“I realized I’m never going to finish the fight for gender equality for my girls if I don’t finish the fight for their moms. That’s what led me to step down as CEO of Girls Who Code and start Moms First, which I had never intended to do,” says Reshma Saujani. “The reality is that the pandemic played a huge hand in that. But what was happening for women in the pandemic wasn’t going to start and end with the pandemic.”
We interviewed Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, the non-profit organization launched in 2011 with the mission to close the gender gap in tech. For over ten years, she served as CEO, leading to change the face of programming as we know it. At the end of 2020, and spurred by witnessing the impacts of the pandemic on women’s lives, Saujani also became Founder and CEO of Moms First (formerly Marshall Plan for Moms).
Through Moms First, she is leading the campaign to transform our workplaces, our culture and our government to enable moms to thrive. Her fourth book, Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think) proposes clear and necessary structural and cultural changes to support women in the workplace, and puts a halt on telling women to change.
Saujani was a recent keynote ‘fireside chat’ speaker for the 2023 Catalyst Awards Conference, the premier gender equity conference for advocates of diversity, equity and inclusion. With the conference themed Accelerating Equity on All Fronts—So Women Thrive, Saujani emphasized the need to drastically change the discussion around women and the workplace. She also iterated key actions that policy makers and organizations need to take, such as family-friendly policies, paid leave, and childcare to support equity, engagement, retention and advancement among women.
Saujani spoke to us about how changing the workplace to work for women – as Catalyst has researched, advocated and reimagined for over 60 years – is really not a women’s problem.
On women in the workplace:
“At the conference, I spoke about the core shifts that need to happen in the workplace to support women in leadership. The idea of supporting women in their roles as mothers is really new for Corporate America. It’s a different conversation than the one we’ve been having, because the conversation we’ve been having is really what I call the ‘big lie of corporate feminism’: that if we just raise our hand, if we lean in a little harder, then we can ‘girlboss’ our way to the top. But that leaves out the fact that two-thirds of the caregiving work is being done by women, and that women come to work already doing two and a half jobs. So this idea of ‘having it all’ is just a euphemism for ‘doing it all.’
We have to stop trying to fix women and fix the system. We need to accept the fact that workplaces have never been built for moms, so let’s redesign them for moms now. In my book, Pay Up, I lay out some strategies that companies can actually do to support working moms.
One, it begins with supporting moms with childcare. Childcare in this country is unaffordable and unavailable. 40% of parents have gone into debt because of the cost of childcare. The reality is that childcare isn’t a personal problem that you or I have to solve. It’s an economic issue. Women cannot work without childcare. So companies, for the first time, really need to step up and start providing childcare benefits – whether that’s a subsidy or back-up care. They have to start providing that support.
The second thing is paid leave. Many companies still don’t have gender-neutral paid leave policy. In a heteronormative relationship, whether a man takes paternity leave has huge consequences for women. The more men, quite frankly, that are taking paid leave, the better for the equity in a family. Right now, the vast majority of men take fewer than ten days off after having a child. So companies need to not only offer gender-neutral paid leave policy but also incentivize or mandate it.
The third thing is the motherhood penalty. The mom bias is contributing to a huge pay gap between mothers and fathers. Studies have shown that men earn 6% more when they become a dad whereas women earn 4% less when they become a mom.”
On her shift from Girls Who Code to Moms First:
“During the pandemic, I had a new ‘pandemic’ baby and I was homeschooling my six-year-old. My entire leadership team were working moms with young children, and we were barely making it. I saw so many of my students had to stay at home and take care of their siblings, instead of going on to major in computer science at college, because their mothers were essential workers. The fact that we had a broken structure of childcare in our country was continuing the generational cycle of poverty.
Moms have really been in crisis for decades – even the fact that the United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have paid family and medical leave. The fact that we’ve never made childcare affordable or available for moms. The fact that we’ve always paid mothers less than we pay fathers for doing the same exact work. If we didn’t actually solve those three things, what’s the point of even telling girls to go to college? What’s the point of even telling them they can be everything or anything when we’re just again perpetuating them in this cycle of oppression and inequality?
So I stepped down from Girls Who Code, and I’ve built Moms First, over the past year and a half, up to a grassroots movement of over half a million moms and supporters. We’re fighting for three things: childcare, paid leave, and equal pay. And it’s not just about a single piece of legislation or a workplace policy or about getting equal pay. It’s all three. They’re all interconnected.”
On the broken narrative of success:
“I think the big lie is essentially that if we only fix women, we can have equality. So again, what we keep telling women is that if you just raised your hand, if you just leaned in harder, if you just ‘girlbossed’ your way to the top… Just think about the whole conversation about equal pay. What we tell women, usually, is you’re just not negotiating well enough.
But that’s going one woman at a time rather than saying the entire structure of how we compensate women is wrong, and we actually have to build an algorithm or audit our pay policies. Those are the structural changes that we have to make instead of telling women, ‘The problem is you. You just didn’t negotiate for yourself.’
Everything around ‘the big lie’ is about making women feel like they’re the problem. They’re not the problem. The structure is the problem. Workplaces are the problem. And, even basic things like workdays are 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and school days are 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. We’re just setting women up to fail by having these structures in place that are leading to us, again, never being able to truly succeed. We’re not set up to succeed. We’ve never been set up to succeed.”
On how the future of women and work will be different than we think:
“Why it’s different than you think is that I’m not going to tell you how to fix yourself. I’m not going to tell you, yet again, how to just get a mentor, get a sponsor, or learn how to negotiate.
I’m going to walk you through the history of how workplaces have never been set up for women. And I’m going to give you strategies that are radically different than the strategies that you’ve been given. The vast majority of women that participate in an ERG are not taught how to ask for childcare. They’re not taught how to take your paid leave and not feel guilty about it. They’re taught how to learn another skillset. Get a sponsor. Be more confident.
But when you do those things, and you still feel like you’re barely making it again, you think something is wrong with you. No. Something is actually wrong with the system as it’s been set up.”
On the cultural change necessary to begin to support working moms:
“We do not value what we do not aspire to be. And being a mom, in America, is often times not something so many people aspire to be. Because, too often, motherhood in America is not seen as something that is respected and valued and dignified. Consider even the fact that we have countless school shootings and every day mothers, like me, have to drop off our children at school and not know if we’re going to see them again. That we continue to allow that to happen in this country just shows the lack of value and respect we have for the role of mothers and for our children.
So, to me, that’s cultural. Culturally, we have to become a society that says, we need to support mothers and we need to support children. Well, that means that one in four women should not have to go back to work less than two weeks after having a baby when they’re wearing an adult diaper. That means that we shouldn’t have daycare that’s not safe or that’s not affordable. We shouldn’t have parents piecing it together because, as a society, we want people to have children. Innovation dies in a nation when you have a declining birth rate, and, right now in the United States, we have a declining birth rate.”
On what women can do:
“I think that we have to fight. I think that we need to ask for what we need. I think we need to stop apologizing. I think we need to not think something is wrong with us and instead see the system as broken and demand for it to change. Right now, we’re in the middle of doing a Moms First Challenge. I joke that when we went on godaddy.com to get the URL for Moms First, it was available, because the idea of putting yourself first is very radical.
So, how do you teach that? In the first week of our challenge, we did that by having women write down all of the tasks of unpaid labor that you do. This week, we said to do something for yourself. In my case, I’ve had a horrible stomach virus where I need to be on a pretty extensive set of antibiotics, and I put it off for four years because it was never the right time. This week, I’m doing it. I’m canceling my week if I don’t feel well, and the world will be okay. So many women put off their doctors appointments and the things they need to do for themselves because we don’t live in a society that allows us to put ourselves first. We’ve been conditioned to think that that’s selfish.
Also, statistically, a lot of women will quit rather than saying ‘I can’t get on a call at 6 p.m. because that’s dinner time for my family.’ Or ‘I’m not going to travel three days a week because I have a young child.’ But they would rather quit than say, ‘hey, this is what I need.’”
On the impact she wishes for it all to add up to:
“I want to finish the fight for gender equality. And I will tell you that the most ambitious thing I’ve ever done is Moms First. It is so hard. It’s so hard and a lot of people have tried and have been trying.
But I cannot tell you how much, I believe that this – childcare, pay equity, paid leave – is central to women’s equality. I literally say, ‘why am I even bothering to tell my students to get educated when they’re going to get into the workforce and just get pushed out the minute they choose to become a mother?’
At the same time, getting these changes in place is not rocket science. So, it’s ironic. It’s not climate change, but it is climate change. It’s not as hard to move and shift behavior. It’s a policy change, but it’s so challenging for this country to move along and say, ‘yes, we must do this.’”
On the necessary cultural pivot:
“We’ve been indoctrinated to think that women are the problem or even men are the problem. Men are not even part of this conversation. They’re not the ones standing in the way of us getting our benefits or getting these support mechanisms. It’s a cultural change that we have to make. It’s the shift to seeing that childcare is an economic issue, not a personal issue – that in and of itself. If we started to say that childcare is not a personal problem that we have to solve. It is literally an economic issue that the country has to fix. If you made that one change, it would move mountains in terms of women’s economic freedom.
