Op-ed: The Shepherd Leader

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Liora Haymann I am at lunch with work-friends; the conversation idles to what we enjoy about our work and how we describe what we do. As Managing Director at OBMI, I do everything, everyday: I listen, write, sketch, calculate, interview, discuss, argue, analyze, resolve, decide, direct… I am aware of every project we are designing. I love the diversity, the complexity, and the strategy. But the image in my mind that describes what I do is this: I am a Shepherd; I am moving a herd organically forward towards our goal. Some in the herd are big, some small, some arrow-fast, some slow and determined, some head straight to the front, some stay in the pack, and some veer off to explore.

The path is rugged; there are steep slopes, fences to open, streams to cross, dry patches, predators, and enticing pastures farther away. I have a clear direction in my mind. I am looking simultaneously at the pack and at the road ahead. I attend to both, what is now, and what may come. I am in the front to decide a direction at a fork, or to examine a narrow path. I am in the heart of the pack if someone is stuck, to remove the blockage, to keep us moving on. I keep an eye on those veering off, as they may be onto something of value; if they veer too far, the task is to bring them back. I am totally hands-on.

I am not a Visionaire or a Storyteller, but as Shepherd Leader, I have vision: of the goal, of the road ahead, of key actions necessary to get us where we want to go. I believe that Full Leadership has Side and Underside. Yin and Yang. The Visionaire inspires the team with a High Vision, the why and a shared desire for the goal. But alone, the Visionaire cannot get us there. The Shepherd inspires later -as we traverse the challenges of the path- with her actions, her values, and her unflagging commitment to move us through. The vision keeps us high above; the reality of the path forces us to ground. We need both, Visionaire and Shepherd to take us through.

As Simon Sinek stated: “Genius is in the idea. Impact, however, comes from action.”

This Shepherd Leader image is supported by Linda Hill’s article “Leading from Behind” in Harvard Business Review, in which she argues for “harnessing the collective genius”- encouraging members to contribute their skills for collaborative problem solving and innovation. She compares this to the work of a shepherd who leads from the rear, allowing the more able to run ahead for others to follow. “It is about empowering others to lead in addition to yourself. It’s about being in front when there is danger, but allowing others to join with independent thought, creativity, and exchange of ideas.”

Curious about shepherding, I read Ken Downer’s article “9 Secrets of Leading Sheep” and Robert Moor’s shepherding story, part of his book On Trails. As they both explain, collective thinking looks down on sheep as passive, blind followers – but, in fact, they are absolutely not. Downer and Moor describe that sheep can be head-strong, energetic, or languid; that they are ungovernable when hungry; that they have strong spatial memory, but without the shepherd, they will wander around; and that they build strong trust in their good shepherd. Among sheep there are Leaders who seek the front, Middlers who prefer the center, and Tailers who stay in the back. There can be multiple leaders, emerging in different situations.

Thus, a shepherd does not passively lead “from behind.” Leading the herd takes effort, planning, experience, and requires vigilance and example. In shepherding there is Intended Direction and there is Intentional Action. The shepherd will take the front when needed, when there is danger, when decisions are to be made. All leadership incarnations are active.

In telling his experience in the British Army in WWII, my father writes: “In moments of calm, the Commander can enjoy some treats, but in times of combat or action, it is the commander who steps in first, leads by example, and attends to everyone, playing the role of leader, father, and server, all at the same time.” As expressed by Simon Sinek: “Leadership is not a rank to be attained. Leadership is a service to be given.”

The Shepherd Leader:

Purposeful. A Shepherd exercises influence purposefully; a goal, a direction is established, and the Shepherd ensures everyone gets there. There are dangers and opportunities along the way.

Hands-on. The Shepherd is hands-on, committed to move the herd, whatever it takes. The Shepherd is constantly scanning for danger, food, shelter, and direction forward. When action is required, the Shepherd will step in.

Strategic. The Shepherd applies foresight. The Shepherd must view the moves ahead of the flock to plan the route: Where is there water?  Good pasture?  When/where can we rest if the heat is too much?

Creates Culture. The first steps tend to dictate the next. A wise Shepherd will establish pace and patterns from the start and will adjust to what the flock brings, too.

Allows Exploration.  A member may wander off; the Shepherd will observe, as the explorer member may lead to a good pasture that otherwise might be missed.

Aligns. The Shepherd works the flanks of the herd to keep everyone aligned; Laggards are brought in.

Mentors.  Shepherds train their leader members to help move the flock at the right pace and in the right direction. A Shepherd exercises influence through and with others.

What is your leadership style?

By: Liora Haymann, Managing Director, OBMI International 

(Guest Contribution: The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).

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Op-ed: How to succeed as a #softblackgirl in Corporate America

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#softblackgirl – It has been said over the years anecdotally that as a Black person in white America, you’ve got to work twice as hard to get half as far. I feel like this has resonated with me for my entire life, and this reality served as a fire for my work ethic. I spent over 20 years leading teams at Fortune 500 companies and startups in Silicon Valley. I worked nights and weekends attempting to make a crack in the “concrete ceiling.” Many are familiar with the term the “glass ceiling,” referring to barriers for women to advance in their careers. We all know that glass eventually can be broken. However, I believe for Black women, our ceiling is a much tougher one to even crack. There have only been four Black women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in our entire history! And there are only two that are active today.

According to Lean In’s The State of Black Women in Corporate America, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 58 Black women are promoted, despite the fact that Black women ask for promotions at the same rate as men.

