Leadership and the Challenge of “Pricing the Priceless”

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pricing the priceless

(by Paula DiPerna)

Visual ecstasy for free, in theory, is how we’ve largely thought about nature — its beauty timeless and ineffable, and all its systems there around us, stable and present and taken for granted. Aesthetically exquisite, but, unless being drawn upon as raw materials, pretty much doing nothing.

Yet, all of nature is constantly at work, providing countless daily services well beyond the obvious: flowers are lovely to look at, but they provide incalculable pollination services; standing trees can provide lumber, but also soil stability and water filtration when left alone, not to mention sequestering carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels and causing climate change; coral reefs offer divers a paradise but, meanwhile, they are invaluable buffers against raging storms to protect the coasts and indispensable nurseries for fisheries. Yet, just to take the coral reef example, we book coastal property at high value, sea views inestimable, but the reefs themselves are assigned no value at all in our conventional accounting systems.

Our Failure to Financially Value Nature

Meanwhile, while nature serves us for free, climate change wrenches our balance with nature, as extremes of weather unleash forces we can neither fully predict, nor prepare for. Dryness and wildfire conditions so plague California, major insurance companies have declared they will no longer write fire insurance for homes and property there. In Florida, flood insurance is essentially impossible to obtain.

We face urgent environmental problems because of a gaping flaw in our financial systems no longer possible to ignore: failure to financially value the ineffable elements of life on which our environmental and social stability now increasingly depend. The result? Intangible indispensable natural assets taken financially for granted and, therefore, essentially laid waste.

Or in perhaps the most dramatic example of under-valuing nature, how can it make sense to value mere conveniences like Uber, nice but utterly dispensable, in billions of dollars, and our atmosphere, or the biodiversity of life on earth, utterly indispensable, at zero?

This skewed accounting has rendered nature economically invisible and the most tragically unpaid laborer in history. Because nature charges us nothing for its services, we have over-used and pushed those services to the brink.

The Paradox of Our Time

And so we must embrace the paradox of our time—pricing the priceless, by definition impossible perhaps, but nevertheless essential. How to do this—assign nature and its intangible services a tangible and economic value that can be transacted and expressed in credible financial terms? In essence this means treating nature’s services and natural resources as indispensable infrastructure and assets, thus requiring ongoing maintenance and care, compared to the current situation, where protecting nature is mostly viewed as a budgetary cost center, where expenditures should be minimized.

Calculating the value of the labor performed by nature, known as “ecosystems services,” continues to evolve but estimates have been as high as $125 trillion per year, higher than global GDP, indicating that ultimately all economic activity depends on environmental health one way or another. But this subsidy nature provides our economy remains largely unrecognized and unseen by conventional finance, thus, so does the risk that the subsidy will break down, leaving us likely startled and without the fallback of nature to which our economy is now addicted.

This spring, Susan Berresford, former President of the Ford Foundation, a visionary in philanthropy and a champion of women leaders, received an honorary degree from Bates College. In her remarks she focused on key questions of leadership, likely indeed to be critical as we confront the entwined economic and environmental challenges ahead.

First, she said, today’s leaders must know “am I comfortable being different?” Second: “Can I thrive in situations of ambiguity? There are very few reform efforts in which the pathway for decision making and action is utterly clear. You need to be ready for confusion and uncertainty; in fact you have to like confusion and uncertainty and find opportunity in those moments.” And thirdly, “Do I enjoy managing struggles with generosity? Leadership usually means you are trying to redistribute authority or power or influence.”

Flipping our economic systems so that nature is economically valued, however paradoxical, requires all these qualities, specifically, the courage to see and act anew.

Depreciation of Natural Assets​

Renowned economist, Sir Partha Dasgupta, embodies such radical re-thinking. He was commissioned by the Treasury of the UK government to examine questions of nature’s value, resulting in his landmark 2021 review, “The Economics of Biodiversity.” There, he framed today’s environmental dilemma in terms of financial portfolio management, writing, “The view that the biosphere is a mosaic of self-regenerative assets also covers its role as a sink for pollution. Acid rains damage forests; carbon emissions in the atmosphere trap heat; industrial seepage and discharge reduce water quality in streams and underground reservoirs; sulfur emissions corrode structures and harm human health, and so on. The damage inflicted on each type of asset (buildings, forests, fisheries, human health) should be interpreted as depreciation.”

Fortunately, new investment vehicles are cropping up that value and securitize the benefits of nature—such innovations as the Forest Resilience Bond, being pioneered in Lake Tahoe, California; or coral reef insurance, throughout the Meso-American reef system. Still, however, these are experiments and need to come to scale.

All trend lines indicate that indeed depreciation of our natural systems gallops ahead. Certainly climate change advances, even if in zigs and unpredictable zags, and even the best intended plans to switch to renewable fuels, electrify economies, limit deforestation, encourage recycling and cutting down “carbon footprints” lag dangerously behind.

Pricing the Priceless

Time has come for a radical flip in how we conceptualize nature and its value, and implementing this radical change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing today’s leaders across all sectors, requiring fresh optics and views of economic purpose and where best to invest capital.

An exciting opportunity is at hand for institutional and private investors to redeploy capital and financial assets away from environmental “bads” to “goods,” take on the ambiguities and question conventional financial thinking. Otherwise, we risk remaining mere bystanders to forces at work, and that’s one trajectory we simply cannot afford.

