5 steps to take ownership of your career

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happy working womenGuest Contributed by Jennifer Davis

I spend a lot of time speaking to early career professionals who are looking for advice or wanting to further their development. And one of the pieces of advice I find myself giving all the time is “Don’t ask permission”. But taking ownership of your own career path is easier said than done. Here are five steps you can take today to start making progress.

1. Write Your Future Resume

What do you see yourself doing in the future? Write it down. I find it useful to write it in the format of a resume or a bio. Something that walks back through your experience from the fictional and aspirational future (written in present tense), backing all the way to the current job and role that you are in today. Write the final job first and then think about what experiences you might need to get that job and make that your second-to-the-last role. Repeat that until you have walked back through a progression of roles or companies that take you where you want to go. Don’t forget to add in education, training, non-profit involvement, or anything else that will be a part of your future, idealized career. There is something powerful about writing it down.

2. Invent Your Path

One of the things you will notice about your resume activity is that you might struggle naming some of the roles that you might want to have. Sometimes getting experience and being seen as ready for promotion isn’t a matter of title (marketing specialist leads to marketing manager leads to marketing director), but rather of actual job contents. And of course in the future, the contents of the job are going to be different. 30 years ago, who have thought we’d pay to take rides with strangers or spend a significant part of our marketing budget on pay-per-click advertising? So, you have an opportunity to invent a job or two along the way. Take advantage of the blank sheet of paper to design a job or role that would give you that experience. And remember, some of that experience might come from volunteer work or even entrepreneurial efforts. Don’t limit yourself. You are writing fiction, so make it worthy of a New York Times best seller award.

3. Research and Network

Look at that fictional resume you wrote for your future self. What questions arose when writing it? Did you wonder what people had done before they became a Chief Marketing Officer? Did you invent a position, but now you wonder if that role exists in some companies today? Are you curious how much education a financial analyst needs to work on a big merger and acquisition agreement? These things are knowable and worth researching. Look up people on LinkedIn in the roles to which you aspire and look at their career progression. Contact people in your network who might know the answers or have ideas of where to look. They could be people that work at your company (check out the leadership page on your company website, if you don’t know people outside your own team or group), or people in the community at large. When asked for their expertise, most people will be generous.

4. Tell Someone

Just like there is power in writing something down, it is amplified in the sharing. This is why sites like BucketList.org exist. They figure you are more likely to do things, even crazy things like climbing mountains or learning Mandarin, if you share your dreams with others. Find people who will be supportive and share some of your ideas with them. If you don’t have people in your immediate circle of friends and family who are likely to empathize, find a group, like HeartSpark, or a professional coach to help you listen and refine your ideas. Or join a networking group, like BizWomen or your local rotary to find a group of like-minded folks to help you grow.

5. Believe

At the heart of all of this is believing in your potential and what you have to offer a potential employer or entrepreneurial opportunity. I’m a big believer in positive affirmations and visualization. By affirming yourself and visualizing where you will go, you breathe belief into yourself. This starts the wheels of destiny in motion. Believe that your career is something you get to build.

So let your imagination run wild and see where it takes you. Be deliberate and bold. Don’t settle for the next rung on your chain of jobs or tasks. Take ownership of your professional story. It can be refined by experiences and reshaped when you want it to be. It may have imperfections, but at the end it will be yours.

Jennifer Davis is CMO and VP of Product Strategy at Planar, a Leyard Company

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Op-Ed: How Seed Crowdfunding is Unleashing Female Entrepreneurial Potential

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Guest contributed by Aoife FloodAoife Flood Crowdfunding

I recently had the privilege of being part of an exciting PwC research project undertaken in collaboration with The Crowdfunding Centre culminating in the release of our Women Unbound: Unleashing female entrepreneurial potential report.

The report explores the experience of women in achieving finance raising success through seed crowdfunding compared with more traditional finance raising routes and brings to the fore a lot of powerful and scary insights and opportunities. For example, while challenges like the gender leadership gap and the gender pay gap receive widespread media attention, the barriers that female-led businesses and entrepreneurs face in accessing finance have been much less visibly reported. For me personally being part of this research process was certainly somewhat of a rude awakening.

The fact is most decision makers in the venture capital industry are male, and research shows that male entrepreneurs are 86% more likely to be venture capital funded than their female counterparts, and 59% more likely to secure angel investment. Meanwhile, a $300 billion financing gap exists globally for formal, women-owned small businesses, and 70% of women-owned small and medium sized enterprises have inadequate or no access to financial services.

One thing is clear, female entrepreneurs receive less than male entrepreneurs through traditional funding channels and this funding gap is a missed opportunity. Investing in or supporting women-led business has the potential to deliver some of the highest-returns – for investors and societies. Take for example the UK, if they could match US levels of female entrepreneurship they could potentially add £23 billion gross value add to their economy.

What the data in this Women unbound report shows clearly is that when women choose to access crowdfunding they are more than capable – and very often more capable than men. Thanks to crowdfunding, female entrepreneurs can now access the market directly – and this makes a huge difference because when they do, female crowdfunders are 32% more successful than their male counterparts.

