New Morgan Stanley Program Focuses on Diversity – Despite Tough Economic Climate

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Carla HarrisBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

As we recently learned from the new Accenture study focusing on women leaders and resilience, despite a rough economic climate many companies are not only choosing to keep women’s initiatives and leadership programs, but in many cases they are expanding them and creating new ones altogether.

In December of last year, Morgan Stanley did just that by announcing its new Emerging Manager Program (EM Program), which, according to the company, “seeks to identify and provide capital, as well as strategic advice and infrastructure solutions to emerging asset managers.” What’s impressive is that the program will place a specific emphasis on including minority and women-owned asset managers.

The EM Program will be headed by Carla Harris, a 23-year veteran of Morgan Stanley. Currentlya Managing Director in Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), and chair of the Firm’s Private Placement Commitment Equity Committee, Harris was a logical choice as champion of the program due to her long tenure in the industry and as a high profile successful minority player. The actual manager participants themselves will be overseen by an investment committee comprising representatives and senior management from across Morgan Stanley.

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Aspire: The Leadership Advantage

aspireBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

“This new century needs a new generation of leaders who are more transformational and embrace their feminine qualities,” says Dr Samantha Collins, Founder of Aspire, an executive coaching and leadership development consultancy that has recently released a report into successful leadership styles. “The old school style of many politicians and corporate CEO’s is on the way out and transformational leadership behaviours are on the way in.”

“In this latest research it appears that the financial and political events at the end of the last decade have given us pause for thought,” says Catherine Shovlin, Director at Customer Interpreter, a strategic research consultancy which co-produced the report.

The report, Tearing up the Rule Book: A New Generation of Leaders for 2010, introduces the new measure of Leadership Intelligence (LI). LI measures rate your ability to be a successful leader, and what makes a successful leader in today’s economy is not what you would necessarily expect.

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Voice of Experience: Wanda Eriksen, Partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopersAG

Eriksen_Wanda_17925_04By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I see myself riding a wave,” explained Wanda Eriksen, Assurance Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Zurich office and founder of its Women’s Initiative. “I think that I’m really part of the change. Looking back, I’m going to be in that group to really have more opportunity.” Eriksen sees a shift in attitudes regarding women in the workplace – an acceptance that grows larger with each generation.

She recalled how she had been approached to spearhead the Women’s Initiative for PwC Switzerland. “Until about four years ago, I was not even remotely informed about gender issues. I was like, ‘I don’t want to start any trouble!’” she joked. “In the beginning I needed to be convinced. [In Switzerland], we were probably about 10 years behind the U.S.,” regarding gender activities.

“I don’t want to say there are barriers… there aren’t a lot of women in leadership positions,” Eriksen explained, attributing this to the “little me” syndrome, in which leaders (usually men) promote people who are like themselves or take someone similar to themselves under their wing. “It’s more related to behavior than barriers,” she said. “I also see that things are changing, solely through the increasing volume of women choosing to have a career.”

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Intrepid Woman: Betty Ross, Financial Advisor, Sapient Financial Group

BettyRossBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

After speaking to Betty Ross, you realize the power that comes with being honest and straightforward and that sometimes, a frank approach is the best approach. So let’s begin: What are the chances that a young black girl growing up in the segregated South during some of the region’s most tumultuous times would persevere and make a grand life for herself after growing up in low-income housing to parents with eighth grade educations? Are her chances even further diminished when she becomes the woman of the house after her mother passed away when she’s just thirteen, baring her with the full brunt of domestic responsibilities for her father and four siblings? What are her chances when she becomes a teenage bride and mother for the first time at eighteen, and a divorced mother of two at twenty?

For Betty Ross, a seventy-year-old financial advisor currently with Sapient Financial Group, who grew up in an area where high school was the height of education, succeeding and going beyond what was expected of her was never a choice, but rather the only option – no matter how long it took.

In 1971, Ross left San Antonio, Texas – where she was born and raised and currently lives today – just seven years after the city had officially been integrated, though it was still experiencing a great deal of racial unrest. “I decided that being in Texas wasn’t good for me or my sons; it held too many painful memories and the city was slow to progress,” Ross said. “I wanted to provide my sons with a different outlook on life.” If you’ve encountered Ross – even for a moment – you’ll understand that her sons would have turned out just fine without the change of location because her strong spirit, fearlessness, and tenacity are enough to facilitate any change necessary.

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Measuring Up: Diversity Accountability Scores Big at Catalyst Awards Conference

Image via Catalyst

Image via Catalyst

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Metrics, metrics, metrics was the theme of this year’s Catalyst Awards Conference. Held yesterday in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the Conference honored award winners Campbell Soup, Deloitte, LLP, RBC, and Telstra Corporation Limited.

Each of these companies demonstrated a passionate commitment toward promoting workplace gender diversity, and they had the numbers to prove it. The general consensus within the conference, attended by over 70 CEOs and 1500 industry leaders, was: “if you set targets for other parts of your business, why not set gender and diversity targets as well?”.

