Move Forward with Confidence

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women shaking handsGuest Contribution By Connie Certusi

Earlier this year, the Nasdaq topped 5,000 for the first time in almost 15 years. And, according to the 2014 Sage Business Index, almost three-quarters of women business leaders expect to see growth in their businesses this year.

Now is the time to move forward with confidence, since, as the Latin proverb teaches, “Fortune favors the bold.” Here are four simple confidence-boosters.

Use Social Media

If you’re not sure where to start, social media is a great tool for showcasing confidence in yourself and your business. Dust off that old LinkedIn profile and make sure it lets people know what you’re up to. Join a few LinkedIn Groups and share ideas; you’ll be surprised what a little group support can accomplish. If you’re not tweeting regularly, get on Twitter and talk to people: your customers, professional colleagues and anyone else you interact with in a professional way. And try using Facebook to reach out to new people; it still has a huge user base.

It’s imperative not to use these channels solely for marketing, however. Share good news for your company, ask for ideas, and just talk to people. Link to informative content from other sources to help establish your company as a place where people can get helpful information

And, don’t be afraid to be bold. Showcase an online persona connected to what you want to accomplish this year. Be authentic and, most importantly, be you.

Find a Mentor – or Better Yet, Become One

If you’ve been out in the business world for a while, you probably still remember what it was like when you were just starting out. Chances are, if you could go back and chat with yourself, you’d share all kinds of tips and tricks to boost confidence. But since you can’t go back, you can do the next best thing: find someone else to mentor. Help an up-and-coming woman learn the ins and outs of the business world, and you might even learn a thing or two from your mentee along the way.

If you’re just setting out on your own, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Look for local networking opportunities; a lot of communities have groups designed for just that purpose. Reach out to more experienced women. They’ll likely be happy to share wisdom that will boost your confidence and put you further down the path to success.

Get Outside Yourself

It can be hard to justify anything not directly tied to the bottom line, especially for small business leaders. But becoming a more integral part of your community can be a great long-term investment. If you want people to think of you first when they need a product or service you provide, they need to know who you are.

Get out there and make a difference in your local community. Speak to school groups or sponsor an activity at a local concert or fair. There are many great ways to give something back, and as you give you’ll probably receive, as well. In fact, with only 14 percent of women business leaders responding to the 2014 Sage Business Index survey saying they receive needed support from the government, building a good relationship can help you network with decision-makers in your city or state.

Get Organized

Nothing radiates confidence like someone who knows where she’s going and what she’s doing. And in a business setting, this requires having a plan. That all starts with getting your finances in order. It can be intimidating to make a long-term financial plan, but having a professional you trust to help can make it quite manageable.

According to the 2014 Sage Business Index, 40 percent of women business leaders expect headcount to grow in the coming year. Consider hiring an accountant who can help you figure out where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. Accountants are much more than tax preparers; they can be valuable business partners.

It’s not always easy to show confidence, but you might be surprised what you can accomplish with a more assertive attitude. And, if you must, “fake it till you make it.”

About the author

Connie leads the start-up and small business solutions business, encompassing Sage One, Sage Accountants Network and Sage 50 Accounting. She is also responsible for the Sage Employer Solutions products. With over 20 years of experience in the technology market serving small businesses, she has a passion for helping entrepreneurs and small business owners succeed. She lives in Atlanta.

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Is Temporal Flexibility Key to Closing The Gender Pay Gap?

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money money moneyYou don’t need to work in a male dominated occupation to find your pay check weighs light relative to your male colleagues – particularly, if you’re in business.

In March 2015, the US Census Bureau released the latest pay statistics from 2013, including median earnings by detailed occupation, showing that full-time working women earn 78.8% of what full-time working men do. The census data revealed that across 342 occupations, women (barely) out-earn men in only nine.

Across the nine, the female pay advantage is “nearly inconsequential,” ranging from .2% (counselers, dishwashers) to 6.2% (producers and directors), with a margin for error that could wipe the gap. Yet a very significant pay gap (advantage: male) persists across most professions, even when women are prevalent in them.

Data on relevant occupations illustrates the point:
Occupation % in occupation who are women Women’s earnings as a % of men’s earnings
Securities, commodities, & financial services sales agents  30%  55%
Financial specialists, all other  55%  60%
Personal financial advisors  31%  61%
Financial clerks, all other  61%  62%
Financial analysts  32%  63%
Financial managers  54%  64%
Market research analysts and marketing specialists 56%  75%
Accountants and Auditors  59%  75%
CEOs  23%  76%
Compensation, benefits, & job analysis specialists  74%  78%

Source: Drawn from US Census Bureau, 2013 American Community Survey

While frustrating gaps in occupations that are historically male-gendered (eg CEOS, financial analysts, securities) may come as less of a surprise, the gap within female skewed jobs (financial clerks, marketing, accounting) underlines that closing the gender pay gap takes more than female representation.

Are men just more valued? Nancy F. Clark of Forbes WomensMedia writes that when men move into female dominated occupations such as nursing, the overall pay of that occupation and level of tasks included in the job remit begins to improve. If appears that when men enter an occupation, its value goes up.

