“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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9 Tips for Women Working in a Male-Dominated Business World

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Guest contributed by Marja Norris

Every day we hear some statistic telling us what we already know: Women make up 59 percent of all post grad schools, and not enough is happening on the forefront to move more women into C-Suites. Several news agencies reported on the White House gender pay gap, which has said to have increased under Trump.

Women continue to earn less than men and have less power in the workplace, even though study after study show companies that have women in leadership roles outperform companies that don’t. What’s impeding our progress? Underlying male-oriented rules and expectations in the workplace limit women’s potential for advancement and often doom them to undistinguished careers.

Because the business world was built by men, for men, they begin their careers from a position of comparative advantage and understand these unspoken codes intuitively — they’ve been socialized for it. Too many important rules concerning women’s careers remain unarticulated.

It also doesn’t help that in the working world many businessmen don’t want to take the time to understand their women colleagues or help build a more diverse workforce. Many men resent working side-by-side with a female colleague because of our different approaches. They need to realize that, while 3 + 3 = 6, so does 4 + 2! In a scale of 0-10, together, we can achieve a 12!

Until businesses support both genders equally in the workplace, we have no choice but to move into the male mind space if we hope to work our way into executive roles. We must make it easier to gain their acceptance of us as equals in the workforce so we can get ahead.

Use these 9 tips to maximize your efforts when working in a male dominated world:

  1. Don’t take opposition personally.Avoid drama. It makes people anxious. Best to leave the emotions and your personal life at the office doorstep. It’s a waste of your energy because all it elicits is a glassy-eyed stare. Craft your points to persuade them through reason, not emotion.
  2. Be honest.Don’t bluff your way through something you’re unclear about. It’s easy to sniff out a pretender, and it will only feed impressions of female inferiority. Ask for clarity if you’re unsure. This applies to anything in business — from personal conversations to team strategy sessions. If the men in your firm are talking about fantasy football with you, don’t act as if you know about it (unless you do).
  3. Come prepared.The higher you climb in the corporate world, the more likely you are to encounter stronger personalities. Never shy away from alpha personalities in negotiations. Prepare for tough questions by arming yourself with clear, factual answers to support your arguments or recommendations.
  4. Be mindful of egos.Pointing out to people where they’re wrong, especially in front of others, is a losing proposition. If you need to correct an error, think it through and present it in such a way that it isn’t pointing the finger. Many personalities come with an ego larger than life.
  5. Keep conversations short.Don’t draw out what can be said with less explanation. Think of breaking down communications into a short news article: Give the headline, the facts from the first paragraph and the summary from the last paragraph. Save the details for further conversation or questions.
  6. Display confidence, even if you don’t feel it.Lacking confidence in any aspect of business can quickly lead to disregard, and also disrespect. Give a firm handshake, assume a confident body posture, project in a strong voice and state any request with authority rather than as a question.
  7. Be accountable.Avoid excuses. If you take on a project, stay with it to the end and take responsibility for keeping others accountable in their roles to make it happen. When an error or incorrect judgment occurs, own it and be there with a solution. You’ll gain respect.
  8. Know your values and what you’re willing to sacrifice.Know what you most value and what you’re willing to give up to focus on your career. One reason businesswomen haven’t moved the needle in the high level executive area is that it requires very long hours, often entails travel and includes constant pressure. Women traditionally have more personal demands to attend to outside of their careers. And, as overwhelmed as you may feel, talking about these demands at work won’t be well received. As the saying goes, “If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.” Otherwise, you may be viewed as weak.
  9. Get used to taking risks.Men are often more programmed for risk-taking than women. Make a point of doing one uncomfortable thing a day, like speaking with someone who intimidates you, reaching out to someone you feel is beyond your reach or learning a new skill. A little discomfort is freeing. A little risk is exciting. It encourages you to constantly move toward bigger and better things.

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Marja Norris is the CEO and founder of MarjaNorris.com, a company dedicated to helping women achieve their career goals with style and confidence. With a distinguished career in finance, she has successfully navigated the male-dominated business world and is passionate about coaching women on how to be taken seriously, be heard, and get what they want at work. Her latest book, The Unspoken Code: A Businesswoman’s No-Nonsense Guide to Making It in the Corporate World, provides women with the tools to awaken their dreams and reach their highest goals. Visit marjanorris.com.

