Voice of Experience: Palmina Fava, Partner, Litigation, and Co-Chair, Global Compliance and Disputes Practice, Paul Hastings

palminafavaBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

After studying government and international relations at Georgetown, Palmina Fava knew she wanted a career with an international scope. “But I wasn’t sure what that would be,” she explained. “So I went to Fordham Law School, wanting very much to litigate cases, be in court, and be in front of Boards of Directors.”

When she began her career at DLA Piper, Fava continued, “I became much more involved in complex commercial matters and IP litigations. In preparing clients for trial and in going through the litigation process, I began understanding more about a client’s business and became much more involved in working with clients on corporate governance matters.”

“Then Enron and Sarbanes Oxley happened,” she said. “There was much more of a focus on corporate governance and business ethics, and my practice became international in scope.” Fava’s career began taking on the global focus she had always sought, and within a few years, about half of the investigations she handled took place abroad, involving anti-corruption issues.

“About two years ago, I moved to Paul Hastings to work with the Firm’s global compliance practice group.” As co-chair of the Global Compliance and Disputes practice, Fava says she is proud of the reputation she has been able to establish with top-level clients.

“I’ve been very blessed to work with and learn from amazing lawyers and clients. I’m proud of having gained the trust of Fortune 100 clients and proud when they tell me I’ve provided them with practical, business-savvy advice. They have a choice in what law firm and lawyer to use, and I’m very proud when I get that call, that they trust me to work with them on critical compliance and anti-corruption issues.”

She continued, “I’m working on a lot of interesting investigations outside of the US. And I find it’s important to understand the politics, the economics, and the cultural issues of the country in which your investigation is focused.”

“The perspective of the witness I’m interviewing is completely different, so coming at it from a US perspective is not as effective. I try to step outside my experiences and put myself in the shoes of the people whom I’m interviewing,” she explained.

She says she has also learned over the years that, while passion for an issue is important, it’s also important to create boundaries between her personal feelings and her work. “Being passionate about a client’s case doesn’t mean you need to be invested emotionally in it.”

She explained, “Taking a step back and investigating an issue or analyzing it as opposing counsel, a regulator, or a business person would makes you a better negotiator and advocate for your client.”

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Turn Passion into Profit

marciawiederContributed by Marcia Wieder

In our careers, dreaming is serious business and the driving force for transformation. Without vision companies fail, and without our personal vision, our dreams, our lives can become mundane, redundant, even stagnant. When we are in touch with our passion we have more energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. In a business context “passion sells.” Wouldn’t you rather do business with people who enjoy what they are doing rather than someone who is just doing a job? Passion and productivity go hand in hand. Happy people make happy employees and happy employees go the extra mile, producing greater results.

How do you turn passion into profit? Do what matters and has meaning for you and the money will follow. But do it with passion and it may become easier to accomplish. A visionary leader articulates their vision with clarity so people understand what it is and with passion so others want to join them. Passion is contagious. It can help you sell your ideas or products to others. Passion inspires people to do great things, to go beyond normal limits and to soar to new heights.

Consider these tips for success:

  • The people who are the most successful and satisfied with their work and life know that passion lives inside of us. The secret is to intentionally bring more of what you love into your daily life.
  • Bring your passion to your work, and you’ll manage your team differently.
  • Tune into what excites you and you will show up differently in your relationships with others.
  • Bring your excitement and enthusiasm to your customers and they will buy more from you.
  • Focus your passion and use it to compel your business forward. Passion without focus can be wasted energy. But passion with clarity and commitment can be an unstoppable life-changing formula for success.

Passion is the fire in your belly. It is when you are compelled to action. Passion is the juice that will help you move mountains to accomplish your dreams and goals, personally and professionally. Passion without a plan can be wasted energy, but used to move your dreams forward, it is dynamite. Also, passion is a time management tool, because when you are doing what you love, it often gets done faster. The secret to a joyful life is to schedule more things into your everyday life that have heart and meaning for you.

People are inspired by enthusiasm. Find your passion and bring it to your work and life. Here’s how:

  1. Find resources to help take you and your team to new heights, like my project DreamUniversity.com.
  2. Use passion as the barometer to say “no thank you” when you have a choice. Clear away clutter to make room for your dreams.
  3. Passion Quest – take a period of time a day, week, month (you don’t have to put the rest of your life on hold) to discover exactly what is it you are passionate about.
  4. Think of three times in your life when you were truly feeling passionate. Find a common thread. Were you learning, teaching, risk taking, helping others, and having fun, problem solving? What was it that you were passionate about in all three memories?
  5. Explore how you can bring more of this quality to your work. How can you make your work more fun, educational or adventurous? Bring more of what you love into your every day life.
  6. Proactively inspire your team to do the same. Encourage people to bring their passion for fun, success, creativity, helping others or trying new things, to their business.