But, what’s going on in finance and business?

Gender Penalties Are Bigger in Business Jobs

Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard, found in her research that when it comes to explaining the majority of the residual gender pay gap, “what happens within each occupation is far more important than the occupations in which women wind up.”

Among high-earning occupations, Goldin found those grouped as “business” have the biggest gender pay “penalty” for “being a woman relative to a man of equal education and age, given hours and weeks of work” whereas “science” and “technology” occupations have the smallest ones.

Census Bureau data shows that women make up only 24% of “computer, engineering and science occupations” and earn 83% as much as men. Women make up 54% of “business and financial operations occupations” but earn only 75% as much as men.

Non-Linear Earnings Are Penalizing Women

“Quite simply the (residual) gap exists because hours of work in many occupations are worth more when given at particular moments and when the hours are more continuous,” writes Goldin.

In many occupations, earnings “have a nonlinear relationship with respect to hours” – for example, a 70 hour week is rewarded in well over double the earnings of a 35 hour week and working 9-11 am counts much more than working 9-11 pm.

It’s less a matter of whether women take time off work to have children or seek flexible hours. It’s whether they are disproportionately penalized for the time they are absent from the office or for working their hours outside of the standard work day.

“Some occupations have high penalties for even small amounts of time out of the labor force and have nonlinear earnings with respect to hours worked,” Goldin writes, and then the gender pay gap is bigger. “Other occupations, however, have small penalties for time out and almost linear earnings with respect to hours worked.”

In previous research, Goldin and Katz quantified the occupational difference in pay penalty among Harvard 1990 graduates. They found that a similar 10 percent hiatus in employment 15 years after receiving their BA (18 months break) meant a decrease of earnings of 41% for MBAs, 29% for JDs or PhDs, and 15% for MDs.

Reduction in earnings as a result of time-off “was linear in lost experience” for MDs, but highly nonlinear for MBAs. “Any time off for MBAs is heavily penalized,” reports Goldin.

Remuneration penalties can result in women going to a different occupation, shifting down within the occupation hierarchy, or being out of work. The research found that when part-time work is largely available, women take off less time (eg pharmacists). Because it’s less available in business, women end up taking off more time even with higher penalties.

Goldin writes, “A flexible schedule often comes at a high price, particularly in the corporate, financial, and legal worlds.”

Closing the Gap

Goldin suggests that the last chapter to achieve gender equality involves “changing how jobs are structured and remunerated to enhance temporal flexibility.”

She found that certain contextual factors close the gender pay gap, such as when colleagues can more easily be substituted for each other and when information can easily and cheaply be relayed between colleagues.

Forbes contributor Clark advises to get the ball rolling on arranging temporal flexibility before you need it – anticipating and addressing the issues that need to be overcome.

How committed is your firm to making temporal flexibility work for women and for the company itself? What evidence do you see? Firms that are serious about gender equality will be proactive in making it work – and add up – for both.

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Changing Industry Stereotypes Can Increase Women in STEM

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People waiting for an interviewDo we really have to paint a picture to make the serious under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields any clearer? YES, decided the faculty at New Jersey Institute of Technology, who have released the infograph, “Are Stereotypes Keeping Women Away from Science?”

Paint a picture it does. A quick glance reveals that women are represented half as much in STEM professions (25%) as they are in the workforce, while rarer yet in engineering and computer and mathematical sciences. From associates to doctorate, women are much less likely to convert their (relatively fewer) STEM degrees into a career in the field, where they’ll net unequal pay and less recognition. In fact, women are twice as likely to end up working in the lower-paying fields of education or healthcare with their STEM degree. Underneath this are the unconscious bias against female applicants and early ingraining of gender stereotypes.

Despite the frustrating gender dynamics at play for women in the STEM field, the biggest reason for the gender gap is too few are. Two recent studies recommend to get more women into the STEM door, widen the entrance: address narrow stereotypes about the field.

Gender, Science, and the “Brilliance” Factor

Recent research published in Science by Leslie and Cimpian found that in academia women are underrepresented in fields across science and humanities that value innate brilliance and morerepresented in those that value hard work and dedication.

Why? Because our culture still implicitly links raw, innate talent/genius/inborn ability/brilliance with men and not women.

As the Washington Post put it, “The difference between Sherlock Holmes and Hermione Granger may help explain why women don’t thrive as much as men in some fields of academia. One is brilliant by nature and the other has to work her butt off, and they represent the pervasive gender stereotypes of our age.“

Across 1,800 academics from 30 different disciplines, academia participants rated the importance of having “an innate gift or talent” or “a special aptitude that just can’t be taught” to succeed in their field versus the value of “motivation and sustained effort.” The study found the implicit emphasis put on brilliance as a success criteria predicted under-representation of women far better than other tested hypotheses. The findings extended to African-American representation, too.

