Why Gender Equality is Good for Men – Part Two of Three

gender pay gap

Guest contributed by Lisa Levey

Part One of Why Gender Equality is Good for Men looked at the positive effects for men in their relationships with their spouses and children.

Part Two focuses on the positive health implications – both physical and mental – for men with a more egalitarian world view.

Gender equality benefits men’s physical health

Gender is highly linked with health risks and outcomes and men continually draw the short stick. But men’s health challenges are substantially driven by their own attitudes and behaviors [which they can change.]

Men who espouse more traditional beliefs about gender make less healthy choices. They drink more alcohol, smoke more, and are more likely to take drugs as well as paying less attention to eating healthily or getting enough sleep. They’re less likely to seek medical care for preventive reasons or to follow their physician’s instructions when they do seek care. Real men don’t seem to think they need to cut their portion sizes as they age, limit how much beer they drink, or spend precious time going to the doctor but they make these decisions at their own peril.

Gender equality benefits men’s mental health

In addition to benefiting men’s physical health, gender equality plays a vital role in men’s mental health. Men more involved in the daily activities of raising children, as they rock their child to sleep, braid their daughter’s hair or give their teenager a shoulder to cry on, have the chance to experience a physical closeness and intimacy that is life affirming. Biology reveals that men are programmed for emotional connection. As men care for their children, the hormone’s associated with bonding rise, just as they do for women.

Gender equality powerfully benefits men’s mental health by countering the tendency toward isolation. In comparison to women, research indicates men struggle to a substantially greater degree with developing and sustaining friendships that feel fulfilling and meaningful.

Gender equality gives men permission to be soft – and bold, to be scared – and brave, to be silly – and serious, to be in control – and let go. It allows men the full range of their emotions, not just the socially acceptable ones like anger and desire.

Men who ascribe to less traditional gender norms have lower rates of depression and suicide, the most extreme response to the masculinity straight jacket that leaves men unable to reach out and to work through difficult emotions. Men commit suicide at four times the rate of women and middle age white men are more than twice as likely to kill themselves as the population at large. Clearly something is amiss for men.

Gender equality lowers men’s work-life stress

Men have been saddled with the primary breadwinning role for too long. And while the bias toward men as primary providers persists, a Pew study suggests there may be change afoot. While more than 70% of women and men reported it was very important for a man to be a good provider, women identified their breadwinning responsibility – and that of other women – as far more important than men.

It’s understandable why many men struggle with not being the primary provider, a role for which they have long felt acute responsibility and received social and financial reward. Yet many men fail to see how their partner’s earning capacity provides not only far greater security for the family but also far more flexibility for them. With a financial teammate, men can more easily contemplate starting a business, leaving a bad employer, or push for a promotion. Gender equality helps men to not feel stuck and without options.

Multiple research studies document that men in more egalitarian relationships report lower levels of work-life stress. What may seem counterintuitive for men is that devoting more time to their lives outside of work actually minimizes their work-life stress. The same has not been found to be true for women.

The conclusion seems to be that women and men who intentionally share home and child care responsibilities can simultaneously enable women to focus more freely on their careers and men to feel less pressured to always be working. It enables men and women to engage in multiple deeply meaningful roles in their lives.

Contributor Bio

Lisa Levey is a veteran diversity consultant, having worked with leading organizations for more than two decades to assist them in realizing the underutilized leadership potential of women. Her current work focuses on engaging men as allies and partners. She led the design and development of the Forte Foundation’s Male Ally signature resource platform for engaging men in diversity work and architected a pilot program to launch corporate male ally groups. She blogs for the Huffington Post and the Good Men Project on gender norms at work and at home. In the spring of 2018 partnering with her husband Bryan, Lisa is launching Genderworks, a coaching practice for dual-career professional parents to support them in navigating the obstacles to gender equality at work and at home. Lisa earned an MBA with highest honors from the Simmons School of Management and a BS with distinction from Cornell University in applied economics.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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How to Lean “In-Between” and Keep Your Career Moving

Woman-on-a-ladder-searching
Get to the top! Lean in! Break the glass ceiling!

These clarion calls from the power sisterhood sound exhausting, unrealistic—even undesirable—to women in the everyday sisterhood feeling pressured to turbo-charge their careers alongside caregiving for children, aging parents and the monumental effort to make it home in time for family dinner.

What if you’re a talented, ambitious woman who actually prefers to, or needs to, lean “in between”?

Today ambitious women are not only found in the corner office or charging the corporate ladder in leaps and bounds. Ambition has a new face at a time when women have respectable professional options beyond the tied-to-your-desk, 60+-hour-a-week corporate job.

If your goal is to pursue work with substance in a reasonable work structure, you have three ways to be on an employer’s payroll—without sacrificing professional stature:

1. Make peace with a current full-time job that has reasonable demands, don’t worry about advancing to levels that could swallow your personal life and find ways to “grow in place”.
2. Turn your current full-time+ job and long commute into a more flexible situation—reducing hours and/or working at least partially at home.
3. Find an enlightened employer who offers a more flexible culture and healthy paths to professional growth.

Keep Growing Without the Big Promotion

If a big promotion is in the offing and you’d rather pull the covers over your head than pop champagne, it’s OK to decline or postpone. It’s not the end of your career if you take a slower route to the next level or never make that jump at all. Evidence this is true is found in some of the most unlikely places.

Working Mother magazine publishes an annual list of the “50 Best Law Firms for Women,” including big, top-ranked firms women chose to exit in decades past. Now these firms tout reduced hours and remote work. Most ensure that lawyers who take advantage of family-friendly programs are not cut off from partnership or leadership positions. I’ve seen this sea change firsthand: an attorney I know works remotely in Vermont, travels to her New York office occasionally, and snagged the partner title at a prestigious firm on her own time.

