Voice of Experience: Michelle Bottomley, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, Mercer

Michelle bottomley“Work for bold and brave people – intent on creating positive change.” This is advice Michelle Bottomley, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Mercer, encourages young female professionals to follow.

“When you work for brave leaders intent on transforming their business – and partner across the firm – you have the impetus and opportunity to develop a holistic view that leads to more powerful solutions than any one person alone could have on their own,” advised Bottomley.

Turning Data Analysis into Strategic Decisions

Bottomley graduated from college with a dual degree in Economics and Biology, and was especially drawn toward statistics. She recalled, “I started my career in the corporate research department at Liberty Mutual Insurance. I was working toward my Ph.D. in Econometrics, and lucky to work with their corporate database – one of the most advanced at the time.” Bottomley added, “I was able to see the process of how data analyses were translated into corporate strategies.”

This early experience sparked Bottomley’s passion for looking at businesses through the lens of customer data. Recognizing this interest in unlocking customer value led Bottomley to Bronner Slosberg Humphrey – now Digitas –where she grew the analytics function into a strategic capability. “I was very fortunate to begin my career around data, putting the spotlight on how marketing programs drive customer behavior change in ways that help companies grow their business,” said Bottomley.

From Insights to Action

During her time at Bronner, Bottomley shifted from the analytics side of marketing to a strategic client management role when a colleague suggested that she utilize her analysis skills and her talent of really understanding the implications of data in order to build strategies and programs that grow client relationships. Bottomley noted, “I really enjoyed working with clients to help them connect the dots between their target audiences, highly targeted marketing programs and revenue growth.”

Bottomley’s next career step brought her to Epsilon, a leading data-driven marketing company, where she worked in the travel and entertainment area with clients like Disney, Enterprise Rental Cars, Dayton-Hudson and AMEX Platinum on building databases, segmentation and targeted communications to increase customer loyalty. “This was a fantastic time to be at Epsilon as they had lots of data and loyalty programs and clients who wanted to connect the dots between the data, communications and ROI,” said Bottomley.

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Women CEO’s More Likely to Get Sacked? Thoughts Behind the Numbers.

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istock_000004780540xsmall1By Beth Senko

The recent announcement that Jill Abramson, The New York Times’s first female Executive Editor, was dismissed for “an issue with management in the newsroom” has reignited the discussion about issues faced by women at the helm. The problem for women isn’t merely getting the top job; the problem is keeping the top job.

Opinions vary on the reasons that Ms. Abramson was let go, and The Times’s leadership is facing criticism and concern from both outside and inside its ranks. Some supporters contend that Ms. Abramson was dismissed after she allegedly complained that her compensation package was less than that of her predecessor. In an article for The New Yorker, Ken Auletta wrote, “This may have fed into the management’s narrative that she was ‘pushy,’ a characterization that, for many, has an inescapably gendered aspect.”

Publicly Heralded – Publicly Forced Out
As Ms. Abramson experienced, women selected for top roles are often heralded in the media and often leave those roles just as publicly. In 2007, for example, Angela Braly was named President and CEO of Wellpoint, one of the nation’s largest health insurers. When her appointment was announced, outgoing CEO Larry Glasscock commented, “We are fortunate to have a leader of Angela’s caliber ready to assume the President and CEO position. Angela has been one of my most trusted and valued colleagues, partnering with me on literally every major strategic initiative undertaken by the company over the past two years. She brings the right combination of intellect, health policy knowledge, business experience, strategic vision and execution.” In 2010, Braly also took over as Chairman of Wellpoint after steering the company through the combined fallout of the financial crisis and the ratification of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). By 2011, Braly resigned under shareholder pressure driven by concerns over her management ability.

Aberration or Pattern?
Abramson and Braly are only two examples of women who have made it to the top role only to find them packing their bags a short time later. According to a study by Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), women in the top job are forced out more frequently than their male counterparts. The study, now in its 14th year, looks at CEO turnover at the 2,500 largest public companies. The data show that in the over the past decade 38% of women chief executives were fired, compared with 27% of their male counterparts.

