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Guest contributed by Dr. Patti Fletcher

How can you make sure you’re valued and rewarded equitably with your male counterparts as you work your way up to the C-Suite?

Gender inequity in the workplace often begins subtly: women account for the majority of college graduates yet are hired at a slightly lower rate (48% for women versus 52% for men). But the pace of career and pay progression between men and women differs significantly after just a few years in the workforce. Men are 30% more likely to move into management, occupying 63% of manager level positions. As men move up the ladder, women’s progress stagnates—leading to an imbalance of power at the higher levels of business, with men holding 79% of C-suite positions. The pay gap follows a similar path; 63% of early career men earn more than their female peers. As women proceed to higher-level positions, the pay gap between them and their male peers grows at a significant rate with each rung in the corporate ladder.

The research paints a grim picture; but with an understanding about what’s at stake for women and the implications for companies that fail to recognize and reward their talent, women can use their personal power and grit to pave a path for themselves—and for the women who follow.

Beware the “Motherhood Penalty”

Lifetime salary and career progression are often determined during the woman’s thirties. This is when individual contributors start to enter the management ranks. Men receive the majority of promotions, giving them higher pay and greater access to new experiences, stretch projects, and people in positions of power and influence. Why? The common perception is that a woman’s priorities shift during this time—they go on maternity leave and then must balance raising a family and running the home with a full-time work schedule. Many people profess that women leave the workforce in significant numbers because it’s impossible for them to have it all at the same time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Research shows is that only 11% of women who go on maternity leave do not return to work, or that women face demotion, few raises, and low performance ratings when they do return to work.

Often this is referred to as the motherhood penalty; women (with and without children) are punished for simply being in childbearing years. “There are long-term consequences to the Motherhood Penalty; pay increases are often based on salary history and opportunities for upward mobility require relationships with people in power and on strong track records,” says Dr. Gabby Burlacu, Human Capital Management Research and Solution Manager at SAP SuccessFactors.

Why business leaders are starting to pay attention to gender equity

With an unemployment rate of 4.1% and over six million open jobs yet to be filled, everyone from CEOs to hiring managers are struggling to acquire and retain top talent. It’s an applicant’s market—and leaders know it. “There is a recognition that workforce diversity is no longer a humanitarian or anti-white men topic. Without finding ways to attract and retain minority populations, business outcomes are at risk,” says Burlacu.

In addition, the economic imperative of promoting gender equity is a no-brainer. Women are 47% of the workforce, control 51% of personal wealth, make 90% of consumer purchase decisions, and reinvest 90% of their income back into the community in which they live. Further, if the women in the workforce today were paid on par with their male counterparts, $12 trillion dollars would be added to the global economy. Over the last 18 months, women have come together in a way not seen since the early days of the women’s movement. Through the scale and connectivity of social media, women can use their collective economic power to ban brands and avoid employers that have a bad record on gender equity.

How women can take charge of their own destiny

While the challenges women face throughout their careers are systemic and wrought by imbalances of power, many successful female executives have been able to achieve success on their own terms. You can transform barriers into strategies that lead to career advancement. Here are some key tips:

  1. Lead every sensitive conversation with the data that tells a story about the impact you’re making in achieving corporate objectives, making it easier for your boss to see the unconscious bias that may be clouding her/his decisions on your upward mobility versus your male peers.
  2. Don’t limit your skill building and career development to the programs your company offers. Enhance these opportunities by upskilling on technology and seeking out women who have gone before you who can share their insights with you.
  3. Be open and honest about your career aspirations with your manager and HR department so that they can help you navigate barriers obstructing your way.
  4. Keep advocating for yourself and be confident in the knowledge that you are in an applicant’s market. Take the advice Pat Milligan, who spearheads Mercer’s When Women Thrive research, sits on WEF steering committees, and has been recognized by the Kennedy Institute as one of the top 25 consultants in the U.S. As she says in DISRUPTERS: Success Strategies from Women Who Break the Mold “Trust me: the corporations need your talent way more than you need them. If you don’t get specific details on how you will be paid equally to men, on how your career will be supported with access to opportunities and people in power, move on to a company who will provide it.”

