Vanessa Rodriguez: Head of Community Lending & Investment, Commercial Real Estate, Wells Fargo

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Vanessa Rodriguez“At some stage, it’s not completely linear any longer. Sometimes, you must take a step back, or move laterally, to go forward,” says Vanessa Rodriguez. “You have to leave what you’ve exclusively done, branch out, take a risk or accept a new challenge. That could be a geographical change, a different line of business, a new company or position – but generally, it’s out of your comfort zone.”

Rodriguez shares on interviewing for a senior promotion while becoming a mother for the first time, learning to show up authentically regardless of who is in the room, and her commitment to coming at life and work from a genuine and constructive perspective.

On A Mission Towards Affordable Housing

After completing her B.S. in Business Administration from the UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Rodriguez was recruited to join the Wells Fargo Financial Analyst program in the Company’s Commercial Banking business. In 2007, she moved to NYC to take a position in Wells Fargo’s Real Estate Merchant Banking business, jumping into the hot seat just before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2009.

“I had no clue as a young banker how bad it could or would get. I’d never seen a market cycle,” she says. “Being in commercial real estate, specifically in workouts, in NYC during the GFC was intense but an amazing and enriching experience. Three years felt like ten years and only elevated my interest in building my career in commercial real estate.” She began to rise in the ranks, leading teams in NYC and then back home again in the San Francisco Bay area. In the past couple years, she took the opportunity to further expand her real estate career by becoming the Group Head of Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and Investment (CLI) group.

“Affordable housing is one of the Bank’s top priorities, and this was an opportunity to lead a premier affordable housing team and large national business at Wells Fargo,” says Rodriguez. “It’s exciting to look at commercial real estate from a different angle and immerse myself in this new ecosystem – which includes non-profits, housing authorities, foundation work, government and community relations, public policy state and local governments.”

Rodriguez notes that providing a quality, affordable home to all must be a top priority everywhere in the US. In the San Francisco Bay Area, many of the families and friends she grew up with have had to relocate to attain good, cost-effective housing. Some now have 2-3 hour super commutes to work.

“It’s really sad when you become priced out of the place that you grew up, and that’s happening for more and more people across the country,” she says. “There are so many amazing things here in the Bay Area- the outdoors, the moderate climate, the diverse culture, so many top notch universities, the innovative tech industry, think tanks and VCs. But the downside is an extremely high cost of living in which regular people are forced out, breaking up families and communities, and negatively impacting the landscape. We need to work on these problems in communities across the country, and I want to be a part of that solution.”

Taking a New Role While Welcoming Her First Born

At a certain point as you ascend in leadership, Rodriguez notes that the path can become less clear. What your next step will be depends on investing in a lot of self-reflection and soul-searching around core questions: What do you want to do? How do you want to spend your time? Where can you add the most value? Because ultimately nobody else is going to be equipped to hand you those answers.

Such a moment came for Rodriguez when she was 41 years old and seven months pregnant with her first baby in 2021. The opportunity to run Wells Fargo’s CLI group came up, and she “looked away, frankly.”

“This is the value of having those strong personal and professional relationships in your life, whether they are formal or informal mentors or sponsors or ultimately over time perhaps become friends after years of working together” she says. “I had some of these people call me and say, ‘Don’t look away from this. It’s probably tough to think about a new opportunity now or interviewing for a new role at eight months pregnant, but do not check out right now.’”

So, despite how daunting it felt, Rodriguez began the interviewing process while pregnant in her third trimester, finished while on maternity leave, and ultimately returned to work in a new position. She had a second child in November 2022, and appreciates Wells Fargo for the support she’s received: assuming the role at this stage in her life has included managing her own high expectations around her career and motherhood, working hard to deliver, but speaking up where flexibility is needed. Rodriguez is inspired that while there are many things about parenthood that remain unique to women, parental matters are seen less and less as only women’s issues.

“But I will say that every day, I am forced to make decisions about where I am most needed because there are only so many hours in the day,” she admits. “I would love to get up every day and have my set routine, but my current state is more like a Rubik’s cube, where I move this piece down, pull it up here, take the lever off here, and make tough decisions about what I can and can’t do today. The truth is it’s not always graceful but tomorrow is always another chance to improve and do it better.”

Building Your Personal and Authentic Brand

“From the beginning of my career, I always focused on treating every single task like it was very important. It was all about building my personal brand,” she notes. “I tell young people: ‘You need to sweat the small things as well as the big things as you build your brand. Make your mark. What do you stand for? What are your standards on the quality of your work product and how do you approach it?’ Because if you build that personal brand and do great work for people, there is a multiplier effect where people start asking for you and saying your name in the room when you’re not there.”

Yet keeping your head down isn’t enough. Rodriguez also focused on real estate being a people business, and the importance of connecting, regardless of whether she may have initially felt like an outsider, to gain a strong network and the right visibility. Rising into that confidence to bring more of herself to the table has been immensely important to her growth.

“Twenty years ago, I entered the space focusing on being less visible. Over time, I realized there is a lot lost when you try to fit the mold, when you do not bring your full self to work, your best self to work” says Rodriguez. “We can and should bring our personal style and unique experience to work and connect in different ways. I certainly would encourage that in a sea of many, be memorable.”

Being extremely competent, authentic and walking the walk are important to Rodriguez’s sense of personal brand. As a leader, she never asks anyone to do something she hasn’t done or wouldn’t do herself. She prefers to roll up her sleeves. She values genuine and transparent communication and people feeling comfortable enough to share their unique perspectives.