The report analysed data from over 450,000 seed crowdfunding campaigns, from nine of the largest crowdfunding platforms globally over a two year period.

What the analysis told us is that men clearly crowdfund more than women, 72% of crowdfunders globally were male compared with 28% who were women. Yet, globally, women are more successful at crowdfunding than men: 22% of campaigns led by a women reached their target, compared to 17% of those led by men. And this is not a collective anomaly, women-led campaigns performed better (in terms of securing their funding goals) than campaigns led by men when we segregated the data for every sector and every territory.

Even in what are considered more masculine sectors, for example technology where just one in every ten crowdfunders is female, 13% of women were successful in achieving their funding goal compared to just 10% of men.

So despite their clear underrepresentation, women are more successful at crowdfunding than men. But why is this?

The main factor seems to be because crowdfunding attracts, enables and empowers far more female decision makers as project backers. In essence, just like the dominance of male representation in traditional financing channels can create barriers for women, the more gender-level playing field of the crowd provides one explanation for why women are more likely to succeed at crowdfunding than men.

Female crowdfunders also tend to use more emotional and inclusive language in their videos and pitch descriptions than men.  This language is more appealing both to female and to male backers and positively correlated to funding success. While the use of business language, the style typically favoured by male crowdfunders, has been shown to be negatively correlated with money raised irrespective of what product or service is being pitched.

Yet, while women are outperforming men in achieving their funding targets across the board, the fact remains that significantly more men are crowdfunding than women, and as result, men raise substantially more finance via this channel. Men are also more ambitious in establishing higher funding goals than their female counterparts and we see them dominate in the highest funded campaigns by sector.

In fact, while there were 63 campaigns that raised over $1 million, only seven of these were led by women (11%), with the most funded campaign created by a woman placing number 18 on the list. However, progress is being made, 2014 data illustrates that only 7% of campaigns raising over $1million were led by women, and the most funded campaign created by a woman placed 37 on the list. On another positive note, on average female-led campaigns receive 5% more per individual pledge globally than male-led campaigns.

Despite this, significant opportunity still remains for women to become more active and represented in crowdfunding and to be more ambitious when establishing their finance raising goals.

I truly hope that the success of female crowdfunders highlighted in this report inspires and motivates more budding and established female entrepreneurs to explore crowdfunding.

Overall, the findings of our Women unbound report pose a strong challenge to existing entrepreneurial and business norms by seriously questioning whether there are deep-rooted biases that are preventing greater access to funding  by female entrepreneurs. It is extremely positive to see that the growth and global reach of seed crowdfunding presents several major opportunities, each with the potential for major social and economic impact. Including the understanding and acceptance that seed crowdfunding is now a well-established environment through which women can thrive.

Learn more about these opportunities by reading our Women unbound report or visit our data explorer to check out the geographical and sector crowdfunding trends for yourself

Contributed by Aoife Flood. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Aoife is Senior Manager of the Global Diversity and Inclusion Programme Office at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited. A version of this op-ed was originally published in PwC’s Gender Agenda Blog. 

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Personal Branding Strategy: Why Strong Careers Begin Here

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Guest contributed by LIz Harr, Partner, Hinge

brand

Image via Shutterstock

You know them. Executives who secure all the media mentions, deliver keynotes at top conferences and attract the best clients. Interestingly, most of these experts aren’t much different from the rest of us. In fact, many of them admit that they aren’t the smartest or most knowledgeable people in their fields. They weren’t born writers. They weren’t born orators.

Instead, they climbed to success by developing personal branding strategy with a very specific set of tools, trying and discarding a host of techniques along the way. My firm has produced some powerful research around what helped these individuals reach their respective levels of success and I’d like to share with you what really works – and what doesn’t – so you don’t have to endure the experimentation others have had to.

What Is a Personal Branding Strategy?

At the heart of their success is a strategy. A personal branding strategy. This is essentially a plan to take your reputation and career from relative obscurity to high visibility. It describes where you stand today and what level of visibility you want to achieve in the future. It lays out the tactics, tools and skills you will need to attain your goal, including the daily content calendar you will follow.

The Five Levels of Visibility

In our research on how personal brands can catapult a professional to higher levels of visibility – and career success – we identified five progressively more visible levels of expertise:

Level 1: Resident Experts. These experts are well respected within their firms and by their clients, but they have little visibility outside of those audiences. Most Visible Experts start their journey here.

Level 2: Local Heroes. These individuals are beginning to become known outside of their firms. They are more active in their local business communities, often speaking at business functions and blogging. They may even bring a little new business to their firm.

Level 3: Rising Stars. These experts have developed a regional reputation. They are fairly well known among peers in their area, and they speak and write frequently on their area of expertise. Rising Stars tend to bring in higher-quality business and higher fees.

Level 4: Industry Rock Stars. These names are well known across the nation for their niche areas of expertise. They attract premium clients and fees. As a result, they become significant assets to their firms.

Level 5: Global Superstars. The world’s elite experts, Global Superstars have broken out of their niches and household names. They command the highest fees, and firms around the world want to be associated with them.

Your first job is to figure out which of these levels describes you today. Then you need to decide what level of expertise you would like to achieve. 

