Are You Challenged?

Accenture_Womens_Research_U.gifby Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

Women may feel unchallenged at work but that isn’t stopping them from taking risks and proactively managing their own careers. According to new research from Accenture, almost half of female business professionals around the world (and a similar number of men) believe they are insufficiently challenged. Yet these same women feel confident in their skills and capabilities.

The global consulting firm reported this information after surveying 3,600 professionals in medium to large organizations in 18 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Africa. Forty-six percent of the women surveyed said they are not significantly challenged in their current roles. This, despite the fact these respondents feel confident in their abilities to manage their workloads, meet deadlines, delegate and negotiate.

The survey also revealed that 59 percent of the women believe their careers are successful or very successful and that their jobs require them to stretch beyond their expected responsibilities on the job.

Despite the lack of challenge from the top down, 81 percent of the women who categorize themselves as very successful, said they assume added responsibilities in order to advance their own careers. They also reported learning new skills, considering new positions and regularly asking for new challenges.

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Volatility Forecasting & Trading Strategies 2009

Both on a national and global level, volatility has been continuing to radically escalate and experience wide swings. While some may use it as a means to hedge their portfolios, others are viewing volatility as an asset class on its own and have implemented ground-breaking arbitrage techniques to transform this recent surge into profits. During the current market crisis, institutional investors, asset managers and market players of all types, are forced to keep a close watch on volatility, while striving to build new strategies and systems to benefit from the vast amounts of returns it can provide.

This conference will fill a critical need to examine the evolving strategies, models, performance and different approaches to volatility trading on both a national and global stage. It will be the premier platform that will unite Hedge Funds, Asset Management Firms, Investment Banks, Quantitative Analysts, Portfolio Managers, Heads of Quantitative Research, Exchanges, CEO’s and Chief Risk Officers.

Visit the website for information on featured speakers.

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Helping Management Through Times of Transition

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iStock_000007926135XSmall_1_.jpgContributed by NAMC (National Association of Mothers’ Centers), Livia Polise, LCSW, NAMC Facilitator

In our current economic climate, management-level executives are not only challenged to make difficult decisions to keep the organization going, they also have to deal with the very difficult task of letting people go and all that comes with it. For women, it can be especially difficult as we often feel a sense of empathy for the employee’s situation and will carry our concerns for their well being around with us for days.

Corporate decision-making is guided by the bottom line: financial cost and gain. A more accurate cost analysis, however, recognizes the psychological and emotional costs and impact of workplace events and policies on the company’s most important resources: its people. While people in leadership positions are charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing policies and organizational changes that will keep the organization afloat, they also grapple with the stress and dilemmas inherent in decision-making within an environment that may be characterized by urgency and fear.

According to the Chinese tradition of the I-Ching, every crisis is characterized by the potential for both danger and opportunity. The current economic crisis offers manifold opportunities to advocate for making lemonade from lemons.

Here are some practical tips that management can employ to help themselves and those who must be let go make the best of a challenging situation – and provide those left behind with greater confidence.

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Global MBA Women’s Day Conference

Gender Balance: An Opportunity for Post-crisis management?Some companies are ‘hunkering down backwards’ to hide from this crisis, trimming and cutting all but the most tried-and-true success elements of their past. Others are ‘innovating forwards’, using this period to redesign their organisations for a very different future. The latter companies know that women offer skills and styles particularly suited to the 21st century…Are you seizing the opportunity of Women-omics?

International MBA Women Careers Day: March 4th, Online, on a PC near you

Avivah Wittenberg-CoxCEO 20-first, Publisher WOMEN-omics.comWOMEN-omics and MBA-Exchange.com will host an online careers day to celebrate Internatioanl Women’s Day. Our event is designed for women with MBAs from the world’s leading business schools and the companies interested in them.The day will include an online discussion, chaired by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, author of Why Women Mean Business, and Publisher of WOMEN-omics.com. The discussion will bring together speakers from companies as well as leading career experts to focus on:

  • Why companies care about female talent;
  • How to compose a sustainable career by proactively managing women’s different career cycles;
  • How the best companies are attracting, retaining and developing both halves of the talent pool ? the female and male halves.

For MBA women and enlightened employers, the link is www.mba-exchange.com/womenHope to see you there (virtually).

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Risk and Reward:The 6th Prowess Annual International Conference 2009

Make the most of the networking opportunities at the Prowess 2009 conference!Make sure you book your place before 12 February to be included in the

Who’s Who of Women’s Enterprise Development

The Who’s Who is a fantastic networking tool profiling up to 300 key contacts in the women’s enterprise sector, and a great way to profile you and your organisation. The Who’s Who is part of the Prowess Conference handbook, and is sent out to all registered delegates one week before the event to help you plan networking.

