Voice of Experience: Yvonne Garcia, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Client Solutions, Investment Manager Services, State Street Corporation

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The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring profiles of Hispanic Women Business Leaders all week long!

yvonne_garciaBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Yvonne Garcia, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Client Solutions for Investment Manager Services at State Street Corporation, wishes she understood the value of professional networking and the reward associated with giving back early in her career. Although the knowledge of these important factors came along with experience, Garcia is building a strong foundation for her career on these professional tenets.

She explained, “It is at this point that it truly sinks in that you need to have access to resources, connections to decision makers, and supporters, as they will be critical throughout your professional and personal journey.”

Garcia is a true example of a professional woman who is being proactive in making sure future generations have access to the resources she identified as being so valuable to career advancement at any level. In addition to her SVP role at State Street, Garcia also serves as the National President for ALPFA, the largest Latino Professional Business Organization in the United States.

Career Path

Prior to joining State Street, Garcia served as the Director in Marketing and Distribution Strategy for Liberty Mutual’s Agency Corporation. In this role, she had the opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of new products and channels. Additionally, she was responsible for organizing a global team to ensure that all team members were delivering a consistent message true to Liberty Mutual’s brand.

Previously, Garcia also served as Vice President for Bank of America’s China Construction Bank Strategic Assistance. In this role, Garcia, along with her team, successfully created and implemented over eighty wealth management centers all throughout China. As a fully certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Garcia develops and adheres to well-planned processes and strategies and prides herself on delivering value to her clients at State Street using new approaches that are not typical within the financial industry.

In her current role at State Street, Garcia is primarily responsible for developing new client relationships, deploying cutting-edge technology and operational processes, and delivering complex consulting engagements for existing and potential State Street clients. She formulates client-focused strategies that enhance ROI for the prestigious list of the global clients she serves and creates business value for State Street.

She is particularly excited about the internal and external opportunities associated with operating a global business. Garcia said, “One area I am interested in right now is how to foster corporate cultures that encourage intelligent risk-taking behavior and how best to lead that change and get others to realize the necessity of this given the global shift in demographics (i.e. age, culture and ethnicity).”

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CEOs Are More Technical, More Social, and More Aggressive: Are You Ready to Lead?

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African American Businesswoman on WhiteBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

A recent infographic released by CEO.com revealed that the next generation of CEOs could be bringing an entirely different set of characteristics and leaderships traits with them to the C-Suite. These traits include a greater affinity for risk, more social interaction on social media platforms, an increased focus on leveraging technology, and more aggressive growth strategies.

If you are on the leadership track, you should continually be thinking about how to develop the skills and qualities now that will equip you to be an even more effective leader in the future. The traits of the next generation of CEOs listed above are critical components of leadership that you should try to understand and master to be a good leader at any stage of your career.

Leveraging Technology in the C-Suite

The age of high tech is upon us and younger CEOs are harnessing the power of digital and applying technology as a business solution. This means that in order to be an effective leader, you should know when to leverage technology to benefit the company as a whole. According to a recent article published in Financial Times, a lack of technological aptitude in the C-Suite can negatively impact a company’s growth and development.

The key to keeping your technical knowledge sharp is to find networking groups with a tech focus. This way you can stay current so that when the time comes for you to lead; you can do so with the most current technological knowledge and skills.

This includes having a handle on the value of social media. While social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are great for spreading content and sharing company news, the real social media impact for companies is seen in LinkedIn. This legitimate platform for networking helps leaders establish a circle of virtual colleagues to use as a sounding board.

Digital engagement is an inevitable part of the future of business strategy. In fact, many of the executives we talk to have indicated that learning about all of the different ways technology can be implemented to improve business processes and strategies is something that makes their job incredibly exciting and rewarding.

Developing an understanding of social media, its applications, and results can help you be a better leader because you will have a pulse on how your clients and customers view your brand. According to one article, social media is one factor that will permanently reshape the business strategy landscape from this point forward.

Remember, however, it is not just important to know how to utilize social media as a business and leadership tool. You also should be able to measure and prove its value to your business in the short-term and the long-term.