When you don’t have the family bandwidth for a big promotion, these eight strategies can help you “grow in place”:

1. Define leadership beyond big titles. Recognize that leaders at any level head project teams and set work quality standards.
2. Broaden confining job descriptions. Suggest to your manager expertise you’re interested in attaining and particular projects that could expand your role.
3. Streamline current responsibilities. Make room for more skill development—zero in on better processes, ways to delegate, etc.
4. Collaborate more with team members and departments. Explore job shares—or multi-disciplinary project shares that could cultivate new skills.
5. Take the lead on training and mentoring. Help younger colleagues navigate work and life issues so that women, especially, take fewer career breaks.
6. Get greater industry exposure. Participate in industry associations, speak at conferences, write articles and more.
7. Sign on for legacy projects. Don’t get lost in routine tasks—raise your hand for initiatives that could go down in company history.
8. Help your company be a good global or community citizen. Research organizations that align with your company’s mission and be a volunteer or spokesperson.

To grow in place focus on breadth of responsibility and visibility so managers can evaluate you in broader leadership terms and acknowledge your own brand of ambition and success.

Kathryn Sollmann is a flexwork expert, speaker and career coach—and the author of Ambition Redefined: Why the Corner Office Doesn’t Work for Every Woman & What to Do Instead.

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The 3 Best Ways Busy Professionals Can Reduce Stress and Start Thriving

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women stressed

Guest Contribution

Ask busy professional women about what she most desires, and a lot will wish to reduce stress.

If you feel like you’re living on the proverbial hamster wheel, it’s time to make small changes to your day to reduce stress and save your sanity. Our tips will help you thrive instead of just get by.

1. Multitask in your personal life

Busy professionals are the rock stars of multitasking. But, multitasking for work is very different from multitasking for yourself. In fact, multitasking may be the wrong word to use. According to Entrepreneur, your brain time-shares rather than multitasks since it is only able to focus on a single task at a time. You must learn how to divvy up your time equally and effectively among tasks. How is this accomplished? Create a to-do list categorized into similar tasks so that your brain doesn’t have to totally change gears. Be sure to always keep your list visible so that you don’t feel that rush of accomplishment, only to realize you have more to do. If you start feeling overwhelmed, remember it’s okay to take a step back and get re-focused. In the future, saying “no” is an option too to avoid getting burnt out.

2. Use Your Lunch Hour to Reduce Stress and Refocus

Unfortunately, Americans take only a portion of their lunch break to eat, or they skip lunch altogether. According to the New York Post, one survey found that 50 percent of workers take 30 minutes or fewer on their lunch hour and that 29 percent work through lunch. Some of the best ways to reclaim your lunchtime include leaving the office to have lunch with a friend or exercising outside with a co-worker or friend. To maximize the benefits of getting out of the office, meet a friend outside to eat for 30 minutes and spend the other 30 minutes walking, meditating, or doing yoga. Physical activity gives you the true breaks you need from work to get refreshed and boost your brain function and mood to help you be more productive and have less stress.

3. Prioritize Tasks

Implementing time management practices is another excellent way to reduce stress on a daily basis. For example, create a checklist for work and home. Arming yourself with a checklist helps you focus and reduces the amount of time you waste on email and social media or chatting with co-workers. Be sure to organize your checklist from most to least pressing tasks and consider allotting yourself enough time for each one. By prioritizing, you will not only feel less stressed, but may find that you are better able to concentrate because you’ll know you’re giving your attention to the most important task on your to do list.

If you’re a visual person, put the checklist on your laptop or tablet or on your desk so you can mark off completed tasks, feel a sense of accomplishment, and know where you stand with your day. If you prefer to use technology, create a note or list on your smartphone; or download one of the many checklist apps.

Stress levels also climb when you feel like you have to do everything right now. One tip is to follow the two-minute and 10-minute rule, as described by Kyle Brost. If you have a task that will take fewer than two minutes, do it immediately so that you don’t face the stress of having too many incomplete tasks. However, if you have a task that requires more time, use the 10-minute rule. Commit to working on the task for 10 minutes. When the time is up, permit yourself to stop and move on to something else to keep chipping away at your to-do list.

High levels of stress prevent you from being productive and thriving. Do yourself a favor and multitask for yourself. Then, use your lunch hour to refocus and reduce stress. It’s also helpful to prioritize tasks and manage your time wisely.

Author

Julie Morris is a life and career coach. She thrives on helping others live their best lives. It’s easy for her to relate to clients who feel run over by life because she’s been there. After years in a successful (but unfulfilling) career in finance, Julie busted out of the corner office that had become her prison. Today, she is fulfilled by helping busy professionals like her past self get the clarity they need in order to live inspired lives that fill more than just their bank accounts. When Julie isn’t working with clients, she enjoys writing and is currently working on her first book. She also loves spending time outdoors and getting lost in a good book. Visit her site at juliemorris.org

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Unlocking the Power of Latino Employees in the Workplace

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Latina

Guest Contributed By Julia Taylor Kennedy and Pooja Jain-Link , CTI

Latinx Heritage Month is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary – and ever-growing – economic influence of the Latinx community in the United States.

The buying power of the Latinx market is currently $1 trillion and projected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2020; if this community with its collective capital were a country, it would rank as the twelfth largest economy in the world. What’s more, Latinx labor will account for 80 percent of U.S. workforce growth between 2012 and 2022. Understandably, multinational companies based in the United States are desperate to unlock this growth market.

Take Toyota’s campaign for its 2017 Camry: the company created an ad specifically targeted to its Spanish-speaking consumers. The ad shows a man whizzing down a highway in a Camry, when he gets a call from his mother. He hesitates for a few seconds before he decides to decline the call and focus on the joy of driving his new car. Toyota collaborated with Conill, a Hispanic-focused agency, to create an ad that spoke to many Latinx consumers who cherish family values, but struggle with the desire to break away and live on the “edge.” Toyota’s ad was hugely successful because the company engaged an agency that understood the market in an authentic way.

