Making History: Celebrating Women in the Media

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Earlier this week the Women’s Media Center celebrated the increasing visibility and power of women at its third annual awards dinner. The event honored women working to change the way females are portrayed media. As host Anne Hathaway noted in her opening remarks, the Women’s Media Center works to make sure “neither girls nor boys will grow up to think women can be insulted, demeaned, or sidelined on national TV or radio.”

Women are gaining power and influence, she continued, but the playing field is far from equal. “We might be farther along than we ever have been, but it’s not far enough yet.”

She continued, “To be honest, I’m not sure I want women to be part of the current media fray. I want us to shape it and make it better.”

Women’s Media Center President Julie Burton echoed a similar sentiment. She explained that getting women involved in the making of media is critical to building gender equality. “If we don’t make our own history, it seems we are not going to be in it,” she said.

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Movers and Shakers: Marie Picard, Counsel, ING U.S. Investment Management

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Marie Picard, Counsel at ING U.S. Investment Management, believes strongly in the value of mentoring.

“I really think it’s important to find people who can mentor and advise you – formally or informally. Find people you know and respect and look up to, who you are able to learn from. Foster those relationships. People have a lot to teach you – sometimes you just have to ask,” she said.

She also advised women to be mentors themselves – the confidence boost, she says, can help propel you forward. “Help younger women and men at the firm who may be more junior and put effort into sharing knowledge. It’s really validating and empowering to share the knowledge you’ve accumulated over time.”

“It makes you realize how much you know, and it helps create that network of relationships that’s so important,” she added.

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Movers and Shakers: Jill Huntley, Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship, Accenture

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Seize the opportunities,” says Jill Huntley, Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship at Accenture. “There is luck everywhere. It just depends on whether you’re looking for it, if you can see it, and if you are ready to grab it when it’s there.”

For example, Huntley began her career at Accenture 18 years ago as a business consultant. But when she embarked on an assignment to Africa in 2000, she developed an interest in corporate citizenship, which opened doors and led to a global role at the company.

“You don’t know where your first step is going to lead. Take some chances and stretch your self. Look for challenges,” she said. “There are many different roads that will take you through your career.”

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What if We Gave Ourselves Permission to Fail?

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

Like the rest of us this week, I was shocked at the recent high level resignations of CIA Chief General Petraeus and President and Chief Operating Officer (and once-presumed CEO) of Lockheed Martin Chris Kubasik, due to sex scandals. How could these intelligent and rational men put their reputations and careers at risk? How could they let themselves fail so publicly? Then an interesting incident happened to me yesterday and it gave me greater perspective on failure. It made me realize that giving ourselves (and others, even leaders and heroes) permission to fail is an important leadership practice.

As an executive coach it’s always interesting to notice when I don’t practice what I preach. Here’s what happened yesterday. I was talking with a friend about a project I am working on. I mentioned how I had hired someone to help me with this project and he suddenly got quite angry. Why hadn’t I considered hiring him? This was yet another example of how I was disloyal as a friend. You see, this had happened one time before and he had had the same reaction.

The truth of the matter was that I had assumed he wouldn’t even be interested.

How did I react? An emotionally intelligent executive coach who preaches this all day would have put into action the 3-step process: 1.) Listened for the underlying emotion he was feeling, 2.) Acknowledged the emotion “I get that you’re feeling frustrated and betrayed,” 3.) Let him know: “My intention was not to hurt you. I may have made the wrong assumption. How can I make this up to you?” As people’s emotions are acknowledged and addressed they are able to get back more quickly into their “reasoning” brain to allow for a good solution to emerge.

Instead I launched into a 3-step (these three steps were quite spontaneous and not pre-meditated, I might add) counter-attack: 1.) I took his words quite personally, 2.) I responded with blaming him: “Why are you always seeing yourself as a victim and blaming everyone else for what happens?” 3.) “You always take everything so personally” (I get the irony of this in retrospect). Needless to say it didn’t end well.