By: Paula DiPerna is the author of Pricing the Priceless: The Financial Transformation to Value the Planet, Solve the Climate Crisis, and Protect Our Most Precious Assets, published in June by Wiley and listed by the Financial Times on its roster of “Best Summer Reading: Economics.” Her novel, The Discoveries of Mrs. Christopher Columbus, published formerly in the US, Germany and Turkey, has just been published in Portugal by Group LeYa. She is a member of the Women’s Forum of New York and the Council on Foreign Relations and is a frequent public speaker. She also currently serves as Special Advisor to CDP.

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Op-ED: Return to Office or Hybrid Forever?

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As 2023 marks the entry into what appears to be the fourth year of the Covid pandemic, the big question remains – has the world of work changed due to Covid forever? Or are we just in the messy middle with an eventual return to office building based situation for most people, most of the time?

Nicki Gilmour The Glass HammerMany CEO’s and leaders want employees back in the office building full-time and many are going into their buildings a few times per week or even close to five days per week. Other professionals never want to enter the building again and seemingly don’t have to, since 25% of Fortune 500 companies have settled on remote and hybrid work as a major way to attract talent and fuel top talent retention. Last year, PWC recognized that the office is here to stay but its role has changed.

Statistics sit at around 75% of workers, both nationally and internationally, not wanting to return to the office full-time. Adding fuel to the fire this week, there are studies that show productivity, after a counterintuitive spike in the pandemic, is now trending downwards. Economists and psychologists agree that high burnout rates, noted by social listening on sites like Glassdoor as well as traditional employees surveys, tell the story that the unsustainable pandemic period of overwork is behind it. The term “Quiet Quitting” has surfaced with a range of interpretation around what that is, exactly, from healthy boundary setting in order to hold lines between work and home in a remote world where it all blurred and work became an endless flow to doing the bare minimum as the ‘social contract’ has loosened for employees over the past three years.

Adding the fact that Generation Z have decided that airless cubicle dwelling is not for them, the future of work, or rather where work gets done, remains an exciting consideration for our times.

Is Hybrid a Blessing or a Curse?

Hybrid is only as good as its implementation. If done right, it offers great flexibility features so that people can do their best at work and even increase productivity while maintaining their mental health and running the aspects of their lives outside work successfully.

The challenge is that if a hybrid strategy is just jammed in, as if it was a complete return to work strategy without an evaluation of needs operationally and technically, and creation of a plan, then it offers the worst of flexible working. It really is all about the user experience. For example, commuting to a place to sit on a video conference inside your cubicle and see no one will negate one of the top reasons for going in- which is connection and social capital. This along with a lack of trust will seal the fate of a bad hybrid strategy outcome.

Equally, if companies do not create conditions purposefully for equitable merit rewards, regardless of where work is done, and instead fall into a schema of explicit or implicit proximity bias where you have to sit outside the boss’s door to get promoted, then hybrid will be an epic fail for productivity and engagement. Yet remote work will probably get the blame, not the lack of leadership and planning for this third way.

Leadership in a Time of Need

Many CEO’s have gotten over what Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, coins as “productivity paranoia” in their well-documented study on workplace of the future. The Microsoft CEO and Chairman goes on to state that companies must trust and empower their staff and understand more elements to make Hybrid work as a strategy. These organizational actions include re-recruiting your employees by surfacing the benefits of working there, such as internal job mobility over changing firms. 2 out of 3 employees surveyed in their 20,000 employee strong study say they would stay longer at their company if it were easier to change jobs internally and have career discussions.

Another aspect is learning and development – if employees feel that they aren’t learning, they are more likely to leave. This study points out that social capital and connection is something that people want to increase – with results pointing to desiring a flexible attitude from their managers about how and when they come in, so that they can have meaningful connections with “work friends” and hold important meetings, as opposed to having to see their boss in person or the senior leadership. Modeling is not a strong factor it seems.

Like any change initiative, there are a range of opinions that fall on a spectrum – addressing the “why” for both returning, hybrid and staying remote.

However, 73% of respondents in the Microsoft survey stated that the company’s “why” regarding return reasons didn’t resonate. Ultimately, there is legitimacy in all opinions as they are based on belief sets that are formed from starting constructs on the way it is and how we process experiences – even to the wide gamut of pandemics. No human mind is exactly alike when it comes to processing information and experiences that can feel very personal and universal at the same time.

That is where empathetic leadership comes into play as getting outside one’s own experiences and paradigms as a leader or a manager will be crucial to rise to the occasion of validating each employee’s own pandemic experience and circumstances. Recognizing that safety is still a concern and that people have trauma is key, as Poonam Sharma PhD writes in Fast Company, “Removing the real risks posed by COVID-19 has been the first step. You must then actively show people it is safe.”

Leadership is needed to navigate hybrid – with Great Place To Work stating the five prerequisite behaviors of trusting and listening to employees, as well as setting out clear structures and rules of the road for people to follow – and then empowering them while co-creating the future by design.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) – The Thinker.

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When I came to the U.S. almost twenty years ago, I saw a day off work in January and started asking questions. People in Corporate America, of all elks and creeds, didn’t seem to have many answers for me. My friends who lived in the boroughs (we were in our 20’s so rent was cheaper in Brooklyn then), who were all multicultural or first generation, did not have much for me either. In fact, it took many years to truly understand what this day off work was about, aside from being told that MLK pioneered civil rights –  which of course is a very basic statement on a complicated process which resulted in progress at a high cost for many.

