Asian American Women Leaders: No Equity or Inclusion without Promotion.

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Asian American Women LeadersDiversity is not the same as equity and inclusion, and that case is made strongly by the real gap between the large numbers of Asian Americans and Asian American women in professional roles and the slight numbers holding senior and executive leadership positions.

An evolution of both equitability in promotions and more inclusive images of leadership is needed to breakthrough the nebulous bamboo ceiling – propped up by perceptions, stereotypes, projections and some cultural differences that have very little to do with leadership competency.

It’s A Promotion Issue

When we talk Asian American heritage in the U.S., we are talking about a widely diverse aggregate of people – individuals from distinctive ethnic backgrounds from 3 major regions and over 20 countries: East Asians (incl. Chinese and Japanese individuals), South Asians (incl. Indians and Pakistanis) and Southeast Asians (incl. Thai and Vietnamese individuals).

As a diverse whole, this fastest-growing demographic group of Asian Americans are over-represented among the highly educated and the professional workforce, but highly underrepresented in leadership: they represent 7% of the U.S. population, 13% of the U.S. professional workforce and only 6% of executive posts. Only 4 CEOS of Fortune 500 companies are Asian American women, 4 CEOS of S&P 500, and none of the S&P 100.

Asian Americans are least likely to be promoted to senior management and leadership: In 2016, Ascend found that one of every 12 white men and one of every 28 white women in the professional workforce is an executive, but only one of every 30 Asian American men and one of every 64 Asian American women have reached executive level.

This invisible barrier to senior leadership shows up across professional sectors:

  • Ascend found that only 1 out of every 285 Asian women and 1 out of every 201 Asian men in Silicon Valley was an executive.
  • Yale reported that Asian Americans have the lowest ratio of parters to associates.
  • Asian Americans manage less than 1% of capital in the asset management industry despite meeting and exceeding industry performance benchmarks.
  • While comprising 23% of middle managers and professionals in banking’s six largest U.S. lenders, Asian Americans make up only 7% to 19% of executives in these organizations.

As Buck Gee, researcher and executive advisor to Ascend, summarizes: “The problem is equity of promotions.”

The Gaps in Inclusion and Addressing Discrimination

Not surprisingly, 65% of AAPI managers view the bamboo ceiling as a moderate to serious problem in their careers and nearly all see it as problematic – yet Asians are too often not prioritized or even included in DEI efforts. In Bain’s research on belonging and inclusion, Asians – both men (16%) and women (20%) – felt the least included of anyone, even though more represented than other groups in many environments.

45% of Asian adults have experienced outwardly offensive incidents since the start of the pandemic. 67% of Asians feel business has ignored racism against their community, 58% say racism in the workplace has damaged their relationship to their employer and 55% say little has been practically done to address systemic racism.

As highlighted last year during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the myriad form of discrimination and stereotypes that Asians experience are invalidated, obscured and gaslighted by the “model minority” mythology. These include lack of ethnic discernment, cultural ignorance, imposed cultural stereotypes as well as real cultural values and communication norms at odds with Western ‘masculine’ leadership concepts, racialized sexism/sexualized racism, and disproportionate work expectations due to perceptions of being content with self-sacrificing, hard-working, and delivering high performance standards. In terms of microaggressions, the term “interchangeable Asian” has come to qualify the frequent experience of being mistaken for someone else alongside the presumption of the perpetual foreigner.

Experiences of Exclusion Despite Representation in Tech

Ascend previously found that while Asian Americans comprised the largest cohort of entry-level, non-managerial employees with a college degree in Silicon Valley (47%), they are half as likely as white men and white women to hold positions within two reporting levels of the CEO.

Due to representation, Asian women are often excluded from DEI initiatives, but a Center for Worklife Law report released in April on women of color in tech reveals that the experiences of diverse Asian women in tech more closely parallel other women of color who are underrepresented.

East Asian women report lower engagement and career satisfaction. They are 66% less likely than white women to see a long-term future in tech, 42% more likely to have felt demeaned, disrespected, left out of the loop, or treated as invisible, 47% more likely than white women to have their competence and commitment put into question when becoming mothers, and 38% more likely to have difficulty getting administrative support.

South Asian women were 60% less likely than white women to see a long-term future in tech, 54% more likely to be given work beneath their skillset, and 54% more likely to feel that distancing from those like them was a politically savvy move at work. Whereas Southeast Asian women were 29% more likely than white women to leave a job for the workplace culture, 57% more likely to feel called on to perform emotional labor, 51% more likely to feel corralled into traditionally feminine roles, 45% more likely to feel perceived as a team player not a leader, and 43% more likely to feel expected to be a worker bee.

Diversifying the Image of Leadership

We previously called out that organizations are blatantly overlooking Asian American women leaders, who are already in the talent pipeline but getting caught in a career plateau, and organizations need to diversify the image of leadership:

  • Western leadership norms that are too narrow and over-emphasize “assertiveness,” not even the best indicator of an effective leader, are keeping East Asians from the US C-Suite. Too often, the cultural norms of humility and conformity are perceived as a lack of confidence or motivation, which they are not.
  • Insights into successful C-Suite Asian American Executives reveal many source their leadership in the non-visible values of continuous learning, collectivism and humility – but a too narrow definition of leadership inhibits companies from recognizing and promoting diverse leaders in, and for, their authentic leadership styles.