The researchers clarified there’s no convincing evidence that men and women differ in capacity for brilliance, and the study can’t validate it’s actual importance in the field. “The argument is about the culture of the field,” Cimpian said. “In our current cultural climate, where women are stereotypically seen as less likely to possess these special intellectual gifts, emphasizing that those gifts are required for success is going to have a differential effect on men and women.”

Researcher Leslie shared, “Consider for example how difficult it is to think of even a single pop-culture portrayal of a woman who like Sherlock Holmes (& others)…displays that special spark of innate, unschooled genius.”

Field-specific success beliefs conspire with long-held gender stereotypes. “Any group that’s stereotyped to lack a trait that a field values is going to be underrepresented in that field,” Cimpian said.

While the gender stereotype around brilliance may be infuriating, the researchers recommend it’s the stereotype around the discipline that can easily change: downplay the importance of innate brilliance and reflect all excellence requires hard work.

“These findings suggest that academics who wish to increase the diversity of their fields should pay particular attention to the messages they send about what’s required for success,” said Leslie.

Culture Stereotypes & Computer Science

Dove-tailing the recommendation, a new research paper from Cheryan, Master, and Meltzoff asserts that to open the gates to computer science and engineering wider for women, diversify the gatekeeper stereotypes about the culture of these fields.

The article reports, “Computer science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers.”

The authors acknowledge that many social constraints keep women from engineering and computer science. But they found that diversifying the way these fields are represented – the kind of people, the nature of the work, and values of the field – changes young women’s sense of interest and belonging in the field.

With no direct experience of the field, stereotypes and media representations are often what students have to go on, and they are tight and narrow. Picture a white, geeky, tech-focused, socially awkward but intellectually brilliant, pale-skinned guy with glasses who sleeps and eats science and works on his own. The researchers say cultural stereotypes like this “are perceived as incompatible with qualities that are valued in women, such as being feminine, people-oriented, and modest about one’s abilities.” Women don’t feel they belong to the culture.

The researchers argue that diversifying and broadening the stereotypes (rather than getting rid of them as they also positively draw people) attracts more women to computer science and engineering by enabling them to identify more with the fields, without deflecting male interest.

One opportunity to widen image is in media, which strongly impacts upon stereotypes. In one study women who read articles that computer science was breaking away from stereotypes were more interested in the field than those who read an article confirming them, whereas men’s interest was not affected.

A second opportunity to widen image is in more diverse exposure to the people in the field. In a previous study, Cheryan found that women’s interest was positively influenced when they interviewed a computer scientist who had non-stereotypical appearance (plain t-shirt) and preferences (eg enjoys socializing), regardless of their gender. In fact, the experience increased women’s sense they could succeed in the field compared to women who interviewed with the stereotype. Men’s sense they could succeed was not affected.

The researchers noted, “When the people in computer science depict themselves in a manner consistent with the stereotypes, it can convey to other students that one must fit the stereotypes to be successful in these fields.”

A third opportunity to widen image is around workenvironments, which reflect dominant cultural values. The researchers previously found that young women who were exposed to a room with non-stereotypical objects (nature posters vs. Star Trek, water bottles vs. soda cans, neutral books vs. science fiction books) were far more likely to express interest in pursuing computer science than those that visited a stereotypical room. This represents a sense of “ambient” belonging.

The researchers point out that while these sciences remain male-dominated cultures in which women do face obstacles, “A broader image that shows many different types of people and working environments in computer science and engineering actually represents a more realistic portrayal.” Diversifying representation of computer science helped increased female enrolment in certain universities.

Going beyond narrow cultural stereotypes in STEM widens the door to girls and women. And as more women dare to enter it, the culture will likely, if slowly, evolve too.

By Aimee Hansen

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Female CTOs: You Can Make a Difference

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Female executives can leverage a data driven approach to make an impact in business

Sixty-three percent of IT leaders say their IT budget is increasing, according to the 2015 Society for Information Management (SIM) IT Trends Study. More than 1,000 senior IT leaders and CIOs responded, and based on the results, one trend is clear: IT budgets are growing not only in scale, but importance as well.

diverse women in the boardroomThis equals power for executives who take data seriously enough to grasp its effect on the bottom line. Understanding a notoriously costly IT asset portfolio can influence business and budget decisions, for both IT and the entire company. For example, an organization may uncover that the human resources department uses 15 unique enterpris applications, which cost $1.3 million annually in subscriptions. What they do not see is the cost of maintenance and risk, the infrastructure it sits on, the IT support, and the human capital and headcount associated with those assets.

Imagine that a female executive leverages the company’s IT asset portfolio through data analytics to discover it can save millions by culling valueless applications. She has now played an instrumental role in bolstering the budget, and her strategy is rock solid because she has based it on numbers. In most cases, numbers do not lie. She has asserted her value to the organization and made a significant impact.

Women in technology leadership roles seem to understand IT’s impact on business. Gartner reported that in the fourth quarter of 2013, female CIOs expected to increase their IT budgets 2.5 percent in 2014, whereas male CIOs reported an average increase of 0.2 percent.

