Today you will play a part in several small stories at the office. Each one will be made up of a setting, characters, dialogue, context, and a scenario in play.
What you may not have noticed is that in each of these interactions, meaning is being negotiated by one or more people who are simultaneously building their leadership identity. Is one of them you?
Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant have written in the New York Times about the challenges of “speaking while female”, which holds women and companies back – such as being manterrupted, having male co-workers take the words from your mouth and run with them, being penalized in competency ratings for talking as much as male executive peers, or witnessing your contributions not being allotted equal weight in strategic discussions. Clearly, more is at stake than share of talk time.
According to the discursive leadership approach, “leadership is a language game in which meaning is managed.” When women’s voices are undermined, their ability to create meaning, and therefore leadership identity, is likely too.
Small Stories and Identity Creation
Discursive leadership says that leadership identity is achieved through influencing the meaning within everyday interactions in an organization, where the players predominantly framing conversations are reinforcing their positioning as leaders.
Research from Jonathon Clifton at the Universite´ de Valenciennes in France suggests that we too often overlook the importance of everyday “small stories” in developing leadership. We often look at leadership identity through narratives where leaders stands back and reflect on their lives.
In contrast short stories are short, happening all the time in everyday settings, told within the purpose of interaction, and aren’t necessarily about the speaker – and it’s those moments in which leadership identity, viewed as more “fragmented, fluid, and dynamic” – is constructed. Echoing Herminia Ibarra’sperspective on leadership identity, identity isn’t something we have or are – it’s something we do.
If we look at leadership more as a practice and process, and less as a quality, then the upcoming briefing meeting, the strategic discussion, and the next conflict resolution are moments in which we can “perform leader identities.” At any moment, we can “do identity” in interactions.
Being a Meaning Maker
Clifton’s research focuses on observing how we “do leadership” through our daily discourse by managing meaning in the “here-and-now” moments of interaction.
Citing previous research, Clifton notes that at any point a narrator (speaker) manages meaning and position herself or himself as leader by:
- positioning characters (co-workers) & the collective (eg. organization) relative to each other in a story
- positioning self as leader by being the one to convey that story right now
- positioning self relative to the organization and certain master narratives (eg an organizational priority)
Any time we talk about anything, we position it in one particular way and not another, which privileges one version of organizational reality while pushing aside others. By influencing the meaning through which discussions are framed, a speaker positions himself or herself as leader through the interaction.
The “fine-grained” discursive techniques of leadership are not necessarily conscious because meaning is always being influenced in conversation. Once observed, certain techniques can be sharpened with awareness and practice. Here’s examples of language plays the researcher pointed out in recorded meetings:
- leading the verbal briefing of a situation at hand
- speaking on behalf of players when summarizing a situation and the various perspectives
- being the speaker framing the situation as news in the here & now, while perhaps conveying an insider viewpoint
- initiating assessment of a situation, challenging a previous assessment, or upgrading it to a stronger assessment
- judging or affirming another’s assessment to assert greater expertise
- bringing in stories or information to justify a certain way of looking at things
- returning the conversation to an angle of topic after intervening conversation
- speaking on behalf of the organization, animating its perspective and giving it voice through “we”
- authoring a (selective) organizational landscape through which dynamics are then interpreted and decisions framed
Resources and Power Imbalance in Managing Meaning
According to the research, the dance of leadership discourse is not strictly defined by hierarchy, but open to resistance, negotiation, or acquiescence and is often distributed and negotiated among different participants in any given discussion. As observed in previous research, “management of meaning does not take place in a social vacuum and rights to assess are constantly being claimed, challenged, and policed as participants jockey for influence…” But not everybody holds equal resources or power in the game.
What each person perceives as their “allowable contribution” to any discussion (eg opening, guiding, assessing, & closing it) is affected by where they sit, and if we bring Sandberg & Grant’s article into consideration – potentially by their experiences of speaking in a specific context in their organization as a man or a woman.
Though not addressing gender differences, the research acknowledges the impact of power imbalance. Clifton notes, “In this language game, rights to assess and, therefore, to define the organizational landscape are negotiated in talk and the person, or persons, who have most influence in this process emerge as the leaders. Thus, from this perspective, leadership is not a zero-sum game, rather it is in constant flow as talk progresses… it can be distributed and it is open to challenge.”
