Voice of Experience: Jennifer Pattwell, Partner, PwC Singapore

JenniferPattwellBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Jennifer Pattwell, a Partner at PwC Singapore, has spent her globe trotting career in pursuit of fun and fulfillment. “It’s something a previous boss and mentor said to me once – there’s no point in doing something if you’re not having fun doing it.”

“If you just take a job to take a job, you won’t have that motivation, and motivation is one of the key things I hold dear. We spend so much of our time at work, it’s important we find that time fulfilling,” she continued.

“Travel was a priority for me at the start of my career, so my career was about fulfilling a key personal priority at the time. It’s about weighing what’s important to you. If you can combine your personal objectives with your career goals, then you are on the right track.”

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The Path to Gender Parity: Every Route Matters

iStock_000007716967XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Our focus, at The Glass Hammer, is on women’s career advancement at the mid and senior levels. In the past few years, we have seen more women stepping up to leadership in many industries, as well as in politics and the non-profit sector. But not a lot more. We are dealing with very incremental, hard-won change, which is one reason why we believe the issue of women’s advancement (in all spheres of life) is cultural.

It is cultural within the context of each individual organization, and it is cultural within the context of each industry. It is cultural in the wider sense of our society as well. Because all of these spheres affect one another, it means work must be done concurrently in each of them.

Work must be done in each sphere to achieve broad, difficult, cultural change, and that’s how large organizations like the National Council for Research on Women make an impact. Earlier this week, the NCRW held its annual awards dinner in New York. This event draws together folks from every part of the garden of change-agents, ensuring ideas are pollinated and everyone understands we’re in this together (and yes, they draw in much-needed funds from the pockets and purses of well-meaning donors).

As Aine Duggan, NCRW’s new President remarked, there are many routes that we must take to achieve gender parity. On International Women’s Day, perhaps we should each reflect on why we have taken our particular route and why it leads toward women’s advancement.

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What does International Women’s Day Have to Do with Advancing Women at Work?

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

It is really important for the world to celebrate IWD and to stop for a moment and think about issues that affect women in countries near and far. This year there is activity around sexual violence, trafficking and abuse, and poverty – all good topics to address and in some cases, a little action can improve people’s lives tremendously. You will often hear me say that inaction or silence is essentially collusion with the status quo, which keeps in place whatever ugliness is happening in the world.

Nevertheless, awareness can go a long way, but without challenging structural and cultural elements of any issue, we are just minimizing collateral damage. If there is no systemic change, then power and authority paradigms remain the same and we will continue to scratch our heads and wonder why our expectations aren’t met around people doing things differently. The same holds true for advancing women in the workplace.

We need to be having the right conversation to actually see some traction. Catalyst in 2012 reported barely changed figures for women on boards, female CEOs, and women in senior executive jobs.

Often, I feel that we spend too much time arguing over gender-based matters, such as work life balance. Instead, I would like to advocate that we direct the discussion to look at systemic and cultural issues as a way out of the “pink ghetto.” Arguing about whether we should “lean in” more or not as a group is just not going to do it!

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Rethinking Role Models: Why Millennial Women Want More

iStock_000009245275XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

We know that role models are critically important for inspiring women to lead. “You can’t be what you can’t see” is a refrain often repeated by feminist trailblazer Marie Wilson. Young women need strong, visible role models, not only to illustrate the heights to which they can aspire, but also to visualize the pathways they can take to get there.

Yet, new research by Dr. Elisabeth Kelan, Associate Professor in the Department of Management at King’s College London, shows that many young women entering the workforce don’t necessarily identify with the women at the top.

In her new book, Rising Stars: Developing Millennial Women as Leaders, she explains how millennial women are challenging the way we have long understood role models to work. She explained, “What women are doing is questioning. They are looking at the sunny side as well as the shadowy side.”

“It’s about being admired rather than idealized,” she said. And according to Dr. Kelan, that’s a good thing – for women and for companies. Here’s why.

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WILD about Options: Educating Women on Options Trading

WILDPanelContributed by Jessica Titlebaum, Marketing Director, Americas at Orc and President of Women in Listed Derivatives

The derivatives industry is evolving due to regulation coming from Washington and it’s forcing participants to look at different opportunities in new markets. To help emerging and experienced women navigate these broader territories, Women in Listed Derivatives (WILD) organized an educational seminar on Options trading.

Hosted by NYSE Euronext and sponsored by the Options Industry Council and Fidessa, the workshop included an educational introduction to Options trading, a keynote speaker about career advancement and panel discussion focused on the current market environment.

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Should You Accept a Promotion Without a Raise?

iStock_000003482002XSmallBy Stacey Hawley (Chicago)

Receiving a promotion is a big deal. A very big deal. Promotions mean more responsibility, new challenges, and an inherent recognition of an employee’s abilities and potential.

But not all promotions come with raises attached. During difficult financial times – when many companies freeze base salaries to control costs – employees may be promoted with the promise of raises when the economy improves. At other firms, where individuals cannot progress unless someone leaves, a promotion (without a raise) – culturally – may be Oscar-worthy recognition. And yet, at still other firms, promotions without raises are mishandled, cheap forms of recognition that lead to compression and inequity.