Dr. Patti Fletcher is a technology executive, gender equity advocate, and author of DISRUPTERS: Success Strategies from Women Who Break the Mold.

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

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Think about how all business leaders tend to have an “arc” to their story.

What is your arc? How does the tasks you do, and the projects completed, add up to a narrative for your career?

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com is you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work.

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Did you miss these popular articles?

Take a look at the articles below previously published on theglasshammer:

The Long Hours Game

By Aimee Hansen

The 24/7 hour work week marches on and on. The get up and go and keep on going. The long hours game. We all do it from time to time.

How can you have a healthy, sustainable lifestyle and build your career?

The action-packed day of the executive continues to be a glorified image of leadership, and arguably one that is dangerously unsustainable and at best questionable in effectiveness. At theglasshammer, we’ve covered how the 24/7 work week is not only disastrous for gender equality on a whole, but also diminishes your personal leadership effectiveness and your health.

Read more here

Motivating Millennial Lawyers: More About Possibility Than Precedent

By Aimee Hansen

“Millennials bring new ideas and expectations to the workplace, as did the generations before them,” states a 2016 Thomson-Reuters report on The Generational Shift in Legal Departments. But, as the story goes, senior lawyers are resisting those changes.

By 2025, Millennials will comprise 75% of the workforce. The real question is not if change will happen, but how it will unfold.

What Do Millennials Want?

Millennials work preferences are characterized as valuing mentorship (vs bossing) and collaboration (vs hierarchy), wishing to be involved in processes and decision-making, receiving regular feedback, having opportunities for growth, working for a firm that aligns to their values, and desiring work/life flexibility.

According to an article in the National Law Review, managing Millennials “means an almost 180-degree change in the way associates have been managed in the past.”

Read more here

letter writing

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Guest contributed by Kim Forrester

Goal-setting is an obvious necessity for those who want to succeed and achieve. But what if you are seeking more than material success in your life and career? What if you also desire a sense of personal fulfilment; inspiration; purpose? If this is the case, it is vital that you choose goals that are not only challenging and rewarding. They must also be truly authentic.

According to Douglas Hall Ph.D. and Dawn Chandler Ph.D. of the Boston University School of Management, individuals with a strong sense of purpose in their career tend to benefit from enhanced meta-competencies; i.e. heightened self-awareness and greater adaptability. Subsequently, an individual with strong meta-competencies is able to learn other, more specific skills with greater ease.
This makes authentic goal-setting a powerful force in your career: an authentic goal not only appeals on a logical level (that is to say it looks like something worthy), it also resonates with who you are as an individual and injects an inherent sense of meaning and purpose into your daily work.

The greater truth of who you are

By its very definition an authentic goal is one that moves beyond social expectation and, instead, reflects a deeply personal and essentially unique understanding of your vision, your values and your greatest desires. There is no 7-Step-Plan to creating an authentic goal. What is required, is for you to become more aware of who you are.

If asked to describe your role in this world, many of you may say that you are a capable and ambitious woman; a committed team member and/or conscientious leader. A colleague, friend, daughter … perhaps a spouse or mother.

There are many words used to describe the concept of contributing in a truly meaningful way – you may know it as a vocation, calling, or ‘life purpose’ – but essentially they all stem from the same idea: you are a part of nature and, as such, you have inherent and inescapable instincts and abilities yearning to be expressed.

By defining and accomplishing more authentic goals, you not only enjoy the usual benefits of achievement (whether they be intellectual, fiscal, psychological or social) but you also nourish and reward your most fundamental essence – that intangible, natural sense of self.

Defining an authentic goal

Just as who you are, at a fundamental level, is often difficult to express in the conventional sense, defining your most authentic goals almost always requires the suspension of logic, reason and analysis. You are not going to ‘think’ your way to authenticity and you most certainly won’t find a blueprint for it anywhere ‘out there’.