Awareness is especially critical now, as the business landscape shifts in terms of budgeting strategies. Just as a CEO would evaluate cost centers and money pits, eradicating those that don’t drive business value, CIOs need to evaluate their own operation and eliminate valueless IT assets. For example, while software represents 34 percent of enterprise technology spending, CIOs spend 55 percent of the applications budget on maintenance and support, according to Forrester Research’s most recent “State Of Enterprise Software And Emerging Trends” report.

Studies show, however, technology leaders are failing to cull wasteful applications, as leadership in other departments has a tendency to regard it as an intense and long-term effort. As a result, CIOs feel pressured to allocate talent to keep IT running rather than transform it.

But armed with numbers, a female executive could step in and make the case for more thorough asset portfolio analysis. After all, it does not matter who has the loudest voice in the room when millions of dollars are at stake. Money talks, regardless of gender.

Plus, executives who enter the data analytics fray are making a positive impact on operations in several ways. In 2011, Gartner predicted that by 2015, at least 50 percent of organizations would be “regularly assessing business value relative to application costs and risks as a part of the IT budget process.” This process would provide great value, revealing which applications were worth the expense, which they should phase out, and which IT assets would benefit from extra security precautions.

“Sadly,” Gartner writes in the latest report on the topic from 2014, “most organizations don’t have an application strategy, and, because APM (application portfolio management) is one of the poorest-scoring disciplines in our ITScore assessment, we can assume that most organizations don’t have APM, either.”

The risks that come with not having an application strategy could also spell trouble as cyber security concerns rise. Respondents to PwC’s 2015 Global Information Security Survey reported the total number of detected security incidents in 2014 exceeded 42.8 million, a 48 percent increase over 2013. Moreover, the survey found security-breach-related financial losses to be 34 percent higher than the year prior.

So this female executive would not only contribute to budget health, she would also play a role in facilitating more efficient processes and tighter cyber security.

Identifying applications and their associated business functions enterprise-wide reveal redundancies, as well as applications that do not justify the high overall costs. These valueless IT assets perpetuate the idea that IT is only “keeping the lights on,” consistently maintaining status quo projects rather than introducing new digital capabilities.

Forrester Research experts surveyed more than 3,700 IT leaders in late 2013, and respondents estimated that an average of 72 percent of the money in their budgets was being spent “keeping the lights on,” meaning supporting ongoing operations. Only 28 percent went toward spending on new projects. This is a recipe for business growth stagnation.

Identifying and removing valueless assets can help the entire organization achieve a more balanced split of innovation to maintenance. When female executives step up to the plate with a data driven approach, they can transform IT into a business driver that pushes the bottom line company-wide, and make a name for themselves in the process.

Guest Contributed by Lindsay Bather, Business Operations Manager, KillerIT

KillerIT, a division of Forsythe Technology, Inc., is a Gartner-recognized IT program and portfolio management (PPM) software suite that provides a data-driven roadmap to optimize IT and accelerate digital business. In 2014, Gartner named KillerIT both a “Cool Vendor in Program and Portfolio Management” and in the Visionaries Quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for Integrated IT Portfolio Analysis Applications.”

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Tech’s Gender Gap Should Surprise No One

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bottom lineRecently, tech-news website The Verge published a report on diversity at at the U.S.’s biggest technology companies. In data scraped from Equal Employment Opportunity reports filed with the government, the article revealed official stats on workforce diversity at Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, and Twitter.

The numbers weren’t assuring. While women made up 47% of the U.S. workforce in 2014, the seven big, publicly traded tech companies that The Verge tracked only averaged 29% female. Amazon had the highest share of women workers at 37%, while Microsoft came in with the lowest share of women workers at 24%.

The share of women in leadership roles was even more stark. On average, at the seven companies studied, only 18% of executives and senior managers were women. The company with the highest percentage of female leaders was Facebook, at 23%, while Microsoft had the lowest percentage at 13%.

These are embarrassing numbers (and just as embarrassing were the statistics on racial and ethnic diversity – on average, only 21% of leaders at these companies weren’t white). But they shouldn’t come as a surprise. Researchers have long identified the problems behind the lack of diversity in the technology industry.

What is surprising, though, is how clearly defined the solutions to these problems are. Women keep leaving the industry; we know why; we know how to fix it. Yet the gap persists. A recent report by Catalyst identified several concrete reasons high potential women in tech leave for greener pastures and what these companies can do about it.

The technology industry purports to create innovative solutions to the world’s toughest problems. Perhaps it’s time for industry leaders to shift their gaze toward their own ranks, and implement the solutions experts have crafted to solve one of tech’s toughest problems: the workforce gender gap.

Leaky Pipeline

Tech companies like to tout their work to develop the “pipeline” of women into the industry, sponsoring programs designed to get girls and young women interested in STEM fields. This work is important and laudable. But an early lack of interest in science and technology isn’t the only reason for the low rate of women leaders working now in the industry.

The diversity benchmarking and solutions organization Catalyst says high potential women actively seek to leave the industry. According to Catalyst, women who took business jobs in the tech industry after earning an MBA were more likely than men to leave for another industry (women, 53%; men, 31%). And women who started in business roles in other industries were less likely than men to migrate to the tech industry (women, 9%; men, 13%).

