What We Can Learn from Powerful Women, Past and Present

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diverse-women-across-the-globeMarch is Women’s History Month, which gives us even more of a reason to recognize powerful women, both past and present, who continually inspire us to move forward. Regions, a bank that features a Women and Wealth initiative to educate, equip and empower women, is celebrating Women’s History Month by honoring the contributions of women who have made a difference in countless facets of life.

From media entrepreneurs to leaders impacting their own communities, we can learn from these women’s successes and apply their knowledge to improve our own careers and lives. Here are some key examples of inspirational leaders and their advice for reaching – and exceeding – your goals:

Develop Your Leadership Skills with a Mentor

As the president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Pam Iorio is a shining example of women leaders who are making a difference in their own communities and beyond. Her gift for leadership shows not only through her work with Big Brothers Big Sisters, but also in her past career as Mayor of the City of Tampa and her tenure as leader-in-residence at the John H. Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa. The author of Straightforward: Ways to Live and Lead, Iorio delivers a strong message about the importance of developing leadership skills. Her message: Learn to lead yourself well so you can, in turn, lead others.

Regions Bank commends Iorio’s work to change communities across America through the power of mentoring and recognizes that career-oriented women can grow and learn from this inspiration. One way women can develop their own leadership skills is by cultivating a relationship with a female mentor

Define Your Personal Brand

Wendy Lane Stevens, the founder and president of national public relations firm LANE, advises women to spend time developing a personal brand that reflects your core beliefs. Every day and in nearly every situation – board meetings, conversation with clients, coffee with girlfriends – your personal brand is on display through your actions, words and decisions. It’s never too late to create a personal brand or modify your current one. Stevens suggests these steps:

Brainstorm and write down 30 to 40 words that describe who you are and the traits you like about yourself or want to improve. After thoughtful consideration, narrow the list to about six words.
Compare your descriptions to the words that three of your role models would use to describe themselves. Use this as a gauge to refine your list.

Ask a family member or close friend to review your words. Are they aspirational and achievable? “You want these words to be authentic and transparent, so you want honest feedback,” Stevens says.

Use the words to develop an elevator speech that describes who you are and what you believe – this becomes your personal motto. Keep it near you – like on your computer or on your phone so you’re constantly reminded of your core values or brand.

Every several months, grade yourself on how you’ve integrated your values and brand into your life.

No matter what your profession, you can glean valuable insights from smart, successful women all around you, including all of the powerful females Regions Bank is recognizing this March. If you’re interested more career insights and guidance for women in the workforce, Regions has shared with us some additional resources:

For Entry-Level Women – Learn How To Budget After Landing Your First Job. When you’re starting your first job, it can be difficult to learn how to budget your money. Regions shares four tips to help you separate your wants from your needs and set yourself up for financial success.

For Female Business Owners – Learn About, and Leverage, the Resources Available to Women and Minorities in Business. The government helps foster growth for women and minority business owners in part by offering tax breaks to companies that work with these businesses. Make sure you thoroughly understand these programs, and take the steps necessary to qualify for them.

For Moms in the Workforce – Balancing Career and Home. When it comes to work/life balance, find the right fit for you rather than an equal balance.

This article was sponsored by Regions Private Wealth Management.

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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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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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How Companies are Helping Women Find STEM Careers

Business dealEarlier this month, Intel launched their first diversity initiative, pledging $300 million to achieve a fully diverse workforce by 2020. CEO Brian Krzanich claims this is just the beginning—during his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, he said, “It’s time to step up and do more. It’s not good enough to say we value diversity.”

This move is by no means unprecedented, as major companies and schools across the country have risen to the occasion amid reports of a distinctly male-dominated tech industry.

In December, MIT announced a new, women-focused workshop titled, “Make Your Own Wearables” designed to introduce female high school students to the possibilities of the tech industry. Kristen Railey, a mechanical engineer who brought the idea to MIT said, “My goals for the workshop were to spark girls’ interest in engineering through the trendy topic of wearables and to equip them with hands-on engineering skills before college.”