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Crunching Numbers to Smash the Glass Ceiling

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

A focus on the numbers may be what’s missing from efforts to advance women at corporations, say McKinsey’s Joanna Barsh, Director, New York Office; Sandrine Devillard, Director, Paris Office; and Jin Wang, Principal, Shanghai. Specifically, they should get into the really granular data on gender at every critical career turning-point stage.

In the most recent issue of the McKinsey Quarterly, the three researchers suggest that companies could get more traction out of their women’s initiatives by digging into the data – the same way a competitive company would approach any challenge of strategic importance.

And women leaders are strategically important. Consider, for example, the Credit Suisse study showing that companies with one or more woman on the boardroom performed better than those without women. Or the Catalyst research pointing out that companies with more women board directors meant higher financial performance in terms of return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital. Or the Thomson Reuters study that showed increasing the percentage of women in management led to bigger gains during volatile market conditions.

Considering the information that’s out there, companies should be treating gender diversity and the advancement of women as an issue of competitive importance.

“If greater representation of women in the talent pipeline promises a competitive advantage, successful leaders will work hard to include them. If greater female representation better serves the company’s customers, those leaders will make that happen,” say Barsh, Devillard, and Wang. Here, according to McKinsey, are a few ways to help women break through the glass ceiling by crunching the numbers.

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Pay Gap Persists for UK Professionals

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

A new survey released last week by the UK’s Chartered Management Institute shows a significant gap in compensation, advancement prospects, and job security between men and women in the UK.

At the management level, on average, women receive £10,060 a year less than men. That difference, after a lifetime of work, would equal more than £400,000.

CMI explains, “a woman and a man entering executive roles aged 25 and working their way up the career ladder until retiring aged 60 would take home pre-tax totals of £1,092,940 and £1,516,330 respectively, based on today’s levels.”

But the differences didn’t stop at the paycheck. According to CMI, women receive fewer bonuses, fewer promotions, and were even more likely to get laid off during the last year.

Baroness Prosser, Deputy Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, remarked, “The gender pay and opportunities gaps are intrinsically linked. The opportunities gap leads to the lack of advance for women through the executive pipeline and this in turn provides for the gender pay gap.”

She noted that while employers should take the responsibility for ensuring they have fair compensation and promotion processes, women can also seek out better practical support in order to help them advance.

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Voice of Experience: Nancy Reyda, Managing Director, COO Global Technology Business Solutions, Deutsche Bank

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Nancy Reyda, Managing Director and COO of Global Technology Business Solutions at Deutsche Bank, being a leader of change requires a delicate balance between vision and awareness.

“There’s an art to leading transformational change that requires both passionate vision, undying confidence, and the resilient belief that you will achieve that vision – coupled with a deep humility for the complexity of change, and why people may be resisting it,” she explained.

Reyda, who described her career path as unique, started out as an engineer working on the oil fields of California. She’s now a Wall Street executive immersed in the business of transformation.

“In my early days, I’d say I was an enthusiastic leader, but I’ve learned that when you really master the art of the craft is when you have coupled that enthusiastic leadership with humility. People who get that graceful balance are truly able to lead transformational change,” she said.

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The Real You: Advice on Authenticity

BeateCheletteContributed by Beate Chelette

No matter where I go these days, I read and hear the word “authenticity.” It’s one of the big keywords circulating everywhere. But what’s it all about and how can it help your business?

It’s hardly news that the world is changing, but there is an element of that change that we should take a closer look at. Trends and beliefs identify entire generations. For the Baby Boomers and most of Generation X, it has been about making it to the top. Much of our drive has been about money and success. Media and movies celebrated consumption and told how to get to the top fast, get the corner office, drive big cars, and buy even bigger houses. The more you had, the better. Remember the iconic film Wall Street, featuring ruthless stockbrokers and expensive interior decorators? There was no such thing as too much. Your only worth was how much you made and what you had been able to amass in terms of career status and money.

