Career or Calling? The Importance of Setting Authentic Goals

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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

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Build Your Career by Optimal Networking

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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.

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Jobs for the Girls? Management Jobs, Gendered Roles and the Wage Gap

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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.

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5 Secrets to Ditching Limiting Beliefs and Living Your Dream

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Guest contributed by Diana Faison

dream

Image via Pexels

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

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Developing Yourself for Your Next Role – One Task at a Time

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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

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Tips for Women on Negotiating Salary Now That Equal Pay Is Mandated

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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

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Are You a Sexist Woman at Work? Part Two

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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

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Recovering from a Mistake at Work

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Sad businesswoman

By Cindy Krischer Goodman

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada studied gender differences in apology behavior of men and women ages 18 to 44 and found women apologized more and felt they had caused offense more.

To recover from a mistake, career experts advise walking the line between apologizing and expressing confidence you can handle tough situations going forward.  Even if handled well, there could be lasting repercussions or lingering distrust. The more glaring and costly the mistake, the more it could affect your job security. It is important to acknowledge you recognize the mistake’s seriousness and are prepared to accept the punishment management doles out without complaining, including being taken off a client’s account or moved to another department. The next step is working hard to rebuild trust.

“It’s going to sting for a while,” said Leadership Coach Monique Catoggio. “But we have to be really aware of how we’re behaving and make sure others are seeing we understand the mistake, are making positive changes, and are dedicated to not making the same mistake again.”

Catoggio, founder of Illumined Life Leadership in Miami, said part of being a leader is role modeling for team members how to bounce back gracefully from a slip-up and learn from what went wrong.

In real life

A marketing director at a Miami accounting firm read a news article about her firm’s acquisition, she realized she had made a mistake. She had misspelled the name of the acquired firm in the press release that went out to hundreds of news outlets. She knew she quickly needed to fix the situation and prepared a new press release to distribute, labeling it “correct version.” Next, she went to her boss with an explanation, and the details of how she corrected her mistake.

At some point, everyone inevitably makes a mistake at work. Sometimes the slip up is small, such as sending an email out addressed to the wrong person. Sometimes it is big, with the potential to be costly for the organization.

Reacting timely and honestly to a costly error can make a difference. You don’t want your boss to learn about the mistake from a co-worker in another department, or worse, a customer. Admitting to a mistake, rather than allowing others to come to their own conclusions, helps assure your boss or client can trust you to be upfront and honest. Career experts advise against fessing up by email, insisting it’s better to have a verbal dialogue in which emotions can be conveyed. As a manager, you may need to take responsibility for an error someone below you made. In doing so, you will need to commit to finding out how the blunder happened, putting in new protocol, and monitoring your team closely so it doesn’t happen again.

In seeking out the root cause of the mistake, you will need to dig deep to understand if you need to be more patient, less distracted, ask more questions or double check facts. You want to discover any fundamental flaws in processes and uncover the actions over which you had control. Your goal should be to make sure you and your team learn from the mistake to ensure it never happens again.  Most important, approach your boss or your customer with proposed solutions for how to make things right.

Learning from mistakes

As many people have discovered, mistakes that initially seem costly, have potential to be opportunities. Paul Schoemaker, entrepreneur, consultant and educator who has taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, believes success is the sum-total of many mistakes. As the author of  “Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure,” he has said, “If you want your team to get better, first, teach them to frame any mistake as a learning opportunity.”

Schoemaker believes sometimes making mistakes can be the quickest way to discover a problem’s solution. For example, a mistake that initially seems costly based on previous operation methods could end up saving a company money in a changing business environment. In developing a mechanism to prevent re-occurrences, you could discover a more efficient way of getting work done. And, by working hard to remedy the situation with the customer, you could build a stronger relationship.

Success in learning from a mistake may require involvement from another person, someone objective who can give advice, identify training or help with solutions. They may know of someone that has bounced back from a similar mistake and a way to deal with the situation that you don’t.

Going forward, you will need to re-prove yourself on each new assignment and possibly even in your daily activity. Meanwhile, expect to be treated as if on probation; you will need to get past self-doubts, take every measure to ensure the mistake isn’t repeated, and show you are doing your best work. It may take time, but the goal is to prove to management, your colleagues and yourself that you are still trustworthy in your role.

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Changing Jobs: What Financial Benefits Do You Need to Think About Besides Your Salary?

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People waiting for an interview

Guest contributed by Marisa Joseph

The excitement of a new career path, or even taking on a different role within your current company, can be accompanied by new (and sometimes overwhelming) personal and professional considerations.

And, for women who’ve spent more time establishing their careers, these considerations can vary significantly from those just starting out.

When approaching this transition, be sure to evaluate (and understand) the potential impact on your lifestyle that a new job might bring, along with how your short- and long-term financial goals could be impacted each step of the way. One in four Americans feel some level of financial anxiety, according to a 2017 Northwestern Mutual survey, making addressing these considerations – no matter the stage of your career – a key step to moving forward with confidence.

Before you accept the offer, ask yourself a few questions:

1. What’s going to happen to my non-cash bonuses? If you received stock options at the company you’ll be leaving, make sure you’re aware of the implications when switching jobs. Review your offer letter and/or employment agreements to ensure you’re cashing out your stock options within a stipulated time of departure, and checking on potential tax implications.

