Just How Much Does Emotional Intelligence Matter?

JohnKeyserContributed by John Keyser, Founder and Principal of Common Sense Leadership

It is widely accepted that soft skills make an important difference in how people feel and respond to their boss and senior management. If they feel they are valued, appreciated and heard, they are engaged and motivated to achieve goals set out by leadership.

An indicator of how well we use our soft skills is our level of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is that “something” within us, that something that helps us to sense how we feel and enables us to sympathize with others.  Emotional intelligence gives us the ability to be present and listen to someone when they most need it. It is that part of us encouraging us to make good decisions and communicate effectively despite negative emotions and stress.

The four main skills of emotional intelligence are:

  • Self-awareness – our ability to perceive our emotions and understand our tendencies to act in certain ways in given situations
  • Social awareness – our ability to understand the emotions of other people, what they are thinking and feeling>
  • Self-management – our ability to use awareness of our emotions to stay flexible and direct our behavior positively
  • Relationship management – our ability to use our awareness of our own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully

Some of us are born with a great deal of emotional intelligence; others are not. Most of us are not aware of how our emotions may be adversely affecting our thinking and our reactions. The good news is that we can learn to increase our emotional intelligence. We can take a simple test to determine our EQ, our level of emotional intelligence. I recommend doing this, as the skills we can measure are the ones we can best improve.

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Wall Street Women and the Power of Networking

iStock_000009417543XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Networks can provide many means for support – a way to find out about new jobs or projects, a group of friends with whom to laugh or cry, your own private strategic advisors – and sometimes all of these things at once. The first generation of women on Wall Street learned this very quickly.

“I think networking is critical for advancing in any position, and probably more so for women in finance,” explained Melissa Fisher, author of the new book Wall Street Women.

Fisher’s book is an ethnographic account of the first generation of women to enter the world of finance as professionals. She began following their careers more than two decades ago, and the book relates their career challenges and triumphs from the ‘60s and ‘70s onward. One of the key strands her research revealed was the value of networking – from the very start of their careers and all the way through to today.

“These women are still relatively young, in their 50s and 60s,” Fisher pointed out. “We should be using them as a resource to understand women in the workplace. This is a generation that opened doors – and we need to keep the door open. We can learn a lot from them.”

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Executive Acceleration: Learning from Industry Leaders

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iStock_000008629094XSmallBy Robin Madell, San Francisco

The number of women making $100,000 or more has grown at a faster pace than it has for men in the United States according to The Washington Post, and Pew research has shown that women are the higher-income spouse in 1 of 5 marriages. Six percent of women earn at least $100,000, and as of 2011, the Catalyst Census showed that women account for 7.5 percent of executive officer top earners in the Fortune 500 companies.

But even though the gap is narrowing incrementally, it’s no news that women still lag behind men in holding top positions in these same companies, and are still paid less than their male counterparts. The perennial questions remain: how can executive women continue to break through these barriers and position themselves to change these statistics? And what can those who aspire to continue their leadership climb learn from other women leaders?

Sharon Hadary and Laura Henderson have attempted to tackle these difficult conundrums in their new book just released this month: How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know. Hadary and Henderson, who have served on advisory boards for companies like Wells Fargo, KeyBank, and IBM, shared their advice for how women can get ahead—particularly women execs in financial services and tech industries.

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Why Forgiveness is an Essential Leadership Practice

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

I was with a good friend and former colleague this week and she was sharing about her family ritual of Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement). Yom Kippur is the day when Jews try to amend their “behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings.” In her family tradition, my friend and her husband talk with their two young kids and ask for forgiveness for hurts. I mentioned to her how fantastic it was that the Jewish faith teaches kids and reminds adults how to take responsibility for their actions and how everyone both learns to ask for forgiveness and also give forgiveness.  In my executive coaching work with clients, I’ve discovered that forgiveness is a great leadership practice for our work lives as well.