But that’s just the headline. Deeper into the study one finds that women chief executives often face additional hurdles during their tenure, which likely contribute to the higher dismissal rate.

Women CEOs are more likely to be outsiders
According to the study, 35% of women CEOs were outsiders versus 22% of men. The study doesn’t specifically address why women CEOs are more likely to be outside hires, but the data might suggest that women believe that they need to change companies to move to the CEO level and therefore are more open to outside opportunities. In the study, Gary L. Neilson, Senior Partner at Strategy& is quoted: “When boards look for new CEOs, they necessarily find a larger pool of female candidates outside their own organizations.” These hires may have full support from the Board of Directors, but they may face internal resistance from tenured executives who believe they were passed over for the top role. Neilson continued, “That women CEOs are more often outsiders may be an indication that companies have not been able to cultivate enough female executives in-house.”

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Does Being LGBT Still Matter or Are We in a Post-Bias World at Work?

Nicki GilmourRecently, I was asked to speak at The Conference Board’s Diversity and Inclusion conference in NY. My topic can be paraphrased into ‘why culture eats strategy for breakfast when it comes to diversity’ and most other things for that matter. In my session I was asked, “Do you still think that being LGBT matters since there has been considerable societal and workplace progress recently?”

My response was, “It depends on which firm you work for.” This holds true for a similar question regarding gender and essentially any social identity matter these days. Anecdotally, over the past seven years of theglasshammer’s existence, a small number of you have told me that it does not matter; that you are a woman at work and it has no bearing on your career. I see a small group of people echoing this sentiment when it comes to applying the same question to being LGBT at work. Conversely, most of you have told me or have acknowledged formally in print that, yes being a woman does matter and having other social identities, such as LGBT or being Multicultural, are factors that affect how people perceive you at work regardless of your talents. It even has affected how some of you see yourselves, famously coined as the imposter syndrome.

My first caveat is that you are entitled to any construct of belief that works for you, as personality and personal experiences are so often overlooked or discredited when they should not be. Ambition and access to the right relationships along with the natural desire often embedded into our personalities (conscious or otherwise) to assimilate to dominant group behaviors can trump a lot of adversity in any part of the world or in any workplace.

Many people enjoy hard work and find the climb exhilarating. There is something to be said for believing something and then growing your reality from that place. That is why we have theglasshammer and why books like Lean In exist; to give you every chance to think about networking, negotiation, and career advancement on your terms should you choose it. Further to that, if you buy into the concept that you control your destiny, you won’t see or perceive obstacles to be because of your social identity at work; this concept works for some people, myself included, until I studied Organizational Psychology. There is a certain personality who can make it anywhere, but the question sometimes becomes at what cost? I count myself in this category. If I was a flower I could grow happily on a rock. The downside of this strategy is that I would be completely ignoring the environmental forces around me that help other flowers grow with less energy and better soil on the meadow.

Stereotypes- Alive and Well

I want to share a shocking, previously unseen study with you that my good friend and associate Dr. Frank Golom conducted to prove that we don’t live in a post-bias world and that social identity matters.

The new study uses the famous and now forty-year-old “Think Manager, Think Male” trait research conducted and progressed by Virginia Schein. This new study by Dr. Golom et al extends the groups to include gay managers and lesbian managers in addition to (presumed) straight female and male manager categories.

Dr. Golom, whilst at Columbia University, surveyed almost 200 undergraduate and graduate students in the NY metro area. Eighty percent were women and a small percentage of all respondents were LGBT-identified. The results will astound you and make you think twice about any beliefs you may have around the next generation creating change just by virtue of being born as Gen Y.

Despite the survey responders being mostly women, the group that was elected as having the most leader-like traits was the straight male manager group. This group was ranked as most competent, productive, and emotionally stable amongst other attributes.

So perhaps these young, educated women might answer a direct question such as, “Do you want to be CEO?” as, “yes”, yet blatantly stated their group as a whole to be a less able group (remember this is a stereotype, actual competency levels were not measured as no individuals were presented here as subjects).