If you have already booked your place, please send your profile text for inclusion in the Who’s Who to j.orourke@prowess.org.uk at Prowess by 5pm on Thursday 12 February.

Conference booking form

For further information call the Conference Booking Hotline: +44 (0)1603 762355 or email Conference@prowess.org.uk

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2009 United Way Women’s Leadership Summit

Join the National Women’s Leadership Council and the nation’s most significant women leaders in philanthropy and volunteerism at the 2009 National Women’s Leadership Summit

Come to the summit to:

• Learn key skills and strategies to advance the work of your Women’s Leadership Council in the areas of Resource Development, Advocacy and Leadership.

• To be inspired and empowered by like-minded women who are leading the way in advancing the common good.

• To raise awareness of the power of women to improve their communities by working together to give, advocate and volunteer.

• To be part of a dynamic forum focused on establishing, growing and increasing the impact of your local Women’s Leadership Council.

•To become part of a network of powerful women leaders who are passionate about improving their communities, the nation and the world.

Register here

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Ask-A-Recruiter: Troubleshooting Your Job Search

istock_000005168521xsmall1.jpgContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

A recent Inc. Magazine article by Joel Spolsky comparing running a business to getting good radio reception made me think about a similar point I often make with coaching clients about their job search: you need to constantly refine your search.

What knobs are you turning on your search? Spolsky makes the great analogy that price, location, employees, marketing, etc are the “knobs” of the start-up’s radio. For a jobseeker, you have your pitch, your resume, your cover letters, your online profile, even down to the detail you provide on an individual project. Are you looking at all the pieces of your job search package to see what is getting good reception on the market? Are you fiddling around with these knobs on an ongoing basis to get better reception?

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Women in Law and Business: How to Arrive, Survive and Thrive at the Top

HB Litigation Conferences is hosting “Women in Law & Business: How to Arrive, Survive & Thrive at the Top,” an afternoon program on March 3 at the Westin Grand in Washington, DC.

The program chairs are Robin Silver Esq. of Miles & Stockbridge P.C. of Baltimore, Md. and Andrea Tecce, CPA, managing director, Navigant Consulting, Washington, DC.

Topics and speakers include: “Career Success Accelerators for the 21st Century” featuring Mary Abbajay and Karen Bedell with Careerstone Group LLC; “What You Need to Know to Achieve the Level of Success You’ve Always Wanted” featuring Linda Kornfeld of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, Lainy LeBow-Sachs, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Sandy Chamblee, Steptoe & Johnson, and John Frisch, Miles & Stockbridge; “Moving from Ordinary to Extraordinary through Leadership” featuring Courtney Lynch, Lead Star LLC; and “How to Survive & Thrive at the Top” featuring Sara Turnipseed of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Susan E. Baumgarten, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Katie Miller, assistant general counsel at Sprint, and Marianna Dyson of Miller & Chevalier.

Contact: Mr. Tom Hagy

Phone: 484-324-2755

Email: tom.hagy@litigationconferences.com

Event Website

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The Madoff Story

bm.jpgContributed by Martin Mitchell, director of eLearning for the Corporate Training Group

The press is peppered with references to Bernard Madoff’s $50bn ‘Ponzi’ scheme, and this article attempts to cover the what, why and how of the scheme.

First a bit of background – the term Ponzi scheme dates back to a particular individual, Charles Ponzi, who fooled thousands of US residents into investing in a postage speculation scheme back in the 1920s. Ponzi told investors that he could double their funds in three months, by using their money to buy and sell international mail coupons. It was marketed as an arbitrage scheme that would buy the coupons where they were relatively cheap (in Italy) and sell them where they were relatively expensive (in the US). The promised returns saw him inundated with funds, including the staggering statistic for 1921 of taking in $1m in a 3-hour period. A few early investors were paid off to make the scheme look legitimate, but a subsequent investigation found that Ponzi had only purchased about $30 worth of the international mail coupons. Ponzi was jailed, but had enjoyed a very comfortable living for a time including an air conditioned mansion with heated swimming pool.

From that point on, a Ponzi scheme became the term for a scheme that works on a “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” principle, with money from new investors used to pay off earlier investors with little or no real investment taking place.
Bernard Madoff’s scheme was similar. Mr. Madoff formed Bernard L Madoff Securities LLC in 1960, and was chairman of the company until early December 2008, when he was charged with investor fraud. He is currently under house arrest in his apartment in Manhattan.

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A Celebration of U.N. Women’s Week/International Women’s Day

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2009, GNG will be celebrating the remarkable achievements of women worldwide all week long! Students will study a series of women who have taken exquisite leadership in their communities by learning how they are changing and shaping our world!

For more information, please contact Grace Lau at grace@gng.org.

Register here

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