Forming and Keeping Women’s Initiative Programs: Tips from the Trenches

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Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

You know we have to focus on a problem when the number of men and women starting off in law firms is 50/50 but then women are only at a 22% partnership level,” Shira Nadich Levin, partner at Cooley LLP alerted a special seminar of the Legal Marketing Association’s Metro New York chapter dedicated to developing business for female lawyers.

The solution? Some suggest that a Women’s Initiative can go a long way in helping solve this issue.

But how do you start one and, harder still, how do you keep it going? Here are some anecdotes from the event that hold true all year around.

Ms. Levin, who chairs Cooley’s Women’s Initiative, along with Julie Cohen, Marketing Director at Sidley Austin LLP; and Tracy Fink, Director of CohnReznick’s Executive Women’s Forum (EWF) offered their advice and experiences to an audience in position to effect change – business development leaders at many of the top law firms. Their top tips included:

Tip #1 Start with a clear mission and stick with it. “We plan meaningful events and experiences that create value to those who attend,” said Ms. Fink about the mission of the Executive Women’s Forum, which she created as a business development initiative for CohnReznick, the accounting firm where she was in a marketing director role.
Ms. Fink formed the EWF a little less than a decade ago, when women’s initiatives were not as prevalent as they are now. Women were struggling with balancing their lives and “we didn’t have Millennials who were very vocal about the workplace.” The Forum has since become a huge success, aligning with the strategic goals of each office, including bringing in business, enhancing the firm’s brand, and creating a haven for female employees and clients to develop and deepen relationships.

Tip #2 Be flexible and listen to your members. Ms. Fink envisioned that the Forum would offer events on substantive issues. What she found is that “women came and said, ‘we want to talk about what really matters in our lives.’” So, programs today are an eclectic mix of business and life skills, such as the power of kindness, mindfulness in the workplace, and a women’s golf event. “Through the EWF, we’ve introduced more than 350 women to golf,” she stated.

Tip #3 Think of events that allow members to “loosen up.” One particularly successful event that Ms. Cohen hosted for her group at Sidley featured a female poker expert who taught the group how to play poker and use poker skills to present themselves to clients and peers. “We had more than 150 people. The women were letting their guard down, and they used the time to connect with clients,” she related. The program received such great feedback that the group did a follow-up event a few months later for an “open play” poker session that attracted even more attendees.

Tip #4 If a program doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to tweak it. Cooley’s Women’s Initiative replaced their traditional mentoring program with what it calls “connection circles.” They firm came up with this, explained Ms. Levin, when the members realized a strict mentoring program that paired mentors to mentees was not effective enough and required constant follow-up with each mentor to make sure the system was working. The firm instead created groups of eight to 11 female members at various levels who get together informally. “We even planned somebody’s wedding at our last gathering,” she joked. But these gatherings enable the members to form much better connections than one-on-one pairings.

Tip # 5 Seek creative solutions to members’ problems. The Cooley’s Women’s Initiative created the liaison program as another way to improve life at the office for women attorneys. This program came about in a year when several young women happened to take maternity leave at the same time. When they returned, the women all felt that their re-entry was not really noticed. The firm, as a result, now assigns a liaison to each woman on leave to keep in touch during her leave and help with issues upon her return. “It has made a complete difference with little effort,” Ms. Levin reported.

Tip # 6 Pay no heed to the naysayers. All three panelists cited the usual resistance from within the firm: why should there be a group just for women? “Because,” said Ms. Fink, “when women succeed, everyone wins.” In a professional world where clients expect diversity from their law firms, “creating that culture is important,” said Ms. Cohen. “There’s no shortage of information on the business case for diversity,” Ms. Levin added.

“Creating a committee won’t solve all your problems,” stated Ms. Cohen, “but you can empower women to go up to the men who meet on their own and say ‘I’d like to join you next time.’”
Rosemarie Yu is Principal of Yu Communications, a New York-based communications consultancy specializing in professional services. She can be reached at ryu@yucommunications.com

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Latina Leadership: Will Companies Ever Catch On?

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By Aimee Hansen

Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

If you scan Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in 2016, you will be hard-pressed to find a Latina executive, amidst an overall drop in female CEOs to 4% in the Fortune 500 in 2016.

According to a 2016 report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Hispanic women make up 6% of the workforce but only 1.3% of senior-level executive roles in the private sector.

According to the Heidrick & Struggles Board Monitor, “the share of new board appointments for Hispanics (male/female) remained flat for the seventh consecutive year” across the Fortune 500. 4.7% of new directors on average are Hispanic each year, and only 4.0% in 2015.

What makes this even more striking is that new director appointments reached a seven-year high in 2015 (up by 60 appointments from 2014), and women appointments stagnated too. During a recent record (and opportunity) year for new appointments, diversity lost out.

The report indicates a resurgence of selecting new board members from “the usual suspects” (sitting and retired CEOs and CFOs took 73.2% of new seats). Only nine of the Fortune 500 CEOs were Hispanic in 2015, which doesn’t bode well for diversity if the “usual suspects” continue as the primary candidate pool for board appointments.

Meanwhile, a Mercer report predicts female representation at executive level in Latin America to out-pace North America by 2025, rising from 17% (2015) to 44% (2025).

A Perplexing Incongruence

The glaring elephant in the room is that the population, and consumer purchasing power, is rapidly changing, and Fortune 500 boardroom composition shows little proof of catching on.