Furthermore, lesbians as a stereotyped group were rated as hostile and less competent than straight men yet had an edge over straight women ( as ranked by straight women, go figure?). Gay men really bore the brunt of the evils of stereotyping in this survey. They were assigned very low rankings on every trait that is considered to be leader-like, despite the slogans that people write on their Facebook such as, “It gets better”.

How can this be, I hear you ask? Well, you have all heard about unconscious bias and stereotyping but perhaps it is good to note that (mostly straight) women are guilty of it too. It is less discussed that (mostly white) women have a role in keeping the status quo in place due to their proximity to the current power structure, just as it is also a stereotype to think men don’t want to be involved and do something.

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Movers and Shakers: Suzanne McAndrew, Vice President of Talent Management, American Express

women sales“By not telling your story, you might run the risk of creating barriers for yourself at work,” said Suzanne McAndrew, vice president of Talent Management at American Express.

“That being said, you need to find the right outlets to tell your story and feel comfortable that it will then become part of what you are known for at the same time–and this can be challenging,” she continued.

Currently, McAndrew works to identify high potential talent within American Express and facilitates pathways to their success. For LGBT professionals, she advocates bringing their whole self to work, but also encourages them to define a personal brand that extends beyond their sexual orientation. “Regardless of whether you are gay or straight, you still possess skills, knowledge, and talents that make you a leader who is worthy of attention,” she explained.

Career Story
As McAndrew looks back at her career, she can separate her professional journey into three different chapters that blend the areas of service, communications and change management and talent. She started her career in retail, working in HR for Saks Fifth Avenue where she really had the opportunity to develop depth and breadth of knowledge in the area.

“I was fortunate to have a sponsor who brought me to New York to lead the corporate communications group before becoming the HR Director for Saks Off Fifth, the outlet store division of the company,” said McAndrew, who led the initiative of opening new outlet stores all over the country during her time in this role.

Before moving on to what McAndrew considers the second chapter of her career, she continued to develop her communications experience at Macy’s where she was charged with building a strong corporate communications group in addition to bolstering the company’s internal programming for employees.

Continuing to focus on communications, McAndrew took her career in a different direction when she accepted a consulting role at Towers Perrin, which later became Towers Watson. “I started as a communications consultant, but my role evolved over time to include work in the talent space and thought leadership,” she said. It was here that her relationship with American Express began as she spent eight years providing communications consulting services for the company.

“An opportunity opened up in the talent management group at American Express which involved executive talent planning, development, and assessment for the top 1,500 employees at the firm. And this is the third and current chapter in my career story,” McAndrew explained.

She is spending a lot of time right now thinking about the employee of the future and what that profile looks like. “What does the next generation of leaders look like? What motivates and drives them? How do we build a diverse talent pipeline and build inclusion into our everyday? These are ongoing questions that we have to consider while managing our current talent pool and bringing on new talent as well,” said McAndrew.

“I take a lot of pride in developing people and helping them discover and reach their full potential,” she continued. “It is rewarding to see others grow and succeed.”

Advice for Achieving Professional Fulfillment
According to McAndrew, her personal definition of success centered around the notion of finding her purpose, although this is not something she figured out until later in her career. “I wish I had been more in tune to the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ aspects of my professional development,” McAndrew noted. “I learned that having a purposeful career did not necessarily mean finding the quickest path to the top, but rather being clear on what I am aiming to achieve overall for myself, my family and the company I work for.”

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In a Record Year for Corporate Equality, Some Challenges Remain for LGBT Employees

Welcome to Pride Week on The Glass Hammer — we’ll be profiling successful LGBT business women all week long!

iStock_000000837540XSmallBy Michelle Hendelman

For the last twelve years, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has compiled the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees. The current index features a record number of corporations– 304 to be exact –that achieved the coveted 100 percent ranking. The ranking validates the significant contribution of a company in providing equal rights in the workplace to LGBT employees.

While this number speaks volumes about the progress and change that has occurred, there are still factors of LGBT equality in the workplace that are difficult to address through the index and its measurements. Such as, what happens when a high potential LGBT employee is selected for an extended assignment abroad—let’s say for example, in a country where their sexual orientation or gender identity is considered illegal and punishable?