If you are searching for more meaning in your career and life, it’s important to set goals that resonate with you authentically. You can do this by:

Switching off autopilot:

Every path to achievement that you have been told – every plan, process and formula for success – is simply a reflection of someone else’s story. And if we were all identical, living uniform, predictable lives, then your path to success could very well emulate someone else’s. But we are not identical and life is a complex tapestry of events, experiences and opportunities. In our logical society, it is easy to get stuck in the idea that the only way forward is the way it’s been done before, but you are unique, creative and capable. Let go of any concept of how things are supposed to work and carve your own path forward.

Trusting your intuition:

We have come to revere conscious decision-making as the highest form of thought; we are taught that logic and analysis will lead us to the best solution, every time. However, recent studies have suggested that we are, in fact, at the mercy of our unconscious brain. What this means for you, is that even the most ‘rational’ decision is being influenced by deeply-set, unconscious patterns and beliefs, including childhood memories and trauma, unhealthy behaviour patterns and deep rooted concepts of what you do, and do not, believe you are worthy of.

In contrast, researchers are beginning to understand the power of the ‘gut instinct’ and have discovered that unconscious urges and emotional prompts can actually increase the accuracy and confidence of decision making. It’s important to note that the vast majority of your physical and physiological processes are unconscious, so your body is a wonderful ally when seeking intuitive knowledge. It knows what’s good for us, and what’s not, so pay attention.

Listening to your language:

A little self-awareness around the words you use – out loud, and in your mind – can reveal a lot about your goals and your intent behind them. Listen to yourself. If you are doing something because you “should” or you “have to” then you are inviting in a sense of resistance and struggle; of obligation and disempowerment. Make sure you are choosing goals because you “want to”. If you want something, then it is an authentic desire and you will have the strength, resilience and creativity you need to achieve.

Kim Forrester is an award-winning author, educator and holistic wellness coach. She combines cutting-edge science with traditional spiritual teachings to inspire soulful living. Her book, Infinite Mind, explores the capabilities of the human mind and was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2017 Living Now Book Awards.

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

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

On the 20th June, theglasshammer.com will convene the top women in the asset management industry to talk about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, especially as it pertains to big data and technology.

We organize this peer breakfast so optimal networking can take place between women who run the money world, or least lots of assets that make the world turn.

Optimal networking in my opinion, is in a format that allows women to do serious business with each other. Qualified discussions with qualified people is key. Having a cocktail and making gestures to find common ground can be useful and certainly it does feel nice to have support by people who may be going through similar challenges but that is not the same as power networking. By going to events where people are interested in your skills and experience, you may be more effective in your connections, because if you can help someone solve their firm’s pain points, then there can be a follow up meeting and a process to see direct results. It is also good to know people as well for future meetings.

Group Of Women Meeting In Creative Office

By Cindy Goodman

Women’s representation in management is higher than it’s ever been, but advancement it seems appears to happen more in certain professions than others.

As women make up most of the new management jobs created from 1980 to 2010, but they do so in fields that are female dominated and have the largest gender wage gap.

By using data on full-time managers from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey for the years 1980 and 2010, researcher William Scarborough found of the nearly 4.5 million new jobs in management created since 1980, women have obtained the majority of them. In 1980, not a single management occupation was majority women. By 2010, some occupations are female-dominated while others are male-dominated.

The research shows women have high representation in management in fields such as health services, education administration, and human resources and low representation in management in professions such as computer information, transportation, architecture and engineering. In addition, women still make up less than one-quarter of chief executives and public administrators.

Scarborough told The Glass Hammer what he found surprising was the positive advancement women have made into management positions in the field of finance. “Culturally, finance has been seen as more of a masculinized profession, but the research shows 54 percent of management jobs in finance are held by women,” he said.

Scarborough said he also found it surprising that only 23 percent of CEOs of companies of all sizes in the U.S. are women, according to the Census. The percentage is unchanged since 1980, he noted.

At a recent Women’s Leadership Summit, KPMG Chairman & CEO Lynne Doughtie shared her thoughts on female representation in management. “We still have a lot of work to do to advance women in leadership roles and into roles that have been traditional been held by men. We need more role models to give women confidence to pursue those unconventional careers.”

