As a leader, do the values of your organization speak through your actions?
A recent article in The Journal of Values-Based Leadership reminds us that Steve Jobs said, “The only thing that works is management by values.” It’s no surprise that companies like Apple who foster a values-based approach in their leadership culture create connections that have a significant impact on company performance.
Your ability to focus on and motivate through core organizational values can have an impact on your effectiveness as a leader, too.
HOW FOCUSING ON ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES HELPS YOU AS A LEADER
Raises you to a leadership perspective
The Financial Times defines value-based leadership as “Motivating employees by connecting organizational goals to employees’ personal values.”
A Harvard Business School paper asserted that when leaders focus on the technical or administrative side of their work, they become too fixed on short term returns. The paper stated, “If leaders instead sought to uphold values and maintain integrity, they could establish the long-term perspective and commitment to innovation necessary for sustaining their competitive position in an increasingly global economy.”
Effective leaders keep focused on the visions and values of the organization as a compass for action. Indeed, having women in the boardroom has helped at aligning corporate action to company values. International research has shown that “the positive impact of women on the board on financial performance, and on ethical and social compliance, indirectly affects firm value.”
Also, keeping your eye set on organizational values, and above the daily tasks, may help you from getting too drawn into office housework that can be peripheral to your leadership goals.
Increases bonding with you as a leader
Building relationships with those who work with you is important, but when they’re built through a common bond around organizational values, it strengthens your position as a leader.
The ability to compellingly communication organizational values is a key attribute of leadership success. Communication research shows that optimized messages can garner a “shared sense of purpose, which is achieved when multiple employees possess the same understanding of the purpose of the work.” In particular, the combination of “a large amount of vision imagery with a small number of values” increases performance by creating a shared sense of organizational goals and coordination towards them.
Effective leaders also create a motivational sense of belonging. Leadership research shows that people feel more bonded to a leader with which they feel a “shared social identity” that is representative of their in-group. Leaders who effectively convert organizational values to a shared identity would seem able to create deeper commitment from those they manage.
In fact, values coach & author Joe Tye asserts that values-based leadership can create a culture of ownership rather than a culture of accountability, which he asserts relates to motivation, productivity, and retention.
Affirms your leadership integrity
Values are meaningless unless put into action, and the standard for integrity within an organization is set by its leaders.
Speaking to values-based leadership, Mark Fernandes, Chief Leadership Officer at Luck Companies, says “In order for these values to be authentic within the organization, it’s imperative that the leaders be fully committed to demonstrating the values in everything they do. There’s a level of inauthenticity that associates will notice and it can erode their trust in the leadership if they’re not actively seeing the behaviors exhibited in the actions and words of their leaders.”
The HBS paper asserted that by embodying the values they espouse, leaders enable employees to find meaning and value in their own work: “Members’ interactions with the organization and their actions on its behalf are not just transactional but are imbued with meaning. As members internalize the organization’s purpose, to the extent that their own actions further this purpose, they come to regard these actions as meaningful. They further view themselves as part of a valued community. They are motivated to exert effort on behalf of that community, to defend it when threatened, and to advocate on its behalf.”
Being able to connect individuals to the values of your organization is especially important when it comes to motivating Gen Y. Research has shown that for Millenials, job fulfilment hinges partially on believing in the vision and strategic direction their organization is pursuing in the world and feeling personally connected to it.
If leaders don’t uphold the values the company espouses, employees lose faith and begin to disengage. If they do, they inspire.
Ignites your potential and the potential of those around you
When your personal ambition is aligned with your company’s vision, you are more engaged, more productive and more able to reach your potential according to research. This is true not only for you, but for those you manage and motivate. When you feel corporate values are more closely aligned to your personal values, it creates intrinsic motivation.
Fernandes focuses on igniting the full potential in others, “Values-based leadership is defined by living, working and leading in alignment with your core values, principles, beliefs and purpose to, in turn, ignite the extraordinary potential in those around you.”
Values-based leadership has also been linked to creating a culture of creativity and innovation. The Journal of VBL article states, “When an individual has a personal and professional commitment to align personal values with those of the organization he or she works for, a powerful connection is created. This connection creates numerous possibilities for both individual growth and company productivity.” The article suggests that motivating a “work culture or atmosphere that sparks creativity” is increasingly a matter of customizing motivational strategies to align employee values with organizational values.
WALK THE WALK ON VALUES
So given how values-based leadership can positively impact your leadership potential, how do you begin to walk the walk? Perhaps the first question to ask yourself is what the organizational values really mean to you.