Or, consider a scenario closer to home. If you are a lesbian professional and are offered a promotion that requires you to relocate to another state where marriage equity is not recognized by law and you don’t know if the office culture is accepting of differences when it comes to who you take to the company BBQ?

Talented people are faced with choosing to continue to live as themselves at home and yet forgo the recognition of their marital status and their life in fact and potentially go “back in the closet” in order to advance their career. We are talking about highly professional people who want to do well, yet this type of dilemma ensures that only the folks whose ambition will overshadow all else would take this opportunity. Companies don’t always realize that they are losing talent by ignoring cultural markers and inconsistencies in the laws and policies at company, state and federal levels.

Myriad Complexities Accompany Small Victories
According to Meghan Stabler, an IT executive at CA Technologies, member of the HRC’s board of directors and National Business Advisory Council, “It’s a woven mess of state and federal laws, and other legal and social implications that impact employers. While the CEI accurately reflects positive changes occurring within the workplace, it’s progressive companies who benefit the most by clearly understanding that attracting, recruiting and retaining employees regardless of who they are or who they love, is vital to a healthy and productive corporate culture.”

She continued, “A huge gap exists in both large and small companies EEO policies. Hiring practices, diversity training and EEO policies need to be updated to combat the lack of statewide protection. This is where we need to see change the most.”

Since the inception of the CEI in 2002, there has been a large increase in the percentage of major businesses providing workplace protection for the LGBT employees. In 2002, 61 percent of Fortune 500 companies included sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy compared to 91 percent in 2014. Furthermore, the percentage of companies including gender identity under their non-discrimination policy jumped from just 3 percent in 2002 to 61 percent in 2014, according to the CEI.

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Movers and Shakers: Emily Griffen, Counsel, Shearman & Sterling

griffen_emily_webWelcome to Pride Week on The Glass Hammer — we’ll be profiling successful LGBT business women all week long!

As a litigator, Emily Griffen is accustomed to speaking out in court or in legal meetings on behalf of her clients. But, like most people and especially women, speaking out about her career didn’t come quite as easily.

That is why Griffen, a litigation Counsel in global law firm Shearman & Sterling’s Bay Area offices, advises other women to have confidence in their skills and knowledge.

“Be vocal about your career interests and find people who will give you the opportunity to share your opinion,” she says. “This is how you will learn and grow.”

Career in Litigation

To date, that approach has taken her far, even though she didn’t really have a definitive career plan set in stone after college. According to Griffen, she was drawn to law school and especially litigation because of the complexity of the subject matter and the enjoyment she found in grappling with challenging legal concepts. She honed her strengths, identified her interests and aligned her passion for legal research, analysis and brief writing with her ultimate professional goal: to join a global law firm with a strong litigation group.

When Griffen started at Shearman & Sterling’s San Francisco office, she was involved in a number of securities class action and shareholder derivative cases, but as the scope of the litigation group has expanded, so have Griffen’s role and responsibilities. In recent years, her work has grown to include white collar crime and consumer class action suits, as well as securities and corporate governance litigation, for major clients like LG Electronics Inc. and Toyota Motor Corporation – and that variety is something Griffen is excited about. She works regularly with Shearman & Sterling’s litigation partners in the Bay Area – Patrick Robbins, Jeffrey Facter and Stephen Hibbard – as well as with the firm’s other litigation partners and senior lawyers around the world. Griffen also spent a one-year rotation in Shearman’s international arbitration group in the firm’s Paris office, and continues to work with that group from time to time as well.

In Griffen’s field, it is somewhat rare for a case to go to trial – most disputes are settled well before a jury is empaneled. Yet in only her fourth year as a lawyer, Griffen found herself immersed in a three-week-long jury trial in San Jose in a securities-related employment dispute. “This was an incredible and unique experience for me so early in my career,” said Griffen, who argued complicated pre-trial motions in front of the judge and questioned witnesses at trial. “We won the case, obtaining a complete defense verdict, and I feel so fortunate to have had such a rewarding experience, which is rare for a securities litigator.”

