How to Satisfy Your Travel Bug and Stay Part of the Team

MollyMeyerContributed by Molly Meyer, co-author of It’s My Company Too!

I’ve told plenty of people about running with the bulls in Pamplona. What I usually leave out is that I was the most scared I’ve ever felt in my entire life…and I’ve seen all three Paranormal Activity movies.

At the San Fermin festival I thought to myself, “How fast can these bulls really run? How close will they get to me, really?” Ha. That was before I stepped onto the world’s narrowest street next to the scariest man I’d ever seen that wasn’t acting opposite Bruce Willis in an action-adventure movie. He had chosen to run next to me for a reason. I was small, young, female, blonde… I’d run next to me too. If it came down to it and he had to out-run his neighbor, I was guaranteed hoof-meat.

I forgot to mention that I wasn’t on “vacation” when participating in this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was traveling while working (not to be confused with traveling for work). I’ve split the last three years nearly equally between North America and Europe. In fact, I’m writing this from the stony beaches of Croatia. I’m not a full-time freelancer—although I was able to co-author a book while traveling. I’m actually the Creative Director of a marketing company based out of Chicago.

Not many people understand how I “get away” with this having a steady job while traveling the world lifestyle. But, when you understand the kinds of things you require in order to produce your best work, then both you and your organization can justify the freedom to work where you want as much as possible.

I find it extremely difficult to be in one place and pump out the same imaginative work day after day. If it’s not running with the bulls, it’s dancing at Oktoberfest or singing karaoke on a cruise ship. I crave a change in scenery, if not to satisfy my curiosity or placate my impending boredom with monotony, then certainly to enhance the part of my brain that collects life experiences, cultivates them, and spits out something new to use as a marketing bit.

Maybe I’ve never used running with the bulls as material for a client’s advertisement, per se, but I do channel the emotions I’ve experienced in situations all over the world—like the complete helplessness of mind-numbing fear—to create something that offers comfort to consumers who might be experiencing similar emotions. It’s a win-win for both me and my organization—they get a deeper chest of potential material, and I get the satisfaction of experiencing its contents.

Through all of my “experience mining,” I often find myself feeling frantic trying to keep track of the time differences, project deadlines and creative briefs while balancing my need for adventure. When I first started out, I was lonely, overwhelmed and stressed. I had to reassess my situation.

How can a committed, entangled employee of an organization have her traveling cake and eat it too?

I put together a bible of do’s and don’ts for how to maintain human contact, give my best work to my organization, and earn a paycheck.

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So Now There are Four Glass Ceilings?

iStock_000001256887XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

If you’ve been following any women’s career blogs lately, you’ll have read that the glass ceiling is dead, according to a new study by Ernst & Young.

Well, not quite.

In fact, according to the professional services firm’s survey of 1,000 women in the UK, the concept of the glass ceiling we’ve come to know has merely been replaced. With what? Well, with many glass ceilings.

Lately, there’s been an increasing focus on gender diversity in the workplace, explained Liz Bingham, Managing Partner, People and Talent, UK and Ireland at Ernst & Young. “But the notion that there is a single glass-ceiling for women, as a working concept for today’s modern career, is dead. Professional women have told us they face multiple barriers on their rise to the top.”

Not exactly the news we were waiting for. But, by identifying the many different challenges standing in women’s career progression, we can more accurately find ways to break through them.

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Authentic Words from Authentic Women

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

This year, our theme has been “exploring identity at work,” and we have hosted two panels exploring what it means to be a woman and LGBT in financial services in New York and in London. Recently whilst attending and speaking at Out & Equal’s Global Conference in London, I was fortunate enough to attend a breakout session called “Being a Senior Executive Woman” moderated by the skilled Jean Balfour. The panel consisted of Liz Bingham from Ernst & Young, Claudia Brind-Woody from IBM, and Alexandra van der Tuin from Accenture (Netherlands).

The panelists discussed being an authentic leader, breaking the glass ceiling, and how sponsorship has a big role to play in increasing the number of women in senior management.