Common sense tells us that if women have access to engineering and STEM careers and gain experience working in the field, more women will find an interest in tech and move on to pursue STEM related majors. However, according to a recent study, that’s only half the battle.

Researchers surveyed 1,800 scientists and graduate students from 30 different scientific disciplines, including philosophy, neuroscience, anthropology, and engineering, asking participants to rate their level of agreement with statements like, “If you want to succeed in [discipline], hard work alone just won’t cut it; you need to have an innate gift or talent.”

Unfortunately, they found that disciplines that rated themselves higher in raw talent tended to employ fewer women. Sarah-Jane Leslie, a professor of cognitive psychology at Princeton University and co-author of the study believes social bias plays a large part in the findings. “Pervasive cultural associations link men but not women with raw intellectual brilliance. Women’s accomplishments are seen as grounded in long hours poring over books, rather than in some kind of raw brilliance.”

This raises an important question: how do we begin to alter the cultural stereotypes, help women be more confident in their natural talents, and pursue meaningful careers in STEM?

Last month, three female computer scientists at MIT took to Reddit to answer questions on everything from technical programming to what it’s like to be a woman in the industry. They used the platform to inspire users to pursue a STEM career by telling anecdotes and giving advice to current students.

When one user asked if the three women were treated differently than their male counterparts, Jean, a programming language design and software verification researcher, summarized the results of the study with her own experience.

“Yes. Especially when I was younger, I noticed that people did not expect me to know very much. While some of my male friends could walk into a room and have people listen to their technical ideas by default, I had to do some amount of proving myself. Now that I have more credentials it’s become easier because rather than having to do this whole song-and-dance to demonstrate my technical credibility, I can say what I’ve done in the past. This can be exhausting–and certainly made me doubt myself more when I was younger.”

As more women enter the field through initiatives similar to Intel’s and MIT’s, these experiences will become less common. It seems the answer to the question of altering workplace stereotypes is the same determination of employers and colleges to hire and educate more women in STEM that has resulted in the creation of the initiatives themselves.

Companies and universities are now realizing the need for workplace diversity, and across both major changes are being implemented. Southern Illinois University’s Society of Women Engineers is preparing to host its third annual “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” in February, where girls from grades 5-8 are invited to attend a daylong event that offers exposure to the engineering field.

In addition, ASU recently made the news for its club, “Women in Science and Engineering,” whose members are dedicated a mission to “guide, gather and advance” anyone they meet. Mariah Patton, president of the club, says she “was looking for a nice, supportive community of young women. I was really looking to find a niche where I could connect with other women who had similar goals and a similar mindset.”

While Intel may be the highest-profile company to spend a significant amount of money on workplace diversity, it certainly won’t be the last. Expect to read more headlines like this as the collective effort of our educational system’s effort to bring more women into STEM begins to take effect. Until then, you can help make a difference by supporting foundations like Million Women Mentors or the American Association of University Women, which provide scholarships and fellowships to help young women begin their STEM careers.

Guest Contributed by Matthew McCallister, a content specialist at CareerGlider

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

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Changing the World

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group of womenSomeone once asked me what advice I would give my 21 year old self as she ventured into the corporate world. Turning back the clock, I see myself at that age, a young woman about to enter the professional STEM field. Sporting my brand new leather briefcase in hand, chock-full of boundless energy and enthusiasm, bursting with idealism and with hopes of changing the world. Confident that what I said and what I did truly mattered. Not yet tainted by the bureaucracies and politics of any organization. Taking on the world with unabashed and fearless determination. I remember her clearly. Chances are we all remember our self of yesteryear.

What wisdom have I acquired through the years that I could share with her and so many others who are just starting out today?

1. Leadership takes courage

By definition, leadership is forging a path where no one has gone before. Be prepared to face fear of the unknown. This in no way diminishes you but presents a unique opportunity to search within you. You will be fine as long as you are fueled by a belief in yourself and heed to your moral compass. Your big dreams will often leave you standing alone but never stop dreaming. This vision is fundamental to the road map you will need in moving ahead. Always remember that the path you blaze will be tread by others so don’t leave them behind. Your ability to influence others is the key ingredient to igniting change. Be patient, change happens one person at a time but there will be many that will not budge. That is their choice, not yours.