The gap in representation of Hispanics in corporate leadership has the potential to create a dangerous gap in diversity of thought and insight, driving a deeper wedge between business leadership and consumer composition. Hispanic purchasing power was projected to have increased in the U.S. by 50% from 2010 ($1.0 trillion) to 2015 ($1.5 trillion).

Not only are Hispanics the largest ethnic minority in the country, but according to the government report “Fulfilling America’s Future: Latinas in the U.S., 2015”, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 4 female students are Latina.

Entrepreneurial Power

Scan the entrepreneurial landscape, and you’ll find a different picture: women are the new face of entrepreneurship, and Latinas are playing a strong role in leading that change.

According to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, there are an estimated 11.3 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., a number which has grown five times faster (45% increase) than the national average (9% increase) over the past nine years.

Nearly 8 out of 10 new women-owned businesses launched since 2007 (2.8 of 3.5 million) have been started by women of color, with the greatest growth among Latinas.

According to the report: “As of 2016, there are just under 1.9 million Latina-owned firms, employing 550,400 workers and generating $97 billion in revenues. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of Latina-owned firms increased by 137% – the highest increase seen among minority women-owned firms.” Trending back 18 years, the 2015 report showed that the number of Latina owned businesses has increased by 224%.

Make no mistake. Latina women are carving their own paths to business leadership.

Playing Down ‘Being Latina’

As the AAUW report authors state, “There is no monolithic ‘women’s experience’ of leadership. Women always have a race and an ethnicity, so a discussion about gender without reference to race and ethnicity (or vice versa) is simplistic and can be misleading.”

A recent Latina@Work study of over 1,000 Latina professional women released by People en Español, sought to understand the experience of Latina women in today’s corporate workplace.

The report found that, “As trailblazers among their families, they are simultaneously breaking cultural barriers and managing cultural expectations, which results in a feeling of ‘otherness’ both at work and at home.”

In the study, 80% of women agreed that “At work, I want to be seen as who I really am, including being Latina.” But many of the women struggled with managing how they are perceived at work, including not being seen as “too Latina.”

Women played down their accent and played up their university degrees. They also moderated appearance more than average. 31% reported having to dress more conservatively than co-workers to be taken seriously (versus 21% of non-hispanic Caucasian women), and 35% reported feeling the way they styled their hair impacted their success at work (versus 25%).

Hispanic women were also twice as likely to agree they have to work twice as hard because of their cultural background.

Intersectionality of Barriers

Latinas and Black women are the most underrepresented at senior leadership levels.

The AAUW report highlighted the intersectionality of barriers and bias: “Not only do women of color confront race and ethnic discrimination that white women do not face, they also experience gender bias differently than white women do—and they experience racial bias differently than do the men in their racial or ethnic group.”

Latinas have a unique set of preconceived biases around leadership perception. For example, “among college and university faculty, Latinas who behave assertively risk being seen as ‘angry’ or ‘emotional,’ even when they reported that they were not angry—they just weren’t deferential.”

According to the report, 60 percent of faculty Latinas reported a backlash against expressing anger, and they tended to shoulder most of the office housework.

As feminist and media-challenger Kat Lazo reflected to The Huffington Post, prominent and narrow media stereotypes have the ability to damage both perception and self-perception, and reinforce barriers to leadership: “What we see in the media right now is a limited version of our humanity.” Lazo stated, “So we internalize these messages and we put limits to who we can be in terms of our professions, in terms of our own identity.”

But nothing is one-dimensional. Lazo highlights that even “Latinx” (a gender neutral alternative) have to check their own privilege.

Amplifying Leadership Presence

In a Latinas Think Big article about developing and amplifying leadership presence, Sandra Tibbs, founder and CEO of Neverest Solutions, writes about cultivating and amplifying leadership presence:

Find your authentic leadership voice – Navigate through the stereotypes, cultural scripts, biases and arising inner conflicts to embrace your whole story and find your own voice.

Create a shared sphere of influence – Cultivate a sphere where listening and connection leads to stronger, and more influential, leadership.

Build resilience in yourself and others – Something every Latina leader will do as she challenges the status quo, and can help to nurture in others.

Tibbs writes about Latina leaders who own their presence: “They are irrefutable leaders who have a presence about them that is unique, authentic and strong. They know exactly who they are, and what impact they want to have. And, they don’t apologize for either. Their leadership presence enables them to overcome stereotypes, biases and even their inner obstacles so they can devote all of themselves to designing the lives they want.”

It is strongly evidenced that Latinas will keep on unapologetically rising to lead business, with or without that coveted access pass from the Fortune 500.

The choice for the corporate world when it comes to cultivating Latina participation in leadership would appear to be this: either catch on, or inevitably you’ll be playing catch up

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Closing the Investment Gap – Why Is It As Important as the Pay Gap?

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man-and-woman-standing-on-money-featuredBy Nicki Gilmour

Closing the investment gap for women as well as the better- documented pay gap needs to happen. What is the investment gap? And why are most women, even highly paid professional women still missing out? Sallie Krawcheck just wrote a post about the cost of not realizing what we are missing financially by not investing properly on LinkedIn.