“However,” he notes, “those most likely to emerge as leaders are those who have access to more powerful discursive resources with which to influence the process of the negotiation of meaning.”
Applying that to formal roles, Clifton states “Whilst leadership may not be commensurate with hierarchy, access to discursive resources that are category-bound to more ‘powerful’ identities, such as chairperson, may skew the ability to do leadership in favour of people incumbent of certain organizational identities.”
Disrupting the Discourse Dynamic
In the majority of companies, the incumbents of most executive level identities are men. At both an executive and senior pipeline level, women are not in a position of equal access to the big conversations and often face challenges when they do get a seat at the decision table.
Sandberg and Grant have shared that senior women experience different outcomes to men when they speak. The bigger consequence at hand when women’s voices are institutionally disadvantaged is arguably the consistent re-positioning of predominantly male leadership and privileging of male-led organizational narratives.
Yet the research examples illustrated women “doing leadership” in discussion, including with male bosses. If leadership is a flow practiced with each conversation and discourse is a dance happening at every interaction, then every day presents new opportunities for you to “do leader.”
The more women do, and the more informal organizational culture changes to support and reward them equally to men in doing so, the less “leader” will be a long identity bridge women have to cross.
Instead, leadership can become a series of moments we step and speak into.
Why Leadership Identity is “Done” In Everyday Discussions
Career Advice, LeadershipWhat you may not have noticed is that in each of these interactions, meaning is being negotiated by one or more people who are simultaneously building their leadership identity. Is one of them you?
Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant have written in the New York Times about the challenges of “speaking while female”, which holds women and companies back – such as being manterrupted, having male co-workers take the words from your mouth and run with them, being penalized in competency ratings for talking as much as male executive peers, or witnessing your contributions not being allotted equal weight in strategic discussions. Clearly, more is at stake than share of talk time.
According to the discursive leadership approach, “leadership is a language game in which meaning is managed.” When women’s voices are undermined, their ability to create meaning, and therefore leadership identity, is likely too.
Small Stories and Identity Creation
Discursive leadership says that leadership identity is achieved through influencing the meaning within everyday interactions in an organization, where the players predominantly framing conversations are reinforcing their positioning as leaders.
Research from Jonathon Clifton at the Universite´ de Valenciennes in France suggests that we too often overlook the importance of everyday “small stories” in developing leadership. We often look at leadership identity through narratives where leaders stands back and reflect on their lives.
In contrast short stories are short, happening all the time in everyday settings, told within the purpose of interaction, and aren’t necessarily about the speaker – and it’s those moments in which leadership identity, viewed as more “fragmented, fluid, and dynamic” – is constructed. Echoing Herminia Ibarra’sperspective on leadership identity, identity isn’t something we have or are – it’s something we do.
If we look at leadership more as a practice and process, and less as a quality, then the upcoming briefing meeting, the strategic discussion, and the next conflict resolution are moments in which we can “perform leader identities.” At any moment, we can “do identity” in interactions.
Being a Meaning Maker
Clifton’s research focuses on observing how we “do leadership” through our daily discourse by managing meaning in the “here-and-now” moments of interaction.
Citing previous research, Clifton notes that at any point a narrator (speaker) manages meaning and position herself or himself as leader by:
Any time we talk about anything, we position it in one particular way and not another, which privileges one version of organizational reality while pushing aside others. By influencing the meaning through which discussions are framed, a speaker positions himself or herself as leader through the interaction.
The “fine-grained” discursive techniques of leadership are not necessarily conscious because meaning is always being influenced in conversation. Once observed, certain techniques can be sharpened with awareness and practice. Here’s examples of language plays the researcher pointed out in recorded meetings:
Resources and Power Imbalance in Managing Meaning
According to the research, the dance of leadership discourse is not strictly defined by hierarchy, but open to resistance, negotiation, or acquiescence and is often distributed and negotiated among different participants in any given discussion. As observed in previous research, “management of meaning does not take place in a social vacuum and rights to assess are constantly being claimed, challenged, and policed as participants jockey for influence…” But not everybody holds equal resources or power in the game.