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Collaboration Vs. Competition: Which is the Better Career Advancement Tool?

iStock_000017306404XSmallBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

In a new working paper, “Are Women More Attracted to Cooperation than Men?,” authors Peter J. Kuhn and Marie-Claire Villeval explore the work environments in which women are most likely to thrive. According to the authors, women perform better than men in work situations that emphasize team based collaboration rather than individual competition.

They reference previous research that suggests some women typically avoid competitive work environments for two primary reasons: a simple dislike of competition and typically lower confidence in their abilities than men. Given these findings, Kuhn and Villeval take a look at how collaborative team environments affect women’s performance as well as their self-assessment of their own abilities.

The Experiment

Kuhn and Villeval build on research conducted by Niederle and Vesterlund in 2007 in which a worker could choose between receiving individual pay based on their own performance and a situation where their reward depends negatively on the performance of their team. What is interesting about Kuhn and Villeval’s study is that it is the first experiment of its kind to present subjects with two simple options. That is working in a situation where the subject’s reward is based solely on their own performance and a situation where the subject’s reward is based on the performance of their team.

The authors explain, “Our objective is to understand gender differences in selection into work environments where incentives for cooperation versus competition can be implicit features of the employment contract, or are deeply ingrained in corporate cultures.”

By shedding light on the reasons why women might be more attracted to collaboration, and as a result be productive and effective team members, the authors offer insight into how changes in corporate culture and HR policy can increase a female friendly corporate environment and culture.

Does fostering a collaborative environment really make the workplace more female-friendly? Furthermore, is it accurate to say that women display more confidence in their abilities when working as a team member?

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Janet Yellen and the Old Boys’ Club of Central Banking

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janet_yellenBy Pragati Verma (New York City)

All summer long there has been a debate, heated at times, about who is the best candidate to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve chairperson. These discussions have included talk about gender politics and glass ceilings in addition to the usual banter about monetary policy and inflation. Why? Because for the first time in the history of the Federal Reserve, a woman is among the leading candidates poised to take the reins.

If selected, Janet Yellen will be the first woman to head the world’s most powerful bank in its 100-year history. She will regulate thousands of banks around the country and control the supply of money in the US economy. Conversations around Yellen’s fiscal policies and gender increased in volume last week when her main opponent, Larry Summers, dropped out of the race, significantly increasing the likelihood that Yellen will become the next Fed chair.

Yellen must be used to sparking debates by now. When she joined the board of Federal Reserve governors in 1994, she broke the rules of hierarchy by eating in the cafeteria. Two years later, she dealt the Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, his first and only defeat in a vote. Yellen talked Greenspan to a standstill, arguing that a little inflation was a good thing, when he was trying to drive annual inflation down to zero. She was also one of the first Fed officials to foresee problems in subprime mortgages.

A monetary economist with significant experience in the Fed, Yellen holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale and has taught at Berkeley, Harvard and London School of Economics. She enjoys support from liberal Democrats because of her focus on bringing down unemployment and could face opposition from Senate Republicans who are worried that her policies could accelerate inflation.

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Are You Thinking About Your Next Career Move?

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Last year the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the median employee tenure for wage and salary workers in the United States was 4.6 years, up slightly from the 4.4 year median tenure reported in 2010. Yet recent research shows indicates that “job hopping” is becoming more common among younger managers and high potential talent. Is this really an effective career advancement strategy?

It depends. On one hand, job hopping might not look so good on paper when potential employers are deciding whether or not to hire you. However, staying in a job that is not fulfilling your ambition and your talent will most likely not allow you to grow and advance in your career. So, how much time and effort should you put into thinking about your next career move?

Rating Your Career Happiness Level

According to a survey of 1,200 employees conducted by the Harvard Business Review, the young and the talented are also proving to be quite restless. Monika Hamori, Jie Cao, and Burak Koyuncu report that almost 95 percent of young employees (average age of 30 years old) actively maintained their resumes and stayed current on information regarding potential new employers. Furthermore, this same group of workers was likely to leave their companies after only 28 months, on average.

The HBR study found that one of the primary factors contributing to the early exit of young top talent is their dissatisfaction with the employee training and development programs available at their firm. More specifically, they asked young managers to rank the importance of mentoring, coaching, support from direct managers and support from senior management on a scale of 1 to 5. The managers surveyed gave each one of these categories a 4 out of 5 rating, but also expressed dissatisfaction in how much mentoring and coaching is provided by their employer.