On the subject of money, it does not have to be the obstacle stopping your from pursuing your dream. People often say, “I’d pursue my dream if I could only afford it.” So I ask, “How much money do you need?” The most common answer is “I don’t know… but I know I don’t have enough.” It is the fear of failure that keeps us from sitting down with a pencil and assessing our needs. It is doubt and concern that keep us from exploring other creative options such as bartering or trading services.

Grow your career, your team, your family and your own well-being by igniting your passion and sharing it with others. Increase profit and productivity by inspiring people to dream big. Demonstrate that your company is a unique and fabulous place to be, because you encourage people to bring their passion to work. When this happens, everyone wins.

Marcia Wieder, CEO/Founder of Dream University is the author of 14 books and an acclaimed speaker on goal setting, visionary thinking and team building. To receive 3 powerful ebooks go to: DreamUniversity.com/gift

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Attitude Adjustment: Making Gender Initiatives Stick

iStock_000007925551XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Recently, Marie Claire published an interview with Sallie Krawcheck, one of her first since her ouster last fall from Bank of America, where she was President of Global Wealth and Investment Management.

Krawcheck expressed her dissatisfaction with programs designed to develop women. She said:

“But if you look around Wall Street and corporate America, we’re putting women on diversity councils; we’re putting them in mentoring programs; we’re giving them special leadership training, telling them how to ask for promotions — but we are not promoting them. My goodness, we’re just making women busier. There needs to be a rethink about how to make them successful in these organizations.”

So-called “fix the women” approaches amount to little if companies aren’t willing to address the systemic, cultural reasons keeping women out of top jobs.

It’s about changing attitudes – and that’s much more difficult to manage than setting up networking or development initiatives.

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Advocating for Women Leaders

iStock_000004797699XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“We want it to be unremarkable that the number of women in the boardroom at least equals that of men,” said Anne Izzillo, President of the Financial Women’s Association, during her opening talk at the organization’s annual dinner this week. “We want it to be unremarkable to have senior women running major US and global organizations.”

When these things become unremarkable, Izzillo believes, it will signify that women are getting the same opportunities and encouragement as men to lead, that it won’t be a surprise or a big deal when a woman beats the odds to become the boss – because, by that point, the odds won’t be stacked against women in the first place.

She said that the only way to break down the last barriers standing in the way of women’s leadership is through active sponsorship – advocacy and outreach from the top for talented women who deserve a shot at a stretch assignment or challenging role so they can show off what they can do.

The dinner, which honored Paula Gavin, President of National Urban Fellows, and Maria Bartiromo, Anchor of CNBC’s “Closing Bell” and Anchor and Managing Editor of “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo,” celebrated the mentorship and sponsorship of women. After all, these relationships are at the core of how people advance in the workplace. Getting more women to the top will require careful advocacy for talented women by those who are already there.

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How to Ask For More Support at Work

DarcyEikenbergContributed by Darcy Eikenberg, ACC, Author of Bring your Superpowers to Work: Your Guide to More Clarity, Confidence & Control and Founder of RedCapeRevolution.com

If you’ve ever found yourself overwhelmed by your to-do list at work, you’re not alone. And while you quietly know you’re capable of doing the things on the list, you might wonder whether you should be doing some of them—especially those things that aren’t making the biggest difference for your company or for your career.

If that’s you, then it’s time to ask for more support at work.

Does the thought of asking bring up fears of being seen as incompetent, needy, not a “team player”? Consider that an old school mentality. Today, identifying lower value work activities and getting them handled elsewhere is an essential skill in increasing your value and contribution to the company without increasing your time and stress. A great business rightsizes the work to match the talent, so if that’s not happening for you in your workplace, do it yourself and ask for help. Here’s how.

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Do Powerful Women Have a Responsibility to Challenge the System?

iStock_000004512689XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

More control over work arrangements – that’s what 30% of senior-level Wall Street women said they would negotiate for besides money if they were starting a new job. This question was posed in a survey of over 550 high-level Wall Street women who were invited to attend last week’s Wall Street Women Forum®, a half-day, invitation-only conference.

Following more control over work arrangements, 27% said they would ask for responsibility for key clients, and 22% said they would request a seat on a key committee or task force. The findings of the survey fell in line with a key theme of the conference – women are seeking more power over their schedules, their workload, and their companies.

On the other hand, almost nine out of ten (87%) respondents agreed with the statement, “Men are paid for potential while women are paid for performance.” When the results of the survey were revealed, many women at the Forum nodded their heads in agreement. Women are working in a system that gives an advantage to men, simply for being men (although 19% said that while they agreed with the statement in general, it didn’t necessarily apply to them personally).

During her keynote discussion, Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments and Chairman of the Ariel Investment Trust, said she felt senior-level women should be more vocal about the state of gender inequality on Wall Street – although she acknowledged that the economic environment makes that difficult.

