Should You Say No to Networking?

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Guest Contributed by Kelly Hoey

Networking

Image via Shutterstock

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates attributed their success to one factor. According to Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder, in 1991 when Bill Gates’ dad asked Buffett and Gates what the most important factor for their success was, they both gave the same answer, “FOCUS.”
 
Focus always comes before success.
 
Steve Jobs, no slouch in the success department himself, said that
“it’s only by saying No that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” 
 
Success is not possible without a clear focus on what matters most and the ability to concentrate your energy, thought and capital. In other words, a key to success is learning to say NO. No to personal and professional invites, business networking events, conferences, industry get-togethers, meetups. All the things you instinctively want to say yes to. I know it’s hard to say no – you feel guilty, you don’t want to disrespect the host, you want to look like a team player, you feel like you’ll miss out on something interesting or you’re afraid that if you say NO you’ll never be invited again.
 
But here’s the key: Ask yourself if that event you’re thinking about attending today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. By staying focused on where you’re headed, you’ll be able to figure out whether saying no will get you further ahead or is simply an excuse that’s holding you back.
 
2015 was my year of no. I said no to pretty much everything as I was singularly focused on getting a book deal. This project needed my undivided attention, so no it was. I needed to focus and didn’t want distractions. Did I miss opportunities? Maybe. But saying no at this juncture of my career was the right thing to do. That has not always been the case. Saying no at other points in my career would have been a career-killer.
 
When entrepreneur Rachel Hofstetter was growing her business, she knew the strength of her network was dependent on her selectively and strategically saying yes. Rachel founded Guesterly (acquired in 2015 by photo-book subscription service Chatbooks) an on-line service which extends the warm hand of the host by connecting guests before a big event.
 
She focused her networking efforts by keeping both long-term and shorter-term goals in mind. When she was getting ready to raise investment money, Rachel prioritised attending investor and start-up-focused events. When she moved to a new city, she found herself attending every type of event she could, in order to meet people. Expanding her network was why she accepted every invitation and checked out every event, rather than turning them down. When she launched Guesterly into the wedding market (an industry where she previously knew no one), she attended every wedding-industry-related event she could find, in order to figure out exactly where she needed to focus her networking efforts.
 
At this point in her career, she knew not to say no. She knew that her network mattered just as much as the quality of her work. If someone asked if she wanted to head to happy hour- yes. Grab a group lunch? Yes. Those people moved around jobs and industries and that network made introductions that led her somewhere amazing.
 
So, yes, there are networking opportunities you should never say no to, especially in the workplace. Universally saying you will never attend networking events at work is—not to be too dramatic here—career suicide. Never say no to opportunities to get to know your peers and colleagues.
 
Job pressures and competition keep too many of us in our cubicles from the moment we step off the elevator to the minute we run out the door. One Wall Street investment banker I knew regularly ordered in pizza for his group, as a way to bring the team together. This was no “free” lunch: pizza was ordered (and he happily paid for it each week) on the condition that no one could eat alone. It doesn’t take much to break down communication barriers and build team rapport. In twenty minutes you can accomplish more than consuming a slice or two of pizza— you can build relationships.
 
You need to be strategic and sometimes rather selective in which work-related networking events you choose to attend, but don’t apply a universal no to opportunities to share your knowledge with colleagues beyond the radius of your cubicle, or to being further informed of developments in your chosen profession.
 
There are many, many, many ways to limit your career opportunities; take “no to networking” off that list.
 
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of our Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
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Forming and Keeping Women’s Initiative Programs: Tips from the Trenches

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Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

You know we have to focus on a problem when the number of men and women starting off in law firms is 50/50 but then women are only at a 22% partnership level,” Shira Nadich Levin, partner at Cooley LLP alerted a special seminar of the Legal Marketing Association’s Metro New York chapter dedicated to developing business for female lawyers.

The solution? Some suggest that a Women’s Initiative can go a long way in helping solve this issue.

But how do you start one and, harder still, how do you keep it going? Here are some anecdotes from the event that hold true all year around.