Next month, here on theglasshammer.com, I will write on race and societal dynamics and tackle the hard conversations. Today, I want to simply revere Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a great thinker on many topics. He was a futurist and a “systems thinker” about many subjects – including war, democracy and militarism, and made a lesser known speech that is worth a listen today. So instead of posting out of context inspirational quotes from him, I wanted to share this video with you on his thoughts about Vietnam.

He was a man who thought deeply about values and hypocrisy. He understood the effects of economic poverty. He was a man of peace. He was a Capricorn. He wasn’t just a person to quote on a Monday in January to virtue signal in a social media meme world.

He spoke to students about believing in themselves and having a determinism to achieve excellence, whatever their work field of choice, and to create a blueprint for their life. To study hard no matter what and do a good job. What parent wouldn’t like their child to hear a speech like this?

Wherever you are on your journey regarding emotions filtered via subjective life experiences, and reactions to others and their beliefs and thoughts regarding systemic issues that today show up on the political spectrum as politicized topics: I ask you to stop, be a human and listen to this human.

We do not know what Martin Luther King would make of life today. The closest we can get to that is via the voices of his children, and his daughter in particular, Dr. Bernice King. But I do know it would be interesting to hear his intellectual and spiritual take on the goings-on of modern day society.

We want to profile interesting women always on theglasshammer.com and we want professional women of all creeds. If you would like to be profiled or contribute an op-ed or well researched article that the readers of our niche online publication would find valuable, please email nicki@theglasshammer.com. This is a digital campfire for women to tell their stories around, and for fifteen years we have brought you this platform day in, day out as we believe in our values of “informing, inspiring and empowering” professional women.

Enjoy MLK day however you spend it here in the U.S. and happy Monday to the rest of the world.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

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Becoming a Great Leader: Managing Conflict in Teams

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Elegant leader

Guest contributed by CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke

Let’s face it: Most of us hate conflict. Even the toughest among us are at least a little uncomfortable with it. When faced with it, many leaders and executives tend to opt out.

But, here’s the truth: The best and most creative solutions often happen when people opt in to conflict. Not an all-out brawl or a name calling wrestling match, but a quality sharing of how we really feel about a decision or an issue. To do this a leader must create optimal conditions and their job isn’t to have the right answer, but to create the space for the project, team, or organization to wrestle together to collaboratively come up with an answer and move forward.

Our decade and a half of experience working with teams shows that when even one person listens to and reflects on the opposing opinion of a peer with genuine curiosity, the change in the room is palpable. That combination of vision, opinion, and passion, when combined with curiosity, leads the entire team to new possibilities. That’s the role of a healthy dose of curiosity.

Too often a leader unwittingly defuses the tension by determining the right answer, Maybe you have as a leader or have seen leaders cutting off discussion and taking things off-line when people get too emotional or listening to the loudest or the favorite voice, the one whose thoughts are usually the same as the leader’s.

The Value of Vulnerability and Curiosity

When teams are vulnerable and curious, they use the natural energy of conflict and discover that it isn’t my way or your way, but a whole new way. New ideas emerge. Instead of a fight, there is magic.

It starts with people opting in, becoming vulnerable, and revealing what they really think, feel, and want. This allows for a free flow of opinions which can be more or less judgmental but if combined with curiosity, not righteousness or defensiveness) can use the energy of conflict to become a smarter and highly innovative team.

We’ve seen it time and time again in our work. Teams that master the use of vulnerability and curiosity produce creative and innovative solutions not just once, but over and over again. They are more resilient and they bounce back from setbacks and failure. People on these teams feel engaged and fulfilled, and they have more fun. Just an aside: It’s probably no surprise that vulnerability and curiosity work wonders in personal relationships too.

Either of these qualities can instantly transform a team in conflict. Put them together and teams make quantum leaps forward. It only takes one individual to make a difference.

And, remember that you don’t have to let go of your judgments or opinions. Curiosity means having your judgments and being open and interested in a different perspective. Being curious means considering that there may be more than one right way, reality, or answer.

Stopping the fight for your right way and being open to the ideas of others and taking an interest in how the other person came to his or her conclusion. Listening with the willingness to be influenced via an open mind.

Some helpful phrases that help demonstrate curiosity and elicit another’s response are:
  • “Help me understand how you got there.”
  • “Why is this so important to you?”
  • “What is driving your strong conviction?”
  • “Tell me where I’m wrong?”
  • “Wow! That is very different from my view. How’d you get there?”
So, want to transform your team? Here’s how:
  • Be human and acknowledge conflict. You are the model. If you acknowledge when you’re uncomfortable in the tension and ambiguity, others learn they’re not alone.
  • Don’t go for the quick fix. The drive for efficiency in conflict is born from the discomfort of the tension, the ambiguity of not having the answer, or a fear of looking bad.
  • Get out of the right-wrong trap. Yes, we all want to be right, but do you want to be right more than you want to succeed?
  • Check for conflict. If you see people disengage, check it out. Encourage people to speak up, to have different opinions, and to hang in for the long haul.
  • Listen to the naysayer with interested curiosity. Even when you think a team member is a pain in the butt, step into his shoes and see the world from his point of view, sharing that out loud. You might be surprised what you find when you get out of your own way.

The benefits of being curious include getting outside of your own story, which opens a greater pool of information to generate creative ideas. This can strengthen the team’s learning and growth.
Making the other person feel heard and considered can shift the energy from defense to cooperation, opening the door to new, creative possibilities and therefore transitioning the focus of the team from power struggles to idea expansion.

