Addressing Work-Life Challenges in Asia

iStock_000006074898XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to the latest report by Catalyst, work-life fit is a key issue in Asia – for women and men. In fact, the research – which polled almost 2,000 high potential employees of US or European multinationals working in Asia – revealed that 89% of women and 91% of men said work-life fit was “very important” to them.

On the other hand, only about half of respondents said work-life fit was “easy.”

As companies become more global, Catalyst says, they need to begin devising work-life strategies that work in the context of local cultures. The authors, Laura Sabattini and Nancy M. Carter, explain, “As with other workplace strategies, implementing work-life programs requires the thoughtful integration of a global approach and local customs to ensure the strategies make sense in employees’ day-to-day lives.”

While men and women reported similar views toward work-life fit in the research, the authors believe that the issue is more salient for those companies looking to get the competitive edge by attracting and retaining more women. They write, “Hiring skilled women can provide a competitive advantage for global companies, especially in countries such as India and China, where women’s economic and workforce participation is on the rise.”

They add, “Global enterprises have the potential to influence employment practices–across both borders and continents, creating work environments that foster greater consideration of employees’ unique work-life challenges and that are more inclusive of women.”

Read more

/by

Women Abroad – How to Get the Most from an International Assignment

Businesswoman Standing Out From the Crowd - IsolatedBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Rosalie L. Tung is all too familiar with the challenges that women face when it comes to international assignments. As the Professor of International Business at Simon Fraser University in Canada, Tung has devoted countless hours to researching and writing about these challenges, but they may not be what you think. In her groundbreaking work Female Expatriates: The Model Global Manager?, Tung asserts that women are actually ideal candidates for overseas assignments and the challenges they face have little to do with the difficulties of being in a new country, but rather in the difficulty they experience actually getting the opportunity to work abroad.

The percentage of women in international assignments increased from 3 percent to 16 percent in the late 1990s. Throughout the 2000s, the percentage increased, though very slowly. Most recent studies have either put the percentage of women in international assignments at or slightly below 20 percent. Tung sites three factors outlined by Nancy J. Adler that are commonly provided by companies for the low deployment of women in international assignments: women don’t want overseas assignments (due to family considerations), other countries don’t want female expatriates in business dealings, and women lack the skills or competencies to succeed. These are “misconceptions” and as Tung wrote in Female Expatriates, “As long as women remain under-represented in international assignments, they will continue to lack the opportunity to acquire one of the critical competencies required of global leaders.”

This is more than just being denied one job opportunity; it’s more like being denied vital experience that can drastically change the course of your career. As Tung points out, the continued globalization of industries has led to a quest by organizations worldwide for global leaders who can help their companies survive in highly competitive work environments. In a global economy, people with global experience are pivotal to an organization’s competitive edge and women have often been excluded from promotions and leadership positions because they appear to lack one of the critical competencies identified for such key roles: a global mindset.

Once again, women find themselves in a Catch-22: they can’t move forward unless they have experience working internationally, but they’re not given the opportunity because of unfair assumptions about their competence and willingness to work abroad.

Fortunately, some women are chipping away at these misconceptions – and providing key strategic advice on navigating the challenges of taking an international post.

Read more

/by

Challenging Stereotypes at This Year’s NCWIT Summit

Woman with tablet computerBy Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

Understanding and breaking stereotypes was a hot topic at the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) Summit last week in Chicago.  The NCWIT was established in 2004 with support from the National Science Foundation to increase the amount of women in computing and technology. NCWIT does not consider themselves a women’s network rather a change leader bringing men and women together to recruit, develop, and retain women in information technology.

One of the speakers at the Summit was Dr. Shelley Correll, a professor at Stanford University who studies how gendered expectations shape the everyday experiences of men and women in achievement-oriented settings. She spoke on the value of understanding biases and stereotypes within the hiring process.