Ms. Levin, who chairs Cooley’s Women’s Initiative, along with Julie Cohen, Marketing Director at Sidley Austin LLP; and Tracy Fink, Director of CohnReznick’s Executive Women’s Forum (EWF) offered their advice and experiences to an audience in position to effect change – business development leaders at many of the top law firms. Their top tips included:

Tip #1 Start with a clear mission and stick with it. “We plan meaningful events and experiences that create value to those who attend,” said Ms. Fink about the mission of the Executive Women’s Forum, which she created as a business development initiative for CohnReznick, the accounting firm where she was in a marketing director role.
Ms. Fink formed the EWF a little less than a decade ago, when women’s initiatives were not as prevalent as they are now. Women were struggling with balancing their lives and “we didn’t have Millennials who were very vocal about the workplace.” The Forum has since become a huge success, aligning with the strategic goals of each office, including bringing in business, enhancing the firm’s brand, and creating a haven for female employees and clients to develop and deepen relationships.

Tip #2 Be flexible and listen to your members. Ms. Fink envisioned that the Forum would offer events on substantive issues. What she found is that “women came and said, ‘we want to talk about what really matters in our lives.’” So, programs today are an eclectic mix of business and life skills, such as the power of kindness, mindfulness in the workplace, and a women’s golf event. “Through the EWF, we’ve introduced more than 350 women to golf,” she stated.

Tip #3 Think of events that allow members to “loosen up.” One particularly successful event that Ms. Cohen hosted for her group at Sidley featured a female poker expert who taught the group how to play poker and use poker skills to present themselves to clients and peers. “We had more than 150 people. The women were letting their guard down, and they used the time to connect with clients,” she related. The program received such great feedback that the group did a follow-up event a few months later for an “open play” poker session that attracted even more attendees.

Tip #4 If a program doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to tweak it. Cooley’s Women’s Initiative replaced their traditional mentoring program with what it calls “connection circles.” They firm came up with this, explained Ms. Levin, when the members realized a strict mentoring program that paired mentors to mentees was not effective enough and required constant follow-up with each mentor to make sure the system was working. The firm instead created groups of eight to 11 female members at various levels who get together informally. “We even planned somebody’s wedding at our last gathering,” she joked. But these gatherings enable the members to form much better connections than one-on-one pairings.

Tip # 5 Seek creative solutions to members’ problems. The Cooley’s Women’s Initiative created the liaison program as another way to improve life at the office for women attorneys. This program came about in a year when several young women happened to take maternity leave at the same time. When they returned, the women all felt that their re-entry was not really noticed. The firm, as a result, now assigns a liaison to each woman on leave to keep in touch during her leave and help with issues upon her return. “It has made a complete difference with little effort,” Ms. Levin reported.

Tip # 6 Pay no heed to the naysayers. All three panelists cited the usual resistance from within the firm: why should there be a group just for women? “Because,” said Ms. Fink, “when women succeed, everyone wins.” In a professional world where clients expect diversity from their law firms, “creating that culture is important,” said Ms. Cohen. “There’s no shortage of information on the business case for diversity,” Ms. Levin added.

“Creating a committee won’t solve all your problems,” stated Ms. Cohen, “but you can empower women to go up to the men who meet on their own and say ‘I’d like to join you next time.’”
Rosemarie Yu is Principal of Yu Communications, a New York-based communications consultancy specializing in professional services. She can be reached at ryu@yucommunications.com

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How to maintain your professional network

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Professional-networking-advice featuredBy Zoe Anderson

You’re busy all the time. Between your career goals, life, friends and family, you don’t even have the opportunity to reward yourself for all of your hard work with a pedicure or a glass of wine. How do other women do it? It seems like so many succeed without ever needing to take time out for a breather. The answer is: having a strong professional network to lean on. Keeping in touch with important, influential individuals means you won’t have to work so hard to know of upcoming opportunities to advance your career.

Be easy to find

If you aren’t easy to find, people aren’t going to find you. No one wants to go out of their way scouring the earth for you, but there are plenty of people who would like to build connections with you, provided that you’re in their line of sight. Keep contact with former co-workers and connect with as many key players as possible.

Value quality over quantity

Agonizing over your relationship with a file clerk is going to be a drain on your energy, unless you really enjoy that person’s friendship. A large number of networking acquaintances doesn’t necessarily improve your prospects – it’s more about how said acquaintances can help you. Prioritize your business relationships with influential people, and don’t worry so much about those who won’t be able to provide you with much assistance.