We’ve seen other employers and entrepreneurs use their unique insights to create a differentiated voice in the mainstream. Take Christy Haubegger, founder and publisher of Latina magazine—the first publication of its kind to cater to the Latina population in the U.S. She created the publication to change the complexion of newsstands: “I was a huge magazine reader growing up, and you’d never see Latina faces on a newsstand. It was a striking thing. So, I was a consumer, I was the target audience, I was that person who wanted to see that reality reflected back.”

To unlock this powerhouse market, both Toyota and Latina magazine capitalized on insights from those who represent it. As previous Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) research shows, teams with at least one member who represents the culture of the team’s target end user are up to 158 percent more likely to understand that end user, increasing the likelihood of successful innovation for that audience.

Unfortunately, Toyota and Haubegger still remain outliers. The Center for Talent Innovation’s report, “Latinos at Work,” reveals that Latinx employees are caught in an unfortunate bind: they feel that in order to advance in the workplace, they need to tamp down their innovation-unleashing cultural savvy. A full 43 percent of Latinas and 33 percent of Latino men feel the need to compromise their authenticity to conform to executive or leadership presence standards at their companies. Overall, more than three in four (76 percent) expend energy repressing parts of their personas. To be seen as leadership material, that is, Latinx employees feel the need to cover or downplay who they are by modifying their appearance, body language, communication style, and leadership behaviors. Promotion patterns positively reinforce this belief, as those who spend a great deal of energy repressing their personas at work are almost three times as likely as those who expend less energy to strongly agree that they are being promoted quickly.

And the frustrations of Latinx employees in the white-collar workforce don’t end there. More than half of Latinx professionals (59 percent) experience slights and snubs in the workplace. Of that 59 percent, 24 percent say that others are given (or have taken) credit for their contributions, 22 percent say that colleagues tell them jokes that make fun of certain ethnic or religious backgrounds, and 18 percent say they are excluded from after-work “get-togethers.” They also lack sponsors – senior leaders who advocate for their promotion, arrange for stretch assignments, and provide “air cover” to take risks. A mere five percent of full-time, high-earning Latinx professionals in large companies have sponsors in their corners.

Here’s the good news: there are clear cut steps any organization can take to better leverage Latinx talent. To include, empower, and advance this crucial talent cohort, and as a result, tap into a not-to-be-missed market, employers can do the following:

Encourage sponsorship across difference.

The boost sponsorship confers on Latinx talent is massive. Latinx employees with sponsors are 42 percent more likely than Latinx employees without sponsors to report being satisfied with their rate of career progression. We have found in past research that sponsored professionals in general are also less likely to have one foot out of the door, and more likely to ask for stretch assignments and raises. This robust relationship can help Latinx talent achieve their full potential, and it can drive engagement and retention while fostering workplaces of inclusion, authenticity, and innovation.

Expand the idea of executive presence.

According to 53 percent of Latinas and 44 percent of Latino men, executive or leadership presence at their companies is defined as conforming to traditionally white male standards. Organizations can make this population feel valued and included by prizing authenticity over conformity and operating from an understanding that a range of presentation and communication styles can succeed in the boardroom.

Embrace and celebrate difference.

Every year, Coca-Cola celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by recognizing the achievements and contributions of Latinos in the United States. In 2015, Coca-Cola launched the campaign #OrgullosoDeSer with a short film to celebrate the power of family and culture. Using the hashtag #OrgullosoDeSer #[InsertLastName], people shared the film along with special family moments and their own reasons for being proud to be Latino. “At Coca-Cola we have been a part of so many of the important moments in Hispanic families’ lives, and we want to continue making new memories with them,” said Lauventria Robinson, vice president, Multicultural Center of Excellence, Coca-Cola North America. “During Hispanic Heritage Month, we are celebrating the immense pride Latinos have for their culture and heritage, a pride that translates most significantly into their family names, which they carry with honor and joy.”

Latinx voices need to be heard and understood. Representation matters. Companies have an opportunity to tap into the unique insights of their Latinx talent and, as a result, tap into the huge and extraordinary Latinx market that awaits. There’s no better way to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month.

About the author

Julia Taylor Kennedy, Executive Vice President and Director of Publications

Julia Taylor Kennedy is executive vice president and director of publications at the Center for Talent Innovation where she leads digital learning and drives qualitative research and writing. She coauthored Mission Critical: Unlocking the Value of Veterans in the Workforce, Power of the Purse: Engaging Women Decision Makers for Healthy Outcomes, and Disabilities and Inclusion. A seasoned writer, producer, and interviewer, Taylor Kennedy has moderated sessions and hosted podcasts at the UN, Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, The Conference Board, and many others. She has also collaborated with business and gender experts on articles published in Forbes, Time, and academic journals, and has advised speakers for major platforms like the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. Previously, Taylor Kennedy hosted 51%, a public radio show on gender issues, and reported for NPR and NPR member stations. She earned a journalism degree from Northwestern University and a master of international relations from Yale University.

Pooja Jain-Link, Senior Vice President and Associate Director of Research

Pooja Jain-Link is a senior vice president and associate director of research at the Center for Talent Innovation. She drives research design and analysis, focusing on survey development and quantitative data. She has expertise in the use of business as a force for social change. Prior to joining CTI, she verified the social and environmental standards of Certified B Corporations™, worked on corporate sustainability at Bigelow Tea, and was an assistant editor of academic journals at Cambridge University Press. Jain-Link received her BA from Duke University and earned an MBA and Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.

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How to Write Inspiring Speeches to Motivate People

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presentation

Image via Shutterstock

Guest contributed by Stacey Wonder

All of us can remember listening to a great speaker.

Whether it was a school teacher that took your history class on an exciting adventure through time or it was an employer who really knew just how to sell the company’s message, good speakers are often few and far between. When a person speaks well, the experience for the audience can be truly magical.