Sallie is inviting theglasshammer.com readers to join Ellevest, her new women- orientated advisory for women (and men too) to close the investing gap. I caught up with Sallie this summer and she is someone who I admire greatly and Sallie is a woman who has been there, formidably at the top of the best financial institutions in the world for many years. I asked her why should we care about solving the investment gap?

Sallie responded,

“The investment gap is real and closing it is the best professional advice that nobody is telling you. We need to talk about the real costs of a career break and the real cost of earning less and investing less. We want to empower the individual. I am about unleashing the power.”

Why should we want both men and women managing our money?

A recent survey conducted by The CFA Institute called “Gender Diversity in Investment Management – New research for practitioners on how to close the gender gap” found that most female CFA members (70%) and nearly half of all CFA members in total (48%) believe that mixed gender teams of investment professionals lead to better investment performance results because of more diverse viewpoints.

Interestingly, these are the people who are involved in funds, and often run them directly. In the same survey, institutional investors also scored high in believing there was positive aspects to having a gender diverse team in place as seen in the California State Teachers’ Retirement System encouraging State Street Global Advisors to create the SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF (ticker: SHE) in 2016 and seeded it with a $250 million investment.

Meanwhile, in the same study, retail investors were less convinced in the value of women working in wall street bringing higher returns with nearly 50% of those surveyed believing diversity does not matter when it comes to who manages money.

We can conclude from this that the people least close to the process saw the least value in it. That means people like you and me, and people who are not like you and me, can have a range of differing values, education and identities and yet have the same sexist ideas about who we think should lead companies and run money for us.

There is research including the most recent piece from Credit Suisse last week that suggests adding women makes a difference, obviously the right women, but we would say the same about men so we have to be careful to not over scrutinize this concept.

I am a fan of testing reality against research and Joe Keefe, President and CEO of Pax World Management LLC is a leader who is seeing real results.

We caught up last week and chatted about the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, which is chaired by Sallie Krawcheck, and has just reported a recent milestone, outperforming the MSCI World Index* for the two-year period ending June 30, 2016 and has $100 million in assets under management.

Joe is a man who gets it and one of the first men to grace our column of the same name. What is it that creates this higher performance when women are present in decision-making seats? Joe comments,

“I believe that having higher female representation at board and senior management level is a causal factor, not just a correlative factor, for higher performance because it is the entire corporate governance structure that tends to improve with women in place.

Pressing Joe on the finer details on being sure that the factor that drives the performance, he told me,

“We try to keep all other variables neutral to allow for an apples to apples comparison for performance analysis.” And added, “This is the only global index of its kind and beyond the research, this is real money from real investors in real time proving the point, not theory.”

How can we link investor gains to the talent pipeline inside firms?

As I reported earlier this year, rather than wait for companies to take action themselves or rely on legislation to be enacted, the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund is the only global fund and the original index. State Street’s U.S. based SHE Index and other new funds also provide a way for people to fight the gender gap directly by investing in companies that put a premium on women in leadership positions.

Morgan Stanley launched a proprietary gender-diversity framework for ranking more than 1,600 stocks globally this year citing,

“Calls for more female participation in the economy have grown louder, often based on political or cultural arguments founded on fairness. Yet, a persuasive argument for diversity and equality can also be anchored to the bottom line, where ensuring that more women are working and leading in the workplace is simply good business, especially for investors who not only care about the ethics, but also want returns.”

To make sure this theory of ensuring more women are leading becomes action, the onus falls on three groups.

Group 1: The investors have to vote according to their belief in diversity. That means you and me as well as the institutional investors.

Group 2: The intermediaries need to better inform clients better and this could involve reducing the biases of some financial planners and advisors who regardless of being male or female harbor ideas and loyalties that do not help their clients.

Group 3: The other group that needs to do something to ensure that there are companies to list on these indices is of course the leaders and talent process people inside firms.

Sometimes the research on diversity enhancing performance is lost on gatekeepers such as financial advisors and consultants who often do not understand the importance of diversity. I have had a personal experience with that myself with a very “old fashioned” shall we say female advisor who told me point blank not to invest in a women’s fund (and could not seem to say the LGBT acronym). I asked Joe Keefe what to do in these situations and he told me that people should invest directly in the Pax fund or find advisors who understand the benefits of seeing the research in action.

Joe Keefe comments,

“I truly think that we are heading towards higher numbers of women on boards and in senior management teams, and I believe that we could reach 40/50% female representation in our lifetimes. More and more people are realizing that the research is right and the returns are there.”

Sallie Krawcheck, chair of the Pax Ellevate fund agrees,

“It is simply smart business to invest in women and we believe that this investment case will continue to be borne out over time by the performance of this Fund.”

Awareness is the first step, and people like Sallie Krawcheck and Joe Keefe are giving us the chance to put our money where our mouth is and maybe make up for that pay gap that most of us are experiencing (whether we choose to believe it or not.)

Save

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Empowering Future Women Starts Today by Empowering Ourselves

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woman sitting at deskThe business world is still dominated by men. Sure, we’ve made inroads into the executive level, but we fill few seats — especially in the science field and the corner office.

Yet the statistics tell another story. Not only are we keeping pace with men in the boardroom, but we also run circles around them. Last year, Philadelphia venture capital firm First Round Capital unveiled findings that startup firms featuring at least one woman founder outperform those with solely male founding teams by 63 percent. And women play roles in the upper echelons of First Round’s 10 most valuable companies.