Striking, though not surprising, Scarborough’s research found women are paid less than men as managers across all occupations. He also found the more women managers in a profession, the higher the gender wage gap.

For example, women have made big advancements in management in the medical administration and health services field, according to Scarborough. In that profession, 70 percent of managers are women, up from 47 percent in 1980. “It’s one of the fastest-growing fields in the country, which is good news for women in management. However, the bad news is that there is a 20 percent gender wage gap in management positions in that field, which means the women in management are underpaid,” he told The Glass Hammer.

On April 10, Equal Pay Day, LeanIn.org president Rachel Thomas, discussed the organization’s fight to educate people and companies about the gender pay gap, including the even larger gap for women of color. “No matter how you slice it, women are paid less than men,” she told CNBC.com. “The more educated women are, the larger the gap is.” Thomas said one in three men don’t believe the pay gap exists. Her organization encourages employers to conduct pay audits and be aware of bias in performance reviews. She also encourages women to aggressively negotiate their salaries.

Some companies are setting organization-wide goals around gender parity, recognizing that when women rise, their representation in management lifts the entire organization. In a report titled Getting to Equal, Accenture, a global consulting and professional services firm, found women are three times more likely to rise in organizations with women already in leadership and where there is a women’s network. Accenture found when women rise, men do, too.

Now, the consulting firm has set bold goals of achieving a gender-balanced workforce by 2025 and ensuring 25 percent of its managing directors are women by 2020. Globally, 32 percent of Accenture’s newly promoted managing directors are women. “There are companies that talk about gender parity, and companies that do something about it,” said Pierre Nanterme, Accenture Chairman & CEO on a video that accompanied the Getting to Equal report. “Companies should have equal numbers of men and women. It means pay and access to leadership opportunities should be equal. My pledge is to continue to drive this at agenda at Accenture and to evaluate and accelerate opportunities to bring more women into leadership roles.”

Of course, it’s not as easy as merely setting goals. In a dialogue prepared for International Women’s Day, Meggy Chung, co-lead for Citi Women Affinity in Singapore, stated to create an inclusive culture, managers need to be educated on unconscious bias and the importance of inclusive behavior, and organizations need to create opportunities to involve women in franchise-wide networks or initiatives. They also need to offer a mentoring platform that is accessible, she said, and noted that career progression for women is generally more difficult than men because of several factors, including how women’s identity is perceived in a corporate environment. A different support system to help women goes a long way in pressing for progress in this space, she said.

To move toward gender equality: Scarborough sees several steps that can make a difference. He believes diversity training is a start, along with setting goals as Accenture has done, and holding managers accountable for diversity on their staff. “It’s really about thinking about your environment and what strategy will be most successful in creating gender parity in your organization,” he said.

Guest contributed by Diana Faison

dream

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Do me a favor? Close your eyes and visualize achieving everything you want for yourself professionally. Two conditions are you cannot remain in your current position and no matter what you choose to do, you cannot fail. Allow your mind to imagine two or three possible paths—think big and aim high!

What are you doing? Why can’t you be doing it now? Many of us admire big thinkers and high achievers but we seldom see ourselves in that role. Why is that?

The answer is limiting beliefs—those thoughts that keep you from doing what you dream.

Limiting beliefs in women stem from multiple sources. One are outdated gender stereotypes that box us into traditional gender roles “Women are not supposed to be ambitious.” “Women should be nurturers, not leaders.” They also originate in the dark place within ourselves where self-doubt and denial reside. This is often referred to as the “impostor syndrome”

Many women want to stay comfortable in their current state rather than challenge themselves to achieve everything they are capable of. How can these women leaders be helped to recognize and replace these limiting beliefs with positive messages. The truth is we can ALL learn to funnel our energy in a positive direction. All of us can take steps RIGHT NOW to change our limiting beliefs.

Here’s how:

Dream bigger and aim higher. We often are mired in our perception of reality and focus on what we cannot do.  If you cannot see it, you will never become it.  Go tell someone your secret career dream, and remember play big, aim high.