What each person perceives as their “allowable contribution” to any discussion (eg opening, guiding, assessing, & closing it) is affected by where they sit, and if we bring Sandberg & Grant’s article into consideration – potentially by their experiences of speaking in a specific context in their organization as a man or a woman.
Though not addressing gender differences, the research acknowledges the impact of power imbalance. Clifton notes, “In this language game, rights to assess and, therefore, to define the organizational landscape are negotiated in talk and the person, or persons, who have most influence in this process emerge as the leaders. Thus, from this perspective, leadership is not a zero-sum game, rather it is in constant flow as talk progresses… it can be distributed and it is open to challenge.”
“However,” he notes, “those most likely to emerge as leaders are those who have access to more powerful discursive resources with which to influence the process of the negotiation of meaning.”
Applying that to formal roles, Clifton states “Whilst leadership may not be commensurate with hierarchy, access to discursive resources that are category-bound to more ‘powerful’ identities, such as chairperson, may skew the ability to do leadership in favour of people incumbent of certain organizational identities.”
Disrupting the Discourse Dynamic
In the majority of companies, the incumbents of most executive level identities are men. At both an executive and senior pipeline level, women are not in a position of equal access to the big conversations and often face challenges when they do get a seat at the decision table.
Sandberg and Grant have shared that senior women experience different outcomes to men when they speak. The bigger consequence at hand when women’s voices are institutionally disadvantaged is arguably the consistent re-positioning of predominantly male leadership and privileging of male-led organizational narratives.
Yet the research examples illustrated women “doing leadership” in discussion, including with male bosses. If leadership is a flow practiced with each conversation and discourse is a dance happening at every interaction, then every day presents new opportunities for you to “do leader.”
The more women do, and the more informal organizational culture changes to support and reward them equally to men in doing so, the less “leader” will be a long identity bridge women have to cross.
Instead, leadership can become a series of moments we step and speak into.
Voice of Experience: Leah Guggenheimer, Director at Burford Capital
People, Voices of ExperienceThis viewpoint has been honed over the many career paths that Guggenheimer has taken as a master of reinvention. “My unusual career path might appear random, but there actually was a method in place,” she says.“I curated each job to build on my proven skill sets and find new experiences.”
Guggenheimer began her career as an attorney, where she represented plaintiffs in employment and consumer fraud class actions – work that she eventually found tedious, due to the slow pace with which anything was accomplished. She wanted to transition to a new career, and with the realization that it was up to her to explain her transferrable skills, she was able to parlay marketing work she’d done on her firm’s website into a position in marketing and business development at a 100-person intellectual property firm.
Her aptitude became clear as she worked on a large technology and business transformation project, which put her on a career path in business process and operations management. Subsequent positions introduced her to all aspects of change management, from learning how to assess a business from top to bottom, to managing people and performance, budgets and profitability.
Those skills allowed her to open her own consulting practice, specializing in what she calls “punchy consulting projects” designed for a quick burst of operational growth. “It’s rewarding to come in and be the objective outsider, helping businesses grow by showing them what they can build on and how they can change.”
It all came together in her current role, which bridges both her legal background and her investment operations expertise. Burford Capital is a global finance and professional services firm focused on law, investing in commercial litigation assets via expense funding, monetizing of contingency arrangements, securitized debt facilities linked to legal claims, litigation-related insurance and judgment enforcement.After six years of rapid growth, Burford Capital needed someone who really understood both operations and complex litigation to help them grow and scale their business processes, and Guggenheimer had the perfect background to take on the challenge.
Make Your Own Way
Guggenheimer’s career trajectory is proof of the wide variety of professional paths that can be pursued for a rewarding career. “I would advise people to first figure out their strengths and what they like to do and then look for jobs that leverage those capabilities. Don’t get caught up on job titles or prestige,” she said. “Your core capabilities should dictate how you design your career.”
She also advises women not to feel pigeonholed: their skills are likely transferrable and they become even more professionally attractive by evolving their expertise. She herself was nervous when considering leaving law, but asked herself what was the worst that could happen. “If I didn’t succeed, I still would have learned something useful, and with every skill you develop, it’s that much easier to shape the roles that fit you and offer what you need to be challenged and interested.”