Male MBAs who left the tech industry were more likely than women to say they changed jobs for greater opportunities (men, 67%; women, 52%), while women MBAs were more likely to say the left for personal reasons (women, 21%; men, 12%).

“Organizations invest tremendous resources to attract high potentials, and if that talent walks out the door—for any reason—it is incredibly costly for the company. Not only has that talent taken their skills and training elsewhere, but new employees have to be recruited and trained,” writes report author Anna Beninger, director of research at Catalyst.

The attrition problems are well documented, and so are the reasons behind them. Catalyst says women regularly start in lower level positions in the tech industry than men after earning MBAs. That means they also start at lower salaries from day one, a pay gap that persists over time.

In the study, high potential women MBAs in tech said they faced unclear requirements for evaluation and advancement, while men said their goals were clear. High potential women MBAs in tech said they had fewer role models than men, and vastly fewer said they felt similar to their coworkers than men did.

“Feeling like an outsider relative to their coworkers affects their access to development opportunities, sponsorship, and ultimately their aspirations to the top,” Beninger writes.

“Given the dearth of women in tech-intensive industries, including those in business roles, it is crucial for senior-level men in tech-intensive industries to champion women, and in time, create more women role models.”

Clarifying evaluation and promotion requirements, paying employees fairly, ensuring workers are able to meet family responsibilities and still get their jobs done, building cultures that value people outside the majority, and having corporate leadership set the tone from the top on diversity — these are all things that can help stop the female and minority attrition from the tech industry.

In practice, these solutions will take hard work to achieve. Implementing new policies is easy — it’s changing people’s mindsets that is difficult. But it is possible and necessary. The tech industry needs the best minds out there to solve problems in an increasingly complex business environment. It won’t be able to attract and retain the top people until business leaders approach this problem earnestly. Their work is cut out for them.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

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DESTINATION C-SUITE: Silicon Valley Tech Leadership While Female

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women working mentoringDonna Wells, CEO of Palo Alto-based Mindflash, has managed teams as large as 150 and budgets of $250 million at companies such as American Express and Expedia. She’s also held senior roles with organizations including Intuit and Charles Schwab. She has served as CXO for three Silicon Valley start-ups, including Mint.com, where she came in as employee #9 as its CMO and built a national brand with a bare-bones budget.

A couple of times a year, a former female colleague from my Fortune 500 days calls for advice on how to break into a Silicon Valley leadership role.The fact that I don’t get those calls more often is telling…and disappointing.I’ve had to good fortune to work with some of corporate America’s best and brightest women.And after nearly 20 years in the Valley, I am also a passionate advocate for making a career in high tech and grabbing the chance to make a real “dent in the universe.”So, why don’t more outstanding female corporate leaders make the move to leadership roles in high tech here?My take is that the environment is unquestionably challenging, but that corporate women are also often focused on the wrong risks.And I believe there are shifts in our approach that can increase the flow of corporate women into the Valley significantly.

Challenging the Environment

Even a cursory scan of recent Valley press indicates that the big companies in the Valley are flunking diversity. A recent report from Fenwick & West LLPreveals that women hold just 11 percent of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies, compared to 16 percent in the S&P 100. The implication is that women from outside of the Valley looking to move in at a senior leadership level are shooting the gap for a very limited number of places.I’m optimistic that, with increasing public and investor pressure on these companies to diversify their leadership, we’ll see progress over the next 5-10 years.But if you’re a woman looking to move now, my advice is to target companies that you are passionate about and that are showing relatively better leadership and Board diversity (such as Pandora) and/or making public commitments to improvement (like Intel).

The challenge is obviously greater for women without a technical or product background. While it’s true that Sheryl Sandberg joined Google in 2001 as its Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations and Angela Ahrendts joined Apple in 2014 as Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Sales without an engineering degree or tech experience, both brought unique, complementary skills to the company’s leadership. Those opportunities are few and far between, but with careful research into the challenges facing the Valley’s biggest firms, you just might find a key pain point that your legal, financial, regulatory, governmental, marketing, retail or operating experience can solve for one of the Valley 150. Ironically, one of the better Valley opportunities right now is for senior women that have led high-profile, successful diversity initiatives at F500 firms.

The other option to break into the Valley is to start your own business.In my experience, that’s even less often considered, but possibly more often successful. If you have identified a problem that you believe technology can elegantly solve, at scale, and at a profit, this might be the route for you.As CEO of your own startup, you can be successful without a computer science degree (though it certainly would help) if you bring strong strategic thinking, recruiting and leadership experience. Financial analytics and salesmanship also required. Only two women in my network have ever approached me with this as their initial idea, and both have become success stories.