I think we have to decide, though, are women in the workforce a nice to have or a must-have? Nearly 60% of Americans still believe that one parent should stay at home with a child. So, that’s the cultural impediment that you’re trying to move. I always say a perfect world is where women have the choice to move in and out of the workforce with freedom. But it’s not even possible anymore to live in a one-income household. We’re almost living in the 1950s with that idea, when it was, but it’s not possible anymore.
So, if it’s not possible, knowing that, if we were to create society from scratch today, we would create a very different society. I was talking to a behavioral economist who was saying you would create more options for part-time work that was satisfying and fulfilling that paid well. You would think about this differently.
But it’s almost like we’re refusing to think about this differently. Even with the pandemic and how much society refused to accept remote work. I think something like 66% of employers are now back in the office even though we learned that flexibility was actually good for families. But the resistance towards doing something new is radical. That’s why what I am trying to do right now is so ambitious – because the headwinds against change are so strong in this country. But that has to change.”
To read more from Reshma Saujani, follow her on social media @ReshmaSaujani
Interviewed by Aimee Hansen
Four Reasons Leaders Need to Look After their Well-being
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Many professional women often feel additional pressure to prove themselves hardworking, especially when leading in male-dominated industries. However, problems can arise when we overwork ourselves so much that our well-being suffers and the ability to lead effectively diminishes with it.
Here are four important reasons leaders need to protect, not sacrifice, their well-being.
Rest is essential for protecting mental and physical well-being
Good quality sleep is essential for maintaining physical and mental health. Sleep deprivation can inhibit cognitive function, meaning that you can’t perform at your best when you’re tired. Plus, chronic sleep deprivation can lead to depression, anxiety, and stress, all of which can affect work.
Stress is both a cause and symptom of poor sleep, so it’s common to become stuck in a cycle of stress leading to insomnia, leading to further stress, and so on. This cycle can only be stopped when you consciously adopt a healthy sleep hygiene routine and incorporate positive stress management tactics into your day.
Work is a leading cause of stress and subsequent sleep problems, with around 80% of workers in the USA experiencing work-related stress. Those in leadership positions are particularly susceptible to excess stress because they carry more responsibility and are ultimately accountable for their team’s work.
Make sure you put firm limits on your working hours and avoid working late into the night to give yourself time to switch off from work. Many leaders find it helpful to gently unwind before bed by doing gentle exercise, meditating, journaling, taking a bath or reading a book. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day can also help your body find its natural sleep rhythm, meaning you’ll find it easier to fall asleep.
Self-care habits can support productive routines
When you schedule self-care habits into your daily routine, you’re likely to become more productive overall. Our minds can become overwhelmed with lists, tasks, and issues, which may make us reluctant to make time to exercise, indulge in a creative hobby, or prepare a healthy meal.
However, it’s important to take regular breaks from work and allow yourself the time to write down all your to-do’s, make a plan, and take a moment to breathe. Prioritizing self-care is essential for alleviating stress, and when you schedule specific self-care activities in your breaks, you’re less likely to skip them.
Many self-care habits help you to refresh your mind and return to work with greater focus. For example, art and craft activities boost dopamine levels, which aids the creation of neurons in order to promote focus and aid productivity. It might sound counterintuitive, but working less could help you to achieve more if you replace work with activities that nourish your well-being.
Protecting well-being prevents burnout
Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion that occurs after a long period of chronic stress. It affects focus and productivity, and it tends to generate an uncharacteristic sense of apathy toward work. When someone feels burned out, they can’t function professionally to their full capacity. If they continue to push themselves at work despite experiencing burnout, they run the risk of developing depression or anxiety.
Burnout seems to affect women more than men, especially for those in managerial and leadership positions. A 2021 study found that 49% of women in senior leadership roles reported feeling burned out, as opposed to only 38% of men in similar jobs. This means it’s particularly important for professional women to protect their well-being and create clear boundaries between their work and their personal lives.
Modeling healthy habits inspires team members
A workforce with good physical and mental well-being is likely to be more productive and require fewer sick days than a workforce that is stressed and physically unhealthy. As a leader, it’s your job to support your employees’ well-being to ensure your team operates to its full potential. By prioritizing your self-care, you can lead by example and encourage your team members to look after themselves, too.
Good leaders inspire their teams, and although it’s important to inspire hard work, there’s a fine line between hard work and overwork. If a leader works incredibly long hours with few breaks, their team members might feel pressure to do the same – despite the damage, this can do to their mental health and well-being.
When you encourage a healthy work-life balance and create a culture of self-care in your workplace, you help your team feel inspired to look after their own health, making them more able to perform at their best.
Prioritize your wellbeing to become a better leader
When you take care of your physical and emotional well-being, not only do you protect your ability to lead successfully but you also become a better, more effective leader. Make sure you get plenty of rest and stack up your healthy self-care habits to lead your team to great heights of success.
By: Lucy Ranger is a business development executive who has acquired more than 15 years of experience in the industry. Away from her remote office, Lucy is passionate about sustainability, and regularly volunteers in her local community to help with various clean-up projects and initiatives.
(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).
Mikaylee O’Connor: Principal, Senior Defined Contribution Strategist, PGIM DC Solutions
People, Voices of ExperienceMoving From Her Comfort Zone
Growing up in a small Oregon town, O’Connor was put on the Montessori track with an emphasis on independent thinking and hands-on learning. She then skipped middle school, while being home-schooled and spending her time in the stables, riding horses. She graduated high school at 17 and was off to Portland State University.
As a finance graduate, O’Connor joined a local investment consulting firm, RVK, as an investment analyst. She stayed for almost 13 years, working her way up while advising clients on pensions, 401k plans, and endowment foundations, to eventually becoming Head of Defined Contributions (DC). In 2020, she craved a new challenge.
“When you feel like you’re in your comfort zone, it’s the right time to maybe see about getting outside of that comfort zone. I wanted to do more strategic thinking, be a little more creative and be part of a movement to help the DC industry forward and find better solutions for everyday people,” she says.
In the start of 2021, she joined PGIM as a senior DC strategist and, this past February, she became a principal. O’Connor enjoys the ‘think tank’ atmosphere of her team: “We’re always asking, ‘What is the problem out in the market and how can PGIM and Prudential as a company come together to solve these problems and deliver solutions?’”
Embracing the New Challenge
“In my experience, the consulting world is very much for people who like to be constantly challenged,” she notes. “Every client project provides something new – new content, new research, new ways of presenting materials, or simply, adjusting to different personalities.”
O’Connor finds that everything depends upon how you approach those challenges: getting frustrated or seeing each as an invitation to grow. Receiving the support of mentors and advocates has been critical to rolling with new challenges. As she’s become senior, providing that same support to junior associates has been essential and rewarding.
She’s also learned to stay open to what she doesn’t yet know: “If you’re constantly trying to learn new things, you have to be humble to the fact that you don’t know everything,” she advises. “It’s important to surround yourself with different voices and perspectives so that when you’re trying to solve problems or provide solutions, you have that 360-degree view instead of looking only right in front of you.”
Opening to More Possibilities
O’Connor is known to give an unfiltered view of what she is thinking and play her own part in widening the conversation in any meeting.
“I push us to think differently or to have a different view on what we’re trying to solve. I often bring the end-user to the table,” she reflects. “Let’s put ourselves in the position of the person that’s going to be using this product or solution. How would they go about doing this or that?”
Despite being in a predominantly white male industry, O’Connor had the opportunity to work under a female CEO at RVK and with many female shareholders throughout her career. But when becoming involved in industry organizations, the gender skew became salient. Her approach to being underestimated by male peers was simple: “I would feel compassion for them because, at the end of the day, that’s their own challenge, not mine.”
But mostly, she has leveraged being a unique voice in the room to help her challenge the status quo.
“I’ve always been one to point out that just because we’ve done it this way in the past doesn’t mean we need to do it this way going forward. What are we missing? What should we be thinking about differently?” she says. “Having both that fresh perspective and high conviction about thinking about problems and solutions differently doesn’t always make people feel good. But I like a good debate and being uncomfortable talking about things, because we are only going to grow more through it.”
Adapting For Your Audience and Your Team Members
“Whether it’s your boss, client or a prospect, reading the room and adjusting how you approach the situation and your communication style matters to being effective,” says O’Connor.
Being able to adapt to and apply different ways of learning and communicating has been a powerful component in her ability to meet people where they are and create the momentum that drives results. Equally, sitting on the extrovert-introvert cusp, O’Connor highly values adapting her approach to hearing all voices in the room, including considering the different ways they may need to be heard.
“You have extroverts and introverts. You have people who need more time to think and you have people who can come up with ideas right on the spot in the meeting,” she says. “In order to capture all of the different great ideas, concerns and considerations, you have to consider how to make sure that you’re getting what you need from each of them, and that you make them all feel included.”
Reframing for Confidence
Shifting her mindset to increase her confidence has helped O’Connor to take on bigger roles.
“In the past, despite being overly prepared for a client meeting or discussion, I would still feel nervous,” she recalls. “But one mentor in particular assured me, again and again, that I knew more about the topic than anyone in that room. Over time, it shifted my perspective from being the ‘victim of scary stares and expectations’ to a ‘person with important information to share.’ I shifted to see that I’m going in there as a teacher.”