Conscious Manager recommends to, “Develop a personal understanding of your organization’s values. Think about what the company’s values really mean to you and to your unique leadership style. You need to know which of your behaviors demonstrate those values. If the business’ beliefs and principles don’t have meaning for you, you won’t be able to make them meaningful for anyone else.” Ultimately, it’s your actions, not your words that speak to how well you represent values – in being a role model, in teaching the values, and in recognizing them. “Bringing values to life is a behavioral issue.”
Embodying Values is one of five key behaviors of great leaders, says Author Ken Blanchard. He asserts, “Leaders must establish, articulate, and enforce the core values of their organization. More important, they must model the behaviors that support the values.”
He suggests leaders ask these four questions:
“How can I integrate our core organizational values into the way my team operates?”
“What are some ways I can communicate our values to my team over the next thirty days?”
“How can I create greater personal alignment with our values on a daily basis?”
“How can I recognize and reward people who actively embody the values?”
Inspiring leaders motivate us towards a common goal. Values-based may be less a type of leadership, and more a requirement of it.
By Aimee Hansen
Voice of Experience: Stephanie Holt, Chief Financial Officer, North Capital Inc.
People, Voices of ExperienceCreating an International Career
Born and raised in California, Holt met her husband as an undergrad at University of California – Riverside. After a short sabbatical to have her first daughter, she graduated and started working at a small medical technology firm. Soon after, she had her second daughter and then embarked on graduate school at the University of Redlands.
When her husband’s job moved them to the Bay area, in January 2000 Holt started working in finance at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a semiconductor company that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. She started in Sub-Micron Development working with research and development Engineers buying equipment to design microchips that wouldn’t be produced for 10 years.
“About a year and a half later, the CFO asked me if I wanted to manage the manufacturing plant in Singapore,” she said. “My husband and I had a brief discussion about it and five weeks later we were on our way to Asia.”
That was July 2001 and Holt admits that if she knew the challenges that were ahead for a 5’10’’ blonde woman in Singapore, she may not have gone.
“Some of the things I saw were shocking. For example, when you apply for job in Singapore, you have to include a picture with the application,” she said. “Questions about your personal life and when you want to have kids are part of the interview process.”
At one point, Holt was pulled aside and advised to try and acclimate to the culture around her instead of trying to have them acclimate to what she was used to.
“I might have been cavalier when I first got there but I learned some great life lessons, such as not everything is black and white,” she said. “If I am passionate in my beliefs about something, someone else is just as passionate but on the other side of the table.”
Even though AMD wanted to extend her stay in Singapore another four years, Holt and her family moved back to the States after two years in Asia. They moved her into a financial sales role where she spent a lot of time traveling to Latin America.
Three years later, when her oldest daughter was in high school, Holt decided she wanted to take some time off to be a stay at home mom.
“It was then that I realized just how important my job title had become to me and it took me six months to reconcile that,” she said. “I didn’t know any women who had left a high profile corporate job to be a mom, and then come back after some time to another senior level position. I learned that if you are confident, you can do it.”
Joining an Investment Advisory Start-Up
After her second daughter went to college, Holt wanted to go back to work as a consultant. She called Jim Dowd, managing director of North Capital and a man she has known since high school.
“One of the reasons I was interested in the North Capital companies was because of the JOBS Act passing in 2012. This was designed to give individual investors better access to private investment deals. I remembered when I was at AMD, we had a sales rep who told us about an amazing company that was pre-IPO but past the start-up phase,” said Holt. “That company was Google and everyone was trying to figure out a way get money in but only the big investors had access to it. The JOBS Act is supposed to make it easier for people to invest in these private placement deals.”
Holt was excited about the new product availabilities and started thinking about all of the people in her life that could take advantage of this new landscape.
“We get a lot of referrals from our current clients’ children who don’t have a lot of money themselves but want advice on how to invest. Each client is deserving of your time and attention. That’s what I learned working with Jim Dowd and appreciate about him,” said Holt. “North Capital is a business but it’s also a friendship that has been 37 years in the making.”
In three years, Holt and Dowd have been able to build the company from 3 to 15 employees with over 20 registered representatives. Holt believes the time is right for the company to give back and launched an initiative aimed at educating women, in various stages of their life, to start the conversation about money.
“I really feel that money is still a taboo topic for women,” she said. “Since money is such an important aspect of your career and personal life, we need to be comfortable with talking about the topic.”
Lessons Learned
Holt has also recognized throughout her career that it is okay to say no.