Focusing on the Wrong Risks

A Fortune 500 leader’s experience often trains them to focus on the wrong risks and prevents them from making the move to the tech industry (in the Valley or elsewhere). A former classmate of mine told me recently that all four of the Fortune 500 companies he’d joined since business school were now out of business. I think his experience illustrates well the risk profile most common among my Fortune 500 friends: over-estimating the risks of changing industries and/or moving to a smaller organization and underestimating the risks of staying with an organization that is not continuously innovating. While it may feel comforting to draw a large six-figure paycheck in the years between the start and obvious end of your global brand’s dominant leadership position, it’s more rewarding and often more lucrative to be on the executive staff of the startup that’s pulling the rug out from under those same companies.

Preparing yourself to take the plunge

There’s a great deal that anyone in a Fortune 500 role looking to get into a Silicon Valley leadership position can do to increase their odds for success in making such a change, but by far the most important is building a network here.A woman I know who went from leading a nonprofit in Washington D.C. to running her own tech startup in San Francisco first leveraged her board members from the tech sector; then joined a think tank comprised of politicians, academics and tech executives; and then asked for introductions from that core of technology connections to their networks.She soon had a significant, senior network in the Valley that was instrumental in her securing funding and kick-starting her hiring.It’s an approach many women can and should take.

Conclusion

I don’t minimize the continuing, systemic challenges that female leaders face in Silicon Valley.Over the last year, I’ve been the only female Limited Partner in a room of 40 and the only female speaker during a two-day tech conference. Some days, it’s a tough gig. But I agree with Newsweek in labeling the power of digital, mobile, social and cloud technologies as “our era’s Industrial Revolution.” And during this Revolution some will have the chance to create new products, industries and even economies.I believe most of those people will be doing so from an Ikea table somewhere south of Marin and north of Gilroy.And I fully expect that, someday soon, half of the chairs at that table will be occupied by women.

Guest contributed by Donna Wells

(Guest advice and opinions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com)

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How To Make Sure Your Career Invests Back In You

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businesswomen-meetingOf all the advice women receive on how to invest in their careers, there is a fundamental principle for smart career management: make sure that your career invests back in you.

Especially for women, it’s important to manage and maximize the financial returns of your career advancement.

Return On Career Investment

There is significant data to suggest that women generally receive a lower return on their career investment than men do. Research has shown, for example, that women reap less career and financial benefits for building strong connections on Wall Street; for combining education, experience and ambition; for performing equal work; for holding top executive positions; and for leading strong company performance.

But the pay gap is one aspect of the return on career investment gap in which women may hold more power and influence than they are asserting. With smart and pro-active management, your paycheck is not the final say on your ultimate financial nest egg, especially as you advance in your career and to earn more money to optimize.

The Financial Confidence Gap

A new study from Regions Private Wealth Management identified a financial confidence gap. Among survey participants, women, especially younger women, expressed lower levels of financial confidence than men and greater uncertainty about their financial outlook.

The data showed that when it comes to making investment decisions for retirement, more women than men described their risk tolerance as “conservative.” As a result, women may be inclined to prefer financial vehicles deemed “safe,” such as savings accounts or CDs with little growth potential, rather than invest in stocks and bonds, which typically provide greater returns over the long term.

Women’s lack of confidence around investing could inhibit women from investing or investing more assertively to reach the financial goals they hope to attain with their career, and compound the impact of the gender pay gap.

Women Should Be Confident in Investing

A confidence gap is rarely a reflection of ability, as studies have shown women tend to underestimate their ability and men tend to be overconfident. The reality is women who have educated themselves regarding potential investments have reason to feel good about their ability to choose wisely.Also, women are more likely to turn to others to fill information gaps, meaning more willing to turn to financial professionals and trusted friends for guidance.

This pays off. When it comes to investing, women who do invest tend to perform as well or even out-perform men with their portfolios, showing women generally display some savvy investor strategies, even if opportunity remains.

But just as too few women negotiate their salary compared to men to maximize income growth on the front end, too few women take the opportunity to maximize their investments by considering all options.

Stepping Up to The Investment Game

Here are three tips from the advisors at Regions Private Wealth Management to step over the financial confidence gap, and get into the game of managing the assets you accumulate through career advancement:

1. Gather your financial information.

To form a complete picture of your financial situation, map out all of your savings and investments as well as any significant liabilities you may need to factor in to your overall goals, such as paying off student loan or credit card debt. If you have a spouse or significant other, discuss where all accounts are held and make sure you both are able to access them in the event of an emergency.

2. Meet with a financial advisor.

Share your financial situation with a qualified professional, who can help determine if your portfolio is aligned with your risk tolerance and structured to meet your goals. An advisor can suggest ways to diversify a portfolio to help weather market fluctuations as well as help make any necessary adjustments and introduce strategies that could provide tax or other benefits. Remember investments are different.They are not a bank deposit or insured by the FDIC, they may lose value, and they may not be insured by any federal government agency.So, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Your financial advisor should go at the pace you set and provide any background information needed.

3. Commit to reviewing your portfolio.

Check in on the performance of your accounts on a regular basis, such as once each quarter. While you may not need to make adjustments, simply seeing how your portfolio reacts to market movements can build familiarity with the investment process and build confidence in your choices across time. Meet with your financial advisor on an annual basis to ensure the portfolio remains on target or to adjust for changes in circumstances, such as an unexpected windfall.