To vault forward in science (or any industry, for that matter), we need to look differently at leadership and our gender. Men and women aren’t wired the same, and to get where I am today, I’ve had to do things that don’t necessarily come naturally.

Women as Pioneers

Women leaders are trailblazers — the more we assert ourselves as leaders, the more other women will follow.

I didn’t realize I was breaking new ground until my daughter, a recent college graduate, said to me: “Mom, you know something? You’re a pioneer. When you were rising throughout the leadership ranks in the ’80s and early ’90s, the ratio of women leaders to men leaders was extremely low.”

She told me that a professor of hers had asked the students to raise their hands if their mothers held a senior leadership role in a company. Out of nearly 50 students in my daughter’s class, she was the only one whose hand went up. She told me, “Mom, you are a unicorn.” I never looked at myself that way. And personally, it meant so much to me to know that I stood out in her mind and had such a deep impact.

As women, we’re still dismissed on the basis of our emotional, connected nature. And our people-centered leadership styles are looked down upon by men — the very people who are often making the decisions about promotions and hiring.

Men vs. Women

Looking back on my career, I know there are some things I could have and should have adjusted that would have made it easier to advance. Growing up with only brothers, I believed I had a leg up on many other aspiring female professionals. But in terms of business, I didn’t really know the difference between a man and a woman. I thought, “I’m just a different sex, but we’re all equal.”

That thinking is a bit backward — even in today’s diverse world. Men and women behave and act differently in every situation. And as professional women, we need to embrace this fact and work it to our advantage. Back when I entered my field, I didn’t really take note of my female tendencies, and I strongly believe it may have held me back.

Leveraging Our Strengths

By nature, we aren’t nearly as boastful as men. We often recognize people around us as opposed to recognizing ourselves. But we need to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk. We need to sell ourselves as strong thinkers and business leaders.

We need to understand our value and make sure we can represent it correctly, whether it’s in front of a board of directors or our senior management. In general, we’re not programmed this way in our DNA, so we need to recognize how important this is and show our value in every aspect of our jobs.

We are much more conscious of physical responsibility and the people element in business and life. Women in a business setting will often say, “How are you doing, and how can I help?” We won’t find a man doing that.

And we don’t need to hear that we’re better than men. We need to know that we’re different and that in certain roles, that difference makes us stronger and “better.” Of course, the opposite is true, too; men are better than us at some jobs.

But we need to think about where our strengths are and leverage those advantages. Recognizing this will put us in front of investors and business leaders and boost our careers.

Our Path Forward

What can we do to build upon the foundation set by our predecessors and ensure that future women will carry on to greater success?

1. We have to work twice as hard as men. This is not only because we’re trying to overcome some of our natural tendencies, but also because it’s still a male-dominated world.

2. We need to be more selfish. We’re raised to be selfless; we don’t think of ourselves first. But speaking louder is the only way we’ll break into the boardroom. In a room full of men, we need to be heard.

3. We have to assume we’re all the same and that we deserve the same treatment. We should take more risks and wait until someone says “no” rather than avoid confrontation. Sure, we ask for more responsibility. But we don’t ask for or expect a raise or promotion to go along with that added responsibility.

4. We need to cultivate our passions and find a way to make a difference within that arena. Invest in a passion, build a business or project around it, and use it within a brand. It will help us get noticed and stand out in front of a group of men.

5. We need to work together and empower one another to build success among women. Springboard Enterprises is a great resource for women with an entrepreneurial spirit, and it’s not necessarily just for entrepreneurs — it’s for any woman who wants the firepower to move ahead in business.

We need to be pioneers for other women; it’s the only way to close the gender gap that still exists. The more we assert ourselves as leaders, take risks, and let our passion do the talking, the sooner “our day” will come when we will not only be 50 percent of the population, but also 50 percent of the leaders driving change in the world!

Valerie Palmieri was appointed president and CEO of Vermillion in January 2015 and joined the company in October 2014. She brought with her more than 30 years of experience in the diagnostic laboratory industry, holding sales, operations, and executive leadership positions in laboratory service and consulting organizations.

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Life Hacks: 3 Tips for Hassle Free Business Travel

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Woman travelling - airportBeing on the road can be stressful. Tricks of the trade can minimize projected headaches of travel and keep you cool and collected, like a true professional. Here are some simple life hacks that can speed up and calm down your business travel plans whether domestically or abroad.

Tip 1: Download Useful Apps

One of the most targeted apps for business travelers is Worldmate, which combines all your travel booking info (flights, hotels, cars, etc.) to create both business travel and meeting agenda itineraries. The app also aggregates smartphone features such as world clocks, maps, weather info, and both Outlook and LinkedIn options so your itinerary can be shared among colleagues and peers.

Packpoint is a free new packing app that organizes what you need based on travel length, weather, activities and your agenda. It even cross-references which tech gadgets you’ll need for where you’re traveling. Check out this video that displays its capabilities. It even has a ‘business trip’ option for clothes packing. PackPoint “will assemble a list of clothing, toiletries, gadgets, accessories,” and more for your tailored trip.

Fast Company favors the app ahead of Google Now, for example, writing that “a predictive system like Google Now would know your preferences intimately enough just to tell you to remember bike shorts. But PackPoint leverages a relatively spartan interface to learn a whole lot about you and your trip in a very short amount of time.”