“I want to bring value to people, whether it’s my clients, my team, or senior management, and what it means to bring value is going to be different for every situation,” she notes. “I hope that when I’m not in the room, people say she brings leadership value everyday, and she brings it in an authentic and genuine way – and we enjoy being in her orbit.”

Belonging, Irrespective of the Room

When it comes to entering a room where she may be the only woman, let alone the only Latina, Rodriguez says, “It starts with whether any of those factors intimidate you. I’ve always just prided myself on not being intimidated, even if there were moments I could have been.”

“When I enter the room, I focus on being prepared for the content of the meeting, on being a good listener, on finding solutions,” she says. “I focus on the principles that matter, irrespective of who’s in the room and whether you’re the only woman.”

While she’s had many moments of feeling she wasn’t part of the club and remembers once being told it was a career-limiting move not to golf, Rodriguez comes back to her confidence in the subject matter and being memorable because of her difference.

While twenty years ago, she may have gone with a strategy of blending in, today she would advise: “Embrace who you are and everybody else will be richer for it.”

Maintaining A Constructive Mindset

“There’s a moment, which is certainly an adjustment, when you’ve reached the point in your career where the buck stops with you in leadership. I’ve always been someone that took responsibility and was willing to make decisions, but when you get to the level where you have complete ownership from start to finish, it’s no longer someone else’s problem in leadership,” she says. “It’s ‘we’ and it’s ‘me.’ You’re not alone – you have peers, a whole team, a manager – but it’s embracing an entirely new level of ownership and responsibility.”

At that level, Rodriguez has embraced the advice to be vigilant with her mental approach, day-to-day and in all parts of life.

“How constructively you approach anything is going to be the difference-maker for you and for all those who work with you and for you,” she says, “When you hit those roadblocks and it’s tempting to pivot to feeling captive or negative, I force myself to remember that the only way out is forward. Approach issues constructively and that will help you rise above the challenge or circumstance, to focus on a solution.”

She continues, “I’ve needed that encouragement at times. We could waste time wallowing, but the work will be there tomorrow. So give yourself a few minutes, if you need to take a step away, do. But then, come back to it, calmly and constructively. That’s what I want to exemplify for my team, the leader I want to be. Cooler heads will always prevail.”

Keeping the Perspective of a Longer Arc

Twenty years into her work journey, Rodriguez would also advise that it’s okay to slow down and pace yourself: “If we’re lucky, the career is long. We live in a culture of instant gratification and are wired to constantly seek it. Technology only serves to reinforce and accelerate the need for instant gratification,” she notes. “But you truly have to toil away at something to really learn it, to master it, to become an expert, to unlock the benefits and skills that will propel you to that next level. The corporate ladder is really a staircase with various landings along the way and you have to play the long game. Climb the staircase…”

With two little ones at home, Rodriguez observes that “six months feels like a night” and time feels more precious than ever. Rodriguez loves spending time with her kids, husband and extended family. She’s seeking to weave back in her wellness focus and routine, and having enjoyed much travel before motherhood, muses on family travels to one day come.

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How to be an Ally to Latinas this Hispanic Heritage Month

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hispanic heritage monthIf you take a look through a list of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, you’ll find that 10% of the most senior leaders are women. After many years at the 8% mark, the start of 2023 brought a slight jump with 5 female CEOs being installed. These CEOs include Karla Lewis of Reliance Steel & Aluminum, Julia Sloat of American Electric Power, Jennifer A. Parmentier of Parker Hannifin, Stephanie Ferris of Fidelity National Information Services, and Maria Black of Automatic Data Processing. Although this is a win, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done to make the leaders of companies more representative of the people who work under them. And one of these areas that needs the most focus is the number of Latina professionals in leadership positions.

In the United States, the Latinx population are a major economic driver, contributing over 28% of the US GDP, as well as being the second largest ethnic group. Yet, they are the one of the least represented in the professional world, Latinas especially. Latinas make up 10% of the national population but hold less board seats at Fortune 500 companies (less than 1%)  compared to any gender, ethnic or racial group. White women hold 1226 seats followed by Black women with 183 and 89 seats for women from Asian descent. While Latina professionals hold the smallest number of seats, thirty less than women of Asian heritage, as of 2022 women overall still only hold 30% of Fortune 500 board seats.

Currently, in 2023, there have been only three Latina CEOs in these companies. The first of these CEOs was Geisha Williams who acted as CEO of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) from 2017 to 2019. She is the first Latina to ever hold the title of CEO at a Fortune 500 company. The second was Cheryl Miller who was CEO of AutoNation from 2019 to 2020. The third, and only current Latina CEO, is Priscilla Almodovar who began her journey as CEO at Fannie Mae at the end of 2022.

Although Latinx accounts for over 18% of the total population in the United States, the number of board seats allocated to Latina professionals is around 1%. Ester Aguilera, CEO of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA) shares, “In fact over the last 10 years, between 2010 and 2020, Latinos only gained 1%. We went from 2% of corporate board seats to 3%. Latinos and Latinas are invisible in the C-suite and the boardroom. For Latinas, it’s even smaller. Only about 1% of the public company board seats are held by Latinas.” Aguilera attributes this small number to lack of visibility which makes companies feel as though they cannot find qualified Latinas to hire for board positions. The LDCA prides themselves on helping quicken the search to find qualified Latinx professionals and have created a directory with a talent search tool to hone the search for Latinx employees.

What Can You Do To Be an Ally to Latina Professionals?