About the author

CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke are business consultants, speakers, and co-authors of The Beauty of Conflict: Harnessing Your Team’s Competitive Advantage (November 1, 2017).

They and their organization, specialize in helping professional women, leaders, teams and entire companies learn how to transform conflict into creativity and innovation.
Many thanks

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

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Self-promotion v. corporate branding: a dilemma for women CEOs? Do women CEO’s do enough to promote their brands?

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Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

Guest Contributed By Patricia Harden, President and CEO of Harden Communications Partners

In today’s media-saturated business world, a company’s image is inextricably linked to the reputation of the CEO. Wall Street analysts, marketers and corporate communicators understand the importance of a CEO’s personal brand and how it affects demand for a company’s products or services and its market value.

The “personal brand” of Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com or Tesla’s Elon Musk is an extension of the company. And there are any number of other high-profile male CEOs, who are recognized as industry leaders. How many similarly high-profile women CEOs are there? After HP’s Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, who both ran for public office, and a handful of others, it is hard to come up with names. Granted, unfortunately there are simply not as many women as men in the C-suite. However, perhaps the lack of women CEOs with well-defined personal brands is an issue that goes deeper than their respective numbers.

During my 25 years in corporate communications, I have observed many women CEOs that do not eagerly embrace communications tools and strategies to build a powerful personal brand. They are often more reluctant to express their personal values, beliefs and business philosophy than their male counterparts, and frequently, I see successful women leaders who want to stay on “safe” ground, sticking to unassailable fact-based positions.

What’s behind their reticence? I have a theory: On the way up, women CEOs worked incredibly hard just to prove they were as competent (and more so) as men. They had to show they were good team players in order to win the support of colleagues. Advocating a point of view, stretching the boundaries and sharing a bigger “vision” are leadership traits that are subjective, individual and highly visible. Given history, it’s not surprising that women CEOs may err on the side of staying low profile for fear of being criticized as “self-promotional” or grandstanding.

For example, we see women leaders who are press-shy, avoiding media engagement except in the most controlled situations. They seem reluctant to step outside what they see as the confines of their professional roles. One client refused to discuss her accomplishments in building a major data business from the ground up: “I’ll only talk about our product, not myself.” I call this “The Hillary Problem”: Feeling more secure in the role of competent project manager instead of inspirational, but potentially controversial, leader.

While the term personal brand may sound ego-centric, developing an authentic personal brand can add tremendous value to your organization. As a woman leader, what is your personal brand? I believe it is all about becoming known for what you stand for in addition to what you do in your job. Your brand is the “why” behind decisions, choices and results. Inevitably, the “why” involves some subjectivity – and this is where I see women reluctant to capitalize on the credibility that they have earned as CEOS and leaders. Yet I argue that it is absolutely mission critical: It might well be an essential, if unwritten, part of your job description.

Where to start developing a personal brand and leveraging it for the greater good of your company? By working closely with your in-house communications team and public relations advisors, you can develop a strategic plan that will establish and grow your personal brand. It’s not necessary to undergo a personality transplant and become a “celebrity” CEO or another Sheryl Sandberg. Rather, with the right advice and collaboration with professionals, select the issues, forums and communications channels that mesh with your core values and support your organization’s agenda.

“Leaning in” to build and maintain your personal CEO brand isn’t about self-promotion: it’s about advancing your own agenda and that of your company—to step out of your personal comfort zone for the greater good.

About Pat Harden

Patricia (Pat) Harden founded Harden Partners to help companies be heard, known and valued. Pat brings clients the benefits of a lifelong passion for communication and the desire to help organizations take their game to new levels.

Under her leadership, Harden Partners has grown steadily from a one-person consultancy to an award-winning, mid-sized agency, serving the financial, healthcare and professional services sectors.

An avid reader, theater-goer and traveler, Pat serves on the board of Theatre Bay Area and she and her husband enjoy making Pinot Noir from their home-based vineyard.
This is a Guest Contribution. The views and opinions of the Guest Contributor are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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Old Myths, New Mindsets: Strategic Leadership

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Elegant leaderExecutives, across all industries and levels, have one goal in common. They want to run a successful team and a successful organization. Without question, the business dynamics and competitive climate in which they operate has changed dramatically over the years, yet many leaders lean on old corporate myths to drive their success.

I have encountered many leaders, both within and outside of healthcare, who think:

1. There is no ‘I’ in team.
2. Great outcomes come from perfect plans
3. During times of rapid change wait for clarity before acting.
4. There are no stupid questions.
5. Everyone’s opinion counts.
6. Nice guys/girls finish last.
7. The customer is always right.

What I’ve found through experience and the changing mindset that I’ve developed as a leader is that a lot of this is no longer, and perhaps never was true.

Myth: There’s no ‘I’ in team.

Fact: A strong “I” or commitment to personal accountability and professional achievement from each member leads to high performing teams.

Action: A comprehensive operations plan includes clear role assignments and timelines at every phase of a project leaving no question which team member is accountable for driving the success of that element. It also provides ample opportunity for the leader to recognize individual contributions along with team achievements.

Myth: Great outcomes come from perfect plans.

Fact: Great outcomes come from consistent, forward-moving action. Poor implementation or an overly rigid plan will often sabotage great outcomes.

Action: Execution starts when the Leader fulfills their responsibility to: 1. Clearly and consistently communicate the desired future state AND 2.) Secure the resources necessary for success. Wise leaders adjust goals when they are unable to fulfill one or both of these leadership accountabilities or when business circumstances change.