Strong motivational speakers are first and foremost powerful storytellers. They do not spend their time reciting long lists of facts and figures. While that information may be included in the story they tell, the speech itself is not about these things.

So, how can you write the kind of speech that inspires people and moves them to take action? It all starts with careful planning. While most motivational speakers make it seem like they are just having a casual conversation with their audience, it takes a lot of preparation for it to feel effortless to the audience.

Spin in the New Light

One of the first things you need to do is decide on your message. Ask yourself, what information you want the audience to leave with. It should reveal a surprising truth about your topic. One thing motivational speakers do not do is tell the same old story. They may discuss the same topic over and over again, but they are known for spinning it in a new light. You want to find a way to question a commonly held belief; this statement should be so profound that it causes the audience to stop and think about your topic and analyze it from a whole new perspective.

When people attend a motivational discussion, their minds are already open and they are looking to be inspired. To be successful, you must deliver on that promise. When writing your speech, try to think of something new and innovative that will make your audience think that they have learned something totally new and exciting.

Give it a Rhythm

Once you have your message, you need to find a way to deliver it without sounding like you’re giving a lecture. Speakers that drone on and on without a rhythm usually lose their audience very quickly. Your speech needs to introduce new information on a regular basis. Generally, to keep them engaged plan on providing a new point at least once every ten minutes.

Still, you don’t want to introduce the point in a straightforward and factual way but deliver it in a way that is engaging.

The Beginning

One of the most important parts of a good story is the beginning. It is the time when your audience will be deciding if you’re worth their time. You need to deliver a strong and attention grabbing message within the first thirty seconds or you may see the audience mentally check out before you ever get started. A great example of a grabbing beginning you can read in Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”

The best way to do that is to make your first sentence one that they are not expecting. Start by telling a personal story that can relate to your message. How long the story will be depends largely on the length of your speech. Obviously, if you have only 10 minutes to speak, your story should get to the point within the first minute but if you have an hour or more to speak then you have the time to weave in intricate details that will tie the audience to you.

Use Repetition

Just like with a song, repetition aids memory. When you hear a song, which is the first part of the song you remember? Isn’t it the chorus? Why is that part of the song so memorable? Because it is repeated over and over again throughout the song.

This does not mean that you just keep recanting the same words over and over again, like a chant. While that may work in some cases, the point here is to repeat the general idea behind your message. Try to work this idea into your speech at different intervals. This will drive home the point so that your audience will remember it long after they have left the presentation. Good example of a repetetive motive you can see in “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther.

Choose words that the majority of people will be able to relate to. If your story is about a childhood experience, choose expressions that will evoke powerful memories from others but at the same time is unique. Consider some of these guidelines for how to start your story:

1. Make it different from anyone else’s beginning
2. Take your audience on a mind journey
3. Give your audience something they can relate to

If you have a well-thought-out message that you would like to deliver, but you feel that the words you choose are not that powerful, you can consider hiring an editor at such platforms as Upwork or EssayTigers.

Give Them a Buzz

Your speech should not be full of canned expressions. The more you try to copy other people the less likely you will engage your audience. No two people speak alike so no two people should deliver the same type of speech. Showcase your uniqueness in your speech.

Ask yourself, what makes you tune into a speaker’s message. This will help you to understand the kind of speech you should want to deliver. Usually, it is some type of conflict. A battle of the wits or a challenge between two different personalities. Read Susan B. Anthony’s “On Women’s Right to Vote” to see the example of how a speaker can present and develop the conflict.

If your story contains conflict you will draw your audience in and will be able to hold them there until you are ready to bring home your main point. Leave out a few details so that they will be on the edge of their seats, waiting with bated breath for you to deliver on your promise.

People who attend motivational speeches are looking to be wowed. They are looking for someone to point them in a whole new direction to a place they would have never thought of.

So, don’t be afraid to create a little drama, build up some suspense, and add a touch of mystery. Without conflict, the audience will be able to predict what is going to happen next and when that happens you will have lost them.

Bottom line, when you are writing a speech you are starting a relationship with your audience. Your first words should be chosen to draw them in with a promise of something great, something new and refreshing. Once you have captured their attention, deliver your message with a surprise; something that goes against conventional wisdom.

Repeat that message periodically throughout the speech making sure that you introduce a new idea or concept every ten minutes or so.

When you are ready to close, remind them of what they have learned, give them steps to follow through and finish by closing the loop and going back to the story you started with.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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Got promoted? 7 Tips When Choosing a Successor

Smartly dressed young women shaking hands in a business meeting at office desk

Guest Contribution

As you get promoted, you may be asked to help to select the right person to take over when you leave.

If legacy is important to you, you’ll probably want to have time to train your successor to handle their new role just as expertly as you do now.

Here are seven ways to make the process better for everyone.

1. Make Development the Focus

All too often, leaders make the mistake of scouting out employees with the same traits and skill sets and spend less time on what potentially a successor could do. A smooth transition includes not only figuring out who can do the job as well as you but it’s also about giving them the tools they need far in advance of the time they’ll have to use them.

So, as you begin to think about finding your successor, keep in mind that their confidence and hard work aren’t enough to ready them for your role. Development training should be part of the plan, too. Many companies have made this mistake, promoting someone into a position that they certainly have earned from successes as an individual contributor or even as a manager in another team, but for which they don’t particularly have the right skill set for this next role.

So, make sure development is at the heart of your succession plan. It’s not just workplace mentoring or shadowing, although those are important methods, too. Development is all about learning leadership skills that will make the promotion into a starring role more natural. Conferences or workshops can provide training, also, and reinvigorate leaders-in-training in their current positions.

2. Choose the Right Person

The first step in the process is to find the right candidate to take over for you. You might know exactly who that person is already, and it might be someone who works closely with you or someone who is excelling in a role that’s tied closely to yours. Consider the person’s skill set and make sure they’re already knowledgeable in some of the areas you deal with on a day-to-day basis. For extra padding, you could select more than one potential successor and, through training, see who is the best fit.