Regularly update on social media

You need to keep yourself fresh in everyone’s minds. If you have a LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook that you use specifically for professional purposes, don’t just scroll through everyone’s updates and log out. You need to take time to interact with people. Retweet, like, share, and make plenty of your own relevant posts. You want people to feel like they know you, and like you have a reliable rapport. When an opportunity comes up and they have some information to spread, you’ll already be on their minds!

Make yourself an authority

There is no better way to gain clout than to build a reputation as an industry leader and voice of authority. Always stay abreast of industry changes and trends. Read about new technology and innovations. Create a blog with helpful resources such as infographics, FAQs, and archived interviews that your colleagues can reference. Regularly updating your content not only strengthens your authority in your field, it can also boost your SEO presence, which allows the right people to find you. If you’re present enough online, opportunities may present themselves to you without you having to go out and find them.

Speak highly of others

Speaking highly of others is a cornerstone of mutually beneficial relationships. If you know someone who needs work done, or a specific kind of consultation, you should be thinking about which person in your professional circles you can refer them to. Sending customers and clients in the direction will help people perceive you as a great knowledge resource to tap, whilst simultaneously creating a high level of respect for your opinions and views. They’ll be more likely to remember you when the time comes if you’ve done something to improve their livelihood. Consider who is worthy of your honest personal recommendation, and always take multiple business cards to hand out from those you believe are worthy.

Make plans

It always helps to put a face to a name. The internet has taken over a lot of business affairs, and because of this, we mostly know people by their profile pictures and the content they post. Try to arrange to do something in person with your network, bimonthly at the very least. Seminars, meetings, or company parties are helpful ways to strengthen your networks and put a name to a face. You may find events you can sit in on, or even a corporate softball game you can attend. This gives you the opportunity not only to help keep you top of mind, but also to make some great first impressions.

Most of these things are easily achievable. They don’t require a ton of effort on your part if you can create an environment that’s beneficial for everyone. Since you can do most of these things from home in your free time, this means you’ll still be able to order some takeout, watch Netflix, and catch a little bit of a break from your exhausting life.

Zoe Anderson is a marketing assistant at StudySelect. She’s keen on learning about new branding strategies and digital marketing tools.
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Build Your Personal Brand in 30 Seconds

Personal BrandWhat can take you about 30 seconds to do? Maybe apply your favorite shade of red lipstick, lace up your running shoes for a run in the park, or send a text message to your best friend on how your day is going. All mundane, non-consequential personal activities we may do on a daily basis. But what if you only had 30 seconds to make a personal impression that impacted your entire professional life, including your career advancement, your compensation and what your superiors thought about your personality and career objectives?

Read more

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The “Other” Social Network – Events Build Business for Lawyers

networkingThe goal of women’s networks can run the gamut. One strategy that many financial institutions and law firms have followed is to use women’s networks and women’s initiatives as a way to build business. For the individual, a book of business and a high billing reputation can very much create a more equal playing field. This is one way to ensure that women in revenue functions get credit for their work and advance in the firm.

Read more

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Being Connected on Wall Street Reaps Big Career Benefits, If You’re a Man

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women in technologyIf you’re a female analyst on Wall Street, you’re probably achieving lower returns on your social connections than your male peers. Because who you know matters when it comes to firms you handle, but it matters way more if you’re a man.

A new working paper by Lily Fang, an associate professor of finance at INSEAD, and Sterling Haung, a PhD candidate at the school, focuses on the links between gender, connections, and career outcomes among 1,815 Wall Street analysts and their work across 8,242 firms between 1993 and 2009. Analyst-firm connections (41,000) were defined as alumni-ties with one or two senior officers or board members within the firms that the analysts cover.

Women and Men are Equally Connected

Previous research had found that “connected” financial analysts, who went to the same university as senior officer of the firms they covered, significantly outperformed in their stock recommendations and more effectively in their jobs compared to analysts without connections. Fang & Haung wondered if the impact on job performance and career trajectory differed between men and women.