2. Remain true to your convictions

Always stand up for what you believe in. But know that you will not always get your way. Corporate politics is a tough pill to swallow and youthful idealism can erode with each workplace disappointment. Compromise is an art so explore your right brain and let creativity flow. This is all part of growing up. Organizations that lack diverse leadership may pose an unfairly stacked deck against females and you will face gender bias at least once in your career. The very first time this happens will be a painful blow that disorients and disappoints. After all, encountering gender as a barrier is a loss of innocence. But you will recover stronger and more resilient.

3. Stay hungry

Ambition is the fuel that propels us out of the gates keeping our eyes on the prize while never looking back. Each individual success results in a burgeoning confidence. There will be setbacks which may result in second guessing your relevance and impact in the workplace. Despite these, never drop out. Make the most of the hand you have been dealt and never stop striving for the finish line.

4. You matter

Predominantly male organizations may provide an absence of females to look up to making it a very lonely place. Despite this, know that you are not alone. Fill the void with someone who cares and cheers you on. Mentors and advocates come in all shapes, sizes, and yes, genders. Engaging men in the conversation results in game changing partnerships and lays the foundation for empowerment and gender equality. If you must be the first in your organization to shatter the parochial glass ceiling, strap yourself in. You are in for a trip of a lifetime. One less glass ceiling moves all women ahead. You owe it to yourself and those that follow to get off the sidelines and roar.

5. Pay it forward

Always look for those that look to you as an emerging leader. You must remember that you too bear a responsibility to the generation that follows. After all, it is the next generation of women and men that will continue the progress that has been made and effect long-term and permanent change. Just as you stand on the shoulders of those that came before you, so too will the next generation stand on your shoulders.

My grown up self has still so much to learn and if asked the same question in five years, my hope is that I have acquired more wisdom to add to my list. But one thing I know for sure is that I am impacting the world. Each and every day, we are given the opportunity to create a legacy. The caliber of that legacy is completely up to us. Let it be a positive one and the foundation for those that follow in their attempt at changing the world.

Guest Contribution by Rossana G. D’Antonio, PE, GE

Guest advice and opinions not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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Embracing Our Differences to Unlock Possibility

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women in technologyWhen people discover that I have founded two game changing tech companies and thrived in the predominantly male dominated tech world, the first thing they ask is, “What did you do differently?”

There are a few forces shaping business today, making it ideal for women to create greater impact than ever before.

Today, Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Yahoo and Xerox have women at their helm. Women own almost a third (29%) of all businesses in the US, and women-owned businesses generate $1.3 Trillion Dollars in revenue annually. Since the beginning of time, we as women have been pregnant with ideas and creativity. As mothers, sisters, and daughters, our traditional roles at home have built-in business leadership functions.

But first, we have to accept that we are different from men; and that there are genetics at play that make us uniquely different from them. But this difference should not to be judged as better or worse – just different! These intrinsic differences are what we can leverage today into veritable business successes that impact our communities and the world at large.

It’s an exciting time to be a woman in tech and business in general. What once was a disadvantage has now become a strength. Smart businesses are recognizing that our perspectives are vital to their success. Our input and contributions are no longer considered niceties, but rather necessities.

Google Diversity Evangelist Jewel Burks recently shared that the measure of true diversity for companies such as Google is ensuring that they reflect on the inside what customers look like on the outside. This is highly insightful in understanding the diversity imperative. We cant serve our customer base well, if we can’t understand their needs. The currency for the long-term success of business is diversity.

Unfortunately, many women have yet to recognize and embrace this power. They believe that, in order to be successful in male dominated areas, they have to behave or act like men. This is counterproductive, because our unique perspective and difference from men is what is needed to create the complete picture. Our skills, thoughts, and dreams are significant because they are often new and different. When we think we need to act like men in order to be successful in business, we limit ourselves and throw the entire equation off balance. It’s like walking with two left feet.

