The Case for Women Intrapreneurs

iStock_000019152998XSmallBy Robin Madell

While we read plenty about women leaving corporate jobs for entrepreneurial ventures, much less discussed is the option of female intrapreneurship. Being an intrapreneur simply means acting like an entrepreneur in terms of risk-taking and innovation while working within a large corporation.

The potential pros of entrepreneurship are often touted and well-known: the opportunity to be your own boss, to work more flexibly on your own schedule, and to have the chance to do meaningful work of your own choosing. A 2013 report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that where personal satisfaction is concerned, those who start their own businesses rank the highest in the world in happiness scores. The report also stated that female entrepreneurs rated themselves even higher in their sense of well-being than male entrepreneurs.

While these stats are compelling, a 2012 report by GEM noted that the relatively small number of women launching new businesses worldwide—and fewer still who are running mature businesses—suggests a conundrum. This may stem from the fact that female entrepreneurs are less likely to receive funding to grow their businesses, which is a problem in itself. But what it also means is that women more often than not are failing to wield powerful resources and reach larger audiences at the entrepreneurial level.

As any basic business textbook confirms, the pros of larger companies generally include financial, labor, and audience advantages over smaller companies, whose main benefits are being nimble and reactive. When women leave the corporate arena, they aren’t just leaving behind their jobs; they are abandoning ample resources that could be used to enact change on the largest level. They just need to know how to access these resources.

Enter intrapreneurs. Unlike with entrepreneurship, intrapreneurs have a built-in corporate support system to help them reach their goals, if they know how to use it. Three companies that have strong intrapreneurial cultures are Google, LinkedIn, and Dreamworks. While intrapreneurship has traditionally been the purview of a limited number of people within a company, the trend is growing to extend this domain throughout entire organizations. Google and other tech companies, for example, have used “20 Percent Time” to give employees an allocated percentage of hours in their daily work schedule to tinker and innovate. This has led to some incredible discoveries, like Gmail and Google Earth, which affect hundreds of millions of users.

Here are some ideas on how to become an intrapreneur no matter which company you work for:

• Look for problems to solve. Whether it’s a process that’s broken or you envision a way to build a better mousetrap, keep your finger on the pulse of the marketplace and your customers. Use your unique role as an industry insider to recognize new trends coming down the pike, and grab opportunities early to think outside the usual boundaries.

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Australia is Pushing for ‘Waves of Change’ for Women in Senior Roles

Feminine Business 2By Nicole V. Rohr

In November 2013, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) published the report Increasing the Number of Women in Senior Executive Positions: Improving Recruitment, Selection and Retention Practices, based on its July 2013 launch of the Action Plan for Enduring Prosperity. The report highlighted ambitious efforts to increase women in senior roles in BCA organizations from 46 percent to 50 percent by 2023.

As part of the proposed plan, the BCA published a letter to members, a checklist to help companies increase the number of women on senior executive boards, and a report to act as a support tool for companies as they review and change recruitment and promotion standards in alignment with the BCA plan. These documents include categories like “The role of the CEO,” which detailed the expectations of leadership in order to encourage gender diversity. According to the report, the role of the CEO is inclusive of including “the achievement of gender diversity within an inclusive culture as a significant strategic objective of the organization”, as well as overseeing the development and implementation of the strategy to achieve it.

It is also recommended that leaders “sponsor talented women into senior roles and participate in a socialization program with identified internal and external female talent [and] ensure and model the company’s approach to flexible working arrangements in ways that do not prevent progression of women within the business.”

The BCA report also outlines “waves of change” that can lead to improved business performance. “Given that talent is randomly distributed across both genders, there is a high probability that at least half of a talented workforce will be women, so to take 90 percent of company leadership from just 50 percent of the talent poll – the males – simply does not make sense,” the report noted.

Is the US Ready for a Similar Plan?
Could something like the BCA’s plan work in the United States, making senior roles more accessible to women, leaving CEOs more enlightened, and increasing performance? Jane Ott, President of North South Capital LLC, said that in order for aggressive action to be taken, citizens have to believe that the targeted group is in need of the assistance, and that that change in attitude has not yet happened in the United States.

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The Outlook for High Potential Women in India and the 3 Approaches to Improve It

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By Kayla Turo

Another demonstration of gender inequality is exposed in India, research from Catalyst shows in their latest report, High Potentials Under High Pressure in India’s Technology Sector. In general, even the most capable, post-MBA Indian women fall short of men in terms of pay and position in most of the country’s industries.

At first glance, however, the technology sector seems to be a light on the horizon for Indian women, hiring ambitious male and female graduates with an equal amount of pay, but according to a recent Catalyst report, within 12 years in the same job and all other factors being equal, women’s salary falls behind their male coworkers by an average of Rs. 3.8 lakhs (6,000 US dollars).