Asian-American Bain Partners and researchers, Karthik Venkataraman and Pam Yee, observe that equitability in systemic enablers (relative to everyday behavioral enablers) – such as performance management, promotion and recruitment – are more meaningful to Asian-Americans in creating inclusion. This is not surprising when statistics reveal that systemic inequities are at play in creating unequitable outcomes – and real interventions need to happen.

For one, clearly Asian Americans need to be included in equity and inclusion strategies, and formal executive sponsorship programs are needed to support Asian American women into those leadership spaces. If you’re a leader, considering being the sponsor that supports with visibility and exposure, and advocates for high-profile work and opportunities, for an Asian American woman who is being overlooked. If you’re an Asian American woman and you don’t have one now or have never had one, truly consider finding a sponsor to advocate for you, even if it’s uncomfortable to ask.

Inclusion means that individuals feel equitably valued and supported as their authentic selves, empowered, and able to fulfill their potential in the workplace. Bain Partners Venkataraman and Yee reflect on the leadership gap for Asian Americans, that also exists in their organization, and the potential cost of assimilation their generations made: “We believe that our junior colleagues are going to insist on being able to bring more of their cultures and experiences to the workplace than we did so that they can feel as though they belong as their authentic selves, and we need to do our part to make that possible for them.”

Indeed.

By Aimee Hansen

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Black History Month 2022: Why bell hooks was right

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bell hooksBefore the word ‘intersectionality’ was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, bell hooks critiqued a narrowed feminism that hailed from the white middle class living room and neither addressed interlocking webs of oppression nor recognized its own race and class privileges – therefore, blindly disregarding the multidimensional plights of non-white, underprivileged women.

Her message has become undeniably resonant over the last two years – and not the least of all, her argument that humanity would need to brave the revolutionary path of deep self awareness and self actualization, as she taught, “once you learn to look at yourself critically, you look at everything around you with new eyes”.

A Revolutionary Feminism For Everyone

With her death on December 15th of last year, bell hooks, born as Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, left behind a legacy, as well as over 40 books in 15 different languages, of challenging and championing feminism.

In her book Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, she grounded her feminist approach in the struggles of black women. In Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, she proposed a revolutionary feminism: “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”

Further, hooks wrote, “The foundation of a future feminist struggle must be solidly based on a recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of sexism and other forms of group oppression. Without challenging and changing these philosophical structures, no feminist reforms will have a long-range impact.” Black feminist writer Barbara Smith wrote that anything less than a feminism that freed all women was “not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandizement”.

hooks also advocated that feminism was not men versus women, but all versus sexism, a conditioning both present in and oppressive to everyone. She wrote: “And that clarity helps us remember that all of us, female and male, have been socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought and action,” later continuing, “To end patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we need to be clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism until we change our minds and hearts, until we let go of sexist thought and action and replace it with feminist thought and action.”

Emphasizing that oppression costs too much to everyone, including to those who overtly benefit from it, she called for ending sexism, racism, class elitism, and imperialism through not reform, but a revolution of self-actualization. She asserted any real movement of social justice to be based in the ethic of love, writing in her work Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

And yet with her departure, we still stand in our half-awoken adolescence of realizing the necessity of self-development she spent her life advocating for.

A Workplace That Is Still Damagingly Exclusive

According to authors in Harvard Business Review, women of color are still culturally encouraged to be grateful for what they have, discouraged when declining undervalued work or seeking greater power and resources, and often fear backlash. Meanwhile, the angry black woman stereotype “not only characterizes Black women as more hostile, aggressive, overbearing, illogical, ill-tempered and bitter, but it may also be holding them back from realizing their full potential in the workplace — and shaping their work experiences overall.”

Whereas anger is a normal workplace emotion, when  expressed by a black women particularly, it’s perceived (assumed) as a personality trait – rather than due to validating external circumstances, despite little substantiation for that perception. Meanwhile black women often find themselves stereotyped, kid-gloved or imposing tone policing on their own voices. Echoing hooks in regards to self-development, the researchers suggest an antidote to this is deeper self-reflection and empathy by those in the workforce.

Even well-intentioned leaders can put extra responsibilities and burdens on successful black women in the office. When black women are implicitly seen to speak as representative for a group, rather than for themselves, or when they are disproportionately committed to external opportunities as visible symbols of parading a company’s diversity, the pressure and time commitment can be overwhelming. Meanwhile, the stereotype of the strong black woman means managers are less likely to check in to see if they are doing okay with managing the workload. Couple that with it being societally instilled that black women will have to work twice as hard as others to succeed.

Not only this, but the perception gap creates a gaslighting of the workplace experience for black women – McKinsey notes that black employees are 23% less likely to see there is support to advance, 41% less likely to view the promotion process as fair and 39% less likely to feel the company’s DE&I program are effective, relative to white colleagues. Gallup found that black women are less likely to feel valued, treated fairly and respected in the workplace. Consistently, the experience of fairness and organizational commitment to addressing bias is lower for them, and they are also less likely to consider themselves as thriving.

When it comes to women of color and the multidimensional factors they face, the glass ceiling has been reframed as a concrete ceiling. Too often the corporate definition of leadership has proven to exclude women of color – with standards of what leadership looks still contingent upon traits most associated with white males.

