You have to be your own best advocate,” says Laura Rogers. “Sometimes women can shy away from opportunities that they don’t feel ideally suit them, but when you take assignments that are good for your company in the short-term, they can end up being great for your career in the long-term.”
With degrees from University of California at Berkeley, New York University and an MBA from Wharton, Rogers chose a career path in financial services. She has worked for firms such as Merrill Lynch, Citibank, and Cognizant Technologies focusing on leading internal teams make smart decisions based on strong financials and metrics.
Own Your Opinion
Working in the financial services industry after recently graduating can be difficult, especially given its competitive nature. However, earlier in her career, Rogers learned a critical lesson on holding her ground that has enabled her to be successful to this day.
In the period leading up to the financial crisis, when markets were especially frothy, many business units were taking on more risk. Though many in her company at the time wanted to expand into different types of trading, she didn’t believe the right risk management systems were in place in her business unit and advised against some trading they weren’t prepared for, ultimately saving the company millions of dollars in potential lawsuits.
“You have to think about the full vision and take ownership of your position rather than going the easy way,” she says. “I was able to make a significant difference for our division and our clients even though my stance was unpopular at the time.”
Rogers believes that this is a great time for women’s careers, since there is a real drive to engage them and help them succeed. Her advice for women is to have an opinion and own it.
Managing Change through Technology
By owning her opinion, Rogers has continued to carve a successful career path. She joined TIAA-CREF in 2013 and was recently named executive business manager for the production services group, overseeing business management and metrics, the project management office, software licensing and continuous improvement efforts. “TIAA -CREF feels like home to me,” she says, citing the open environment and the company’s mission, unchanged since 1918, to serve those who serve others – focusing primarily on institutions and individuals in the academic, medical, cultural, research and governmental communities. “Its motto of ‘Created to Serve. Built to Perform.’ is a great match for my personality and beliefs.”
In her new expanded executive business manager role, Rogers leads a cross functional IT team which is focusing on analyzing software spend and identifying opportunities for the company to reduce costs. “It’s a role that will allow me to look outside my day-to-day functions and help make a significant difference to our cost structure.”
Rogers says that as IT moves to cloud technology, it will be a game changer in terms of how people engage within the firm. “We are increasingly using the cloud as a complement to our current infrastructure, and incorporating it in such a way that it is seamless to the client.”
Networking for Career Success
Aside from leading cross-functional working groups, Rogers is a strong proponent of cross-functional mentoring. She encourages women at all stages of their career to set up peer networks – both within the company and also outside their particular division and company.
She finds that women have different questions in different stages of their career. This makes it vital to have a group that you can rely on to ask how they handled something, or what worked or what didn’t given a certain situation. “It’s about more than networking,” she says, adding that it’s important to be open and ask for advice, because people want to give it.
She herself has engaged in formal peer-to-peer networking and found it to be a game changer because of the accountability factor. She cites a friend in a similar position in a different company who was reluctant to seek a new opportunity and how Rogers was able to counsel her to try it. “Select someone you trust and seek their advice,” she says. “The further you get in your career, the more reluctant we are to be vulnerable but we still need that guidance.”
Benefits of Women’s Groups
Rogers does not just employ these practices herself, she shares her experiences with her colleagues. At TIAA-CREF, Rogers is involved in three key women’s initiatives.
First, she co-leads a mentoring group that launched in April which has received excellent feedback. It consists of two tracks – women only and mixed groups – with each group having two mentors who work with a group of eight to discuss topics that are both industry-specific and company-related.
Secondly, Rogers is active in the firm’s women’s ERG (Employee Resource Group), which she values because it allows her to get to know others in a wide variety of departments around the company.
And finally, she is excited about TIAA-CREF’s Woman2Woman: Financial Living, an online community where women can connect with both experts and peers to ask questions and share stories and tips related a range of financial topics and goals. “It fits in well with our mission of being created to serve,” Rogers says.
An Advocate for Bone Marrow Donation
Rogers, who is married with three children, enjoys spending time with her family and also is a passionate advocate for bone marrow transplants. While just out of school she volunteered in the pediatric cancer ward of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and saw firsthand the immediate benefits of bone marrow donation.
She is a involved with charities focused on this effort including both Gift of Life and Be the Match, and has encouraged family and friends to register for the national bone marrow matching site. “Becoming registered essentially takes no effort,” she says. “If you could save someone’s life, why wouldn’t you?”