2. Is my tax bracket going to change? Depending on your new salary, you could be bumped into a different tax bracket. By meeting with an accountant, you can better prepare yourself for offsetting a potential tax increase.

3. Is your potential employer offering other benefits that are important to you? Maybe you’re looking for a more flexible schedule in your new job, or perhaps the opportunity to go back to school. Remember to highlight these possibilities in conversations with your potential employer. Ask also about a sign-on bonus or annual incentives, as well as termination provisions, to ensure you’re maximizing your financial options.

Once you’ve begun your new role, take the time to review your benefits package to update or supplement as necessary.

Below is a list of what you should review:

1. How am I handling my retirement plan? Your new job may provide you with the opportunity to contribute to a company-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or Roth IRA. If this is something you took advantage of at your previous job, a financial planner can help determine if rolling over your old plan – or keeping your money where it is – is the best option for staying on track with your retirement goals. And, if this is a new opportunity for you, make sure you review what your employer is willing to match so you can maximize your contributions.

2. What are my insurance options? Your new employer may also offer insurance plans for employees, which could include health, dental, disability and life insurance. By thoroughly reviewing your benefits, you can identify any gaps in what your employer is willing to offer for baseline coverage, and where you may want to purchase additional protection. Ask yourself also; will I need to pay more in premiums, copayments or deductibles for my family? Consider again talking with your financial planner for help navigating your options and understanding any of those gaps in insurance.

3. Is there a waiting period before my disability (and/or life) insurance coverage begins? Sometimes, new employees are required to wait 90 days before they become eligible to receive coverage. Find out if you fall into this category, and from there, identify if supplementary insurance could be an option to protect you and your family during the gap.

Finally, once you’ve made it though the first several months at your new job, it’s time to evaluate one more crucial metric.

1. Am I happy? While your job may have come with perks like the ability to have more discretionary income or additional vacation days, these can sometimes seem less attractive when coupled with demanding hours or difficult relationships with coworkers. Does the new job fit with your lifestyle? Is it putting you closer to achieving your long-term financial and professional goals? Consider discussing your thoughts and options with a trusted friend, mentor or coach to map out the next steps of your plan.

By keeping in mind this checklist of questions, you’ll be on your way to embracing your new position feeling confident and prepared.

Guest contributed by Marisa Joseph http://marisajoseph.nm.com

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

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Are you a sexist woman at work? Part One

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Recent revelations about banks paying women less for the same job seemed to surprise everyone, yet nobody, given the recent wake up call that we aren’t as avant garde on equality as we once thought.

Let’s assume good intentions for now and review the brain science behind managers and leaders’ decisions to promote and pay men more than women for the same job.

How is this still all happening in 2018? Simply put, it is our brains fault and how we give the benefit of the doubt to certain people based on their social identity (sex, race, nationality, class etc) and the associative brain process kicks in. Basically, what we have seen before generates positive and negative stereotyping that we silently attribute without knowing the individual (if we let that happen).

The brain and the way it processes information actually puts association to things in the ‘collection’ stage of data which was not previously believed to be the case. Literally if you see (or moreover don’t realize you have just seen) four red cars go past and then a blue one, your brain is busy assigning category and value to observed data without your conscious knowledge or permission. Likewise, pattern breaking is hard for the brain regarding that a leader/techie/mechanic/astronaut looks like based on images it has seen before.

Many social psychologists, naming two here; Chris Argyris (and his ladder of inference which can be used today by you in meetings for better bias breaking) and Virginia Schein have been telling us for years that we think our way into biased decisions unconsciously is based on our own beliefs. Now, neuroscience concurs that our brains trick us into thinking some people belong in a job because of their category type and the implicit value assigned to it. Notice use the of word “belong” because deserving on actual present moment merit has nothing to do with past patterns of other people’s performance. The average brain in its categorization of things and does not even attempt to predict future shapes and sizes of anything, hence it was Steve Jobs and not just anyone who could think up the iPod by looking at the walkman. It does however work pretty hard to tell you what is unfamiliar to you as Dr Banaji and colleagues’ impressive body of work on cognition and unconscious bias work has shown around ethnicity and gender.

So, here is the bad news, even as a woman your brain exercises bias against other women. Your whole life you have lived in the operating system of the patriarchy with more boys and men in leading roles from the first book you read, first job worked at, to the movies you watch. Then there is the messaging you heard from your grandparents and everyone else around you and how you were supposed to be as a girl and then a “young lady” then a nice woman. If you broke from heteronormative cisgender or even ethnicity molds, you got to have a pejorative label. Sound familiar? You can be a nice or nasty women and that doesn’t even begin to address the intersectionality issues that create much worse dichotomies or lose-lose stereotypes for non majority grouped people.

There is good news and that is you can override your cognitive processes. Recently, 3 out of 10 school children when asked to draw a scientist drew a woman. That is the best ratio we have ever seen, but we have ways to go.

You can start to be conscious of your thoughts and feelings in crucial moments like hiring and challenge your own assumptions around the constructs and paradigms you are holding. Put them on the table, shed light on them and see if they serve you and your mission? If you espouse a goal or a way of being, what are you actually doing behaviorally and not doing to achieve that goal?

How do your thought patterns match up to the person who you say you are? How do your unconscious beliefs help or hinder you at work?

Book an exploratory session with Executive Coach and theglasshammer.com‘s founder Nicki Gilmour (nicki@theglasshammer.com) to figure out how to get what you want today!

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