Ms. JD Celebrates Education and Empowerment

iStock_000007716967XSmallBy Kelly Tanner (New York)

As the light faded outside the offices which overlooked the Statue of Liberty last week, a team of professionals gathered at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP to celebrate women’s successes. The event honored Ms. JD’s New York City chapter and its new Global Education Fund, founded last year to assist women in developing countries in becoming lawyers.

In its first year, the Fund highlighted their support of two women, Joaninne Nanyange and Monica Athieno, as they attended law school in Uganda. In a video comprised of interviews over Skype, the women described the challenges they overcame and their single-minded devotion to achieving their goal of making a life for themselves in law. Nanyange hopes to leverage her hard-won education to become a human-rights activist, while Athieno wants to become a judge.

In a country where only 45% of women have access to any type of schooling, and men are more than twice as likely to have an opportunity to attend any type of higher education, these successes change the landscape of a developing nation like Uganda.

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What Should You Look for in Your Mentor?

iStock_000012303174XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

We’ve all heard it before: Mentoring is crucial for business success and dramatically increases one’s own chance for success. Having a mentor can lead to valuable business contacts and contribute to conceptual and technical knowledge, but why then do so few women actually get mentored? The National Survey on Women and Work, commissioned by Marie Claire and Everywoman, found that 66 percent of the study’s 3,000 UK female respondents believe that mentoring and networking are important for furthering their career, though a whopping 72 percent had never been mentored.

Marie Royce is co-founder of GenderStrategy, a communication training program that assists workplaces with diversity training. Early on in Royce’s business career, she wasn’t lucky enough to have a mentor. She did, however, have a high-ranking female boss that told her she could accomplish anything. Just knowing that someone believed in her was a tremendous motivator. So much in fact, that when Royce noticed that women and minorities were not getting promoted as quickly as they should have, she started a mentoring program in the company to help her associates connect with those who could provide them with the tools they needed to excel.

“Mentoring didn’t happen early on in my career, so I had to make it happen for others,” Royce said. “Mentors are crucial because they can give you insight and be your biggest champion when you’re not around. It’s a person who’s always looking out for you and looking to help you. They can help position you and give you a heads up when new positions are opening up or new divisions are under development.”

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Succession Planning: Why Companies Are So Bad at Picking Good Leaders

jaymoran jeffcohnContributed by Jeffrey Cohn and Jay Moran

Many women today worry about what it takes to reach the top. They want to know what they can do to become better leaders.

The old paradigm said that they should adopt a traditionally “masculine” style or set of traits. Very few experts believe that now. In fact, when it comes to important leadership attributes, recent research shows that women have a natural advantage. Where they still suffer (like men) is in trying to understand the source of this power. Now as much as ever, both genders need help with their leadership development efforts.

Just as important – albeit less discussed – is knowing how to choose better leaders. In a way, not having the answer to this question produces the same effect as not knowing how to leverage one’s personal abilities. After all, when we do a poor job of selecting leaders, it stunts our own careers. When a board of directors hires the wrong CEO to run an organization, and that individual fails, it reflects negatively on everyone. When a division president picks a less-than-stellar candidate to manage one of her teams, she will be held to account for that group’s subsequent lack of performance.

Yet, most people don’t focus on this side of the issue. As a result, even today’s best organizations commit some serious errors when it comes to important leadership selection decisions.

The first mistake stems from not knowing what qualities to seek in potential leaders. For decades we have been told that a magnetic personality, or Ivy-League education, or certain style, make all the difference. They don’t. None of these factors is a reliable predictor of leadership success.

Other times we focus on qualities that do matter, but we don’t go far enough to seek a healthy balance. For example, we gravitate toward individuals who possess enormous passion and vision, but who are lacking in good judgment. Or we promote individuals with enormous cognitive skills, but who lack enough empathy to handle sticky social situations.

The second big mistake we make when trying to judge leadership potential is the use of insufficient assessment techniques. In other words, even when we know what to look for, we don’t know how to look. We rely on backward-looking interview questions, or inappropriate personality tests, or letters of reference from those who simply cannot predict how a person will perform in a fundamentally new position. Even the perennial favorite among promotion criteria – prior performance – is not a good indicator of future leadership success. At best, it tells only half the story. A solid manager with ten years of experience in marketing, for example, might be poorly suited for a generalist role that will require her to lead an entire division.

In our book Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders? the two of us answer these crucial “what” and “how” questions. Based on more than fifteen years of experience working with premiere executive education programs and some of the best organizations in the world, we explain how to identify the very best leaders. Here are some highlights that will help your company do a better job in this area…

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Movers and Shakers: Jacqueline Allen, Senior Vice President, Finance, Equity Reporting, North America, Citi

jacquelineallenBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Jacqueline Allen, SVP of Finance, Equities Reporting, North America at Citi, said the achievement she is most proud of is going back to school for her MBA. She explained, “I finally took the leap after having breakfast with the CEO of Equities at Citi. It was three years ago, when Citi was entering the most tumultuous time of the downturn. The message I took away was that I needed to be the best I could be to propel my career. So I took inventory of myself and realized that to compete in the changing environment, I needed more education.”

Now that Allen has completed her MBA, she is looking for the next opportunity on the horizon.