Rogers was extremely gratified that her mom in New Jersey was matched with George, a 43-year-old man who lived in England, and was able to save his life.
No matter whether its work related or her personal interests Rogers is a passionate advocate for anything she believes in, owns her opinions and encourages other women to do the same.
Men Who Get It: Phil Porado, Content Director, Advisor and Financial Services Groups, Rogers Publishing
Men Who "Get It", People“Having held a variety of different journalism and publishing positions really helps as a manager,” he says, “because when people ask about processes you can give them a real answer.”
Following His Mother’s Advice
“I’m a diversity champion because my mom told me I had to be,” says Porado, only half joking. He says that he had an advantage through growing up with a mom who was an early 20th century career woman, which normalized women in the work force to him.
After her father died, she went to work to help support her four siblings when she was just a teen as a bookkeeper at General Electric. It was during World War II when women were welcomed into the workplace so she took advantage of the opportunity to contribute to her family’s income. Before her 19th birthday, she was running the payroll department.
Porado said she stayed home to take care of her own children, but continued to do people’s taxes on the side and assisted with the bulk of financial planning for his father’s business.
“I remember her telling me when I was 10 that someday I would be in charge and I would have to advocate for diverse people in the workplace, because I was a ‘privileged white male,’” he said, adding that his family never hesitated to make him aware of the fact that he was better off than many.
Porado admired that his parents modeled an even division of labor and says that his home was very much a partnership, with no one shouldering the bulk of the less desirable tasks.
Given his upbringing, Porado expected it to be standard operating procedure to work with women and was surprised to enter the workforce and find that sexism was still rampant in the 1980s.
“It offended me,” he says, since he had been raised in a different environment. “If you’re fortunate enough to be enlightened, then it’s your responsibility to pass it on.”
Publishing Industry Better Than Most
On the whole, Porado says the publishing industry was better than most, largely because it is a desirable field for women. He found that there were a large number of women who were choosing the field who were not only interested, but what he calls highly motivated to succeed.
“I find that women differ from some of their male counterparts many times because they are looking to learn things and up their game. They are constantly soliciting information they can use to become more skillful, which men don’t do as much,” he says. He has had the experience corroborated by others. In fact, just recently a colleague who was hiring for a writing and reporting job asked him, “Is it me, or do you also find that the woman are just stronger candidates?”
He says that when people demonstrate a willingness and desire to learn, he can facilitate their learning, making a point to actively teach them how they can progress.
That’s the greatest management lesson of all, he’s found, to help people thrive and then get out of the way. “That’s when championing gets interesting — when people whom you’ve taught show signs of eclipsing you. And that’s when you need to be able to point them to someone who might know better, though not everyone is comfortable with that. Mantle passing is hard, but if you are able to identify and help mentor a protégé, then you are doing your job.”
He has found that being a sponsor comes naturally since his focus is always on helping others with their career growth. He believes you have to advocate for promotions for people behind the scenes, and the best way to do that is to speak up for people when they’re absent, giving credit where it’s due.
“I have the uncomfortable position of people giving me credit when I am undeserving since it was an entire group effort, and I am just the leader,” Porado says. He rights the confusion by being quick to name the team members who actually did the work and acknowledging that even though he might have outlined the game plan, they were the ones who carried the ball.
Boldly Questioning Stereotyping
He says that over the years, he has seen the effects of stereotyping and has been bold about questioning it. “I would step up and say, ‘Why not so and so?’” when the situation presented itself.”
Another way that he encourages inclusion is by always suggesting that other team members join meetings when it’s appropriate. If he does find himself in a meeting where he feels another team member should have been invited, he makes the contributions he thinks they would have made, even deliberately pointing out that if that person was there, this is what they would say. “The subtle message is that you were remiss in not inviting that person and only consulting with me.”
However, he is quick to point out that things are progressing rapidly; whereas 20 years ago a stereotypical mindsight was noticeable, now it is much less of an issue. “I’ve been privileged to see a lot of change in my life, and I often point out to young people that they are living in a world that we hoped would one day exist, and they should realize and appreciate it.”
By Cathie Ericson
Managing Difficult Conversations for Career Advancement
Managing Change, Office PoliticsSome GM employees had long been aware of the potential seriousness of the engineering fault. What did executives and board members know and when did they know it?
