Connect the Dots to Solve Workplace Conflict

SylviaContributed by Dr. Sylvia Lafair

Handling conflict is a major part of leadership development. You can have the best product in the world yet, if the marketing team, sales team, or administrative team is at odds with each other the dissention will tumble to customers who will find another product elsewhere.

Think about the word conflict. What is your initial reaction? Do you think “Not another ##&%!! Issue?” Do you say “Not my fault” as you look for the nearest exit? How about playing Scarlett O’Hara brushing past the upset with “I’ll think about it tomorrow”? Or are you one of the few who says “Oh great, I know I can learn from this mess.”

Whatever your first response, be kind to yourself. Your knee-jerk reactions are those you have developed over time for security and survival. Yet, there is a better way. Once you learn to think in terms of connecting the dots of an experience you can find a better way to handle all conflict.

Begin to think larger, holistically, about “if-this-then-that.” When you think in terms of a system your thinking is integrated and interdependent. It takes into account the big picture and long range thinking.

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Innovation – The Key to Workforce Engagement

asian business woman writing on screenBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

This article originally appeared on our new corporate citizenship site Evolved Employer.

Should companies encourage their workforce to innovate? Innovation is a big buzz word lately, with companies striving to embed it within their cultures and looking within their ranks for new ideas rather than outsourcing or working with consultants to find the next big product. But all the clamor has left some to ask – is innovation a distraction?

According to Businessweek contributor and founder and president of the Table Group Pat Lencioni, employees are being asked to do far too much innovating. He writes, “[business leaders] should stop overhyping innovation to the masses and come to the realization that only a limited number of people in any company really needs to be innovative.”

He continues:

“…even the most innovative and creative organizations need far more people to be dutiful, enthusiastic, and consistent in their work than innovative or creative.” Employees need to do their jobs – not devote time and energy to innovative solutions or creative new ideas that will likely go unnoticed anyway, he says.

Lencioni believes the relatively recent hyperfocus on innovation is causing business leaders to be seen as hypocritical – which actually decreases employee engagement. He writes:

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Encouragement vs. Criticism – How Should We Manage Rising Women?

iStock_000010552869XSmallBy Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

In a recent article, Peter Ranscombe quotes Laura Morse, visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as saying that women get more encouragement than criticism. She also said that bosses should push their female employees to realize their full potential and instead of patting them on the head, they need to push them through the door.

After reading the article, I was curious about what female managers in the financial industry thought of regarding the “criticism versus encouragement” debate. Are women receiving more encouragement than criticism? Does that stunt their professional growth? And are their other differences in the way men and women manage office behavior?

Same But Different

Robin Ross, managing director of interest rate products at the CME Group, the largest futures exchange in the world, said even if her male managers held back because she was a women, she always saw herself as equal to her male counterparts.

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Power, Ambition, Money, Failure: Confronting Career Taboos

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kolbertContributed by Kathryn Kolbert, Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College

Power. Ambition. Money. Failure. These are taboos that haunt women today, stunting their climb to leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. We may not like to talk about them, and we don’t necessarily need to conform to typically masculine styles of approaching them, but women must learn to overcome our discomfort with these demons if we are to achieve parity in the workforce.

The statistics are all too familiar to many of us. While today we can see women in positions of power — from heads of state to university presidents to Wall Street executives – more broadly women are stuck, holding only 16% to 22% [PDF] of the leadership positions in many arenas, and in some areas, such as the military and Fortune 500 CEOs much less. For women of color, the numbers are even worse; of the 15.7% of corporate officer positions in Fortune 500 companies that are held by women, just 1.7% [PDF] are held by women of color.

Part of our inability to advance to leadership positions in the numbers that we’d like, of course, is due to longstanding discrimination and cultural biases that lead men in high-ranking positions to want colleagues that look and act like them.

Part is also due to the fact that women who off-ramp, to raise their children and care for family members, are disadvantaged by skeptical, inflexible employers who view such moves with suspicion. The Center for Work-Life Policy’s May study, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited [PDF}, found that “73% percent of women trying to return to the workforce after a voluntary timeout for childcare or other reasons have trouble finding a job.” Of those who do return, more than 25% reported a decrease in their management responsibilities and 22% returned with a lower job title.

But whether we like to discuss it or not, part of the problem stems from the fact that many women are uncomfortable with power, ambition, money and failure. In some cases women handle these issues differently than many of their male colleagues.

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New Regulations Mean New Jobs

Business meeting.By Elizabeth Harrin (London)

The Wall Street Reform Act introduced a raft of new rules with the aim of stabilising the U.S. financial systems. These rules now need to be implemented, and someone has got to do the implementing. Are you in the market for a new job? Maybe a move to the public sector is the right move for you.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alone is expecting to recruit for about 800 positions [PDF], according to Chairman Mary Schapiro. “A principal lesson learned from the financial crisis is that, because today’s financial markets and their participants are dynamic, fast-moving, and innovative, the regulators who oversee them must continuously improve their knowledge and skills to regulate effectively,” she said. “In response, we have created and begun staffing a new division, the Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation.” This new division will look at new products and trading practices.

“As part of the now completed reorganisation of the Enforcement Division, we created five new specialised units, as well as a new office dedicated to the handling of complaints, tips, and referrals,” Schapiro added in her testimony to a House of Representatives sub-committee meeting. These units cover areas like asset management, structured and new products, and securities. “Each of the specialised units is in the process of hiring additional professionals with specialised experience to assist in investigative and enforcement efforts,” Schapiro said.

