What Mancession? Number of Women Senior Managers Decreases Globally

iStock_000009254444XSmallContributed by Liz O’Donnell, Author of HelloLadies.com

Remember those reports of the “man-cession” and the “she-conomy” over the last couple of last years? It seems they may have been premature. According to a recent study from global accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton International, the number of women in senior management positions globally decreased to from 24 percent in 2004 to 20 percent in 2009. Furthermore, the percentage of privately held businesses with no women at all in their senior management ranks has risen to 38 percent, up from 35 percent in 2009.

This decrease has surprised those who believed the recession was “The End of Men.” In the United States, economists had predicted the number of women on the national payroll would surpass the number of men in 2009 because 82 percent of recession-related job losses had impacted men.

While that prediction came close to reality in the fourth quarter of 2009, women never actually surpassed men and the numbers started gradually dropping off again by early 2010. In addition to that prediction, Wall Street-watchers were asking whether or not corporate diversity and more gender-balanced leadership was the key to a recovery.

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Op-Ed: Women in Finance – Maintaining a Work/Life Balance

sandyrichtermeyerContributed by Sandra B. Richtermeyer, Ph.D., CMA, CPA

Women are often drawn to accounting or do well in it because of their organizational skills. It is a personal belief that many women are “hard wired” to consistently look at the most efficient way to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines, while never losing site of the family needs – managing kids, schedules, making sure their house is in order, etc. Women are often required to be multi-taskers in every aspect of their lives.

Deadlines, Deadlines!

No matter what area of the accounting profession you are in – public accounting, industry, etc. – deadlines will be front and center. There will be deadlines for reports due to internal stakeholders as well as external stakeholders. On the external side, there is often a multitude of tax filings, financial statements and various compliance activities. On the internal side, deadlines may be more focused on internal financial statements and related financial reports, budgets, planning, forecasting and analysis activities.

Depending on the industry, size of organization and accounting role, the deadlines vary but the skill sets to manage the deadlines are largely the same. Developing skills in time and project management as well as mastering the art of prioritizing can be a lifesaver!

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From Breakfast Table to Boardroom: Ask for What You Want

Business woman pouring herself a cup of coffeeBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Published today is a new book by communication expert Lois Frankel, PhD, and negotiation expert Carol Frohlinger, JD, entitled Nice Girls Just Don’t Get It: 99 Ways to Win the Respect You Deserve, the Success You’ve Earned, and the Life You Want.

The crux of the book is that if women are to lead fulfilling lives, they must know and ask for what they want – in the professional and personal space. “It doesn’t make sense to compartmentalize them,” Frohlinger said.

She explained, “The reality is… women tend to have more responsibilities outside work than men tend to. You can’t be successful at work without being able to negotiate for the things you want at home.”

“What we like to say is, ‘the path to the boardroom begins at the breakfast table,’” she added.

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Voice of Experience: Sonia Thimmiah, Director UKI Sustainability Practice, Accenture

SoniaThimmiahBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I work in a field where you can really make an impact in terms of society, the environment, and the economy,” began Sonia Thimmiah, Director in Accenture‘s UKI Sustainability Practice.

Thimmiah’s team works with large, blue chip companies to advise on strategy and implementation for how companies manage and deliver on environmental, social, and economic priorities. She continued, “We can see the impact. For example we advised an organization on how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% reduction and can see how they are achieving that target year on year. It’s massively satisfying.”

“The advice we make leads to sustainable change, and I’m very proud of that,” she added.

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Why the Growth in Female Investors Will Make a Difference

woman using laptopBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Kamie Zaracki, Chief Executive Offer of BetterInvesting, explained that women are growing more confident with personal investments – which is good for women themselves, as well as companies.

BetterInvesting is a volunteer-based nonprofit dedicated to providing individual investors with the tools and education they need to make smart investments. While the organization helps people organize into investment clubs, it also offers volunteer-led and staff-led educational events and, now, a robust offering of web-based courses and services. Founded in 1951, the group now boasts over 100,000 community members and is powered by over 1,300 volunteers, supported by a small home office of professional staff.

Zaracki said, “Individuals tend to be long term investors. If publicly-traded companies have a significant portion of their holdings owned by groups of individual investors, that could mean greater stability in our overall economy.”

“There’s no empirical data on this, but I would suspect that as women become more empowered as investors, and examine where their investments will do the most overall good, we will see a change in the way companies behave,” she continued. “In the long term, the market is going to reward those companies that consistently perform well. And society has a changing definition of what ‘consistently doing well’ means.”

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Op-Ed: Don’t Let the Dreamer Syndrome Stall Gender Balancing

ChristinaIoannidisContributed by Christina Ioannidis, Founder and CEO of Aquitude

In the last few years, we have seen the advent of women’s networks across the corporate arena. Corporations have been riding high on their female talent’s innate passion for a gender balanced, equitable world, as well as their innate talent as change agents, and have profited from hundreds of women’s work beyond their “day job” in order to offer training, networking, and learning opportunities for other women in their organisations. These women’s networks or employee resource groups (some companies call them by different names) are often set up by hard-working female employees with the objective of offering support and guidance to all women within their corporation.