With the obstacles stacked against us at work, and the “invisible labor” that we undertake at home, self-care tends to go out the window as we prioritize our jobs and our families. How can Black women possibly embrace this movement towards a soft life and still do well in the workplace?

5 Steps to Succeed as a #SoftBlackGirl in Corporate America

1. Set Boundaries

Boundaries can come in different forms. Perhaps it’s the hours you are available for work. For example, you might set a strict boundary that you are unavailable after 6pm and will not respond to work messages over the weekend. Maybe it’s the frequency of travel that is sustainable for you and your family. Maybe it’s about your preferred communication channels, and you do not want coworkers texting your personal phone. Regardless of what your boundaries are, be sure to communicate them to your colleagues so that they are aware and can make conscious choices around whether to abide by them.

When you are asked to do things that cross your boundaries, I invite you to pause and ask yourself, do I want to do this? Do I have the space to do this? What will the impact be on me and on others if I do this? Listen to your gut. And, if the answer is “No,” communicate just that. Practicing saying “No” in the mirror can be a very powerful exercise to build up your confidence for the real thing.

What is one boundary that you can set right now that prioritizes self-care?

2. Prioritize & Do Less


We often feel like we have to do everything, and that can be extremely overwhelming. The key to both success and self-care in the workplace is to do what matters to the people that matter. Identify who matters in the organization and what they care about. Excel on those projects, and don’t sweat the small stuff! You will get a bigger bang for your buck in terms of your personal brand image at work, and you’ll have more time for you.

One tool that is extremely helpful in prioritizing is the Eisenhower Matrix. In a 2×2 matrix you categorize tasks into urgent vs. not urgent, and important vs. not important. Based on where something falls in the matrix, you can decide whether to do it now, schedule it for later, delegate, or delete it from your list. My favorite of the categories is when you realize that something is both not urgent and not important, and there is something so satisfying about being able to delete it. This is self-care. This is embracing the soft Black girl life!

What tasks on your to-do list are both not urgent and not important?

3. Celebrate Wins Weekly

I often feel like I’m not doing enough. This leads to a spiral of negative thoughts around my competence, value and self-worth. However research shows that when people are reminded of their best work before undertaking a challenging project, they have more creativity and less stress. Taking the time to acknowledge all the amazing things you have achieved can be a powerful confidence boost and do wonders for your productivity. Every week, (Fridays are great), write down what you can celebrate this week. Small steps of progress count, even if it’s just sending an email that was hard to write!

Once you have recognized all the great wins of the week, it’s important to also take the time to celebrate! I invite you to “Treat Yo’ Self!” This doesn’t necessarily mean to go on a shopping spree, though if that’s what you feel like, then by all means! Think about what brings you joy. Maybe it’s a pedicure. Maybe it’s a luxurious bubble bath with some candles and bath bombs. Maybe it’s a piece of your favorite chocolate.

What is one thing you can celebrate this week? How can you treat yourself?

4. Communicate Your Wins

It’s important that you get the recognition that you deserve, so don’t be shy about communicating your wins both to people more senior in the organization and to those on other teams. In response to “How are you?” at the water cooler, be sure to casually mention your wins. “I’m doing great! I just led this project with {insert success metrics}” or, ”We are very close to launching XYZ!” Consider being the one to send celebration emails when your team has a win. If they come from you, people will associate that win with you!

What is one win that you can communicate to your colleagues?

5. Schedule Self-Care Breaks

If you don’t put it on the calendar, it most likely won’t happen. So schedule time for self-care in your day. This can be something as short as a 5 minute reset break where you are intentional about doing a rejuvenation practice such as box breathing. If breathing isn’t your thing, you could set a timer for two minutes and massage your temples. It’s an amazing stress reliever. If you have more time, maybe you go for a walk outside if the weather is nice, or do a 20 minute sound bath to relax. Consider taking lunch breaks away from your computer. These very simple acts can completely change your day, your mood, and your ability to do your best work! When the calendar reminder comes up, and you are tempted to finish up “just that one little thing,” remind yourself of this mantra:

“Today I choose me!”

Bio: Zee Clarke, a Harvard MBA, breathwork expert, and author of Black People Breathe (March 14, 2023 / Penguin Random House). After experiencing a number of race related challenges, from racial profiling and harassment by the police to microaggressions in the workplace, she realized that mindfulness and breathwork were much more powerful outside of the yoga studio and in the context of our everyday lives. Trained in India, Zee leverages her toolkit of yoga, meditation, breathwork, sound healing, and Reiki, to ensure that all people of color have the tools to thrive despite any challenges that race, gender, or sexuality might present. 

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OP-Ed: Going Back to “Normal” or Creating A “New Normal”?

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Kate IslerI, for one, don’t want to go back to normal. We have an opportunity this month, during Women’s History Month, to assess the current state of women’s equality around the world and make the appropriate and overdue changes to create a new normal. As I look around today, there is no question that the global pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on women and that the gains made over the past three decades have been all but wiped out in the past 12 months.

Women, and especially mothers, are leaving the workforce at unprecedented rates to shoulder most of the childcare and home-schooling responsibilities caused by the pandemic, resulting in unemployment numbers that set us back to the 1980s. But almost more alarming are the “getting back to normal” discussions I hear every day. The normal that so many are talking about nostalgically were not equitable or profitable for women, especially women of color.