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Hispanic Heritage: Why Corporate America Needs to Shake Up How Boardrooms Are Filled

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Image via Shutterstock

By Aimee Hansen

As U.S. corporate boardroom diversity continues to fail desperately at reflecting the country’s rapidly shifting consumer power base, the question is no longer whether there are enough Hispanic or Latino/a leaders in the candidate pool to fuel diversity in the years to come.

But rather, how do companies redefine the candidate sphere to achieve greater diversity now?  The real issue is that Corporate America doesn’t need a few more Hispanic faces trickling into the boardroom.

It urgently needs a boardroom selection strategy that is focused on magnetizing and magnifying diversity as the primary imperative to business.

Already the New Mainstream Consumer

More than 1 in 6 Americans claim Hispanic origin. As written in The Huffington Post, “The shifting demographics in America are an eminent reality.” By 2044, the U.S. will be a majority-minority nation according to U.S. Census Data, as “minorities drive 100% of population growth.”

“The Hispanic Imperative” report by Korn Ferry pointed out some compelling statistics on consumer spending power. Hispanic families were responsible for 51% of homes purchased in 2015. They also drove 73% of Toyota’s 2015 U.S. sales growth. Hispanic buying power was estimated at $1.4 trillion in 2016, more than Mexico’s gross domestic product and bigger than the economies of all but 14 countries.

“Hispanics are the new mainstream consumer, and if you’re not addressing them, you’re not going to be in business,” said international business executive Sol Trujillo, putting them above Millennials in purchase power.

Driving Entrepreneurial and Economic Growth

Latino entrepreneurs began 86% of new businesses across 2007-2012, with Latinas leading the charge. According to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Business Report, the number of Latina owned firms skyrocketed by 137% vs. 45% for all women between 2007 and 2016, with Hispanic-owned companies growing at a rate 15 times more than all other firms according to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, a lack of access to capital and resources hinders the massive economic revenue boost these new businesses could represent. Latina business owners earn on average 36 cents to the dollar versus their non-minority female counterparts, meaning $172 billion in untapped potential.

Drastically Underrepresented in Corporate Leadership

Cid Wilson, President and CEO at HACR, writes, “Given the demographic and economic clout of our community, the absence of Hispanics in the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies continues to be a missed opportunity for long-term growth and market dominance.”

In a gross underrepresentation relative to population and contribution to economic growth, “Hispanics represent barely more than 2% of directors of boards of Fortune 1000 companies,” per the Korn Ferry report.

“The Missing Pieces Report” showed that among Fortune 500 companies, Hispanics/Latino/a held a total of 3.5% of board seats in 2016, and Hispanic men gained 8 seats between 2012 and 2016 while Hispanic women lost two.

Among Fortune 100 companies only, Hispanics/Latino/a held 4.5% of board seats, with men losing 2 seats and women gaining 4.

Diversity is greater among Fortune 100 companies, with women and minorities holding 35.9% of board seats, compared to 30.8% in the Fortune 500. There are also small but significant signs of progress in new appointments.

This year, two Latina women have broken into top leadership roles in politics and corporate America. Geisha Williams became the first Fortune 500 Latina CEO in March, after being selected as CEO and President of PG&E Corporation. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (Democrat, Nevada) became the first Latina member of the U.S. Senate.

After Heidrick & Struggles 2016 Board Monitor (which measures composition, experience, turnover and diversity) documented a seven year plateau for Hispanic new board appointments among Fortune 500 firms, their Board Monitor 2017: Is Diversity At an Impasse? report revealed an all-time Hispanic high of 6.4% of new appointments in 2016, up from 4% in 2015, where it’s lingered for years. 59% of these appointments were to consumer boards where Hispanics took 12% of available seats.

While a 60% year on year increase, it comes after a seven year flat and builds on a small base relative to nearly 18% representation in the population. It also comes with the first backwards slide on female representation since the report began, dropping 2 percentage points to 27.8%, ending a seven-year run of small annual gains, and causing Heidrick & Struggles to once again push back their predicted date for 50% women representation in the boardroom to 2032 (pushed back last year from 2026, and previously from 2024.)