Our significance lies in embracing our talents and raising them to a level of excellence. Small hinges swing big doors , and so it is with our contributions. They matter and can make a huge impact. I have always embraced my differences, as they are what have created so many opportunities.

In a left-brain or right-brain world, it has always been difficult for me to be “whole-brained.” This has been a struggle my entire life. People ask me, “What are you – a techie or a creative? Left brained or right brained? Artist or scientist?” The answer is both! I love technology as much as I love the creative. I am a writer at heart. Throughout my life, I’ve sought opportunities that would allow me to express both. But for a long time, a whole-brained approach was frowned upon, especially in places where people perceived it didn’t fit. Some of my engineering reports were deemed too flowery and verbose, perhaps more suited for a novel. I felt I needed to make a choice between the two, and people often demanded that I make a choice.

As technology grew and started taking over all our lives, a lot shifted. For example, marketing companies were required to become technology and media companies. They needed to understand online marketing, mobile platforms, analytics and know how to leverage new technology mediums. I found myself at the confluence of art and science. New innovations required the artist to think like the scientist, and the scientist to think like the artist. Suddenly, my kind wasn’t just wanted; we were in high demand. What had been a point of contention in the past became my calling card. I remember clearly when the shift started to occur.

At Boeing Digital Cinema, I had helped develop the technology to deliver movies digitally. One day, I was watching the movie Crush with other engineers – after we had encoded it but before the director previewed it. I took one look at the screen and noticed a very thin white film over it. When my colleagues said they couldn’t see the white film, I thought perhaps I needed to get my eyes checked and let it go. To my surprise, when the director walked in, he stopped in the middle of the theater and said, “The contrast ratio is off – the blacks are not as black as I need them to be.” referring to the pixels.

I have always enjoyed a good narrative, always paying attention to both the esoteric and the mundane. Working on digital Cinema was supremely rewarding for me because I realized then that I could see what the directors saw and understand what the engineers knew. I could work with engineers to create solutions without requiring directors to sit through hours of torture doing signal processing (a purely engineering function). I could also talk to directors in depth about the narrative to attain a beautiful balance between art and science. And I loved and enjoyed the process!

I had found my sweet spot. My whole brain was now in demand, to a point where I started my own business Next Galaxy – a technology and content solutions company have since done business with the likes of Microsoft XBOX, Coca Cola Company, Tribune News, Toyota and over 200 radio stations. I was even approached by producers of ABC’s highly popular show The Bachelor to help them in casting season seven, leveraging both Internet and traditional avenues. I thought of my whole-brain personality as not fitting in anywhere, yet it was that difference that allowed me to ultimately create the magic. Being uniquely me is what has proved to be invaluable in an unbelievable way.

It is only when we embrace our difference that we can unlock the door to the possibility of offering the world something new that doesn’t exist.

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Six Ways to Advance Your Career by Leading “Like a Girl”

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woman-office-spaceAs you advance in your career, you may find yourself tempted to mimic examples of “traditional” leadership. In other words, consciously or not, you may strive to be more independent, commanding, dominating, unbending, and yes, masculine.

Generally speaking, women think, relate, motivate, and assume responsibility differently from men. But if you’ve ever considered your natural leadership style a liability, think again. As the popular Always campaign demonstrates, doing anything “like a girl” should be a point of pride. (It’s time to free yourself from any lingering notions of joining the “old boys’ club.”)

In a connected global marketplace that’s driven by engaging communication, collaboration, and collective buy-in, many “feminine strengths” (which, to be fair, many men also possess and use quite effectively) are suddenly in high demand.

That said, here are six suggestions to help you tap into the power of feminine leadership.

First, gain a better understanding of your feminine “power tools.” No doubt about it: Traditional models of powerful leadership (think command and control) are on their way out. Meanwhile, a more flexible, inclusive incarnation of power — one that comes naturally to women — is becoming more entrenched.

Gloria Feldt, one of the coauthors of my book Leading Women, says instead of pursuing “power over,” women prefer to think in terms of “power to.” Yes, your team may accomplish enough with a dominating leader—but they’ll accomplish more with one who helps them tap into the power to accomplish, grow, and use their individual and collective strengths.