Policy matters. Changes being debated on the state and federal level matter. One recent example, in particular, stands out: The Idaho state legislature voted down a bill that would have given the state access to $6 million in funding (approved by the Trump administration) for early childhood education. The opposition to the funding included comments from Idaho Representative Charlie Shepherd (GOP) who stated during the debate, “I don’t think anybody does a better job than mothers in the home, and any bill that makes it easier or more convenient for mothers to come out of the home and let others raise their child, I don’t think that’s a good direction for us to be going.” Mr. Shepherd later apologized for his remarks, but his words still ring heavy and hard. Until state and federal policy makers see, accept, and support the fact that most families have two incomes, and that women desire to live fully realized lives, we are going to continue to fight this shift back to the undesired “normal.”

We are at a historic inflection point. We have an opportunity to create a new normal. Women comprise over 50% of the population and are responsible for 85% of the consumer purchasing decisions. Plus, research has proven time and time again that increased diversity has a direct correlation to increased profitability for businesses.

The way forward is not backwards.

Women working together can seize this opportunity to create new work environments that allow the other half of the population to thrive and flourish. The way forward includes:

  1. Women supporting women. This doesn’t mean that we always need to agree, but we need to support one another. Purchase from women-owned businesses. Mentor a younger woman colleague. Talk explicitly about barriers and successes so other women don’t think they are alone in this work.
  2. Dispelling the myth that there is only room for a few women leaders. There is always room to increase the numbers, whether that is in the boardroom or at the table. Bring your own chair if there isn’t one. And always bring a spare chair with you to meetings, in case your colleague forgets hers.
  3. Be explicit about what you need to be successful in a work environment. For far too long women have kept quiet about what they need and been made to feel singled out and isolated. You are NOT the only one.
  4. Realize that you have power and even more power with a team. So often women feel that they are powerless based on circumstances outside of their control. Gender equity is a team sport. Build or find your team and work together to achieve your vision. There is power in numbers.

Don’t settle for going back to “NORMAL.” This is a once-in-a-hundred-years opportunity to reset the table. Let’s build on the work that has been done by countless women and men to take a major step forward in cultural evolution.

 

Kate Isler is the Co-Founder of TheWMarketplace, an economic engine for women, as well as the Co-Founder of Be Bold Now, a non-profit focused on accelerating gender parity. With over 20 years of international executive leadership experience gained working for Fortune 100 companies, Kate’s journey of leadership, challenging the status quo, overcoming adversity and breaking gender stereotypes motivates and inspires. She shares her incredible story and insights in her memoir, Breaking Borders (HarperCollins Leadership), available everywhere books are sold.

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OP-Ed: Actions Not Ads on International Women’s Day 2021

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Nicki GilmourThe workplace design of the future is happening before our eyes, as we approach International Women’s Day. What elements of our professional lives will stay, go or morph is a fascinating topic with many facets—from office space to cyber security to creating community, networking and relationships, if things stay mostly virtual.

What wins are to be had for professional women at this historic juncture? Will this seismic shift ultimately enable structural changes that level the playing field for better diversity and inclusion at work, or are organizations letting disproportionately burdened women slip through the cracks?

Nothing has been brought more sharply into focus than the at-home employee experience, since Covid19 arrived to our cities, towns and places of work about one year ago, creating an almost immediate need to be remote. Just like that, everyone had to figure out how to work, when to work and even, if they could work.

One year on, many smart corporations are reflecting deeply about the employee experience and the future of work. There is a massive opportunity to create the physical and psychological space that people need to thrive and succeed at work, to recognize now what most professional women already knew—that everyone is not in the same boat in this storm. Nuances matter.

In 2020, social issues migrated into work and all the lines blurred. 2021 will only see more of this.

But will corporations finally integrate diversity and inclusion as cultural thriving and treat it with task expectations for all employees? Will they embrace a mindset change with committed actions? It takes courage to tackle the status quo with more than words.

Putting principle into action, Goldman Sachs will only take companies public if they have women on their boards. That is walking your talk and making behavioral and mindset change real.

Actions Are Better Than Words

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2021 on 8th March, the theme this year is #choosetochallenge—with a hand in the air symbolic gesture—when bias rears its head or when women aren’t heard. While it’s an important message and sentiment, awareness is only the first step in anything, at best, and firms must create real change for all constituents.

Frankly put, work doesn’t work for many people right now.

It is now in plain sight that women, and professional women, are suffering more from the effects of the Covid pandemic, with the US having the biggest amount of women leaving the workforce, followed by Japan. Losses will be hard to recover from. Phrases like shecession may sound glib but the numbers don’t lie, with NPR reporting that women are back to 1988 levels of workforce participation. We want systemic and behavioral change.

Defining your values, really knowing who you are and connecting brand to purpose is the first step. The second step would ideally be walking the talk with actions. Interestingly research shows that sometimes talking the talk is vital to get to finally walk the talk.

Companies who know who they truly are will be able to embody their values better than companies who don’t know where they stand. Nothing became more urgent than to know who you are as when Black Lives Matter entered the workplace last year with employees requesting firms to know who they are.

Acting on your words and connecting meaningful purpose to your employee experience, as part of brand integrity, is what we need now.

If your company was a person, would you want to hang out with them? If they were your friend, would you trust that they would do what they say they believe in?

Seven Suggestions For Acts, Not Ads

So, if your firm wants to actually support you this International Women’s Day, there are simple actions that could show they are serious.

Here are some actions that organizations could take to live their espoused values and step up as leaders:

#1: Give women the option of a paid day off work on International Women’s Day.

Microsoft announced today that employees would get more paid leave due to the pandemic to alleviate having to be everywhere at once, since exhaustion is real and burnout is at an all time high. Working mothers in particular are at their wit’s end.

Several years ago, REI closed its stores on Black Friday and told its employees to live the company slogan “Go Outside” by introducing #Optoutside.