Stick With It
Guggenheimer’s career has been spent exclusively in law and finance, traditionally male-dominated industries. One barrier for women she has frequently seen is that they don’t have the confidence to speak out. Studies suggest that whereas a man only needs to feel 10 percent confident in what he is saying, a woman might need 80 percent confidence.
“This becomes a major issue in an industry where confidence in the face of risk is crucial to success. It’s imperative that women cultivate the confidence to believe in their inner voice.”
Recently Guggenheimer attended a roundtable for professional women with young children, some of whom were lamenting the difficulty of sustaining challenging careers and wondering if they should scale back. Her advice to anyone feeling like they want to quit is to stay with it a little longer. “You’re going to feel overwhelmed at first. But what feels insurmountable at first blush will get that much easier as you establish systems and routines.”
Over the years she has developed a core group of women to help support her own career, called “Ladies who Sup,” a nod to the fact that they were working so couldn’t have lunches together. The community was formed around where she lives, in New Rochelle, N.Y., rather than where she works. “It was a gift to have this community of working women who lived in my neighborhood and could provide the resources and community support we all needed,” she says. “Meeting for dinner was a great way to network and build friend relationships with others who shared the challenges of being working moms.”
Guggenheimer has a passion for travel, a bug she caught during a gap year after college and before law school when she backpacked around Asia. She loves to hike and SCUBA dive, preferring places where she can go off the beaten path to really get away and unplug. Her love of other cultures is evident in her philanthropic pursuits as well: for the last five years, she has volunteered for AFS, a leader in educational exchange programs for high school students, as a liaison as well as a host family for an exchange student from Thailand.
“The world is wide and is meant to be explored.”
By Cathie Ericson
The Key to Managing Up: Build relationships
Office PoliticsRead more
Don’t be afraid of learning and using technology in all aspects of your life to further your career
Career Tip of the Week!I recently went to a tech conference (a partner organization called Lesbians Who Tech) which was great networking and generally very enjoyable to be away from my desk as it is always great to get out when you can and meet actual people.
I learned about many apps and services that can really save time and enhance how people work. So many of my Gen X friends are still avoiding technology when really you can make your life easier so join the revolution and get digital! What takes up most of your day? I find scheduling can eat away at my time so I recommend Calendy for an example of how to reduce the back and forth of arranging times to talk with clients and peers!
By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist
Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work
Voice of Experience: Kristen Garry, Tax partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP
People, Voices of Experience“Do something you enjoy because you’re going to be spending a lot of time at it, and do it with a group of people that you’ll enjoy being with,” advised a firm partner.
Today, Garry, a tax partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Washington, D.C. office, is still enjoying her work and her time with fellow lawyers at the firm and her clients.
Unlike many successful professionals who take a bit of time to find their way, Garry’s path to becoming a tax partner was more of a straight line:She majored in government in her undergraduate studies at Cornell University, with an eye on law school, and gained exposure to the tax field before choosing NYU’s law school, top-ranked for tax, where she subsequently earned her LL.M. in Taxation.
After clerking for Judge James Halpern in the U.S. Tax Court, she decided to stay in Washington, D.C. and join Shearman & Sterling at a time when there were no women in the tax department in D.C. – though she was soon joined by another. She became a partner in 2008, an achievement she is particularly proud of since the firm has been such a perfect fit for her.
Always a New Challenge
Garry concentrates on both transactional and planning work, helping clients with IRS audits and appeals as well as with matters at the U.S. Tax Court. She recently had a victory on a highly technical issue where auditors had proposed significant adjustments – to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars – and she and her team were able to prove to the IRS that the client was 100 percent correct on the law.
On a policy front, the team is busy advising clients, including helping to interpret sparse IRS guidance in certain areas that continue to present challenging situations to clients.There is always ambiguity in the law, and tax law is no exception.As a result, the firm’s clients – both in the U.S. and globally – often struggle with tax rules that might be old or outdated and look to Garry and her colleagues for guidance.“You want to be able to offer your clients some level of comfort in a scenario that’s not cookie cutter, especially with respect to financial products,” she says.
Earning the Recognition You Deserve
Garry advises young women who are starting out to remember that they often need to advocate for themselves.“It took me a while to realize it was OK to self-promote.I would know that I had done a great job, but then I realized I had to advocate for myself.You can’t always let your actions speak for themselves,” she says.
