The Case for Paid Parental Leave

Team of senior business people smiling togetherBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

In a 2008 examination of 21 high-income countries, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) found that the U.S. ranked 20th in terms of generosity of parental leave and policy designs for couples – just ahead of dead last Switzerland. And the situation hasn’t improved much since. When Australia began its Paid Parental Scheme last year, the United States became the only member of the 34-country Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that does not offer some form of paid leave to working parents after the birth or adoption of a child.

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for certain family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. The FMLA does not apply to all employers or to all employees, however. According to the CEPR report, “about 40 percent of American workers are not eligible for FMLA, and only about a quarter of U.S. employers offer fully paid maternity-related leave of any kind.

In many ways, work/family debates are as much about class as they are about gender – highly educated and relatively wealthy professional women likely fare better in that they can afford high quality child care. Yet, in the U.S., the lack of maternity benefits is one of the few things that affects all working mothers, at all income levels, in all stages of their careers. But this is not just a women’s issue and discussing it as such only makes progress more unlikely. Only 50 nations offer paid leave for fathers and, though paid parental leave is not mandated in the U.S., there are some state-run programs, such as California and New Jersey.

When work/life balance was framed as a women’s issue, progress was slow, but as it continues to be framed as a topic that affects all workers, flexible work options are becoming more prevalent. How can we continue to restructure the debate – and the reality – so women, men, families, and employers win?

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Voice of Experience: Melissa Butler, Partner, Capital Markets Group, White & Case

MelissaButlerBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

After graduating from the University of Colorado – Boulder, Melissa Butler, now partner at White & Case, went on to study law at Georgetown. In 2001, she started her career working in corporate finance at Thacher Proffitt & Wood. “Then in 2006, after a particularly horrendous transaction, I got a call asking if I’d like to move to London… and I said sure,” she recalled with a laugh.

The call came from White & Case, and shortly thereafter, she joined the firm’s London Capital Markets Group focusing on US securities. Early this year, Butler was named partner – and, she says, this is her proudest achievement. “It’s the most amazing thing I’ve accomplished in my professional career.”

Currently Butler is fascinated by her current work in Africa. “It’s so exciting to work in a places that are not tainted with this idea that everyone knows everything. My clients really appreciate my advice as counsel, and I’m really contributing to the development of the market. I love it.”

In general, she continued, “As a securities lawyer, there are a lot of interesting developments, like issues around the new JOBs Act. As the world changes, the question is how we apply security acts from nearly 100 years ago to today’s markets.”

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5 Ways to Manage Your Emotions at Work

lesliegranstonContributed by Leslie Granston, Human Capital Consultant

Last month, America got a peek behind the smooth façade of morning television to witness something raw and real: After months of media speculation, NBC’s Today show co-host Ann Curry was shown the door, and on June 28th, her emotionally naked, on-air goodbye became the story. And she wasn’t alone. Around the same time, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg admitted in a speech at Harvard that she cries at work.  Last year, another high-profile woman revealed her true emotions publicly: Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, well known for liberally using profanity at work and in the media, made news with her accusation that the board that fired her “…f—— me over.”

In her book, It’s Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace, author Anne Kreamer cites a 2009 survey she conducted with colleague Mark Truss of 701 respondents. Their results showed that 41% of the women they polled had cried at work in the preceding year. Are you among the ranks of women who’ve lost their cool at work? I am.

It’s no secret that we can’t turn off our hearts at the office. The challenge is knowing how to manage yourself. Enter emotion management, a branch of emotional intelligence, defined by noted researchers John D. Mayer, Peter Salovey and David R. Caruso as the culmination of a subtle, iterative process that empowers an individual to make a conscious decision about how to act on or express an emotion. Salovey and Caruso wrote a book, The Emotionally Intelligent Manager: How to Develop and Use the Four Key Emotional Skills of Leadership, that interprets their academic work for practitioners.

