Mansplaining: It’s Time to Interrupt

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Business meeting with women and menMansplaining. If you’ve lived and breathed in this world as a woman, you’ve experienced it. If you work in a male-dominated office, it might be served up as a daily side with your coffee.

Recently, Chicago Tribune workplace columnist Rex Huppke declared: “Mansplaining — whether you like the term or not — is real. That’s not up for debate.”

Huppke called it “a slow drip of sexism”. How much is your office environment dripping with it?

What is Mansplaining, exactly?

In The Salon, Benjamin Hart argued that the term “mansplaining” lost its potency, as well as its real utility within gender dynamics discussions, when it became popularly used and broadly defined as a man explaining something to a women in a condescending or patronizing manner.

Hart asserts it’s morphed into an “increasingly vague catchall expression” of “men saying things to, or about, women.”

“Mansplain” is thrown about liberally. Jimmy Kimmel mansplained speech coaching to Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Financial Times recently referred to the EU referendum in the UK as at risk of becoming a “giant exercise in ‘mansplaining’”, due to media domination by male voices. Women called for Trump to mansplain his Clinton “women card” accusation. Even a collection of mansplaining moments shows a diversity of takes on what it is.

Merriam Webster takes a hard line on its specific definition: “when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he’s talking to does.”

Other than a sinking feeling in your stomach and increasing desire to find a conversational back door, what are the tell-tale signs of mansplaining?

1) It feels like a “manologue”

One sure-fire sign you’re being mansplained to: you’re not speaking or discussing. Instead, you are being spoken at or spoken over, often for a frustrating duration of time.

Mansplaining carries a trademark air of wisdom-wielding, knowledge-imparting, and time-taking. You may also have the feeling of being verbally cut-across.

Mansplaining, in a two-step conversational dominance maneuver, often follows immediately after manterruption – “unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man”.

A 2014 informal experiment by empirical linguist Kieran Snyder in a tech workplace found that in conversations of four or more, men interrupted at twice the rate women did, and were three times more likely to interrupt women than men. (Women interrupt women, too.)

Dr. Arin N. Reeves also conducted an observational study across 41 hours of meetings, calls, and panel discussions. Not only did Reeves observe that men interrupt far more, but also that 89.3% of men’s interruptions of women (and only 42.6% of men’s interruptions of men) were intrusive interruptions – “intentionally or unintentionally usurping the speaker’s turn at talk with the intent of ceasing the speaker’s ability to finish organically.”

Women were most commonly intrusively manterrupted on panel discussions, although men weren’t “aware” of doing it. Less than 1/5th of all women’s interruptions of anyone were intrusive.

2) It wasn’t solicited

Mansplaining is not a direct question followed by a direct explanatory answer. That’s just explaining.

Mansplaining is more of an unsolicited espousing of lengthy information and proffered opinions, which seeks to ensnare you in its immanent glow of intelligence, and which may or may not follow a question.

In the Chicago Tribune article, Elly Shariat, founder and CEO of shariatPR, tells of a former boss who pulled her aside to advise on the health implications of her shoe choices, for example.

3) Major assumptions are at play

The biggest thing about mansplaining is that it’s based on a culturally embedded assumption. At the core, men often assume they know more or better than women, and culture mirrors this.

Although she didn’t coin the word itself, mansplaining’s popular origin is attributed to Rebecca Solnit’s 2008 essay entitled “Men Explain Things to Me”, in which she tells about a cocktail party experience where a man asked her a question about her writing and then interrupted her to tell her at length about a very important book that she should read – which turned out to be her book, and he hadn’t even read it, just the review.

Solnit wrote, “Men explain things to me, and to other women, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. Some men. Every woman knows what I’m talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field, that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.”

What can we do about it?

No matter how narrowly or broadly you define it, mansplaining reinforces a power imbalance. It reinforces the male domination of meeting conversations and rewarding of men for talking more.

Here’s a thought: interrupting mansplaining might be a necessary, career-building skill.

In her experiment, Snyder found that women interrupt less and very rarely interrupt men (only 13% of the time). But which women were entirely responsible for that 13% of interrupting men? The only three senior women in the study – who all interrupted men (as well as women). In fact, these women were three of the four biggest interruptors in the study.