Understanding that there is a gap for Latina executives is the first step, but deciding what tactics you can bring into the workplace is the most vital step. It can be very difficult for a company to work cohesively if there is not a level of trust and safety felt by its employees. Amy Edmondson introduced the concept of team psychological safety in 1999. Research shows that it still rings true today in making employees more content in the workplace, lowering levels of conflict between coworkers while boosting higher levels of performance. When speaking of psychological safety, Edmondson explains, “Psychological safety exists when people feel their workplace is an environment where they can speak up, offer ideas, and ask questions without fear of being punished or embarrassed.”

In keeping true to the concept of psychological safety, employers must be willing to create an inclusive environment for all backgrounds and cultures. The Harvard Business Review found that 76% of Latinx employees repress parts of themselves at work. This includes their appearance, accents, body language and communication styles which are all part of executive presence, an important element when defining leadership potential. They also found 43% of Latinas feel as though they need to push aside their authenticity to meet the standards of executive presence at their companies. Employers need to create a space where Latinas can be their true selves and below are just a few examples as to how this can be achieved.

Check Your Own Bias

The change will start with you. As a leader, you are the first obstacle to creating an inclusive space. Take some time to sit with yourself and understand what biases you may have. Think about taking an Implicit Association Test to explore your biases. Once you’re aware of your biases, pay attention to them. Take a step back and think about why you made a decision and if your biases had any influence on that choice. See if there are any stereotypes you are holding in your head such as “I don’t like to work with her, she’s too fiery.” Or “I can never understand what she’s saying, her accent is too strong.” Acknowledging your own biases, and apologizing when they get in the way, is a considerably positive step to creating a healthy team culture.

Engage in Active Listening and Use That Information for Change

While attempting to increase any type of inclusion, leaders should strive to listen to what their team is telling them. Take time to connect to your employees, listen actively and be aware of who they are. If leaders want to retain Latinas and hire more, listening to their needs is overtly important. In learning about needs, you need to let the employees lead the conversation and make sure you ask questions and participate so they know you are listening to understand. From what you learned in these conversations, bring change. Create new policies that meet their needs and help them feel more comfortable in their work environment. Knowing the workplace they would be joining is a safe place, where they don’t have to hide their true selves, would be a driving factor to hiring more qualified Latinas.

Increase Opportunities for Latinas

Another way to help increase the number of Latina professionals is to provide more opportunities for advancement. One way would be to implement a mentorship program in your company. You can follow examples such as the one set by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has created an initiative for advancing Hispanic and Latinx in which they provide activities with emphasis on career readiness and support, entrepreneurship, community development and financial help. Having someone to go to for advice will help Latinas feel like they belong as well as give them someone who may have been in their position to help them advance confidently. The JPMorgan Chase initiative also includes fellowship programs for collegiate level Latinx to help them find their way while still in college. Applying an initiative like this, with a focus on Latinas, could create a better laid out path from college to executive positions. You may also try implementing groups for Latina women to connect with each other and share their own stories. Networks and connections play a large role in advancement in today’s professional occupations. Creating a space where Latina employees can feel as though they belong, with people who look and speak the same way they do, can help increase their executive power and feeling of confidence in an executive position.

While all of these ideas can positively affect Latinas professionally, you must keep in mind that change cannot happen overnight so stay focused. By following these suggestions, you can help take that step towards increasing the number of Latina executives in the professional leadership community. This Hispanic Heritage month, remember to be aware of your own biases, listen to understand, and work to increase opportunities for Latina professionals. Supporting this growing community is essential for companies to retain their Latina employees and create a space in which others will want to join.

By Chloe Williams

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Liora Haymann: Managing Director, OBM International

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Liora Haymann“When you stumble on a rock in a mountain climb, you find your way around and keep going,” says Liora Haymann. “You may even later sit on the rock that seemingly blocked you to enjoy the view.”

During her first year in Architecture School in Chile, Haymann’s studio teacher declared that he didn’t like wasting his time reviewing women’s projects because in two years they would marry and leave school. While it would be unacceptable today, that comment ignited a motivational fire in Haymann.

“I’m a rational person, so I looked at the classes above me and I thought, he’s just stating a fact. And then I said to myself, I’m going to prove him wrong,” she says. “I never thought he meant to dismiss us. He meant to push us. And that’s how I’ve taken it every time I found such challenges. I’ve never thought that somebody is putting me down. I’ve always thought it’s a challenge.”

Five years later, that teacher congratulated Haymann for being accepted for graduate studies at MIT in the US. But it remained true that out of a 50/50 gender split in the first year, only five women graduated as part of the 1983 class – whereas about twenty men did. She remains friends with her tight-knit female classmates still today.

From MIT to Chilean Urban Market to Global Destinations

MIT was eye-opening and introduced her to a more inclusive culture: “It gave me a lot more confidence on who I was, and I understood the freedom to pursue a path that was more mine.”

After graduating, and a couple of years working in Washington D.C., Haymann returned to Chile with her newborn daughter. With a few of her former male classmates, she co-founded an innovative architectural firm called URBE, as the only woman partner. With a combined background of US studies, they brought new techniques, visions and ways of introducing urban quality to the market. URBE became the best-in-class training ground for a new generation of young urban planners in Chile. But for family reasons, she then moved to Miami.

“Leaving URBE behind was difficult. It was my baby. At that time, there was not a global economy like we have now. Working across borders was not so common, so it was a darker time,” she reflects. “But again, every challenge is an opportunity.”