#2: Address the pay gap in your firm for real.

The wage gap, reinforced by static and traditional gender roles, plays a big part for women leaving work. Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play, and Darcy Lockman, author of All the Rage, both explain the myth of equality between men and women in division of labor at home.

As an organizational psychologist, my take is how you operate at home, and whatever belief system you operate on, is what you take into the office with you—including impressions for both men and women of their gender role and the expectations and boundaries that come with that.

Consider that in 69% of US households where opposite sex partners live together, men are the highest earners. And, weirdly even female CEOs earn less than male counterparts in similar companies.

#3: Make it mandatory that meetings cannot be scheduled between 5.30pm-7.30pm.

These hours are usually dinner, bath and bedtime for employees with kids. Working dads will thank you also. Boundaries are important. Flex work is the new black with fewer taboos now that we know we can use technology easily from almost anywhere.

#4: Ask everyone if products and programs work for them.

Microsoft has included gamers with disabilities to test their games. Needs are different. Test assumptions by asking your constituents what they think.

#5: Ask people if they want to stay remote.

Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School’s Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration and author of Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere, believes, “We’re definitely going to see a much bigger population working remotely. All the satisfaction comes when people are given a choice. Choice and autonomy are crucial for people to appreciate remote work and the chance afforded them.”

Equally, some people truly do want to return to the office soon, and the future design of the workplace for safe innovation and community has never been more timely. Innovation literally needs fresh space now.

#6: Walk your talk. Get serious. Grow.

Figure out what your real values are and how to live them as a leader of an already diverse workplace. Diversity management is a strategic capability.

#7: Let leaders be vulnerable.

Cancel culture kills vulnerability and prevents learning. We are all on a journey. Allow for correction, remorse and redemption—as we can’t grow if we aren’t given oxygen. And, context is everything.

Equally, know when you see a systemic flaw that tolerates or even creates incentives for ego-wars, control-dynamics, power-grasping and fear-based motivations to win. Change the system so these norms are not the status operating quo.

Will 2021 finally be the year that companies align internal talent process, and create real and meaningful pathways to inclusion and equity for professional women?

Actions not ads. Finally?

#Actsnotads. #IWD

Check our “Acts not Ads” work here: We deploy behavioral psychology techniques to employer brands to see if they really know who they are (values) and then, how they act (behaviors) so that employees can believe them. Audio and visuals have to match.

by Nicki Gilmour, CEO and Founder, Evolved People (theglasshammer.com)

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Women’s History Month 2020: Stories We Tell Ourselves.

Nicki GilmourAfter the celebrations and social media posts for international women’s day 2020, we are left with the real work. Gender progress when it comes to women at work and as leaders has stalled. This was first noted in 2018 by McKinsey and Lean in study and The World Economic Forum predicted timeline of two hundred and two years for gender equity overall and specifically ninety nine years in the UK. The USA is not in the top ten for gender equality it should be noted, and American women are not equal under law as American men as the Equal Rights Amendment was never ratified.

So, What is Really Holding Women Back?

In the April 2020 edition of HBR, Robin Ely and Irene Padevic pose and answer the eternal question of “What’s really holding women back?” In their specific case study, they conclude that a crushing long hours game was actually causing dissatisfaction for everyone, but disproportionately affecting women because they singularly were expected to take accommodations which ended up being career damaging actions sometimes. The researchers state,

“Social defense systems are insidious. They divert attention from a core anxiety-provoking problem by introducing a less-anxiety-provoking one that can serve as a substitute focus.”

Ely and Padevic studied a firm where the core problem discovered by them (impossibly long work hours) was not what the firm’s espoused challenge focus which was the ‘inability to promote and retain women’ creating a substitute problem to avoid the real one. The researchers concluded that by using family accommodations or flex work as the solution to the “substitute problem”, an invisible and self-reinforcing social-defense system was created with the result of covering inefficient work practices “in the rhetoric of necessity” while perpetuating gender disparities since only women were truly culturally expected to take advantage of the accommodations.

In my opinion, without knowing the name of the client that these revered psychologists conducted this work at, this is the type of firm that probably charges other firms five million dollars per consulting project to tell them how to work more efficiently but entirely misses the point on the social psychology and how behaviors are formed for humans, both in their own firm and the firms they are busy also creating substitute problems for regarding “diversity” and people. I mean isn’t it hypocritical of big consulting firms and banks to write studies about gender progress when they themselves are so far from getting their own house in order? People notice, eventually or seemingly they don’t notice or choose to ignore it?

Behaviors and Diversity – we tell ourselves what is what (falsely)

A new UN study on “Tackling Social Gender Norms” reports that 50% of the humans in the world still think men make better leaders and in some countries, 70% of people believe men deserve a job more than women do and overall on all factors over 90% of people have bias against women or bias in favor of men if you want to look it at that way. This study importantly and perhaps uniquely measures gender inequality from a social norm perspective and how this is operationalized through beliefs, attitudes and practices most notable the prescribing social roles and power relations between men and women in society that are shockingly defined in western developed countries like the USA over southern European countries like Spain who literally invested the word “machista”. This methodology is super important as the diversity panels and parties that have focused for the past twenty years on “awareness” just aren’t converting behaviors in anyone, women included to ones that make people vote in female leaders in government or at work. Equality begins and ends with equitable behaviors and systems thinking to reduce or destroy the legacy processes and this is just absent in the design of work and the workplace. 