 

 The Benefits of a Strong Personal Brand

As you’ll see in a moment when I go over specific tools for building a strong personal brand, it’s not for the faint of heart. But there are some very tangible benefits that these experts have realized. For starters, their earnings are higher. The chart below shows the relative billing rates for each Visible Expert level.

Figure 1. Relative Hourly Rates Buyers Will Pay, By Visible Expert Level

  

Our research showed that buyers are willing to pay over 13 times more for a Global Superstar than an average professional. But even Level 1 experts hold a significant advantage over their undistinguished brethren.

The reason? Buyers are willing to pay a premium for the confidence that a Visible Expert will solve their problem more quickly and with greater precision. Higher billing rates aren’t the only benefit. Here are a few others:

  • Highly visible experts attract more media attention. When a reporter needs an authoritative quote, they reach out to the experts most closely associated with the issue at hand.
  • Well-branded experts also are able to secure valuable partnerships more easily, and with more desirable organizations.
  • They attract better quality clients. In some cases, clients will seek out an expert — cutting out the competitive proposal process entirely.
  • Experts with strong personal brands also benefit their firms. Their strong reputation often spills over to the organization she works for, which in turn can have a very real effects on a firm’s brand and business development prospects. According to our research, about two-thirds of Visible Experts on average have this remarkable effect on their firms.

The 7 Critical Tools for Personal Branding

One of the most important things we learned from our research was which marketing tools have the greatest impact on an individual’s personal brand. Here are the top tools from our study, rated on a 1 (least impactful) to 10 (most impactful) scale:

Figure 2. Total Impact of Tools

I recommend you prioritize around these seven as you build your personal brand:

  1. A book. Whether you do it yourself or enlist a ghostwriter, you will need to produce a book that addresses your area of expertise. A book is a critical credibility builder and can be traditionally published or self-published. A book can be a heavy lift, so don’t feel like you have to tackle it right away.
  2. Speaking engagements. Public speaking is an important platform for building your reputation and personal brand. Audiences are predisposed to trusting anyone who stands at a podium, so just getting there is half the battle.
  3. A website. If you are part of a firm, you’ll want to focus at first on your bio page. It should present sufficient credentials to convince people that you really know your stuff.
  4. A blog platform. Every expert should be blogging. It’s the most accessible way to demonstrate your expertise. It’s also one of the easiest ways to start building a loyal following.
  5. Email marketing service. Email marketing is how you turn people into loyal followers — even raving fans. Using offers to download valuable educational (never promotional) content such as guides and whitepapers, you can entice a certain percentage of your blog readers to opt into your mailing list.
  6. Search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the tool that connects you to the people who are intensely interested in the problems you solve. And you would never meet 99% of them without it.
  7. A media kit. Experts get requests for bios, credentials and photos all the time. So it makes sense to have those things ready to go at a moment’s notice. Even better, put them up on your website bio page where interested parties can find them without asking.

This list, of course, just scratches the surface. There are dozens of tools that you can use to engage your audience. Webinars can be used as a different take on public speaking for example.

One last tip. Our research showed a clear correlation between specialized expertise and length of time it takes to groom yourself as a visible expert. Specialization eliminates the clutter like nothing else, and allows you to forge ahead without the noise that generalized knowledge brings to the table.

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

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Why One Type of Advice Doesn’t Fit All

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By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational PsychologistNicki-Gilmour-bio

When I am writing this column I go through a range of emotions due to the fact that any article giving advice is just an opinion. It is easy to be opinionated, to live in the dogma of the binary of this way or that way, but it’s often not that useful for the person on the receiving end.

The best that I can do is base the advice on a combination of expertise, research and intuition. However, I do not know you personally, I do not know what your specific situation is that you need advice around. I also do not know the environment you are operating in, nor the developmental frames or mental models that you have accumulated through your own interpretation of your experiences during your life until this day. I do not know your reactions to bad bosses, stress,  wins, systemic gender issues . My point is, this is the internal diversity that matters to you in your career advancement, the cognitive and emotional differences and capacities that every human has, not the just the social identity version of diversity that is touted in companies which way too often feels like Noah collecting animals for his Ark.

We are all a product of our ability to self-reflect on our conscious thoughts and actions. The unconscious beliefs we all hold are harder to access as they are unknown to us but often hold in place competing agendas that stop us from achieving our goals via behaviors that are not aligned with goal attainment. I have mentioned Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s book Immunity to Change a couple of times in this column. They don’t know who I am, this is one of the few books I wax lyrical about, but I can honestly tell you their work is a must read for anyone who is wondering how to really get to why some of those goals and resolutions around career, fitness, family are still outstanding. I just wrote a paper integrating their work with the Columbia Coaching Program Process, as it is my firm belief that unless you access the murky unconscious of how you construct your big assumptions, and say them out loud to yourself to check for validity, your self-efficacy around goal setting for you as an executive can’t be totally effective- even if you are the most motivated person on the planet.

So, this week instead of telling you to do this strategy or that strategy, I am going to ask you to think, pre-holidays, about what you want to achieve in the next 12 months and then to look long and hard at what you are currently doing to reach those goals. Not the should or ought to do but what you are doing or not doing. Then ask yourself whats really going on? What is your competing agenda hidden in all of this?