No matter where you are in your career, stepping more confidently into the investment game, while pulling in sound financial guidance along the way, can help you maximize the financial returns of your career and ensure your career invests back in you.

 
This article was sponsored by Regions Private Wealth Management.

 

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Why Leadership Identity is “Done” In Everyday Discussions

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women smilingToday you will play a part in several small stories at the office. Each one will be made up of a setting, characters, dialogue, context, and a scenario in play.

What you may not have noticed is that in each of these interactions, meaning is being negotiated by one or more people who are simultaneously building their leadership identity. Is one of them you?

Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant have written in the New York Times about the challenges of “speaking while female”, which holds women and companies back – such as being manterrupted, having male co-workers take the words from your mouth and run with them, being penalized in competency ratings for talking as much as male executive peers, or witnessing your contributions not being allotted equal weight in strategic discussions. Clearly, more is at stake than share of talk time.

According to the discursive leadership approach, “leadership is a language game in which meaning is managed.” When women’s voices are undermined, their ability to create meaning, and therefore leadership identity, is likely too.

Small Stories and Identity Creation

Discursive leadership says that leadership identity is achieved through influencing the meaning within everyday interactions in an organization, where the players predominantly framing conversations are reinforcing their positioning as leaders.

Research from Jonathon Clifton at the Universite´ de Valenciennes in France suggests that we too often overlook the importance of everyday “small stories” in developing leadership. We often look at leadership identity through narratives where leaders stands back and reflect on their lives.

In contrast short stories are short, happening all the time in everyday settings, told within the purpose of interaction, and aren’t necessarily about the speaker – and it’s those moments in which leadership identity, viewed as more “fragmented, fluid, and dynamic” – is constructed. Echoing Herminia Ibarra’sperspective on leadership identity, identity isn’t something we have or are – it’s something we do.

If we look at leadership more as a practice and process, and less as a quality, then the upcoming briefing meeting, the strategic discussion, and the next conflict resolution are moments in which we can “perform leader identities.” At any moment, we can “do identity” in interactions.

Being a Meaning Maker

Clifton’s research focuses on observing how we “do leadership” through our daily discourse by managing meaning in the “here-and-now” moments of interaction.

Citing previous research, Clifton notes that at any point a narrator (speaker) manages meaning and position herself or himself as leader by:

  1. positioning characters (co-workers) & the collective (eg. organization) relative to each other in a story
  2. positioning self as leader by being the one to convey that story right now
  3. positioning self relative to the organization and certain master narratives (eg an organizational priority)

Any time we talk about anything, we position it in one particular way and not another, which privileges one version of organizational reality while pushing aside others. By influencing the meaning through which discussions are framed, a speaker positions himself or herself as leader through the interaction.

The “fine-grained” discursive techniques of leadership are not necessarily conscious because meaning is always being influenced in conversation. Once observed, certain techniques can be sharpened with awareness and practice. Here’s examples of language plays the researcher pointed out in recorded meetings:

  • leading the verbal briefing of a situation at hand
  • speaking on behalf of players when summarizing a situation and the various perspectives
  • being the speaker framing the situation as news in the here & now, while perhaps conveying an insider viewpoint
  • initiating assessment of a situation, challenging a previous assessment, or upgrading it to a stronger assessment
  • judging or affirming another’s assessment to assert greater expertise
  • bringing in stories or information to justify a certain way of looking at things
  • returning the conversation to an angle of topic after intervening conversation
  • speaking on behalf of the organization, animating its perspective and giving it voice through “we”
  • authoring a (selective) organizational landscape through which dynamics are then interpreted and decisions framed
Resources and Power Imbalance in Managing Meaning

According to the research, the dance of leadership discourse is not strictly defined by hierarchy, but open to resistance, negotiation, or acquiescence and is often distributed and negotiated among different participants in any given discussion. As observed in previous research, “management of meaning does not take place in a social vacuum and rights to assess are constantly being claimed, challenged, and policed as participants jockey for influence…” But not everybody holds equal resources or power in the game.

What each person perceives as their “allowable contribution” to any discussion (eg opening, guiding, assessing, & closing it) is affected by where they sit, and if we bring Sandberg & Grant’s article into consideration – potentially by their experiences of speaking in a specific context in their organization as a man or a woman.

Though not addressing gender differences, the research acknowledges the impact of power imbalance. Clifton notes, “In this language game, rights to assess and, therefore, to define the organizational landscape are negotiated in talk and the person, or persons, who have most influence in this process emerge as the leaders. Thus, from this perspective, leadership is not a zero-sum game, rather it is in constant flow as talk progresses… it can be distributed and it is open to challenge.”

“However,” he notes, “those most likely to emerge as leaders are those who have access to more powerful discursive resources with which to influence the process of the negotiation of meaning.”

Applying that to formal roles, Clifton states “Whilst leadership may not be commensurate with hierarchy, access to discursive resources that are category-bound to more ‘powerful’ identities, such as chairperson, may skew the ability to do leadership in favour of people incumbent of certain organizational identities.”