Two critical drivers – retention and engagement – fuel base salary increases and promotion decisions. Promotions provide individuals with rewards and recognition, career advancement and job growth. Promotions keep employees engaged, focused and committed to the company and its business strategies. Companies recognize that most employees highlight career advancement as a top reason for staying.

While base pay – cited by Towers Watson’ 2012 Global Workforce Study – remains the #1 reason employees join a company, both base pay AND career advancement rank as # 1 and #2 for employee retention.
Employees receiving promotions without raises may find their engagement teetering. If you find yourself in the position of receiving a promotion without a raise, follow these three steps before responding.

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Can Women (Or Anyone) “Do It All” Through Sequencing?

businesswomanBy Robin Madell (San Francisco)

The perennial “Having It All” debate at times leads to the concept of “sequencing,” which suggests that women can in fact have everything they want from work and family life, if only they stagger their timing of when they focus on each. (As a side note, some have bristled at the idea that having it all is exclusively a women’s issue—see a Wharton professor’s post on the HBR Blog Network for this perspective.)

The concept of sequencing continues to be promoted by some prominent female leaders, such as Michele Flournoy, formerly the highest woman in the Pentagon, and disputed by others, such as Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy planning at the state department under Hillary Clinton and author of the controversial article published last year in The Atlantic called “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.”

In an interview with NPR for All Things Considered, Flournoy comments:

“I just think … there’s a sequencing. I mean, I’m one who believes that you can have it all—you just can’t always have it at exactly the same time with equal intensity. My career has looked like a sine curve in terms of balancing and rebalancing. Different periods where I’ve had more intense career focus versus more of a family focus.”

The NPR interview notes Flournoy’s admission, however, that the vision of sequencing isn’t possible for everyone, since many women lack the support that they’d need to rebalance while still remaining competitive. This leads to the counterpoint of the argument: that sequencing is a myth.

In an interview with Slaughter published in The New York Times, Slaughter suggests that women need to stop perpetuating the idea that doing it all is possible if you simply rely on sequencing:

“We say either ‘you can have it all’ or ‘you can have it all, but not at the same time.’ The first is true only in extraordinary circumstances. … I also wanted to say to my generation, ‘Hey, we’re not actually helping by just repeating this mantra.’ For those of us who have managed who do it, we need to admit that we are the exception and not the rule. We need to stop congratulating ourselves and focus on the reality for most women.”

Which side of the fence do you fall on? The Glass Hammer polled a group of women from diverse industries, as well as career experts, for their experience and feedback.

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Thought Leaders: Moira Elms, Global Head of Brand and Communications, PwC

thought-leadershipA strong interest in gender diversity has not always been an inherent piece of my make-up. But throughout my career trajectory this interest evolved. I got to a stage in my career where there were not many working women around me. Lots of talented women were falling by the wayside. That was when I became passionate about gender diversity.

I felt I had to do something about it.

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Voice of Experience: Kathy Elsesser, Managing Director and Head of Global Consumer Retail Group, Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs

Kathy elsesserKathy Elsesser, Managing Director and Head of the Global Consumer Retail Group in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, speaks enthusiastically about the opportunities for women in the financial services. She believes that women can achieve their full potential by being authentic and thinking carefully about what they want in life.

“Know what you want and ask for it. I have noticed a tendency on the part of the women I mentor to take what they’re given and do well with it. But the question I try to ask them is ‘what do you really want?’” She continued, “Ask for the things that will help you get that – versus accepting the things that are presented to you.”

And that mindset can benefit women throughout their career – from the entry level all the way to the top. She encouraged women to think carefully about how their skills and talents could be best leveraged at work. “Especially for women who decide to have a family, I would encourage them to think every day about how they are spending their time. As you get older, you begin to realize that time is a limited resource.”

She continued, “When you have a new project, think about whether this is important, or whether, if you personally do it, it is going to have an outsized return relative to someone else taking it on.”

“I really see women take on what they are given rather than asking whether it’s the best use for their time. If someone else can do it, give it to them and find a higher and better use for your time.”

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Should We Replace ‘Work-Life Balance’ with ‘Autonomy’?

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

New Accenture research, published today, shows that more and more employees globally feel they are getting a handle on work life balance. In fact, according to the study, the same percentage of men and women (70 percent) say they believe they can “have it all,” just maybe not all at the same time.

This shows that people feeling a sense of empowerment about their ability to negotiate their own career and personal demands.

The research (which consisted of an online survey of 4,100 business executives at medium and large companies around the world) reflects what Accenture’s Managing Director of Global Inclusion & Diversity Nellie Borrero called a growing trend. She believes corporate culture is evolving in a way that encourages people to take more control over their own career paths. Those stats on work life balance may be part of a new global employee autonomy paradigm.

Borrero said, “We’re starting to see a shift where people feel they can ask certain questions and ask for what they need to integrate their careers and their personal lives. We want leaders to recognize that whatever we are changing about workplace culture, it’s starting to work.”

As people gain more autonomy – the ability to ask for changes and make decisions about work and life – we are seeing them become more satisfied with their jobs, and more engaged with their companies.

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