We have 20 places left for individuals for our next round of individual coaching starting in November.

We also have a group coaching starting in December- join a cohort of peers.

Get in touch! Nicki@theglasshammer.com or book an exploratory call here to learn more about what we are doing and how much it costs.

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What Microsoft’s New Ad Should Be Teaching Leaders and HR Professionals

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Guest contributed by Karyn Mullins
Microsoft

Image via Shutterstock

Microsoft recently released a new ‘Make What’s Next’ ad campaign showing young girls excited about the future of science in STEM careers. The ad opens with the diverse group of girls expressing their deepest dreams to save the climate or find a cure for breast cancer.
 
With virtual reality glasses, they’re given a glimpse into the amazing technological advancements that could make their dreams come true. But the ad takes a surprising turn when they share “the bad news” with the girls. The giant screen reads:
 
“Odds aren’t you won’t solve any of these problems. Only 6.7 percent of women graduate with STEM degrees.”
 
For any diversity and inclusion efforts, these negative odds are not where executives should leave the conversation. Inspiring the future for women and other minorities is crucial for the success of every organization.
 In fact, a 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean. There is no doubt the ad has very inspiring moments to it but translating that into real action in any firm is always a challenge.
 
If your HR team is wondering what’s next for diversity and inclusion, here’s what they should really learn from Microsoft’s campaign:
 
#1 Don’t just say diversity and inclusion is important, know why it is important.
 Every HR pro has been trained on the importance of diversity and inclusion, but unfortunately, many have never fully experienced the benefits of having a diverse group of employees. Without this deep understanding, their task of understanding why it’s a crucial aspect of employee and company success is nearly impossible.
 Often, we achieve success through different perspectives, creativity, and viewpoints. An undiversified environment lessens the ability for companies to leverage ideas or opinions and come up with creative, innovative solutions.
 
#2 Challenge your entire team to start addressing situations with multiple perspectives in mind. Put yourselves in the shoes of someone with a different ethnicity, backstory, and career path. The best way to do this is to set up team brainstorming meetings once a week. Allowing open communication during these meetings will help employees retrieve differing feedback that will push projects and sales to the next level.
 
# 3 Start recruiting by widening the potential pool of talent early
 If we don’t teach kids they can grow up to be anything they want to be and they can make the world a better place however they see fit, we are limiting our ability to have a real impact on our world.
 
The girls in the Microsoft campaign felt unstoppable, even after seeing the negative statistics about their futures. But not everyone will have this same amount of confidence. Worst of all, they’ll run into many people who have little confidence in them.
 
We often limit our recruits by only speaking to juniors and seniors at colleges. Getting to them right before they enter the workforce with an internship or full-time position.What if we reached out earlier?
 Inspire your recruitment team to build the generation of the future up by encouraging freshmen and sophomores in college — or even high schoolers. Let students know your company believes all genders and races can accomplish amazing feats with your team. Bring in experts from multiple departments to share their career stories and show how determination can accomplish great feats.
 
Stop stepping on your own efforts
 
Culture Amp’s 2017 Diversity & Inclusion Report found concepts of diversity and inclusion are experienced differently among people of different backgrounds. The balancing act for organizations as they become more diverse is a great responsibility as people from varying cultures have different values and beliefs.
 
Too often we let the diversity and inclusion conversations in our companies develop negative stigmas. If it already has one, we need to continue developing the conversation until our teams feel comfortable openly discussing and brainstorming ways to better our efforts to include everyone’s voice at the table for the best potential team performance.
 
About the author:
Karyn Mullins, Executive Vice President and General Manager MedReps.com, a job board which gives members access to the most sought after medical sales jobs and pharmaceutical sales jobs on the Web.

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

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“I Want to Be a Really Good Listener”

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Guest contributed by Linda O’Neill, VP of Strategic Services at Vigilant

listener

Image via Shutterstock

 

Over the past several weeks, I’ve noticed a pattern in what I’m hearing from my professional colleagues. Many of them are having what they describe as difficult conversations with employees, whether it’s about redundancies, new roles, new expectations or even coverage for the holidays. When I ask my clients how they want to “be” for these conversations, most are saying, “I want to be a really good listener.”

Throughout our lives we are taught a lot about speaking effectively. Unfortunately, most of us have received little training on being a “really good listener.” There are, however, resources and information available to enhance listening skills. Read on for information about the different levels of listening as well as some tips for being more effective.

Levels of Listening

Most listening experts agree there are different “levels” of listening. As the level of listening goes up so does the sophistication. Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT and co-founder of the Presencing Institute, developed a set of principles on listening and they are among my favorites. He describes four levels: 1) Downloading; 2) Factual; 3) Empathic; and 4) Generative.

  • In level 1, Downloading listening, you are listening from habit and reconfirming old opinions and judgments. You are listening at this level when what you hear and experience tends to confirm what you already know.
  • At level 2, Factual listening, you’re listening for facts and noticing new data. You have an open mind. You focus on what is different from what you already know and pay attention to the responses of others. Both Level 1 and Level 2 listening are focused on taking in, digesting and understanding information.