And, she emphasizes that careers are more apt to flourish when women are doing what they enjoy, whether it’s through a practice group or industry focus. “You won’t work as hard if you’re not enjoying it,” she says, “and if you’re only putting in the bare minimum, you’re not going to be as successful.”
Maintaining a Pipeline for Women
Since there are few women in tax at Shearman & Sterling and, generally speaking, in law, Garry has appreciated an outside informal tax study group where tax professionals meet to discuss financial products.“It’s an interesting group of men and women from both law and accounting firms,” she says.“It’s encouraging to see other women who have succeeded in the tax field.”
Garry has noticed that the numbers of women in senior leadership positions in law seem to dwindle as they climb the career ladder.“I look around and wonder why we aren’t better represented,” she says.She notes that while law school classes are roughly half women, only about 20 percent of partners in big law are women.She encourages her peers to join her in letting women associates know that it is possible and there is a path to partner if they want it.
At Shearman & Sterling, she has been active in the firm’s women’s inclusion network – WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) – since it formed nine years ago.Garry has also played an integral role in the Women Partners’ Initiative, which has steadily gained momentum over the past few years.At the firm’s annual partners retreat, for example, the Women Partners’ Initiative has evolved from a fledgling add-on session to become its own event as a mainstay of the larger partner gathering.
Two years ago the women partners held their first separate formal business session to define key objectives where the group could accomplish the most positive change.Now the program includes sessions focused on business development initiatives to learn more about each other’s practices, which creates the opportunity for cross selling and referrals.At the last meeting this past January, noted leadership expert Dr. Arin Reeves of Nextions discussed unconscious bias.Her presentation, which was open to both men and women partners, focused on how to be aware of the issue and overcome it when it comes into play.Garry is currently working on securing another compelling speaker for the upcoming meeting, which will take place in January in Florida.
Away from the office, Garry has found golf to be a wonderful way to unwind – and also an important outlet for networking. She first started playing when a tax client she represented was invited to a golf outing hosted by Shearman & Sterling.
“I did so much work for and with this client that I realized it was important to go, and I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines,” she says, adding that was the spark that first led her to pursue the game.
As she has gotten more adept at the game, she finds it to be a good way to relax and spend time outdoors.“Golf offers a great way to spend time with clients,” she says. “But social and business benefits aside, I am competitive and always want to improve.As all golfers like to say, I’m getting better!”
Business Travel Hacks: Europe
Career Advice, Life HacksTravel Preparation
Make sure you have the following items in your luggage: European travel adaptor, dual voltage hair dryer, and travel iron. The UK and Ireland has different voltage to the rest of continental Euorpe. Toiletry items generally need to be stored in less than 100ml containers to take them in hand luggage on the flight.
When it comes to communication, a lot of travelers aren’t aware that they can stay connected to their U.S. mobile phone without paying international penalty fees. Google Voice has a ‘Hangouts’ app that requires an unlocked phone and a prepaid SIM card. You can pay as little as $13 a week for unlimited calls and limited data, and some SIM cards are available for $30 a month or under.
The hardest thing about going this route is unlocking your phone, since most smartphones are locked when you purchase them. There are a few easy ways around this.T-Mobile offers a free unlock code within 40 days of being a customer, and AT&T will do the same after 60 days, up to five times a year. You also have the option of paying a one-time fee through a third-party service which usually runs around $20.
Luckily, we live in the age of the smartphone, which allows you to pack much lighter with apps that help you with casual translations, exchange rates, jet lag, packing and organizing your trip schedule and more.
Out of many free and useful smartphone apps, there are a couple in particular that may help you while in Europe. iStone can swiftly help you in a translation debacle. It records and translates into 12 languages and carries more than 300 useful phrases in its data arsenal. It also features a native pronunciation feature. Better yet, it doesn’t require Wi-Fi. Worldmate is also handy for business travelers, combining all your travel booking info (flights, hotels, cars, etc.) to create both business travel and meeting agenda itineraries. The app also aggregates smartphone features such as world clocks, maps, weather info, and both Outlook and LinkedIn options so your itinerary can be shared among colleagues and peers.
Finally, make sure you are aware of the UK’s emergency number (999) and keep in mind that the current exchange rates change everyday.