Snyder wrote, “The results suggest that women don’t advance in their careers beyond a certain point without learning to interrupt, at least in this male-dominated tech setting.”

The most empowering thing women can do when faced with mansplaining?

Put acquiescence away. Interrupt this nonsense, and be heard.

By Aimee Hansen

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The 8th Annual Top Women on The Buyside Event: Overcoming Risks, Managing Volatility and Another New Normal Ahead?

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women on the buyside event

By Nicki Gilmour, CEO and Founder of theglasshammer.com

Theglasshammer convened 100 senior women from traditional and alternative investment management companies last Wednesday 1st June 2016 for the 8th Annual Top Women on the Buyside breakfast panel and networking event. Nicki Gilmour CEO and Founder of theglasshammer.com opened the session with a welcome and an urge for the audience to continue to be change leaders for a culture of trust in their firms and beyond so that the industry can continue to attract women as investors and as participants.

The panel consisted of Judy Posnikoff, Managing Director of Paamco, Donna Parisi, Partner and Co-leader of the Asset Management Group, Shearman and Sterling, Nili Gilbert, Co-Founder of Matarin Capital Management, and Katina Stefanova, CEO and CIO of Marto Capital. Antony Currie, Associate Editor of Thomson Reuters Breaking Views moderated the discussion with candid questions that the panel answered with deep expertise to the peer audience as well as a sprinkling of humor at times.

Themes this year included disruption and innovation as drivers of results with the obvious challenges this year being the risk management of political, economic, credit and operational risk issues in this US election year.

It was agreed that volatility is high, uncertainty a constant and alpha diminished with a backdrop of limited historical data on how to invest in an environment of low interest rates. It was also agreed that all types of disruption, good and bad, was rife with developed countries still trying to ignite their economies post credit crisis. Risk would definitely dominate the short and medium term thoughts of investors. Fintech was also mentioned as an important element of future innovation in the industry without real precedents and an uncertain regulatory environment.

Katina Stefanova began with an overview of the macro environment and framed some issues,

“We deal with political, social and economic risks when assessing investments and this year is a unique year as we are at a pivotal point .We live in a world with over $200 trillion dollars of debt and with such uncertainty, it is not surprising that there is political volatility and that becomes a big issue for markets not just for investing but also for people building businesses. There has been a huge amount of disillusionment with traditional investment strategies, and other popular strategies such as risk parity in last few years. Volatility is here to stay and so it’s about figuring out how to navigate volatility and building that into your application.
It is time to develop alternative solutions.”

Judy Posnikoff concurred with the increased volatility issue stating

“The environment is quite different from 30 years ago when investors could achieve high enough returns with one asset class (fixed income). One of the difficulties of today’s uncertainty and meager expected rates of return is that institutions and individuals are having to take on more risk than they would like to in order to meet financing requirements such as pension liabilities.”

Nili Gilbert commented on unusual nature of the current macro environment stating,

“Negative interest rates and deflationary environments should be something that is taken seriously and it is hard to be informed by history on this. Due to a lack of comparable historical precedents, it is necessary to be thoughtful and insightful rather than just look to historical analysis or a purely data driven approach. “

Katina Stefanova agreed that the environment is unprecedented and the biggest risk is that we are at point when monetary policy is no longer effective. She added,

“Central banks have little power to stimulate or slow down economies. It is time for more aggressive fiscal policy and governments are going to have to play a bigger role. “

Donna Parisi picked up this point when asked about the role of regulators and the change of government in November with the moderator questioning could a new President undo the work done by regulators post credit crisis?

Donna commented on the legislative risk that could come from an election cycle,

“I think Dodd Frank is too far down the road, the rules are so deeply embedded regardless of who takes the White House in November and regulators are
not done trying to fix the lack of transparency that exists in the markets.”

Donna also mentioned that from her perspective that upcoming challenges for the industry would be liquidity mismatches and leverage issues.

“Since funds are more and more becoming intermediaries for lending post credit crisis, there are issues around leverage and the role they should play.” She suggested that regulators are worried that asset managers could be the next too big to fail crisis.

“The regulators are still struggling with information gathering despite the huge volume of data that is required to be reported. They don’t feel like they have enough transparent data to adequately assess liquidity and leverage risk and its impact on the broader market.”