Now she loves to speak in front of an audience and does so often. Another learning curve has been around the challenge of leadership.
“I can be a perfectionist and always want to do things correctly, but when you’re in charge of people and emotions, that’s a different skillset and a different realm of understanding how to deal with things,” she says. “It takes a lot of listening and stepping back to ask how you can best support each of these individuals. Ultimately, their success is also my success.”
She’s also learned to always ask for feedback and to create an environment where people feel comfortable giving it.
Meanwhile, O’Connor has recently been unlearning multi-tasking as a leader: “I’ve been working on mindfulness and there’s a huge benefit to focusing your attention on one thing at a time. I’m much more active and creative when I get rid of distractions.”
Focusing on Internal Gratification
“By focusing on internal gratification, I’ve naturally been given more opportunities without necessarily focusing on what I have to do to get to the next step or to get promoted, because those are external focuses,” she notes. “By doing what I want to do – to grow and to learn and to do it for myself – I’ve just had those opportunities come to me.”
For years, O’Connor has been doing a self-review after meetings to consider whether she could have done anything better or differently. While it can be exhausting, it helps her grow and creates internal gratification.
“I would encourage women to focus internally and not worry so much about external steps and getting to the next one,” she says, “because then you’re doing the work for someone else instead of yourself.”
Being Human, First
O’Connor appreciates how PGIM Quantitative Solutions CEO Linda Gibson shows strength in her role and humanness in her communications.
“Linda has brought a sense of ‘we’re all just people.’ We’re all trying to do the same thing and nobody needs to be on a pedestal,” she says. “She can talk to you in the office just like anybody. It’s refreshing.”
O’Connor observes that since the pandemic and remote offices, more people are breaking down barriers and hierarchy, while seeing everyone as individuals and not just as employees.
“If we want to bring out the best in ourselves, we also have to show that we’re all humans and we all have things going on,” she says. “We can normalize that. But also, how do we take that change and use it to create a more cohesive and better company? Our relationships can be stronger because I can relate to you on something I didn’t know before.”
Speaking of which, O’Connor finds travel to be good for the soul, and enjoys seeking out AirBnBs and boutique stays with her husband while getting out of their comfort zones and taking in the cultures wherever they are exploring, most recently the Swedish Lapland in the forests of the Arctic circle, with saunas and cold plunges. Iceland is another favorite. Closer to home, she likes scouting out new atmospheric spots for a great meal in New York.
By Aimee Hansen
Neutral Thinking: The Key to Hard Conversations and Hard Decisions
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!, NewsCorporate leaders and professionals face difficult decisions and conversations daily. The key is to check their emotions and express themselves in a way that remains neutral and makes them proud.
Why Are Hard Conversations and Decisions Challenging?
There are a few reasons many managers avoid hard conversations and decisions:
Leadership may be known for avoiding talking to employees about hard topics, whether it’s firing someone, demoting them, issuing blame, addressing low productivity or resolving office conflicts. In fact, more companies are ditching the nail-biting year-end reviews for regular touchpoints focusing on goal-setting and open dialogue just to temper negative emotions.
Yet, despite the possibility of all these behavioral outcomes, 54% of leaders have indicated that conflictual discussions spark team engagement and uncover potential growth areas. However, they must engage employees with respect, transparency and prime leadership skills to avoid damaging outcomes.
Gender differences in communication styles significantly impact reactions. Women typically approach conversations with compassion and rapport, while men often lean into facts and problem-solving. Regardless of one’s method, learning to strike a balance is crucial.
6 Strategies for Having Hard Conversations
Your approach to difficult discussions with people can make or break spirits and significantly impact workplace morale. A 2019 Gallup survey found that a mere 10.4% of employees remained engaged at work following negative feedback — another four out of five sought other employment.
Fortunately, honing in on your leadership skills and aiming for neutrality is the best way to decide on and deliver bad news. Here are six strategies that will help you master hard conversations.
1. Create a Planned Approach
Develop a list of bullet points you want to discuss during your meeting. Having the most essential topics in front of you will keep you on track. Just be sure not to write out a script, as conversations rarely go the way you’ve planned.
A well-thought-out approach to challenging discussions with employees or co-workers ensures greater authenticity and a free-flowing discourse.
2. Practice Empathy
Emotional contagion is an alignment of emotions — if a person smiles at someone, they’ll most likely trigger a smile in return. When approaching difficult conversations, empathy goes a long way. The receiver of bad news will take cues from facial expressions, prompting a particular reaction. Likewise, a response may stem from the voice or tone used during indirect communication, such as online or on the phone.
Research suggests that women have an easier time with emotional contagion than men. One study even found that female babies cried for longer when they heard another crying.
However, empathy doesn’t come easily to everyone — some people need to practice it. Demonstrating emotional contagion, whether through facial cues or tone, will help regulate the receiver’s reactions and result in positive communication.
3. Listen and Observe
An effective leader engages in active listening and open communication to reach a solution. That means you should focus more on the other person’s words during conversations.
These one-on-one meetings don’t need to feel like an attack. Ask open-ended questions and allow employees to share their take on a situation. For instance, if someone struggles to meet deadlines, have them explain their challenges, then repeat what they shared to show you understand — “To be clear, you’re saying that knowledge gaps require more time to go over directions than doing the actual work.”
The attention and respect you offer by listening to your employees may result in a more favorable outcome than you initially thought, such as providing additional training. It may also be that they’ve taken on more responsibility than one person can handle, which leaders can step in and help delegate.
4. Face the Hard Stuff Head-On
Some decisions and conversations may be uncomfortable, but being direct often results in more profound respect and better workplace relationships. Nothing will ever get done if you constantly avoid potential conflicts and avoidance could worsen personality clashes and negative behaviors.
People who avoid hard conversations might purposefully overlook problems, joke their way through confrontations, change the topic or bottle up their emotions until they explode. Many put off having conversations indefinitely.
A more direct approach — even if it’s something positive like negotiating a raise or promotion — should encourage back-and-forth communication — this style comes across as less threatening to both parties. It might also be best to give the receiver some times to cool down and reflect on the discussion before continuing.
5. Avoid Absorbing Negative Emotions
While an effective leader should have empathetic tendencies, injecting too much empathy into hard conversations could lead to you absorbing negative feelings — also known as emotional contagion.
It’s crucial to create separation between what you need to get across and how the person responds. You can expect pushback in some instances or meltdowns, but protecting yourself is essential.
Imagine putting up a shield to block negativity or envision yourself wearing armor — this helps build up your resilience to say what you need. The key to emotional neutrality is to stay grounded. Of course, if a hard conversation ends badly, withdrawing to a quiet place will help you regroup and regain composure.
6. Stay Positive
It’s easy to anticipate discourse going array and for someone to fly off the handle. However, not all hard conversations end badly, and addressing complicated topics can have several benefits. When you approach these discussions positively, they’re more likely to be constructive than disastrous.
Hard conversations done correctly could result in an employee that strives harder to meet deadlines, boosts productivity and collaboration, feels more engaged and better aligns themselves with the company’s mission. It could also improve employee attitudes and reduce conflict.
Complex decision-making and conversations will become second nature in time because you’ll expect positive changes and relationships.
Stay Neutral for More Positive Interactions
It’s possible that you’ll never particularly enjoy giving negative feedback and criticism. You may especially dislike letting someone go or engaging in uncomfortable discourse about diversity and inclusion. But as you’re aware, these conversations are crucial and may present the best outcome for the company.
Mia Barnes is a freelance writer and researcher who specializes in mental wellbeing and workplace wellness. Mia is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Body+Mind magazine, an online women’s health publication.
(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).
Tiara Henderson: Corporate and Investment Banking Head of Women’s Segment and Commercial Real Estate Head of Diverse Segments, Wells Fargo
People, Voices of ExperienceDiversifying The Advantage of Financing
As a psychology major at Davidson College, Henderson recalls, “What we learned in liberal arts was to think critically and the rest will fall in place. That skill is of paramount importance in every job or career, no matter the industry.”
During her senior year, Henderson interned for a developer, her doorway into commercial real estate and development, which led to her early career path, which included working for affordable property development (Hope VI) to mixed-income property development to Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS). She joined Wells Fargo ten years ago, originally in the Commercial Mortgage Loan and Securities Finance group which provides credit facilities to non-bank commercial real estate lenders.
Advancing to her current role in August 2021, Henderson wears many hats as both Head of Women’s Segment for Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) and Head of Diverse Segments for Commercial Real Estate (CRE). Her two roles have one mission: identifying, engaging and retaining more diverse bank clients.
“What drew me to this role was the opportunity to create something new while having an impact on women and other diverse owned and led firms. It’s the chance for me to bring them to the table and watch their platforms grow as we surround them with support, resources, and access, and not just access to capital, but access to information, people and ideas.”
She iterates that it’s not only her passion, but a Wells Fargo priority.