More recently, Griffen found herself on the eve of trial again when she was part of the defense team representing the former CFO of a Silicon Valley software company in a civil enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We obtained a favorable settlement for our client at the last minute after years of litigation, but we had to prepare our case as if we were going to trial. It was a very exciting case to be involved in,” said Griffen. As part of the settlement avoiding trial, the SEC agreed to drop all of its fraud claims against Griffen’s client.

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Susie Scher, Managing Director and Head of Investment Grade Capital Markets/Syndicate and Liability Management, Goldman Sachs

Susie Scher “For the first fourteen years of my career, I was not out at work. I think this was a self-imposed barrier that was holding me back,” said Susie Scher, Managing Director and Head of Investment Grade Capital Markets/Syndicate and Liability Management, Goldman Sachs.

“It was a turning point in my career when I decided that I just couldn’t hide anymore. I was able to be myself at work all the time,” she added, “and everyone at Goldman Sachs was so incredibly supportive and accepting.”

Her Beginnings in Banking

Although Scher has had a long and fulfilling career in banking, she attributes her start in the industry to serendipity. When Scher entered her final year at Middlebury College as a Political Science major with a minor in English, she was certain that she would either become a lawyer or a writer upon graduation.

Scher did not pursue either of these paths, and instead decided to enter the workforce. “I applied for a bunch of different jobs in banking, consulting, advertising, and marketing, among others,” recalled Scher, “and ended up with thirteen interviews at different companies, including a handful of investment banks.”

Even though Scher had developed a bit of an aversion to math growing up, she did not let this deter her from pursuing a car

eer in banking. She explained, “I loved the energy of the people who interviewed me for the investment banking jobs. They were smart, type A, young individuals, and I thought it would be a lot of fun to work for and alongside those people.”

After the interview process, Scher accepted a job with Salomon Brothers, and the feeling she had about the energy of the business was spot on. Moreover, Scher began to realize that she had an affinity for understanding corporate finance and how companies operated from a strategic perspective.

“I decided to go to business school at Columbia after three years at Solomon Brothers to obtain a broader view of corporate America. Here, it clicked for me that corporate finance was a story being told with numbers,” Scher said. “This is when I realized that banking was for me.”

In business school, Scher also became very interested by how external factors impact the markets, and thus impact businesses. “I paired my interests in corporate finance and the markets and landed in a capital markets function which marries advising companies and executing transactions,” she said.

Her Work at Goldman Sachs

Currently, as head of Investment Grade Capital Markets/Syndicate and Liability Management, Scher takes a lot of pride in the growth of this business considering just ten years ago, the firm was not as strong in the investment grade bond business as it is today. Now, Scher and her team handle many high profile deals and attract even more business when the markets are tumultuous.

“I advise big cap companies on financing, risk management and capital structure,” said Scher, “and right now I am focusing a lot on capital structure optimization and helping companies with the complexities of M&A transactions in a global market.”

She added, “Our clients rely on us for our judgment on complex deals or during tough markets, and I am proud to have been a part of the rebuilding and restructuring of the investment grade debt finance business over the last decade.”

According to Scher, one of the most rewarding aspects of her job is having the opportunity to work with some of the most interesting and exciting clients in the world. “I am also really interested in how technology will continue to transform our industry and how we do business in the future,” explained Scher.

Her Experience as a LGBT Woman in Banking

“As a gay woman in banking, I do not feel like I have encountered insurmountable hurdles,” Scher remarked. “The path to success requires all of us –men, women, gay people and straight people –to think about how to be strategic about our careers,” she added.

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Career Breaks: the good, the bad and the ugly

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iStock_000004107649XSmallBy Nneka Orji

Do you dream of hitting the pause button on your career? You don’t necessarily want to hit stop but you want just enough time to pause and reflect without the day-to-day pressures of a demanding career. But how many of us are willing to take a career break and at what cost?

About 90,000 people take career breaks in the UK every year, 60% of whom are women. Recent surveys have found that while the reasons for career breaks are similar across both genders, the imbalance has a clear reflection on the current and future talent pipeline. According to a 2013 YouGov survey, 58% of women take career breaks to care for children or elderly family members and 9% use career breaks as an opportunity to travel. This contrasts with the reasons men cited; 11% opt to pause their careers for family and 29% for travel.

