braved the cold to get a beer from outside. We all raised our glasses and toasted to recent engagements, promotions and babies on the way. Our black and white outfits were decorated with light pink ribbons in the name of breast cancer research.
Some of us woke up on New Year’s Day with a headache from drinking too much champagne the night before. But others woke up with a hangover of a different kind: a financial hangover. For some reasons that might not be immediately apparent to you, despite earning a high salary at your job in finance or law, you are still not able to live debt free. The recent hits to the stock market, layoffs at many financial services firms and paltry bonuses spinning off from the subprime crisis in the later half of 2007 don’t make this situation any better. In fact, if you are like many women you know, the double whammy of economic woes and holiday shopping splurges may have finally sent you into crisis mode.
Good. That means you are ready to do something about your debt problem. Earning a high salary is a great opportunity to gain financial security as a relatively young person, but its not the whole story. You need to take control of not only how much you earn, but how much you spend as well, and be willing to make the hard choices in terms of cutting back on expenses and luxury items in order to get a handle on your debt issues. Here, The Glass Hammer helps you get a jump-start on your New Year’s resolution with five tips to help you become debt free in 2008.
- Make a budget – and stick to it.
Come home early one night and put those Excel skills to work at home. The first step in making a budget, scary as it is, requires taking stock of the actual amount of money you spend in a given month. To do this, save all your receipts for a month – restaurant meals, bar tabs, cab rides, beauty treatments, impulse shopping trips, and especially ATM withdrawals. The true dollar amount might shock you into submission, but it is important to have an accurate idea of your “expenses.” Then, make a list of all of the expenses that you anticipate on a monthly basis going forward – rent, utilities, food, credit card bills, entertainment, transportation, etc. Write these down in an Excel spread sheet that has two columns for each month – “Actual” and “Expected.” The idea is to work towards making numbers converge. Read more
It doesn’t get much better than receiving an amazing bonus after you’ve worked hard all year. However, bonus season can be fraught with anxiety. But it doesn’t have to be that way and in fact, it should not be that way. Here are some sure fire ways to plan ahead in the New Year ensure that you get the amazing bonus that you deserve next time around.
- Set critical objectives early – January at the latest
Write down your three top priorities for 2008 and review it with your manager. Make sure the two of you are on the same page because nothing brings in the bonus dollars like clarity and transparency. Try to set aside an hour for this discussion, but no less than half an hour. Many of us let the urgent crowd out the important, but there is no better time spent in January than ensuring that your list of objectives is understood and approved by your manager. Give this a lot of thought BEFORE the meeting. Make no mistake about it, your good work is a direct reflection on your manager, who by the way, really cares about his or her bonus as well! - Set deadlines for accomplishing these objectives
You should put specific deadlines on paper for your quarterly, mid-year and year-end goals. Everyone wants to do more strategic work rather than focus on day-to-day responsibilities. What better strategy is there than to use these goals to build upon each other towards an outcome that will benefit you, your manager, and your company? Ensure that these deadlines are realistic and do not over-promise. Under-promise and over-deliver and those bonus dollars should fly to you at year-end! - Schedule a mid-year discussion with your manager
Only Santa checks his list twice … you need to check it every quarter to ensure you are on track. And let your manager know what you are doing, which will impress upon him or her how serious and committed you are. Schedule a mid-year review of your objectives and your accomplishments to date. Remember, there are many things you can’t control (the economy, your CEO’s decisions, etc.) so control what you can and you’ll be in a much better place. Stay close to your objectives and make the necessary adjustments to ensure you complete what you need to. - Set aside some time each month to brainstorm about what you can do better
Few of us do this and many of us can benefit from this investment of time and energy. When you are home, turn off your Blackberry and set aside some time to think about how you can improve your work. Perhaps you can think about a better way to format a report, or an easy way to ensure your work is shared with people that will benefit from it. Perhaps your department can better leverage the work done by another group. Think about how to do things better and write your ideas down. - Ensure you have a mentor that can help you throughout the year
There are many benefits to having mentors in your field or in another field:
- You learn from other’s mistakes and you don’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
- If your mentor is in your company, you can adapt quicker to your company’s culture.
- You can share your thoughts in a safe environment and test your ideas before you roll them out.
- In tough economic times, your mentor can advise you on how this might impact your firm and your career.
Mentors can help you navigate your career and they can also be guardian angels when you need someone to watch your back. Cultivating this type of relationship can pay off down the line, both in terms of your bonuses and non-monetary compensation.
Now its time to schedule a year-end discussion with your manager. If you’ve followed steps 1-5, your year-end meeting will be filled with positive feedback, and will lead to the desired outcome in terms of bonuses. Your bonus should be a good one because you’ve planned well, you’ve constantly innovated, and you’ve gotten exceptional advice along the way. You are now in the best possible position to receive an amazing year-end bonus. Enjoy it because you’ve earned it!
All information is copyright © SixFigureStart 2007. Caroline Ceniza-Levine and Connie Thanasoulis are two founding coaches of SixFigureStart, a career coaching firm for people in six-figure careers (www.sixfigurestart.com). Ask a question or give us your feedback at 212-501-2234 or at info@sixfigurestart.com.