Robin Ely along with Herminia Ibarra and Deborah Kolb are also among my favorite academics on this topic and in many ways nothing can best explain the seemingly large and continued demand for white male leaders than their 2013 piece Women Rising: the unseen barriers which states that women are basically expected to turn into men as those traits are still the ‘mold’. Yet face the double bind when they try to gain experience that would let them internalize the identity and affirmation of a leader that is needed and given to the legacy group of who we believed to be leaderlike.

As the 2013 piece suggests, it is the absence of recognizing bias which is now second generation and covert harder to spot bias that leaves people with beliefs that limit the progress of women and as the Barriers Unseen study reveals,

“People are left with stereotypes to explain why women as a group have failed to achieve parity with men: If they can’t reach the top, it is because they “don’t ask,” are “too nice,” or simply “opt out.” These messages tell women who have managed to succeed that they are exceptions and women who have experienced setbacks that it is their own fault for failing to be sufficiently aggressive or committed to the job.”

This past week we have had an applied case study on who we endorse for as a leader with Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar both folding their campaigns while being criticized for being too shrill and strident and then too nasty respectively. Meanwhile, two ancient white men battle to face off with another ancient incumbent white guy in the other team come November. Some women are licking their wounds on Facebook over Warren it seems in particular, but we know when women and people of color call out gender inequality, the cost of this can be actually  emotionally high as well as career damaging. 

Are we getting anywhere?

Over twenty years ago, Robin Ely co-wrote with David A. Thomas a piece in HBR called “Making Differences Matter: A New paradigm for diversity” that suggested then that we get past the “fairness (and discrimination)” paradigm or simply put the business case of “it’s the right thing to do”. Ely and her co-author also suggested that the next paradigm in 1998 was only the penultimate one and that this second phase was witnessed when companies believed in appointing women to sell to women, and LGBT just sell to LGBT and minorities to sell to minorities with invisible limitations of side show type exclusion from the main attraction. The emerging paradigm from twenty-two years ago is I guess, is still sadly only slowly emerging and that is the learning-and-effectiveness paradigm which requires real work to get to the structural change that is needed. They write,

“Companies in which the third paradigm is emerging have leaders and managers who take responsibility for removing the barriers that block employees from using the full range of their competencies, cultural or otherwise. Racism, homophobia, sexism, and sexual harassment are the most obvious forms of dominance that decrease individual and organizational effectiveness—and third-paradigm leaders have zero tolerance for them. In addition, the leaders are aware that organizations can create their own unique patterns of dominance and subordination based on the presumed superiority and entitlement of some groups over others.”

We are in 2020 still hiding behind our deeply ingrained beliefs that women aren’t as leaderlike and that babies are the reason we are not promoted in the same numbers or authorized in the same way as our male counterparts are. Yet, childless women do not get promoted or authorized any more than women with kids do as they are hit by the same stereotype which is easier than addressing the real issues for all women and all humans, which is work simply isnt working for most people anymore without one person taking a back seat and due to pay inequity, it is usually the woman if we are speaking heteronormatively in the structure.

Women can be great, smart, experienced, and full of solid plans and still be dinged with a negative stereotype even when like the Elizabeth and Bernie situation are the saying the same thing. While the positive stereotype of great leader, competent, full of potential is still attributed to the male version of themselves or a much lesser version of themselves.

The stories we tell ourselves about the way it is, or what is better have been whispered in our ear by our grandmother, our parents and our surrounding society and are reinforced everyday of our lives. These stories are placed both subliminally and explicitly and create our beliefs and criteria and our behaviors. The stories that we tell ourselves that time will fix inequality are not true. The only thing that will stop this within our lifetime or even our children’s lifetime is to do the work regarding our deepest constructs of “what boys are and what girls are” while addressing the systems that enable and endow advantage and create disadvantage for no other reason than biology.

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Op-ed: Don’t Call it a ‘Pipeline Problem’

by Margaret Anadu
Head of Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group and Launch With GS Lead Investor
Here’s a phrase I’d like to see retired: pipeline problem. As in, the reason that only one percent of venture capital dollars go to Black and Latinx entrepreneurs is because there simply aren’t enough Black and Latinx founders out there. You hear the same excuse when it comes to why the number is just below three percent for women-only teams.

I can tell you from my fifteen years of experience investing in areas overlooked by most investors that the opportunities are definitely there. To take just one example, Black women are starting businesses at the fastest rate in the United States – and are receiving under 0.1 percent of all venture funding.

That’s a number that should shock you. For investors, it should also get you excited. As the head of the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, through which we’ve invested over $1 billion in opportunities led by people of color, and as one of the lead investors for Launch With GS, it’s my job to drive capital where talent is abundant but access to capital is not. And let me just say this: That is an incredibly compelling investment strategy.

In the 18 months since we started Launch With GS, our commitment to invest in businesses with diverse leadership, we’ve invested $230 million globally, backing businesses with game-changing ideas, innovative products and cutting edge technology. Our returns-driven investment thesis spans geographies and sectors – from a software provider in Atlanta, to a fintech company in Bengaluru and a pediatrics clinic in Shanghai. Along the way, we’ve heard from more than 7,000 entrepreneurs and investors, whose insights continue to shape the initiative.

But our ambition is to do much more. We started Launch With GS with the clear conviction that diverse leadership teams perform better. We knew there was opportunity in what is essentially an underinvested asset class. But we also knew that the forces behind that lack of investment were complex. The gap is about relationships, networks, biases, resources – the entire structure of the global funding ecosystem.