“Having the support of the leadership at Wells Fargo in the work that we do has been tremendous – necessary, but also tremendous,” says Henderson. “There is a positive spotlight on our group at all times and when people speak of Diverse Segments as an ‘initiative,’ senior leaders will quickly step in and say, ‘no, this is part of the fabric.’”
Building Relationships with Diverse Owners
Henderson spends her days finding and engaging with new clients, deepening relationships with existing clients and re-engaging previous clients – including outreach through panels, conferences and events. Her group, (led by Danielle Squires – Head of Diverse Segments, CIB) is set up to foster close collaboration with her banking and markets diverse segments partners to meet the multi-functional needs of a given customer. She says her people-oriented personality is core: really listening to what clients are looking for and what their needs are and making the right introductions for them.
“Because of our differentiated approach to client management, we are able to engage and have an immediate connection with clients,” she says.
Henderson’s team creates events that bring in a wide array of clients from smaller and larger diverse-owned firms. While she loves to golf, for example, some of her clients might not be drawn to such a traditional networking event. So, when her team put on the Women’s Leadership Summer last October, they tailored it to their audience.
“It’s hard to get people out of the office for three days to travel, especially when we’re talking about CEOs and women in the C-Suite,” she said. “We were hoping to get 50 or 60 people, but we had 90 women enrolled, because this was an event created and curated for women, and it resonated.”
She adds the biggest feedback she received from the women’s leadership conference was it should be longer and no suits or heels – only yoga clothes allowed. Wells Fargo is no stranger to hosting events that celebrate diversity. For example, Wells Fargo sponsors the Spoleto Festival, and last spring, her clients (some with their families) traveled to Charleston for Memorial Day weekend and the world premiere of the opera, “Omar” – based on the autobiography, translated from Arabic, of West African Muslim scholar, Omar ibn Said, who was enslaved in the Carolinas, after being captured at the age of 37. The opera was composed by Grammy-winning artist, Rhiannon Giddens.
“These events reach our clients on a deeper level and it’s why they are so successful,” says Henderson. “We are connecting in a more meaningful way, and they appreciate and enjoy engaging with Wells Fargo.”
If You See Her, You Can Be Her
Henderson can be trusted to bring candor, connection, and industry knowledge to the table. Being regularly in the room with top senior leaders to witness firsthand how strategies and ideas can be pulled apart has leveled up her own strategic thinking – for example how to engage with women or build up the CRE diverse segments platform.
“Keeping that leadership lens and the lens of ‘who is my audience’ at all times is a skill that I’ve had to sharpen and will continue to hone as we evolve our strategic priorities and throughout the implementation of our strategic plan,” she says.
As a woman of color in the banking industry, Henderson comments, “I’m competitive and I like a good challenge. If someone says ‘it can’t be done,’ well that is probably the best motivator for me.”
Recently, she wrote an internal piece: “If you can see her, you can be her” – highlighting the importance of having diverse leaders who blaze the trail since it encourages others to envision themselves as future leaders too. She notes that it has traditionally been harder to find diverse representation in banking, and cites seeing more diverse representation on the Wells Fargo CIB operating committee (eg. Kara McShane, head of CRE, the largest real estate platform in the country and her own boss, Danielle Squires), as a sign of measurable change.
“That motivates different people to envision a career in banking, because now they see the path to leadership,” says Henderson. “That can change the mosaic of our future leadership.”
But she admits she’s catching up to seeing herself as that person who others will aspire to be: “Many women in leadership roles still don’t give themselves enough credit that we are, indeed, leaders. We feel like we never get ‘there’,” she observes. “The first time someone reached out to ask for time on my calendar, I had to take a step back and realize I have gone through this 25+ year career path and people are interested in connecting with me as a leader. But I also know it’s a two-way street. There is always something we can learn from each other, no matter what your level is within an organization.”
A Personal Board of Directors and Ownership
Through experience, Henderson has observed the leadership traits she seeks to emulate, as well as those she doesn’t. She prefers the calm, confident, strategic thinker as a leadership approach, which she identifies with. One suggestion she received from a mentor was to have a personal board of directors, people who you trust and can consult for advice.
“I want the disruptor. Somebody who is always thinking of the antithesis and they’re not going to give you the answer you want to hear. They’re going to shoot it to you straight and play devil’s advocate. I also want the people who have lots of lived experience and are highly competent, who can provide the guidance that helps you stay grounded in the decisions that you make,” she says. “Also, for me, having a spiritual person is important because that helps you stay centered. Depending on what I’m contemplating, I may also need someone industry specific. Your personal board can help shape goals and strategies.”
Henderson advises her mentees to be their own best advocate and take control of their career, because no one else is going to do that for them. In her view, this has become more important versus 20 years ago in Corporate America, when people-focused middle managers would meet to talk about career paths. Now, she notes, managers tend to be product-specific experts over a product group, but that doesn’t always mean they are experts at managing people.
“I think, because of that, the onus is now on each individual employee to think through their career, their path and trajectory and bring that to their manager, whereas in the past it was more of a team effort,” she observes. “I have had some great managers who I would absolutely invite to my board of directors.”
Networking – Whether It Comes Naturally Or Not
“Networking comes naturally to some people and for others, it doesn’t. The first step is to understand which bucket you’re in,” she advises. “If you are a natural networker, find as many chances as you can to put that to use because it’s only going to be to your benefit. If you are not a good networker, you need to recognize that, number one, and focus on growing that skill.”
She points out various ways to do this for those it doesn’t come naturally to. Perhaps its networking with people in your industry, where you have more confidence. Then, perhaps expand to network with people in banking, covering different industries. But find your niche and focus on growing the skill from there.
Henderson considers herself somewhere in the middle. But she’s learned networking hacks: “If there’s an event that evening, I try to reserve some energy so that I am prepared and charged for the networking that will come into play.”
She also knows that she must be mentally prepared if the networking involves working her way around a room of 500+ people, but she’s noticed an exception to that rule: “What I’ve found is that if I speak on a panel or I’m introduced as a sponsor, I am very comfortable tearing through the room and meeting everyone afterwards,” she notes. “I can take it from there!”
A Personal Board of Supporters
One hard truth that Henderson has learned to accept is that not everyone has a vested interest in your success: “Some people are not going to be a cheerleader,” she says. But focus on the bright spots. Along with a board of directors, you also need a board of supporters and hopefully they are one in the same. Once you have shaped your strategy and goals, you need those people who are going to continue to support you and push you forward.”
As a wife and mother of a 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, she’s very focused on her children’s school activities and sports. Her daughter is a “retired” competitive gymnast turned tennis player, while her son excels in any sport that ends in the word “ball” and lacrosse. He’s following in his dad’s footsteps. His dad is in the Davidson College Football Hall of Fame and, interestingly enough, also has had a long career in commercial real estate. Henderson loves going to the beach, playing golf, and sharing moments with friends and family.
5 Ways to Highlight Your Leadership Skills on Your Resume
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!A slick, well-organized resume is the first step to upping your profile as a leader, so choose a fresh template, and get ready to dive into the content.
Job searching can be draining, trying to get one of the highest paying jobs or even getting that interview, but you may be missing out on opportunities to craft each section of your resume so it reflects essential leadership skills, making it stand out among a sea of applications from similarly-experienced candidates.
Emphasizing crucial skills such as making tough decisions under pressure, guiding colleagues, or coming up with innovative ideas that shape the direction of projects can help propel your resume to the top of a company’s interview list. Below, we’ll go through 5 great ways to highlight leadership on your resume for maximum impact.
1. Include examples of coaching and mentorship
Experience in coaching or mentoring can make you more attractive to hiring managers because it shows your ability to enhance the performance of those around you.
As a starting point, note whether the job description uses specific mentorship-related keywords, such as ‘guide’ or ‘support.’ Mirroring the job description by incorporating these keywords into your resume summary or experience bullet points is a great move because it shows you have the exact skills they’re looking for and optimizes your resume for ATS software.
Then, add a few specific examples of coaching that demonstrate the impact of your mentorship. If you have metrics displaying results such as reduced employee turnover or improved employee satisfaction, now’s the time to mention them.
You can also outline positive outcomes for individuals to demonstrate your impact, such as your mentee receiving a promotion or meeting more KPIs.
2. Highlight the outcome of your projects or teams
Including measurable outcomes in your resume shows hiring managers that you don’t just lead — you lead effectively. Potential employers want to gauge the impact of your leadership on your company’s performance, so backing up your experience with hard data can help employers visualize your impact.
Examples of metrics to include in the experience or achievements sections of your resume include:
Even if you don’t have much hard data to work with, you can still use the examples above to guide you in making your resume’s experience section more results-focused so hiring managers can see your successes, not just your experiences.
3. Emphasize effective collaboration
A recent report on HR statistics found that effective teamwork and communication are two of the biggest skill gaps applicants struggle to match. While this applies to any role, effective collaboration is an especially appealing quality in a leader because it’s vital to ensuring team unity, performance, and productivity.
Managers must be able to delegate tasks effectively to ensure roles are clear and prevent workflow bottlenecks. If you have a good example of how your communication skills have improved your team’s ability to collaborate effectively, be sure to include it in the experience section of your resume.