Why The Candidate Pool Approach Is Broken

“Unfortunately, U.S. companies have a long way to go to achieve diversity in their boardrooms and their executive ranks,” said Deborah Gillis, president and CEO, Catalyst. “Progress is glacially slow and boardrooms don’t look anything like the customers and stakeholders they serve and represent. It takes intentional, bold action to accelerate meaningful change.”

Boards continue to pull from the usual suspects for new appointments – the opposite of intentional, bold action – which in turn keeps diversity influx low and slow by default, since most of these suspects are non-minority men. But every single opportunity to choose diversity matters.

“There is less director turnover than people think,” said Antonio Garza, former US Ambassador to Mexico, in response to the Korn Ferry report. “Boards must recognize that they will have a limited number of opportunities to diversify their composition.”

According to the Heidrick & Struggles report, new board appointments pooled from current and former CEOs and CFOs dropped a bit from 73% in 2015 (a high) to 66% in 2016, but still make up the vast majority. Nearly 75% of appointments had previous board experience.

In the Korn Ferry report, Patricia Salas Pineda, group vice president for Hispanic Business Strategy for Toyota Motor North America, speculates s that focusing unduly on finance expertise in boardroom recruitment may have contributed to stalling Hispanic advancement over the last years.

Redefining the Candidate Sphere to Drive Meaningful Change

“Boards need to be responsive to shareholders; that’s the traditional view,” said Gerry Lopez, CEO and President of Extended Stay America in the Korn Ferry report. “But they must also be attentive to all sorts of other stakeholders, which means, depending on the business that you’re in, employees, customers, regulators, other in influencers, and the population at large.”

Shareholders are no longer the only stakeholders and the population is broadening, which means broadening the boardroom selection process.

“Boards that are seeking to broaden their capacities may will be considering candidates from sectors far from their enterprises,” according to Latino Leaders. “If nominating committees narrow their searches too early, fail to reach out in appropriate ways to both rising and established but unfamiliar talent, and elect to limit interviews to too few aspirants, organizations can miss out on opportunities to make their boards deeper and more inclusive.”

In short, selection committees needs to look beyond the traditionally deemed boardroom ready CEOs and CFOs candidates. Boardrooms need to be accountable for diversity itself and abandon the idea that the best directors come from one predictable background.

“While great boards should have CEO as members, there are other strong skill-sets and experiences that can be found in those holding other senior positions, such as chief marketing officers, chief hr officers and chief finance officers that really enrich the board conversation,”Bonnie Gwin, vice-chairman and co-managing partner of the global CEO and board practice at Heidrick & Struggles, told Forbes. “In those roles, you will find more diversity and therefore more diverse options for the boardroom.”

“…farsighted boards have moved beyond viewing those backgrounds as the sole gateway and are looking to other skills that will add value in the boardroom,” said Garza in the Korn Ferry report. “The bottom line is that it takes real planning on the part of the board in order to use their opportunities wisely, and then the vision to commit to looking beyond traditional notions of who should be in the room.”

It’s official when it comes to Hispanic and Latino/a growth. Diversity itself has become a high stake matter (amidst diverse stakeholders) for U.S. boardrooms.

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4 Types of Discrimination Mothers Face (and What to Do)

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Guest contributed by Sarah Landrum

mothers

Image via Shutterstock

Many women are faced with the struggle of feeling like they need to choose between family and career. Unfortunately, the feeling that new mothers are unable to perform their duties goes further than just a societal stereotype — it’s a sentiment that infests businesses at all levels.

New mothers or expecting mothers face all kinds of discrimination in the workplace, holding them back from achieving their career goals, even though these acts of discrimination may be illegal.

Understanding what kinds of discrimination a new or expecting mother may face is important for any woman hoping to grow her family and her career simultaneously. Whether you’re hoping to have a child soon or you’ve just had a baby, here are a few of the most prevalent forms of discrimination – and what you can do to fight it.

  1. Pregnancy Discrimination and Work Advancement

Under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers can’t legally discriminate against job applicants or employees based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or age. Under this law, pregnancy is considered a form of gender discrimination.

Despite this protection, almost 31,000 women had to file pregnancy discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission between the years 2011 and 2015.