That’s why today, we’re announcing our first Launch With GS Black and Latinx Entrepreneur Cohort to connect growth-minded founders with the very best of Goldman Sachs. Over the course of 8 weeks, we’ll pair emerging companies with leaders at the firm who are experts in their fields – whether that’s an enterprise software investor, fintech research analyst, or a consumer retail-focused investment banker. And just as importantly, we’ll connect these companies to the Goldman Sachs network, including Fortune 500 companies that could be their customers, and leading start-up advisors who could help support their growth.

I’m an investor. I get excited by meeting ambitious people who are building great companies. Launch With GS is about connecting those founders to Goldman Sachs, a recipe that for more than 150 years has led to some pretty extraordinary successes. Launch With GS is already a part of that history. With the Black and Latinx Entrepreneur Cohort, this is one more step toward building an inclusive future.

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What Tom Brady taught me about leadership: Op-ed

Tom BradyThere’s a common phrase about leadership that I believe is often misunderstood: great leaders are born. While it’s true that there’s undeniably talented people in the workforce, promotions and raises don’t just happen. It takes dedication, focus and hard work. And more often than not, your colleagues whose performance appears effortless are often working hard behind the scenes to develop their skills and improve.

When mentoring young professionals, I like to start with two important and accessible leadership lessons that I learned from the New England Patriots star quarterback, Tom Brady.

Say Yes More Often.

One of my former CEOs called me and said he needed me to represent the bank at a fundraising event – a football scrimmage, featuring some celebrity guests – to raise money for a great cause. While I love athletics, I had never tossed a football around, and participating in a football scrimmage was a bit out of my comfort zone. But my boss encouraged me to give it a shot, and I said, “yes.”

Later that day, I arrived at Harvard Stadium, and as I entered the locker room to prepare for the game, I quickly realized that I was surrounded by professional football players from the New England Patriots. And then, to top it all off, Brady walked to the front of the room and gave us all a little pep talk. It certainly was not the afternoon I expected when my boss casually asked me if I wanted to attend an event on behalf of the bank. I learned my first lesson.  Say yes to an opportunity even when it’s outside your comfort zone.

Brady went on to explain that he would be the quarterback for both teams and would pass the ball to the young adults whom this charitable organization helped support. Minutes before the end of the first half, Brady looked my way and said “Maria, this next one is headed to you.” As I started to plead with him to find another target, he fixed me with a rather disapproving look and said, “Hi, my name is Tom Brady, and I’m known for being a pretty good quarterback.” He shook my hand. “I usually can get a football to land where I want it to go. Will you trust me on this?  I know you can do it.”

That’s when I learned the second lesson of the day: even if you’re nervous, don’t be afraid to say yes and believe in yourself. It would have been a missed opportunity if I had said no, and a decision that I would have regretted years later. I am thankful that I was in the presence of a quarterback who knew what was best for the team, believed in me and encouraged me to try.

And you know what? I ran down the field and Brady hit me with a perfect pass. I caught it, kept running and scored a touchdown. Greatness can be found outside of your comfort zone, but you have to be willing to try.

Give your team confidence.

Brady believed in himself and showed me that I could trust him. And together, we were able to succeed.

In the following weeks, I realized there was a hidden lesson in this story that was not obvious. Brady showed me that to get the most out of your team, it’s important to remind them that you can deliver. You’re the quarterback who can put the ball right where your team needs it to be. Or you’re the team lead that can provide your colleagues with the confidence to run down the field, catch the ball, and score their own touchdown. There are many missed touchdown opportunities because we forget to see the whole field, and understand the impact we can have on the final result by encouraging our colleagues to live up to their best potential.

Leadership lessons can seem more accessible with the lightness of a sports analogy, but stepping outside of your comfort zone isn’t any easier on the football field than it is in business. The core lesson remains the same – a great opportunity isn’t going to land in your hands or in your inbox if you aren’t engaged and working to improve every day.

To find more happiness at work, say yes more often, step out of your comfort zone and encourage your team to do the same.

Guest contribution from Maria Tedesco, President of Atlantic Union Bank  

Author Bio:

Maria was named one of Most Powerful Women in Banking Team Award by American Banker in 2012 and 2017. In 2015, she was named one of the Most Powerful Women to Watch by American Banker. She received her M.B.A from Northeastern University and her B.S. from Ithaca College.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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From Atoms to Assets: My Career in Financial Services

By Janet Walker, Director, Asset Management, Abbot Downing

Atoms are the smallest units of matter; they gave rise to cells.

Embryonic stem cells come from an embryo, and are undifferentiated and undefined, but multiply, grow and develop into a variety of cells – and ultimately a living, breathing human. The development and coordination of cells into a functioning organism is not fully understood, but scientists are working to decipher this every day. Understanding what keeps everything in our bodies in top working order and determining the causes of problems, from the physical to the emotional and mental, is a curiosity that has fueled me for as long as I can remember. The study of asset management, from understanding the complexities of capital markets to deciphering investor behavior, is surprisingly similar.

My path to asset management was atypical. As a young girl, I was driven by the desire to solve medical problems, to help people, in spite of my own obstacles. I lived in and out of shelters and in a constant state of fear while I was at home, struggling to cope with a physically abusive, unstable and alcoholic father. After becoming an emancipated minor, I finished high school and ultimately college, singularly focused on the desire to go to medical school. My path was not linear and was certainly full of obstacles, but I thrived and succeeded.