“We cannot blame the gender gap in pay and position to lack of aspirations on the part of women,” said Aarti Shyamsunder, Director of Research at Catalyst, and one of two contributors to the report. 79 percent of both men and women starting out in India’s technology industry aspired to senior executive positions. Data shows that throughout their careers, male and female workers received analogous amounts of training through formal programs, and were likely to “job hop” in search of greater career advancement, a common factor within the industry.

The Power of Social Pressures
One explanation for the salary decline is the lack of women landing “hot jobs” or long-term international assignments that lead to more opportunities for future career growth within their industry. Statistics from the report reveal that only 18 percent of women were able to relocate abroad for 3 or more years at a time, compared to 57 percent of men. Women with children were reported as less willing to relocate compared to men with children, and twice as many men accepted the international relocation positions they were offered.

Likewise, 54 percent of women reported taking leaves of absences (LOAs). This is twice that of men, who also tended to take much shorter leaves than women. The Catalyst report details that women were three times more likely to take LOAs for childcare related-reasons compared to men (not including childbirth and maternity leave), while men were three times more apt to take leaves for personal welfare. Even in dual-career marriages, almost three times more women took on the role of at-home caregiver compared to a small percentage of men.

Given the context of the surrounding cultural expectations, these findings are not surprising, according to Shyamsunder. She stated, “I don’t think it’s realistic to expect women to suddenly stop taking leaves to care for their children, or to overcome centuries of socialization of overnight.”

Changing the Corporate Culture
Shyamsunder suggests that in order to better support women in their careers, companies should evaluate the overall credentials and potential of executive candidates based on their abilities to perform the job, “not on proxies like tenure or role maturity,” insists Shyamsunder.

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Don’t Freak Out: Why Upheaval Can Be a Good Thing

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Innovative. Resilient. Entrepreneurial. Solutions-oriented. These are the 21st century career buzzwords that populate the average corporate performance review or resume. They speak to the expectations of today’s volatile economy. Today’s professionals are expected to take whatever upheaval the market throws their way, and not only deal with it, but spin it into an advantage.

In theory, most of us would like to say we inhabit this rarefied domain of serial innovators who thrive on constant change. But in reality, a big upheaval in your life can be pretty terrifying, especially if you have a family to support or other people relying on you.

What happens when our best-laid plans go awry? “People are going to expect you to freak out,” suggested Veronica Fisk, a former Vice President at a top global bank, whose position was eliminated due to restructuring a year after she and her new husband moved to India for her job.

“Look at it as an opportunity to show how strong and confident you are, especially as a woman. Project that confidence. Say, ‘I’m an accomplished professional and I think it’s an opportunity for me.’”

Here’s some inspiration and advice to help you move forward through your own personal or professional upheaval.

Taking Risks
It’s important to take career risks, Fisk believes. That’s why, when her company offered her a sales position in India, she jumped at the opportunity. That also meant convincing her then-boyfriend to accelerate their plans to get married so they could move abroad. Ultimately, she was managing a large portfolio of big-name clients when her company was hit by a wave of aggressive restructuring. “Suddenly the environment went from one of growth to making cuts. Thousands of jobs were eliminated,” she recalled.

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Accept it – we’re all part of the changing face of leadership

businesspeople talking in meeting room and woman smilingBy Nneka Orji

Within the women at work discussion, there is a lack of diversity considering the fact that African-American, Asian and Latina women make up only one eighth of all women holding management and professional positions in the US.

Recently, President Obama, in his State of the Union address, supported the case for pay parity and ethnicity, citing that women generally make 77 cents on the dollar for the same job (and with the same education). There is an added nuance here as African-American and Latina women generally make 64 cents and 55 cents respectively. These numbers reflect the wage gap across all industries and classes of people in America, but how do these statistics impact those who identify as minorities on Wall Street or in Fortune 500 companies?

Changing perceptions
Being a minority can be a challenge. We all want to belong and when we feel like an outsider it can have a direct impact on how we shape our careers. According to a study conducted by Catalyst, women who feel ethnically/racially diverse – different to the majority – are also less likely to be mentored by C-suite and senior executives; 58 percent of those women who feel ethnically/racially different are mentored by this group, compared to 71 percent of women who do not feel different, 72 percent of men who feel different, and 77 percent of men who do not feel different. In addition to less access to senior level mentoring, ethnically (when manifested as race), the study suggests that women who identify with non-dominant groups in the workplace are more likely to lower their aspirations.

These diminished aspirations coupled with fewer mentoring opportunities can have a tacit impact in the initiatives aimed to increase this group’s representation at the executive and board levels.

Aspirations are linked to self-perception, so in order to achieve more notable progress women must change their self-perceptions. GEM’s 2012 Women’s Report showed that in all economies within their study sample, women perceived themselves to be less capable than men. While current corporate environments are likely not to offer the role models who look like “outsiders,” women do not need to look too far to find the reference points which support high aspirations as there are successful women all around them.