If you question that, consider that a study has recently shown that black women are indeed penalized for natural hairstyles in an interview setting, as authors wrote: “Black women with natural hairstyles were perceived to be less professional, less competent, and less likely to be recommended for a job interview than Black women with straightened hairstyles and white women with either curly or straight hairstyles.”

The emotional tax black women are paying to be in workplaces rife with conscious and unconscious incidences of exclusion is not an abstract concept – it’s visible in functional MRI brain scans, which show that black women who have experienced more incidents of racism have greater response activity in the brain regions most associated with vigilance and anticipating incoming threats. This ultimately can have a trauma-like impact on health.

The researchers also state that “a disproportionately high amount of brain power may go into regulating, or inhibiting, their emotional responses to these situations” – which is consuming energy that could otherwise be put into well-being, thriving, creating and innovating.

Inclusion Does Rest Upon Collective Self-Development

So amidst the Great Resignation, black women are leaving the workforce in record numbers, with a track record of having outpaced all other women when it comes to daring the journey of entrepreneurship and achieving business growth within it.

With research indicating that “one of the fastest ways to accelerate change and effectively begin to address the racial wealth gap is to listen to and invest in Black women,” Goldman Sachs launched, in partnership with Black women-led organizations and others, the One Million Black Women initiative – committing $10 billion in investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic support to be focused on key moments, from early childhood to retirement, that offer the greatest possibility to narrow the opportunity gaps and positively impact lives.

Meanwhile, Gallup asserts that the exclusion experiences of black women in the workplace can be largely addressed by managers, as the crux of feeling engaged comes from coaching. Seeking to coach and sponsor those who are under-championed is where you begin – getting to know and support every person, in their individual strengths and challenges, is where engagement is created. Gallup suggests that to be inclusive, more workplaces need to train their managers to become coaches.

As summarized in the Journal of International Women’s Studies, hooks consistently advocated that only “the self-development of a people will shake up the cultural basis of group oppression.”

Haven’t the prominent themes of the last couple years – braving the difficult conversations, recognizing the unconscious biases in everyone, listening to the experiences of others, cultivating a personal growth mindset of being open to being wrong and learning – echoed the message of this visionary, who emphasized our interconnectedness and collective responsibility to expose the ideology of the status quo that exists in each of us?

As hooks wrote: “No level of individual self-actualization alone can sustain the marginalized and oppressed. We must be linked to collective struggle, to communities of resistance that move us outward, into the world.”

By Aimee Hansen

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“Knock Again When a Door is Shut” – and Other Lessons We Learned From 10,000 Women Graduates

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10000 WomenIn the May edition of the Glass Hammer, participants in Goldman Sachs’ second annual 10,000 Women Growth Fellowship reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys, and Asahi Pompey, global head of Corporate Engagement, shares why supporting women entrepreneurs is of the utmost importance to the firm.

In addition, Goldman Sachs women vice presidents and associates selected to be 10,000 Women champions – serving as mentors to the Growth Fellows – discuss why they wanted to become involved in the program. 

Learn more about Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program, a global initiative that fosters economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital.

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10,000 Women Growth Fellows – entrepreneurs who previously participated in the 10,000 Women program and who were selected to participate in a series of training, networking and coaching sessions with senior leaders across Goldman Sachs – shared their experiences building businesses from the ground up and challenges they’ve overcome:

Amanda Obidike, founder of STEMi Makers Africa from Nigeria: “I come from a community where women are afraid to dream, they are afraid to excel. From this background, it has been a challenge – sometimes you don’t get the same types of partnerships, or opportunities because people ask, ‘how are you, as a woman, managing this organization?’ Amidst these hurdles, I’ve learned resilience, I’ve always learned to knock again when a door is shut.”

Raquel Molina, founder of Futuriste Tecnologia from Brazil: “I have always done things that were considered ‘for boys.’ When I began in the drone field and started Futuriste Tecnologia, people were surprised to receive information about drones from a woman. In situations where we are questioned about our expertise, we need to keep calm, share our knowledge and show that we are experts. Slowly but surely, people are beginning to understand the importance of women in the workplace.”

“When we provide tools to women entrepreneurs, we’re not only helping to elevate their business, we’re also elevating their communities,” said Asahi Pompey, global head of Corporate Engagement. “Goldman Sachs is proud to have supported more than 10,000 women throughout the world – and countless communities – since the program’s inception in 2008.”

Goldman Sachs women serving as 10,000 Women champions, a role in which they serve as mentors supporting the entrepreneurs throughout their fellowship, shared why they were driven to participate in the program:

  • Wendy Emali, Risk Division, Dallas: “I grew up in Kenya, where many of these 10,000 Women graduates are from. I empathize with their stories, many of them who have very difficult pasts but very bright futures. When a woman thrives, her community thrives, her family thrives, the economy thrives. All it takes is to give them support.”
  • Rebecca Simon, Investment Banking Division, New York: “When you’re in the very early days of building a business, you have to wear a lot of different hats. The best part of that is how much you learn. You learn all of the factual things that may be required of your business or your industry, but you also learn invaluable skills, such as rallying people around your vision and staying grounded when things feel bigger than you can manage. These are all things our Growth Fellows excel at and are things we can learn from them.”
  • Georgia Weeks, Global Markets Division, Sydney: “I thoroughly enjoy building relationships with other commercially-minded women and sharing my experience and insights. Not only is it important to me for women to be financially independent, but to really pursue something that you love. Not so long ago, I became a single mother when my son was only a couple months old. I cannot tell you how lucky I was, to be in a position where I could not only stand on my own two feet, I could support the two of us, but I could get out of bed and do something that I love.”
  • Lara Tijani, Internal Audit Division, London: “Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, entrepreneurship is a way of life. But like many other countries in the world, women are underrepresented and disproportionately impacted, with limited access to funding and gender bias. Programs such as 10,000 Women can help change this.”