The great news is they found no gender difference in how well-connected analysts are – both men and women have a connection in about 25% of the firms they cover. The bad news is they found a “big difference in how much these connections help male and female analysts in their jobs.” According to Fang in her INSEAD article, “men overall reap more benefits from connections than women both in terms of job performance and in terms of subjective evaluation by others.”

How Connections Impact On Job Performance

The study measured how analyst connections impacted upon “objective” and “subjective” performance and career outcomes: accuracy of their earnings (EPS) forecasts; price impact of their buy/sell stock recommendations; and being elected to the All-American Research Team (AA) as a “star analyst”.

The researchers found that connections led to a much stronger impact on forecast accuracy, for men. Fang notes that “while connections lead to a 2 percent improvement in accuracy rankings in general, among men, there is a further improvement of about 1.8 percent.” Put more bluntly in the report, “the connection effect is present only among men but not women.”

For women, connections to a female executive in firms they handled led to a slightly higher improvement in forecast accuracy (2.5%), but not nearly as much as male-male connections (4.7%). As Fang puts it, “Thus the value of the ‘old boys club’ is hard to refute in our data.”

Fang writes that among analysts, “The effect of connections is even greater in their stock recommendation impact or how the market reacts to their buy and sell calls. Connections improve male analysts’ recommendation impact by about 1.2 percent, but not at all for female analysts.”

Fang notes that the differing impact on job performance was strongest among young analysts, setting women back way before they approach the glass ceiling. “This vastly different ability to capitalise on connections at such an early point in their career paths could explain gender gaps that exist throughout long-term career trajectories. The cycle, it seems, starts at the entry level.”

How Connections Impact on “Star Analyst” Status

The third measure was more subjective, promotion as a “star analyst” through an opinion poll, an evaluation by thousands of institutional investors, organized by Institutional Investor – a title given to less than 8% of analysts, which impacts significantly upon career profile and salary earnings (up to 3-fold). Much of the top evaluation criteria is highly subjective such as industry knowledge, communication, responsiveness and written reports.

The researchers found connections directly contributed to male analysts’ odds of being elected an AA but had zero impact for female analysts. Importantly, there’s no gender inequality in numbers promoted to all star status: “In general, [women make up] 12% of the overall [analyst] population, but they are 14% of the star analysts so it’s not like people are not awarding women,” says Fang in Fast Company, “but the factors for them to be selected are very different than men.”

For women, those impacting factors appear to be Ivy League education (35% of women in the total sample had one compared to 25% of men) and a record of forecasting accuracy – neither of which is significant in determining whether men are elected to being a star, or promoted within it.

According to the researchers, “The results reveal that investors value analysts of different genders differently: While connection is valued by investors and affects positive career outcomes for men, for women, it is measurable achievements and competence that seem to play a larger role.”

An Insidious Gender Bias

The researchers offer two potential interpretations of their findings. One is that “men are evaluated on ‘potential’ while women are evaluated on ‘performance.’” The other is that women benefit less from connections than men because they’re still seen as “outsiders” by investors whereas men are seen as “insiders/one of our own.” Both are plausible. Neither are pleasing.

As Fang says in Fast Company, “The type of gender bias that we document, I think is more subtle, but perhaps even more insidious than the simple numbers game. We’re not finding women are under-represented. We’re finding that they’re evaluated in different ways. How do you change people’s subjective interpretation? That’s a much more difficult [issue], I think. It probably has more to do with social norms and the ways people see things.”

Fang also points out in her INSEAD article, “It is telling that while 14 percent of Wall Street all-stars are women, virtually none of the top bosses in any of the big firms are. It could be argued that even the most competent women remain in analytical roles rather than being promoted into general management because that kind of promotion entails subjective evaluations by others.”

Mentorship & Sponsorship Still Matter!

Senior Associate Editor Sarah Green at the Harvard Business Review, uses Fang & Haung’s research as a springboard into “Why ‘Network More’ is Bad Advice for Women”e, noting that “we need to stop telling women to follow a male playbook.”

She’s got a point on the playbook. But using Fang & Huang’s findings to also question the value of mentorship and sponsorship in a woman’s career advancement is dangerous. Connections with top executives in other companies who went to the same university isn’t a parallel to the support that well-formed mentorships with strong chemistry or sponsorships can provide for a woman navigating her career.

Should a proven track record be more important for the career advancement of male analysts than female analysts? Absolutely not.