Having problems with jet lag? The app Entrain can solve your sleeping habit woes. Developed at the University of Michigan, Entrain is an advanced alarm clock/calculator that allows users to share their sleeping habit data (wake up time, bedtime, time zone and amount of light exposure you are used to receiving. Then a lighting schedule is provided to help prevent or overcome jet lag.

Out of the country and need help converting to the local currency? No problem. The Converted by Ideon app is an all-in-one converter that not only covers your visiting country’s currency but its imperial-metric and conversions., Americans are the only ones still using the Dewey Decimal system and after many hours on a plane, jetlag can interfere with even the most talented mathematicians.

The Converted interface is very slick, and users can drag their converter bars of choice on to their screen, keeping your information private.

In a foreign country and need a quick translation for something like “where’s the bathroom”? iStone can help you in a language jam. It records and translates into 12 languages and carries more than 300 useful phrases in its data arsenal. It also features a native pronunciation feature. Better yet, it is also free and doesn’t require Wi-Fi.

Tip 2: Join loyalty programs

Whichever airline and hotel chain you frequent the most when travelling on business, joining their loyalty and frequent flyer miles programs can save you not only money, but time, and even buy you some convenience in the process.

American Airlines Business Extra program, for example, gives you incentive points for a variety of things, including the ability for your company to earn points for employee benefits with American Airlines, US Airways and US Airways Express, plus earn points on any AA flights operated by British Airways, Japan Airlines and more.

Being on the road can be stressful. Tricks of the trade can minimize projected headaches of travel and keep you cool and collected, like a true professional.

If you fly two trips per month, you and your company will reap some hefty gains. Two flights per month for a year will earn you approximately 2,160 points, including early check-ins, flight upgrades and more.

Delta also has a similar Sky Bonus program that earns your company points each time an employee from the company flies with their airline, or joint venture partners Air France, KLM and Atitalia. The company can redeem by seat upgrades, Sky Club passes and more.

Tip 3: Power Packs, Backups and Outlets

It’s always a good idea to have a handy all-in-one power adaptor, like the Travel Smart by Conair. These models generally utilize the four most common adaptor plugs (grounded and un-grounded) around the globe, covering Europe, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, North/South America, and parts of Africa. It also accommodates European appliances used in the U.S. The all-in-ones also have a surge protector to keep your appliances safe from foreign electricity spikes.

It’s handy to have a portable charger in your pack. Mophie has some great products for phones, such as dock solutions, belt-clips and USB cables. Portable powerstations are also sold to cover every piece of technology you might have, from your laptop to your iPad.

If you have an iPhone, one of the more innovative models Mophie has to offer is the smartphone juice pack battery, which delivers more than 100% extra battery directly to your phone 24/7, and can also double as a protective shell for your device.

As simplistic as they may be, these tips can give a little extra ammo to the savvy traveler, saving you time, money and a little convenience. Happy trails!

By Gina Scanlon

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Promoting CEO-Ready Women

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By Melissa J. Anderson

Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

Companies must work harder to nurture the pipeline of diverse CEO-ready leaders, experts say. As the number of women CEOs dwindles, it seems that there are few female leaders ready to take their place, or, rather, that there are too few companies ready and willing to give them a shot.

Indeed, the percentage of female CEOs in the S&P 500 dropped to a miniscule 4.4% in 2016, down from a slightly less miniscule 4.6% last year, according to data from Catalyst.

Additionally, high-profile female CEOs have stepped down from their roles in the past year. For example, Xerox’s Ursula Burns announced this summer that she will leave the company after its planned split is completed later this year. DuPont’s Ellen Kullman retired after the company’s bruising proxy battle last fall. And it’s not clear where Marissa Mayer will land after Verizon takes over Yahoo’s core businesses. Because there are already so few women in the CEO position, the loss of one or two makes a big difference. And the bright spots — like Shira Goodman being named interim CEO of Staples in June — are few and far between.

It’s not clear that companies are doing enough to bring diversity into the C-suite, says Brande Stellings, Vice President of Corporate Board Services at Catalyst. Moreover, the work is hard and constant — if companies lose focus on diversity, they could wind up dashing any positive work they’d achieved.

“Ensuring both diversity and inclusion at leadership levels requires constant attention and intention – as does any behavior until it becomes a habit,” says Stellings. “Change is not happening quickly enough and leadership at the board level and in the C-suite does not reflect the world we live in today, where women represent half of the workforce.”

Companies must be intentional in their efforts, says Stellings.

“Set a target for representation of women in the C-Suite and reverse engineer from that target,” she says. Stellings suggests companies focus on a couple key areas to reach that target: “hot jobs” and sponsorship.

“Review the ‘hot jobs’ in the company that provide a fast track for executive development: are women getting their fair share of those opportunities?” she says.

For example, the gender diversity of PwC’s Global Leadership Team increased significantly this year, moving from 20% female to 42% female with the appointments of the company’s new global chairman Bob Moritz.

“Getting there was part of a long journey which we are still on,” says Dale Meikle, Global Diversity and Inclusion Program Office Leader at PwC.

“This has been the result of many years of our top leadership personally sponsoring diversity as a business imperative, of ensuring that along with male talent, female talent has been identified and developed to create a more gender diverse slate of leaders when vacancies come up; it’s also been challenging ourselves to not make assumptions about what the barriers to diversity are, but rather letting the data lead us,” Meikle says.