Speak up more often. Many female leaders consciously marshal their words so as not to be perceived as “too chatty” when there’s an important job to do. But actually, research suggests (and you may have noticed yourself) that men speak more at meetings. My coauthor Claire Damken Brown, PhD, points out that when women talk, we provide details and seek cohesion, so as long as you keep your responses focused, don’t feel that you have to be “strong and silent” to be an effective leader.

Don’t keep it all business, all the time. Women’s emotional intelligence makes us natural connectors. Use that skill to your advantage. When you allow yourself to “get personal” and nurture your relationships with team members, you will put them at ease, positively impact their motivation and engagement, and strengthen their loyalty. I love my coauthor Birute Regine, EdD’s, perspective on feminine emotional intelligence. She says it’s not a “soft skill” at all and is actually quite hard to acquire if you lack it. (It’s not the kind of thing you can master in an afternoon seminar!)

Take your place at the podium. Even if you dread speaking in public, I urge you to actively cultivate this skill. My coauthor Lois Phillips, PhD, points out that in today’s business world the podium is truly the “head of the table.” It’s a place to build credibility and expand your audience. Take advantage of women’s natural tendency to share information that empowers others and to connect with your audience by noticing and responding to their nonverbal cues.

Collaborate your way to the next level. Collaboration is definitely a buzzword these days — but as many leaders have learned the hard way, there’s a lot more to it than simply asking a group of people to sit at the same table and work together. Birute Regine, EdD, says that women are great at up-leveling group work to something greater than the sum of its parts (a real phenomenon called “collective intelligence”). This is because we emphasize turn-taking, equality, empathy, and respect for others’ opinions — conditions that must be present in order for group members to feel comfortable expressing outside-the-box opinions and taking risks.

Bring other women on board. If you’ve attempted to reach success as a rugged individualist, you know the journey can grueling, lonely, and maybe even lacking in satisfaction. Good news: It’s okay (and encouraged!) to tap into women’s collective power. For millennia, women have relied on their “sisterhood” for advice, support, and help. And today, I see a genuine women-helping-women movement taking shape. In business, in philanthropy, in our communities, and more, women are consciously joining forces to cocreate, to give one another a leg up, and to make life richer and more fulfilling.

So be vigilant for opportunities to join forces with other women. Offer others your time, insight, empathy, and aid — and accept those things in return. I truly believe when enough “hands that rock the cradle” join together, we can help rule the world.

Male or female, building a successful career isn’t easy. So, women, don’t force yourself to be what you’re not. I, for one, am excited that the changing face of leadership is displaying more and more qualities that are traditionally feminine — and optimistic about what this means for women’s future in business.

Author Bio

Nancy D. O’Reilly, PsyD, is an author of Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to Leadership, Business, and Life and urges women to connect to help each other create a better world. As a clinical psychologist, motivational speaker and women empowerment expert, O’Reilly helps women create the satisfying and purposeful lives they want to benefit themselves, their families and their communities. To accomplish this, she devotes her energies to fulfilling the mission of the Women Connect4Good, Inc. foundation, which benefits from her writing and speaking services. O’Reilly is the founder of Women Connect4Good, Inc., and for seven years she has interviewed inspiring women for online podcasts available on her website.

For more information please visit http://www.drnancyoreilly.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

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Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevate speaks at Barnard College

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Sallie KrawcheckSallie Krawcheck, for those who don’t know, is now the CEO of Ellevate – a women’s professional network, with its tens of thousands of women members around the world formerly known as 85 Broads. She seems almost archetypal as she tells her story, in a wood-paneled room at Barnard College earlier this year (February 2015), where she is speaking to a group of young would-be entrepreneurs. Confident, laid-back and very funny, she describes her dramatic trajectory in the world of finance. For those of you who don’t know Sallie’s journey; she graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, and got a job on wall street, did an MBA at Columbia and before long was Institutional Investor magazine’s top-ranked equity analyst.