Read more
Mover and Shaker: Lauren Koopman, Director, PwC US Sustainable Business Solutions Practice
Movers and Shakers, PeopleKoopman’s observations come from her own career trajectory, including the initial impression that she was going to be in derivatives the rest of her life, and it was just a matter of deciding for which company. But traveling the world allowed her to figure out the new, rewarding career path that she travels today.
Detour Through Wall Street on the Path to Sustainability
Koopman’s first professional position was as a management consultant and manager of e-business during the dot com craze, where her charge was to work with large banks to help them define their internet strategy — helping them switch from “brick to click” as it is commonly known.
That was her first realization that you can’t plan your career too meticulously based on the information you have. “When I was going to school, there was no internet, and then all of a sudden, I was the manager of e-business. The world is morphing so quickly, there’s really no way to look out five to 10 years to identify what you are going to do.”
She decided to return to school to earn her MBA in finance, and there she became intrigued by the complexity of derivatives, realizing that if she could master a technical skill like that it would serve her well. She was subsequently hired by Deutsche Bank and worked on the Wall Street trading floor, which was literally all men. “They used to call the woman’s bathroom ‘Lauren’s room,’” she laughs.
Koopman describes an intense environment that would begin at 7 a.m. when she would familiarize herself with overnight action in Asia and Europe, and then begin monitoring four computer screens and six phone lines.
For five years she worked on the floor, until her new husband, who had just sold his business, asked if she could make it work to travel with him. “I had always wanted to travel around the world so I took a year off and we created our “BC” (Before Child) trip, where we tackled all the harder places to travel, such as India, Beirut, Syria, China, East Asia, the Arctic Circle and Africa.
“It was the best decision I ever made; completely game changing for me,” Koopman recalls. “After seeing firsthand the real issues in the world that people were experiencing, I decided I needed to do something to make a difference.”
Combining her finance background with a second master’s degree, this time in environmental engineering, she began investigating potential options where she could make the biggest impact. She approached it with strategic analysis, creating a database of more than 100 people to speak with at foundations, banks, corporations and consulting firms.
At the time, PwC US was just starting its sustainability practice, and she jumped at the opportunity to build it out and wield true influence, a positon she has held for five years. In fact, she cites her professional role model as the person who hired her, who had the foresight to understand the business benefits of sustainability and the inspiration to build it out.
Though she describes her current position as a complete career shift, she is able to rely on her deep insight in the financial world by focusing on financial service clients. “They appreciate that I am able to speak their language,” she says, adding that even three years ago most of the companies hadn’t even thought about incorporating a sustainability mindset into their investment decisions. “I am proud of how much we’ve done and I am excited to expand our work into asset management and other asset classes.”
Koopman was also recently appointed to the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Young Global Leaders (YGL) forum, a group selected from around the world to form a next generation leadership network to engage in global affairs. The honor recognizes outstanding and proven young leaders under the age of 40 across business, government, and arts and culture, for their accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping a better future. Previous and current YGLs include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google Co-founder Larry Page, and Statistician Nate Silver.
Lessons Learned Along the Way
As Koopman has navigated her career, she’s learned the importance of reading people. “I had always assumed people at the top knew everything and were always right, but over the years I’ve figured out that people are people. You have to learn to evaluate your audience and understand where they’re coming from and how to speak to what they need,” she says, adding that understanding people and how an organization works is as important as technical knowledge. “Think about who you’re talking to and their needs.”
She also has seen the value of taking on every opportunity that’s presented without immediately worrying about why it wouldn’t work. “We tend to worry about failure and stay in our comfort zone,” she says. “But there’s so much value in taking on those new opportunities. Even if it‘s something that you don’t think you want to do, inherently you are learning so much from new skill sets and new people. This creates a knowledge and network reservoir you will draw on throughout your career.”
She cites learning by simply paying attention and absorbing as critical, for example times when she has watched CEOs sell an idea to a huge group of people. Koopman also pays credit to the mentors and colleagues she has met through participating in Women in Wall Street.
A Traveling Family
Koopman is quick to point to her supportive, “amazing” husband as one of her inspirations. With a two-and-a-half-year old and a six-month-old, her home life is as busy as her office. And, even though their life-changing trip was designed to hold them over until their children were a little older, they already have robust passports: the little travelers have visited Holland, Canada, Colombia and the west coast of America, along with regular trips to her husband’s family in New Zealand.