Disrupting the Discourse Dynamic

In the majority of companies, the incumbents of most executive level identities are men. At both an executive and senior pipeline level, women are not in a position of equal access to the big conversations and often face challenges when they do get a seat at the decision table.

Sandberg and Grant have shared that senior women experience different outcomes to men when they speak. The bigger consequence at hand when women’s voices are institutionally disadvantaged is arguably the consistent re-positioning of predominantly male leadership and privileging of male-led organizational narratives.

Yet the research examples illustrated women “doing leadership” in discussion, including with male bosses. If leadership is a flow practiced with each conversation and discourse is a dance happening at every interaction, then every day presents new opportunities for you to “do leader.”

The more women do, and the more informal organizational culture changes to support and reward them equally to men in doing so, the less “leader” will be a long identity bridge women have to cross.

Instead, leadership can become a series of moments we step and speak into.

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Business Travel Hacks: Europe

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Woman travelling - airportYou’ve likely taken an international business trip or two where you wished you’d been more prepared; whether it be learning about that new travel app, electronic item, or the insider scoop on the best modes of local transportation. Below are a few suggestions to keep in mind for your next professional venture to the United Kingdom and/or the European continent.

Travel Preparation

Make sure you have the following items in your luggage: European travel adaptor, dual voltage hair dryer, and travel iron. The UK and Ireland has different voltage to the rest of continental Euorpe. Toiletry items generally need to be stored in less than 100ml containers to take them in hand luggage on the flight.

When it comes to communication, a lot of travelers aren’t aware that they can stay connected to their U.S. mobile phone without paying international penalty fees. Google Voice has a ‘Hangouts’ app that requires an unlocked phone and a prepaid SIM card. You can pay as little as $13 a week for unlimited calls and limited data, and some SIM cards are available for $30 a month or under.

The hardest thing about going this route is unlocking your phone, since most smartphones are locked when you purchase them. There are a few easy ways around this.T-Mobile offers a free unlock code within 40 days of being a customer, and AT&T will do the same after 60 days, up to five times a year. You also have the option of paying a one-time fee through a third-party service which usually runs around $20.

Luckily, we live in the age of the smartphone, which allows you to pack much lighter with apps that help you with casual translations, exchange rates, jet lag, packing and organizing your trip schedule and more.

Out of many free and useful smartphone apps, there are a couple in particular that may help you while in Europe. iStone can swiftly help you in a translation debacle. 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 doesn’t require Wi-Fi. Worldmate is also handy for business travelers, combining 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.

Finally, make sure you are aware of the UK’s emergency number (999) and keep in mind that the current exchange rates change everyday.

“pharmacists are more useful as a contact point for a person whose health is in question in Europe than they are allowed by law to be in the US.”

Customs and Transportation

The European Union is vastly diverse, and even if a country uses English as its official, or secondary language, common customs in Sweden and Portugal may be surprisingly adverse to each other. Here a few European customs to be aware of and avoid:

Free drink ‘refills’ are not customary in Europe. Tipping isn’t a necessity, though if the service went above and beyond, a small tip is customary. 18-20% is definitely an American custom. Keep in mind that if you are driving after consuming alcohol, the blood alcohol levels vary by country, so you may want to review them.

About Travel notes that “pharmacists are more useful as a contact point for a person whose health is in question in Europe than they are allowed by law to be in the US.” If you happen to be closer to a pharmacy than a hospital, you may find the services you need there.

You can check out an array of country specific local customs on Virtual Tourist. The site includes comments from travelers who post things like customary greeting advice. For example, “The Austrian’s don’t greet each other like Germans with “Guten Tag”, instead you will hear a hearty “Grüß Gott!” (it means “Greet God”)” when entering a premises.

When it comes to making dining reservations, Forbes veteran travel journalist Larry Olmstead recommends using your hotel concierge. It is easier to get into the top restaurants this way, as well as saves you the hassle of trying to book online on a website in a foreign language. “Even if you can do it yourself, he writes, “the concierge at a top hotel like the Four Seasons or Peninsula has more clout and is likely to get a better table and the time you want.” He also mentions that it is important to tip the concierge, even if tipping in restaurants isn’t customary.

by Gina Scanlon

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Time To Look For A New Job

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People waiting for an interviewOk ,so you figured out that you need a new job!

There are many ways to start a job search and if you know vaguely the target companies that you would like to interview with then that is a great place to start investigating the opportunities out there. Linkedin is a great way to see if you know anyone directly or indirectly at your preferred firms and a good place to start is to mine your current network to build your future one. Apply to job postings but know that any personal connection will probably help you so it is worth checking your network and refreshing your relationships with coffees and lunch with influencers and mentors.

If you don’t know what is next, it is worth working with a coach ( such as myself and the vetted coaches who partner with theglasshammer) to help you refine what is the next stage of your career and help you secure the job you want, whether it is within your current industry or perhaps a pivot into something new altogether?

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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

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