Have you ever felt slighted by others at work? Do you think you’ve ever hurt a work colleague by your actions? I know I probably thoughtlessly hurt people (and there are definitely a few I am sure I thoughtfully hurt!). My biggest challenge in forgiveness happened when a former boss of mine wanted to transfer me to a different assignment prematurely. She had someone else she wanted to bring in and didn’t even have the courtesy to talk with me herself about her plans. Instead she sent the HR person in. I wasn’t ready to change assignments and she certainly hadn’t consulted me about the change. I was confronted by a sense of failure at leaving a job half-completed and a sense of shame associated with the failure. I carried that hurt and anger for a long time. Then, I saw a Buddhist saying that resonated with me “You are not punished for your anger. You are punished by your anger.” I decided to just let it go.

My anger had definitely impacted my ability to work with her and also my engagement in the work. The lack of trust between us impacted the business and impacted my team. What finally enabled me to let it go was when I acknowledged the emotions in the stages of grief and realized the blessings of that hard experience. The experience had helped me learn about forgiveness. It helped me be humble in the face of failure, learn resilience, and certainly put me on the path to doing what I do now.

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Sharing Global Best Practices for Boardroom Gender Parity

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iStock_000016970853XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

By now, you probably know about Norway’s 40% gender quota for corporate boards. You probably also know that a number of countries in Europe are following suit, and that the UK is looking for ways to increase the representation of women in the boardroom. You may also know about the SEC’s rule in the US for public companies to disclose how diversity is considered in filling board seats.

But what do you know about efforts on behalf of countries like Argentina, Brazil, Morocco, or the Philippines to increase the percentage of women directors? In an increasingly global business environment, knowledge about local efforts toward gender equality can be incredibly useful for women in the corporate space.

That’s one reason the law firm Paul Hastings has just released its second gender parity report, Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women in the Boardroom. Tara Giunta, Litigation Partner at Paul Hastings and co-editor of the report, explained, “In the Second Edition of the report, we focused on corporate governance codes and listing rules, and found that, in a number of countries, diversity was being included. I found it very encouraging as offering a potentially useful strategy and tool to increase diversity on the boards of US companies.”

She continued, “We were hoping that as a law firm, we could contribute to the discussion on gender parity by examining what are the strategies being deployed by different jurisdictions, and identifying the tools and approaches and best practices that can be shared across jurisdictions.”

She added, “As a global law firm we have the ability to bring that to a discussion on a global basis.”

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Maternity Leave in the UK: What You Need to Know

Pregnant woman at work using telephone smilingContributed by Nick Branch, Contact Law

It is a well known fact that women working in the UK are legally entitled to maternity leave according to UK employment law. However, the exact details of maternity leave rights and obligations are perhaps less well known, and this can make enforcing your maternity leave rights that much more difficult.

Maternity leave: The basics

All female employees are entitled to statutory maternity leave regardless of the hours they work, the job they do or the length of time that they have been with their employer. To exercise this important legal right, it is vital that you notify your employer of your pregnancy at least 15 weeks before your baby is due (around the 24th week of pregnancy). Use an MATB1 form to do this, available from your midwife or GP.

You can start your maternity leave any time from 11 weeks before the baby is due (around the 29th week of pregnancy), although it is worth noting that if you have time off related to your pregnancy within four weeks of your due date then your employer is entitled to commence your maternity leave at that point.

You do not have to take the full statutory maternity leave of 52 weeks (26 ordinary weeks and 26 additional weeks) if you do not wish to, however you are obliged by law to take at least two weeks off work (four if you work in a factory). If your child is stillborn anytime after 24 weeks, you are still entitled to take full statutory maternity leave.

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Voice of Experience: Cindy Davis, Shareholder, Financial Institutions Group, Greenberg Traurig

cindydavisBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Even when she was in high school, Cindy Davis knew what she wanted to do for her career. “I wanted be a corporate lawyer, doing deals, and advising executives,” she recalled. She went on to study accounting at the University of Massachusetts, not because she wanted to be an accountant, but because she thought it would give her a competitive edge as a corporate lawyer.

Davis explained with a laugh, “I was one of the few people who went to law school who always wanted to be there.”