Integrity has always been important to her and her guidance to the firm of which she had become CEO, Sanford C Bernstein, was cited as a major reason why this firm withdrew from the underwriting business. This was one of the decisions that caused Fortune to identify her in 2002 as “The Last Honest Analyst.”

Chutes and Ladders

From there she began her swift ascent. Krawcheck seemed for years after to have a golden career. She was tapped for top leadership at the major banks: from Smith Barney to Merrill Lynch to US Trust. Others followed: In 2005, Forbes named Krawcheck as number seven on its list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Most recently, Krawcheck was named #9 on Fast Company’s list of the 100 most creative people of 2014.

But it was not all a clear flight path. When a commentator at a recent lecture of hers, at which she shared her insights for younger women who wish to learn from her journey, pointed out that Krawcheck “rose faster and higher than any woman on Wall Street,” Krawcheck replied, with disarming candor, “and fell.”“I rose swiftly and I fell….It isn’t all a straight line. And you will fall – get back up. I just refused to go away.” Krawcheck expanded further on the idea of resilience as a necessary quality for women in leadership. But often women don’t, her questioner pointed out– they might take a setback or professional rejection personally, or feel demotivated. Krawcheck conceded: “It hurts. I ran Smith Barney – I was fired from that. I’m the only woman who has been fired on the front page of the Wall Street Journal two times. It hurts.” Krawcheck continued, “To me you live one life,” she went on, pushing back gently, in a way that felt quite inspiring. “You get one opportunity. You grab it with both hands – the worst thing that can happen is that you fail. To me that is not such a bad alternative.”

She notes that her worst day is better than the days of 99% of the rest of the world. “When you have that lens,” she concludes, “it is not “poor me.” It gives you perspective when you keep in mind where the rest of the world is compared to our good fortune.”

Best Advice

Krawcheck shared three insights, in addition to work your tail off.

Number 1: “Network, network, network.”

She points out that young women say, `“I don’t want to use a connection – I just want to be recognized for myself.”’ The assumption, “”If I just keep my head down and do good work I will be recognized” is, Krawcheck warns, a common myth among women. “There is no HR fairy godmother”,” she declared to roars of laughter and applause. “Who you know is what you know,” she emphasized. “The guys know a lot of people. We need to know a lot of people.” She presents fascinating data that reveal that women don’t see the power of networking until their 30s – by which time the men have moved ahead.

Number 2: “Keep Learning”

The number of women her age, she says, who proclaim, “Oh I don’t get Facebook!” “Well, Facebook is not going anywhere,” she remarked drily, to more laughter. Or “I’m not on LinkedIn” – to which she retorted, “Why? You don’t want anyone to find you?” She pointed out that her ability to find and acquire Ellevate depended on a chain of ten connections.

Number 3: “Avoid Groupthink”

The third insight that she shared that day, is that groupthink is bad for the bottom line, and that in her opinion diversity helps cure groupthink. Bankers, she says, did not see the bubble coming because they were all invested in the groupthink about the sector.

Krawcheck states “Diverse teams lead to higher return on capital, lower risk and greater long term focus. Diverse teams outperform smarter teams. “

Number 4: “Share Information”

Finally she shared the insight that Ellevate’s research shows that women seek different rewards from work than men do. “Meaning and purpose” is number one for women – money is number four. So she suggests that a goal of companies that want to retain and promote women should be to bring “meaning and purpose” into their mission. She comments, “If these institutions were about meaning and purpose, not just money, It could change everything. We are not finding it [these values] in existing companies so we are creating them, and they are amazing.”

She believes that women also need community and companies need women to be in community, and she concluded that when women are in networks such as Ellevate, in which they can share information and knowledge. Sallie quoted a reduced attrition rate for these women compared to that of their peers due to network participation.

Now Krawcheck, who has been at the head of many of these traditional models of a business, is running a 21st century disruptive model, that seeks to combine revenue generation with a transformational mission of identifying and boosting women’s ventures. She is now putting these “Aha!” insights into real time practice; and this kind of project and message, as it moves ahead alongside that of other women pioneers with aligned insights – indeed“could change everything”.