My college experience and path to graduation was not straightforward, nor what you might expect for a typical college student. I attended what was affectionately called a “commuter” school, where many of the students balanced school with full time jobs. I began as an Engineering Major and discovered that not only was the subject matter not what I expected, but that I was completely unprepared to thrive in an environment that was so unwelcoming to women at the time. I considered switching to Business Administration, but ultimately found my way to the School of Life Sciences, with a reputation of producing highly skilled scientists. I majored in Cell and Molecular Biology, minored in Chemistry, and loved every minute of it. From studying in the classroom to enduring the rigors of lab research, I found that my intellectual curiosity and desire to go to medical school were in sync. The challenges from my home life however, continued to follow me into college.

In spite of a laundry list of accomplishments and qualifications, I wondered whether I would be prepared for medical school, and looked to professors and others for guidance. Rather than listening to my own voice and following my passion, I took a detour and entered a PhD program in molecular biology at a renowned medical school, on the advice of my mentor. I found myself studying in a field that required a high degree of technical focus and less interaction with people – and while I enjoyed the technical and intellectual aspects of this path, the mismatch became clear.

Returning to the West Coast, I found myself in need of a job. Throughout college, I worked in a number of fields, including a short stint as an administrative assistant in Wells Fargo Private Bank. At the time, I was told that there would be an opportunity for me if I ever wanted to return, so I took full advantage of it. The position wasn’t ideal, but I worked hard to find a way to make it my own. The world of finance was completely new to me, despite a few business electives I took in college. I was curious, highly ambitious and thought creatively about how to make it my own. Initially, I obtained a number of securities licenses, and ultimately the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, to accustom myself to the industry. At the same time, the healthcare and biotechnology industries were coming into focus within the finance industry, driven by technological advancements and major discoveries. I used my technical knowledge, research skills and curiosity to bridge a divide, learning how discoveries in science were transforming the financial services industry.

During my 20-year career at Wells Fargo I have combined the fields of science and finance, working to understand global stocks, how they fit into an investment portfolio, and how the construction of a portfolio is impacted by exogenous factors such as geopolitics, economic forces and investor attitudes. The desire to understand complex situations, determine the root cause of a problem and educate and guide clients is surprisingly similar to my childhood aspirations. I successfully manage a complex book of assets with the added benefit of being able to work with a complex and dynamic group of incredibly talented people.

The journey has not always been easy or straightforward, but I’ve persevered by being flexible and embracing change. Much to my surprise, the tools that I have picked up along the way have helped me tackle success and challenges in my personal life. Marriage, the birth of two children, the sudden loss of my husband, are events that you can never really prepare for. Much like career uncertainty, I think it’s what you learn from these events that’s key.

Everyone defines success in a different way. From working with atoms to now working with assets, I’ve learned that my pathway to success involves listening to my inner voice, following my passion and moving through the obstacles that try to derail me, with grace and a positive, forward looking attitude. Success and challenges are inevitable, how we navigate through them is the key. I never thought that I would be a widow, raising two beautiful girls on my own. Success or challenges, either personal or professional, don’t define who I am, but instead shape who I’ve become.

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Women, Men, and the Two Sides of Confidence

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Professional Women

Guest Contributed by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Even when our assessment of other people’s competence is wrong, their self-confidence can still have self-fulfilling effects, opening doors and opportunities to those who simply seem more confident.

This is one of the reasons that so many well-intentioned people have advised women to be more confident to get ahead at work and in their careers. There are several problems with this kind of advice.

First, it fails to recognize that confidence has two sides. Although confidence is an internal belief, it also has an external side, which concerns how assertive you seem in the eyes of others. This external side of confidence is the most consequential because it is often mistaken for real competence.

The bottom line: regardless of how confident we feel internally, when we come across as confident to others, they will often assume that we are competent, at least until we prove them wrong.

This link between perceived confidence and competence is important. Although women are assumed to be less confident than men and some studies have shown that women appear to be less confident, a closer look at the research shows that women are internally confident. In fact, men and women are both overconfident—even if men are still more overconfident than women.
As Harvard Business School’s Robin Ely and Georgetown’s Catherine Tinsley write in the Harvard Business Review, the idea that women lack confidence is a “fallacy”:

That assertion is commonly invoked to explain why women speak up less in meetings and do not put themselves forward for promotions unless they are 100% certain they meet all the job requirements. But research does not corroborate the idea that women are less confident than men. Analyzing more than 200 studies, Kristen Kling and colleagues concluded that the only noticeable differences occurred during adolescence; starting at age 23, differences become negligible.

A team of European academics studied hundreds of engineers and replicated Kling’s finding, reporting that women do feel confident in general.21 But the researchers also noted that women’s confidence wasn’t always recognized by others. Although both women and men reported feeling confident, men were much more likely to be rated by other people as appearing confident. Women’s self-reports of confidence had no correlation with how others saw their confidence.

To make matters worse, for the female engineers, appearing confident had no leadership benefits at all. For the men, seeming confident translated into having influence, but for women, appearing confident did not have the same effect. To have any impact in the organization, the women had to be seen as confident, competent, and caring; all three traits were inseparable. For men, confidence alone translated into greater organizational clout, whereas a caring attitude had no effect on people’s perception of leadership potential.

We are, it seems, less likely to tolerate high confidence in women than we are in men. This bias creates a lose-lose situation for women. Since women are seen as less confident than men and since we see confidence as pivotal to leadership, we demand extra displays of confidence in women to consider them worthy of leadership positions. However, when a woman does seem as confident as, or more confident than, men, we are put off by her because high confidence does not fit our gender stereotypes.

If women don’t lack confidence, then why do we see differences in how men and women behave? Why are women less likely to apply to jobs or to request a promotion unless they’re 100 percent qualified? Why else would women speak less in meetings and be more likely to hedge their bets when making recommendations?