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Closet-Cultures Mean Costly Flight Risk for Employers

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iStock_000016928054XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week the Center for Work Life Policy released a long-awaited report entitled “The Power of Out,” a report that details the cost of the closet. Based on the results of a CWLP survey, out of the estimated seven million LGBT employees in the US workforce, 48% are closeted. And according to the report by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Karen Sumberg, that closet costs companies big time.

Sumberg said, “What surprised me most about the research is that so many people are still in the closet at work, and really the effect of someone’s engagement at work is profound.”

The report says, “Among those LGBTs who feel isolated at work, closeted employees are nearly three-quarters (73%) more likely to say they plan to leave their companies within three years.” Not just that, write Hewlett and Sumberg, but when employees are out, they are more productive and build stronger relationships with co-workers and clients.

Based on the CWLP’s numbers, that means almost two and a half million LGBT employees in the US are looking for a new job, simply because their company’s culture prevents them from being themselves at work.

Attrition is expensive. If simply doing what is right (providing a workplace that’s open to people of all stripes) isn’t good enough to encourage employers to build inclusive workplaces, doesn’t the cost of potential attrition show it’s time for companies to address the issue of the closet culture?

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35 Under 35: Sarah Odell, Manager, Talent & Organization Performance, Accenture

SarahOdellBy Cleo Thompson (London), founder of The Gender Blog

British born Sarah Odell began her career in the USA thanks to her youthful prowess with a lacrosse stick. Whilst at school in Surrey, she played for the English youth lacrosse team, was spotted by a US college recruiter, and won a sports scholarship to Vanderbilt University in Tennessee where she studied Human and Organizational Development. This was followed by an MSc from Capella University in Minnesota which in turn enabled her to stay on and work in the US.

“I was very lucky! I started in the US in the telecommunications industry in learning and development, spending seven years with Sprint Nextel, primarily working to develop Learning & Development capabilities in its contact centres and delivering training to its employees all over the country.

“In 2007, I moved back to the UK with Accenture, and I now provide Learning & Development consultancy for clients in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. It’s the full cycle of consultancy, from building relationships with current and existing clients through to delivering strategic and operational services.”

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What’s Your Leadership Practice?

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

If you want to be a better golfer what do you do? Practice. How about if you want to be a better musician? Practice. If you want to be a better leader, what do you do? You get the picture. So what’s your daily leadership practice?

To improve our leadership, we read leadership books, attend seminars, observe famous leaders, even look at our bosses and swear we will never be like them. But do we have a conscious leadership discipline that we practice every day? Based on my observations (including exhaustive research on myself), most leadership is fairly unconscious, so here are three tips to come up with your very own leadership practice.

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How Does the City Approach the LGBT Workforce?

iStock_000016828841XSmallBy Cleo Thompson (London), founder of The Gender Blog

As part of this year’s celebrations of Gay Pride, The Glass Hammer decided to take a look at Sexuality in the City (of London) and ask – how are London’s big companies and financial institutions approaching the LGBT agenda and what do best practices look like in 2011? Are networks making a difference, is it any easier to be out at work than it once was and what does “success” look like if you’re building an integrated and inclusive workplace?

We started by examining the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index – Britain’s leading tool for employers to measure their efforts to tackle discrimination and create inclusive workplaces for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees. Since launching in 2005, more than 650 major employers have taken part in the Index, using Stonewall’s Index criteria as a model for good practice. Each year, Stonewall publishes a list of the Top 100 Employers – the list of those they dub “the most gay friendly employers in Britain.” 2011’s top three such employers are the Home Office, Lloyds Banking Group, and Big 4 accounting firm Ernst & Young and, when we asked around, it became clear that having a place in the Stonewall Index was regarded as essential best practice amongst the LGBT community, with one typical comment being:

“… I would … research the company’s stance and reputation on “gay equality”. I have previously checked whether a company has ever featured in Stonewall’s Equality Index and also spoken to friends who have knowledge about the company.”

After several interviews, we determined a number of best practices that the City’s top companies are engaging in to attract and retain LGBT talent. Here are just a few of the methods these firms are employing to create more inclusive workplaces.

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Voice of Experience: Christie Smith PhD, Principal and Northern Pacific Sector Leader for Life Sciences, Deloitte Consulting LLP

christiesmithBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Christie Smith, Principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP, is a passionate supporter of women in leadership, and has been significantly involved in the firm’s women’s initiatives since joining the organization in 2001.

The former professional golfer said, “My advice to women is to be fearless.”

One of the firm’s most senior lesbians, she has also been involved in the Deloitte’s LGBT community for about five years. In fact, she said, being a more visible “out” leader has helped her be more confident in her career. She explained, “Being comfortable with who I am and bringing my whole self to work has been a fantastic experience at Deloitte”

Now taking on a new role building the firm’s life sciences consulting practice, Smith’s fearless attitude and devotion to authenticity have helped her build a notable career.

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Voice of Experience: Shelley Hurley, Senior Executive, Executive Director, Risk Management and Global Resources Lead, Accenture

Shelley HurleyBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Make sure that you understand what you want and also understand other’s expectations of you ,” advised Shelley Hurley, Executive Director of Risk Management and Global Resources lead at Accenture.

She explained, “Sometimes you’re asked to take on a role that you’re not comfortable with. But stretching yourself is important. Others may see strength in you that they need elsewhere in the organization.”

She added, “Flexibility will help you a great deal in the long run.”

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