Learn more about the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program.

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Thought Leader: Ana Duarte McCarthy, Director of Development, Corporate Partners, Forté

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Ana Duarte McCarthy“I have plenty of runway left myself, but it is always still exciting to see how we can pass the baton,” says Ana Duarte McCarthy of her position helping inspire the next class of future leaders.
Finding a New Purpose

Throughout her career, Duarte McCarthy has focused on diversity and inclusion, most recently serving as a managing director and chief diversity officer for Citi. When she left in 2016, it was a good time to take stock of where her next opportunity could come from. First, she notes, she practiced the self-care we all deserve and took a couple months to travel, remained active on the board of the NJ Somerset County YMCA, and even purged closets and tackled all those small tasks that help us retain control over our personal life.

Then September rolled around, and that “back to school” feeling inspired her to figure out what was next. “I realized I felt untethered without a daily set of goals and objectives, and I missed having the opportunity to make a difference.”

A friend approached her about an opportunity to join Forté, which had been a long-time Citi partner and had a mission that appealed to her with its laser focus on increasing women in business leadership. Her other diversity work had covered a variety of communities, such as veterans, LGBQT+ and other cultural groups—all important. However, women had always been an aspect of these groups, and this gave her a chance to focus more deeply on women’s issues. That was a mission that was especially important to her, since as the mother of a daughter, she had a deep interest in assuring that her daughter had opportunities that had previously been obstacles.

Duarte McCarthy began in a fundraising role and has now moved into the position of director of development for corporate partners, where she works to identify companies that have a commitment to advancing women and express the values of diversity and inclusion. Often these forward-thinking companies are recruiting undergrads or MBA students and want to amplify their brand as a top recruiter for diversity. Having been a diversity lead for so many years, Duarte McCarthy has a special skill in talking with them about their pain points and how Forté can support them in their missions.

A Focus on Latinas

Assisting all women is important, but as a Latina herself of Dominican descent, Duarte McCarthy has a special heart for helping other Latinas. “I meet many women after conferences who might not have people in their immediate circles who can be a mentor so I try to reach out,” she says. And she believes it’s critical to break misperceptions about Hispanic women. “There’s a lot of bundling of Hispanic women together, but we cut across race and ethnicity, and there are also multiple diverse issues around socioeconomic scale and whether someone is a first- or fourth-generation student. It’s an interesting mosaic, and I believe I can support and advance the next generation of Latina women.”

One of the Forté programs she is particularly proud of is the Forté Forum, which enables women to explore the value of an MBA. They can hear from women currently enrolled in business schools and women who have completed their degrees, as well as get tips on completing the admissions process. Duarte McCarthy was particularly delighted when her 23-year-old daughter, a business analyst, came to one of the presentations to consider her future. “She’s always been supportive of me as a working mom, and it’s exciting to see her next chapter.”

More Work to Be Done

As Duarte McCarthy surveys the landscape, she points to an aspect of complacency and fatigue, as many like her have been pursuing the mantle of diversity and inclusion for so long, starting back when it was generally under the portfolio of affirmative action and/or equal employment opportunities.

Significant advances have been made, of course. For example, Forté was launched in 2001, on the heels of research on the value of an MBA for women, which comprised 25%-28% of the enrolled class, a number that has bumped up to 38% today. She is excited by this increase in women pursuing MBAs, as well as the varied career paths they choose to pursue, such as positions in supply chain management and investment banking as they truly take advantage of the breadth of careers available.

While that is heartening, she notes that there is more to be done; notably, that the pay gap persists. “This cultural aspect to pay people equitably needs a lot of attention,” Duarte McCarthy says. In addition, she says that while the drumbeat around MeToo has given people a voice, it’s unfortunate that is such a prevailing narrative in the workplace. “We have made so many strides, but our work is more important than ever.

“We have to keep up the energy because there’s still a lot of work to do,” she says. “We all have an opportunity to make a difference around D&I; it’s not for someone else—none of us can just be a bystander. We can all make a difference with how we lead and support our colleagues and those coming up the ranks.”

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The GlassHammer Is For Sale

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Dear Readers,

After 12 years of providing career advice and a platform for amazing women to tell their career stories, glasshammer2.wpengine.com is for sale.

This online career advice site and events business continues to stay loyal to the original mission stated as “inform, inspire and empower professional women.”

Editorially, we have tried to help women to navigate the terrain optimally by dissecting research, calling on experts and creating a platform for people to tell their story. Our past events have been truly interesting, educational and have served to connect women with each other and with allies and champions.