3. Consider the Logistics – And Revisit Regularly

When is it a good time to start succession planning? There is not one answer here, and it is depends on how senior you are and what is talent process is. Thomas Collura, partner at Hodgson Russ, says that the biggest mistake is failure to properly plan for succession early and neglecting to revisit those plans. As the business changes, so should your plans. Be open with your successor as well so that any changes can be considered well in advance.

4. Look to the Future

You shouldn’t make your succession plan with just the present taken into consideration. Instead, it’s vital that you have a broader outlook as you sit down to determine who’s right for the role. In the short term, someone just like you could be the solution, but, in the long run, you might make a mistake. Every company’s plans and forecasts are different, but you should know the trajectory of your role before you choose the replacement person.

5. Avoid Any Bias

Whether we like it or not, there are unconscious biases that come with the hiring process. They’re deemed to be unconscious because they’re not something we do purposefully, but these tendencies can stifle workplace diversity.

Taking certain precautions can prevent yourself from falling into this trap. Some hiring managers look at resumes without considering the candidate’s names so that gender bias can’t come into play. This practice could rule out any race-related biases, too.Of course, choosing a successor might mean you’re selecting candidates you already know. In this case, practice staying open to picking a new leader who’s not exactly like you.

6. Be a Mentor

Once you’ve narrowed in on the person or people who have the potential to take over in your absence, you should provide on-the-job training as well as the leadership development mentioned above. A great way to teach someone how to do your job is to show them first-hand, and a mentoring program would allow you to do that with ease. There are more benefits to mentoring than just training a successor. It makes all employees more skilled in their roles, and it makes them feel more satisfied with the workplace because it provides them opportunities to learn and grow. So, offer the program on a broader scale, but ensure your mentees are those who you’ve earmarked as potential leaders. That way, they can learn directly from you.

7. Write It All Down

Finally, as you wind down your role and prepare to hand over the reins to your successor, do one last thing to make it all simpler — provide them with a written set of instructions. Yes, it’s old school, but it’s also extremely helpful. All of your in-person training was great, but there are always going to be critical pieces of information that are worth repeating — write those down.
Not only will this make the succession plan easier for your replacement and your company, but it will make you feel at ease about everything, too. If you’re devising the right strategy for easing the transition, you care — and you can walk away knowing that you handled it well, chose the right person and prepared them as best you could. And there’s no better feeling to have when moving forward than that.

Disclaimer: The opinion and views of Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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Is Being Liked an Important Element for Public Speaking?

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Women Speaking

Guest contributed by Beate Nimskly

What are the obstacles that keep you from presenting on stage or in a business meeting joyfully?

And what would change in your life if nothing could stop you from delivering your message to the crowd?

We in some way confuse the issue that the speech has nothing to do with the person itself but the way she is able to connect with the audience. Don’t wish to be liked, rather place the focus on wanting to influence so strongly that most of the public will really get what you have to gift and remember you as inspiring and energetic.

Be aware that no matter what you do some will like you and some will dislike you. People have the tendency to compare. This is especially true for women in business – women will be compared with other women and men too.

You are not comparable because you have something to deliver that no one else could. Concentrate on that. You are different than others and that is what counts.

Content is King

The content you are looking for is how your message fits into the reality of your audience. What are they able to hear? What is their problem? What do they want to change and could not until now because they had no idea, no sense that other things are possible? What are they willing to receive?

You could do a story around the topic with one of your customer who was struggling with a similar situation your audience has. Explain his difficulties, how he suffered, that he wanted to give up and then what possibilities opened up when he was willing to do something different. Make your customer the hero not yourself. Be so precise in how your customer or colleague or your friend changed and what he did exactly to overcome the complexity of the situation that there is no doubt at all that you have been the one who accompanied him – without mentioning that.

The Difference in Preparation

Who are the participants in your meeting, in your audience? Where do they come from? What background do they have? What position in business do they have? What is it your audience wants to get from you?

No matter who they are they want to be inspired. Find out which words they use so you can talk to them in their language. Prepare yourself in the way that they have the sense you speak with them on their level like a private one on one conversation.

The Difference in Questions

Know what you want them to do after they have left the meeting, the presentation or the event.

And ask them a lot of question during your speech like:

  • What are you going to do different when you are back in your office?
  • What one thing you could change back home that if you changed it, it would make your life much easier?
  • When you leave this event, what question would you like to ask me that you could write on a piece of paper with your e-mail address attached so I can answer it for you?

As well include questions like:

  • What would your life be in five years from now if you could and would change it?
  • What would our business tell us if we would ask the business itself what is needed right now?
  • How would we define success in ten years from now?

These questions keep your audience in a constant search for new possibilities. It makes them feel alive, more connected to themselves and pro-active.

Energy is the Key

Your energy is the key to success. Why? Every word you say has energy behind it. And not only the spoken word influences the audience. It´s more the tone and the body language that counts.

So, ask yourself questions like this:

  • What energy, space and consciousness can I be to have total ease and fun on stage?
  • If I would not judge myself, control myself and try to mimic others what brilliant speaker could I be?
  • What can I be or do different to allow myself to step up into the brilliance I truly be?
Space and Consciousness

Space within yourself allows you to connect with others on another level. You can do breathing exercises to experience space within yourself. You could do Yoga or meditation to experience space. If you are the space, you have no resistance to whatever people are asking or are talking about you. You just let it go through yourself with no attachment at all.

And no matter what people say you could say to yourself: “Interesting point of view that they have this point of view.” With this you free yourself from your own judgment about them and as well from their judgment about you. If you practice “interesting point of view” all day long in your normal daily life you will experience more freedom with everything. This is the space of all possibilities.