Dr. Correll began her presentation referring to a study about the number of female musicians performing in orchestras. A study co-authored by Cecilia Rouse, an associate professor at Princeton University, and Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University, confirmed the existence of sex-biased hiring by major symphony orchestras and illustrated the value of blind auditions.

According to Correll, females only represented 5% of the musicians that played in symphony orchestras in the 1970’s. When blind auditions were introduced, musicians played behind a screen so the sex of the musician was hidden, 50 percent of the musicians that moved on to the second round of auditions were females.  Today, females make up 25 percent of the musicians in symphony orchestras.

“This study points out two things,” said Correll. “The first is that gender stereotypes bias the evaluations of individuals in ways that are often male advantaging. The second is that these biases can be reduced or eliminated.”

Read more

/by

How Telling Your Story Can Make You A Better Leader

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

One of my clients is taking on a new CEO role. The company has gone through some tough challenges and changes and she wants to find a way to connect with the people that she will be leading in a way that is authentic. She wants to lower the collective high blood pressure in the room that typically results when new Management comes in. Most new CEO introductions are about the challenges the company faces, the new CEO’s strategy for success (i.e. let me save you from the mess you’ve created) and what the new CEO needs from the employees (your jobs may be safe if you all just do what I say). When people are anxious or wondering whether they will have a job on Monday, how well do you think that goes over?

My client decided to take a different tact. Her goal is to really connect with the employees in the company, to learn from them what works and doesn’t and to enroll them in helping her find the solutions. And there is no better way to connect with people than by telling your leadership story. Here are five steps you can take today to articulate that story and start sharing it to more powerfully connect and engage with others.

Those of us who experienced story telling in our families, or around a camp-fire as children, understand the impact stories have on our experiences and the very formation of who we are and our values. There is new research from neuroscience about the power of story-telling to shape our brains as reported in this  New York Times article.

So, here are the five steps.

Read more

/by

Women of Vision Share Successes – and Failures – with Tech’s Up-and-Comers

,

iStock_000014933658XSmallBy Robin Madell (San Francisco)

“By the end of the speeches, you’re going to feel like you haven’t done anything in your career!” This was a statement overheard several times in passing from attendees earlier this month at the seventh annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet in Santa Clara, California, held by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). The sentiment referred to the continuously high caliber of award winners who have the distinction of receiving an ABI award for leadership, innovation, or social impact.

Yet by the time the speeches were through, the packed ballroom of 800 attendees— which included more than 100 students with attendance sponsored by tech companies and local universities—was clearly inspired, not discouraged. This was due not only to the impressive video bios that recounted the winning women’s achievements, but to the “anti-bios” that each winner bravely shared, directing their advice in particular to the younger women in the audience.

Read more

/by

Movers and Shakers: Susan Bulkeley Butler, Founder and CEO of SBB Institute for the Development of Women Leaders

susanbulkeleybutlerBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Be responsible for who you are and what you want to be and make it happen,” advised Susan Bulkeley Butler, founder and CEO of the SSB institute for the Development of Women Leaders.

This is advice Butler herself has lived – after being the first woman professional hired at Arthur Anderson (now Accenture) in 1965, she found herself passed over for promotion time and time again – until she realized she needed to take control of her career, that is. Butler turned her professional path around, eventually being named the first female partner at the firm. Now retired from the company, Butler is also a published author and leadership speaker, enthusiastically working toward the goal of getting more women into top jobs.

“We have one life and I’m not sure we all make things happen for us, rather than let things happen to us. If we’re not taking responsibility for who we are and where we want to be, then who are we outsourcing this to? Who is making this happen?”

Read more

/by

Intrepid Woman: Theresa Payton, President and CEO, Fortalice

theresapaytonBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Theresa Payton, President and CEO of Fortalice and co-author of Protecting Your Internet Identity: Are You Naked Online, one of the most important things she has learned throughout her career sounds simple, but it’s something many women find challenging. “Saying no sometimes is actually okay. It’s not a sign of not being a team player. “

Payton, who spent 16 years in technology in the banking industry before becoming the first female Chief Information Officer at the White House, continued, “Early in my career, I felt I needed to rush in, grab the ball, and do it all. I quickly became overloaded. There’s a difference between not letting a ball drop and feeling as if I needed to take on everything myself.”