But if it is, isn’t it better if you’ve got somebody in your corner – whose attention you’ve earned through your achievements and abilities – helping you wave your impressive track record around when the next career opportunity presents itself?

By Aimee Hansen

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6 Ways To Refine And Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

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Guest Contribution by Jennifer Bradshaw

One way of gaining exposure when looking to advance at work is to put your back into it and drag yourself out in the open, into the spotlight.

Now, if you ask me, “how can someone hog the entire spotlight when there are already plenty of entertainers on the stage”, I would say, ‘optimize your presence’. How would I do that? Use social media like LinkedIn!

Being home to over 290 million users all over the world, LinkedIn connect individuals with the professional world, giving them a chance to embrace professional exposure and growth. Yet, according to a survey, only 50.5% of the total users make the most of LinkedIn. What about the rest? Well, the rest of the flock is still missing out on the goodies LinkedIn has to offer since they are just too lazy to optimize their profile.

LinkedIn is a pretty powerful network, but that dominance can only be leveraged to your advantage if only are you aware of its KEY hidden tricks that bring actual results. Here, I will reveal those tricks and educate you how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, aka digital resume, empowering you to make the most of this valuable professional hub.

Customize that Inappropriate Profile URL
It is important to understand that the majority of prospective recruiters, these days, use search engine in their quest to finding the right employee. However, they often fail to do so because some individuals (even well-experienced and skilled ones) totally forget or ignore to optimize their LinkedIn URL. If you don’t want to lose a lucrative opportunity, you need to replace those confusing numbers at the end of your profile URL with your name.

Replace Your Funky Display Pic with an Appropriate Image
Don’t forget that LinkedIn isn’t your social profile, but a professional portfolio. Thus, strip down that inappropriate or funky looking selfie of yours and replace it with a professional portrait. Remember that the first thing that grabs the roving eyes of the employer is your DP. If it is exuding professionalism, the employer won’t hesitate to call you for an interview that very instant. However, if it reflects otherwise, the employer won’t bother to review the rest of the profile.

Make the Best Use of the Headline
Next thing that can be said as the epicenter of your profile success is the headline, written under your original name. It is the area that gives you an opportunity to make your profile standout from the crowd. Brand that headline and make it appealing so that the prospective employer may know who he is dealing with. Make that headline descriptive and use multiple titles to cover the keyword that recruiters usually use to seek candidates.

Expand the Headline Articulately in the Summary
The summary section of your profile reflects the essence of who you are, where your skills and expertise lie and what accomplishments you have attained so far. In other words, it is an area where you stretch out and present all the information that makes you a ‘must-hire’ for a company. Hence, keep it neat, simple, clear and engaging; yet, don’t go overboard with the décor.

Amplify the Credibility of Your Profile with Endorsements
Unlike a traditional paper resume, LinkedIn allows you to not only list down all your skills but also get them endorsed by your connections and thus add credibility to your digital profile. Though it may not be much helpful when it comes to the optimization of your profile, it can certainly generate an air of integrity in your profile that employers most seek.

Take That Credibility to Even Great Heights with Recommendations
Recommendations can be considered as testimonials as well as references, either way they are valuable. It is the feedback on your character, personality, work skills and attitude by people who either know for a long time or have worked with you. Ask recommendations in your connection and don’t forget to return them the favor by recommending them.

Jenifer Bradshaw is a developer and a writer. She assists students in choosing the right career path. She also provides assignment help to students facing problems with their coding assignment. Find her on Facebook.

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

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Reckoning with Institutional Double Standards on International Women’s Day

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IWDBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

What is it that keeps women from ascending to executive levels in business in numbers comparable to men? It’s not for lack of commitment or ambition. It’s not a matter of skill level or about being “tough enough.” It’s not even about negative perceptions on women’s ability to turn a profit.

What it is, is bias. It’s a culture created by men and women that offers men greater opportunities to succeed, while holding women to higher standards. And now, finally, the American public is actually coming to terms with the double-standards keeping women out of leadership roles. In fact, in a recent Pew survey, the majority of respondents acknowledged that women do, in fact, face a tougher road to the top, even today.