Myth: During times of rapid change, wait for clarity before acting.

Fact: While it is always wise to fully examine the circumstances surrounding change, complete clarity is typically hard to come by in the midst of a rapidly evolving business cycle.

Action: Just as in the previous example, leading an organization during times of heavy change requires clear communication and necessary resources, including employee education. Arming the team with information and expertise is a sure way to drive out fear and get ahead of the curve. Don’t be afraid to take action on the known and plot course corrections as new facts become available.

Myth: “There are no stupid questions.”

Fact: We’ve all heard stupid questions being asked in a business setting, let’s face it. The damage can be immediate as the collective perception of the individual goes down a notch. Various possibilities run through the listener’s mind – none of them good. Didn’t she/he prepare for this meeting? Haven’t they been listening? If this person does not grasp a fundamental concept, will they be a capable contributor?

Action: It is time to evaluate which of the many possibilities noted above is accurate. With this knowledge and the full engagement of the individual involved, a high impact remedy is possible. Ideally, the result is an improvement in this colleague’s ability to perform as a well-respected contributor.

Myth: Everyone’s opinion counts.

Fact: Leaders must make tough decisions. Facts and the wise consul of strong subject matter experts count. In many cases the opinions of the full employee population simply do not.

Action: Once a key business decision is made, the immediate next step is to inform others with a legitimate “need to know.” Although that sometimes includes all employees, partners, and customers, more often the audience is limited. A comprehensive communication plan with well-developed talking points will help the full leadership team engage in meaningful dialogue with those impacted.

Myth: Nice guys or girls finish last.

Fact: Committing to being the best version of you does not mean you are soft or a pushover OR that you will finish last. Many of the world’s most successful leaders are genuinely nice people who make deals and solve problems through the mutual relationships formed with people they like and trust.

Action: The work of staying humble and treating others as you’d like to be treated requires frequent, honest self-evaluation. Don’t be afraid to engage an effective career coach to help you stay grounded. It’s okay to be human. It’s okay to be compassionate. Your employees will respect you for being your genuine self: intelligent, bold, and kind.

Myth: The customer is always right.

Fact: No. No. No. In fact if the customer were always right, they wouldn’t need us. Your customers surely have fantastic ideas and insights, but so do you! Working together you can find the right path and solution set to achieve their goals.

Action: Regardless of the organization’s product or service, you have been chosen for the ability to favorably impact your customer. When they have chosen a strategy, product, or service that will not achieve the desired future state, it is your job to respectfully lead them to a better solution. Make the art of consultative guidance a part of your employee education program.

This group of business myths is far from complete. It’s important to note that, along with the many examples included here, many industries or individual organizations have their own set of myths that protect the status quo. Courageous leaders aren’t afraid to challenge long held beliefs regardless of their origin.

Guest Contribution by Jackie Larson, President, Avantas

Jackie is a healthcare industry veteran and recognized thought leader. She joined Avantas in 2008 and has been the driving force in building out the company’s client management, analytics, and consulting groups into world-class teams providing guidance and support to clients on a wide range of issues including workforce optimization, productivity, business analytics and more.

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

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How I Landed the C-Suite (And Why You Can, Too)

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Smartly dressed yyoung women shaking hands in a business meeting at office deskGuest Contributed by Deborah Gregory

Ambition, potential, and talent are incredible gifts, but so often they aren’t big enough hammers to help women shatter the glass ceiling. Difficulty breaking through to the C-suite can be frustrating, but I believe everyone has what it takes to become a leader worthy of notice. As I worked my way from law school to the IRS’ Office of Chief Counsel to finally co-founding my own law firm, I found that hard work, personal responsibility, goals, and gratitude are game changers that can propel anyone forward. Once you get those facets of your life in tune, anything is possible.

Focus on your dreams, not your gender

My mom always said, “Anything boys can do, girls can do better.” But when I was growing up, I didn’t see the world in terms of “boys’ activities” and “girls’ activities.” I just saw what I wanted to do, and I did it. Belief isn’t just a fundamental part of who we are, it’s a fundamental ingredient in what we’re able to accomplish. You really can do anything—as long as you believe you can.

Hard work beats talent

People tend to get hung up on whose more talented, but I find that hard work trumps talent every time. When I was in preschool, another student kept beating me at multiplication tables test, and I hated coming in second. I could have said, “Oh well, she’s just more talented than me,” but instead I started waking up early every morning to study even longer. I began making the best grades in the class, and the same strategy has worked for me ever since.

Don’t get hung up on talent—yours or others’. You may not always be the smartest person in the room, but you can always control how hard you work. Be the most prepared person in the room instead. That’s how you’ll get the deal, land the promotion, and break one more layer of the glass ceiling.

Own up to your mistakes

People are scared of making mistakes, but mistakes don’t actually define us. The way we handle the moments after a mistake is what truly shows the world what we’re made of. When you make a mistake, don’t bury it, ignore it, or blame someone else. Instead of running away, be proactive and own up to your mistake. Tell your supervisor and prove you will never let it happen again. Taking responsibility for your mishaps will show those you work with that you’re honorable, you’re responsible, and you care, which will earn their trust.

Know where you’re going

I’m continually surprised that most women don’t have their goals written down. If you don’t have a map, how do you know where you’re going? Not having written goals is a career killer, yet it’s simple enough to do. Think about what inspires and excites you, and write your goals down twice a day. I write my core career goals down every morning and every night, and that simple task often changes the course of my day. Writing your goals down is simple, but it can change everything.