If the answer is not how women feel internally, it must be how they are perceived externally. In other words, differences in behavior arise not because of differences in how men and women are, but in how men and women are treated. This is what the evidence shows: women are less likely to get useful feedback, their mistakes are judged more harshly and remembered longer, their behavior is scrutinized more carefully, and their colleagues are less likely to share vital information with them. When women speak, they’re more likely to be interrupted or ignored.

In this context, it makes sense that even an extremely confident women would behave differently from a man. As Ely and Tinsley observed at a biotech company, the female research scientists were far less likely to speak up in meetings, even though in one-on-one interactions, they shared a lot of useful information. Leaders attributed this difference to a lack of confidence: “What these leaders had failed to see was that when women did speak in meetings, their ideas tended to be either ignored until a man restated them or shot down quickly if they contained even the slightest flaw. In contrast, when men’s ideas were flawed, the meritorious elements were salvaged. Women therefore felt they needed to be 110 percent sure of their ideas before they would venture to share them. In a context in which being smart was the coin of the realm, it seemed better to remain silent than to have one’s ideas repeatedly dismissed.” Thus, because we choose leaders by how confident they appear rather than by how confident or competent they are, we not only end up choosing more men to lead us but ultimately choose more-incompetent men.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. He has published nine books and over 130 scientific papers. His most recent book is Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)?

This article is adapted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)? by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Copyright 2019 Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. All rights reserved.

The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com

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Calling All Imposters

By Monisha Jayakumar, Portfolio Manager with Wells Fargo Asset Management’s Analytic Investors Team

Monisha Jayakumar Imposter Syndrome. It’s a term I’ve heard a lot recently. It seems mysterious and eerily like a medical diagnosis—but fear not, it isn’t.

It’s just a tiny critical voice in your head that says “You don’t belong here!” when you’re on the brink of doing something courageous. It calls out when you are about to speak in front of an audience, take on a new role, pitch a new idea in an email, raise your hand and ask a question, or consider asking for a raise. So when we encourage people to speak up, stand up, and be seen, what if you are the one holding yourself back?

My title at work is portfolio manager with the Analytic Investors team within Wells Fargo Asset Management. I oversee approximately $8 billion in quantitative factor-enhanced strategies. In plain speak, I work with financial data and code processes to extract useful information that our team uses to make investing decisions for our clients’ assets.

As someone who analyzes data to create usable information, I have found that imposter syndrome is ubiquitous. My informal data collection—which includes many smart, ambitious, and successful women and men in my book clubs, parent groups, and friend circles—tells me that this lurking feeling of inadequacy at work is a feeling many of us share. We just haven’t had the courage to openly discuss it at the workplace.

I recently came across the work of Brené Brown, a courage and vulnerability researcher. In delving into her book Daring Greatly, I discovered a contrary idea to the years of “fake it till you make it” advice I’d been getting. Brown states: “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. True belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world.” According to the author, courage requires embracing three things: vulnerability, uncertainty and risk. She goes on to make a radical connection: without vulnerability and courage, there’s no creativity and innovation.

Courage is about vulnerability. Vulnerability builds trust and authentic connections. Isn’t that what businesses need? During the summer before graduate school, I was assigned heaps of summer reading that I did not get through. My “imposter” self was convinced that everyone else probably knew the reading assignment forwards and backwards. Anxiety rumbled that morning during our orientation breakfast when a fellow classmate whispered, “I still have several chapters I haven’t finished and I’m kind of nervous about it.” Pure relief and an authentic friendship ensued.

Courage is being okay with uncertainty. I was once afraid to ask for a pay raise for eight years. The small employee-owned firm that I was with at the time regularly researched pay scales and provided timely pay raises. But I am fully aware this is not commonplace. When I debated asking for a raise—something I believe was well earned—I would hear that “imposter” voice that doubted my worth. Accepting the uncertainty of an outcome is the key to your courage and vulnerability. When I let go of being wedded to a specific outcome, it became easier to express myself. And despite the discomfort of the conversation, there was great comfort in knowing I advocated for myself.

Courage is about risk taking. If you work in a profession where you stand out, it means you took a risk. There was a time when I didn’t understand that gender differences really matter. Why would I care if 10% or 50% were women? But here’s the thing: The more people who’ve done this before, looking or sounding exactly like you, the more confident you feel replicating prior success. In some ways it was motherhood that made me stop pretending it didn’t matter if I was a woman. In grappling with reasonable expectations I could set about maternity leave, a mentor said, “No one can do your job like you do it.” I realized that what I need, and what we all need, is different. I also realized what I contribute is different. I began asking for what I needed from a place of self-worth instead of a place of fear. Have the courage to value your uniqueness and own your seat at the table.

If there’s no courage, there’s no creativity and innovation. People and corporations both value these tenets – but are we making room to empower one another to truly be courageous? At some point in our careers, we’ve all seen unhealthy posturing. In my industry, the loud hyper-competent facade doesn’t serve anymore. What if being courageous enough to be vulnerable is the antidote? What if being authentic could be the key to actually shedding this personal and collective “imposter” syndrome?

Looking forward, I want to grow within the system but also encourage it to expand. So here’s my call to action. Risk being vulnerable: when you take on a new role or when you have changes in your personal life, share your fears and hopes. Accept uncertainty and have the uncomfortable conversations on inclusion and pay transparency. Take chances. If you are asked to speak at a conference, ignore the “imposter” voice and say yes, and empower others to do the same. Participate in creating the culture you wish could be created for you. And then watch that spark light the fire.

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