We would like to see someone else take the baton and run with it for 2020 and beyond as this is important work. It continues to be an important time for gender equity and inclusion in the workplace.

Nicki Gilmour, the founder and CEO, is continuing her work as an executive and organizational coach and consultant and comments:

“I am really grateful that this journey of founding and publishing glasshammer2.wpengine.com has taken me to a place where I can do deep work and affect individual and organizational change via coaching and consulting. The time has come to dedicate myself to one, not two, businesses. It will be a pleasure to see the next generation of advocates for equality publish this well-read and much-loved resource for professional women. Fresh energy and commitment from a new person/firm will no doubt take this website to new heights.”

If you interested in acquiring the site and you are a qualified prospect to buy the site, contact Nicki Gilmour, CEO and Founder of the site, at nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com or call 646-688-2318.

Learn more about our coaching business www.evolvedpeople.com

 

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Should I stay or should I go? Are you thinking of leaving for the right reasons?

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Nicki Gilmour - Founder of The Glasshammer.comShould I stay in my job or leave to go to a new firm? This is often the question that brings people to coaching.

There is no simple answer to this, but there are ways to truly explore what is best for you.

I can break these down into three categories:

1. Systemic dysfunction – is there misalignment in the way people and processes meet? Is the culture and how work gets done around here, one of inconsistent management practices with no real support with process and policy to ensure good behaviors happen? Is leadership lacking? Is the mission unclear? Are you able to do your job the way you see fit?

2. You – your mental models, behaviors, reaction and actions.

3. Them – other people and their mental models, behaviors, reactions and actions.

It is only by looking at these factors that you can make an assessment of whether staying or leaving is best. You go with you to the next job so repeating patterns won’t bring you happiness or success if those patterns needs to be broken.

I am now taking up to 15 new coaching clients for Spring/Summer – if you are interested in signing up and working with me for 5 sessions, book in for an exploratory call to see if I can help you over the next 6-9 months so you can develop, grow, succeed and feel renewal at work.

Testimonials from mid to senior level professionals available.

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The 10th Annual Top Women on the Buyside event coverage: What will the future bring for the Asset Management Industry?

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By Melissa Anderson

Artificial intelligence, big data and technology generally will impact the asset management industry in a big way, according to industry leaders speaking as part of The Glasshammer’s tenth annual Top Women on the Buy-Side breakfast.

After introductory remarks by Nicki Gilmour, CEO of theglasshammer.com, Jennifer Hanes, Head of Investment Management and Operations at technology company FIS opened the discussion in the moderator seat with a question around the outlook for near and further timelines for the industry. In a wide ranging discussion, the panelists discussed how they expect the industry will be with themes of innovative products, continued active management and human advisory, and the rise of big data and machine learning.

The panelists included Kristi Mitchem, CEO of Wells Fargo Asset Management; Lori Heinel, Deputy Global CIO of State Street Global Advisors; Kathryn Koch, Global Head of Client Portfolio Management and Business Strategy at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Fundamental Equity; and Donna Parisi, Partner, Global Head of Finance at Shearman & Sterling LLP.

According to Kristi Mitchem, CEO at Wells Fargo Asset Management, over the last ten to 15 years, firms have honed their technology usage to be more efficient, for example integrating project management systems and trading systems. Now, she said, technology is moving from the back office to the front office.

“The big change we’ve seen in the last three to five years is a migration from thinking about technology as an operational construct to thinking about technology as a business construct and an alpha driver,” Mitchem said. In addition to applying big data to alpha generating processes, more companies will also apply it to risk management processes to improve the trajectory of returns, she said. Asset managers will also continue to think about how they are using technology in terms of distribution.

“How do we get much better and richer data about the clients we go after? How do we actually create very customized value propositions as part of the sales process by using technology to understand and target more efficiently and effectively?” Mitchem asked.

Indeed, according to panel moderator Jennifer Hanes, Head of Investment Management and Operations at technology company FIS, this shift is bringing positive outcomes already.

Her company recently completed its second annual readiness survey of 1,500 senior executives in the buy-side, sell-side and insurance industry.

“We are hearing a lot of enthusiasm and optimism from organizations … in terms of how they are thinking about technology and using it to drive business outcomes,” Hanes said. “Those businesses that are leaders actually because they leverage technology are seeing better performance in their results.”

Heinel said that her company is thinking carefully about how to retain value as technology migrates from the back office to the front office. Technology has, for so long, been seen as an efficiency driver, , she explained.

“In some respects, when you think about robo-advisory and you think about some of the other online asset management applications, that’s degrading, in some cases, the value that the interface between human and machine can actually add,” Heinel said. “We believe the combination between technology and human is ultimately what’s going to win, and so we’re being very protective of where we are adding value over and above some sort of automatable routine.”

Koch agreed, pointing out that while big data will surely be an important part of the asset management industry moving forward, the field is still in its infancy. She comments,

“ We have created more data in last two years than in all of history of mankind – but only 3 percent is actually been annualized,” she continued, “however because the rate of decay around big data as a potential alpha source is so fast, companies have to be willing to “get behind the capex to get on the bleeding edge.”