You are now able to act and react with ease and flexibility in the given situation. That inner freedom gives you access to consciousness. Consciousness includes everything and judges nothing. Everything you do, everything you experience is a way to more awareness. There is no right or wrong. There is always awareness and the choice to be or do something different the next time.

You don´t like me? Interesting point of view.

Beate Nimsky is an inspirational catalyst for change, who works with CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs and leaders in companies developing their leading abilities. She has been a pioneer in consulting and implementing value driven cultures in companies for more than 25 years. Her new book Ask – And Create Your Life will be published in summer of 2018.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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Why We Must Bring Mindfulness To Leadership

thought-leadership

By Aimee Hansen

Leadership today is not crying out for people who are destined to be great. It’s crying out for people who are dedicated to being present.

We don’t need bigger beacons to admire at the top, but human beings who can connect and be here now.

According to Gallup, 85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work. Forbes found that more employees (65%) would rather see their bosses fired than receive a raise. Research reveals a massive chasm between leaders’ self-perception and how their employees see them. One McKinsey study found that 86% of leaders rated themselves as inspiring, but a Gallup survey found 82% of employees see their leaders as uninspiring.

“Around three years ago, we started to see more and more leaders today being overwhelmed, being always on, not being able to keep up,” says Jacqueline Carter, partner and North American Director of Potential Project and co-author of “The Mind of the Leader – How to Lead Yourself, Your People and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results.

“This is equally evidenced by research that shows what we’re calling ‘a real crisis in leadership,” says Carter. In partnership with HBR press, her organization conducted interviews with 250 C-suite executive interviews, assessed 35,000 leaders and reviewed previous studies.

Leadership Begins in the Mind, and With You

“An unmindful leader is someone who is distracted all the time, who has a hard time getting things done, probably not very calm, maybe stressed,” says Carter. Mindfulness develops the ability to say: “Okay, no matter how chaotic it is out there in the external reality, I can maintain a sense of focus and of discipline and of calm in my internal reality.”

But most leaders don’t feel that way.

“The Mind of the Leader” research found that 73% of leaders feel unmindful most of the time and 67% of leaders feel their minds are simply cluttered. Attention itself has been touted as the world’s scarcest resource in the book, “The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business.”

“If we don’t have the ability to understand and lead our own mind, we’re certainly not able to be effective for ourselves,” notes Carter, let alone able to understand our people or the “collective minds of the organization” so that we may lead effectively.

Three Steps to Start Your Own Mindfulness Practice

1) Start a 10 minute guided practice with this app: Research shows that after 14 days, 10 minutes a day, you can actually see the impact of feeling a little more focused, more calm, more clear-minded.

2) Take stock of distractions: Carter advises to take stock of what keeps you from being focused (eg phone on in meetings). Minimize the amount of habits that distract you and create scattered feelings, tension or stress to increase your focus.

3) Stop the multi-tasking: According to Carter, multi-tasking is a myth (the brain conclusively shows we can’t give real attention to two things at once, we just flit between). We can reduce our stress levels by not scattering our attention.

When it Comes to Effectiveness, Mindfulness is a No-Brainer

Mindfulness practice cultivates self-awareness, which is a foundation of good leadership. Mindfulness has been associated with benefits such as enhanced focus and better task performance, enhanced work-life balance, more creativity and innovation, better decision making and problem-solving, more ethical decision making, increased job satisfaction, fewer sick days and more retention.

On a personal level, mindfulness can bring better sleep, enhanced attention, decreased stress, reduced cellular aging, increased emotional intelligence, and also benefits for the immune system, brain, heart and blood pressure.

What is also required, according to Carter, “is not letting our egoistic tendencies drive our behaviors” while “bringing more compassion and kindness into our work places, for strategic reasons, not just because it sounds like a nice idea.”

Why Leaders Need to Watch Their Ego

The research found that when we rise in leadership, it’s incredibly difficult not to develop a big ego. Leaders are listened to, surrounding with people who praise them, paid more and maybe have the fancy corner office.

“There’s all these subtle things that tell the brain, basically, you’re important,” says Carter. “And ego naturally grows.” So, rising into leadership has a tendency towards corrupting our behavior to be ego-driven.

For example, Carter points out, “One of the things about having a big ego is that we’re more susceptible to confirmation bias. We want to see things through the lens of the way we want to see things.”

Mindfulness practice is a way of training your mind to break unconscious biases, to affect how you relate and respond – to stay open, fluid and and respond rather than react.

“We know that we are emotional beings as opposed to rational beings. Too many programs that focus on unconscious bias appeal to our rational approach: ‘Okay, I understand diversity is good’. But we also understand that doesn’t change our behaviors,” asserts Carter. “If we all knew the right thing to do and that enabled us to do it, we’d all be exercising, we’d all be eating well.”

“It’s the same thing with unconscious bias,” says Carter. “The motivation needs to be there, which is the awareness piece, but we also need to train ourselves to be able to overcome those biases that are so unconscious they’re much more difficult to tap into.”

Mindfulness Cultivates Presence and Self-Care

“When somebody is more centered and more grounded (not about being arrogant) but has a strong sense of themselves, you feel that, and you respect them more,” says Carter. “It’s easier for people to listen to those people, because they draw people in.”

The more we cultivate presence, according to Carter, the more we can overcome the cultural addiction to action. More presence means less hustle.

“Being more mindful enables you to set more boundaries, and that was true for all the leaders we spoke to, but certainly the female senior leaders…” says Carter. “It’s a combination of being able to be mindful about what you can do and what you can’t do, and be okay with the fact that you may let people down, but you need to be able to take care of yourself.”

Presence helps us discern what is necessary, what we can put our focus on effectively, and what we can accept and release from our control.

“In our research, it was amazing to see how basically the higher you got in an organization, the higher the level of the executives, they all took time to exercise, they slept well, even despite ridiculous travel schedules and ridiculous scopes of jobs,” says Carter. “It was really clear that if you don’t start taking good care of yourself and setting good boundaries and saying no at an earlier level of your leadership journey, you’re gonna burn out.”