According to Meikle, PwC’s creation of data-driven diversity programs that are tied to leadership accountability have produced a “sea change” at PwC.

As for sponsorship, Stellings tells of one S&P 500 CEO who asked his senior leadership team to make a list of people whose careers they had championed, and then to ask whether any of the people they had supported looked different from themselves. If not, he challenged the team to do something about it.

Stellings says women executives can play a key part of corporate efforts to bring more women and people of color into the CEO-pipeline. Not only are women executives necessary to mentor and sponsor the next generation of diverse leaders, but they are integral in driving the cultural infrastructure needed to help them thrive at work.

“On an organizational level, [senior executive women] can ensure that the business case for advancing women’s leadership is well understood, both in terms of winning in the marketplace for talent and in the marketplace for customers,” says Stellings.

For female executives who already have their eyes on the CEO job, Stellings says, an outside board seat can raise their profile and offer experience that CEO-search committees view as valuable. They should know what their CEO would say about them, and ask him or her to make introductions to search firms or other directors on their behalf.

“They should also take advantage of opportunities to present to, work with and socialize with their own company’s board,” she adds.

What’s more, when women move into board roles to enhance their own profile and meet their own career goals, they start a diversity feedback loop, according to Stellings.

“Catalyst research indicates that having more women board directors is correlated with subsequently having more women in the C-suite,” five years later, she says.

These women officers were also more likely to be in line positions. “Profit-and-loss responsibility at the executive level is a key experience for CEO succession planning, as well as board succession planning,” Stellings adds.

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Elevate Yourself: How to Articulate Your Value and Advance Your Career in Two Easy Steps

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Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

What are your career aspirations? When you’re dreaming about the future, do you see yourself in a bigger role, leading your team to impressive results and having a powerful influence in your company? Then there’s good news. You are the one who can elevate yourself to reach that higher-level position.

It’s true. The leaders who are most successful are the ones who lead themselves and lead others to see them as successful high-achievers worthy of promotion.

Unfortunately, many leaders miss this opportunity. Either they don’t realize how much influence and control they have over their own careers, or they neglect to communicate their value. You can speed up your advancement by taking ownership of your career, knowing your value, and articulating your successes in a way that leads to new opportunities.

Being able to articulate your value is a key tool for success and advancement. Here are the two steps you need to take.

Know Your Value.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I know the impact of my efforts?

2. Have I defined the specific contributions that I’ve made?

3. Can I gracefully, elegantly, and clearly articulate the value that I bring?

If you have difficulty answering these questions, it could be for one of two reasons. One, it may be that you are not adding as much value or making as big a contribution as you would like. If that’s the case, it’s time to rethink your approach so you can be more impactful. Two, it may be that you’re adding plenty of value to your company and even excelling in your role, but you haven’t taken the time to clarify that value in an effective message. If that is the case, it is time to do some wordsmithing and craft the message you can easily share with others to help them see your value.

Either way, whether you are focused on improving your impact or communicating your impact to others, this is an effort that is worth your attention. By knowing and describing your value to others, you will open new doors of opportunity and advancement.

Prove Your Worth.

Once you succeed in identifying and articulating your value, the next step is to prove your worth.

Here are some more questions you can ask yourself:

1. What specific role have I played that created a positive outcome for the company?

2. What outcomes or deliverables have I achieved?

3. What are those roles, outcomes, and deliverables worth?

What you are searching for as you do this analysis are specific metrics: your concrete, measureable results. Look for numbers, percentages, dollar figures and other persuasive metrics that quantify the impact you have made. You’ll know you have proved your worth when you can effectively identify the specific benefits your company has gained as a result of your efforts and achievements.

Remember: when it comes to career advancement, you have more control than you think. Take the time to identify and communicate your value. When you do this for yourself, you’ll increase your confidence and impact. When you share it with others, you’ll elevate yourself into the positions you want.

You really do make an impact. Give yourself the opportunity to be the leader you most want to be by helping others see your value, too.

Howard J. Morgan and Joelle K. Jay, PhD, of the Leadership Research Institute (LRI) are co-authors of THE NEW ADVANTAGE: How Women in Leadership Can Create Win-Wins for Their Companies and Themselves (Praeger / 2016). For more information please visit www.TheNewAdvantageBook.com.

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Why Wanting More at Work Can Be a Good and a Bad Thing

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I am very guilty of living in the future and this can lead to not being 100% engaged in the present. I justify it by saying that I am a good planner who understands that companies don’t build themselves and argue that the power of an arc in anyone’s professional narrative is part of one’s brand. My executive coach (yes, I am an executive coach who has an executive coach, because I can’t say it enough, everyone can benefit from having one) and several close friends might argue that I am a malcontent. We are all right as there is a fine line between strategy and sabotage regarding your own career plans and happiness in life.

It turns out that neuroscience confirms that seeking out new situations is very much a part of what the brain is supposed to do. Neuroscientist Jaak Panskepp argues that of seven core instincts in the human brain (anger, fear, panic-grief, maternal care, pleasure/lust, play, and seeking), seeking is the most important.

Here are three reasons to live in the present:

1) You may actually have what you want professionally (and personally). Write down your ideal life in a realistic way or aspects of it and map that against your situation and you might see you are closer than you think and if not, then you at least can see where some gaps are and then you can go back to seeking, happily.