If more women take career breaks, is it right to assume that we look forward to them? According to the results of a recent survey by London Business School, the simple answer is no. Of the over 2000 female survey participants, 70% stated that they felt anxious about taking a career break. It turns out that the bad and the ugly aspects of career breaks can lead women to opt out altogether.

Embracing the Good
Taking a step back from our careers means that we are able to see challenges and opportunities from a different perspective, which indirectly drives innovation. The skills we develop while on career breaks – learning a new language, working in a different culture, raising another human being – all contribute to our wider personal development, making us more rounded and experienced employees when we return.

Organisations that offer career break programmes realise direct benefits, including talent retention and increased productivity. According to the Great Places to Work Institute, 34 of the “100 Best Workplaces in Europe” in 2007 offered sabbaticals. Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2012 found that almost 25% of the companies offered fully paid sabbaticals. Formal career programmes, such as that recently introduced by Morgan Stanley, clearly contribute to an organisation’s attractiveness rating and companies benefit by attracting top talent.

In the US, 24% of small businesses and 14% of large businesses allowed their employees to take career breaks of 6 months or more (paid or unpaid). However, the 2014 National Study of Employers indicates that since 2008, organisations in the US have reduced the number of provisions in place for enabling extended time away from work; down from 64% to 52%.

If there are net benefits to the employee and employer, why are we seeing this downward trend?

The truth of the matter is that career breaks are still seen as “interruptions” rather than continuums of self-development. This misperception is directly shaping the global workforce.

Dealing with the Bad
McKinsey’s 2007 Women Matter report stated that today’s model “presupposes a linear career path, with no space for career breaks” when in fact 58% of the survey participants stated their careers would not be linear. Company leaders need to recognise this in the way they shape their workforce initiatives.

45% of the women reported in the survey cited “need more time for the children” as the reason for their career break. Despite wanting to return after the break, only 74% successfully got jobs and only 40% found full time work. Sylvia-Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce found that 5% of mothers wanted to return to their previous employers, however barriers such as perception mean that they are not always successful which in turn leads to reduced retention.

Views such as that expressed by a UK politician earlier this year – that women who take time out of work to have children are “worth less” to their employers than their male colleagues – are clearly barriers for returning mothers.

Eliminating the Ugly
The ugly reality of career breaks, mainly the manifestation of “the bad”, is that there can be a direct impact on earning power and career progression.

A 2004 study found that “for each year of interruptions to employment for childcare and family care work, hourly wages decrease by 1% (again, in addition to missing out on the 3% gain for each year of full-time employment)”. Despite picking up new skills and demonstrating the ability to work with multiple demands, returning mothers are recognised as financially less valuable than their peers who have chosen not to take family-related career breaks. Another study, based on work by Waldfogel, found that the “family penalty”, a 10-15% reduction in income for women with families compared to those without (and therefore fewer “interrupted work histories”), exists for women but the opposite – a “marriage premium” – exists for men.

These consequences of career breaks have a direct impact on the talent pipeline and need to be addressed by company leaders and policy makers. While policy changes such as maternity (and more recently paternity) leave entitlement in the UK, have provided more options for returning mothers, there is much more to be done to improve gender representation at executive level.

We need a shift in attitudes towards career breaks; rather than seeing them as interruptions, they should be seen as an opportunity to shift focus and develop addition skills which build our careers.

Employers: This is not just a nice to have so don’t get left behind. The 2013 “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” required applicants offer at least one fully paid week of leave to new mothers. In many cases it can be an enabler to a firm’s strategy; for example SAP, the global software company, launched a formal Social Sabbatical Programme in 2012 which provides employees with global opportunities but also enables SAP to meet its emerging markets strategy. Not only do such programmes provide structure, they drive a change in culture and perceptions across genders.

Employees: Some of you will see a career break as an inevitable part of the professional and personal growth, so planning ahead for the break is critical. It is important to clearly articulate the case to your employer (what skills will you be gaining during your time away), identify a mentor and also identify those who will make up part of your support network during your break.