Start and end your days with reminders of gratitude and goals

Our days are defined by how we start and finish them. If you begin your mornings with a negative attitude and focus on what could go wrong and what you don’t like, the entire day is over before it can get started. I have a routine that keeps my attitude in check and my actions focused, and I think it’s a huge part of why I have been successful. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I take a moment to list the things I am grateful for. I even give thanks in advance for great things I believe will happen that day. When I get up, I write down my goals to remind myself of the clear direction I want for my life. I repeat a similar process at night to ensure I’m continually grateful and living a life of intent. Mindfully focusing on gratitude and goals reminds you of what you have to be thankful for and what you have to look forward to, instantly uplifting your attitude and your power to work for those ideals.

About Deborah Gregory

Deborah Gregory, Esq., is cofounder of Gregory Law Group, PLLC, a Texas based boutique law firm specializing in tax representation as well as business and estate planning. After attending the South Texas College of Law and Boston University School of Law, Gregory launched her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an international tax associate. She then worked for the IRS for more than 10 years, becoming a senior attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel. Gregory cofounded Gregory Law Group in 2013 to specialize in domestic and international tax issues and assist with all phases of audit, litigation, and collection processes.

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Why Leaders Need More than Mirror Reflections

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female-leaders-looking-in-her-mirror-reflection-featuredBy Aimee Hansen

Amidst increasing access to a broader worldview, we are paradoxically retreating into narrowing, amplified, separated tunnels of perspective.

One of the clearest examples is the side-by-side blue feed, red feed posted by The Wall Street Journal. These views are never side-by-side but rather constructions of completely different realities.

Social media (with Facebook at top) is a news source for 62% of U.S. adults, and when our Facebook newsfeed is increasingly a tunnel lined with mirrors, the sum reflection is silos of distortion.

Diversity of thought is a muscle that is essential to leadership, and one that we may be getting weaker at flexing when it comes to developing our worldview in our personal and societal lives. Whatever we practice, we become better at. So arguably, we are getting better at listening to people who think like we already do.

To be effective leaders, we have to increasingly be more vigilant about the practice of inviting diversity of thought in, even when it’s difficult to do so.

How Facebook Is Narrowing Our Feedback Loop

As highlighted in the The New York Times, it’s our interaction with social media that both biases and narrows our exposure to different viewpoints and different stories.

Frank Bruni writes, “The Internet isn’t rigged to give us right or left, conservative or liberal — at least not until we rig it that way. It’s designed to give us more of the same, whatever that same is: one sustained note from the vast and varied music that it holds, one redundant fragrance from a garden of infinite possibility.”

When our ideas and perspectives are not challenged, but only reinforced by our customized curation of news through interaction with social media,“we retreat into enclaves of the like-minded” with increased speed and depth, while missing out on a breadth of perspectives.

According to the NYT, “Technology makes it much easier for us to connect to people who share some single common interest,” said author Marc Dunkelman (“The Vanishing Neighbor”), and easier to avoid “face-to-face interactions with diverse ideas.”

According to network scientist, Vyacheslav Polonski writing for the World Economic Forum, previous research has shown that increased contact with people who share our previously held beliefs makes those beliefs more extreme.

We become more confident, vigorous, and emboldened as we begin to adopt a new group identity. At the same time, we becoming increasingly ignorant to the dynamics of alternative world views. There is both power and peril.

Confirming Our Own Biases

According to The Guardian, “Since online content is often curated to fit our preferences, interests and personality, the internet can even enhance our existing biases and undermine our motivation to learn new things.”

One bias that is supported by echo chambers is confirmation bias, where we look to see our own preconceptions confirmed rather than fully taking facts, data, or opposing viewpoints into consideration. We are drawn to prove ourselves right by consuming information that matches our opinions even though “being exposed to conflicting views tends to reduce prejudice and enhance creative thinking.”

As Warren Buffet said, “What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.” With too much information to deal with, it’s a survival strategy to ignore most of it, but we tend to selectively ignore what does not agree with us.

The Boardroom Echo Chamber

If we want to know more about the dangers of decision-making inside of a (digital) echo chamber, we can look to the corporate boardroom, because that has existed mostly as an echo chamber for decades.

In 2015, Fortune 500 companies filled 399 vacant or newly created seats, the highest number of seats since Heidrick & Struggles began tracking. But when faced with a record opportunity to increase diversity, the Fortune 500 boardroom stuck to its own kind.

Tapping from the “usual suspects” (73% of appointments were current and former CEOs and CFOs), the range of industry backgrounds narrowed, women appointments stalled, Latino appointments remained flat, and Asian-American appointments fell. The only improvements in diversity were African-American (1% point) and international experience (32.2% points).

In sum, older white male seats or new seats were filled with older white males with international experience. From the perspective of social diversity, boards elected more mirrors to reflect similar viewpoints, not more windows to bring in diverse perspectives.

Diversity Makes Us Smarter

According to the Harvard Business Review, the key differentiator of leadership (and the career arc of a leader) is a process of inclusiveness in decision making, the ability to take into account a 360 degree context.

Underlining the importance of gathering multiple perspectives, Associate Professor Laurence Minksy and Julia Tang Peters write, “Habitual outreach prevents insular thinking, opens doors to ideas and collaborative relationships, expands problem-solving perspectives, and increases the range of resources for implementation.”