2) You may not have what you want, but you may have what you need. See above, this mapping exercise can help you see the positive aspects of your current situation. For example, if you have young kids and you want to see them more then weigh up if you really want that job that requires 80% travel.

3) There is a certainty in the present that you cannot guarantee with a future potential job. The devil you know and all that. You can also get real perspective on the situation to know if you need change or if you are forging change for the sake of it.

To be coached by Nicki Gilmour, CEO of theglasshammer and executive coach or by her coach and vetted partner Valerie Cherneski, contact Nicki today on 646 6882318 or nicki@theglasshammer.com

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Vacation Days: How to Negotiate for More PTO

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Vacation Days

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As a smart, powerful woman, you’re used to negotiating. You’ve made your case for a higher salary equal to your peers, and gotten it. You’ve held your own against both male and female colleagues on projects, and won respect because of your fair, level-headed approach. All these reasons, and more, are why you’re on your way up the ladder.

But what about negotiating for other benefits, like vacation days? Assuming that benefits like paid time off are set in stone when you join a new company or are in a bargaining position during your yearly review is just that — an assumption.

You tend to forget about time off as a bargaining chip, but it’s a valuable asset to negotiate for. Next time the opportunity arises, think about how you can position yourself for more vacation time.

The Importance of Vacation

It’s no secret that America is way behind the rest of the world in vacation time when it comes to guaranteed, nation-wide benefits.

Although some firms have great benefits, legally, you aren’t entitled to any vacation days. Compare that to Brazil, where they’re entitled to 30 vacation days a year.

Work burnout is serious and can cause a lot of issues that can be detrimental to your health. Additionally, studies show that burnout subjects have issues managing their emotions, which could make them more vulnerable to depression. You don’t need something like that getting you down after how hard you’ve worked to make it this far.

In the long run, more paid time off could be even more valuable than a pay raise. Here’s how to get more than those guaranteed 10 days of vacation:

1. Negotiate Right Away

If you’re just starting a job, try to negotiate during the interview process. You can tell if the company really wants you and your skill set is in high demand. Use that as a bargaining chip. The more the company wants you, the more likely they’re going to give you that extra vacation —perhaps even more than you were expecting.

2. Know What You Want

Know the number you’re looking for before you go into the meeting. If you’re negotiating for more PTO instead of some sort of raise, figure out how much vacation time would equal the raise you would be getting. If you know what you want, you know you won’t stop until you get it.

3. Do Your Research

Here’s where your networking skills come in. Find out what other people in your industry have done to successfully negotiate – whether it’s a business deal or a PTO negotiation. See what other requests have been granted or denied to employees in your company. How much were they getting on average? This helps you come up with a number and also gives you insider info on how to get what you want.

It also helps to know the boss you’ll be asking for it from. If you have some trusted colleagues, start asking through the grapevine and see if there’s any timing in particular that works best or if there are certain ways to propose it. Knowing more about the boss lets you mold your presentation to be as attractive as possible.

4. Propose the Benefits of Vacation Time

In addition to the various health benefits it offers, vacation can improve your productivity. A study found that for each additional 10 hours of vacation an employee took, their performance ratings improved eight percent. If you show what a good refueling session can really do for your productivity, it’ll give incentive for both you and other employees to get the amount of vacation they need — and for your boss to grant it.

5. Make a Plan

How can your boss say no when you adequately demonstrate that no work will be left undone in your absence? Explain how you plan to work ahead and cover your work. You can even suggest a cross training program.

Cross training makes it easier for people to take vacations because other people are trained on how to do their job. Basically, as a powerful, smart woman, you get your work done before you leave, and anything that pops up while you’re gone will be covered by people you’ve trained to kick butt in your absence.

With jobs covered at any time, it’s easier for you — and other employees — to take the vacations you want. That’s just one of the benefits.

Tell them how it could lead to higher efficiency and productivity, as well as letting employees learn new skills and possibly discovering new talents in their job capabilities. Research stats to back up the benefits of cross training and create a whole presentation so it’s not just about your vacation time. Implementing this program could be beneficial to your career as well.

6. Be Prepared for a “No”

There’s a good chance your boss has a reason to say no, so don’t let it catch you off guard. You know how to prepare for this, so make sure you keep your cool when it happens. Ask if there are any circumstances that would allow more PTO to happen. Try and work together to find some sort of compromise, if there’s one to be made. Find a way to make it happen.

Show that you can get all of your work done before your vacation would even happen. You’re a powerful woman that can get everything done before you leave. If something were to come up while you’re gone, direct the boss towards the couple people you’ve trained to kick butt in your absence. Prepare ahead and make it hard for them to say no.

Time is something you can never get back. While the hassle of negotiations is never fun, this is something you want to take charge and make sure you get it.

By Sarah Landrum

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4 Steps to Put Positive Thinking Into Action for Success At Work

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happy working womenYou’ve heard about the power of positive thinking and the perils of negative thinking, but when it comes to your ability to reach goals or make dreams happen, the polarities of positive and negative thinking may matter less than getting the friction right between them.

In her HBR article, Gabrielle Oettingen, professor of psychology at NYU and University of Hamburg who has studied human motivation for twenty years, suggests that while negative thinking will never deliver you at the doorstep to your next goal, positive thinking – especially in the form of fantasizing about outcomes – hides some dangerous pitfalls that could keep you from the stairs.