When a listener moves to Levels 3 and 4, he/she brings forth more of the heart and will.

  • Level 3 is Empathic listening. It involves listening from within and with an open heart. When listening at Level 3, you are able to see the world through the eyes of another and often forget about your own agenda. In this level, an emotional connection is achieved in addition to the sharing of information.
  • In Level 4, an open heart transcends to open will. During Level 4 Generative listening, the listener is operating from a place of future possibilities. Scharmer uses words like “communion” and “grace” when describing the experience of Level 4 listening.

The first step in increasing your own listening skills is to notice your tendencies when you’re listening. What’s going on your head, heart and body when you are working to be a “really good listener”? From this place of noticing, you can begin to gain sophistication and effectiveness in your skills. Read on for some tips.

Tips for Effective Listening

  1. Be clear about your intention: Before having an important or difficult conversation, it is important to spend some quiet time getting clear about your intentions for the conversation.  Be deliberate in defining your intention; write it down. Now think about how you will demonstrate it. For example, decide how much you want to talk during the conversation and how much you want to listen. If your goal is to be a “really good listener,” you’ll spend less time talking than the other person. If you’re spending a lot of time explaining and defending your position, you’re probably not listening at the level you desire.
  2. Be Present: When you engage in a conversation, engage fully. Put aside distractions and give the other person your full attention. Put all your energy into gathering information and gaining understanding at multiple levels (head, heart, body, will). Listen for the overall message as well as the words; hear what is said as well as what is unsaid. Restate what you heard in your own words to confirm your understanding. Reflect feelings as well as words to listen at a deeper level. “Sounds like you’re saying…” or “Sounds like you’re feeling…”. Release judgment until you have a full understanding. Let go of the temptation to craft your response to what you’re hearing while the other person is still talking. According to Tom D.  Lewis and Gerald Graham, most individuals speak at the rate of 175 to 200 words per minute. However, research suggests that we are capable of listening and processing words at the rate of 600 to 1,000 words per minute. Because a listener can listen at a faster rate than most speakers can talk, there is a tendency to evaluate too quickly. That tendency is perhaps the greatest barrier to effective listening.
  3. Acknowledge: It is often important for a person to be acknowledged and understood before he/she will be willing to engage in a dialogue or negotiation on a difficult topic.  Acknowledgment does not mean you agree with what is being said, merely that you hear and understand it. Sometimes acknowledgment can be accomplished with a simple nod of the head.   When in person, use eye contact, lean forward, relax your arms, and put away electronic devices. Engagement often goes hand-in-hand with acknowledgment. It is hard to feel acknowledged if a speaker does not feel he/she has your attention. When on the phone, remove distractions and listen hard to changes in tone, pace, volume and rhythm of the speaker’s voice. These all provide important clues about the speaker when you are listening at Levels 3 and 4.  These clues will allow you to effectively understand and acknowledge the speaker’s message.
  4. Invest in your own self-awareness: Understanding your own speaking and listening style and the biases you bring to the table will help you open up your heart and will to more sophisticated levels of listening. A high degree of self-awareness will not only improve the effectiveness of your listening but also the quality of your relationships and ultimately your ability to lead.

An unknown source said, “We were given two ears but only one mouth, because listening is twice as hard as talking.” Developing listening skills is hard work; putting the skills into action is even harder.  You’ll know you’ve been listening effectively when at the end of a conversation you’re tired! You’ll feel like you’ve extended some effort. Listening is active, especially when you engage at Levels 3 and 4. I promise the rewards will be worth the effort!

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Answering the Rallying Cry for Women in Investment Management

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Guest Contributed by Rebecca FenderBusiness-meeting

“We’re stuck.” That was the consensus view from the group of women CFA Institute gathered nearly two years ago consisting of past and present members of our governing board. “Stuck” because women comprise a mere 18% of CFA Institute members—a number that has not changed for years and lags other professions.

These prominent industry leaders were disappointed in the lack of progress for women in the investment industry over their careers, and the assumption that it would fix itself has proven to be flawed.

But now things are beginning to change. Our research on gender diversity shows that 76% of investment professionals and 55% of institutional investors desire more gender diversity in the industry. People recognize that cognitive diversity—having different perspectives—is important for team construction and leads to more successful outcomes when tackling complex tasks. Teams need to seek collective intelligence (C factor), which research by Anita Woolley suggests is correlated with the average social sensitivity of group members, conversational turn-taking, and the proportion of women in the group. As a global organization, we see the many dimensions of diversity, but women are the universal diversifier: in every market, women are under-represented in finance compared to their participation rate in the workforce.

Consequently, senior leaders in the industry are looking for guidance on how to recruit and retain more women. While this is a long-term effort, we are starting to see progress that suggests change is afoot. Here’s how you can take advantage of these changes to advance your finance career.

  1. The network of women in finance is growing, so use it!

As a subscriber to The Glass Hammer, you already know that the power of your professional network is key to long-term success. Think of it as “visibility is validity.” For instance, showcasing successful women at all our events and bringing more women into leadership roles in our organization lets younger women see finance as a fulfilling career. Furthermore, women will make up 30% of our board by September, and our new initiative – Women in Investment Management – has inspired our female members to connect with their local societies, join activities and broaden their networks.