“When I would make requests to colleagues and they would say no, I would figure out how to make it work and yet I was always reluctant to say no myself,” she said. “I would never think less of that person, I would just think that they had other work to do. I finally realized that no one thought less of me as an employee, or a person, if I said no.”
She said that this also makes you a better worker.
“When you say no, you are also able to avoid over extending yourself,” she said.
Holt also advises to be open and honest about what you don’t know at your job.
“I am the type of person that is always upfront about what I don’t know because I have always been surrounded by great people who could fill in the gaps,” she said. “In Singapore, I knew my role but I didn’t know the way people did business in Asia. I learned that if you ask for help, people are willing to work with you.”
A Career of Breaking Misconceptions
Just like Holt transitioned from Asia to Latin America and from accounting to technology; Holt has also been able to transition from a high profile, career focused women to a stay at home mom and back again. By learning to talk about money, by avoiding over-extending herself and by having the confidence to put her family first when she felt it was needed, Holt has become a role model for women with young families.
She believes it is a misconception to think women can’t take a break and then come back. She points to a change she has seen in the past 15 years.
“When I started, there weren’t a lot of women in senior management positions in technology. We were taught to wear pantsuits and act like a man because that was what it took to succeed. Now that women have become more visible as role models, females in finance and technology are better able to envision a path for themselves,” she said. “Just remember, you don’t need to take the point A to point B path to get to the right place.”
By Jessica Titlebaum
Being Connected on Wall Street Reaps Big Career Benefits, If You’re a Man
Career Advice, NetworkingA new working paper by Lily Fang, an associate professor of finance at INSEAD, and Sterling Haung, a PhD candidate at the school, focuses on the links between gender, connections, and career outcomes among 1,815 Wall Street analysts and their work across 8,242 firms between 1993 and 2009. Analyst-firm connections (41,000) were defined as alumni-ties with one or two senior officers or board members within the firms that the analysts cover.
Women and Men are Equally Connected
Previous research had found that “connected” financial analysts, who went to the same university as senior officer of the firms they covered, significantly outperformed in their stock recommendations and more effectively in their jobs compared to analysts without connections. Fang & Haung wondered if the impact on job performance and career trajectory differed between men and women.
The great news is they found no gender difference in how well-connected analysts are – both men and women have a connection in about 25% of the firms they cover. The bad news is they found a “big difference in how much these connections help male and female analysts in their jobs.” According to Fang in her INSEAD article, “men overall reap more benefits from connections than women both in terms of job performance and in terms of subjective evaluation by others.”
How Connections Impact On Job Performance
The study measured how analyst connections impacted upon “objective” and “subjective” performance and career outcomes: accuracy of their earnings (EPS) forecasts; price impact of their buy/sell stock recommendations; and being elected to the All-American Research Team (AA) as a “star analyst”.
The researchers found that connections led to a much stronger impact on forecast accuracy, for men. Fang notes that “while connections lead to a 2 percent improvement in accuracy rankings in general, among men, there is a further improvement of about 1.8 percent.” Put more bluntly in the report, “the connection effect is present only among men but not women.”
For women, connections to a female executive in firms they handled led to a slightly higher improvement in forecast accuracy (2.5%), but not nearly as much as male-male connections (4.7%). As Fang puts it, “Thus the value of the ‘old boys club’ is hard to refute in our data.”
Fang writes that among analysts, “The effect of connections is even greater in their stock recommendation impact or how the market reacts to their buy and sell calls. Connections improve male analysts’ recommendation impact by about 1.2 percent, but not at all for female analysts.”
Fang notes that the differing impact on job performance was strongest among young analysts, setting women back way before they approach the glass ceiling. “This vastly different ability to capitalise on connections at such an early point in their career paths could explain gender gaps that exist throughout long-term career trajectories. The cycle, it seems, starts at the entry level.”
How Connections Impact on “Star Analyst” Status
The third measure was more subjective, promotion as a “star analyst” through an opinion poll, an evaluation by thousands of institutional investors, organized by Institutional Investor – a title given to less than 8% of analysts, which impacts significantly upon career profile and salary earnings (up to 3-fold). Much of the top evaluation criteria is highly subjective such as industry knowledge, communication, responsiveness and written reports.
The researchers found connections directly contributed to male analysts’ odds of being elected an AA but had zero impact for female analysts. Importantly, there’s no gender inequality in numbers promoted to all star status: “In general, [women make up] 12% of the overall [analyst] population, but they are 14% of the star analysts so it’s not like people are not awarding women,” says Fang in Fast Company, “but the factors for them to be selected are very different than men.”