PwC US? Or globally?
By Cathie Ericson
Changing the World
Career Advice, Guest ContributionWhat wisdom have I acquired through the years that I could share with her and so many others who are just starting out today?
1. Leadership takes courage
By definition, leadership is forging a path where no one has gone before. Be prepared to face fear of the unknown. This in no way diminishes you but presents a unique opportunity to search within you. You will be fine as long as you are fueled by a belief in yourself and heed to your moral compass. Your big dreams will often leave you standing alone but never stop dreaming. This vision is fundamental to the road map you will need in moving ahead. Always remember that the path you blaze will be tread by others so don’t leave them behind. Your ability to influence others is the key ingredient to igniting change. Be patient, change happens one person at a time but there will be many that will not budge. That is their choice, not yours.
2. Remain true to your convictions
Always stand up for what you believe in. But know that you will not always get your way. Corporate politics is a tough pill to swallow and youthful idealism can erode with each workplace disappointment. Compromise is an art so explore your right brain and let creativity flow. This is all part of growing up. Organizations that lack diverse leadership may pose an unfairly stacked deck against females and you will face gender bias at least once in your career. The very first time this happens will be a painful blow that disorients and disappoints. After all, encountering gender as a barrier is a loss of innocence. But you will recover stronger and more resilient.
3. Stay hungry
Ambition is the fuel that propels us out of the gates keeping our eyes on the prize while never looking back. Each individual success results in a burgeoning confidence. There will be setbacks which may result in second guessing your relevance and impact in the workplace. Despite these, never drop out. Make the most of the hand you have been dealt and never stop striving for the finish line.
4. You matter
Predominantly male organizations may provide an absence of females to look up to making it a very lonely place. Despite this, know that you are not alone. Fill the void with someone who cares and cheers you on. Mentors and advocates come in all shapes, sizes, and yes, genders. Engaging men in the conversation results in game changing partnerships and lays the foundation for empowerment and gender equality. If you must be the first in your organization to shatter the parochial glass ceiling, strap yourself in. You are in for a trip of a lifetime. One less glass ceiling moves all women ahead. You owe it to yourself and those that follow to get off the sidelines and roar.
5. Pay it forward
Always look for those that look to you as an emerging leader. You must remember that you too bear a responsibility to the generation that follows. After all, it is the next generation of women and men that will continue the progress that has been made and effect long-term and permanent change. Just as you stand on the shoulders of those that came before you, so too will the next generation stand on your shoulders.
My grown up self has still so much to learn and if asked the same question in five years, my hope is that I have acquired more wisdom to add to my list. But one thing I know for sure is that I am impacting the world. Each and every day, we are given the opportunity to create a legacy. The caliber of that legacy is completely up to us. Let it be a positive one and the foundation for those that follow in their attempt at changing the world.
Guest Contribution by Rossana G. D’Antonio, PE, GE
Guest advice and opinions not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
Taking Your Development Areas and Working On Them
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Ascertaining what you are not so good at at work is really important as then you can spend time developing yourself with or without formal development or learning programs at your company (it is great if there are programs to help you). However, how do you know what you are bad at? Well, you could have received feedback formally in a review or informally but sometimes the tasks you like least are often the ones you are least developed in and you just know that some of the elements of your job you could do with strengthening your muscles in ( see last week’s advice)
Write a list of what you want to master and carve out time to spend real time to practice – for example: budgets or excel – a lot of this can be self taught. Then there are less tangible areas such as networking which we will talk about for the month of October in this column. Good Luck!
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: Laura Rogers, Director, Executive Business Manager, Information Technology, TIAA-CREF
People, Voices of ExperienceWith degrees from University of California at Berkeley, New York University and an MBA from Wharton, Rogers chose a career path in financial services. She has worked for firms such as Merrill Lynch, Citibank, and Cognizant Technologies focusing on leading internal teams make smart decisions based on strong financials and metrics.
Own Your Opinion
Working in the financial services industry after recently graduating can be difficult, especially given its competitive nature. However, earlier in her career, Rogers learned a critical lesson on holding her ground that has enabled her to be successful to this day.