With pregnancy discrimination lawsuits making up over 18% of the EEOC’s Title VII suits in 2014, it’s important to know what constitutes pregnancy discrimination. If an employer is refusing to hire or promote a pregnant woman or has fired a woman for being pregnant, these are all forms of pregnancy discrimination.

What many women don’t know is that this includes failure to accommodate pregnancy, not allowing women to pump at work or retaliating against pregnancy employees. Most states require companies to provide reasonable accommodations to employees based on the needs of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. This may include providing a stool for employees who typically stand during the day or even moving an employee’s desk closer to the bathroom.

  1. Pregnancy Discrimination and Harassment

Women face many different kinds of harassment in the workplace, and harassment over pregnancy isn’t that much different. Pregnancy harassment is a form of sexual harassment, which is illegal and should not be tolerated. People like to talk about pregnancy, but if that discussion crosses a line into how you became pregnant or implies anything negative about you for becoming pregnant, it becomes sexual harassment.

Harassment can come from many different places, including from clients, customers, employees, supervisors and coworkers. No matter where the harassment is coming from, be sure to follow the proper steps to file a sexual harassment case at work.

  1. Pregnancy Discrimination and Maternal Leave

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives new parents 12 weeks of job-protected time away from work after having or adopting a child, though it is unpaid. During this 12 weeks, your employer is not allowed to permanently fill your position or they must be able to offer you an equivalent position when your leave is over.

This law doesn’t cover everyone — only 55.9% of workers are covered under FMLA. That means almost two in five women do not have any federally protected maternity leave.

For women serious about advancing their career, it is tempting to take a short maternity leave and get back to work quickly. While this is fine for some, others may find it can have negative consequences on their health and some infants have higher needs at birth than others.

  1. Pregnancy Discrimination and Short-term Disability

In situations where women aren’t covered by FMLA, taking short-term disability offers a way to take time off work for pregnancy and post-natal care. You don’t have to have a pregnancy complication or be unable to do your duties in a traditional sense. It may feel like a misnomer to pregnant women who aren’t disabled, but it can offer the necessary time-off that is legally protected.

Women may face discrimination in the workplace from needing to take this short-term disability leave either for a traditional pregnancy or one with conditions or complications related to their pregnancy or for the labor and delivery itself.

Businesses can’t treat short-term disability leave for pregnancy differently than another employee taking short-term disability for an illness, the care of a sick family member or another condition. If a woman returns to work after having her child and is fired, demoted or retaliated against for taking time off, these may be forms of discrimination.

With 42% of household breadwinners being mothers, it feels like we’re moving in the right direction to becoming a society that accepts women who are both mothers and professionals. But for those who dream of having both the family and the career, there are still many challenges they may face day-to-day.

Advancing your career and growing your family depends on knowing the signs of discrimination and the various laws protecting women and their right to procreate. If you feel you’ve been passed over for a job, ignored for a promotion or even penalized for wanting to become pregnant or becoming pregnant, be sure to follow the proper protocols for making a discrimination case.

To begin creating your case, talk with the HR department. They should be ready and willing to point you in the right direction of forms, paperwork and other important pieces of filing your claim. If you’re unable to talk with your HR department or they are unhelpful, you can go straight to the EEOC.

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

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Self-Regulation is the Key to a Successful Career

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 By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational PyschologistNicki Gilmour
Some people are blessed with an even temper and tactful diplomacy at work. The rest of us are not and we are in fact very human with buttons that can be pressed and triggers that can be triggered. It is entirely worth your while figuring out what your hot buttons are so that you know why they exist and then what to do to make sure you are in control of your reaction.

You don’t have to be a robot but you do need to know how to apply emotional intelligence (EQ). If you are short of EQ, then work with a coach to develop it and if you still don’t have it then you have to learn how to fake it until you make it.

Reactions matter. It’s a virtuous circle to stay calm and carry on.
People want to work with people who are going to show real but positive emotion regarding regular and especially stressful situations.

Equally, be aware of passive aggressiveness which is a productivity killer and is mistaken as self-regulation. It typically takes the form of team members leisurely ignoring each other and pursuing their own agenda. If you are saying yes to a task but really are saying no, then you should step back and think about other ways to communicate that you would like to do the task differently.

Treat others how you would like to be treated.