She crossed paths with OBMI, a premier hospitality and destination design company, which put her on the global stage and took her all around the world – China, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, the Caribbean and much more.

OBMI work is imbued with vision: the belief that design must celebrate local culture, landscape, or heritage, and create a journey of discovery for those who inhabit the space, whether for a weekend or a lifetime. OBMI became a great platform to develop her talents.

Moving From Design into Business Management

Being a very organized, structured, and process-oriented person, Haymann found that as she grew professionally, she gravitated towards management. After several years running international design projects – remote island resorts, boutique hotels, large scale master plans for waterfronts and mix-use, this eventually led to becoming a managing director and board member at OBMI, despite not having formal business education.

“Architects are trained to focus on design and to believe that design is the only valuable aspect of architecture,” she admits. “I had to re-educate my brain that I am even more valuable now because I understand design so well that I can make the bridge between management and design and make it much more effective for our clients, my team, and everybody to navigate the complex design process. I’m super proud of it, and now encourage others to become great managers. It’s been a great ride, with the company growing fivefold during this period.”

Recently, at 66 years old, she’s been contemplating what’s next and yet, it also feels premature.

“In my company, we are working towards passing on more power to the younger generation. OBMI is my second baby and therefore, letting go and trusting is again difficult,” she admits. “So you give it away, and then you grab it back because a part of you does not want to give it away. It’s a process and it’s a bit painful because I have a lot of energy and ideas related to work process and management that I want to apply.”

With a 102 year old father, Rudi Haymann, who has reinvented himself in his 90s, as a published author and public speaker, Haymann trusts in longevity and decades of re-creating herself ahead.

“It can be frustrating to see that a lot of business mentality is still caught in the 20th century where it was learn-work-retire,” she admits, “but that’s not the story today. How can businesses capture our acquired experience, at a time we are still full of energy?”

Liora's Hand

Being a ‘Shepherd Leader’ with A Wide Worldview

When it comes to her leadership style, Haymann self-identifies as what she dubs a “shepherd leader.” She leads from behind with a team that is organically in motion with many moving parts. She keeps her eye on the North and ensures everyone is staying oriented and moving towards the goal while she prevents anyone from getting stuck or going too far astray.

“There are many different ways of leading. I am not a ‘storyteller leader’ who may create large ideas and inspire people through their words. That’s a different way of moving people,” she says. “I will lead by example. I’ll walk the talk and people will see me walk, and they will learn.”

All along, she stays focused on three main goals: Design great projects. Make sure the team is inspired and fulfilled. Make good business.

Haymann feels her wide worldview has been essential to her success in global hospitality and luxury destination design. As a Jewish woman who grew up in Chile, with German parents, and then chose to study in the US, she carries different cultures and a great deal of heritage within her, always informing her perspective. She speaks several languages and notes “languages have embedded within them a way of seeing the world.”

She also believes her results-focused, solution-oriented, and driven nature have supported her in building trust. She’s adept at structuring, planning and breaking down complex projects into the who/how/when process and tasks to ensure everything comes together, flows and moves forward.

One of her strengths is to combine bird’s-eye strategy view with down-to-earth actionable tasks. With this double-lens she analyzed the firm’s data to identify key challenges and implemented processes, solutions, and unit linkages to drive smooth operations, efficiency, and communication as a basis to keep the team leveling up.

“In a design studio that is full of intuitive creatives, that is really useful. Because I understand the creative design process and I can also bring this structural talent that I have to respecting that intuitive process. Otherwise, it goes counter-current,” says Haymann. “How do you build that insight within the creative process? I can partner with the most creative person and become a really strong team because we cover it all.”

Fostering Honest and Direct Communication

“It’s difficult to give bad news, and so people often avoid it. I’ve learned through time that the best way to build trust and understanding is just to communicate as honestly as possible,” she says.

As she’s risen in leadership, a big mental shift has been making a strong and conscious effort to be more relationship-focused beyond the content of the work. This includes more check-ins and empathetic listening. With a half-smile, she admits she’s uncertain if she’d be called “nice,” but she trusts her team knows she cares about them.

“If we’re having a discussion, my focus is on the topic. I’m assuming that we’re both focusing on the content. But, with time, I’ve learned that many people focus on the relationship, and may sacrifice items in the topic to protect the relationship,” Haymann observes. “For example, they may not contradict. They may not bring up their ideas because they may be different from what somebody else in a more powerful position may be saying. They may feel vulnerable in expressing something.”

To invite others to speak honestly, she has learned to make an introduction upfront about her own direct style and valuing the discussion of viewpoints and being contradicted, because it encourages better, more nuanced thinking on the topic.

Being A Woman Architect in Real Estate Development

While architecture tends to be perceived as a very woman-friendly field, they’re less prominent in architecture in real estate development.

“I’ve never had a woman client and I’ve worked for decades and decades,” says Haymann. “The industry is very male-dominated, likely because it involves both large money and big negotiations. In my company in Chile, URBE, I was the only woman partner. At OBMI, I was the first female managing director and board member. OBMI has been a great environment for growth, and I am grateful for the opportunities. I think the last fifteen years have been a big leap for women in design and hospitality, and I am happy to see that.”

She notes that the representation of women significantly diminishes as you escalate in the ranks. Architecture requires a lot of late nights and tense deadlines, and many women with family prefer to form their own smaller self-practice.

“I was super lucky. I had help that I trusted while raising a family, but I remember it as an extremely stressful time. I was forced to learn to be very efficient and focused to make decisions,” she recalls. “Maybe it’s just my personality, or that may have affected the relationship aspect of work for me. I would come in, do my work and go home, because I had stuff to do there and people waiting for me. Still today, it’s difficult for me to relax and go for a long lunch.”