Customs and Transportation
The European Union is vastly diverse, and even if a country uses English as its official, or secondary language, common customs in Sweden and Portugal may be surprisingly adverse to each other. Here a few European customs to be aware of and avoid:
Free drink ‘refills’ are not customary in Europe. Tipping isn’t a necessity, though if the service went above and beyond, a small tip is customary. 18-20% is definitely an American custom. Keep in mind that if you are driving after consuming alcohol, the blood alcohol levels vary by country, so you may want to review them.
About Travel notes that “pharmacists are more useful as a contact point for a person whose health is in question in Europe than they are allowed by law to be in the US.” If you happen to be closer to a pharmacy than a hospital, you may find the services you need there.
You can check out an array of country specific local customs on Virtual Tourist. The site includes comments from travelers who post things like customary greeting advice. For example, “The Austrian’s don’t greet each other like Germans with “Guten Tag”, instead you will hear a hearty “Grüß Gott!” (it means “Greet God”)” when entering a premises.
When it comes to making dining reservations, Forbes veteran travel journalist Larry Olmstead recommends using your hotel concierge. It is easier to get into the top restaurants this way, as well as saves you the hassle of trying to book online on a website in a foreign language. “Even if you can do it yourself, he writes, “the concierge at a top hotel like the Four Seasons or Peninsula has more clout and is likely to get a better table and the time you want.” He also mentions that it is important to tip the concierge, even if tipping in restaurants isn’t customary.
by Gina Scanlon
Professional Women in Brazil and the Landscape for Working Women
PipelineTop Brazilian Women in Business
1. Maria das Gracas Silva Foster
As the CEO of Petrobras, Silva Foster is undoubtedly the most powerful woman in Brazil. She was also voted the 18th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. Petrobras is a massive oil conglomerate and has the distinction of being the largest company by sales in the Southern Hemisphere. She grew from humble beginnings in a Favela or shanty town and still lives in a modest apartment between two large apartment buildings. She is known for her humble, down to earth demeanor and as the first woman in the world to head a major oil-and-gas company.
2. Chieko Aoki
Aoki is the CEO of a luxury hotel chain called Blue Tree Hotels based in San Paolo. A native of Japan, Aoki went to law school in San Paolo before rising through the ranks of the hotel industry and eventually founding her own luxury based hotel chain. Last year she saw the company earn $170 million in sales. This figure rose for the 2014 FIFA world cup and is expected to explode in anticipation of the 2016 Olympics.
3. Luiza Helena Trajano
As CEO of Magazine Luiza, a retail company Trajano was headed one of the most gainful Brazilian Retail stocks last year. She is rumored to have been offered a cabinet position by the president overseeing the growth of the countries small-companies sector. Today she has over 700 stores throughout Brazil. Her business strategy of targeting the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid has made her extremely popular with customers and employees. She is known as one of the few business people who have successfully been able to “court” Brazil’s poor.
4. Adriana Machado
Machado is the CEO of General Electric Brazil. She has recently been cast as an environmentalist with her support of Brazil’s fledgling wind industry. She is also very vocal about the slow moving bureaucracy of Brazil’s government starting rumours that she may be eyeing a government position sometime in the future.
The present reality and the future progress
Brazilian women are entering the business world at a rate never before seen and are making some significant advancements. In 2011 women comprised 42.7% of the entire Brazilian workforce. However the lack of women in senior positions within Brazilian owned companies still needs to be addressed. In a study launched by the 2011 Global Gender Gap study by the World Economic Forum, Brazil was ranked 82nd among 135 nations studied. In an Executive Opinion Survey done by the World Economic Forum, the ability of Brazilian women to rise to top business leadership positions was measured. Out of a possible scale of 7, Brazil received a mediocre 4.06.
These middling scores reflect a number of root causes of gender imbalance in both the Brazilian corporate world and society itself. According to IBGE on average, women earn 28% less than men in the same job. Saadia Zahidi, senior director of the World Economic Forum also noted that despite having a female president, Brazilian women still only hold 9% of positions within parliament.