By Guest Contributor Naomi Wolf on behalf of the Athena Leadership Center, a partner of theglasshammer.com

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Making Success Stick!

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women salesGuest contributed by Wendy Wallbridge

There’s no question that women have achieved success in today’s business world. More than half the work force now is female. The familiar “Rosie the Riveter” poster, created in 1942 to help America visualize women in the work force, is an historical artifact now. There is no need to create an image. All we have to do is open our eyes.

But while women have succeeded in numbers, we still do not attain the higher rungs of the success ladder. Few of us climb higher than middle management. As Sheryl Sandberg aptly points out, “Women are not making it to the top of any profession in the world.”

It would be easy to lay the blame on external causes. Systemic sexism persists; we know that. But without making it about “them,” what, first of all, can we women do to understand the challenges that we face, and secondly, what can we do to create change for ourselves and in the system as well?

While there may be external forces at work, if we’re honest, we must acknowledge an internal monologue that holds us back. Somehow we believe we need to continue to prove we have earned the success we have achieved. Even when we succeed, even when we have the coveted job, we seem to think we still need to apply for it. We tend to think there is someone more well-suited for the opportunity, we dismiss our value-add, we opt out, we wait and see.

Not just our mind, but our wiring—our neuro-circuitry—works against us in this regard. Ironically, while women generally have better memories than men, helping us to multi-task, we also tend to hold on to past failures and ruminate to our own disadvantage. We “stew” in the soup of our imagined shortcomings. As neuropsychologist Rick Hanson says, human brains “are Velcro to bad experiences and Teflon to good experiences.” Unfortunately, that is especially true of women.

It turns out, it takes concerted effort to make positive experiences “stick.” Hanson encourages his clients to “marinate” in positive thoughts by consciously dwelling on the good stuff: happy experiences, satisfaction, joy, for ten to twelve seconds. Evolving neuroscience shows that a practice of this sort (mental activity which stimulates reward neurotransmitters dopamine and natural opioids) stimulates a general “brightening” of the mind. As Hanson says, “neurons that fire together, wire together.” By changing mental activity, by working at making the positive sink in, we can change our neural circuitry, and in turn change the way we think.

The solution for women in the workplace is to target that technique on work experience: Women need to learn how to internalize the successes they have. Re-story their narrative. Re-engineer their mental and emotional wiring. Lay down new neuro-circuitry.

Here are some ways to do that:
  • Keep a Kudos File

Record the progress you make, first in your own words, in a file, along with any acknowledgement you receive from others of your “wins,” whether big or teensy. Archive all emails like: “Hey you killed it at that meeting!” “Great presentation!” “Your execution on that project was flawless.”

  • Stage a Mental Intervention

When you catch yourself speaking to yourself in ways that make you feel small, have a mantra handy that reminds you of who you really are. Say, “I am gracious, magnanimous, a wise leader!” Pause and allow those words to percolate through your mind.

  • Track Your Gains and Appoint an Ally

Identify one valued workplace behavior you want to increase, like speaking up more in meetings, and make note in a document file every time you do it. Then ask a trusted co-worker to point out your progress and also to let you know when you do “that thing” you’re trying to change: being defensive, trying to prove yourself, speaking pessimistically, whatever it may be.

  • Create Community

Form a professional women’s circle of four to six colleagues to support one another in your development and provide honest feedback and encouragement for each other. We need to be heard and hear that we’re not alone in our challenges. Give that meeting a regular slot in your schedule, and stand by it.

  • Embody it

As your head hits the pillow mentally scroll through your day, intentionally focusing on anything you are proud of that happened that day, whether big or small, and allow yourself to really feel the success in your body.

If these suggestions seem simple, good! Just know that they are not simply “helpful hints” but are potentially powerful tools, based on brain science. By changing the way we frame our experience in word and thought, we affect our wiring. We can change the way we think. And if workplace mindset really plays a part in holding women back, the good news is, we can change that.