  1. Behavioral finance has introduced us to the idea of biases

Many of the challenges women have faced in the industry over the years relate to cultural issues that involve unconscious biases. Consider this: an article in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that when mixed-gender groups reported success on a project, men were more likely to get credit than women if attribution was not specifically given. People fill in gaps when they don’t have full information.

Similarly, it is easier to hire people who are like you (affinity bias), and deviating from this seems riskier, though we would rarely think of it that way. This makes it more difficult for women to break into male-dominated fields.

We often use these biases as shortcuts, without even realizing it, but these can be misleading. For example, we may expect men to be more competitive and risk-seeking than women, but this is in part because those in the majority feel more in control and so perceive fewer actions to be risky. A study by Gneezy, Leonard, and List showed that in matriarchal societies women are more likely than men to be risk takers. Recent research by Adams, Barber, and Odean showed that women in investing are more achievement oriented than men, though the reverse is true in the general population. Bottom line: question your assumptions and realize we all have biases.

Simple changes to meeting dynamics and addressing other day-to-day biases can add up to an unlevel playing field over time, but with an openness to recognize these we can work toward progress together. In a Financial Times article earlier this year, Anne-Marie Slaughter offered five specific ways to improve meetings, including making sure people aren’t interrupted, and asking a man to “do the office housework” like taking notes.

  1. Education can be an equalizer

Credentials show an employer you have the competency to succeed in the industry, and it can counter unconscious biases in the hiring process. In fact, Morningstar has cited the CFA charter as a qualification that women may find especially helpful in their career advancement in finance. Yet, while our research confirmed that most women and men in the industry made career decisions during their university years, a study by Mercer showed that many female students are unaware of career options in investment management.

Be sure to seek all available resources throughout your education. This may be programs affiliated with your university or scholarship and research opportunities like those offered through our University Affiliation Program. It’s important that both professors and students try to bridge this awareness gap.

In summary, the trend is positive, but success is not guaranteed.  This is an exciting time for women in the investment management industry—employers are eager to hire women and help them excel.  Take advantage of the changes happening now to make an impact.  We are the future of finance.

Rebecca Fender, CFA, is head of the Future of Finance initiative at CFA Institute, a long-term global effort to shape a trustworthy, forward-thinking investment profession that better serves society. Prior to joining CFA Institute, Ms. Fender was a vice president at BlackRock working with pension funds and endowments, and she also worked at Cambridge Associates, where she published research about manager selection. She earned her undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University and holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. Future of Finance publications include From Trust to Loyalty: A Global Survey of What Investors Want, and Gender Diversity in Investment Management: New Research for Practitioners to Close the Gender Gap. Previously, Ms. Fender also served as the director of the flagship CFA Institute Annual Conference.

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4 Tips to Overcome Stress for Job Hunters

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Frustrated blonde woman sitting at a computerGuest contributed by Ora Nadrich

Looking for work can feel extremely stressful, but we may not realize that the negative thoughts we have around finding a job can actually be the very thing that’s preventing us from getting one.

Too often, it’s our negative thoughts around finding a job that can make us doubt our capabilities or worthiness, and some of those undermining or diminishing thoughts can, in fact, harm our chances of getting hired. Without realizing it, the negative energy around our thoughts can give off a negative vibration that people pick up, and we may not even know that the critical self-talk that’s going on in our head, is the very thing that could sabotage us getting the very thing we need; a job.

That’s why it’s important to be aware of those negative thoughts right when they begin to percolate and wreak havoc with our emotions, and recognize that it’s time to separate from them. The Says Who? method is a straightforward, powerful way of questioning and challenging those thoughts that stops them right in their tracks. And by facing a negative thought with a question, we find out if it’s true — or if we can just let it go. This is an approach anyone can use to overcome negative thoughts so you can be better prepared and confident while seeking employment.

Here’s how to get rid of those negative thoughts in 4 simple steps:

1. Acknowledge the stress. Recognize its existence, even if it’s upsetting. Don’t deny it or try to push it away. Admit you’re feeling stress about looking for a job, and accept that you’re having those negative thoughts. Doing so allows you to focus on what is happening in the “now,” which is actual and real, instead of focusing on the emotions surrounding the thoughts.

2. Shift into observer mode. Shift gears out of reactive mode into observer mode. In reactive mode, you have no distance from your own negative thoughts. But in observer mode, you turn into a witness that is separated and independent from them. Then you’re in a position to ask yourself questions to help get calm and grounded.

3. Ask that negative thought, “Says Who?” You are demanding that thought reveal who is responsible for it. In other words, how did it get in your mind? Once you find out, you can decide what to do about it. Is it your original thought, or was it someone else’s that you took as your own? You may even discover it is an old thought that has become part of your core beliefs, and now it’s time to challenge it and let it go.

Say you’re always thinking, “I’m never going to find the right job.” Asking, “Says Who?” really means: “Why am I saying that I’m never going to find the right job?” Then go one step further. Ask yourself, “Is it me? If so, why would I think a thought that makes me feel insecure or doubt myself?”