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Career Coaching for Your Inner Critic

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

We all have an inner critic. She’s usually telling us:

  • “You’re not really going to ask for that raise are you? They’ll laugh you out of the office.”
  • “C’mon you don’t actually think you deserve that corner office, do you?”
  • “Don’t be bragging now. Just do the work and hope they don’t fire you.”
  • “You were never really good at convincing people, so just shut up now while you’re ahead.”
  • “Wow, you look really fat in that outfit”…right before you enter the boardroom for your presentation.

Our inner critic pops up without notice to give us unsolicited advice. Her constant whispers keep us from reaching our potential. She saps our energy, kills our creativity, fans our fears, and squelches our spirit. What to do? Here are five steps to work with our inner critic.

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How to Manage Your Team with Positive Psychology

Businesswoman Giving Thumbs Up - IsolatedContributed by Alexa Thompson

The standard approach to corporate human resources has come a long way in the last half-century. Up until about World War II, employees were largely viewed as corporate assets—hired for their abilities, workers were expected to perform and achieve with very little attention paid to their personal development or individual well-being. The “positive psychology” movement of the 1960s and 70s brought the idea of subjective employee satisfaction to center stage. Many of the most successful companies today, from small start-ups to multinational business conglomerates, attribute much of their success to the happiness of their workers. More companies than ever are investing in their employees’ emotional well-being, and most are seeing tremendous results.

One application of positive psychology is in the workplace environment. An employee who feels valued and cared for by her employer is more likely to be content, which in turn can lead to increased productivity, greater interest in teamwork, and fewer sick days. The feeling is contagious. Departments that work cohesively spread to divisions, floors, and units: before long, an entire company is in step and more successful than ever before.

To many managers and executives, however, dealing with employee emotions feels a bit “soft.” Overcoming the initial hesitation to care for employees as people, not just workers, is not always an easy transition. Here’s how you can make it work.

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Moms-in-Law: Balancing Priorities in Parenting and Practicing Law

iStock_000008227662XSmallBy Robin Madell (San Francisco)

Three years ago, Rachel Smith, employment attorney and partner in the Houston office of Baker Hostetler and mother of a then-one-year-old daughter, learned the hard way that her work/life balance was seriously out of whack.

Smith had been in the middle of another crazy week both at work and home: she was planning for her daughter’s first birthday party, family was in town, and work was exceptionally busy. To top it off, she had plans to travel with her husband to Puerto Rico for their first post-baby vacation—which meant doing double duty on the front end to clear the deck at the office.

But instead of waking up to the alarm with her husband to depart for the airport as scheduled that Sunday morning, Smith instead found herself compelled to drive back to the office late Saturday night, on the heels of her daughter’s birthday party, just to tie up a few more loose ends before leaving on vacation. The result of her midnight mission? A block away from her driveway, she fell asleep at the wheel of her SUV, wrecking her vehicle and totaling her neighbor’s car.

“I remember telling my admin mid-week that I would sleep when I was on the plane for Puerto Rico Sunday morning,” recalls Smith. “I had decided on Wednesday that I’d get sleep on Sunday—in retrospect, clearly crazy. But at the time, I felt like I had no other choice if I was going to accomplish everything I needed to get done at home and in the office before leaving on vacation.”

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Men Who Get It: Barton Hill, Global Head of Marketing, Securities and Fund Services, Citi

bartonhillBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“To be honest,” began Barton Hill, Managing Director, Global Head of Marketing, Securities and Fund Services, at Citi, “as a white male, there’s a lot that I didn’t know, that I’ve learned along the way.” When Hill was tapped to Chair the Bank’s North American Diversity Operating Committee, he thought it would be just be a matter of figuring out and implementing the right diversity policy. But, he continued, there was so much more.

“There’s a whole range of concerns that people of different backgrounds possess, and what different challenges lie before them. I simplistically thought we just didn’t have the right programs or we just weren’t working hard enough. But the range, and depth, and root causes – I had no idea what the obstacles were.”