Koch comments,

“We can’t be luddites and we have to embrace technology, but there really is going to be a very important intersection with humans. I like technology, but I’m still very ‘long’ on human beings. In particular, she continued, “humans can “connect seemingly disparate points in the investment processes to make predictions about the future not dependent on past data”

Meanwhile, Parisi offered a few “cautionary tales” with respect to big data – companies making use of it need to be sensitive to privacy issues as well as other legal risks such as insider trading. For example, she highlighted a recent court case involving a Capital One analyst who scraped together internal credit card data and, based on his analysis, bought and sold stock in retail companies ahead of their earnings reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the analyst with insider trading and the courts agreed, saying that the data met the level of materiality that would give rise to an insider trading claim because it was so highly correlated and predictive.

“You need to think about even though it may be only a small slice of data, if it is highly correlated or highly predictive, if it’s not widely disseminated, you better think carefully about whether or not you have material, non-public information,” Parisi said.

Finally, the panelists were asked to sum up their expectations of the asset management industry of the future. Panelists touched on clients’ desire for innovation as well as the growing importance of environmental, social and governance-focused (ESG) investing.

Mitchem ended with her vision of the asset manager as a “total coach.”

“How could financial services companies, through data arrangements with other people, really become the coach for your life?” she asked. “You want to think about, not just your 401k business, but you want to think about your HSA business. You want to figure out [whether you could] be that integral provider that coaches people across the spectrum on everything from healthcare to wealth management.”

Theglasshammer wants to thank the panelists, moderator, sponsors and attendees for making this a great event.

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Being LGBTA at Work – Out and Awesome

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By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

“People are strange when you’re a stranger” or so croons Jim Morrison from The Doors. Being different from the historical majority group still has its challenges, and being LGBT in a world of heteronormativity, no matter how cool people are, can make you feel “other” or outside the core group.

So, how do you navigate the challenges of coming out again and again ( that’s right people, it isn’t a one shot deal!). Here are 3 tips to being out and awesome.

1. Know yourself.

Like everyone else, your preference is just that, its not your actual personality, although both are intrinsic and therefore everyone else should understand that words like choice and lifestyle are not accurate. If you are shy naturally, only work within your comfort zone of who you tell and when. Trust in this area, like other areas is built over time. Equally if you are an extrovert and want to wave a flag, do it! Much of this also depends on where you are at with your own journey, don’t feel rushed one way or the other to express yourself.

2. Know your audience.

Fact; the world is divided into people who have thought about their own mental models and those who just take on whatever stuff their father/granny told them and are still living with values that Sophia from the Golden Girls would be proud of when she says “picture this, Sicily 1923”. Kegan and Lahey- Harvard developmental psychologists write about this subjective lens to life approach in “Immunity to Change” (this book changed my life if you all haven’t noticed how much I reference it). You don’t have to tell people who are just too cognitively/emotionally limited to understand anything outside their own direct experience, or you can choose to. Up to you.

3. Authenticity pays off.

Studies show that hiding can damage your career as it takes massive effort to change pronouns etc. Just be you, as there are so many people who will love you for you. On that note, Allies come out and vocalize your support for anyone who needs it.

Sponsor your LGBT network as an ally, get involved !

We just do not have to tolerate dinosaurs anymore. The revolution will be televised!

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LGBTQ: Inclusion Means Being Visibly Valued, Not Just Accepted

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LGBT flag featured

By Aimee Hansen

Last year, theglasshammer covered how corporations are taking the unexpected lead role in advocacy for LGBTQ rights, amidst the debasing of governmental protection and condoning of discrimination.

As companies continue to do so – for a multitude of reasons possibly as a direct response to the regressive approach that the Trump administration has taken. The Fenway Institute concludes that, “on balance the Trump Administration has pursued policies that will likely increase discrimination against LGBT people.” This includes repealing non-discrimination regulations that provided protections to LGBT people, encouraging religious refusal discrimination through executive branch actions and “vastly reshaping the federal judicial landscape in a way that is very concerning for LGBT people.” And, in the US, 28 states still lack basic protections in employment (and housing) when it comes sexual orientation and gender identity. Fear and phobia are arguably the central agency of political action and inaction on the LGBTQ front, nationally and internationally. But public opinion around the validity of equal rights for same-sex marriage has never been higher at around 62%.

So, with progressive corporations taking the lead, what does real LGBTQ inclusion look and feel like?

Increased Corporate Adoption of LGBTQ Friendly Policies

In HRC’s Corporate Equality Index 2018 annual assessment of employer’s LGBTQ workplace policies, a record-breaking 609 companies earned perfect scores, up by 18% from 517 last year. 83% of U.S.’s Fortune 500 companies offer clear protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, an increase from 3% just 15 years ago in protection for gender identity. Over 90% of CEI-rated businesses include both sexual orientation and gender identity employment protections for their U.S. and international operations. The results demonstrate that “business has not waited for a legal mandate to become LGBTQ-inclusive,“according to Beck Bailey, deputy director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, because it’s both the right thing to do and good business in creating diverse and attractive workplaces. ”They aren’t waiting for federal civil rights laws to change; they’re adopting their own inclusive policies and practices.”

“Good employers don’t simply cut paychecks every two weeks. They have to model good citizenship–not just in words but in actions–in the communities where their LGBTQ employees live and work,” wrote Ineke Mushovic, executive director of the Movement Advancement Project, in Fast Company.