Katina joined this point with her comments that regulatory consequences are not always well understood, and in many ways the government has not eliminated risk but rather transferred it to other institutions.

Nili mentioned that changes in the sell side and how it is regulated can ultimately affect stock price movements and have impact for portfolio managers. By way of example, she cited Reg FD (Regulation Fair Disclosure) as an event, which changed how sell-side analysts released communications, and as a result changed the efficacy of “earnings revisions” as a tool for stock price forecasting.

Other topics discussed included opportunities and creating value for the investor such as changing fee structures. Judy and Nili discussed how it was important for investors to have transparency around how much they had to pay in the search for alpha. Nili also shared her philosophy on finding opportunities stating four main concepts as buying fundamentally good businesses, valuation, shareholder friendly management teams and shorter-term catalysts such as price and volume analysis.

“When we were coming out of the financial crisis, it was a great time to be a value investor because in that environment of fear, there were many cheap stocks. Since then, we have seen investors regain their confidence and so it’s not as an attractive a time as before to be a value investor. Momentum investing is an opportunity that we saw do very well in 2015. What works changes all the time and it is crucial to understand behavioral biases in the markets for optimum results.”

Katina concurred, “ We have factors such as technology, a shift in socio-demographics and this economic environment and the current political volatility that creates a great opportunity for disruption. The question is where will that disruption come from? “

Citing Alibaba as an unexpected money management entity that has grown fast. She added, “It is about access, a platform to retail investors will change it all and it will come”.

Donna added that current incumbents in the market had a competitive advantage when it came to FinTech innovation given their regulated status. However, industry incumbents are at a disadvantage when it comes to being true innovators or disrupters. The rising importance of technology in the industry and the scalability of investment strategies as a result create significant risk for something to go wrong and a resulting regulatory response.

With so much to talk about, and with great questions from the audience, the discussion is hopefully continuing in offices across the world as we speak.

Thanks to our panelists and moderator and engaged audience for another great event!

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How to Make Your Team the Best It Can Be

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woman chairing a boardroom meetingImagine a world where your boss genuinely cares about you, where he or she nurtures you, recognizes and rewards you fairly, always taking time to acknowledge your hard work and dedication. Not only that, but they respect you and support your professional growth.

Read more

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How networks can increase motivation, well-being and even increase performance

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Professional-networking-advice featuredLast week we talked about how having psychological safety at work is a key to feeling happy and performing well. We have also talked about employees networks recently and there is a case to say that the two are connected and if you can find support and connection here, then why not join one? They could be good for the soul and tangibly useful for tips to advance and a place to find mentors and sponsors. Maybe chatting with peers around a number of subjects will be valuable to you, ranging from social matters such as juggling parental/elder care commitments to a specific project that you want to talk more about. Either way, networks create space and time to talk in, learn in and connect with others in.

It is worth noting three things about networks though. Firstly, not everyone is created with the same amount of desire for contact and affiliation and it is wrong to assume that your need to feel part of something is equal to the next person. As an executive coach, I firmly believe that you should know yourself first ( psychometric tests will help us give your data back to you on this matter).
Secondly, it is also wrong to assume that all women are this or that. We are individuals with varying degrees of extraversion, confidence etc just as men are. What is systemic are the assumptions around what we are however and that is where you get to choose how to fill in the gaps when people think they know you. Remember you, according to you and you according to them are sometimes distant cousins.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com if you would like to hire a coach to help you navigate your career

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Voice of Experience: Hannah Grove, Chief Marketing Officer, State Street

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Grove_Hannah headshot 2015“The person who will have the most direct influence on your career is you,” says State Street’s Hannah Grove. She advises women to speak up for what they want, but also to help other women along the way. “It used to be that women were so focused on how to get through the glass ceiling themselves that they were hesitant to help one another as they feared it would dilute their own efforts. But we need to pay it forward,” she says, adding it is women’s responsibility to be instrumental in eliminating the gender divide for her daughter’s generation.

With roots aligned in marketing, public relations and communications, Grove has worked across Europe and America, first for smaller entrepreneurial companies and for the past 17 years in the global marketing group of State Street. While there, she is proud that she has helped evolve the marketing organization from a service function to one that is more proactive and integral to the company’s success.