These ideas no longer drive most people. Wall Street itself has changed as this article points out. Our taste in cars has also changed. Once a symbol of toughness, the gas-guzzling Hummer is now passé and we favor environmentally and cost-conscious models like the Prius. There has been a major shift changing the way we act and how we see the world and do business with each other. Let’s look at what that shift is and how it affects the way you need to communicate, work and portray who you are to your clients.

Who you really are, and what you care about in life, is the crux of authenticity. In business today, clients want to get a sense of you and know what makes you tick so they can assess whether they can trust you as a person. They don’t want to see a video that features just pretty things, or a brochure of yet another consultant who promises increased revenue. Clients these days want to do business with someone who shares the same core values that they have. This is what you need to show and it is how you find your clients.

Clients want to know that you are real—and authentic. Social media allows us to show the core of who we are and make it transparent for everyone who follows us on Facebook and Twitter. Remember to watch your language and what you post, because I assure you, people check up on you.

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The Wage Gap Explained

iStock_000004797699XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Several years ago, I stepped into a career fair at my undergraduate university. As a 22-year old anthropology major, I had little direction regarding my future career. The first thing I noticed was that all of the other students were wearing suits and had fancy leather portfolios. Meanwhile, I had merely tucked in my shirt before wandering in from the cafeteria, which is where I had first noticed a flyer for the expo.

I felt like a fish out of water – but what happened next surprised me even more.

I was immediately approached by a recruiter from a global defense contractor, asking me what I thought I might want to do for my career. I responded, “I’m not sure… I think I want to do something that helps people.”

The recruiter chuckled, and said, “I think there’s a table of folks from Prince George County Schools over there.” He pointed me in the right direction and moved onto the next college senior.

Now, I’m not saying that I would have been a good recruit for the defense contractor. But I suspect a man in my position would have gotten a harder sell on the company (maybe something like how defense firms do plenty of good, providing security for people around the world), or at least a folder of information, possibly a magnet or lanyard. I got the brush-off instead, and the suggestion that I might prefer being a teacher.

My story illustrates a few of the ways subtle gender bias influences the careers women choose and are encouraged to choose. It also helps point out a lot about the subtle, sinister factors driving the wage gap. Women today make only 82 percent of what their male peers make one year out of college.

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Practice Makes Perfect: Little Ways to Ask for More

Take note of what she is sayingBy Robin Madell (San Francisco)

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Heidi Miller, who was formerly head of the international business line at J.P. Morgan, recommended that women in finance get comfortable with asking for more.

In the article, Miller describes a time earlier in her career when she worked for Chemical Bank and learned firsthand the value of asking for what you want. After experiencing some frustrations in her position, she considered quitting. But before making a final decision, she practiced asking for a list of demands, and then presented this list to her manager. Her practice paid off when she received everything that she asked for—including the title of managing director and a bump in salary.

No matter what level of the organization you’ve currently reached, there are little ways that you can learn to improve your skills at requesting more of what you want and deserve in the workplace. To explore the best strategies, The Glass Hammer spoke with Carol Frohlinger, co-author of Nice Girls Just Don’t Get It.

Frohlinger, who is also a co-founder of Negotiating Women, explains that she wrote the book with co-author Lois Frankel because girls are socialized to be “nice,” and some women end up carrying those messages into life as adults, causing them to be reluctant to ask for what they deserve. (See “How to Navigate the Niceness Paradox, Part 1” and “Part 2.”)

“Girls are told they should be seen but not heard, should let others take the lead, and should put the needs of others’ first,” explains Frohlinger. “But it is also important to note that gender stereotypes are operative—and both men and women believe them. As a result, when women do ask, they can face backlash because the cultural expectation is that they won’t ask.”

Frohlinger emphasizes the importance of applying negotiation and communication principles and skills to one’s personal life, as well as to workplace situations. “I think this aspect has been neglected—and I firmly believe that one can’t be successful at work unless you negotiate for whatever you need at home,” she says.

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