“Americans widely believe that men have a better shot at leadership positions in business and politics, even as majorities say that men and women make equally good leaders,” the Pew report states.

In the survey, majorities (including both women and men) agreed that there aren’t many women in executive leadership because companies simply aren’t ready to hire women leaders. It was also recognized that it is because women are held to higher standards than men. Yet, respondents also said women would do just as good a job as men.

The Pew study illuminates a point of view The Glass Hammer has supported for many years. That is: women are not the ones who need changing. The reason women are not advancing into senior leadership roles in greater numbers is because they are locked out by institutional, systemic biases that favor men over women implicitly.

Yet, this runs contrary to so much of the professional advice offered to women – to do more of this or less of that, to behave more in one way or another. Lean in, lean out, be nice, be tough, always wear heels, never let them see you cry. These pieces of advice may work for some women or they may not. Many women may find power or inspiration there, while others may find them empty promises. But they will not fix the problem that persists to this day, that the corporate world is set up to give the benefit of the doubt to men over women every time when it comes to promotion and advancement.

As of January, there were only 26 female Fortune 500 CEOs, according to Pew. And it’s taken 20 years to reach that puny five percent threshold. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!” At this rate, what will the picture of women in leadership be in another twenty years? Is ten percent good enough?

We, as a culture, can do vastly more for women and we should. It will take work by all of us, though, and real acknowledgment from powerful business leaders – both male and female – that double standards are keeping talented, driven women from succeeding. Change starts at the top but is lived by everyone.

Double Standards by the Numbers

Looking at Pew’s numbers, it’s clear that the majority of respondents – a sample of almost 3,000 US adults – agree that women face double standards in the workplace.

Two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) said the reason there aren’t many women running major corporations is that many businesses just “aren’t ready” for to hire women for top jobs. Two in five (43 percent) said this was a “major” reason there weren’t more women in executive positions while 24 percent cited it as a “minor” reason.

Almost the same share (65 percent) of respondents said that women have to “do more to prove themselves,” and the “major” and “minor breakdowns were almost identical.
In comparison, 58 percent of respondents said they believe women’s responsibilities to their families don’t leave much time for executive leadership, with a quarter (23 percent) designating this is a “major” factor that there aren’t more women running companies, while 35 percent cited it as a “minor” factor.

Respondents were also asked to compare whether men or women are more suited toward certain characteristics. A third (34 percent) said women were better at “working out compromises,” while only 9 percent said men were better at that task. Over half (55 percent) said there was no difference between the genders here. Similarly, 31 percent said women were better at being “honest and ethical,” while three percent said men were, and 64 percent said there was no difference between the genders. Three quarters of respondents said there was no difference between the genders when it came to “negotiating deals,” while 18 percent said men were better suited to this task then women, and seven percent said women were better suited to it.

Finally, a third (34%) said men were better at being willing to take risks than women, while five percent said women were better than men at taking risks, and 58 percent said there was no difference between men and women here.

Indeed, men’s propensity for risky behavior has been studied, lauded, condemned, and questioned in equal measure.
Perhaps its time for men, who make up the vast majority of senior business leaders, to take a risk and openly support the advancement of women, by using their influence to challenge unfair workplace institutions and gender biases.

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Who is in your network? Will seeking out people just like you at work help your career?

By Aimee Hansen

Theglasshammer in 2015 is addressing the need for women and men to work better together and for men to champion and authorize talented women as well as recognizing talented men. Building your network with all sorts of people who can help you in your career is crucial.

According to an INSEAD study and other research, when you default to those with the same social identity as you at work, this can help or hinder individual performance.

Not surprisingly, the higher leaders are sitting, the more important it is, for their own benefit and the organization’s, to acknowledge and go beyond the leading lens of their own homophilic bias when structuring project teams. This matters for women since it is at the very psychological and behaviorial heart of what used to be the old boys club.

Does working with one group help or hinder your career?
Homophily and homophilic association is the tendency for people to seek out and have greater contact with those who remind them of themselves. Researchers Gokhan Ertug and Martin Gargiulo studied its impact in their INSEAD paper, “Does Homophily Affect Performance?”, observing the relationships of workers in the Equities division of a global investment bank. The study focused on the variable of nationality – controlling other diversity factors like ethnicity, gender, age, religion, education and occupation.