“Our service is inextricably linked to business success, so we have developed this into a strategic function that’s deeply embedded in the client experience. It’s an achievement that we’ve built over time, through an amazing team. One of my secrets to success is hiring people who are better than me.”

One of the key strategies she has helped implement is an effective social media platform, an important tool that allows a company to engage in two-way dialogue and offers the ability to listen and customize messages by audience. “Corporate speak is vanishing, as there’s a push toward personalization, relevance and context. It’s a more viral, authentic approach and has tremendous possibilities, even in a B2B setting,” she says, adding that the team’s motto is getting the right content to the right person at the right time.

At the same time, there’s no denying that transparency can be overwhelming in the complicated and complex financial services industry, and yet focusing on openness and education can go a long way toward restoring the reputation of the industry at large.

Speak Up to Move Up

Reflecting on her career, Grove says she wishes she had known earlier that it’s ok to say “no.” She believes that women fall into the trap of wanting to take on everything to prove themselves and while it can be a good instinct, you have to put yourself on a “budget” or else you will easily become overwhelmed by a “go-to” reputation.

She also urges women to ask questions. There’s no way you can understand everything in the industry – in her experience, questions are a sign of curiosity and engagement, and you should want to surround yourself with people who ask questions and aren’t afraid to disagree with you.

In addition to asking questions, women should be sure that they make their voice heard at meetings. “Don’t ever be at a meeting where you don’t have a speaking role; I’ve never seen a man sit silently at a meeting,” she says. Even if your role at a meeting is to be an observer as a learning experience, she says there is always still a way to contribute, whether you’re asking a question or making a comment.

Finally, the advice to speak up extends to speaking up about your career. “I can’t tell you how many times women have come to me because their career isn’t moving as they’d like – maybe they’ve been overlooked for a promotion or don’t feel they are receiving a salary commensurate with their contributions. But when I query whether they have asked for what they want, nine times out of 10 they haven’t, and people aren’t telepathic,” she says. “And if you don’t get what you think you deserve, often you start resenting it and you quit in your mind. The reality though is that you’ve done that to yourself; you haven’t had it done to you.”

Championing Inclusion and Diversity as Corporate Values

Grove is part of State Street’s “Leading Women,” a group of 14 executive vice presidents who act as both a support network and a business strategy network. As part of their outreach, they are focusing on sponsorship of the next cadre of senior female leaders to help them develop and establish the gravitas, networking and visibility they need to feed into the pipeline. Through those women paying it forward, they expect they will touch 2,500 women across the country.

The company also has a global Professional Women’s Network with a dozen chapters that focus on networking, personal brand, public speaking and other professional skills.
For more than five years, Grove has acted as the executive sponsor for State Street Pride and Friends, the company’s LGBT employee network, which has seven chapters globally. Grove has been named to the OUTstanding LGBT Leading Ally Executives list, by OUTstanding in collaboration with the Financial Times. The lists recognize business leaders who are outspoken and unwavering in their support for LGBT people in the workplace and professionals who go above and beyond their day jobs to improve the working environment for LGBT employees.
“State Street has a real commitment to diversity and inclusion that manifests itself from our CEO on down; it’s not just a check box acitivity,” she says, as evidenced by the fact that the company earned a perfect 100% on the 2016 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

Giving Back

Grove, who has been married 23 years, has a high school senior and loves to travel with her family. She is also active in Women’s Lunch Place, a day shelter for women and children in Boston that strives to give women back their dignity, serving 200 guests a day.
As president of the board, she and her daughter volunteer every second Saturday. “It’s amazing how much poverty is in our cities which is why I am passionate about this cause. If you ever think you have a bad day, it really puts your life in perspective.”

Save

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Is it good or bad for your career to change your name?

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wedding-322034_640Congrats! You just got married, now what? Back to work and you have a choice to carry on with your maiden name at work and in life or you can embark upon the admin that comes with changing your last name after getting married . It is an arduous one from standing in line at the DMV, calling the bank and credit card companies and changing email addresses but then there is all that personal branding work to think about. What are you going to do on social media and professional branding sites like LinkedIn?
 