“I’m a glass half full girl. I’m an eternal optimist and I feel like we’re going backward,” she said, referring to the disproportionate number of layoffs of top women during the economic crisis. “I think because of the crisis, everyone wants to keep our place and we’ve gotten a little quiet.”

She added, “We have to be more explicit about what’s at stake.”

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Building Business Relationships: Women, Power, and Golf

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iStock_000013865591XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Earlier this month the Masters reminded us of the not-so-subtle bias that women continue to face in the corporate space. Even when they have reached the highest echelons of business, women still contend with outright barriers to networks of power.

And make no mistake, golf and business go hand in hand. Golf has long been the game of business people. It has social cache, while at the same time, it’s not too physically demanding. It’s good for building the rapport, conversation, and friendly competition at the core of strong business relationships.

But, the majority of women avoid the game, and, according to Leslie Andrews and Adrienne Wax, the authors of the newly published book Even Par: How Golf Helps Women Gain the Upper Hand in Business, they’re missing out on the opportunity to build strong relationships that can help advance their careers. “Golf is a great way to build relationships with clients, prospective clients, people within your company. If you can talk about golf, all of the sudden, you have a reason to talk to the CEO or your boss two levels above you,” Wax explained.

She added, “It’s not only our point of view, but statistics support the fact that golf has significant advantages to businesswomen.” She pointed to a survey by Mass Mutual of 1,000 woman who played golf. “Seventy-three percent agreed that playing golf helped them build relationships and network for business,” she said.

Golf can be a tool for advancement, but given its historical and sometimes current practice of outright discrimination, should women bother? Does learning to play golf to help your career mean assimilating to a boys’ club culture of business, or is it about taking control, using every tool at your disposal to get ahead? It’s a tricky topic.

One thing’s for sure – considering the rising clout of women in the corporate space, maybe golf needs women more than women need golf. “I can’t think of a man in business who wouldn’t want to network with Virginia Rometty,” Wax remarked.

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Voice of Experience: Suzanne Rab, Partner, Antitrust, King & Spalding

suzannerabBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Don’t downsize your own horizons. Allow yourself to imagine what you can be,” advised Suzanne Rab, Partner at King & Spalding.

In addition to her recent completion of a book on Indian competition law, Rab, an antitrust lawyer, has been tasked with launching the UK and EU antitrust ‘on the ground’ presence of the US firm from its European hub in London. That responsibility has made her even more aware of the importance of diversity, as well as her own ability to embrace change in the legal profession.

A keen advocate for women, she encourages her colleagues not to shy away from asserting themselves. “Don’t be afraid to promote your capabilities or celebrate your achievements. Don’t get me wrong – this is not about self posturing, but is a matter of confidence in your own abilities and what you can contribute. I have found that women can be more reticent to put themselves forward. Put yourself out there for senior positions if you aspire to them.”

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10 Ways for Executives to Green Their Business

iStock_000008881479XSmallBy Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

Every day, more organizations are recognizing the impact sustainability practices can have on their business and are implementing sustainable initiatives. However, sustainability can’t exist in silo, it should be integrated into all aspects of organization. To be authentic and effective, sustainability must be measured, then goals set, documented and shared. As companies try to meet their stated goals, they should track their progress and report on their successes and shortcomings. Without transparency, sustainability efforts ring hollow.

Sustainability initiatives can increase employee retention and satisfaction, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, streamline business processes, save money, enrich the community and benefit the bottom line.

In honor of Earth Day, here are 10 ways that executive women can leverage their influence to make a difference.

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STEM Fields: Something’s Gotta Give

iStock_000017448696XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

We hear it all the time: why are women still so underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields? There are scientific fields in which women are plentiful, such as medicine, and though it’s true that women remain grossly under-represented in engineering and computing, things are changing – perhaps more rapidly than we’ve been led to believe.

The Why So Few? report released by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) found that at the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented, the gender gap is rapidly shrinking. Among sixth and seventh graders who score more than 700 on the math SAT, 30 years ago boys outnumbered girls 13 to one, but only about three to one now.

Plus, women, who aren’t socialized to pursue careers in STEM fields, must sometimes combat outright discrimination if they do pursue careers in these fields. That was made especially clear when Harvard’s former president and the current director of the National Economic Council for the Obama administration, Lawrence H. Summers, made some highly offensive remarks several years ago, implying that women might lack an intrinsic aptitude for math and science – which we know is not true.

It’s offensive that women’s abilities are still being called into question, requiring scientific tests to prove they’re just as capable of excelling in fields and subjects historically dominated by men. This discriminatory attitude lives on the culture of STEM – and it’s embarrassing that it continues today. But discrimination is only part of the problem when it comes to the lack of women in these fields. The other half the equation, according to a new study by the Association of Women in Science (AWIS), is the work life challenges associated with careers in STEM.

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