Encouraging career breaks is a long term strategy; to think differently and become more innovative we need a change of scenery. As Albert Einstein famously stated: Insanity: doing the same thing over & over again & expecting different results.” Why then would we not encourage our people to do things differently?

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Mentoring: 6 Ways to Help Your Mentee Think Strategically

mentorBy Robin Madell

If you’re a mentor, you have a lot of responsibility. Your mentee relies on you for valuable guidance, input, and advice on successful career navigation. But of all the lessons you might choose to impart or doors you might open for your protégé, how do you ensure that you are giving the right advice?

One of the primary goals of mentorship is for mentors to assist others in career advancement, preparing often more junior employees for that next promotion or opportunity. Yet research shows that a mentoring relationship doesn’t always result in promotions for women, especially compared to men. A report from Catalyst found that while having a mentor did help decrease the career advancement gender gap, it didn’t eliminate it. The study showed that men were promoted more often than women even when taking into account factors like prior work experience, starting level, and amount of time in their current role, as well as industry and region.

Strategic Thinking Linked to Effective Leadership
By examining this research, it’s clear that one area where mentors can focus their efforts is in helping mentees think more strategically. Strategic thinking can help people at all levels improve their chances for advancement by working smarter and not harder. What’s more, according to Robert Kabacoff in Harvard Business Review, strategic thinkers have been shown in many studies to rank among the most effective leaders within organizations.

For example, a 2013 global study by Management Research Group (MRG) of 60,000 managers in more than 140 countries and 26 industries discovered that taking a strategic approach to leadership was around 10 times more important to how effective a leader was perceived to be. Strategic thinking was found to be twice as important as communication and nearly 50 times more important than tactical, hands-on leadership behaviors.

This speaks volumes about the importance of mentors teaching mentees how to master taking a long-range approach to decision-making and problem-solving. Kabacoff notes that being mentored by someone with the “ability to keep people focused on strategic objectives and the impact of their actions” is a very effective way for mentees to develop their own strategic skills. He also suggests that strategic thinking is “as much of a mindset as a set of techniques.”

How can you as a mentor encourage your mentee to excel at strategic thinking?

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How to Deal with Objections like a Boss: Your Four Step Plan to Rock Your Next Presentation

Businesswoman Giving a PresentationGuest Contribution by Bushra Azhar

Let’s pretend you are presenting a management solution to a group and you’ve done everything right; you’ve laid out a water-tight case, supported by a robust value proposition, strong arguments and an even stronger voice.

You didn’t mumble or stumble or skip over your slides.

You did everything by the book. Heck, you even mastered Fantastic First Impressions Cheat Sheet.

And then, just as you are about to wrap-up, expecting a resounding applause or even a standing ovation, one of the attendees announces that although he is intrigued by your solution, he feels that your solution at the given price would not be able to achieve the required objectives.

He uses words that can slice steel hearts…words like, “impressive presentation” (implying that it doesn’t have any meat, only fluff) or “leaves something to be desired” (translation: It was just a load of crap) or my personal nemesis “having said that” (which essentially means… brace yourself, things are going to get real nasty here)

You feel deflated after your moment of glory and you cannot just stomp your feet and walk out like you used to when you were five.

So what to do instead?

Below is a four step process to deal with valid objections; objections that are not just mud-slinging fests but where the person is genuinely trying to understand something or raising a valid point. It is hard, because it is a battle against the objection as much as it is against your own rationality.

But who said, winning’s easy?

Step One: Welcome the Objections
Valid objections are caused by a person’s old brain. They are triggered by the fear of making a wrong decision and are typically the last step in the decision-making process. You should therefore welcome objections as a sign that the old brain is getting ready to make a decision and all it needs is some reassurance that the decision is the right one to make. This is the exact same technique but that I recommend when faced with the statement “you are too expensive”.

Objections are also a sign that the person is actually considering the viability of your solution and getting his cognitive resources involved. This is great news…never underestimate the importance of getting his mind engaged because this means they are open to any suggestions that come as part of the rebuttal.

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