Take a chance on you.Explore outside your comfort zone. Maybe that means accepting that stretch assignment opportunity or better yet go and ask for that stretch assignment!

Ask yourself: ‘What gives my life meaning and a sense of purpose?’Then, ask yourself: ‘What am I doing to address that purpose?’  If you struggle to answer either question, it’s time to go and find that life meaning and sense of purpose.

Create meaningful relationships. Research supports the idea that women are over mentored and under sponsored.  Create meaningful relationships by nurturing connections with men or women you admire and respect or with whom you want to work.  Reciprocate and offer your help.  Eventually, one or more of these people will become a sponsor for you and can open doors and opportunities.

Act with courage!Just say yes. Trust yourself to know that you’ll figure out  You are smart. You are capable. Take a leap of faith and take a chance on you.

By challenging ourselves to dream bigger and aim higher, we become better, stronger, female leaders. So, ditch those limiting beliefs and go get ’em!

Diana Faison is co-author of newly-released The Influence Effect: a new path to power for women leaders and partner at leadership firm, Flynn Heath Holt.

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

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

All jobs consist of are tasks and we prefer some tasks over others.

Make 3 columns and in the first list what you like doing. In the second column, list what you are good at (task wise) as these lists might differ.Then in the third column list what you really don’t like doing. This is a great way to start to thinking about transferable skills for the job that you do want to do next.

So many people spend time in roles where the expected promotion takes them into work they simply don’t like doing (for example, managing more people). The thing is,you have choices, it is your life.

Be honest with yourself, how strategically important are the tasks that you are avoiding? Do they rank highly for your current role? How will they play into your future role?

If there are skills that you need to develop, consider setting time aside formally in your calendar to undertake them on a regular basis as habit can be a great way to embrace them.

But, if you realize that you need to be developing a different set of skills for your next role, then try to identify what those might be.The gap may be small and easy to bridge, or not, but at least you will have a sense of perspective on what you have to do.

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com is you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

Guest contributed by Susan Brennan

On April 9, a US appeals court ruled that a woman cannot be paid less than a man for the same job simply because they had a prior lower salary.

While this is certainly progress in the right direction, it will be interesting to see how companies enforce and track this in action.

Do you cringe a little when you think about salary negotiations? While negotiating your salary might feel like something you would rather avoid, deciding, whether or not, to accept a salary offering and having the confidence to negotiate for higher, is a skill that take you well beyond your life right now.

However, pay secrecy or being discouraged to discuss salary is a real thing that many people, especially women, deal with. According to a survey from the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, 51 percent of women reported, “The discussion of wage and salary information is either discouraged or prohibited.” And with women in the United States earning on average 80 cents to every dollar a man makes, the time for women to feel confident to earn what they deserve and have these conversations is now.

Here is a guide on salary negotiating from the moment you receive the offer to the moment you and your future employer agree upon a number.
  • Before the offer—and even the interview—do your homework so you have data to back up your case

Before you start talking numbers, figure out how much you need to live by doing an inventory of your fixed expenses. This is called determining your bottom line. What do you have to pay every month rain or shine; rent, child care, food, car payment? This isn’t necessarily the number you should settle for, but it will give you your bottom line—then build up. Caveat: Employers do not care what your expenses are, so don’t use this as an argument for more money.

  • Know your worth

There are a lot of resources to help you determine what the market is paying for similar positions and experience levels. Websites like Glassdoor and Payscale allow you to plug in a job title and years of experience and get a range for what the market will bear for that kind of role. The numbers will take into account geography and a number of other factors that have an impact. Across industries, pay gaps vary. For example, female doctors earn significantly less than male doctors, an average of 28 percent.