The study confirmed that unsurprisingly employees were more likely to seek out those like themselves when they needed information or advice on a task-related topic. What differed is the outcome of this bias at different levels.

INSEAD found that while homophily helped more junior employees overcome the barrier to accessing information and getting other’s attention to improve performance, it actually created a barrier to performance amongst upper management, who already hold legitimacy and power within the company.

INSEAD researchers stated, “we find that while the tendency to build homophilous ties has a positive effect on the performance of people in the entry rank among bonus-eligible bankers (associate directors in our sample), the same tendency has a negative effect on the performance of employees who are above this entry rank.”

The paper continued, “Relying on similar people to form instrumental ties can be an effective survival strategy for people facing significant difficulties in securing access to the information and knowledge they need to carry out their jobs in the organization. At the same time, sticking to such a strategy when it is no longer necessary can harm performance.”

For executive at more senior levels, homophily became blinding, leading senior employees to ignore qualified colleagues who could help them succeed. The researchers proposed the trade-off homophily can create, “We argue that, while homophily might make it easier for workers to request and obtain knowledge from colleagues, it might also prompt them to approach less qualified colleagues.”

Though it did not correlate to individual performance impact, the INSTEAD study also found secondarily that bankers were more likely to seek task-related inputs from colleagues of the same age, tenure and gender. The implication would seem to follow that low female representation in boardrooms and at senior executive levels suggests lower indirect female influence and access at a senior level too.

Women in the boardroom pose a financial advantage. But if female influence is lost to gender homophily, that’s an advantage companies are not harvesting. A study in the Journal of Business Ethics concludes “Women on the board are positively related with financial performance (measured in terms of return on assets and return on sales) and with ethical and social compliance, which in turn are positively related with firm value.”

Network Closure for Women
A very recent longitudinal study by Mark Lutter to appear in the American Sociological Review toplined “Do Women Suffer from Network Closure?” analyzes gender dynamics in the film industry across 81 years and provided intriguing insight into contexts in which women are more likely to be closed out by homophilious dynamics within a project-based labor market. The study “shows how observed career inequalities between males and females decrease or increase through different forms of network embeddedness.”

The researcher builds on prior research to propose that “gender inequality is particularly striking when women are exposed to cohesive project teams during their careers, whereas gender inequality is less severe when they are involved in weaker, more diverse network structures.”

How can more diverse structures support gender equity? Lutter explains, “This is because information flow in cohesive networks is likely to be redundant and gender-homophilous, which creates stronger disadvantages for women compared to men, because women’s close information networks are lower in status and consist of fewer ties to important (mostly male) sponsors. In diverse networks, however, information is non-redundant, non-exclusive, and beneficial especially to women, because women face fewer network constraints and can more strategically exploit external, weak tie relationships.”

In other words, tight male top-dominated networks function to keep the status quo. Within them, homophily amongst men works against women, and yes, homophily amongst women works against women, too.

Lutter’s report further states, “The more open and diverse team structures become, the more gender equality can be expected in project-based career advancement.”

Networking Opportunity for Women?
Gender homophily amongst women may also serve as a powerful tool for women, if they leverage it as a passport to cross other organizational barriers.

A Harvard Business School paper observed that while both sexes showed gender-based homophily, “it is women more than men who tend to bridge formal structural boundaries in organizations.” While women had the same number of male contacts as males in the studied firm, “they span organizational boundaries in their ties to other women, connecting otherwise disconnected populations, at a higher rate than do men.”

The results suggest (but not prove) that, “homophilous interaction can actually help to span formal organizational boundaries that are otherwise difficult to traverse.” At an individual level, homophily can be a tool for women networking out and up, if women also remember the importance of looking beyond it, and don’t neglect the need for male sponsors and mentors.

In Summary
Homophily is a bias wielded by both sexes that can help and hurt at an individual level based on where you sit, but ultimately it is more foe than friend when it comes to moving organizations towards diversity and gender equity. Women simply do not have the numbers at higher level management to mitigate this bias. The inevitable disadvantage to career progression remains with women as long as men disproportionately dominate executive positions, and leadership circles remain tight.

Real change will come when the organizations realize the disadvantage lies also with them.

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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.

Read more

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