“Fortunately, I had mentors say to me that it’s okay to say no and recommend someone else,” she added.

Read more

/by

Voice of Experience: Dana Kromm, Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions Group, Shearman & Sterling

danakrommBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Graduating from law school at the University of California, Davis in 2001, Dana Kromm found herself at the “tail end of the tech boom.” But the rising M&A star at global law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP in San Francisco has more than made up for her late arrival.

Recently named one of California’s Top Women Lawyers by the legal publication The Daily Journal, Kromm, a partner in the firm’s M&A group, has established a solid reputation in Bay Area transactions and within the private equity community, advising the likes of Twitter, Visa and Sybase, as well as Francisco Partners and a number of other major technology-focused private equity firms.

“The great part about M&A is that it’s a field where you’re constantly learning new things – there’s always something in a deal that’s new, a new problem or a new issue,” she explained. “Your job as an M&A lawyer is to be a master of all the issues – which means you have the opportunity to be constantly learning.”

The same goes for working in the technology space, she continued. “Technology issues keep you on your toes in the same way, whether you’re working with IP issues, regulatory issues, or something else. It makes for a vibrant and ever-changing practice.”

Kromm says she established her reputation in the technology M&A field by getting a keen understanding of the business objectives of her clients. “Particularly on the private equity side, it’s understanding the investment motives, why they’re interested in the particular business, where they see the growth coming from. And second to that, particularly with the technology companies themselves, it’s making an effort to understand their business as well and why they’re doing the transaction.”

She added, “Technology has its own set of individual issues and I make it a priority to understand what those are.”

Recently Kromm has worked on several deals in the healthcare information technology field, and she said she is interested in how pending changes to healthcare law, including the US Supreme Court’s expected decision this summer on The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will impact her clients.

“I’m interested in seeing how those changes impact the business model of the healthcare IT companies I’m working with,” she says.

Read more

/by

Voice of Experience: Minerva Tantoco, Executive Director, Client Facing Technology, UBS

MinervaTantocoBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“My path could not have been predicted early in my career,” said Minerva Tantoco, Executive Director of Client Facing Technology at UBS. “If I’d known it was just following your interests and passions and just doing them well, I think I’d have had a lot less stress.”

“Just be yourself, and have a sense of humor. Your path is you and what you find interesting.”

Through a career spanning three decades and covering multiple industries, Tantoco has worked on the cutting edge of online advertising, e-commerce, mobile technology, and shifting workflows.

“To be part of generating change and really revolutionizing how we do business every two years, and to be part of the changes that have occurred over the past 30 years – I feel like I’m a part of the history of computing,” she said.

Read more

/by

Your Next Tech Career: Big Data

Woman Typing on Computer Keyboard In OfficeBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“There are a couple of big trends that happen every ten years or so in technology,” said Nancy Cooper, member of the Board of Trustees of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and retired Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CA Technologies.

“It was the internet, then the cloud, and now it’s big data,” she said. “Career paths are going to change because of big data.”

In fact, the push for technologists in big data roles is not years away. Job growth in this field is not even right around the corner – it’s right now. In fact, according to Deloitte’s 2012 Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions report, by the end of this year, 90% of the Fortune 500 will have initiatives aimed at the big data field – and revenues will “likely be in the range of $1-1.5 billion,” the firm projects.

Dr. Francine Berman, Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, also member of the Board of Trustees for ABI, pointed out the scale of information that’s available right now. She referred to an IDC report indicating that there are currently 1.8 zettabytes of data – put another way, she explained, “that’s 1.8 trillion trillion – sextillion – bytes of data out there in the world, and people are using this data in dramatic ways.”

She added, “Data-focused careers are hot now and becoming more important all the time.”

Read more

/by