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The Long Hours Game

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woman working late long hours featuredBy Aimee Hansen

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

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

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

The Atlantic has noted the tendency of elite, wealthy American men to be “the workaholics of the world,” but just because long hours are the status quo doesn’t mean it’s the key to successful business or career development.

It’s a rising argument in the context of today’s information age workplace, in which we tend to be knowledge workers conceiving of and implementing ideas, that a five hour work day would be a business hack for more productivity and profitability.

So what’s with the persistence – and over-valuation – of long hours in the corporate world?

A Man’s (Ego) Game

According to Professor Joan C. Williams in HBR, the long hours fascination is underpinned by an elitist male value system based on class, status and morality. As sociologist Michèle Lamont states, ambition and a strong work ethic are “doubly sacred – as signals of both moral and socioeconomic purity.” Along these lines, commitment is “‘singular’ devotion to work,” where it must be the central focus of one’s existence.

Within this elitist moral construct, “being consumed” by one’s work is both a status symbol and moral badge. As Williams writes, “‘being slammed’ is a socially acceptable way of saying “I am important.” Whereas fifty years ago, the elite working class showed their status by displaying their abundant time for leisure, today it’s about displaying your extreme schedule.

Research has found that the long hour craze is also yet another masculine test of endurance and perceived heroism. When it comes to what’s really behind the persistence and glorification of putting in the midnight oil, Williams writes: “It’s not productivity. It’s not innovation. It’s identity.”

So what does this ego-driven identity booster do for business, really?

Productivity or Priorities?

Across a 9.4 hour work day, we often only do 2-3 hours of real work, while working excessive hours hurts our productivity. After 50 hours, our productivity decreases and it plummets at 55 hours, with studies showing no discernible effect between working 56 hours and 70 when it comes to creating results.

As David Bolchover writes in an FT thought leadership piece, a decade long McKinsey study found that when senior executives were experiencing a ‘state of flow’, they were five times more productive than during other work hours. Senior level leaders felt especially more productive when they achieved flow.

Flow is akin to being able to immerse, focus, and apply your core abilities to a given goal or challenge, but most people only feel they are in that space 10% to 50% (at the very high and rare end) of the time. Sleep deficit or screen fatigue is not conducive to having an immersive focus. Bolchover writes, “Clearly, there is an inverse relationship to exploit: more focus for fewer hours.”

In fact, an over-abundance of time and resources can actually be a downfall for business. “When you spend too much time on an activity, just as when you have too large a budget, your priorities can become murky. You risk losing the precision and focus that come from having limited resources,” writes Chairman of JetBlue Airways, Joel Peterson. Peterson argues it’s not the hours we have, but the clarity of priorities we set, that drives productivity.

Worse for Women

While there are many studies showing how overworking adversely impacts health on a myriad of measurements for everyone, a recent study involving 7,500 people over 32 years from Ohio State University found that working long hours is far worse for women’s health than men’s.

Within the study, “fifty-six percent of the people studied worked 41 to 50 hours a week, 28 percent worked 30 to 40 hours per week and 16 percent worked more than 51 hours per week.”

Working 60 hours or more per week on average for three decades was found to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble, and arthritis for women. Risk increased after 40 hours, and became heightened after 50 hours, for women, but not for men.

The researchers hypothesized that this was reflective of the multiple roles women juggle and disproportionate pressure at home. In fact, when men worked moderately longer hours (41 to 50 hours), they had lower risk of heart disease, lung disease, and depression than men who worked under 40 hours, at least when it comes to early onset disease.

However you feel about the results, it’s yet more proof that chronically playing the long hours game is no path towards gender equality or thriving personally. “Being consumed” – even when it comes from a place of intrinsic motivation – often ends in burning out.

The Smart Hours Game

If not by playing the long hours game, how can you strategically use your time to build your leadership qualities?

What you could do, rather than work endless hours, is model a leadership strategy of carving out prioritized, focused time. Here’s a tip based on top leaders such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey: spend an hour or day (or five hours a week) in some way engaging in active learning – whether reading, listening, experiencing, experimenting or reflecting.

The long hours game is too often misguided. It’s time we moved from the long hours game to the smart hours game. To do this, we need companies to get “it” and according to Inc., it’s the difference of valuing improvement (not just productivity and not just presenteeism) that will set you apart as a leader.

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