Mushovic urges companies to do four things to advance LGBT rights: push for non-discrimination laws, declare that you’re open to all, fight discriminatory ‘bathroom bills’, and build a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

The Tangibility Gap Between Policies and Practice

OutNEXT/PwC surveyed 231 LGBT+ high performance employees, and 28 corporate leaders among mostly Out Leadership companies, for their report “Out to Succeed: Realising the full potential of LGBT+. The report sought to better understand how organizations can support high-performing LGBT+ employees. The majority of employees and employers agreed that having an openly supportive focus on LGBT inclusion has given the organizations wider access to the best talent and improved the organization’s place in the market. Additionally, 60% of employees believed that “being out at work has improved their ability to do business and engage with customers.” The report also noted some gaps between employers and employees, and gaps between the existence of policies in companies and whether LGBT+ employees experienced them as being present, visible and realized.

99% of employees indicated “reputation as a fair and equal employer (e.g., known for being LGBT+ friendly)” as important to making a company attractive as an employer. Only 57% of employers saw this as a key factor, a clear gap. Also according to the report, “Nearly 90% of employees believe that visible LGBT+ leaders within a company are important, though a high proportion of organizations don’t have senior LGBT+ leaders who are visible.” The report authors also shared that “while employees valued both inclusive action focused on recruitment and career progression, many were unaware even when companies claimed to have these programs.”

Only 35% of employees were aware that their companies had programs focused on recruiting LGBT+ employees, though 60% of businesses claimed to have them. And “while nearly 60% of employers take steps to create a pathway to senior management for LGBT+ people, only around 40% of employees believe this is the case.”

Further, about 40% believed that their organizations weren’t doing enough to encourage LGBT+ diversity. Over a third felt that despite the talk, opportunities weren’t really equal for all. The authors note, “It’s telling that nearly 40% of employers agree.”
OutNEXT/PwC found that over 80% of these “high-performing, high potential developing leaders” felt comfortable being out at work, yet more than half knew junior colleagues or even peers that were not out.

Stonewall found that in Britain, 35% of LGBT+ employees still hide their identity out of fear of discrimination. According to Psychology Today, “Two in five LGBT workers (40 percent) report feeling bullied at work.”

“For too many LGBT+ employees, many organisations still feel closeted. This hinders not only the organisations in recruiting and retention, but, more importantly, this hinders the careers of LGBT+ professionals,” says Bob Moritz, Global Chairman, PwC. “All of us need to create inclusive environments where LGBT+ talent can feel safe, free to be their true selves, and fully participate in the workplace.”

The Importance of Being Visible & Valued, Not Just Accepted

In its third year and with an active alumni network, Stanford’s LGBTQ Executive Leadership Program supports experienced applicants to catapult their careers into the C-Suite. The week-long program offers, among other benefits, to help participants learn the influences of their LGBTQ identity on their leadership style and how to become a more authentic leader (or be their ‘genuine self’).

“I’ve always been out at work, but I think Stanford helped me to embrace the idea of not just being out, but being visible,” said Beth Parker, public relations director at PwC in Washington, D.C. “It was transformative for me because it was sort of an awakening. I became keenly aware of the responsibility that I have to other people in the LGBTQ community,” said Parker. “It made me want to mentor people, it made me want to lead more in that space and be more visible.” Other alumni have also shared how the program encouraged them to stop trying to be heteronormative and to speak out visibly about issues of sexual identity in the workplace. Set against a political backdrop of dismissal of rights and encouragement of discrimination, the real bar of inclusion isn’t just acceptance. It’s cultivating a culture which allows LGBTQ individuals to show up as our whole selves at work, not feeling the need to pass or cover. It’s feeling invited, visible and valued, and to see it play out in our leaders and in our opportunities.

Companies can more demonstrably show LGBTQ employees what inclusion really looks and feels like. LGBTQ leaders and individuals can more visibly claim their inclusion.

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Asian American Women 2018: Often The Professional, Too Rarely The Executive

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Asian

Image via Shutterstock

By Aimee Hansen

When it comes to Asian American women in business leadership, the steady storyline is often the professional, less likely the manager, and rarely the executive.

Asian Americans make up 6% of the US population, 12% of U.S. professionals, and yet only 5% of executives, leaving them “stuck in the middle”.

On Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, Asians comprise even higher percentages of professionals, but a much smaller percentage of senior executives. They make up 26.9% of professionals at Goldman Sachs but only 10.7% of senior executives, 23.1% of professionals at Citigroup Inc. but only 12.7% of executives, and 20.6% at JP Morgan but only 6.8% of executives.

Buck Gee, a retired Cisco Systems Inc. vice president and co-author of a new report from the nonprofit Ascend Leadership, said in Bloomberg: “We are the most successful minority.” But when the lens turns to C-suites and upper management, “we’re the least successful minority.”

It’s not an education problem or a hiring problem, or necessarily even a pipeline problem. It is, however, cultural – largely, a corporate cultural issue.

The corporate-defined stereotypes of leadership (masculine, aggressive) and the intersection of gender and racial stereotypes through which Asian American women are perceived play at least as big of a role as the instilled cultural norms that may keep Asians from advocating for themselves as leaders, while trusting in hard work being enough to bring results.