Positive Outcome versus Pursuit

Achieving a goal takes some muster in walking the steps to get there. Even if they are small steps, it’s important to energize yourself towards taking them.

In their research paper, Kappes & Oettingen discuss that “positive fantasies do not lead people to anticipate having to exert cumbersome effort. Instead, positive fantasies allow people to embellish idealized paths to idealized future outcomes.”

Imagining yourself having already coasted without obstacle to your goal can be counterproductive. You mentally feel as though you’ve already arrived at your goal in the present moment, so you relax rather than energize. This can “obscure the need to invest effort in tasks that demand effort.”

Kappes & Oettingen found that fantasizing about a positive outcome can inhibit generating the energy you need to pursue it. They observed that positive fantasies about outcomes created lower physiological (systolic blood pressure) and behavioral energization than negative or neutral fantasies. The research showed “a causal relationship between positive fantasies about desired futures and low energy devoted to their realization.”

As Oettingen writes in HBR, “You’re less motivated to buck up and make the strong, persistent effort that is usually required to realize challenging but feasible wishes.”

They found, “Instead of promoting achievement, positive fantasies will sap job-seekers of the energy to pound the pavement, and drain the lovelorn of the energy to approach the one they like. Fantasies that are less positive – that question whether an ideal future can be achieved, and that depict obstacles, problems, and setbacks – should be more beneficial for mustering the energy needed to attain actual success.”

Easy versus Hard Steps

In further research, Kappes, Sharma & Oettingen found that when potential donors to charitable causes were encouraged to fantasize an ideal resolution to a current problem, they were less willing to put bigger and meaningful resources into actually helping address the problem.

When the demands for time or money were easy, or required relatively few resources, the positive thinkers were in step with the control group. But when the problem asked for more commitment from them – more time, more money, more effort – they folded. Since they’d already fantasized the ideal future as true, the effort to get there seems “overly demanding” now.

Fantasizing about the ideal outcome can mean not only failing to build up the energy to move towards it but also at some level rejecting that it should require significant energy and resources. That’s no recipe for being the agent of your dreams, wishes, or goals.

Positivity Gone Sour

As Oettingen writes in the European Review of Social Psychology, fantasies about attaining a positive future predict low effort and little success. What happens when you fantasize that a future outcome is highly accessible to you and yet your reality fails to meet it – possibly because you never harnessed the necessary drive and resolve to get there?

The opposite of positivity. The more we fail to reach the outcomes we believe should be accessible to us, the more it grinds us down. Oettingen notes, “Low effort and little success translate into more depressive symptoms over time.” This is whether it comes to an external goal (writing that book) or a personal desire (creating more healthy boundaries).

Unrealistic optimism has a habit of ending in hurt, when success doesn’t walk on over and take you by the hand to skip away into tomorrow, the way it did (kind of) in your mind.

“Mental Contrasting” – Put the Positivity into the Process

Rather than solely “indulging” in thoughts of a positive future or solely “dwelling” in the obstacles of a present reality, Oettingen has put forth both in papers and in her book Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation that the power is in “mentally contrasting” the two.

Oettingen developed the process “W-O-O-P”: “Wish-Outcome-Obstacle-Plan.” Her book applies this process to three areas: health, personal and professional relationships, and performing at work.

Step #1 Wish

First, you bring the wish you have for the future to mind, a goal or change that is challenging but possible to achieve in a certain time frame. Maybe it’s getting the lead role on a project team.

Steo #2 Outcome

Second, you let your mind run with fantasizing about the future if your wish came true – what does the best possible outcome feel like? Maybe you imagine yourself in the position and handling it brilliantly, feeling confident and strong.

Step #3 Obstacle

Then, you mentally elaborate on the current reality that stands in the way of realizing this future – what obstacles exist? Bringing up obstacles isn’t negativity – it’s taking a glance at the map so you plan your route strategically. Oettingen advises to ask yourself, “”What is it in me that stands in the way?” simply because you can’t control others. Maybe you realize you have a tendency to undermine the critical role you play in the team’s success because you focus on enabling them.

Step #4 Plan

Make a plan for how you can overcome the obstacle. When it comes to overcoming ingrained behaviors or dealing with specific obstacle scenarios, Oettingen suggests using an implementation intervention such as an “if/then” statement. For example, “If I talk about the team’s success, I’ll play up my personal approach to getting the best results from a team.”

Through Mental Contrasting, Oettingen and Schwörer argue that you are now linking the future to the reality: “It creates determined goal pursuit, reveals the critical situation (obstacle of reality), and links the reality with the instrumental action to overcome the reality (goal-directed action).”

If you have high expectations on being able to overcome the reality, this leads to increased effort, more engagement, and hence more success. The positivity comes in being able to envision yourself taking agency in overcoming the obstacles to make your wish attainable.

On the other hand, if the “WOOP” practice reveals low expectations in being able to overcome obstacles, you may want to discern to put your resources and attention elsewhere.

When we hone our positive thinking power towards our ability to take each necessary step towards our wishes – even the challenging ones that ask for our strength, humility, or perseverance- then positivity can stop being only a beacon in the distance, or a warm feeling for something we’ve yet to do, and become a guiding light that keeps us moving on the path to what we most want.

By Aimee Hansen

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