There are also some awkward situations you need to be ready for, such as:
  • On the first interview, you’re asked about your salary expectations. A good (and honest) response is to tell the interviewer that at this point, you’re focused on learning more about the role and what you will be doing before moving forward with salary. If you absolutely need to answer, never provide a single number; have a range ready based on your research so you have data to back you up. If you’re asked about salary on an online application, try to skip that question or enter a range if possible; otherwise enter the high end of your range.
  • You get the offer at a lower salary than you expected. First, express that you are excited about being offered the position and the value you can add to the company. Then add something like this (given that you’ve done your homework on fair market salary): “I did want to talk to you more about the base salary because I’ve done research around comparable roles with my background in [insert experience], and my expectation was that I would be in the range of [insert range here] and I’m wondering if there’s room to negotiate.” And make sure you also ask questions about benefits such as health coverage, retirement matching, and vacation; they can add a lot of value and should be taken into consideration.
  • You want to negotiate the salary. Should you email, meet in person, or make a phone call? The natural tendency for a difficult conversation is to email, but when it comes to salary it’s very important to have a conversation if you can. You can certainly send email to say you would like to talk more about the offer, but set up a time to talk. It will help both of you get a good read on each other, and you can get answers quickly. If the answer is “No” to negotiation, ask when you could expect to get closer to your range. “How do people in this position historically move up the range? How often will I be reviewed and see salary increases?”
  • You get the call with the job offer and salary you want. Should you accept? First and foremost, do not say “Yes” right away, as it binds you without knowing the full terms of the offer, including benefits and reviews. Pause, take a deep breath, be gracious; and buy some time. A good response: “I’m thrilled to get the offer and I will definitely take some time to think about it. Could you send an email with all of the details and we can schedule a follow up call to discuss?” This is important: Do not make verbal acceptance to an offer without reviewing all the details! It may seem counterintuitive to pause after all your work negotiating, but there are a lot of other details that are part of the offer. The contracts are typically written by a lawyer or human resources personnel and can be binding— even if you’ve only made a verbal agreement. Carefully review the agreement once you receive it.

The bottom line of successful salary negotiation especially for women: Know your budget and have data on the market range (versus a single number) to back up your worth. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve; but make sure you are vision-driven—the value you will add to the company—and data-informed.

Susan Brennan is Associate Vice President of University Career Services at Bentley University and co-host of the career advice podcast Counter Offer, the podcast that helps you love Mondays. Over the past decade, she has put Bentley on the map for delivering impactful career education and outcomes, with 99% of first-year students participating in her team’s ground breaking career development course and 97% of 2017 graduates employed or attending graduate school within six months of graduation.

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

Following on from last week’s column on how our brains assign positive and negative traits to men and women without asking us, we look at how we all hold bias ubiquitously.

Or in plain English, women can be as sexist and upholding of the patriarchy as men. How does this play out in the workplace? It appears in small and large ways in offices, hospitals, orchestras, schools and governments.

When some women work for female bosses, the experience can sometimes be perceived by them as less than optimal? Is the female boss truly awful as an individual ? Maybe or maybe not, as we can look to deep behavioral theory to explain why people act the way that they do. Social psychology theory by Lewin suggests that behavior is a function of a person’s personality activated by the environment that they are operating in. So, when you are working for a female boss who happens to be taking on traits that you do not expect her to (as a woman), you might consider that this boss might be beholden to the systemic forces that encourage behaviors that are activated in their personality. She might have consciously or unconsciously chosen that path as assimilation is what most career blogs and experts have spat at women for the last thirty years. Doesn’t make it right, but certainly explains things.

Or it could be you who has deep rooted issues about who the boss should be? You could be jarred as she isn’t meeting your stereotypical traits imagined for her as a female manager. This is only worsened by the gender segregation that is peddled falsely as brain science. Men are not from Mars, Women are not from Venus. Newsflash, we are all from Earth and we all need to do a better job on Earth at reducing bias that comes with instant thoughts of who the other person is. We all are socially conditioned to believe the differences between the sexes are the same for everyone and this discredits the real work of letting people speak and act as individuals at work while understanding that by virtue of having a social identity, has legacy trait and role assumptions in society and therefore at work too. Outwardly we see gender, ethnicity etc as a feature of the human in front of us but we have to stop that from being a definition of capability and capacity and actual experience.

Are you wrestling with challenges at work? Consider coaching with nicki@theglasshammer.com