There are more than just the formalities when someone who has already established a career changes their name. There is the story behind the name change and the conversation that is prompted when you first introduce yourself with your new name. An opportunity is created to talk about your personal life and recent marriage and this can serve to deepen your relationships with your co-workers and clients. Being authentic has been written about as a positive factor for building trust at work so perhaps it is a great way to get to know people better but also could reduce your visibility as people don’t recognize your name immediately.
 
Below three women share their experiences and advice on changing your name after already establishing a career.
Keeping it private
Cynthia Zeltwanger, Executive Director at the Paulson Institute, chose not to change her name when she got married in 1992.  
As a private person, she believes the topic can quickly spawn a personal conversation.
“I am a private person and I did not want to get into my personal life with professional relationships,” she said. “If you got married, it’s fine but if you are getting divorced, people could assume you got married and it creates a personal conversation with people in business that you might want to avoid.”
Zeltwanger got married when she was climbing the corporate ladder at a subsidiary of Société Générale. She remembers getting heat from her French colleagues for not taking her husband’s name but she was at pivotal point in her career and wanted to be taken seriously.
“Not so much anymore but when a woman gets married she can be seen as not as serious about her job,” said Zeltwanger. “While men are seen as more reliable when they have kids, women are seen as less committed.”
She believes that women need to be more cautious about clarifying their career intentions when making a name change.
“Be clear about your goals and aspirations and make sure the people in charge of your career progression know your goals have not changed just because you got married,” she said.“Some people will question your commitment.”
Hyphenating it
Patty Kevin followed family members into the derivatives business and worked 10 years in the industry before getting married. Afraid she would lose her identity but at the same time excited to embark on this new chapter in her life, she decided to hyphenate her name to Kevin-Schuler.
 
She said that the hyphenation was a way to make her colleagues aware of the name change.
 
“The colleagues you are close to know what’s going on in your life,” she said. “However, it’s the people on the peripheral that you need to educate.”
 
As Schuler’s career took her to the Chicago Board Options Exchange and then to her current role as Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development at the Boston Options Exchange, she felt more comfortable with her new identity.
 
Schuler finally dropped her maiden name when she got divorced because she wanted to have the same last name as her kids.
 
With the advent of email and social media, Schuler believes it is easy to notify people of a name change. She recommends adding a hyphen in your name or a note in your email signature about the transition.
 
However, Schuler says there are times when it is okay to go back and forth between identities.
 
“I still get asked if I am related to this relative or that one,” she said. “If I am talking to someone who knows my family, I will introduce myself as Patty Kevin. I admit my transition has been a fluid one.”
Embracing it
While Zeltwanger wanted to keep her personal life private and Schuler has kept her identity flexible, others have embraced their new names without looking back.
 
Nancy Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Allston Trading, remembers getting married and swiftly changing her last name. 
 
“I remember changing my name, address and phone number all at the same time,” she said. “This was before Facebook and Linked In.”
 
Starting out as a lawyer at Gardner, Carton & Douglas, Stern was worried she would lose her connections in the process and have to build up her network again.Similar to Schuler, Stern also felt like she was losing a part of her identity. However, looking back, she is glad that she made the change and believes women should embrace this right to choose.
 
“I didn’t really see this as a compromise of my feminism because I chose my husband and chose to take his name. The alternative would be my father’s name and while I had a wonderful father whom I loved very much, we cannot choose our fathers,” she said.
 
Changing your name is usually associated with a significant life event and If you are good at self-promotion and marketing yourself, a name change is an exciting reason to reinvent yourself. Have fun with your new personal branding campaign.
By Jessica Darmoni
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Resilience: Why “Storms” Are Critical to Leadership Development

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People-clapping-1024x681By Nneka Orji

Resilience is important. The late Elizabeth Edwards, American attorney and health care activist once said: “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before.” In today’s world of relentless innovation, changing business models, increasing expectations from the workforce, and market surprises, accepting our new and evolving realities through resilience building is now more important than ever.