Guest contributor’s advice and opinions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

Wendy Wallbridge is a strategic advisor and pioneer in the coaching field. As the founder and principal of On Your Mark Corporate Coaching, Wallbridge works with Fortune 100 leaders and teams at organizations such as Intel, Apple, Wells-Fargo and Hewlett-Packard, among others. A popular Tedx speaker and producer of both the TEDxSandHillRdWomen conference and the Women’s Evolutionary Leadership Forum, Wallbridge has earned a reputation for establishing breakthrough conversations that enhance the way women work, live, play, and contribute.She regularly presents to organizations such as UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, the Professional Business Women’s Conference, The Commonwealth Club, Women in Technology International, The Women’s Leadership Forum and the 3% Conference, and also teaches an annual “Leading with Power & Grace” six-month group coaching series for women. For more information, please visit www.wendywallbridge.com.

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3 signs your perfectionism is killing your career…and how to overcome it

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Sad businesswomanGuest Contribution by Luisa Zhou

Successful high achievers (like you and me) have a huge disadvantage when it comes to advancing our careers.

It’s the fear of not being perfect.

If you’re constantly scrambling to fix “just one more thing,” if your social life no longer exists because you’re always working, or if you worry perpetually about others’ opinions, then you know what I’m talking about.

And while it’s gotten you to where you are today, you know that if you keep on working like this, you’ll burn out long before you get that coveted “C” title.

So what’s an ambitious professional to do?

Below are the top 3 signs your perfectionism is hurting instead of helping, and what to do instead.

1. You live by an all-or-nothing mentality. Every project you oversee has to be as flawless as the Hope Diamond.

Do any of the following sound familiar?

This is still not good enough!

I need to push the deadline back because this isn’t just right…

How can I face that client after that mistake?!

If so, you need to: Get comfortable with good enough, and leverage the 80/20 rule – the principle that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

The key is figuring out which 20%. Is it really that important that your presentation’s footer isn’t perfectly centered? Or are you the only one who will even notice? And is it really necessary to chew yourself out for that small mishap your client has already forgotten?

Place yourself in the other party’s shoes (your audience, your boss, or your client) and ask yourself what they care about. Then focus on those areas and let go of the little things they don’t care about.

2. You take rejection personally.

Does the thought of making a mistake keep you up at night? Did you not speak up during that meeting because you were afraid of sounding stupid? And have you not asked for that bonus you deserve because you’re afraid your boss will say no?

If you said yes to any of those, here’s what to do: Think through the worst case scenario. Will you get fired? Will you be physically harmed? Will your colleagues secretly judge you and whisper that you’re incompetent?

Once I realized that rejection is not something to be feared and has no real consequences (aside from some bruised feelings), I learned to actually embrace taking on situations with rejection potential. Not because I’m a masochist, but because I realized they were actually win-win situations for me.

Worst case scenario, I would learn something new (oh, this didn’t work). Or, best case scenario, I would get what I wanted. When you think about it that way, doesn’t it seem a waste not to put yourself out there?

3. You can’t remember the last time you savored a career win – you were already on to your next big goal.

Do you ever feel a little dizzy when you think about your achievements and what you have to do next? And when was the last time you took a few to congratulate yourself on all you’ve accomplished?

If you can’t remember, here’s what to do: Look inside yourself and examine what motivates you. For perfectionists, it’s often a fear of failure and of not being good enough.

Before realizing this, I was incredibly fearful. I was afraid of not getting that promotion, of not advancing quickly enough, and most of all, I was afraid that if I didn’t stop being afraid, I would lose my steam. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was let go of that fear, and honestly it was a long and difficult process.

But once I did, I realized that it’s even more powerful to be motivated by positive forces – by passion, service, and love. Letting go of my perfectionism didn’t hinder me as I’d once feared, but instead allowed me to succeed more than ever before. Specifically, within the space of one year, I got a new job, a 32% raise, and a promotion, and launched a successful side business.

Now it’s your turn. What new levels of greatness will you achieve once you get out of your own way?

Luisa Zhou is a business coach for aspiring entrepreneurs. Join Luisa’s newsletter for coaching opportunities and bi-weekly tips for starting your side business.

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

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