At the same time, Haymann notes these days, she enjoys the ability to linger and work late: “I love to work. Why not work late if I can now? What a luxury.”

While things are changing visibly today around integrating family and work, it also brings up mixed feelings for the barriers women have faced.

“As a woman with a family, I, and the women I worked with, would never bring up family as an excuse for being late or not coming in. We would figure it out, because it could be counted against you,” she notes. “But today, I see young men who have families, very freely say, ‘I have a school meeting. My girl is sick. I have to stay home.’ I still don’t see the women saying that so freely. They’re still very careful. It’s nice to see the fathers being involved and taking this freedom, but I also lament that women never had it. It’s both good, and at the same time, it’s unfortunate guys have to say it for that to be acceptable.”

Haymann also notes being a woman has helped her to stand out and be memorable, and she leveraged it: “I made sure that people knew I was intelligent. That I would bring value. That what I would say was relevant. That I could speak up. That I was going to be absolutely responsive to my clients’ inquiries and needs and be available to them. I made sure that was clear, and that became an important platform,” she notes. Her expertise and confidence brought speaking opportunities at international forums and relationships that opened new business.

A female colleague recalled a moment when Haymann inspired her years ago. As attendees were coming into a boardroom, Haymann witnessed a young woman take a seat in the second row in a semi-full room.

“I immediately called her out and said, ‘You go sit at the table” she recalls. “I thought, why would a young woman decide to sit in the second row when there is space? The space at the table is for those who show up because they care. The second row is for those who come in late, no matter who they are.”

It took a while for Haymann to realize that she was a role model to other women, and she doubts young women today would default to the second row. Looking back, Haymann would tell her more junior self to be more playful and develop relationships more.

“With time and feedback, I became more aware other women were watching me, but I’ve never talked about it, because I think talking is cheap. Acting is important,” she notes. “For me, it’s always: Set the example. Show others what they can do.” She is adamant in supporting next gen at OBMI to expand their knowledge and leadership through their involvement in industry programs and events. She also led the creation of a hospitality design course at University of Miami, strengthening the firm’s position as a thought leader.

Carving a Path With Few Role Models

Haymann has a soft-spot for the Disney character, Maleficent: “The first time I met her was when my daughter was a little girl and we watched the original Disney film Sleeping Beauty from 1959. What struck me, were the female archetypes in this film. First, there is the queen who doesn’t speak a word in the whole movie. Then, the princess, who falls asleep; then the minuscule fairies, who do all the jobs for the prince, but they’re invisible. Like the secretaries and the wives and all these invisible people that, in those days, made things happen while the male hero shined. And then, there is Maleficent – who is independent, beautiful, lives in her own castle and has people that she reigns over. When she shows up, she is hated because she is powerful, she speaks and brings this curse, meaning she holds a power. Isn’t that interesting? This is how women were perceived in those days. Either powerful and bad. Or invisible and doing all the work, or mute.”

Across her career in architecture, Haymann had no particular real life female role models whom she wished to emulate, but rather was more inspired by her peers and colleagues. As she looks ahead to what’s next, she also finds few inspiring her for where she might go.

“I find myself again having to carve a path on my own. I’ve experienced enough transitions to know it’s going to be a good place, but I also expect there to be a rough time because you have to cross the rough sea before you can get to the other shore,” she reflects. “The rough times have always brought me good things later.”

Today, her 102 year old father is her inspiration. He’s living proof that you can always re-invent yourself, find enlivening purpose, and create relationships, again and again.

Translating old letters from German to Spanish (for the original edition) as she supported her father to write his own story, she also discovered more of herself. When she read that her grandfather wrote to her then 16-year old father, after being separated to escape Nazi persecution, that “Work is the holiest mission of man,” she saw herself in that perspective.

Referring to her “B side,” the life that is not as visible and happens outside of the realm of work, Haymann is looking for how to more deeply integrate all sides of who she is. Her “B side” passions include physical movement, nature, and writing.

Her passion for movement has gone from trekking, dancing and competitive skiing as a child to becoming immersed in Martha Graham technique to being certified as an Iyengar Yoga teacher to finding a love for free flow movement in Five Rhythms. While Iyengar yoga is about alignment, structures, weights, precision and tensions that mirror architecture, she’s moved towards a purer emotional expression in movement.

“I started working at a time where most feminine aspects didn’t have a place. So I put them on the side, and kept developing them because they’re extremely important. I think that’s why I find myself drawn to movement,” she says. “Movement is medicine. It’s an amazing self-knowledge tool, a place to go when emotions are driving, and a way to understand myself. I pray to move until the day I die.”

Her other big love is nature, reminding us we are both so small and capable of so much. She calls crossing the Andes Mountains on horseback and camping in the open air her “most luxurious trip” – not for the facilities, but to hold witness to the immensity of nature and the human spirit that would dare to cross mountains.

With her father being one of few living veterans of World War II’s 100 million fighting soldiers, she realizes that some stories reveal their layers and gain significance only with time.

“When we’re in middle of it, we’re just living. We’re doing our thing,” muses Haymann. “It’s only when we take a long-distance view that we start seeing the lessons and the value in all we’ve done. Things take on a different perspective. Perhaps that will also inform my next phase.”