As reiterated by Scientific American, social diversity enhances creativity, encourages the search for novel perspectives, and leads to better decision-making and problem solving. Katherine W. Phillips, a Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics, writes, “Simply interacting with individuals who are different forces group members to prepare better, to anticipate alternative viewpoints and to expect that reaching consensus will take effort.”

“Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective,” writes Phillips. This keeps us from effectively processing information, and hinders creativity and innovation. Whereas in a context of diversity, we are less complacent with our perspectives and begin to consider alternatives even before personal interaction takes place.

“Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people believe that differences of perspective might exist among them and that belief makes people change their behavior,” writes Phillips. We work harder on both a cognitive and social level, become more diligent, and more open-minded because we anticipate it will take more to come to a consensus.

Also, disagreement with those who are socially different to us also does more to spark our consideration.

“When we hear dissent from someone who is different from us (eg. by race or political party), it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us,“ writes Phillips. “When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.”

Your Diversity Muscle

As Phillips points out, diversity of thought is a muscle we have to exercise. “You have to push yourself to grow your muscles.”

So as a leader, ask yourself where are you allowing yourself to be drawn into an echo chamber? Are you being inclusive in your own decision-making?

And, where in your workplace do you see a tunnel of mirrors in need of some windows?

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Looking to get to the C-Suite? Here are six steps to career success

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Women-Cheering-featuredGuest Contributed by Morag Barret

Career paths can be unpredictable, peppered with pivot-points, and rife with opportunities that can make – or break – your trajectory. The path to the C-Suite isn’t a straight line, nor is it one you can coast along. If you aren’t scared just a little bit along the way, you probably aren’t moving fast enough or taking (informed) risks!

Getting to the C-Suite can be a daunting journey for even the most seasoned professionals. Hard work alone is not enough, and can actually keep you stuck at your current career level rather than catapult you forward.
If hard work isn’t the answer, how do you get to the C-Suite? I called several leaders that I know and respect for their advice. Here’s what they had to say:

Never stop learning

Pay attention to the leaders you admire and seek to understand what makes them stand out. “The biggest mistake a leader can make is to stop learning,” shared Rose Else-Mitchell, Executive Vice President at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“Modeling continuous learning creates a culture that benefits everyone, encourages risk, innovation and self-responsibility.”

Seek out daily opportunities to learn and demonstrate your readiness for a promotion. Don’t wait for a bigger title to show others that you’re capable of operating at that next leadership level today.

Have a vision

“Hope” is not a strategy to adopt when it comes to managing your career. Whether your goal is to achieve the top job, move to a vice president role, or from manager to director, you need a plan — and to execute that plan!

“Make sure it’s your plan.” advises Barbara Dondiego, CMO at AVOXI. “If you choose to ‘Lean In,’ make sure you understand your reasons for doing so. Run towards the hard problems that others step away from. It’s the best preparation for the C-Suite you can ever have.”

Broaden your point of view

In the early stages of our career, we tend to have a narrow point of view, and be focused on our immediate function and area of expertise. Success in the C-Suite requires that you have a broad leadership point of view.

Susan Reynolds, former COO at Naviasys, recommends that you “be a business person who understands your business or profession. Focus on what matters to your company and know your stuff. Make your company profitable by contributing to the skills of your group, and be accountable for the failures, as well as the successes.”

As a CXO, you’ll need to understand the whole business: from finance to operations, technology to HR. Get involved and volunteer for cross-functional projects. If you’re not equipped to spend time in these parts of your organization, then take a class, study, seek out a mentor from across the company, and start talking the language of business.

Nurture professional relationships

“Success in your career is driven by the relationships you form,” says Judy Batenburg, SVP of IT Services at Starz. “Get to know your allies, those who can help you move forward, and also those who might hinder your success. Work to cultivate strong professional relationships.”

Relationships matter, especially when it comes to moving your career forward. Why? Because the senior roles aren’t (usually) filled as a result of a job advertisement or resumes submitted online. Before a senior role even hits the job market, conversations will have been held along the lines of, “Who do we know that could fill this role?” “Who do we want to invite to join our team?”

Make sure to cultivate your professional relationships now, so that your name is the first that is suggested. Your future career progression may depend on it!

Invest in your support network

Shannon Sisler, SVP of Talent Management Human Resources at Western Union, recognized that as she moved through her career, there were ever increasing personal and professional demands on her time. Having a strong support network is vital, and can include someone that takes care of the yard, more flexible child support, an awesome assistant at work, a personal trainer, and even someone that can ensure you get regular date nights with a partner. Shannon advises: “Don’t feel guilty asking for help… you can’t be everything to everyone. Invest your efforts in the personal and professional areas that matter most!”

Don’t watch the game. Play the Game.

As you climb the corporate ladder, you will encounter hurdles. You can either rail against the system and refuse to play – or, you can choose to learn the game, play the game, and ultimately change the game.

Simone Reynolds, Chief Human Resources Officer at Coalfire Systems Inc. advises “Be authentic! Don’t change to fit the mold instead stay within the guardrails and be authentically you. In doing so you build trust, and the ability to influence others in a multitude of ways. The best way to change things is to work the system not revolt against it.”

Your Steps to the C-Suite

There is no one path to reach the C-suite. This is your career journey to find and forge. You can either wing it and hope that your smarts land you your dream role, or you can be deliberate, thoughtful, and take control of the process. Experience has shown that the latter approach is more likely to result in a successful outcome. Only you can choose to invest the time in developing your self and demonstrating your leadership capabilities that set you up for success today — and for tomorrow.