“The business case for gender diversity is so clear,” commented Julie Nugent, Director, Research and Chair of the Catalyst Award Evaluation Committee, referring to recent studies showing that gender diversity at the top ranks of companies improves their bottom line. “This is truly becoming a global initiative.”

With the award winning companies based in the US, Canada, and Australia, Nugent explained that Catalyst received applications from all over the world, citing a particularly large increase in applications from the Asia-Pacific region this year.

The international research-based organization works “with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business.” The awards honor “innovative approaches with proven results taken by organizations to address the recruitment, development, and advancement of all managerial women, including women of color.”

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You Can’t Be Serious? 6 Ways to Get Taken Seriously at Work

takenseriouslyBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

When a previous boss of mine told me I’d be a more significant player at work when I looked older, I almost rushed out and bought a twin set and pearls. But surely there are other ways to get taken seriously at work, aside from dying your hair grey and borrowing clothes from your elderly aunts.

The Glass Hammer spoke to six experts about how to come across confidently, professionally, and seriously in the workplace. Here’s what they had to say.

  1. Have confidence in your ability

    “Women often have less confidence than men – even when they have the same or superior smarts, experience, and talents,” says Ann Demarais, Ph.D., author of First Impressions: What you don’t know about how others see you, and owner of a business communication consultancy. “Their confidence is not always commensurate with their competence. Women leak this lack of confidence in their body language – by appearing quiet, fidgety, or overly perky.”

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PwC’s GLBT Diversity Initiative: “I am Open”

imopenBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

At PricewaterhouseCoopers, diversity means openness – about oneself and about accepting others’ differences. The company explains that “open working relationships are stronger and more productive.” Openness about difference allows colleagues greater opportunities to learn about one another, and find common ground.

Jennifer Allyn, Managing Director, Office of Diversity, explained that GLBT inclusiveness is often overlooked within diversity programs, because “the gay dimension of diversity is invisible.” That is, people can’t usually tell if someone fits into this group simply by their appearance.

“Five to six years ago, PwC convened a board of GLBT partners to advise our diversity team, to make sure GLBT staff feel included and welcome at our firm,” Allyn explained. “The advisory board is made up of very visible role models” – role models for both GLBT individuals, as well as PwC employees at large.

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Ada Lovelace Day: Our Top Five Women in Technology and Science

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Ada_lovelace

Ada Lovelace

By Elisabeth Grant (Washington, D.C.)

Why so few? Why so few women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? This is the question the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) sought to answer in a joint report they recently conducted and released. The report addressed a myriad of factors that contribute to the low numbers of women in technology and science, from “beliefs about intelligence” to  “workplace bias” (see the New York Times’ excellent analysis of the report in the article, “Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences“).

In the Forward of the report, the AAUW explains that the study “focuses on practical ways that families, schools, and communities can create an environment of encouragement that can disrupt negative stereotypes about women’s capacity in these demanding fields.”

In an effort to support this, we present five extraordinary women in technology and science to encourage and promote the inclusion of women in these fields. There are, of course, so many more women that could be have been mentioned in this post, and please feel free to add their names to the comment section below.
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New FWA Report: Optimistic Outlook Despite Discouraging Numbers

FWAreportBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I think that the numbers pretty much speak for themselves,” said Ziporah Janowski, co-chair of the Financial Women’s Association of New York’s Corporate Governance Committee. “They’re discouraging.”

The 2009 FWA100 Study:The Time Has Come, released last week, analyzes the presence of women at the highest levels of major corporations in New York. According to this year’s report:

“On an aggregate basis, the percentage of board seats held by women in the overall population remained virtually unchanged at 17.8% (17.6% in the 2008 study). Women gained a net total of one board seat. The number of companies in the sample with no women on their boards actually increased from 9 to 11 this year, a 22% increase.”

But rather than dwell on the negative aspects of the report, Janowski said, “we want to focus on positive signs of change.”

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Women at the Top of Tech: Two New Reports Released by the Anita Borg Institute

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anitaborgreportsBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Two new reports published yesterday detail the challenges faced by women at the top of the tech industry, as well as practical steps to keep them there. The Anita Borg Institute, a non-profit organization working within the technology industry and academia to make the tech field more welcoming to women, has released Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success and the 2009 Technical Executive Forum report on the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Technical Women: Barriers to Cultural Change in Corporations.

Senior Technical Women details the challenges faced by women who have climbed to the top of their companies – and discusses how they managed to succeed despite these challenges. According to the report, “women hold 24% of technology jobs, yet represent half the total workforce. This underrepresentation persists even though the demand for technical talent remains high…” The report, based on a 2008 “survey of 1,795 technical men and women at seven high-technology companies in Silicon Valley,” focuses on the responses given by senior technical women – 4% of the individuals who participated in the study.

“This report asks ‘what about the women who beat the odds and made it to the senior levels?’” explained Dr. Caroline Simard, Vice President of Research and Executive Programs. Dr. Simard went on to explain that the report should be useful to companies looking to retain senior technical women as well as for young and mid-career women looking for advice as they work to advance into leadership roles.

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