By Aimee Hansen

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How to Lead your Team Successfully at Work by Building Trust

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building team trustTrust is foundational to a successful team. Being able to trust that your coworkers and employees will perform to the best of their abilities enables not only more productivity but also engaged employees. The Harvard Business Review found that people who work in places with high trust levels reported 106% more energy at work, 76% more engagement, 74% less stress, 40% less burnout, 50% higher productivity and 29% more satisfaction with their lives compared to those at a low trust workplace.

The report also found that low trust workplaces often mean that people have to spend time navigating office politics. There have been decades of research into all aspects of the workplace, team performance being a dominant one. One person who has researched trust and dysfunction in teams is Patrick Lencioni who wrote the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

The book lists these dysfunctions as absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Absence of trust focuses on the lack of vulnerability based trust which leads to team members not willing to be open with teammates on things like admitting mistakes or weaknesses. Fear of conflict connects to trust as it involves team members being comfortable contradicting a teammate and debating topics. Lack of commitment happens when members’ ideas aren’t being taken into account. Avoidance of accountability is when peers don’t hold each other accountable for living up to the standards of the team. The final dysfunction is inattention to results in which individual team members are more focused on their own results than the team results. Many of these dysfunctions can be addressed by making sure psychological safety is present in the workplace.

The current definition of psychological safety was coined in 1999 by Amy Edmondson and is defined as, “the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.” In a recent study by Yuanqin Ge, it was found that employees that felt a sense of psychological safety in their workplace could speak more openly and often, provide their opinions to help decision making in teams and feel comfortable enough to share their ideas with managers. All of these outcomes are based on trust.

How can you apply psychological safety? According to Timothy Clarke, whose model is based off Edmondson’s 1999 research, there are Four Stages of Psychological Safety which include:

  1. Inclusion Safety – Inclusion safety involves making sure team members feel as though that can be their most authentic selves and will be accepted for that.
  2. Learner Safety – This stage includes making sure the workplace is an environment where questions are not frowned upon. The workplace needs to become a space where people feel they can ask questions to learn, give and receive feedback and even make small mistakes without fear of repercussions.
  3. Contributor Safety – In this stage, the team should feel as though they can share their ideas without the fear of being ridiculed or embarrassed. This stage can be the most difficult stage as bringing your own ideas in front of peers can be a very vulnerable position to be in.
  4. Challenger Safety – In the final stage, team members should be able to question or challenge coworkers’ (include authorities’) ideas and offer suggestions to plans or ways of working through a project.
What Can You Do to Encourage Psychological Safety In Your Own Team?

 

  • Don’t Worry about Being the “Perfect” Team

Don’t put all the emphasis on being the “perfect” team where no mistakes are made and everything is always right. It’s understandable to strive for that as a leader, but it’s not exactly feasible. All of your employees are human and humans cannot be perfect all the time, as much as we may want to be. Studies show that a perfectionist boss has negative effects on motivation, effort, and willingness to work. Let go of your perfectionism a little and allow your employees to make mistakes and learn from them. Try to avoid anger in blaming the person and instead look for ways to rectify the situation. In doing so, you not only show your employees that you trust them enough to learn from this and not do it again but also show your team that coming to you with a mistake will not result in being berated by authority.

  • Encourage All Voices

Try to create a space where everyone can say what they believe needs to be included in a discussion. Remind your team that their input is appreciated and cherished. Attempt to hear people out when they are sharing, instead of dismissing them with answers like “yes, but…” or “You don’t know enough context to understand this situation.” Instead, ask them questions and invite participation in a non threatening way such as “What point of view could we be missing?” and be willing to accept criticisms. It may help to even set up meetings with a portion for playing the devil’s advocate and addressing those concerns as a group. Making sure that your employees feel as though they are being heard can encourage them to continue speaking up and bringing unique ideas and solutions to the table.

  • Focus on Building a Team Culture

Build a team where no one is afraid to ask each other for help. Make it the norm that coworkers encourage each other and have that begin with you. Try to schedule times for your team to spend time together and focus on feedback and appreciation. Make sure you let your team know you appreciate them and are supporting their development personally and professionally. Do this as well as events like happy hours or fun team building activities so your employees can let loose a little. You are with these people 35+ hours a week. Knowing more about them and feeling safe around them will make working with them more enjoyable and productive.

The addition of psychological safety can do wonders for increasing trust in your team. Trust and safety go hand in hand in making sure your workplace is one that can flourish and perform to its highest standards. Applying these few examples can make huge strides towards a more productive and happy work environment for your team.

By Chloe Williams

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How Habit Stacking Can Help Busy Executive Women Supercharge Their Success

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habit stackingThere are many challenges to being a successful executive and managing your personal and professional responsibilities. With so much to focus on, trying to introduce a new habit into your routine can seem daunting.

Habit stacking is a life saver for executive women who want to improve their personal or professional lives without sacrificing the quality of what they currently achieve on a daily basis. It’s a low-stress way to supercharge their success without taking time away from other tasks.

What is Habit Stacking?

Everyone has habits, whether you realize you have them or not. Choosing to pour cereal before your milk, what you reach for first in the morning and how you travel to work are all habits.

Some habits are neutral and don’t impact your quality of life. Others, however, could contribute to your stress, fatigue and well-being.

Research shows that only half of people keep their New Year’s resolutions, showing how bad humans are at creating positive habits. Habit stacking is a way to hack that.

Habit stacking connects your desire to improve your organization habits, heath or leadership skills to a pattern you previously established. You get used to performing the task while doing the one you’re used to, and you form a new habit. You can create positive habits by consistently doing them simultaneously and in the same setting.