In the period leading up to the financial crisis, when markets were especially frothy, many business units were taking on more risk. Though many in her company at the time wanted to expand into different types of trading, she didn’t believe the right risk management systems were in place in her business unit and advised against some trading they weren’t prepared for, ultimately saving the company millions of dollars in potential lawsuits.
“You have to think about the full vision and take ownership of your position rather than going the easy way,” she says. “I was able to make a significant difference for our division and our clients even though my stance was unpopular at the time.”
Rogers believes that this is a great time for women’s careers, since there is a real drive to engage them and help them succeed. Her advice for women is to have an opinion and own it.
Managing Change through Technology
By owning her opinion, Rogers has continued to carve a successful career path. She joined TIAA-CREF in 2013 and was recently named executive business manager for the production services group, overseeing business management and metrics, the project management office, software licensing and continuous improvement efforts. “TIAA -CREF feels like home to me,” she says, citing the open environment and the company’s mission, unchanged since 1918, to serve those who serve others – focusing primarily on institutions and individuals in the academic, medical, cultural, research and governmental communities. “Its motto of ‘Created to Serve. Built to Perform.’ is a great match for my personality and beliefs.”
In her new expanded executive business manager role, Rogers leads a cross functional IT team which is focusing on analyzing software spend and identifying opportunities for the company to reduce costs. “It’s a role that will allow me to look outside my day-to-day functions and help make a significant difference to our cost structure.”
Rogers says that as IT moves to cloud technology, it will be a game changer in terms of how people engage within the firm. “We are increasingly using the cloud as a complement to our current infrastructure, and incorporating it in such a way that it is seamless to the client.”
Networking for Career Success
Aside from leading cross-functional working groups, Rogers is a strong proponent of cross-functional mentoring. She encourages women at all stages of their career to set up peer networks – both within the company and also outside their particular division and company.
She finds that women have different questions in different stages of their career. This makes it vital to have a group that you can rely on to ask how they handled something, or what worked or what didn’t given a certain situation. “It’s about more than networking,” she says, adding that it’s important to be open and ask for advice, because people want to give it.
She herself has engaged in formal peer-to-peer networking and found it to be a game changer because of the accountability factor. She cites a friend in a similar position in a different company who was reluctant to seek a new opportunity and how Rogers was able to counsel her to try it. “Select someone you trust and seek their advice,” she says. “The further you get in your career, the more reluctant we are to be vulnerable but we still need that guidance.”
Benefits of Women’s Groups
Rogers does not just employ these practices herself, she shares her experiences with her colleagues. At TIAA-CREF, Rogers is involved in three key women’s initiatives.
First, she co-leads a mentoring group that launched in April which has received excellent feedback. It consists of two tracks – women only and mixed groups – with each group having two mentors who work with a group of eight to discuss topics that are both industry-specific and company-related.
Secondly, Rogers is active in the firm’s women’s ERG (Employee Resource Group), which she values because it allows her to get to know others in a wide variety of departments around the company.
And finally, she is excited about TIAA-CREF’s Woman2Woman: Financial Living, an online community where women can connect with both experts and peers to ask questions and share stories and tips related a range of financial topics and goals. “It fits in well with our mission of being created to serve,” Rogers says.
An Advocate for Bone Marrow Donation
Rogers, who is married with three children, enjoys spending time with her family and also is a passionate advocate for bone marrow transplants. While just out of school she volunteered in the pediatric cancer ward of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and saw firsthand the immediate benefits of bone marrow donation.
She is a involved with charities focused on this effort including both Gift of Life and Be the Match, and has encouraged family and friends to register for the national bone marrow matching site. “Becoming registered essentially takes no effort,” she says. “If you could save someone’s life, why wouldn’t you?”
Rogers was extremely gratified that her mom in New Jersey was matched with George, a 43-year-old man who lived in England, and was able to save his life.
No matter whether its work related or her personal interests Rogers is a passionate advocate for anything she believes in, owns her opinions and encourages other women to do the same.
Men Who Get It: John Cannon, Partner, Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP
Men Who "Get It", People“Define what success means for you, and then go for it. When you first start your career, make a point of asking yourself every day where you are going and why, and look to peers and more senior colleagues to find careers and best practices to emulate.”
So says John Cannon, a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits group in New York, who has long been a champion of helping women progress in their careers, both informally and as co-chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee. He volunteered to join the committee almost immediately after becoming a partner 20 years ago and was asked to chair the committee shortly after.