Describe positive results after giving constructive feedback so potential employers can envision how you’ll ensure your colleagues’ growth and development. It could also be worth giving an example of how you’ve acted on feedback you received to demonstrate your ability to reflect and adapt.
4. Show you can lead a team or project remotely
According to McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey, over half of American workers are working remotely for at least part of the week. Remote leadership skills are in high demand as companies support their employees in maintaining a healthy work-life balance and ensure deliverables are met by a scattered workforce.
Demonstrating remote work skills and experience shows hiring managers you can help their company overcome these hurdles, particularly if you have experience managing a team or project in a remote setting. Even online part-time jobs like a virtual assistant or copywriter help you develop necessary skills to lead remotely.
Describe any strategies you’ve successfully employed to manage issues such as scheduling, employee development, or task management in your experience bullet points and include any quantifiable positive impacts.
5. Demonstrate your problem-solving skills
Problem-solving skills are an essential part of any successful leader’s toolkit because they allow you to identify and troubleshoot issues early, from less significant snags causing inefficiency to major problems threatening entire projects.
Providing examples of changes you’ve made to address a problem and their positive impact offers employers a clearer idea of your abilities than simply listing ‘problem-solving’ in your resume’s skills section. For example, you could add a bullet to your experience section outlining how you streamlined a key process and what difference it made to your team’s time management or productivity.
If you’re unsure where to start, abilities such as organization, effective planning, and critical analysis are strong examples of skills necessary for problem-solving and risk management.
Key Takeaway
Creating a leadership-focused resume involves more than simply listing your experience as a manager. Providing examples of how you applied leadership skills, adding performance metrics to experience bullet points, and enhancing your resume summary and skills section with the right keywords can help you communicate your career story more effectively and paint a compelling picture for potential employers.
By: Emily Crowley is a Senior Content Writer and Resume Expert at Resume Genius, where she loves helping job seekers overcome obstacles and advance their careers. She graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Foreign Language and Culture.
(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).
Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Moms First
People, Thought Leaders, Voices of ExperienceWe interviewed Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, the non-profit organization launched in 2011 with the mission to close the gender gap in tech. For over ten years, she served as CEO, leading to change the face of programming as we know it. At the end of 2020, and spurred by witnessing the impacts of the pandemic on women’s lives, Saujani also became Founder and CEO of Moms First (formerly Marshall Plan for Moms).
Through Moms First, she is leading the campaign to transform our workplaces, our culture and our government to enable moms to thrive. Her fourth book, Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think) proposes clear and necessary structural and cultural changes to support women in the workplace, and puts a halt on telling women to change.
Saujani was a recent keynote ‘fireside chat’ speaker for the 2023 Catalyst Awards Conference, the premier gender equity conference for advocates of diversity, equity and inclusion. With the conference themed Accelerating Equity on All Fronts—So Women Thrive, Saujani emphasized the need to drastically change the discussion around women and the workplace. She also iterated key actions that policy makers and organizations need to take, such as family-friendly policies, paid leave, and childcare to support equity, engagement, retention and advancement among women.
Saujani spoke to us about how changing the workplace to work for women – as Catalyst has researched, advocated and reimagined for over 60 years – is really not a women’s problem.
On women in the workplace:
“At the conference, I spoke about the core shifts that need to happen in the workplace to support women in leadership. The idea of supporting women in their roles as mothers is really new for Corporate America. It’s a different conversation than the one we’ve been having, because the conversation we’ve been having is really what I call the ‘big lie of corporate feminism’: that if we just raise our hand, if we lean in a little harder, then we can ‘girlboss’ our way to the top. But that leaves out the fact that two-thirds of the caregiving work is being done by women, and that women come to work already doing two and a half jobs. So this idea of ‘having it all’ is just a euphemism for ‘doing it all.’
We have to stop trying to fix women and fix the system. We need to accept the fact that workplaces have never been built for moms, so let’s redesign them for moms now. In my book, Pay Up, I lay out some strategies that companies can actually do to support working moms.
One, it begins with supporting moms with childcare. Childcare in this country is unaffordable and unavailable. 40% of parents have gone into debt because of the cost of childcare. The reality is that childcare isn’t a personal problem that you or I have to solve. It’s an economic issue. Women cannot work without childcare. So companies, for the first time, really need to step up and start providing childcare benefits – whether that’s a subsidy or back-up care. They have to start providing that support.
The second thing is paid leave. Many companies still don’t have gender-neutral paid leave policy. In a heteronormative relationship, whether a man takes paternity leave has huge consequences for women. The more men, quite frankly, that are taking paid leave, the better for the equity in a family. Right now, the vast majority of men take fewer than ten days off after having a child. So companies need to not only offer gender-neutral paid leave policy but also incentivize or mandate it.
The third thing is the motherhood penalty. The mom bias is contributing to a huge pay gap between mothers and fathers. Studies have shown that men earn 6% more when they become a dad whereas women earn 4% less when they become a mom.”
On her shift from Girls Who Code to Moms First:
“During the pandemic, I had a new ‘pandemic’ baby and I was homeschooling my six-year-old. My entire leadership team were working moms with young children, and we were barely making it. I saw so many of my students had to stay at home and take care of their siblings, instead of going on to major in computer science at college, because their mothers were essential workers. The fact that we had a broken structure of childcare in our country was continuing the generational cycle of poverty.
Moms have really been in crisis for decades – even the fact that the United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have paid family and medical leave. The fact that we’ve never made childcare affordable or available for moms. The fact that we’ve always paid mothers less than we pay fathers for doing the same exact work. If we didn’t actually solve those three things, what’s the point of even telling girls to go to college? What’s the point of even telling them they can be everything or anything when we’re just again perpetuating them in this cycle of oppression and inequality?
So I stepped down from Girls Who Code, and I’ve built Moms First, over the past year and a half, up to a grassroots movement of over half a million moms and supporters. We’re fighting for three things: childcare, paid leave, and equal pay. And it’s not just about a single piece of legislation or a workplace policy or about getting equal pay. It’s all three. They’re all interconnected.”
On the broken narrative of success:
“I think the big lie is essentially that if we only fix women, we can have equality. So again, what we keep telling women is that if you just raised your hand, if you just leaned in harder, if you just ‘girlbossed’ your way to the top… Just think about the whole conversation about equal pay. What we tell women, usually, is you’re just not negotiating well enough.
But that’s going one woman at a time rather than saying the entire structure of how we compensate women is wrong, and we actually have to build an algorithm or audit our pay policies. Those are the structural changes that we have to make instead of telling women, ‘The problem is you. You just didn’t negotiate for yourself.’
Everything around ‘the big lie’ is about making women feel like they’re the problem. They’re not the problem. The structure is the problem. Workplaces are the problem. And, even basic things like workdays are 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and school days are 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. We’re just setting women up to fail by having these structures in place that are leading to us, again, never being able to truly succeed. We’re not set up to succeed. We’ve never been set up to succeed.”
On how the future of women and work will be different than we think:
“Why it’s different than you think is that I’m not going to tell you how to fix yourself. I’m not going to tell you, yet again, how to just get a mentor, get a sponsor, or learn how to negotiate.
I’m going to walk you through the history of how workplaces have never been set up for women. And I’m going to give you strategies that are radically different than the strategies that you’ve been given. The vast majority of women that participate in an ERG are not taught how to ask for childcare. They’re not taught how to take your paid leave and not feel guilty about it. They’re taught how to learn another skillset. Get a sponsor. Be more confident.
But when you do those things, and you still feel like you’re barely making it again, you think something is wrong with you. No. Something is actually wrong with the system as it’s been set up.”
On the cultural change necessary to begin to support working moms:
“We do not value what we do not aspire to be. And being a mom, in America, is often times not something so many people aspire to be. Because, too often, motherhood in America is not seen as something that is respected and valued and dignified. Consider even the fact that we have countless school shootings and every day mothers, like me, have to drop off our children at school and not know if we’re going to see them again. That we continue to allow that to happen in this country just shows the lack of value and respect we have for the role of mothers and for our children.
So, to me, that’s cultural. Culturally, we have to become a society that says, we need to support mothers and we need to support children. Well, that means that one in four women should not have to go back to work less than two weeks after having a baby when they’re wearing an adult diaper. That means that we shouldn’t have daycare that’s not safe or that’s not affordable. We shouldn’t have parents piecing it together because, as a society, we want people to have children. Innovation dies in a nation when you have a declining birth rate, and, right now in the United States, we have a declining birth rate.”
On what women can do:
“I think that we have to fight. I think that we need to ask for what we need. I think we need to stop apologizing. I think we need to not think something is wrong with us and instead see the system as broken and demand for it to change. Right now, we’re in the middle of doing a Moms First Challenge. I joke that when we went on godaddy.com to get the URL for Moms First, it was available, because the idea of putting yourself first is very radical.
So, how do you teach that? In the first week of our challenge, we did that by having women write down all of the tasks of unpaid labor that you do. This week, we said to do something for yourself. In my case, I’ve had a horrible stomach virus where I need to be on a pretty extensive set of antibiotics, and I put it off for four years because it was never the right time. This week, I’m doing it. I’m canceling my week if I don’t feel well, and the world will be okay. So many women put off their doctors appointments and the things they need to do for themselves because we don’t live in a society that allows us to put ourselves first. We’ve been conditioned to think that that’s selfish.