But Brazil’s biggest barrier to corporate women is workplace discrimination and a culture of permissiveness. According to Time, 40% of Brazilian women felt that they were currently receiving treatment at work that was inferior to their male colleagues simply because they were women. And despite a legal platform designed to combat workplace gender inequality in the words of journalist Ana Paula Padrao, “I have never heard of anyone being arrested for underpaying women”.
Brazil is also a country which faces deeply entrenched gender roles if it wants to advance its corporate women. There is a prevalent “macho” business culture which calls for displays of manly intimidation as a boss and during meetings. Not only are women sometimes seen as unable to exude these qualities but their own place is perceived as firmly with their children. Even women who can afford to hire a nannie and return to work are sometimes dissuaded from doing so. Their morality is often questioned as if her love for her children is being tested by leaving them in someone else’s care. For many in Brazil, the word mother is synonymous with the word woman. And of course, the word mother includes all the domestic duties traditionally associated with it.
But Brazil has a lot to celebrate. Today 60% of all college graduates in Brazil are women. Brazilian women have also become fixtures with developing inroads to top tier positions in the industries of health, education, and many technological industries. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, a founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy recently wrote, “In Brazil, 14 percent of the C.E.O.’s of large companies are female.” This is in sharp contrast to the United States. Of all American Fortune 500 companies, less than 5% have female CEO’s. Anna Maria Tornaghi, an international communications and marketing consultant based in Rio de Janeiro summed up the situation when she said, “Dilma is the culmination, it’s a quiet revolution, which is growing by leaps and bounds.”
By Ben Rozon
Voice of Experience: Laura Martinez, PwC US Assurance Diversity Leader
People, Voices of ExperienceMartinez has spent 25 years at PwC, specializing in serving registered investment companies, investment partnerships, hedge funds and private investment advisors. Most recently she served as the San Francisco Financial Services market team leader. When she first started her career there, becoming a partner wasn’t yet on her radar. “I’ve had great mentors during my whole career, and as my seniority has increased, so have my goals. When I first started, most of my mentors were managers and senior managers, but as they became partners, I was able to hear more about that track and my interest developed.”
Named partner in 2004, she credits that as her most important professional achievement, but adds that now she has the opportunity to help support others through the process, which she finds extremely rewarding. She encourages senior women never to underestimate the important role of serving as a mentor and support for younger women.
Diversity Always a Focus
Involved in diversity initiatives from the beginning of her career, Martinez was recently named as the diversity leader for PWCs US Assurance practice, the largest audit and risk assurance practice in the United States. She’s proud of this new role where she can devote time to thinking about diversity inclusion and how she can help shape and lead diversity initiatives. “It’s key to engage all levels in the firm, from our partners down to our youngest professionals, to get them interested and involved in driving sustainable impact.”
She sees her role in talent management and cultivating a diverse workforce at all levels as vital to the firm’s overall strategy, as well as being an area in which she and PwC can provide guidance to clients who are also dealing with similar issues.
Reminiscent of her advice to build a network is her belief that it should include people who are not exactly like you. “We often search for mentors who are just like us or what we think we want to be, but that means we can miss out on learning from some great individuals who may appear to be very different,” she says. “That’s the beauty of a diverse and inclusive work force – valuing the differences will make you a better professional.”
Women as Part of Diversity Initiatives
Martinez is proud of PwC’s culture that supports women and diverse professionals and helps them succeed.
In fact, she believes that some of the challenges women face are about trade-offs. “Every professional has to make sacrifices, but women have a harder time reconciling those choices,” she says. “We struggle with them and place a bigger burden on ourselves, especially when women explore having a family and a meaningful career,” Martinez says, adding that women can overthink opportunities and worry about failure and the impact of our trade-offs first.
And that’s why she encourages women to realize that they have limitless opportunities and they must be fearless about looking for them and taking advantage of resources firms offer to help them develop the skills and the network that will further a career. Whether women are at a junior or senior level, she sees that there is always an opportunity to grow and improve.
She attributes much of her success to the fact that she has always taken advantage of the resources offered, including those for gender and ethnic diversity, which have enhanced her skills and helped her develop into a better professional.
Over the years she has seen the offerings evolve to be more relevant to women’s needs as they also evolve, mirroring the changes in Corporate America through Lean In initiatives and other conversations about developing more diverse and female leaders, as well as gender equality. “We’re highly focused now on sponsorship, enabling early career success and career flexibility, all the while working to come to a better understanding for why such a gap exists among women leaders in Corporate America.”