Emotion management is a critical skill for professional people, particularly women—for whom the display of emotion can mean being perceived as unable to handle stress or just another example of the hysterical/bitch stereotype.

While emotion management sounds great in theory, there are several challenges to practicing it in the real work world, and some obstacles might be surprising: for one, the more successful you are, the harder it may be even to identify your genuine feelings, the first requirement of emotion management. Social scientist Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote about this risk in her landmark book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, a risk that increases as one grows in rank and accrues tenure in a company or organization.

It makes sense—the more integral you are to the power structure of your company, the more likely you are to embrace its implicit values (including how to feel), possibly at the expense of your own. And wherever you sit on the totem pole, in these unstable economic times, it can be more tempting than ever to do what’s necessary to survive. But at what cost?

The good news is that you don’t have to sell out or move to a yurt to manage your emotions and be authentic at the same time. As I do with many complex work questions, I scheduled a telephone chat with my own executive coach-cum-emotion-genius Hemda Mizrahi, to talk about this topic. Hemda’s practice includes a majority of women in financial services. After our conversation and some reflection on my experiences with individuals and organizations as an HR practitioner, here are five suggestions to stay cool and stay real at the office.

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Law Firms Less Willing to Promote Women to Equity Partner

iStock_000006916716XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new report by The National Law Journal, despite years of hard work on behalf of some law firms to attract and retain female lawyers through networking and mentoring initiatives, the percentage of female partners at the US’s largest law firms is still only 18.8%. When it comes to equity partnerships, women are an even smaller minority: 15.1%.

But, even considering the small numbers, as Vivia Chen points out for the Journal, that’s still an improvement. She writes:

“That’s progress since 2003, when NLJ affiliate The American Lawyer compiled similar data, though the pace of change has been slow and tenuous. The overall percentage of women in equity and nonequity partner positions then was 16 percent. As for equity partners, the National Association of Women Lawyers said in a 2011 report that women have been ‘fixed’ at 15 percent of the equity slots for the past 20 years.”

Nevertheless, an increase of two or three percentage points for women in partnership roles hardly yields a number even close to representative of the number of women in the profession – and that’s not just true today, but has been true for many years.

In fact, Catalyst data published this month shows that for over two decades, the percentage of women enrolled in law school has hovered between 40% and 50%, a significantly higher percentage than that of women in any partnership role, let alone equity partnership roles. Why do we see such a striking disparity? The answers aren’t easy – and point to a vicious cycle keeping women out of leadership.

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Success and the System: Brave Female CEOs Wanted for Systemic Change Gig

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

Apparently, Marissa Mayer, the new pregnant female CEO of Yahoo, dislikes feminism and taking maternity leave. Should we feel betrayed by her attitudes? Or should we rejoice that a woman gets a coveted spot as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company?

I believe that everyone, including Marissa Mayer, is entitled to her opinion around feminism (however much I personally disagree with her) and around her own boundaries for returning from maternity leave as much as the next person. Nitpicking about her choices would be a distraction from the real issue: why systemic bias in most workplace cultures results in protectionist behaviors from female executives that make them look more like their fathers than their daughters.

However, what Marissa Mayer may not fully realize is that with great power of being a CEO comes great responsibility.

All leaders need to be conscious that their actions and words heavily influence company culture. Behaviors shape the system and the system dictates workplace culture, often invisible to the naked eye, but can be simply defined as “how we do things around here.” The workplace culture in which you operate dictates whether you are running with a weight around your ankle on a potholed road or running on the latest Olympic track with the wind at your back.

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Great Coaching Conversations: The Five C’s

 

Great Coaching Conversations In my 20 years of managing people, there have been some good coaching conversations, some not-so-good, and some that didn’t happen at all, so I stepped back to distill what worked well and also what I learned from the ones that I failed on pretty badly. Here are five C’s of great coaching conversations whether we are giving the feedback or receiving it.

Here’s a situation. A direct report of yours just gave a presentation to senior management.