If I could count the number of discussions where we have been told “We have no budget to support any women’s network activities,” I would be as rich as Warren Buffet.

However, women will still burn themselves out in trying to make something happen with nothing, and will fight hard to create a network with absolutely no support. This is what I call the Dreamer Syndrome – still pursuing a dream when the business does not perceive it as contributing to the bottom line.

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How to Secure Your Sponsor and Unlock Your Path to the Top

Nicki HeadshotBy Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of The Glass Hammer

Many women have a mentor or maybe even several mentors. But to get to the top, you need more – you need someone advocate for you, cash in their chips for you, and, frankly, wear a t- shirt with your name on it in the meetings you are not in: a sponsor.

The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling report compiled by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and the Center for Work Life Policy with Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of American Express, further defined for us what a sponsor is and what a sponsor does to enhance your career. Sponsorship is a huge part of getting women the stretch assignments they need to be promoted into senior executive positions.

Many women ask me how they should go about finding a sponsor. Now that we know what a sponsor does for you – advocacy at its very best – where does the rubber meet the road with finding one?

The answer: it all starts with networking, or rather building your strategic network (not just collecting a bunch of cards or catching up with a friend at an event). For example, as entrepreneur Heidi Roizen, a board member of TiVo and Yellow Media Inc., explained, “The best way to get to know other people is in the context of accomplishing something, like a volunteer project.”

Goldman Sachs hosted a seminar for women recently on “Building your Board : Unlocking Opportunity through Sponsorship” as part of their fantastic series of events called Brokering Change: A Wall Street Multicultural Women’s Exchange. This event in the series, which is open to women from other firms on the Street, addressed some of the specific challenges faced by Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American women in the industry. In this case, a multi-cultural panel of women recounted their sponsor experiences, and rather than simply recounting the Sponsor Effect‘s findings, held a useful conversation on how to actually find a sponsor.

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How Managers Can Increase Trust and Reduce Workplace Drama

marlenechismContributed by Marlene Chism, author of Stop Workplace Drama

Your staff sits at your meeting with arms crossed and mouths closed. You have invited engagement, but you get nothing. You can’t put your finger on it, but you perceive some negativity. Maybe it’s resentment. Maybe it’s just a manifestation of the “us versus them” mentality. Or maybe, it’s a lack of trust. This article offers four trustbusters and the four antidotes.

Trustbuster #1 Poor Listening
Very few of us admit to being a poor listener, therefore as the saying goes, you can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge. Awareness is the key, so here are the signs of poor listening: Broken promises, multi-tasking while an employee is talking to you, interrupting, discounting, and one way communication which includes preaching, or the opposite–failure to ask questions in a conversation.

Antidote to Poor Listening
When an employee (or anyone else for that matter) speaks to you, become fully present, and use eye contact. Ask a question to clarify that you understand what is being communicated. Acknowledge the other person’s experience. If you say you will do something, schedule it in your calendar, and communicate back to the person when you have completed your agreement. If an employee catches you at a bad time, let them know you have other pressing priorities and set an appointment where you can be present

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Professional Women in Emerging Markets: Painting a Broader Picture

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iStock_000015539406XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

When you consider women in the developing BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – who do you envision? Are they victims? Are they oppressed? Or are they ambitious high performers, managers, and business leaders? As part of its lengthy study on women in these markets, The Center for Work Life Policy recently released the results of its report, “The Battle for Female Talent in China,” which seeks to paint a new picture of educated women in the developing world.

Ripa Rashid, Executive Vice President at the Center for Work Life Policy, explained, “We wanted to create a narrative – a more complete picture of women in these markets. When you hear about women in emerging economies, you often think about microfiance or victimhood or sex trafficking. And these are all important issues. But there is another narrative of successful, ambitious women in these regions as well.”

She continued, “We wanted to bring to light that neglected narrative.” The Center for Work Life Policy study, conducted between 2009 and 2010 and co-authored by Rashid and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, polled hundreds of white-color female professionals in the developing world. The results, which will be published by the Harvard Business School Press this fall, reveal fascinating new insights into the cross-cultural dynamics of ambition and motherhood.

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Honoring Outstanding Women and Storytellers

twhpboardBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week The White House Project celebrated outstanding women and storytellers at its annual Epic Awards dinner. The awards honored individuals who are making a difference in the way women and girls view themselves, and the way they are viewed by decision makers.

Activist, philanthropist, and event-chair Mahsa Peloski opened the evening saying, “When women are at the peace making table, the corporate boardroom, and the halls of Congress, they bring a different perspective and change the conversation.”

By honoring the individuals who are changing the conversation about women, The White House Project hopes to increase the numbers of women in positions of power as well.

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