Business leaders must also work on shifting their mind-set as the real impact of misguided perceptions can still be seen throughout business. In a study run by the University of Utah, investors found IPOs led by female founders or female CEOs less attractive because they perceived women to be less capable than their male counterparts. While this study excluded race and ethnicity as a factor, a separate 2007 study found that over three quarters of the minority ethnic women surveyed felt that the leadership style of white women was more positively received. The image of competence and ability is changing, yet there seems to be slow acceptance of this fact.

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Professional Women in the UK Face a Large Pay Gap and Struggle to Juggle it All

iStock_000000227687XSmallBy Irene Velázquez

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, in 2013 the gender pay gap between male and female full-time workers increased to 10 percent from 9.6 percent. It is also being reported that one of the industries where women experience the largest pay gap is financial services.

Clare Flynn Levy, CEO of the financial software firm Essentia Analytics, says men are granted higher salaries simply because they stand up for their rights more than women do.

“Women don’t tend to shout from the rooftops about their achievements and talents the way that men do. They don’t tend to put themselves forward for projects and promotions,” Levy said. The CEO also says that men fight for a bonus they don’t believe they deserved, something most women wouldn’t do.

Levy also cites the financial service industry’s “traditional work environment” as an issue.

“In fund management, there is quite a traditional work environment where you are at your desk early in the morning and you leave relatively late, and it’s quite face-time oriented. There’s an assumption that ‘I have to be at my desk between eight and six every day.’ Once you have kids, maybe that becomes a problem.”

Women essentially have two jobs: their full time, paid work, and their full time domestic duties at home. Given that women often have to work twice as hard to get noticed in the workplace, it’s no wonder the women surveyed in the UK are feeling the overwhelming pressure to perform, which makes the pay gap even more dispiriting. In the funds industry in London, women are experiencing a pay gap of 37 percent, according to the salary data company Emolument.

A Problem for Business
Emolument reports that asset management companies do not pay women fairly. In London, women earn a minimum of £40,000, whereas men earn at least £41,375 at analyst-level, and £34,300 and £34,800 at the entry-level.

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Gender Parity in 2029: Realistic or Optimistic?

Group of businesspeople having a meeting.By Kayla Turo

In a recent article published by The Guardian, Chris Sullivan, Chief Executive of UK corporate banking at RBS, pressed his belief that in 15-years, gender parity will not be an issue. Sullivan assured readers that talent is what should— and will— be the deciding factor of who wins executive roles in big business, and that it is merely a bad cultural habit preventing women from reaching these positions.

Considered a “diversity champion” and supporter of the organization Focused Women, Sullivan recognizes that the issue lie in what’s been considered a “leaky pipeline” system of advancement in corporate businesses. While most companies seem to hire recent graduates on a 50:50 basis to fill junior level positions, the number of women begins to dwindle higher up the ladder, according to Fiona Hathorn, Managing Director of Women on Boards, a UK-wide organization dedicated to providing resources and programs to support women on their path to the boardroom. Nothing reflected in recent research makes Sullivan’s ill-informed opinion even slightly plausible. It is overly optimistic at best and many, including Hathorn, do not view gender parity as a realistic option by 2029.

Reports Say Otherwise
“Too many companies do not even know their gender employment data at various managerial levels, which shows that many are not managing their talent let alone taking gender talent management seriously,” Hathorn said. “In fact, Cranfield School of Management’s November 2013 interim Women on Boards update reviewed 50 FTSE 250 companies, revealing that only 2 percent had clear policies or goals for ensuring an increase in female management.”

Research released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) reported that Britain in particular has gone from 9th place in 2006 to 18th in 2013 in terms of gender equality. Britain continued to rank low in other WEF statistics, including helping women find professional positions (71st), getting women into parliament (54th), and healthy life expectancy of women (97th).

Are Quotas the Answer?
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The UK is taking steps to rectify the situation. In 2011 The Lord Davies Commission began supervising the number of female board directors, raising the number from 17.4 percent in 2011 to 19 percent. Yet much of this progress is a result of boards merely increasing the number of female non-executives within their company.

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How to Ensure We’re Not Having The Same Conversation About Women in the Boardroom in 2014

Business People Applauding In a MeetingBy Jennifer Keck

Sheila Ronning, President & CEO of Women in the Boardroom, does not mince words when it comes to the topic that gave her organization its name.

“Research for the amount of women serving on corporate boards is only being done for the Fortune 500 and those boards are still mainly only looking at CEO’s in F500 to fill those spots. So yes, we know there are a lack of women sitting at the helm of those companies,” Ronning said. “Mid cap and small company boards are also a great place for women to take a seat at the table and there are thousands and thousands of women who are more than qualified for these boards. In just the last 12 months, even though we are not a search firm, we at Women in the Boardroom have received 19 notifications of these board seat openings and we work to connect our board ready women with these companies.”