The SEC is not the only agency hiring. “The next year of rule writing will test the very talented staff of the CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission],” said Gary Gensler, Chairman of the CFTC. “Our staff has significant expertise regulating the on-exchange derivatives markets that will translate well into regulating the over-the-counter swaps markets. Still, we need significant new resources.”

In addition, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a completely new creation, and will need staffing from the ground up. Although we can assume that some federal staff will transfer in from other agencies, it’s also fair to assume that the Bureau will be recruiting.

So if you have always wanted a public sector job, this could be the moment to jump from the private sector. Be warned though, making the move to the public sector isn’t like getting another private sector position.

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

The European Central Bank left its key lending rate at 1%. Encouraging job creation numbers came out of the US, but unemployment is still rising. We also saw agreement in the EU on the creation of a European Systemic Risk Council.

Economic Backdrop

  • Global equities finished the week higher and bond prices lower, after better than expected data from the US. The US employment report for August revealed that private sector hiring rose by 67,000 (against a forecast gain of 41,000), and the non-farm payroll report also showed that the number of people employed fell less than expected. However, the US economy is not growing sufficiently fast to create enough jobs to bring down the unemployment rate, which rose to 9.6% from 9.5%.
    When news came that the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) index of national service activity had fallen from 54.3 in July to 51.5 in August, which was worse than expected, this added confusion to the markets and limited the gains in equities and falls in bonds.
  • In Europe, the ECB left its key lending rate at 1%, and extended its emergency support for eurozone banks until early in 2011.
  • Gold soared at one point to about $1,250 an ounce, more than $100 higher than levels of only 3-4 years ago, and up 12% since the start of 2010, reflecting the uncertainty of investors as to the direction of global economies; silver prices have also hit their highest levels since March 2008. The price of wheat, corn and other cereals rose again after Russia said it would extend its grain export ban and global meat prices have hit a 20 year high.

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Happy Labor Day!

barbecueBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Dear Readers,

The Glass Hammer is taking a few days off to celebrate Labor Day. In the meantime, check out some of our recent popular articles.

Also, don’t forget to check out our upcoming events – we’re hosting a panel on Dodd-Frank for women investment management in October, and in November, we’re hosting a career development panel called Navigating, Negotiating, and Building Your Network. For more more information on either event, click here: https://theglasshammer.com/events/.

Finally, The Glass Hammer is always looking for new writers. If you’ve got something to say, email melissa@theglasshammer.com with a writing sample and an idea.

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35 Under 35: Lisa Bebchick, Partner at Fried Frank

lisabBy Erin H. Abrams (New York City)

“You need to be able to learn from someone who has the career and work life balance you aspire to,” said Lisa Bebchick, a 33-year old partner in the litigation department at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, explaining why she makes time in her busy schedule to mentor junior associates at her firm. Bebchick, who works in Fried Frank’s New York office, focuses her practice on all aspects of civil and criminal litigation, and has expertise in white collar criminal defense and internal investigations, among other areas. In addition to her billable work, Bebchick also manages to find time for pro bono work, as well as serving on numerous charity boards, taking on leadership initiatives at her firm and recruiting and mentoring the next generation of associates. That’s why Lisa Bebchick is one of the Glass Hammer’s 35 women under 35 to watch, because she is making a difference in the legal world.

The Glass Hammer recently caught up with Bebchick over lunch near her office in the Financial District to learn more about her career choices and her path to partnership at Fried Frank. Here, we share with the Glass Hammer readers some of her advice to aspiring attorneys on how to develop your professional careers, balance work and life, and have fun doing it all.

When asked how she got her start in the law, Bebchick said that she knew relatively early on in life that she wanted to be a lawyer. As an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, Bebchick majored in political science and was fascinated with political communication. She worked on John Kerry’s re-election campaign for the U.S. Senate and in his press office the following year, working for his press secretary. However, she realized that she didn’t want to go into politics herself. She decided to become an attorney because the career seemed like a logical choice for someone with strong writing skills who enjoyed the art of effective communication. “Good communication and strong writing skills are at the heart of being a good litigator,” Bebchick explained. She also was committed to giving back to her community, and saw the legal profession as a great opportunity to do that. After college, she went to law school at Boston University, where she was a member of the Law Review, and graduated magna cum laude in 2001. She began her career as Fried Frank as a summer associate and worked as an associate for eight years before becoming a partner at the firm in the fall of 2009.

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Networking 2.0

Brunett woman with laptopBy Cleo Thompson, founder of The Gender Blog

“I haven’t got time for networking”, one senior woman from a major City of London investment bank told me recently.

“All that standing around in rooms full of complete strangers, drinking either bad wine at the end of a long day, or bad coffee and stale croissants at the start of another day – no thanks. It’s so unstructured and unfocused, and such a bad use of my time. I’m sure there probably ARE useful and interesting people at some of these events – but how on earth do you find them in a packed room, and what use might we be to each other?”

Other women told a similar tale, with one commenting that she had now stopped going along to organised “group meet ups”, as she found that she either knew no-one, or would see a familiar face in the crowd and then “cling to that person for the whole evening, thus negating the idea of meeting new people!”

In response to this changing mindset – and independently of each other – two London based women have begun to evolve a more nuanced, “networking 2.0” framework, which delivers the benefits of what we might perhaps call “old school” networking – expanding your contacts, sharing connections and skills – but which also uses technology and social media interfaces.

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