By connecting a new habit to an old one, your brain combines the two and the new behavior gets ingrained. Author S.J. Scott popularized “habit-stacking” in the professionally-backed book Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less. Since then, it’s become a tool for people to accomplish their goals.

Here are five ways habit stacking can help busy executives.

1. It Increases Focus

When you habit stack, you can improve your ability to focus on essential tasks. It can be hard to complete the steps in your routine without your mind wandering to other things you must do. Habit stacking is a great way to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into your life, helping you focus on the present moment.

Introducing a new habit into your life can seem daunting. Since habit stacking connects the new task to another routine, it is easier to add to your life. Instead of stressing about not doing it, you can focus on how well you’re doing with the new habit and what you can improve. For example, if you want to start bullet journaling, you can do so while you wait for your morning coffee to brew.

2. You Can Better Commit to Your Goals

Habit stacking makes it much easier to commit to what you desire. Sliding things into your other habits instead of creating a separate one makes achieving your goals easier.

If you want to stay hydrated but forget to drink water, habit stacking can help. Stack drinking a glass of water as you check your email. Doing so will help you meet your hydration goals without interfering with other parts of your day.

3. It Helps You Stay Organized

As an executive, you know the organization is a must. However, staying consistently organized is easier said than done. Habit stacking can be an excellent tool for managing your office and being punctual for important meetings and events.

With habit stacking, you can condition your brain to put things where they need to go and adequately prepare for your activities. Putting your pens back in their drawer is easier when you stack it by shutting down your computer for the evening. You can put your files away when you walk out of your office for the evening. Stack the things you often forget with the things you don’t for success.

4. You Can Effectively Prioritize

If you want to change your priorities but get stuck in a negative routine, habit-stacking can help. Connect one of the positive habits to your negative ones. If you bite your nails to handle stress, you can stack it to get up and take a walk. Eventually, the nail biting habit could turn into taking a walk instead.

As an executive, it can be hard to juggle important tasks, but by stacking the most important ones with your routine, you can complete them with haste.

5. It Promotes Healthier Coping Mechanisms

Life gets stressful, especially with the responsibilities of managing a company. Stacking your habits can help you introduce positive coping mechanisms to reduce stress. For example, you could listen to a chapter of your favorite audiobook while prepping your lunch.

Self-care is a vital tool for everyone, especially when you have the responsibilities of being an executive. The industry still has inappropriate biases, making you work harder for success. Incorporating habits that aid your body and mind can help you feel less stress, reduce symptoms of mental illness and allow you to live a more peaceful life.

Using Habit Stacking to Supercharge Your Success

Habit stacking effectively adds healthy habits into your life that support your personal and professional growth. Connecting a current pattern with one you want to implement can start you on the path to success.

By: Beth Rush is the career and finance editor at Body+Mind. She has 5+ years of experience writing about the power of human design to reveal entrepreneurial potential and time management strategies. She also writes about using the emotion of awe to activate our leadership prowess. You can find her on Twitter @bodymindmag. Subscribe to Body+Mind for more posts by Beth Rush.

(Guest Contribution: The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).

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Sherin Dawud: CEO at Nura Co. and Co-Founder at Power Pump Girls

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Sherin Dawud“For me, my mission is sowing into people. If I can impact a person and help open them up to who they really are, their strengths and what they’re capable of, and support them, this has ripple effects,” says Sherin Dawud. “Often companies and organizations are driven by the bottom line, and the bottom line is your people. Money is just a byproduct.”

Social Impact IS the Bottom Line

“As a child, my mom was huge on service to the community. And it was because we came from a low-income family in which we relied on donations for Christmas gifts and jackets and meals,” says Dawud, who grew up in Northern Louisiana. “As we became better-off, it was a repayment to serve the community. My parents instilled this deep in me, and I’ve always had a heart for serving people.”

Along with her co-founder and business partner Raina Vallot, Dawud has been carving her leadership path based on prioritizing social impact in both the non-profit and business world in Louisiana.

Power Pump Girls, Inc. is the duo’s non-profit 501 C3, a social impact club whose mission is to empower women to connect and serve. One of the key initiatives since 2018 focuses on menstrual equity to address the issue of period poverty. Those who do not have access to period care products – either through inability to access or afford – often resort to homemade solutions, resulting in damaging impacts on health and self-esteem. The team provides dignity, education and products (pads, cups, liners, tampons) to those who lack access – from women on the street, to girls missing school, to those who are incarcerated. Across several partnerships with organizations, Power Pump Girls has distributed many tens of thousands of products to the community. They’ve also advocated successfully to have the pink tax (the tax on feminine care products, diapers and other predominantly female purchases) removed statewide. Based in the hurricane, flood and tornado prone areas of southern Louisiana, Power Pump Girls also focuses on disaster relief and promotes civic engagement among women in the capital voting district of Baton Rouge.

But social impact is not only for non-profit work. As “social innovators” who are “fueled by servant leadership,” Dawud’s and Vallot’s marketing and impact consultancy Nura Co won’t accept projects from organizations unless they are focused on impact for people within the organization or the community because as Dawud puts it, “we will not be passionate about your work.”

Instead, they help organizations who are either seeking support for social impact initiatives or consultancy on creating more ways to serve or grow people.

Leaving to Lead On Her Terms

Going into agency life after graduating in 2012, Dawud was disillusioned, but not dissuaded, by her early experience in the workplace. Not only did she feel the culture lacked the inclusiveness she craved, which led her to begin an employee resource group (ERG), but she found her own leadership style rubbed up against the status quo.