Also, statistically, a lot of women will quit rather than saying ‘I can’t get on a call at 6 p.m. because that’s dinner time for my family.’ Or ‘I’m not going to travel three days a week because I have a young child.’ But they would rather quit than say, ‘hey, this is what I need.’”
On the impact she wishes for it all to add up to:
“I want to finish the fight for gender equality. And I will tell you that the most ambitious thing I’ve ever done is Moms First. It is so hard. It’s so hard and a lot of people have tried and have been trying.
But I cannot tell you how much, I believe that this – childcare, pay equity, paid leave – is central to women’s equality. I literally say, ‘why am I even bothering to tell my students to get educated when they’re going to get into the workforce and just get pushed out the minute they choose to become a mother?’
At the same time, getting these changes in place is not rocket science. So, it’s ironic. It’s not climate change, but it is climate change. It’s not as hard to move and shift behavior. It’s a policy change, but it’s so challenging for this country to move along and say, ‘yes, we must do this.’”
On the necessary cultural pivot:
“We’ve been indoctrinated to think that women are the problem or even men are the problem. Men are not even part of this conversation. They’re not the ones standing in the way of us getting our benefits or getting these support mechanisms. It’s a cultural change that we have to make. It’s the shift to seeing that childcare is an economic issue, not a personal issue – that in and of itself. If we started to say that childcare is not a personal problem that we have to solve. It is literally an economic issue that the country has to fix. If you made that one change, it would move mountains in terms of women’s economic freedom.
I think we have to decide, though, are women in the workforce a nice to have or a must-have? Nearly 60% of Americans still believe that one parent should stay at home with a child. So, that’s the cultural impediment that you’re trying to move. I always say a perfect world is where women have the choice to move in and out of the workforce with freedom. But it’s not even possible anymore to live in a one-income household. We’re almost living in the 1950s with that idea, when it was, but it’s not possible anymore.
So, if it’s not possible, knowing that, if we were to create society from scratch today, we would create a very different society. I was talking to a behavioral economist who was saying you would create more options for part-time work that was satisfying and fulfilling that paid well. You would think about this differently.
But it’s almost like we’re refusing to think about this differently. Even with the pandemic and how much society refused to accept remote work. I think something like 66% of employers are now back in the office even though we learned that flexibility was actually good for families. But the resistance towards doing something new is radical. That’s why what I am trying to do right now is so ambitious – because the headwinds against change are so strong in this country. But that has to change.”
To read more from Reshma Saujani, follow her on social media @ReshmaSaujani
Interviewed by Aimee Hansen
Different Methods of Personal Development in the Workplace
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Fortunately, there are many ways to begin your personal development journey and stay ahead of the trends. In this article, we cover several different methods of personal development to help you find the best fit.
Undertake training courses
Although personal development isn’t exclusive to training courses, they remain an effective way to pick up new skills. You can find all kinds of courses for almost any area of development, ranging from job-specific to more general soft skills such as communication.
To know which type of training would be most beneficial to you specifically, look at your performance review feedback and your personal goals to see which areas you need to buff up. Especially if you work in a competitive industry, it’s well worth doing your research and staying up to date with emerging trends and technologies that you could learn to help keep you at the front of the pack. If you’re not sure, then make sure to follow some industry leaders on social media, and see what skills they’re displaying that you’re not.
Finding and embarking on a training course is easier than ever in the modern age of remote learning. There’s no longer a need to travel in order to upskill yourself, making it more accessible and convenient. Completing the course remotely also tends to make it a lot cheaper, owing to the typical venue overhead costs being eliminated.
Set achievable goals
Setting goals provides a sense of direction and purpose, motivating workers to focus on their priorities. When setting goals, it’s important to ensure that they’re achievable amongst other things. Using the SMART method can help with this, standing for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve in order to further your personal development. Once you’ve decided on your target areas of improvement, use that to formulate goals following the SMART method. This can really help to break down a seemingly big task into smaller, more manageable steps.
Use an executive coach
An executive coach is a specialist dedicated to your own personal development. Their industry experience means they’re able to provide clients with detailed advice specific to their own situation. This kind of customized plan is invaluable when it comes to self-improvement, as your coach will be able to help you quickly identify areas of improvement and provide you with tips on how to tackle them.
Be sure to also ask your employer about mentorship opportunities, as they may be able to assign you to someone within the company to help your progress and expand your professional skills. Perhaps you’re interested in learning more about a different department, or leadership skills to help you climb the ladder of success. Being active and seeking new learning opportunities is a great way to show your employer you take your professional progression seriously.
(If you would like to be coached by the founder of theglasshammer, please email nicki@theglasshammer.com or book an exploratory session.)
Learn something new every day
Keeping your brain active can be done in many different ways, and you shouldn’t only focus on work-based learning. Reading regularly, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, exercises your brain and makes you better able to absorb knowledge, improves cognitive function, enhances memory and enriches your vocabulary. These skills are beneficial not just for personal evolution but will also go a long way to furthering your professional pursuits.
From listening to podcasts to learning a new hobby, cooking, or just socializing with new people, there are plenty of ways to enrich your brain and learn new skills to help your professional development.
Work on your existing skills
No matter your industry, there is always room for improvement within your existing skill set. You might think you’re an expert on your current tools, but quite often there are ways to further optimize your work.
Think about what your typical day consists of and do some research on the tools you use the most often. Sometimes something as simple as watching a quick video online can provide you with new shortcuts or ideas, but if you’re looking for more in-depth knowledge, consider reaching out to a coworker or friend that’s familiar with the tool.
You might find that you can both learn things from each other that can help to make you more productive. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, so make sure you’re taking the time to invest in yourself.
By: Kathleen White, who works as an independent business analyst for several small businesses. She completed her degree in Business and Management. She enjoys writing in her spare time to share what she has learned, in hopes of benefiting other businesses.
(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).
Kelley Conway: Head of Corporate & Digital Strategy, Northern Trust
People, Voices of ExperienceThe Reward of Impact
With a love for science and math, Conway studied chemical engineering before opting against a PhD and career path that she feels wouldn’t have fit her. Animated by interaction, problem-solving and dynamic impact, she found herself drawn to consultancy in tech strategy. Picking up an MBA, she then moved into digital transformation in financial services.
After twenty years of consulting a wide variety of top-tier clients, Conway was ready to steward her strategic work through to impact, recruited to lead the charge on accelerating digital strategy at Northern Trust in Chicago in January 2021. She appreciated the ability to sit down with Chairman and CEO Michael O’Grady and co-create the vision for her role: “That’s how it ended up a as a corporate and digital strategy role. Because we saw that you can’t really separate those anymore.”
Conway considers the move her best career decision to date and a culmination of everything she’s done so far.
“Nobody can look at their life and say every single day they get up in the morning radiant, right? That’s just a lie,” she half-jokes. “But even if I’m in a funk, I feel better going to work. I can feel the excitement, movement and momentum in leading impact with the talent all around me.”
“Digital For a Purpose”
With her consulting background, Conway has put a framework around the amorphous concept of “digital” to create “digital for a purpose” and drive outcomes. She defines the five layers of digital as the user experience, insight & analytics, the data that serves as the linchpin to everything — the underlying platform including cloud, and the ways of working. The challenge is ensuring all these components work together to drive real outcomes.
Conway says that when Google Maps points out the “world’s biggest potato” when you’re on a road trip, that’s an outcome of AI insight built on massive data collection, making user specific connections to know you might want to see that potato. While we benefit from the end-user experience, most of us don’t understand all the invisible – and extensive – work that has created it.
She is specifically excited about leading the charge on a data modernization program that is “democratizing” data across Northern Trust. By applying a data mesh construct, she is helping make data accessible to end users where it can drive significant business outcomes. Now, more people are also thinking and talking the language of data in effective ways that will transform the business and help to partner with clients on the innovations that matter to them.
“One of the things I have learned during my career is that communicating progress to senior leadership is a key component of this journey, and candidly I’m still working on that,” says Conway. “You have to show people iterative outcomes so they know you’re building a vision that will take us to the future.”
Humility and Passion
Growing up outside of Pittsburgh, Conway’s parents were blue collar workers in the steel mill. She learned the value of hard work, being practical and moving with humility as you put energy behind your vision. One form of humility she learned was maximizing the resources at your disposal while you have them.
“Consider the macro-economic environment we’re living in right now – high inflation and recession. Resources are always limited or going up and down,” notes Conway. “So how can you be practical? How can you actually prioritize to get the most out of the resources?”
Another form of humility is staying surrounded by people that are more knowledgeable than you in their field of expertise.
“I want people around me who know more and can see different things. The amount that I know is a lot less than the amount that I don’t know,” says Conway. “That diversity of thought and knowledge gets us to better solutions.”
Conway is genuinely passionate about tech, and conveys a sincere belief in the power of technology to transform organizations.
“Sometimes leadership requires seeing a path, charting the path and having the confidence to take that path. Sure it might be risky but we’re convinced it will accelerate our progress,” says Conway. “As a leader, my job is to communicate that vision with enthusiasm and authenticity, supported by leadership and an amazing team.”