Early Influences Sparked Interest In Diversity
Being a diversity champion has been important to Cannon from an early age when, as a “history nut,” he was deeply affected by what he perceived were the many injustices committed in the country over the years against minorities, women and those who didn’t belong to the dominant groups of their times.
Cannon carried that ethos into his career, and when he began practicing at Shearman & Sterling in 1985, he decided to look for ways to help fellow lawyers who did not as obviously “fit in” as well as he did — a self-described private school and Ivy League- educated heterosexual white male.
“While I felt confident in my own ability,” he recalls, “I was certain that others of equal or greater innate talent but different backgrounds than mine would have a much more difficult path to professional success ahead of them, and I wanted to do something.”
He was also influenced by the fact that many of his closest friends, mentors and colleagues at the firm have been women and people of color, including his practice group, which for many years has been a majority female.
Championing Diversity throughout the Firm
In his various firm administrative and management capacities over the years, Cannon has focused on advocating for women at the firm and for the issues that have been important to them.
During his time as co-chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee, he helped establish a number of successful associate-led affinity groups, such as WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention), which has galvanized women associates in the firm for networking, business development and leadership skill enhancement. He has also been a supporter of subsequent women-focused programs, such as a Women Partners Initiative, regular Lean In circles, a social media presence that includes @ShearmanWomen on Twitter and a Shearman Women showcase page on LinkedIn, as well as active participation in Ellevate, the professional women’s network founded by Sallie Krawcheck.
But more meaningful to him has been the mentorship, encouragement and assistance he has provided to female colleagues, from professional guidance and career sponsorship to a role as a sounding board and informal advisor.
Addressing Blind Spots
Cannon knows that it’s crucial to avoid subconscious bias or stereotyping by maintaining constant self-scrutiny — questioning one’s initial reactions to a person or work product, and then examining even more closely the subsequent judgments that might appear to be well-considered and open-minded.
“Although I have undoubtedly failed on many occasions to objectively assess each person with whom I have worked based on his or her own individual merits, I have not ceased cross-examining myself,” he says.
The firm’s Diversity Committee has dedicated time and effort to combating the effects of stereotyping and unintentional bias, principally by keeping itself informed of the performance reviews and career development of diverse associates and intervening where appropriate. “We have tried to impress upon our partners across the firm that despite our best intentions, we are prone to making assessments of other people based on mental shortcuts, including both conscious and unconscious assumptions about the backgrounds, talents and character traits of the members of various groups,” he says.
Leading by Example
“On diversity, as with other matters, the members of an organization take their cue and model their behavior on those who are admired and acknowledged as the most powerful and successful within the organization,” says Cannon, who has consistently advised firm leaders to confidently express their commitment to diversity while also taking concrete steps to help advance the careers and leadership opportunities available to women and other diverse individuals within the organization.
For example, he encourages leaders to actively seek out and personally encourage women and other individual members of non-dominant groups. He has seen that play out at Shearman & Sterling, which he believes has many leaders who have accepted this responsibility and are fully committed to increasing inclusiveness.
Although he notes significant progress in the profession since he joined it 30 years ago, he says that it still strikes him how relatively modest the gains have been in the representation of women and minorities among the most senior leadership ranks. He cites as an example his graduating class at NYU Law School and his summer associate class at Shearman & Sterling, which were roughly 50 percent female.
“Had you asked me then to predict what percentage of the partnerships at the elite law firms would be women by 2015, I would probably have answered 40 percent or so when in fact the actual number is about half that,” he says, adding that similar observations can be made about minorities.
“The bottom line is that much work still needs to be done to promote diversity in our profession,” he says, adding that as law becomes an increasingly competitive business in a challenging economic environment, the market may hold sway in law firm diversity efforts. “Clients regularly insist that diverse teams staff their matters, and I expect that they will continue to reward the law firms that perform best in this regard.”
By Cathie Ericson
Voice of Experience: Tina Youngblood, CEO of Spencer RE & Vice Chair of Spencer Holdings Company
People, Voices of Experience“This was definitely a watershed moment in my career”, says Youngblood. She spent two and half years working with Schiro in Switzerland before returning to the United States as Zurich’s Chief Administrative Officer in North America. Again, she was the first woman ever to hold this position, managing human resources, governance and “all functions of the company that were not directly related to insurance.” From there, she moved from one promotion to the next. She became the first woman to run Construction Services, and then head of Direct Markets for Zurich North America Commercial where she was responsible for overseeing the company’s insurance offerings to businesses that service cars, trucks, motorcycles and auto recyclers. In total, Youngblood held 5 different positions in her 10-year run with Zurich, addressing new challenges without pause or consideration of what it might mean to be the “first woman” over and over again.