In a 2014 report by Sarah Bond and Dr. Gillian Shapiro, 99.9% of the respondents said that resilience was “important” to their career success with 56% saying it was “essential”. A separate survey over 520 executives across 20 countries found that 71% of them rated resilience as “extremely important in determining who to retain”. Yet resilience is hard; there is no recipe or quick fix to building resilience. While numerous surveys have found that resilience is a common trait amongst some of the most effective leaders – not just in business but education, politics and other fields – there is no simple handbook to guide aspiring leaders around how to develop resilience. Bond and Shapiro found that only 10% of their research participants felt that their organisations placed enough emphasis on resilience being a differentiating factor in career success. For business leaders looking to identify and develop talent this is important; future leaders who are able to deal with surprises and setbacks, learn key lessons and readjust in a dynamic landscape are more likely to lead effectively and ensure business success.

Women: the (slight) resilience edge

Bond and Shapiro set out to understand if there were any differences between the way man and women view resilience. Surprisingly, they found little difference; 62% of men said they wanted to be more resilient compared to 71% of women. Across both groups, 53% saw themselves as resilient “all or almost all of the time” in their workplace. This subtle difference is supported by the findings of the aforementioned Accenture survey; the leaders identified women as slightly more resilient with 53% reporting women to “very to extremely resilient” compared to 51% identifying men in this category.

While the report didn’t identify significant differences in how resilience is viewed, the researchers found that women were seen to be doing more to support their female colleagues in developing their resilience through specific programmes that broaden and enhance the roles and projects they are assigned, and preparing them for more senior positions. This is encouraging news given the recalibration of gender representation required at most organisations.

The resilient leader

So if both men and women want to become more resilient and better leaders, and women are actively supporting other women to become more resilient, why is it so hard for organisations to develop more resilient leaders?

This year’s Roffey Park report found that organisations need to focus more on “talent preparedness” – investing in a combination of formal and experiential development to address the leadership capability deficit. Aspiring leaders too, many of whom are millennials now, are looking for opportunities to become the best leaders they can be yet organisations are falling short of their expectations around development opportunities. According to a recent Deloitte survey, 63% of millennials believe that their leadership skills “are not being fully developed”.

It’s time for organisations and today’s leaders to act on this insight. Crises come and go, and understanding that the skills required to whether the storms are not just essential to future survival of organisations but also critical to personal development. The life coach and author Tony Robbins describes great leaders as those who “inspire themselves and others to do, be, give and become more than they ever thought possible.” We can all point to leaders who aren’t just good but great; they continue to lead and inspire despite the challenges thrown at them and seem able to bounce back even when it seems impossible.

Building up the resilience bank

The good news is that resilience is “learnable”.Steven Snyder’s HBR article highlights why it is so important to get it right and how others have done so in the past by maintaining a positive outlook, accepting that learning through challenging situations is part of the journey, and acknowledging that it will be difficult.

While there’s no handbook with all the answers, there are a few steps aspiring leaders can take to start building up their resilience bank.

Engage with resilient leaders: Business leaders have good reason to focus on resilience when designing leadership development programmes but also by encouraging senior leaders to share their war stories – the experiences and day to day challenges which help them build up their resilience. Of course aspiring leaders also have a proactive role to play in identifying and engaging with those leaders that inspire them to understand how they too can expose themselves to key developmental opportunities.

Practice mindful resilience: Managing challenging situations and demonstrating resilience requires a strong sense of self awareness and mental control. As Harvard Business School professor Bill George reaffirmed through his interview with the Dalai Lama, practicing mindfulness is a key part of building resilience. Some military schools have developed training programmes which focus on resilience building through mental strength exercises.

Be open to learning (and vulnerability): The founders of Global Health Corps (GHC), a non-profit organisation, wrote in last year’s Stanford Social Innovation Review about the importance of creating “vulnerable community” in building resilience – a community in which programme participants felt able to open up to their peers which facilitated the learning process. As for results, “85% of GHC alumni report that their fellowship experience improved their resiliency skills”.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and keep going.

Career storms – the difficult project, the challenging market environment, the missed promotion – tend to come when we least expect them, so being able to see beyond the immediate challenge is key. It is how you choose to react to these situations that define your long term career success. Persistence and a continued commitment to learning means that we are better able to deal with these surprises.