If you have a similar dissatisfaction for the amount of career development options available to you, then perhaps it is time to start considering your next career move.

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New Recommendations for Strengthening the UK Pipeline for Executive Women

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iStock_000002379502XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

A recent report [PDF] released in July by the UK’s Conservative Women’s Forum and sponsored by Microsoft provides a robust group of recommendations for strengthening the pipeline of female executives. According to the report, in recent years, the proportion of women in executive roles in the UK has decreased dramatically.

For example, only three percent of CEOs in the FTSE 100 are female – down from five percent in 2011. Similarly, only 5.8 percent of executive directors are female, down from 6.6 percent just last year. And perhaps most distressingly, the pipeline of women for top jobs like CEO and executive director – women on executive committees – has shown a marked decline over the past few years, sliding from 18.1 percent in 2009 to 15.3 percent today.

The authors of the report, Mary Macleod MP and Dr. Thérèse Coffey MP, believe that this decline can be turned around by implementing a number of targeted initiatives in the business sector, encouraging women to be more strategic about advancement, and instituting government programs designed to level the playing field for women in business.

They also suggest that the key goal set by the Lord Davies report – to increase the percentage of women board directors in the FTSE 100 to 25 percent by 2015 – should be extended to the public sector and professional services. They write:

“We challenge the public sector and the professional services to embrace gender diversity at the highest levels. We believe fresh impetus is needed in both cases to replicate the progress made in FTSE boardrooms. The Government should extend the remit of Lord Davies’ work in order to cover the public sector and the professional services. This will make a real difference to the opportunities for women in all sectors to achieve their potential.”

Here are Macleod and Coffey’s suggestions for plugging the leaky pipeline of women to executive roles.

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Voice of Experience: Deborah Hammalian, Chief Compliance Officer, ING U.S. Investment Management

debbie_hammalian_ingBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Deborah Hammalian, Chief Compliance Officer of ING U.S. Investment Management, setting career goals can help propel you forward. “Select a few goals and map the path for each. Identifying the path is a very powerful advantage toward reaching a goal.”

But, not everyone starts their career with a clear goal in mind – Hammalian included. Even still, she says, don’t stand still. “Have a clear goal, but don’t stop if you don’t.”

Hammalian began her career as a product support specialist, and her desire to grow and learn brought her to the legal and compliance world. Then, within a few years of starting out, her industry was in turmoil and her company was facing a huge round of layoffs. Nevertheless, she stayed flexible, and found a niche that suited her well. “My ability to adapt to and manage change has been a key to my professional growth,” she said.

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Lesbians Who Tech

Lesbians who techLesbians Who Tech is a community of Queer Women in or around tech and the people who love them. The organization’s goals are to be more visible to each other, to be more visible to others, to get more women and lesbians in technology and to connect lesbians who tech to LGBTQ and women’s organizations who are doing incredible work for the community. Leanne Pittsford started the organization in December of 2012 and since then it has grown to a community of over 10,000 women in 25 cities, including 4 international cities. Lesbians Who Tech wants to make sure queer women are part of the gender equality conversation and – more importantly – a part of the solution.

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Women In The Boardroom

WOMEN IN THE BOARDROOMWOMEN IN THE BOARDROOM is committed to advancing women in their careers and into the boardroom. Whether you want to become a better leader, get connected with corporate board openings or receive guidance as you prepare for board service, Women in the Boardroom can help you achieve your goals. We offer board and executive coaching to help you assess your skill-set, critique your board bio and launch a successful board campaign. Our career-boosting virtual and in-person events are designed to connect aspiring and current board members, and provide essential knowledge for leadership and corporate board service.

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iRelaunch

iRelaunchiRelaunch is the most comprehensive career reentry resource for employers, universities, professional associations and individuals, offering strategies, events, products and services including its Annual Return-to-Work Conference, small-group coaching (both in-person and virtual), university and corporate half-day events, fully developed “turnkey” career reentry programs and workplace consulting. A strong advocate for the unique value that returning professionals bring to the workforce, and for the employers that engage with them, iRelaunch has developed a broad international footprint reaching over 15,000 people through over 200 return-to-work programs and presentations.

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