“Presence Pays”

Research shows a direct correlation between a leaders’ mindfulness and the well-being and performance of their people.

“Human beings know when people aren’t present with us,” says Carter. It’s un-motivating, inefficient and costly.

“When you look at how distracted people are, at turnover rates, lack of engagement, you can make a pretty strong business case that being present with people, being kind to people, being about others not about ourselves, it’s not just nice to have,” said Carter. “It’s pretty critical to be successful in business today…we look at it as ‘presence pays’.”

“What we’ve found in our experience of training people to be more present is it actually saves time because if I know that I’m heard, I’ll stop talking. My message got across,” says Carter. When we don’t feel heard, we’ll keep trying to be – we’ll keep on talking.

Presence can be as simple as sticking around for a real answer to “how are you?”. On the contrary, “if you go to a meeting, and half the people are on their devices, you should just get up and leave. Seriously,” says Carter. “You’re wasting your time because of lack of presence.”

Presence, paired with compassion, creates a sense of meaningfulness and connection, and that matters when in inspiring others and earning their trust. Research has shown that a lack of trust ultimately erodes performance and the bottom line.

“We are wired to want to fit in and want to feel valued. And when feel heard, when we feel like we matter, and when we then are able to connect with other human beings, it enables collaboration, it enables the right conversations to happen, including tough conversations,” says Carter. “If I give you feedback and I’m distracted, that’s gonna be horrible for you. But if I give you feedback because I really care about you and I really want you to get this didn’t work out well, you can completely receive that. It’s the power of presence to be able to have both tough conversations as well as nice, engaging moments of meeting effectiveness.”

The Lone Leadership Ideal Is Dead

“What has been an iconic idea for a long time of a single, solitary leader – the great leader theory – is really dead.” says Carter. “The pace of change that all of us are experiencing regardless of what industry we’re in – the disruption, the distraction, the pressure – is just too complex and too much for any one individual to have all the answers.”

Nobody, and especially Millennials, want “some great person (often some ‘great man’) on a pedestal they don’t connect with,” said Carter.

Meaning, purpose and connection is what most of us want.

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How to Optimize Your Retirement Savings When Changing Jobs

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Guest contributed by Sarah Landrum

You consider many factors when transitioning from one position to the next.

How quickly will you adjust and pick up new duties? Do you fully understand your benefits? How do you take your old accounts with you?

Reconciling new benefit offerings with old accounts from previous employment, such as an existing retirement, gets confusing when you’re taking in too much information all at once.

The good news: That money you worked so hard to save for retirement belongs to you, wherever you go. Here’s what to do with it.

Look at Your Retirement Goal Status First

Before you consider what to do with your money, now is the time to look at where you are with your retirement goals. Are you working toward a secure retirement? Look at your total retirement goal and potential withdrawals every year and play with projections for your current contributions and new employer matching contributions while weighing your circumstances.

For example, say your current retirement savings is $100,000, and you expect an income increase of 2 percent. You can factor this into your retirement plan along with Social Security benefits and other income to stay on track with your goal. Don’t forget to factor in if you’re married, since adding a spouse affects your Social Security benefits.

Options for Your Existing 401(k)

Here’s where it gets tricky. Your old 401(k) account belongs to the prior employer, but the money belongs to you. Here are the four options you have for what to do with your existing 401(k), as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each avenue.

1. Keep Your Old 401(k)

Look at your existing balance and reread the terms. You may have to move your money since the account belongs to the employer. Otherwise, the old 401(k) usually sits there without contributions from you or the employer. Different rules exist for different employers regarding what’s done with the money, with some automatically cashing out your funds to you or transferring the amount to a new IRA for you. If a check is made out to you, the company automatically cuts out a 20 percent portion to cover taxes. Check with your prior employer and reread the terms.

2. Transfer the Money to the New 401(k)

When your new company offers a 401(k) or other retirement option, consider transferring the money from your old account to the new one. Ask: does the new plan terms accept transfers from prior 401(k) accounts? What fees apply?

Sticking with a 401(k) option over an IRA has its advantages. Money must come out as of age 70.5, but if you’re still working, you can delay distributions with your current employer 401(k) plan until your actual retirement date and maximize your earnings. In the case of bankruptcy, your 401(k) remains protected, but IRA exemption stops after $1,283,025. At age 55, you can also take cash penalty-free from your 401(k) if you leave your position.

3. Move It to an IRA or Roth IRA

Skip thoughts of 401(k) confusion and transfer your balance to an existing IRA if you have one — or open a new IRA. A perk of a traditional IRA is the avoidance of taxes by transferring the money to this type of retirement account, but a Roth 401(k) must be transferred to a Roth IRA. You must look carefully at terms and fees when rolling over to an IRA. Otherwise, you may pay more than transferring to the new employer 401(k). Companies are required to provide reviews of annual investment costs and disclose administrative fees.

Younger baby boomers change jobs about 12 times over the course of their careers, and leaving 401(k) plans behind overlaps multiple funds that may exceed your risk tolerance and age. If you’ve left more than one plan behind, consider rolling retirement accounts into an IRA. Many IRA plans contain lower investment costs and options to invest in exchange-trade funds (ETFs) to reduce costs and risk.

However, mutual funds and ETFs come with expense ratios, which vary whether that’s an IRA or 401(k) — look closely at costs, talk with your broker or ask for the disclosure of fees and ratios yourself. Slowly decreasing your stock investment amounts in your portfolio reduces your risk as you and your portfolio age.

4. Withdraw the Balance

It’s best to wait until you reach age 59.5 to withdrawal your retirement balance, or you face paying on the withdrawal as taxable income. Plus, you experience the joy of the 10 percent penalty due to the withdrawal of your balance and your funds won’t grow.