She’s a big fan of taking measured risks amidst uncertainty of outcome, because the alternative is not learning and not growing: “You may not know if this is going to work, but you can see it’s the best thing you can try. And if you don’t try, you don’t get anything,” notes Conway.
Leveraging Your Difference
When Conway made partner at the consulting firm years ago, a junior woman told her she was an inspiration, which both surprised and emboldened her.
“I’ve now taken that in two directions. One is I recognize the broader responsibility and think about how to help individuals succeed. And secondly, I take advantage of that uniqueness in the room, and that confidence is something that has come with experience and wisdom.”
Conway has three children, 17 and 15 year old sons and a 2 1/2 year old daughter. With a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, her oldest son is 4’6”. She’s always told him that he will not go unnoticed in the world, so he can futilely try to blend into the woodwork or he can leverage the opportunity of his uniqueness to move forward. Early on, she was also the woman in tech in the corner trying to blend in, when that was always impossible. Now, she’s embraced owning her difference to get her message across stronger.
On the note of leaning into your voice, Conway says her little girl has “a will on her like nobody’s business” which she takes pride in: “She’s impossible and stubborn and I refuse to squash that,” says Conway, “because I know exactly what she’s going to face in her life and I want that to be there.”
Her approach to working motherhood has evolved. When her sons were little, she put her career above everything and their dad was highly supportive. At that time, she believed she had to choose family or career. With her little daughter now, her approach has changed.
“I prioritize making time with her more, yet I still have the same passion for my career. I’m still making the change I want. I realized you can actually find balance,” says Conway, who comes into the office early and leaves early. “There are trade-offs, but it’s not that you can either have this or that. I have an incredibly supportive team and I’ve learned to take a much more balanced view of my life.”
Leadership that Inspires and Empowers
“I am very much a believer in leaders who empower their teams versus control their teams. I don’t appreciate command-and-control leaders. That stifles innovation and digital and everything I love,” says Conway. “I’ve had managers who are caring and give you all the room in the world and that helped me.”
Aspiring to lead that way, she also looks for the traits of humility and empowering others in the people she will work with. Conway recalls she had the opportunity to inspire and empower her team.
While there was hesitation around whether they had the talent in place as they set off into data modernization, she could see the potential in the talent already there. So she focused on bringing the team into the vision, animating them in learning and developing team passion around it. She saw her job as removing the roadblocks and then watching as her team moved faster than she had imagined. In general, Conway has many times heard from others that the problem is too complex, but she’s not one to “pack her bags and go home” just because things are difficult and it’s going to take innovative team approaches to navigate the terrain.
Climbing Higher
Conway underlines the importance of agency amidst requests for support: “I’m a big believer that you control your own destiny. People will support you, but you have to also take those opportunities and drive your career. You have an onus to take responsibility for your career as much as the onus on those around you to support you.”
Conway is an avid mountaineer, although she is pausing on that activity until her daughter is a bit older. She’s climbed Mont Blanc, Mount Ararat and Mount Kilimanjaro. She’s ice-climbed in Patagonia and broken 20,000 feet in Nepal, having gone to Everest base camp and Mount Mera. She is eyeing the challenge of Aconcagua in Argentina.
When climbing, she says, “everything shuts off. You’re working towards a goal. Sometimes it’s a slog, but you pick your head up and it’s this amazing spiritual sensation,” she muses. “That’s what rejuvenates me. A career can provide that same experience. Digital modernization can be a long, incremental process, so you have to stop sometimes and appreciate the amazing progress you’ve made.”
By Aimee Hansen
Op-Ed: Breaking the Mold – How to Become Your Own Boss
Career Advice, Guest Contribution, Life HacksI was working as the director of content development for peak performance coach Tony Robbins and was called into a meeting. Online education was just starting to take off, and Tony had invited some of the most successful entrepreneurs in this space to come in and share their experiences.
These men — and they were all men — had hugely successful digital courses, online membership programs, and mastermind groups. We were exploring how we could add this strategy to our business.
My job was to sit there quietly and take notes. And since women hold only 8.2% of CEO roles, this dynamic didn’t seem unnatural to what I was used to. But as I was taking notes, everything started to change for me.
I realized I wanted a seat at the table, not just near it. I wanted to be a part of changing statistics like the global gender pay gap – currently estimated to be 16%, meaning women earn an average of 84 cents for every dollar men earn.
And finally, I realized I wanted to be part of the 12 million women-owned businesses in the US that generate over $1.8 trillion in revenue and employ over 9.4 million people.
So I decided to start my journey towards these desires right then and there in the meeting. I paid close attention to what these powerful business owners were sharing, and today, I want to pass along three lessons I learned to help you build the business – and life – of your dreams, too.
1. It is possible to design your life on your own terms.
As I listened to those entrepreneurs talk about their businesses, I realized something that changed how I thought about my career path. These men were all in different industries but had one thing in common: freedom. They weren’t hitting the glass ceiling. They weren’t asking for permission. They were taking charge of their own destiny.
Without knowing it, women let outside forces shape their destinies all the time. Just look at the latest PitchBook data showing how startups with all-women teams receive a mere 1.9% of the 238.3 billion dollars of venture capital awarded each year.
But these men… in this meeting? They were calling the shots and not waiting for someone to give them a green light on their business ideas.
They were achieving business success while designing a life on their own terms. And I wanted to do that too.
For me, the answer was to build my own business and be my own boss. I wanted to do work I loved and do it how, when, and where I chose. That would be designing life on my own terms.
When I started exploring what life on my own terms looked like, I remember reaching out to a business owner and boldly asking: “I know you don’t offer this as a service, but could I pay you for an hour to ask how you built your business?”
She said yes, and I spent that hour under my desk whispering into the phone as she broke down steps to get started, how to align a business with personal values, and how she brought her vision to life on her terms.
It wasn’t glamorous, but it was just what I needed.
She could have said no, and if that happens to you, I want you to look at that “no” as bringing you one step closer to a “yes.” Keep reaching out and asking people for advice. Eventually, a door will open.
And mentors like this don’t have to come in the form of a person, either. Books like Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert showed me how my ideas were a big enough deal that I could build a business around them.
The message she shares in the book about how you can either go all in and share your gifts with the world, or dismiss them, resonated with me and served as the kick in the pants I needed to get crystal clear on how I wanted to impact the world.
A life designed on your terms might look different than mine. That’s the beautiful thing: You have the power to choose your path. And once you do, I encourage you to find a mentor to guide you as you walk down it toward your dream life!
2. Your existing knowledge and skills are more valuable than you think.
As I listened to the men in that boardroom talk about the online courses they were selling, I took note of their success. Each one had taught hundreds or even thousands of students, creating a massive impact in their field. From dating advice to real estate investing, they were transforming lives. It was truly inspiring.
I also took note of what they didn’t say. None of them talked about investing years and years into certification and education before they created their first course. They didn’t go back to school to earn a business degree before they launched. They weren’t wracked with fear about staying on top of their game.
In fact, whether you’re starting your own business or applying for a new job, this seems to be a common theme. A Hewlett Packard report found that while men apply for a job if they meet only 60% of the qualifications, women tend to apply only if they meet 100%. That stops now – you know enough to take the first step!
Your knowledge today has enormous value if you share it with the right audience. Whether you are starting an online education business of your own or continuing a professional career, the key is to look for places where you have a 10 percent edge.
If you are at least 10 percent ahead of those you serve, you can lead the way. In fact, it’s sometimes easier to lead when you aren’t too far out in front.
3. Boss traps are a barrier to success.
The third thing I noted during the meeting was that these highly successful entrepreneurs had faced their share of problems. Yes, a professional career comes with challenges. But becoming your own boss isn’t always smooth sailing either.
As I started my own business, I discovered that many of the traps you fall into as a boss stem from “demoting” yourself and not embracing the full scope of your role. You may experience some of these in your career as well. For example, one of the most common boss traps is falling prey to superwoman syndrome and trying to do everything yourself.
A study by the U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics found that 20% of businesses failed within the first year, and I believe many are due to superwoman syndrome.
There are so many stories of entrepreneurs who had to learn this lesson the hard way, from Arianna Huffington, the co-founder of The Huffington Post, to Sophia Amoruso, founder of Nasty Gal.
In 2007, after launching the news site, Huffington became consumed by the demands of running the business and regularly worked 18-hour days. In 2007, she collapsed from exhaustion and hit her head, resulting in a broken cheekbone and stitches.
This experience prompted her to reassess her priorities and make changes in her life and work. She stepped down as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post in 2016 and launched Thrive Global, a company focused on wellness and reducing burnout.
Huffington has since spoken about the importance of taking care of oneself and avoiding the trap of “superwoman syndrome” in order to be successful in business.
Sophia Amoruso is another example of a founder falling into the “superwoman syndrome” trap. She launched the online clothing retailer Nasty Gal in 2006 as an eBay store and grew it into a successful brand with over $100 million in annual revenue.
However, Amoruso took on too much work herself and ultimately experienced burnout. In 2015, Amoruso stepped down as CEO of Nasty Gal after the company filed for bankruptcy.