The presentation went okay but frankly could have gone a lot better. The direct report knew her material but didn’t demonstrate self-confidence in her body language, didn’t dress appropriately, and didn’t think fast on her feet in addressing some of the questions. You noticed your boss start to lose confidence in your direct report in the meeting. You secretly wonder if she’s losing confidence in your judgment to have the direct report present in the first place. What do you do?

Well, if you’re like most managers, you do nothing. That’s right. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Feedback, particularly developmental feedback, is often hard to give, so most of us avoid giving it. Here are some good excuses I’ve used: “Gosh, I’ve got five other things I’ve got to do immediately.”  “I’ll find a more appropriate time, ummm…in six months when the mid-year review comes around.” “Well, it wasn’t that bad.” “I’m sure she knew she didn’t do her best. She’s a grown-up, she’ll figure it out.”

Sometimes even if we give feedback, we deliver it in such a “sugar-coated way” that the coachee misses it altogether. It’s like exchanging pleasantries at a tea party. Everyone feels good but no one can quite recall what was discussed. Or, we race through feedback like we’re going for a root canal, wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible, without any consideration for the pain or numbness of the person on the receiving end.

Here are the five C’s:

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How to Get White Men to Join the Diversity Movement

iStock_000004922748XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Catalyst’s Jeanine Prime, Vice President, Research, one group has traditionally felt left out of diversity initiatives – to their detriment. That group is white men, and by engaging them proactively, companies can see better results from their efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

“It’s really critical to engage men, and white men in particular, because diversity and inclusion efforts tend to be framed primarily around women and people from ethnic and racial minority groups,” she said.

“But white men tend to hold the majority of the positions of power and influence in organizations. We can’t expect to change cultures of these organizations without them being fully engaged. That’s why Catalyst is doing research on men’s engagement in diversity and inclusion and why we launched MARC,” the organization’s online learning community for men who are committed to achieving equality in the workplace.

In fact, the organization’s latest report, “Calling All White Men: Can Training Help Create Inclusive Workplaces,” suggests that by training white men with the tools to approach diversity positively (rather than implying blame), companies can see big results in a short amount of time.

Catalyst worked with Rockwell Automation, a global engineering company, sending white men in its North American sales division to learning labs about white men’s role in leading diversity and inclusion efforts. These men showed improvements on five measures: “critical thinking” about differences, “taking responsibility for being inclusive,” “inquiring across differences,” “empathetic listening,” and “addressing difficult/emotionally charged issues.”

“I was really surprised that there was measurable change in such a short time frame,” Prime remarked. The team surveyed participants a week before the lab, one month later, and then four months later, and found progress at each step. “At each survey point we found participants were really making improvements in their behaviors, and increasingly acknowledged white male privilege.”

She continued, “That the program could produce such a shift is a testament to the approach. It’s not about shaming or blaming white men, but calling them to leadership and inviting them to play a central role in creating inclusive work environments.”

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“Double Down” Debate Draws Kudos and Ire

iStock_000017887517XSmallBy Robin Madell (San Francisco)

“Do not lean back; lean in. Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision. That’s the only way, when that day comes, you’ll even have a decision to make.”

–Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

There’s increasing polarization on the subject of how to handle work-life’s ever-escalating challenges for women. The friction is visible in the varied media responses to news that incoming Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will be the first female CEO to take the top spot while pregnant, and to Anne-Marie Slaughter’s controversial cover story for The Atlantic, Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.

Part of the dilemma and discussion revolves around a concept coined by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO: “leaning in” versus “leaning back.” In last year’s commencement speech to Barnard College, Sandberg encouraged graduates to “lean way into” their careers. “If all young women start to lean in, we can close the ambition gap right here, right now, if every single one of you leans in,” said Sandberg.