With a diverse set of management experiences, Youngblood moved on from Zurich to become US CEO of Cunningham Lindsay. She has served as Vice Chair of Spencer Capital Holdings since 2013 and has recently been named CEO of their subsidiary, Spencer Re in December of 2014.
Youngblood took her time when looking back over the years to find her proudest moment, “This is a tough one for me because I have had an incredible career with lots of opportunity.” But once she has decided, she is clear. While head of the Direct Markets group at Zurich, Tina was responsible for putting together a team of people who would turn around the company’s bottom line in only a couple of years. “Putting together that team and building a culture of transparency and turning the company around from the employee engagement perspective, making it a place that people were proud to work, and leading them through the process was a very proud and gratifying experience. It was a tough decision—to save 600 jobs we had to get rid of some—but because we were honest, we transformed the business from a financial and cultural perspective as well.”
Listen before you leap
If Tina could pass a bit of advice to her younger self, she would counsel her on the art of communication, “It is 90% listening and 10% talking.” Luckily, she learned this lesson early in her career when she was a professor. “I had a student ask me a question, and I answered her. She stared back at me blankly and I knew I hadn’t gotten it right. When she asked me for the third time, I repeated her question back to her, and when I did that, it was wrong. We got though it and it was a great lesson for me then as it still is today. Every single day of my career and my life, I see how active listening is the most essential part of communication. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a board room, listening to a discussion between two people who are talking about two completely different things. I say, ‘Hey, do you guys even realize you are talking about two different things?’”
Breaking from tradition
Not surprisingly, Tina sees a lot to be excited about in her new position, “we have a tremendous opportunity that will allow us to make a real difference in the company and the industry.” For customers, she is excited about the unique options that Spencer Re will be able to offer as a result of the ongoing consolidation in the insurance industry. “We are in a unique place right now that will allow us to have new conversations with stakeholders who haven’t previously been at the same table. There are a lot of new options outside of the traditional offerings when we think of the reinsurance industry.”
It is with this same good business sense that Youngblood approaches the many challenges facing women in the workforce today. “As a woman who has been in a male dominated industry for my entire career, I think it is always possible to overcome the barriers. A lot of times the barriers are because of expectations—there are expectations of women with a particular role that they will succeed in, there are lots of them. Some of them are self-imposed and some are imposed by the industry. There are jobs traditionally held by women and those that people expect to be held by men. I’ve never felt like there was anything I couldn’t do if I set my mind to it. It’s never really occurred to me that I’m the only woman or the first woman. It’s more about how I can contribute, this is how I can add value. I just look at other people as people.”
Value integrity
Obviously, this perspective has served Tina well. She advises her mentees and other young women in her industry to remain true and just be who they are, right down to their haircuts. “I used to have longer hair, I was given advice to cut my hair, and wear my glasses. I thought, ‘Why would I do that, and what does that have to do with anything? At the forefront of everything is your integrity – when you put your head on the pillow at night, you sleep on your integrity, and that’s all you have. If there is something that you don’t think is right and it goes against your belief system, then you shouldn’t do it. Don’t forget your core, your purpose, as they say.”
Youngblood feels that Spencer has a culture that supports her own sense of integrity. “One of the reasons I took this job is because of the culture that we are building is all about retention, advancement, education and values.”
Tina served as the head of women in leadership group at Zurich and says that mentoring is still her favorite part of the job. Finding young people to mentor is an essential part of her plan as she works to build and grow Spencer Re.
Share your blessings
As the surviving sister of a younger brother with special needs, Mallie has found great satisfaction in working with the St. Michael Special School in New Orleans. The relationship began while she was with Zurich. The school serves children of all ages; giving them the education and support they need to be their best selves. “There are opportunities to serve everywhere. If you are blessed, I believe you should share.”
In her free time, Tina “sincerely enjoys” the game of golf. Still a resident of Kansas City, she spends a lot of time traveling for work, but still loves to travel for fun as well.
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