In the words of one of the best known leaders – Martin Luther King Jr. – “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” It is our ability to bounce back from challenges and obstacles that will determine the extent of our success.The next generation of leaders deserve the chance to build their resilience and becoming more inspiring and effective leaders for future leaders.

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How do you become an inclusive manager? Create Psychological Safety for your Team

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diverse workforce featuredSeveral years ago diversity became diversity and inclusion. What does this mean? Well I am not going to lie, for most firms even if they have it in the title of a department, it means nothing just another buzzword.. If it is done properly however, inclusion is the most powerful tool a leader or manager can have in their toolkit because it can provide something that is the basis for individual and team performance. How do you become an inclusive leader , manager or person? Psychological safety at work- yes that’s right and studies have been exploring this for years, as has Google more recently with something they call Project Aristotle. They discovered that just by having a genius or two on the team, you are not going to get the best results. However if you have a team environment where people can feel, as well as think and be themselves (expressing themselves is really key here and being heard) then no matter who is on the team, the result is productivity. There are many factors to high performing teams for sure but Google’s data indicated that psychological safety, more than anything else, was critical to making a team work. This certainly makes sense if you think about it. Women (and anyone who does not fit the mold of the traditional work persona /expert) can find space to connect with others talking work and/or any other topic of shared interest.

So, let people talk, let them tell you about their lives and let them flow. For some of us (I know I am guilty of this) like to stay on task and to draw boundaries around topics when digression and tangents feel out of control, but maybe, just maybe try out this way of being in your next meeting.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist.

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire a coach to help you navigate your career

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Voice of Experience: Bettina Huser, Executive Director, UBS Geneva

Bettina Huser“Be curious and get a good early overview of the business and then position yourself with colleagues and managers so you are able to advance,” recommends UBS’ Bettina Huser. She sees many young women who finish university beginning their career as assistants where men are often guided toward faster advancement. “As a woman, you have to very loudly and clearly articulate your desire to advance and earn more responsibility, and that is how you can gain the same advantage as others.”

Building a Career in Banking

Huser began her career studying law but decided to go another direction and joined a graduate banking program where she simultaneously began working in wealth management as an assistant to a private banker. There she learned a great deal about the business and client service, which paved the way for her to spend her career in the sector in different positions, including discretionary portfolio management and advisory services in various financial companies. She has currently been at UBS for five years as an investment advisor for UHNW customers of the Near East region.

This career path is very fulfilling to her, as she enjoys the close relationships she builds with customers — giving them advice, following markets and staying well informed about what’s happening in politics and the economy, which allows her to make wise investment decisions.

Ongoing changes in the industry have led to new regulations that require constant attention. “My challenge is to stay ahead of those developments in an environment that is more and more complex for investing also.”

However, she knows that adapting to these changes is a necessary element of success; in fact, she advises young women that the most important thing to do to build your career is be open to what is new, from new people to new ways of working. “You have to be comfortable with the unexpected.”

Overcoming the Balance Challenge

Over the years, Huser has found that the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field are not related to the work itself but rather the environment and expectations. While she has never felt that she was treated differently than men in work-related matters, she acknowledges it is challenging to find success in your professional and personal life simultaneously.

The job requires long hours, which means many women have to choose if they want to have a career or family because it is hard to have both. “You are expected to work hard, of course, and if something comes up you need to stay late at night, which can be difficult if you have a family,” Huser says, noting that many of her male colleagues have a wife at home, which allows them to travel and be present with clients in a way that can be more challenging for women.

She finds that although every woman experiences different challenges and pursues a different lifestyle, she has learned that sometimes you have to work even more than the men do to be considered for promotions.

In fact, balancing that demanding work with raising a daughter is the professional achievement she is most proud of – demonstrating that as a woman you don’t have to choose between a professional career and a family but can successfully do both.

Huser has enjoyed raising her 17-year-old daughter and appreciates that she will grow up in a world where she can pursue any dream she has. In addition to her ongoing balance of home and work life, Huser also takes time to travel and read and is interested in causes related to the environment and animal protection.

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Voice of Experience: Katina Stefanova, CEO & CIO, Marto Capital

Katina StefanovaTo be an effective leader, you need to know what you don’t know, says Katina Stefanova, CEO and CIO of Marto Capital. “When we go to college, the educational system teaches us to know the right answer to any question, but the ability to adapt and accomplish results comes from knowing what we need to learn. We need to focus our time on what we don’t know and don’t see, which is an incredibly important quality for any leadership position.”