She has since gone on to start a new company, Girlboss, which aims to provide resources and a community for women entrepreneurs. Amoruso has spoken publicly about the lessons she learned from her experience with Nasty Gal, including the importance of delegation and self-care in avoiding burnout.
I tell you these stories not to discourage you, rather, to remind you that none of us magically wake up one morning feeling like a “boss babe” from Instagram. It takes time, experience, and a willingness to change to become a leader who can live life on her terms.
You absolutely deserve to get there. And along the way, don’t forget to take off your superwoman cape and ask for help so you can bring people along for this incredible journey you’re starting! It’s like the legendary leader John Maxwell says, “Leadership doesn’t involve being ‘lonely at the top.’ If you’re at the top of a mountain alone, you’re not a leader, you’re a hiker.”
Dream big, but don’t stop with a dream. As quickly as possible, take a step toward that dream. Action creates clarity, and clarity will propel you to more action.
Don’t wait. I know you’ve got this.
Amy Porterfield teaches eight best-selling courses that empower women across the globe to take their futures into their own hands. She hosts the top-ranked marketing podcast Online Marketing Made Easy and author of the new book, Two Weeks Notice: Find the Courage to Quit Your Job, Make More Money, Work Where You Want, and Change the World.
(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).
Geneviève Piché: Head of Sustainable Finance and Advisory, Corporate & Investment Banking, Wells Fargo
People, Voices of ExperienceAfter studying economics and international studies at Macalester College, Piché joined Wells Fargo. That was 23 years ago. As a French Canadian who briefly lived in Australia growing up and chose a college with an international bend, Piché cultivated a wide world lens. At Wells Fargo, her international passion was flamed as she moved into emerging markets and finance. It’s become critical in her sustainability work, where ethics, global and regional dynamics are inextricably linked.
The diversity of opportunities and organizational culture at WF have supported her to stay inspired and grow. She recently returned from a two-week trip focused on understanding sustainability and energy transition in the Asia-Pacific region.
From “Idea Spark” To New Strategy And Role
“Embrace the sparks because they can catalyze organizational progress and develop careers,” iterates Piché. Back in May of 2020, she experienced an idea spark “that turned into a raging fire.”
Piché was leading the asset management coverage team and many of her clients were changing the way they allocated capital – moving towards ESG integration in the investment process and raising funds for specific thematic objectives – such as green infrastructure or circular economy.
“I could see there was a business need for a financial institution like ours to support those growing flows of capital, but simultaneously there were some interesting socio-economic developments happening,” recalls Piché.
Covid had revealed weaknesses in the supply chains and laid bare the unequal access to healthcare. Social justice themes had been brought to the forefront. Massive fires had been burning in Australia, consuming millions of acres of eucalyptus forest and wild lands, reminding Piché of a childhood experience at a farm where she was tending to the burnt paws of baby koalas who were fleeing or rescued from the fires.
“That was the first time I witnessed the interactions of climate change and biodiversity in my community, and it stuck with me. Now, the effects of climate change are spread way beyond Australia,” she says. “So it was a galvanizing moment for me that occurred at the same time as a call-to-action on the part of Wells Fargo leadership, when many leaders were saying we needed to do something differently and that they were all ears for ideas.”
So with the momentum of her spark and a receptive context, Piché developed a business strategy for Wells Fargo’s Corporate & Investment Banking division (CIB) around sustainable finance within ten days. Next was nurturing that spark.
“Having been at Wells Fargo for so long, I understood how things work intuitively. But for those who may be newer to an organization, knowing who understands the unwritten rules is an important part of networking,” she says. “Observe those people sitting at the right tables who communicate in a way that you like and get looped into email discussions. It’s important for career development to identify those strong and competent organizational players, even if you don’t exactly know the ropes.”
Along with knowing how things work, utilizing sponsors and mentors was also essential to fueling the spark. Piché ran the strategy across a sponsor who had organizational savvy but was not in her direct reporting line.
“First, it gave me the confidence that my idea was directionally correct because that person did their own research, too. It also allowed me to navigate our organizational structure to get the idea in the right place in the right way to build buy-in among leadership teams,” she notes.
After a couple of months and some refining, she received the call to leave her role as head of asset management and begin the new role she’d proposed.
Sustainability is a Win-Win
When it comes to a legacy of impact, and especially on Earth Day, Piché wants to convey the message that sustainability is a win-win for organizations, not a win-lose or compromise.
“Sustainability and climate efforts are about value creation. They are not check-the-box exercises. It’s about developing strategies that can drive value for companies while making the world a better place,” she says. “With a financial institution like Wells Fargo, we have a very big megaphone because we talk to so many different constituents and millions of customers, so I want people to be able to acknowledge and understand that developing strategies around environmental practices and social practices are extremely beneficial to companies in the long-term and in the short-term.”
She continues, “Once we are able to understand that, we will be more able to effectively unlock impact, drive large-scale change, support the industrial transformation that’s underway, and elevate and provide opportunities to those who have historically had fewer.”
Aligning Your Personality to the Role
Piché prefers to be a generalist who does many things at once – even picking two majors instead of one, and realizing that has helped.
“There are certain jobs that require you to be focused and narrow. Today, I know those jobs do not suit my personality. Roles that are broader and more entrepreneurial do,” she says. “One of the reasons I love my role now is that it’s rich in content, themes and opportunities and has many facets to the work. It allows me to juggle many things all at once and play to my strengths.”
Before she realized what job roles matched her, Piché would often supplement more narrowly-focused roles with side initiatives and projects or looking to travel to provide diversification. Perhaps only with the benefit of hindsight has she realized this, because when in a less-suited role you may normalize the feeling.
“But when you have the right job, you look forward to waking up in the morning. You’re excited about the people you’re working with and the work,” she says. “I often encourage people to think about their personalities and learning styles in finding the right role. Are you drawn to multiple threads of thoughts and projects? Do you like to travel far and wide but more shallow, or to go deep and seek real expertise in one particular area?”
Piché has further compatibility advice for people evaluating their first job or next opportunity: “It’s really important that you choose those opportunities based on the people that you will work with more so than the job itself,” she says. “Because I find the people that you are surrounded with are the defining characteristics of your experience. Developing a particular job skill is cumulative, but you want people who will support you on that journey and who inspire you.”
Piché also warns against burning those bridges. “I have found that my career path has wound in many different directions and people keep coming back into my life professionally. We say ‘don’t burn your bridges’ but really what that means is always be respectful and kind to the people who you work with. Be transparent and authentic and do your best,” she says. “When you do that, you manage those relationships and it can be that they keep on giving and building upon themselves as you progress in life.”
The Power of Storytelling
As she has become more senior, Piché’s love of writing, ability to communicate powerfully and storytelling have become greater strengths. It’s what helped to create her role. Another expression is the quarterly newsletter she sends to all Wells Fargo CIB employees to inspire and engage them in the sustainability initiative.
“Storytelling in a business context can be extremely compelling in driving leadership buy-in. It’s a great leadership skill when you can tell stories that are relatable and demonstrate expertise and thoughtfulness and authenticity,” she says. “On the flip side, great storytelling is also important in our customer relationships. What is the client looking for and what is the most compelling thing they are interested in? It’s really important to tell a story that is both quantitatively and qualitatively justified and compelling.”
Choosing to Plant Where You Can Thrive
“In the first ten years of my life, I had a very strong impression that organizations were meritocratic. Now, we understand there’s a tremendous amount of unconscious and institutional bias in all organizations, and it’s perhaps not so meritocratic beneath the surface,” she says. “There’s a lot that is challenging women’s careers and the careers of people of different backgrounds.”
At various times in her life, Piché has seen entrenched social networks that permeate professional life and make it challenging to navigate. She never doubted her competence, but it was evident some situations were more conducive to her success than others.
Those experiences underlined the importance of DEI, because breaking down institutional social barriers does not happen overnight, even in an organization where it is happening. These days, she is absolutely thriving in the broader context of sustainability where she interacts with all walks of life, geographies, races and ethnicities, while enjoying the work and feeling empowered.
Positive Impact in Every Sphere of Life
Piché wishes to impact positively in five areas: work, motherhood, partnership, self and friendship.
From weekend art challenges to bike rides to trips to school and bedtime stories, she loves creating special moments with her eight year old son. She intentionally nurtures her relationship with her husband through regular date nights. As a family, they enjoy collecting junior ranger badges through visits to U.S. national parks while building experience and knowledge around the natural and historical patrimony.
To care for herself, she does things she loves to do – whether playing music (the piano), cooking, reading or taking hikes. Also while she may have less to extend at times, she values being a thoughtful friend to the people in her life that need support.
Similarly, Piché leads her work teams authentically and transparently while demonstrating passion, enthusiasm and competence. And laughter.
“I think when you demonstrate those traits, it empowers teams and individuals to do the same. Then you have much higher performing teams and make a greater impact on people’s individual careers and sense of feeling inspired,” she says. “As leaders in the corporate world, if we can have positive impact on people’s well-being and joy and have a positive impact in the world, then I think we’ve accomplished something pretty awesome.”
By Aimee Hansen