For women, those impacting factors appear to be Ivy League education (35% of women in the total sample had one compared to 25% of men) and a record of forecasting accuracy – neither of which is significant in determining whether men are elected to being a star, or promoted within it.
According to the researchers, “The results reveal that investors value analysts of different genders differently: While connection is valued by investors and affects positive career outcomes for men, for women, it is measurable achievements and competence that seem to play a larger role.”
An Insidious Gender Bias
The researchers offer two potential interpretations of their findings. One is that “men are evaluated on ‘potential’ while women are evaluated on ‘performance.’” The other is that women benefit less from connections than men because they’re still seen as “outsiders” by investors whereas men are seen as “insiders/one of our own.” Both are plausible. Neither are pleasing.
As Fang says in Fast Company, “The type of gender bias that we document, I think is more subtle, but perhaps even more insidious than the simple numbers game. We’re not finding women are under-represented. We’re finding that they’re evaluated in different ways. How do you change people’s subjective interpretation? That’s a much more difficult [issue], I think. It probably has more to do with social norms and the ways people see things.”
Fang also points out in her INSEAD article, “It is telling that while 14 percent of Wall Street all-stars are women, virtually none of the top bosses in any of the big firms are. It could be argued that even the most competent women remain in analytical roles rather than being promoted into general management because that kind of promotion entails subjective evaluations by others.”
Mentorship & Sponsorship Still Matter!
Senior Associate Editor Sarah Green at the Harvard Business Review, uses Fang & Haung’s research as a springboard into “Why ‘Network More’ is Bad Advice for Women”e, noting that “we need to stop telling women to follow a male playbook.”
She’s got a point on the playbook. But using Fang & Huang’s findings to also question the value of mentorship and sponsorship in a woman’s career advancement is dangerous. Connections with top executives in other companies who went to the same university isn’t a parallel to the support that well-formed mentorships with strong chemistry or sponsorships can provide for a woman navigating her career.
Should a proven track record be more important for the career advancement of male analysts than female analysts? Absolutely not.
But if it is, isn’t it better if you’ve got somebody in your corner – whose attention you’ve earned through your achievements and abilities – helping you wave your impressive track record around when the next career opportunity presents itself?
By Aimee Hansen
Values-Based Leadership: How It Can Improve Your Effectiveness
Career Advice, LeadershipA recent article in The Journal of Values-Based Leadership reminds us that Steve Jobs said, “The only thing that works is management by values.” It’s no surprise that companies like Apple who foster a values-based approach in their leadership culture create connections that have a significant impact on company performance.
Your ability to focus on and motivate through core organizational values can have an impact on your effectiveness as a leader, too.
HOW FOCUSING ON ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES HELPS YOU AS A LEADER
Raises you to a leadership perspective
The Financial Times defines value-based leadership as “Motivating employees by connecting organizational goals to employees’ personal values.”
A Harvard Business School paper asserted that when leaders focus on the technical or administrative side of their work, they become too fixed on short term returns. The paper stated, “If leaders instead sought to uphold values and maintain integrity, they could establish the long-term perspective and commitment to innovation necessary for sustaining their competitive position in an increasingly global economy.”
Effective leaders keep focused on the visions and values of the organization as a compass for action. Indeed, having women in the boardroom has helped at aligning corporate action to company values. International research has shown that “the positive impact of women on the board on financial performance, and on ethical and social compliance, indirectly affects firm value.”
Also, keeping your eye set on organizational values, and above the daily tasks, may help you from getting too drawn into office housework that can be peripheral to your leadership goals.
Increases bonding with you as a leader
Building relationships with those who work with you is important, but when they’re built through a common bond around organizational values, it strengthens your position as a leader.
The ability to compellingly communication organizational values is a key attribute of leadership success. Communication research shows that optimized messages can garner a “shared sense of purpose, which is achieved when multiple employees possess the same understanding of the purpose of the work.” In particular, the combination of “a large amount of vision imagery with a small number of values” increases performance by creating a shared sense of organizational goals and coordination towards them.
Effective leaders also create a motivational sense of belonging. Leadership research shows that people feel more bonded to a leader with which they feel a “shared social identity” that is representative of their in-group. Leaders who effectively convert organizational values to a shared identity would seem able to create deeper commitment from those they manage.
In fact, values coach & author Joe Tye asserts that values-based leadership can create a culture of ownership rather than a culture of accountability, which he asserts relates to motivation, productivity, and retention.