Morag Barrett is the best-selling author of Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships and CEO of SkyeTeam, an international HR consulting and leadership development company. Morag’s experience ranges from senior executive coaching to developing leaders and teams across Europe, America and Asia. SkyeTeam works with clients in a range of industries including: Healthcare, Telecoms, Mining, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Technology. www.skyeteam.com

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How Professional Women Can Turn Anticipation Into a Leadership Boon

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Managing ChangeSpell “words” backwards, and it becomes “sword.” When it comes to language in management meetings, it turns out that women wield a double-edged sword, a way of either weakening or strengthening their leadership position through the way they wield their words.

Research has found that as they speak, women tend to be more likely to be simultaneously aware of the concerns and agendas of others, and to adjust their language to reflect this. Professor Judith Baxter, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Aston University, UK calls this “double-voicing.”

Simply put, the ability to strategically incorporate what you anticipate others are thinking or feeling as you speak can be a career-boosting skill in your back pocket, if wielded selectively and well.

Anytime you are not only speaking your thoughts or views but are at the same time reflecting and incorporating what you believe others may think or feel into what you say, you’re double-voicing. You’re voicing for yourself and for those you’re speaking to or with.

It’s a “double-edged sword” which you might be using to undercut your leadership presence. But used strategically, it’s a masterful skill you can harness as a powerful leadership asset.

Women and Double-Voicing

In studying top-level conversations across seven major companies in the UK, Baxter found one fundamental distinction between male and female leadership language: “Women were four times more likely than men to be self-critical, qualify their comments, speak indirectly or apologetically when broaching difficult subjects with board members or when managing conflict.”

Baxter argues in a Babel article that as women climb the corporate ladder, in order to gain acceptance and approval they practice “serious linguistic work such as the carefully judged use of apology, humour, self-mockery, understatement, implied meaning and deference in order to minimise direct confrontation or criticism from male colleagues.”

How Double-Voicing Can Dilute Your Leadership

We already know that women’s words often are not treated the same as men’s in the office. When women are more assertive with their words, they can be judged more harshly than men are, for going against gender norms. So there’s strong reasons why women adapt how they speak.

But it’s harmful when women habitually use their tongue to weaken their own leadership stance. According to Baxter, double-voicing can be used to deliver “self-inflicted wounds.” For example, when double-voicing is used to pre-empt how others might perceive you as the speaker, you simply deflate your own authority and words.

This might sound like, “I realize I’m not the expert, but…” or “Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn, but…” or “I don’t mean to be difficult, but…” In her observations of top meetings, Baxter heard one woman caveat that she was “talking too much,” having taking only spoken twice, and watched the men nodding in agreement.

As Baxter told Virgin, women use double-voicing “to pre-empt criticism from colleagues and not to appear demanding or boastful. Double-voicing makes women seem less threatening to colleagues, both male and female.”

But trying to disarm the perceived critical viewpoint of others, when it comes to your authority or expertise as a speaker, has the reverse impact. When a woman hedges the very act of speaking, she is stealing the power of her words before she even gets them out. Baxter consistently found this kind of double-voicing was viewed negatively by all colleagues, damaging to the leadership positioning and authority of women.

Double-voicing can also take more seemingly benign forms that still undermine speech. “I probably haven’t understood you correctly, but…” or “I have probably got my wires crossed but should we consider…” or “You have probably thought about this point already, but…” This puts the speaker on the back foot.

How Double-Voicing Can Strengthen Your Leadership

In her book, “Double-voicing at Work: Power, Gender and Linguistic Expertise,” Baxter asserts that double-voicing is a form of “linguistic expertise.” The challenge is to use it deliberately.

Baxter writes in a Babel, “I suggest that double-voicing need not be a sign of weakness, but could actually be a source of strength.” She notes, “Double-voicing could be a highly sophisticated strategy to consolidate team relationships while achieving a female leader’s own agenda.”

According to Baxter, double-voicing can be used to “draw out a colleague who is silent, or to silence another who is outspoken, and to anticipate an emerging conflict and to soothe it into resolution.” Above all, it can help you communicate more effectively and inclusively as a leader.

If effective leadership means moving towards social awareness (not just self), being inquisitive (not directive), building power with (not over) colleagues, as well as showing an outward focus in your language, then double-voicing is a very powerful leadership skill when applied well.

For example, when applied not to second-guess your contribution as a speaker, but demonstrate insight and forethought about how others may feel about the content you are sharing, double-voicing can be “a highly constructive tool for leadership.”

It’s a skill to be able to anticipate the likely thoughts of the audience and incorporate those thoughts into your message to bring others onside as you are speaking. It’s a skill to reflect awareness of cultural or situational expectations. It’s a skill to pre-empt or diffuse criticism or agendas that could dilute the impact of the core point you are getting across. It’s a skill to reflect the perceived audience perspective in a way that builds greater solidarity with you as the speaker.

This could sound like, “The first question you may raise is…”, “Right now, you are probably wondering about x, and I’ve thought about that..”, or “At this point, we may all be asking ourselves…”

Double-voicing used intentionally, powerfully and iteratively reflects a “sophisticated linguistic expertise.”

Women’s voices are too seldom heard in the top executive offices and boardrooms for lack of representation. A woman’s double-voicing may reflect an internalization of the dialling down of women’s voices, a trace of acknowledgement that her voice is new here and has not always been validated.

But it’s time to self-validate. Flip double-voicing around as a leadership asset, and it’s one way to dial female leadership right up.

By Aimee Hansen

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