“The environment wasn’t conducive to my leadership style. While I am a very firm woman, I am definitely compassionate and lenient in areas where I felt like my male counterparts were not, so my style of leadership was perceived as a little too soft,” reflects Dawud. “I felt there’s compassionate ways to handle people and things. Because I refuse to change who I am as a person in the way that I lead, I decided to leave.”

And that’s when she decided to start her own organizations: “I wanted to prove to myself that I didn’t have to change my leadership style in order to be successful at the things that I enjoy doing. So fast-forward and and we’re doing that and we’re doing it successfully.”

Defying the Narrow Boxes

With a mother from rural Georgia and father from Jordan, Dawud describes herself as half Jordanian, half Palestinian, half Black.

“I grew up in a bi-racial household that also celebrated two different religions. Outside of giving me a worldview of people, and understanding we really are all the same, it also gave me autonomy of choice early on,” reflects Dawud. “I started making big decisions while being offered multiple choices: You are Black and you are Arab. Are you Muslim or are you Christian? Nobody else was living like this. They were one race or one religion. Many times, I questioned if I had to choose one or the other. And then I decided: no, I can do or be all things.”

It’s not only that she didn’t want to be boxed in. Dawud remembers comparing her Arab cousins to her Black cousins, who all liked pizza, video games and going outside to play. “When you dive deeper and you’re looking at all the people in your life, everybody is the same. We all believe in the same big concepts of love and equality.”

This is what Dawud feels is her mission: “I have a heart for people, and have always felt the need to want to close the gaps in understanding between us. Lots of people feel two sides of a coin separate us when, in actuality, it doesn’t.”

Defying preset boxes has come into her professional life, too: “People have said to me, ‘you just need to focus on one thing, so what is the thing that you’re going to focus on?’ It’s just another box. My thinking is if you can only focus on one thing, let that be your limitation. It’s not mine.”

She continues, “I’ve been latching onto the concept of being multifaceted. I can be anything and everything I choose to be, as long as I have the mental and emotional capacity to do those things. When I don’t, I don’t do them anymore.”

Enjoying The Process and Embracing Failure

Dawud says her early confidence to launch on her own “goes to my mom, single-handedly.” While growing up, she watched her mother go for opportunities outside of her immediate reach, come up with new ideas and inspire everyone around her. But most of all, even through failure, she never traded in her energy, passion and excitement around exploring how to make new ideas happen.

“Witnessing her gave me the audacity and strength to jump in and make decisions, and to know that failure is okay, because you can always get re-energized again. I picked up that it didn’t matter whether it worked. The process is fun and inspiring,” says Dawud. “So I adopted enjoying the process, and then I’ve adapted that by also considering, how do I execute and make it sustainable so I do not have to fail? And if I do fail, how do I shift and pivot from those failures?”

Embracing failure was contrasted by her father’s immigrant frame of overachievement and success. That influence helped her know she could figure things out: “It goes back to that duality in my household and being able to draw from these two things that were starkly different. I can make them work together and do both.”

Patience, Communication and The Pivot

Inclined to throw herself into future-focused ideas, Dawud feels her business partner balances that out with structure and processes to actually make them happen, a necessary complement her mother did not have. Along with Vallot’s partnership, patience and communication have been key learning curves to ground her ideas towards success.

“I think so far ahead and I’m so inspired by the next thing, that often I haven’t given everybody else the opportunity to settle their footing in the current moment,” she says. “I feel like we’ve got it, and I can run up ahead and grab more. That’s always my mentality, so I’ve been learning the value of patience and moving slower.”

Dawud notes some of the compulsion to chase the next opportunity comes from imposter syndrome and the insecurity of comparison, and she’s had to outgrow that. She’s also had to learn to communicate better.

“Often I can see this great idea up ahead, but I’m not pausing to communicate in a way that people can understand,” reflects Dawud, “so they can also be inspired by it and add to the idea in ways I can’t see.”

But perhaps what has been most valuable so far is embracing ‘the pivot’ – turning towards, in whatever way it is, where you need to go.

“There’s power in the pivot. You can’t get stuck. You don’t want to plateau. You always want to stay fresh and connected. Pivoting is inevitable. You can’t not pivot, and if you feel like it’s not working, that’s your sign,” advises Dawud. “For every single problem, there is a solution. You just have to spend enough time to let it present itself. Sometimes, the solution is a tweak. But recognize where you are – and be willing to turn where you want to go, in whatever you are doing, whether it’s a 180 or a few degrees.”

The Value of Intuition

As a girl, Dawud’s mother spoke to her about the power of her intuition: that she could pause, listen to it and then stay with it long enough to get comfortable hearing the voice. As she’s grown older, Dawud has more deeply embraced the value of truly connecting with herself.

“I don’t think I would be as successful as I am, or where I am in my life, if I wasn’t directly connected to my intuition, because a lot of our business decisions are guided by that,” says Dawud. “And there are also the times when I realize I did hear it, but I didn’t listen. There’s a value in that, too. What part of what you heard made you decide not to go with it? If you can build the relationship with your intuition, you become more accurate.”

Outside of her multi-cultural home, Dawud is most inspired by women who are overcoming the societal odds to chart new paths – such as Sevetri Wilson, the first black female tech founder in New Orleans to close a 7-figure round of funding. Dawud has noted she’s inspired by the stories of women’s journeys and insights as they’ve risen into impact.

And so it goes, Dawud lives up to what she’s inspired by.

By Aimee Hansen

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