4. Now you’re ready to continue the questioning process. The next questions after “Says Who?” further challenge those negative thoughts. Asking, “Have I heard someone say this thought before?” helps you find out if the negative thought is your opinion, or someone else’s. Asking, “Do I like this thought?” gives you license to consider whether it’s a thought worth keeping. And questions such as “Does this thought work for me?” can help you transform that negative thought into something positive and life-affirming. That’s the kind of thought that will help you feel good about yourself so you can venture forth to find a job that is right for you, and that you deserve.

The Says Who? Method is a powerful tool for stopping the stressful, negative thoughts we can have about finding a job. That’s because we tend to judge ourselves, especially when we feel vulnerable. This method stops that anxious “self-doubt on repeat” in its tracks, so you can stop judging yourself so harshly, and be proactive in finding a good job. You can become more effective, successful, and productive. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, it helps you feel empowered — to do and be your best.

About the author

Ora Nadrich is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher, and the author of Says Who? How One Simple Question Can Change The Way You Think Forever. Her popular album, Ora Meditations, is available on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, Amazon mp3 and everywhere music is sold. Learn more at http://www.oranadrich.com

Disclaimer: Views and opinions of Guest Contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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How to be confident (even if you are not)

By Lisa Iarkowskihappy working women
Constant change and complex challenges at work can test the self-confidence of even the most accomplished of us. So how can we keep our confidence going strong, amidst the changes and challenges we’re facing? Studies in what social psychologists call “self-efficacy” may hold the key. Simply put, self-efficacy is our belief in our ability to accomplish a specific future task. When our belief in our ability is strong, we more readily take action, persevere through obstacles and adversity, and produce successful outcomes. And the stronger our self-efficacy, the more overall confidence we create for ourselves. The work of self-efficacy pioneer Albert Bandura and mindset expert Carol Dweck provides effective practices to help us strengthen our self-efficacy and build confidence for taking on future challenges.
 
Act – Learn – Succeed – Repeat
 
Bandura, identified “mastery experiences”— a cycle of taking action and succeeding–as the most effective way to increase self-efficacy, and thereby confidence. As authors Kay and Shipman discovered in their research for The Confidence Code confidence is both a product of and catalyst for action. When faced with a daunting challenge for which you are not feeling confident, ask yourself what other actions you can successfully take to practice using your relevant capabilities. Set SMART goals for those actions. For the cycle to work, choose stretch or “risk” actions in situations where you are assured of a successful outcome. The more you perform the cycle with successful results (even with different tasks and scenarios), the more self-efficacy and confidence you will develop to take action in new or challenging areas in the future.
 
As you work with the cycle, it’s crucial to practice learning from your experience. Psychologist Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset shows that effort, learning, and persistence are far more powerful pathways to success than a focus on innate talent or ability. Refocusing your mindset to what you can learn in any given situation will help you more readily take action and turn setbacks and failures into lessons learned for improvement, rather than personal defeats. Learning includes both your own self-reflection and getting feedback from others on how your efforts lead to success as well as how you work with obstacles and setbacks. The “STAR” question framework can help you and others reflect on your actions and lessons learned. Break down your experience with these four questions: What was the Situation (what, who)? What Task (intention, goal) were you trying to accomplish? What Actions did you take (what worked, what could work better)? What were your Results (how do the outcomes compare with your initial intent)? Learn from your experiences, and as you take on new challenges, begin with a growth mindset question: What can I learn from this experience?
 
Learn from Others
 
It’s easy to feel isolated when you are not feeling self-confident. But you don’t have to go it alone—nor should you. Bandura identified both learning from role models and verbal support from influential people in your life, such as mentors, as effective ways to increase self-efficacy.
 
Identifying role models who are similar to you and have succeeded in areas you want to succeed in is a powerful way of strengthening your belief in your abilities: “If other people like me can do it, so can I.” Start by identifying 2-3 role models. Then, look at the efforts they took to succeed. Finally, identify those efforts you can emulate.
 
A mentor–someone who believes in your capabilities and tells you so—can also be a valuable support to increasing self-efficacy and confidence. Maybe less obvious is the confidence you can gain from becoming a mentor yourself. In a recent discussion with theglasshammer.com, Erin Geiger, VP of Business Development  at Hackbright Academy in San Francisco, talked about the crucial role of mentoring—for both mentor and mentee–for building confidence in women engineers entering a competitive, male-dominated field. The San Francisco-based engineering boot camp for women includes a robust mentoring program and network that supports new engineers in and beyond the classroom. Geiger’s advice: “Become a role model and mentor. Let’s take an introvert. They may not think of themselves as a role model, but that confidence pushes out to others and it’s mutual. If somebody has a mentee, it can feed the confidence and morale of the most introverted introvert.”
 
Manage Your State
 
Bandura’s work shows that negative emotional and physical states, like stress or exhaustion, negatively influence our belief in our capabilities, weakening our self-efficacy and confidence. For example, if you feel exhausted during a presentation, you may find yourself believing that you are not a good presenter and then may shy away from a bigger role where presentations are featured. Chronic stress and exhaustion may be harder to pinpoint, but nonetheless they play a significant role in your self-efficacy and confidence. When you are not feeling confident about a task or situation, take into consideration your stress and tiredness as factors, obvious or not, and take steps to reduce them. Then revisit your situation and observe any change in your level of confidence. Likely you will find that you have a more productive, confident perspective that can support moving forward.
 