She cites the “He for She campaign,” which supports PwC’s drive to not only be visible out in the marketplace but encourages people internally to support these causes.
Multi-Tasking in Her Free Time
To make the most of her off hours, Martinez participates in hobbies she enjoys that her whole family can do together – whether it’s golf, movies or travel.
Philanthropy is important to her – she has led PwC’s national recruiting efforts at her alma mater, University of California at Berkeley. And, even in her charitable endeavors she does double duty. “I love to partner on community service efforts with my team and my clients,” she says. “I can engage with my colleagues while giving back to the community and having a whole lot of fun in the process.”
Time To Look For A New Job
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!There are many ways to start a job search and if you know vaguely the target companies that you would like to interview with then that is a great place to start investigating the opportunities out there. Linkedin is a great way to see if you know anyone directly or indirectly at your preferred firms and a good place to start is to mine your current network to build your future one. Apply to job postings but know that any personal connection will probably help you so it is worth checking your network and refreshing your relationships with coffees and lunch with influencers and mentors.
If you don’t know what is next, it is worth working with a coach ( such as myself and the vetted coaches who partner with theglasshammer) to help you refine what is the next stage of your career and help you secure the job you want, whether it is within your current industry or perhaps a pivot into something new altogether?
By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist
Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work
Voice of Experience: Jacqueline Lawand, Vice President and Senior Real Estate Portfolio Manager, Voya
People, Voices of ExperienceThat is the lesson Jacqueline Lawand has learned during her rise at Voya, where she is proud of the fact that she has been able to drive business, and exceed goals, no matter what geographic area she was assigned or their subsequent challenges.
Describing her career path as largely linear, Lawand earned a double major in finance and real estate, completing three internships in the field during her college years. An active member of the Finance Management Association and Real Estate Society groups at her college, she first became familiar with Voya, previously known as ING U.S. Investment Management, during a joint field trip in her senior year. After meeting with the management team, she stayed in touch and ultimately joined the firm right out of college as an analyst.
For the past 11 years she has worked her way up through four different positions, to the one she holds now as vice president and senior real estate portfolio manager.
Along the way she has taken on international assignments, twice spending two weeks in Santiago, Chile which she believes helped pave her way to her current role. Fluent in Spanish, Lawand spent part of her childhood in Honduras, which offered her an international perspective she appreciated exploring through those assignments.
She also earned her MBA at the University of Georgia while working, part of her goal to make herself more valuable to the company. “One key path to success is to recognize your gaps and weaknesses, as well as those in your company, and seize the opportunity to grow and advance by filling those gaps.”
Lean In, Be Yourself to Succeed
One lesson she wishes she had learned earlier in her career is the importance of “leaning in.”
“I wish I hadn’t pulled back but had developed the confidence earlier to volunteer for challenging projects, knowing that I was equipped to handle the curve balls along the way.”
Lawand says that one of the keys to her success has been the sponsors both within and outside the company that have wielded influence and helped her become better established both at Voya and within the industry as a whole.
“It always came to me as a surprise when someone would say, ‘I’ve heard great things about you,’ when I wasn’t even aware someone was advocating on my behalf.”
She also credits robust programs at Voya that foster women leaders with training programs and initiatives and mentoring opportunities.
Both a mentor and mentee, she has found them key for learning new perspectives. “I would definitely recommend that others participate in mentoring programs, whether formal or informal, as the benefits are well worth the time invested.”
Describing the real estate industry as “still very much predominantly a man’s world,” Lawand says she initially tried to be “one of the guys,” but realized that wasn’t sustainable. “I started to be more authentic and transparent and, as a result, was able to forge better relationships and earn credibility. Being ‘you’ can really help your career.”
Finding Balance
As a new mom, Lawand is learning the challenge of juggling a growing family with a prospering career. “I want it all, but it requires balance, which has been a learning experience for me,” she says, adding that her husband is a good advocate. “He believes in a collaborative approach at home which helps me manage career and family life.”
She and her husband run half marathons together and also enjoy traveling. They have visited South Africa and much of Europe and South America, and the family recently took a trip to Alaska.