After graduating from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, she took a job at a small firm, then gradually moved to larger and larger firms, before winding up at Paul Hastings, where she spent fifteen years, ultimately becoming partner. In 2009, she moved her practice to Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder.

Davis said she is fueled by her enthusiasm for new deals. “I love getting calls from a client on a new transaction. It’s very satisfying to cross the finish line on a particularly complicated deal and then move onto the next one.”

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Intrepid Woman: A Pro Bono Secondment Leads to a New Mission in Life

LilyDeyContributed by Lily Dey, Author, Coach, Accountant & Technologist

In the fall of 2011, I knew that my career wasn’t progressing the way I had intended. I’ve always been ambitious, wanting to do more and more with myself, but I’d been stuck in the same role for too long and felt unable to break free.

I’d finally qualified as an accountant earlier that year – I was a late starter as I’d originally worked in IT for investment banks prior to that. …And I was single. …And I had recently stepped down as the Chair of Trustees for a local charity. In short, I was bored.

It’s easy to decide to get a new job, but the current market was unsuited for the ambitions I had. Instead, I looked within my current company for opportunities. I saw one email announcing a pro-bono secondment program, which sends employees on assignments with our partner NGOs around the world. The thought of three months abroad was too good to pass by. Soon, I was successfully selected and headed off to Tanzania to work for a microfinance organisation.

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Women MBAs are Changing the System

Businesswoman negotiating with men By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

According to the GMAC Global Management Education Graduate Survey, 106,000 women took the GMAT exam last year and more than 1/3 of MBA students are women. As we’ve all heard, this means that there are more women MBAs than ever before. The problem? These highly educated women are encountering two massive road blocks: they’re struggling to find employment after graduation and those employed hit the second major hurdle that must be overcome by countless women across every industry, the glass ceiling. Women are half of the population and 36.8 percent of MBA holders, yet, compared to their male peers, they’re struggling.

As is often the case, the numbers just don’t add up. The GMAC Global Education Graduate Survey also found that female MBA graduates submitted 20 percent more job applications than male graduates last year, yet they received half the job offers. A 2010 Catalyst survey of global MBA graduates found that women lag behind men in job level and salary starting from their first position, and guess what? They never catch up. Catalyst also reports that on average, women make $4,600 less in their initial jobs, even after accounting for experience, time since MBA, industry, and region.

There is a lot of talk as to why this is happening, as to why in the year 2012 gender parity is still something that highly educated women fight to attain. In all of this talk what never gets said – or rather, what never gets said enough – is that it’s not their fault. Women are putting in the work, gaining the experience, obtaining the degrees; women are leaders, rainmakers, negotiators, and networkers; there are qualified female candidates and the pipeline should be filled with these women – but it’s not.

In light of these challenges, women are focusing on the ways that they can better equip themselves to excel. Not by fixing themselves, not by “being one of the guys,” but by developing a better understanding of the culture in which they’re working, creating a pathway that works for them, and changing the system for the next generation of women MBAs.

In other words, the time for talk is over – just ask the participants of next week’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), where women will see an extended network of power players supporting them.

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More Than a Trend: Expert Advice for Women General Counsel

businesspeople talking in meeting room and woman smilingBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new survey by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, there were more female general counsel at Fortune 500 companies last year than ever before, holding 21% of the roles.

Not only that, but the number of general counsel is rising faster than previously, with 23 women nabbing the top legal seat in the Fortune 500 since 2009. Additionally, the study showed that diversity amongst female legal officers is also increasing, with 16% describing themselves as minorities.

Michele Coleman Mayes, General Counsel of the New York Public Library, and Former GC of Allstate Corp, welcomed the news, saying, “I hope to see more and more women in this position.”

But, she continued, she wasn’t all that surprised by the study. In doing research for her book, Courageous Counsel: Conversations with Women General Counsel in the Fortune 500, which she co-authored with Kara Sophia Baysinger last year, she recognized the increasing presence of women general counsel in the Fortune 500. “I want people to recognize that this isn’t a trend, it’s the norm.”

She also shared her advice on how ambitious women lawyers can better position themselves for the General Counsel role at their company.

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