Sandberg describes how failing to “lean in” inadvertently leads many women to leave the workforce:

“Women almost never make one decision to leave the workforce,” said Sandberg. “It doesn’t happen that way. They make small little decisions along the way that eventually lead them there. Maybe it’s the last year of med school when they say, I’ll take a slightly less interesting specialty because I’m going to want more balance one day. Maybe it’s the fifth year in a law firm when they say, I’m not even sure I should go for partner, because I know I’m going to want kids eventually. These women don’t even have relationships, and already they’re finding balance, balance for responsibilities they don’t yet have. And from that moment, they start quietly leaning back. The problem is, often they don’t even realize it.”

In her keynote speech at the 2012 Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards, Kara Swisher paid tribute to Sandberg’s concept, as Swisher described her own personal experience on the heels of suffering a minor stroke. Swisher said many suggested to her after her health scare that she should slow down, relax, and spend more time with her children. In response, Swisher told them that she planned to do the opposite.

“One of the things I did tell them was, ‘I’m going to double down. I’m going to go forward. I’m going to be even more of a workaholic,’ said Swisher. “They say I should slow down. And I say, ‘You know, actually, I’m going to do more. I’m going to push more. I’m going to lean in more.’”

Swisher went on to describe how much Steve Jobs accomplished in the last years of his life, while under pressure and suffering from serious illness. “One of the things I think that happened to him is that he decided he had a very short time left, and instead of wasting it, he pushed on forward,” said Swisher. “During the last years of his life, he created the iPhone, the iPad, he was moving into television. The things we think of him as great, he did when he was very sick, he did in the last years of life when he didn’t have time.”

She continued by saying that while she believed it’s “absolutely true” that women can’t have it all, she believes women can have what they want in life if they’re very careful and spend a lot of time thinking about it. “When you think about being a woman, and you feel like you shouldn’t push forward, you should pull back because of having a baby or anything else, that is exactly the time to turn around and double down,” said Swisher.

Swisher concluded with a friendly jab at Arianna Huffington’s recent installation of nap rooms at the Huffington Post—a response to having fainted from work-life exhaustion four years ago, hitting her head on her desk and breaking her cheekbone: “And if that means, I’m sorry Arianna, you don’t take as many naps, that’s the way it’s going to have to be.”

While Sandberg and Swisher are in alignment with their views on the value of the “lean in,” not everyone in the business community agrees. In fact, a random poll by The Glass Hammer of women executives and workplace experts drew a nearly even 50/50 split between those for and against the idea. And many of those against it were strongly against it.

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Voice of Experience: Kimberly Wood, Senior Partner, Central Market Business Leader, Mercer Investments

kimwoodBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Kimberly Wood, Senior Partner and Central Market Business Leader at Mercer Investments, believes that mentoring the next generation is an important responsibility for senior leaders. She encouraged seasoned women to reach out to the next generation. “I don’t think senior women can do enough,” she said. “I think we need to do a lot more in terms of mentoring, coaching, and being a support system.”

Wood, who spent the majority of her career at in finance and asset management at Ford Motor Company before joining the burgeoning field of implemented consulting (or Outsourced CIO) at Mercer, has taken this responsibility to heart.

“When I go back to my college or do speaking engagements, I get a lot of questions. They really want to know what you’ve been through – both the women and the men actually,” she said.

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Three Reasons to Let Go of Work This Weekend

iStock_000015121523XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new article published in the academic journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, work-related stress can follow you home, impacting your emotional and physical health, as well as impairing your ability to do a good job when you’re actually in the office. But, the author says, you can avoid these negative effects of workplace stress by switching off.

“In the fast-paced 24/7 economy, many people are constantly busy and find it increasingly difficult to unwind and relax,” writes Sabine Sonnentag of the University of Mannheim. “Being continuously occupied with job-related issues without mentally disengaging from time to time might seem necessary for employees in many organizations, but it can have negative side effects.”

According to Sonnentag, detaching means turning off your Blackberry, not logging into your email, and forgetting about conflicts with coworkers. This can be difficult for high achievers, but, many studies suggest you’ll be happier and better at your job if you learn to silence the work worry-wart inside your mind. Here are three reasons to let go of work this weekend.

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