Companies are called to practice inclusivity: leadership development and demonstration that bridges (not falls through) the cultural gaps to get diverse talent into leadership roles.

Stereotypes and “Model Minority”

Due to high education, professional employment and income levels, strong entrepreneurism, and the “model minority” reputation, Asian Americans are often overlooked when it comes to encouraging diversity.

But Asian American women face both “positive” and “negative” stereotypes – that may lead to envy, resentment, dislike, or perceived lack of leadership qualification – and can hinder organizational advancement. They face the intersectional discrimination of “racialized-sexism” and “sexualized-racism.” Even the seemingly positive reputation of “model minority” is a skewed and distorted box that inhibits advancement when it comes to leadership. And, studies have shown “that Asian Americans, like other minority groups, are aware of and may even internalize the stereotypes attributed to them.”

According to a qualitative study published in the Global Journal of Human-Social Science that tracked 16 Asian female middle managers, Asian women reported that they “sometimes benefited from the positive associations of their Asian ethnicity with qualities such as intelligence and diligence, and sometimes they face the demerits of being Asians, that reinforce a view of them being passive and lacking in leadership skills.”

According to the research, the experiences of these women were “complex and conflicting.” Some participants reported that they were able to seize opportunities for self-actualization, personal empowerment, and career growth “by leveraging their Asian culture,” but others talked about a subtle cultural disconnect that created barriers to networking, as well as to conforming with the norms of American corporate culture.

Meanwhile, when it comes to executive ambition, Asian women are “more likely than white women to say that their goal is to reach the top of their profession.”

Missing at Executive and Middle-Management

“The Illusion of Asian Success” report focusing on the San Francisco Bay area tech companies, by the Ascend Foundation, found that despite being the biggest professional racial cohort across 2007–2015, Asians were the least likely to be promoted to manager or executive level.

“Asians are still the least upwardly mobile demographic to reach leadership positions in (San Francisco) Bay Area technology companies,” state the authors. “The widely-held notion of Asian executive success is largely an illusion.”

The report found that while they are “outnumbered by Asian men and women in the entry-level professional workforce, white men and women were twice as likely as Asians to become executives and held almost 3x the number of executive jobs.”

Ascend previously created the Executive Parity Index™ (EPI) – which “scores a company’s diversity in its executive workforce relative to its entry-level workforce.” The report found that between 2007 and 2015, white women went from 12% below parity to 17% above in 2015, but all racial and ethnic minorities remained below parity.

Asian women were especially unlikely to become Executives – going from 76% below (.24 EPI) executive parity in 2007 to 66% below (.34 EPI) in 2015. Meanwhile, Asian men went from 44% below parity to 38% below parity.

Ascend also introduced a new Management Parity Index™ (MPI) to look at mid-level management representation. Asian women had the lowest MPI of .54 in 2007 (45% below parity) and .69 (31% below parity) in 2015.

“Asians were the only minority group underrepresented in middle management,” the authors were surprised to find. “We conclude that Asians were not only the least likely to be executives in 2015, but also the least likely to become Executives in the near future.”

While the executive gender gap for Asian women is only 85% with Asian men, the racial gap is 246% with white women. As white women were promoted, race became the increasingly dominant limiting factor – going from twice as big as sex in 2007 to three times as big in 2015.

The report co-author Denise Peck, a former vice president at Cisco, stated “Minority women continue to bump against a double-paned glass ceiling. The data show that a general focus on developing women leaders has not addressed the distinct challenges for Asian, Black, or Hispanic women. This has been an unspoken truth in the minority community, and we hope that our report opens a long overdue dialogue.”

Companies Need to Build a Cultural Bridge

In the LA Times, writers Ramakrishnan and Lee note how a few highly visible tech leaders can create a false perception of Asian prominence among leadership: “while Asian Americans can get through Silicon Valley’s doors, they are unable to move up the ladders.”
The article asserts that Asian Americans are often perceived as having more hard skills (competence) and fewer soft skills (communication, collaboration), but that there is a gap in soft skill development and demonstration opportunities for Asian professionals.

In the 2016 National Asian American Survey, 68% of white employees indicated planning or chairing a meeting at work, while only 51% of Asian American employees had done so, despite an equal percentage (40%) indicating they served in a supervisor capacity.

Again, the gap grew among women, as Asian American women were “25 percentage points less likely to chair a meeting when compared with white women.” The LA Times writers state, “One obvious, simple and costless solution is for employers to make sure that everyone who’s qualified gets an opportunity to lead a business meeting.”

During Bloomberg’s “Walk the Talk” feature on why so many Asian Americans are absent from the C-Suite, Laura Colby said “many Asian executives who I talk to will themselves say that they credit a bit of their upbringing for them not being as aggressive perhaps as might be considered necessary to show that you want to advance in Corporate America.”

Colby emphasized, however, that companies have to be more inclusive to bridge exactly these cultural nuances: “There are some programs out there, but several of the people I spoke with said you really have to make a point of engaging all the groups in a corporation, not focus on a specific group, or blame people for their own lack of being able to climb the ladder when really it might be the ladder itself that is tilted and preventing them from getting where they want to get.”

Sometimes, it’s the ladder that is broken, or too narrow, or too weak, or too rigid, to allow change to climb as high as it needs to.

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