Creating Success in the Financial Services Industry

Originally from Bulgaria, Stefanova came to the United States at the age of 18 with a one-way ticket purchased by her Grandfather and $200 in her pocket. From that, she built a career that eventually led to becoming founder and CEO of Marto Capital, an emerging multi-strategy asset manager.

After arriving in America, she attended Brigham Young University as an undergraduate then entered the finance and technology field. “I was in the right place at the right time, on the West Coast during the dot-com boom,” she says.

She began her career in Arthur Andersen’s M&A division, then worked for AdRelevance, where she led international business development for this media startup (which was eventually sold to MediaMetrix). Following the sale, she moved to London to become Director in IBM’s Business Strategy team in the EMEA region.

When she returned to the United States, she switched to the asset management industry, earning her master’s degree from Harvard Business School and joining Bridgewater, where she spent nearly 10 years in investment and senior management roles as the company rapidly grew.

Along the way, Stefanova’s most profound learning experience has been working with amazing mentors during the most formative parts of her career, including Bridgewater’s Co-CEO Eileen Murray and Founder Ray Dalio.

Introducing A New Paradigm With Her Firm

Two years ago, Stefanova left Bridgewater to start her current firm, which is on the vanguard of the alternative asset management industry. She considers her work building Marto Capital, as not just a “job,” but a calling. “If my team and I do it right, it will be great for investors and the industry.” And she adds, “This a tough industry, but I want what I do today to be meaningful not only to me, but to my daughter.”

The industry was in need of a new way of thinking. She sees a giant misalignment of interests between many alternative asset managers and investors – particularly a lack of transparency and a lack of alignment of economic incentives. This disconnect has led to a culture of mistrust between asset managers and their clients. Katina’s goal is to rebuild that sense of trust through its solutions and business model.

“Historically, when you consider successful asset management firms and financial institutions, you think of optimizing for financial capital,” she points out. But at Marto, they add social capital into the equation. Through that prism, they are working to address current problems such as underfunded pension systems by implementing smarter investing for pensioners and retirees.

“Everything else follows if you keep positive social outcomes as your goal,” she says. “We are here to make money for our clients, but we also are focusing on operating with a level of integrity and transparency that allows us to avoid prevalent ethics issues.”

She believes that women are particularly well suited to this model, because of their empathy and ability to look at clients holistically, based on the belief that it is as important to have a positive impact as it is to make money.

Remaking the Industry for Women

The lack of network and support in the industry can be a barrier for women. “The decision makers who manage alternative assets are still white men over the age of 50, and that makes it difficult for those who are not in the group,” she says. “It’s still a cliquish industry and even women with capabilities and experience find that our networks are not at that level.”

Unfortunately, that lack of role models, combined with the reputation of the asset management industry’s insensitive culture, may be one of the reasons that young women she talks to are shying away from the industry.

But she says that’s a mistake. “Collectively, as female leaders in the industry, we need to focus on changing and elevating the culture. Don’t be afraid to enter because it’s a fantastic place where you can have a lot of impact and be a trailblazer.”

And as women like herself rise through the ranks, she sees the immense opportunity for her experienced peers to start businesses and take leadership positions in asset management firms. “It’s crucial that we not take ourselves out of the game, even though it’s difficult, because it’s worth it when we succeed.”

She believes that this generation is the one who can make the difference, given their critical mass: If women assume more leadership roles over the next five or 10 years, it will help make up for the way the industry has historically lagged behind others in the presence of women in leadership positions.

Altruistic Endeavors Outside of Work

With two children, ages 13 and six, Stefanova aims to combine work and home life for optimum fit. But that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t continue her trailblazing efforts, even outside of work.

Stefanova sits on the board of technology startups that are relevant to the asset management space and acts as an angel investor in tech firms.

She also maintains board positions with three important organizations: Women Sphere, which helps support women in STEM fields; One Heart Bulgaria, which works with orphans and children who are less privileged in her home country; and Aspire, which helps prepare high school and college students around the country for the work world.

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