As Ronning affirmed, there are more than enough qualified women, but recent Catalyst research tells us that there has been absolutely no change in the number of women on Fortune 500 boards or the number executive officers and top earners. We’ve talked at length about the lack of female representation at these levels, but what now? How do we ensure we’re not having the same conversation about women in the boardroom in 2014?

Malli Gero is Executive Director and Co-Founder of 2020 Women on Boards, a national campaign working to increase the women on U.S. boards to 20 percent by the year 2020. We need to change the narrative and instead of focusing on the bleak numbers, focus on what can be done. Gero says there are three parties who can be making progress both separately and collectively: stakeholders, CEOs, and individual women. All three, Gero says, are important in the quest for gender parity.

What Stakeholders Can Do
Gero attributes the slow rate of change to a seemingly-common misconception held by CEOs and board chairs: stakeholders don’t pay attention to board composition. Gero says it’s also a matter of transparency, an issue 2020 Women on Boards is working to address.

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Men as Allies

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iStock_000006954519XSmallBy Jarod Cerf

In a piece by Maria Shriver called “The Unfinished Revolution” for Time Magazine, a man was quoted as saying, “We haven’t thrown some switch to go from a man’s world to a woman’s world. It’s more like we’re finally, for the first time, in a position where it’s no longer only a man’s world. Now what does that mean?” In just a few words, he was able to articulate the question that is lingering over every workplace: what does it mean that dynamics have shifted? And perhaps more importantly: how do we move forward?

Recent studies suggest that mixed gender alliances can be complicated and plagued with tension. The Sponsor Effect reported that low availability or unwillingness to follow through on promised support (31 percent), apparent sexual tension (30 percent), insufficient guidance (27 percent), and fear of talking openly about appearance (20 percent) greatly diminished the quality of women’s partnerships with senior male executives.

More telling is the reason the women sought out such alliances: 75 percent elected to have male sponsors for their “perceived influence and ability to leverage among their networks” vs. 18 percent for “knowing how to succeed.” As the researchers themselves attest, while women are generally adept at building long-term and supportive relationships, men are far more accustomed to converting those bonds into favors, opportunities, and trust-enforcing obligations.

This style of leveraging or converting social bonds, however, often seems distasteful—if not altogether secondary—when compared to deeds and merits. This sentiment was echoed strongly by respondents featured in Catalyst’s “The Pipeline’s Broken Promise”, one of whom stated that “Women need to get more assertive” regarding rewards and compensation. “If it doesn’t come to you, ask for it. Men do,” she continued.

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How Do You Lead a Multigenerational Workforce?

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iStock_000006952019XSmallBy Hadley Catalano

Women in leadership positions are now managing multiple generations of employees, sometimes with as much as a 50-year age gap. Generally speaking, the scenario isn’t entirely new: seasoned employees with years of experience have often worked alongside fresh, inexperienced hires. What is historic; however, is that in the last 10 years, the workplace has grown to include four generations of employees: Traditionalists (1922-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1981), and Generation Y, also known as Millennials (1982-2000).

This historic moment can be attributed to an aging labor force. Once, the golden age of retirement was between the ages of 60 and 65. Today, people are working well into their 70’s. Why? Sometimes the answer is as simple as “because they can,” though the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that more often than not it’s a matter of requiring more than a fixed income in an unsteady economy, one rife with slashed retirement packages and to guarantee postretirement income.

This growing trend of multigenerational workplaces has been well documented by the BLS, as employees stay on well past retirement age and Gen Y workers set to outnumber Boomers and Gen X workers by 2015. But what does it mean for women who must lead multigenerational teams?

Talking ‘Bout My Generation
For directors, the expansion of their work teams has presented complex administrative challenges. According to a recent survey conducted by EY, a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction, and advisory services, three-quarters of the 1,215 cross-company professionals surveyed agreed that managing multigenerational teams is complicated. What makes it easier, however, is understanding the differences among your multi-generational employees.

Experienced executives, Jennifer Mackin, President and CEO of The Oliver Group, a leadership consulting firm, and Peg Newman, Managing Partner of Sanford Rose Associates, have observed generational characteristics and motivators.

According to Mackin, generational commonalities – based on age, cultural backgrounds, goals, influences, and behaviors – are rooted in inherited traits and environmental conditions.

“Some (generations) went through The Depression or more difficult financial times and others grew up in more affluent time,” Mackin said. “Traditionalists and Baby Boomers didn’t grow up with technology but learned that hard work always pays off and you get ahead by putting in the effort. Gen Xers and Millennials have their basic needs met and always have, in general. They are more interested in a comfortable way of life and, therefore, choose other priorities such as flexibility in their work and time for other parts of their life outside of work.”

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