Using any one of these approaches, or better yet a combination of all of them, gives you a powerful practice for taking charge of your self-efficacy and confidence in even the most challenging situations.
 
Lisa Iarkowski is a Columbia University certified executive coach who helps women transition, reinvent, and reenergize their careers. Lisa has extensive experience leading and coaching individuals and teams in the publishing and technology industries. Lisa is a regular contributor to theglasshammer.com.
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What Executive Presence Really Means and How to Pull it Off

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Guest Contributed by Denise Green

When I interview my coaching clients’ bosses and ask what skill they believe would make the most difference if improved, I nearly always hear, “She needs to develop more executive presence.” When I ask what that looks like to them, I get a variety of responses, many of them vague.

We all know when someone with a persuasive presence enters a room. Yet, it can be hard to describe. My favorite characterization of executive presence comes courtesy of John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut. In their book, Compelling People, they describe presence as the ability to project authentic strength and warmth, and to adjust each up or down, according to the situation. People who do this well are more likely to gain our trust and loyalty. The authors argue that here is no inherent contradiction in simultaneously projecting warmth and strength.

Individuals such as Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, Michelle Obama and Pope Francis project an air of knowing what they are doing and having other peoples’ best interests at heart. Here are steps you can take starting today to turn up your presence and persuasion.

  1. Create an intentional identity. How do you want people to perceive you in this next interaction? What do you want people to say about you after you leave the room? (Or, when you leave this earth). Have this intention in mind before you enter a room.
  2. Be responsive instead of reactive. Our modern lives are in conflict with our ancient brains. As such, we don’t have the capacity to deal with our back-to-back, always-on schedules and devices. According to author and Neuroleadership founder David Rock, our prefrontal cortex (the newest part of the brain, responsible for our planning, personality expression and decision making), works efficiently for only 90 minutes per day on average. When we’re stressed, hungry or tired, our prefrontal cortex loses precious capacity. If you’ve ever blurted something you regretted, or sent an email that you wished you could pull back, you know how much effort it can take to respond mindfully instead of reacting impulsively.

My unscientific opinion about reactivity is that women have a higher bar than men. When a woman blurts out a criticism, she’s potentially labeled harsh, overbearing aggressive or worse. When a man does it, he’s more likely to be labeled assertive. And if a woman reacts without the proper dosage of emotion, she is easily labeled cold, or at the other extreme, hysterical. We only have to look at Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign to see how challenging it is for women to strike the right balance.

The specific part of the brain involved in managing impulse control is called the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC). Like any part of the brain, it grows stronger with practice.

  1. Power your brain. Most of the people you work with are likely sleep-deprived, hungry and dehydrated. Taking care of your body and brain will not only help you feel better and live longer, it will help you maximize your brain’s capacity.
  • Pack your desk and refrigerator with healthy, low-glycemic snacks. Move throughout the day, whether that means taking the stairs or conducting standing and walking meetings.
  • Consume caffeine 30 minutes before you need to be your most brilliant self.
  • Fill a large bottle with lemon water (lemon is alkaline and facilitates water absorption). Drink throughout the day.
  • Bring dark chocolate to meetings to share with others (the sugar content is low, and the small amount of caffeine and antioxidents make it an ideal treat for tired brains).
  • Make sure to get at least seven hours of sleep.
  1. Project authentic confidence. Give yourself a confidence boost by putting your best self forward — from your clothing choices to your posture to how you state your ideas.
  • Dress: Wear clothing that presents you as confident and polished. If you’re fashion challenged, hire a personal shopper. Nordstrom provides this low-pressure service at no cost.
  • Posture: If you haven’t seen the TED video by Amy Cuddy, it’s worth the 18 minutes. She describes how taking a power posture actually changes your blood chemistry to make you more confident.
  • Voice: Record yourself in a meeting and listen for tone and filler language. End your statements on a down note, not up. Remove unnecessary ‘uhs’ and ‘ums.’ If you want to project strength, leave out the fillers and just begin with “I believe we should…”
  1. Show appropriate vulnerability. Vulnerability is a critical ingredient in presence. We don’t trust people who show too much or too little of it. Authentically confident people readily own their strengths and weaknesses, willingly apologize for mistakes and share personal information that puts others at ease. Let them know that your furrowed brow is due to painful sciatica, not their Powerpoint report.

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Denise R. Green is a speaker, writer, and executive coach committed to helping people go from burned-out (or blah) to brilliant. After a successful career with Oracle Corporation and Charles Schwab, Denise founded Brilliance Inc., a coaching corporation whose purpose is to unleash human potential. For more than a decade, she and her team have helped thousands of people feel less stressed, and have more ease and fulfillment in all areas of their lives. Her new book, Work-Life Brilliance: Tools to Break Stress and Create the Life & Health You Crave (Brilliance Publishing, April 2017) is about reigniting one’s internal spark. Learn more and access the free e-guide, “Break Stress Now,” at BrillianceInc.com.

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

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