Hill said he was particularly struck by the notion of “feeling safe.” He explained, “The concept of feeling safe – I never would have thought of that. Safe is not a word I would have thought of in a work environment. But it’s real.”

Armed with new knowledge and inspired by his four daughters, Hill is working hard to move the diversity journey forward as Citi transforms its business.

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Helping Young Women Lawyers Develop Global Skills

Friendly businesswoman standing with her colleaguesBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

One of the most important lessons for younger lawyers to understand these days is the impact of globalization. The need to develop a global consciousness and comfort in working with clients around the world is growing, and growing quickly – according to Katie Larkin-Wong, an Associate at Latham & Watkins, LLP and President of Ms. JD, a national non-profit comprised of female law students and younger associates.

Larkin-Wong continued, “Any top lawyer talks about how globalization affects what we do. This is a client-driven profession, and there are too many opportunities in other nations. Our generation does not have the option of not being global.”

Helping to develop that global consciousness is one reason the group created its Global Education Fund, which enables young women in Uganda to attend law school at Makerere University. The other reason, Larkin-Wong explained, is to help these women achieve their dreams and inspire their communities.

The program has also helped Ms. JD’s members in their own professional development. Here’s how.

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Voice of Experience: Edie Hunt, Chief Diversity Officer and Advising Director, Goldman Sachs

This week The Glass Hammer is publishing a series of profiles on top leaders in corporate diversity. Check back all week long to learn about the women making a difference.

EdieHuntBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I say this with rose colored glasses,” began Edie Hunt, Chief Diversity Officer and Advising Director at Goldman Sachs, “but I wait for the day when we don’t need an Office of Diversity and Inclusion – because everyone gets it.”

Hunt has spent the majority of her career advocating for diversity, initiating powerful ideas like Goldman Sachs’ Returnship, its women’s network, and its practice of awarding fellowships to diverse rising stars. She predicts that day when diversity offices are no longer needed is still 15 to 20 years in the future, but says she’s pleased with the current progress of the field.

“I think the next idea in diversity will be the concept of diversity being for everyone,” she said. “We had a watershed moment in 2010 during our Americas Diversity Week, which was that diversity is not about having events for women, Asians, LGBT employees, or any specific group. But that the events were for everyone in the firm to learn about the unique attributes of everyone else in the firm.”

She explained, “We have celebrations and events throughout the year. Whereas, five years ago at a women’s history month event, we’d have 95% women, now I’d say there’s at least 30% men. That is really where we want diversity to be heading.”

Hunt is also pleased to see an increase in the number of line managers taking the issue seriously. “I think the layer of people who really don’t live and breathe diversity initiatives is becoming thinner and thinner.”

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Voice of Experience: Amy Williams, Principal, Edward Jones

This week The Glass Hammer is publishing a series of profiles on top leaders in corporate diversity. Check back all week long to learn about the women making a difference.

AmyWilliamsBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I’ve always been a really driven person,” said Amy Williams, Principal at Edward Jones. “I was fortunate to realize early on that I had a passion for serving others.”

Williams began her career at Edward Jones as a Branch Office Administrator. “I thought it was a great way to learn about the new field, and I soon realized I wanted to be on the other side of the desk. So I started an office from scratch.”

An early defining moment in Williams’ professional path was when her husband began experiencing health problems about six years into her career. “I had a one year-old and a five year-old and a really sick husband. But I knew that with the practice I had built, and with the sense of entrepreneurship I had built at Edward Jones, I knew that it was going to be okay. I could support my family. It didn’t end up coming to that, but it was a powerful realization.”

“That’s when I knew I had to get other women involved in this work,” she added.

Williams championed the cause of attracting women to financial advisory while developing her practice. “After 15 years of helping others build their business, I became a general partner, leading programs to develop women and minorities.”

Today, Williams is one of the Principals in charge of talent acquisition specifically responsible for diversity at Edward Jones. She continued, “And now, a little over 20 years at the firm, I’m humbled at the people I work with, at the grassroots efforts to bring in more talented women and minority advisors at the firm. I’m really proud of that.”

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