Most advise against withdrawing retirement balances unless you’re facing an emergency you need to pay a significant amount of money toward quickly. What you consider an emergency may not be worth it in the end, such as buying a house, paying credit card debt or helping your kids offset unplanned college costs. For example, it’s better to take an approved IRA distribution for college costs than to face the 10 percent tax penalty for withdrawal. You can slowly replace the distribution over the years but paying thousands in a tax penalty hurts your take-home income and drastically reduces your retirement earning benefits.

In the end, you selected the retirement strategy that best-suited your long-term goals but changing jobs and emergency life situations arise that prompt you to take another look at your approach. Multiple accounts are difficult to manage and rolling over everything into a single account or Roth IRA outside of your 401k may reduce fees and boost your earnings in the long-term. You’ve come this far and likely know what you want to invest in. Go with the plan that best meets those needs, and if that means transferring funds to the new employer’s 401(k) — do it. If you have or are taking on significant debt, go with a plan that protects your assets and reconsider any emergency needs. Then, update your retirement plan with a strategy that optimizes your savings.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer

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8 Tips to Get Success in Your First Interview

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People waiting for an interview

Guest contributed by Susan Saurel

First round interviews help employers select a smaller pool of most qualified candidates for their open job positions.

For this reason, they’re typically less thorough than the second or third interview rounds. Still, your job of preparing for the first interview isn’t any easier. Your goal is always to make a terrific impression and to perfectly convey why you are the best fit for the job they’re trying to fill. Good, solid preparation is key to success, so here are our tips on how to make sure you always bring your A-game:

1. Do Your Homework. Know Who You Talk to

Not knowing enough about the company you’re interviewing for is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in a job interview. Company research is a critical part of the preparation process.

Start with the company’s website; study their About page, their mission and top executives; get to know their products and services; and read current press releases to stay up to date with what’s going on in the company now. You can also “google” the company, check their blogs, social media, and read reviews from clients, current and former employees to get a feel of “who” the company is and how you can embody a similar personality during the interview.

2. Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses for this Particular Role

Take time to analyze the job posting, the in-depth position description, the required set of skills, knowledge, professional and personal qualities that the employer considers critical for success at the workplace. Then, do your best to answer the question “Why am I the perfect fit for this job?”. Identify the unique qualities about you, including your expertise, relevant certificates and professional qualifications, as well as specific examples for when you’ve gone above and beyond to solve a problem, or accomplish what no one else has managed to do.

3. Google Yourself

Great resumes and cover letters are at the tip of your fingers with the help of essay writing help. But that’s not enough these days. Employers are also interested in your online personal brand.

Find out ahead what Google says about you, and make sure to manage and optimize your appearance online so it won’t hold you back from that dream job you want. If there’s anything negative about you that you cannot fix, you’ll be able to have a ready response that clarifies employers’ concerns. Try not to get too defensive though, but simply respond and move on to the next question.

4. Prepare Answers to The Most Common Interview Questions

Industry giants like Google, Bain & Co., and Amazon, are known for surprising their applicants with unusual and confusing interview questions. However, most of the other companies will generally stick to their lists of common questions, like the dreading “Can you tell me a little about yourself?”, “What do you consider to be your greatest strength, and weakness?”, and “Why do you think you will be a good fit for this position?”.

Prepare good answers to a list of most likely questions. The “tell me about yourself” part is just a warm-up, so don’t waste your best points on it; just briefly cover your early years, education, work history, and most recent career experience. When you talk about your weaknesses you want to have a positive twist to it. Mention something you struggle with but work on improving, like taking on leadership roles to tackle the fear of public speaking.

5. Write Down a Few Smart Questions to Ask at The End of the Interview

Interviews are two-way conversations. By the end of it you’ll get a chance to ask your own questions, and gain better understanding of the company you’re about to join and your particular role in it. This is a great opportunity to engage in a meaningful conversation and show your interviewer that you care about the position.

Write down two or three thoughtful, open-ended questions, to make sure you end the interview strong and differentiate yourself from the rest of the candidates. Some great examples include:

  • What do you like best about your job and working for this company?
  • How would you describe the work culture at the office?
  • What is the typical career path for someone in this role?
6. Practice Makes It Perfect!

Now that you have your questions and answers ready, it’s time to practice them to perfection. This doesn’t mean learning them by heart, but rather keeping in mind the important bullet points so you can stay calm and not scrambling for an answer while in the hot interview seat.

Do mock interviews with a friend, colleague, or a career coach, and practice speaking clearly and concisely, listing your most relevant skills, experiences and achievements. Answering the question “What can you bring to this position?” will be a lot easier if practiced then when doing it the first time.

7. Dress for Success!

First impression can make or break a business, and your outside appearance is a large portion of it. Prepare a professional looking wardrobe that fits the culture of the organization. For men the dress code is usually pretty straightforward; a suit and a tie is always a sure thing. Women can wear a dress, a skirt and a blouse, or some elegant pants with a shirt. Keep accessories, jewelry and make-up to a minimum. Make sure your outfit is clean and ironed, your hair is tidy, and your shoes are shinning.

When you look your best you also feel your best, and feeling good about yourself helps boost your confidence, which is crucial for nailing an interview.

8. Arrive Ready and On Time, Get Comfortable, and Stay Positive

Prepare extra copies of your resume, samples of previous quality work, a reference list, and some paper and pens to jot down notes. Make sure to always arrive on time, or at least 15 minutes before the interview to allow yourself some time to settle, and possibly observe the dynamics of the workplace you’re about to join.

Practice calming your nerves and getting relaxed before the interview, as this will improve your confidence in the eyes of the hiring manager. Remind yourself that not getting the job is the worst thing that can happen.

Oftentimes the first interview will not be your last interview. After the first round companies will follow up with a second or even a third interview round to get to their best candidate. Stick to these basics, prepare well, and you can be sure that all your interviews are a success.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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