Affirms your leadership integrity
Values are meaningless unless put into action, and the standard for integrity within an organization is set by its leaders.
Speaking to values-based leadership, Mark Fernandes, Chief Leadership Officer at Luck Companies, says “In order for these values to be authentic within the organization, it’s imperative that the leaders be fully committed to demonstrating the values in everything they do. There’s a level of inauthenticity that associates will notice and it can erode their trust in the leadership if they’re not actively seeing the behaviors exhibited in the actions and words of their leaders.”
The HBS paper asserted that by embodying the values they espouse, leaders enable employees to find meaning and value in their own work: “Members’ interactions with the organization and their actions on its behalf are not just transactional but are imbued with meaning. As members internalize the organization’s purpose, to the extent that their own actions further this purpose, they come to regard these actions as meaningful. They further view themselves as part of a valued community. They are motivated to exert effort on behalf of that community, to defend it when threatened, and to advocate on its behalf.”
Being able to connect individuals to the values of your organization is especially important when it comes to motivating Gen Y. Research has shown that for Millenials, job fulfilment hinges partially on believing in the vision and strategic direction their organization is pursuing in the world and feeling personally connected to it.
If leaders don’t uphold the values the company espouses, employees lose faith and begin to disengage. If they do, they inspire.
Ignites your potential and the potential of those around you
When your personal ambition is aligned with your company’s vision, you are more engaged, more productive and more able to reach your potential according to research. This is true not only for you, but for those you manage and motivate. When you feel corporate values are more closely aligned to your personal values, it creates intrinsic motivation.
Fernandes focuses on igniting the full potential in others, “Values-based leadership is defined by living, working and leading in alignment with your core values, principles, beliefs and purpose to, in turn, ignite the extraordinary potential in those around you.”
Values-based leadership has also been linked to creating a culture of creativity and innovation. The Journal of VBL article states, “When an individual has a personal and professional commitment to align personal values with those of the organization he or she works for, a powerful connection is created. This connection creates numerous possibilities for both individual growth and company productivity.” The article suggests that motivating a “work culture or atmosphere that sparks creativity” is increasingly a matter of customizing motivational strategies to align employee values with organizational values.
WALK THE WALK ON VALUES
So given how values-based leadership can positively impact your leadership potential, how do you begin to walk the walk? Perhaps the first question to ask yourself is what the organizational values really mean to you.
Conscious Manager recommends to, “Develop a personal understanding of your organization’s values. Think about what the company’s values really mean to you and to your unique leadership style. You need to know which of your behaviors demonstrate those values. If the business’ beliefs and principles don’t have meaning for you, you won’t be able to make them meaningful for anyone else.” Ultimately, it’s your actions, not your words that speak to how well you represent values – in being a role model, in teaching the values, and in recognizing them. “Bringing values to life is a behavioral issue.”
Embodying Values is one of five key behaviors of great leaders, says Author Ken Blanchard. He asserts, “Leaders must establish, articulate, and enforce the core values of their organization. More important, they must model the behaviors that support the values.”
He suggests leaders ask these four questions:
“How can I integrate our core organizational values into the way my team operates?”
“What are some ways I can communicate our values to my team over the next thirty days?”
“How can I create greater personal alignment with our values on a daily basis?”
“How can I recognize and reward people who actively embody the values?”
Inspiring leaders motivate us towards a common goal. Values-based may be less a type of leadership, and more a requirement of it.
By Aimee Hansen
About That Positive Mindset…
Career Advice, Guest ContributionBut if you’ve somehow escaped the daytime talk shows, multitude of online articles, and your friends’ comments about the subject, the idea in a nutshell is that your thoughts determine your circumstances. In other words, you attract positive or negative situations into your life by the way you think about things. It’s along the same lines of these familiar adages: You reap what you sow. Be careful what you wish for because you may just get it. What goes around comes around.
Do you remember the craze around The Secret a few years back? What a load of nonsense. Did you really believe you could sit on the couch watching TV and simply think your way to a fabulous reality? I mean seriously, how could that advance your career? You and I know that only hard work and determination create long-term career success and opportunities.
While many career oriented women don’t dismiss the idea that our thoughts can affect outcomes, it’s sometimes hard to swallow that our present life is a direct result of our thoughts—especially if we are not yet where we want to be. Building a career takes time. But if our thoughts can contribute anything at all to our realities, then isn’t it worth paying close attention to what we tell ourselves?
If you own a business, you believe your products or services are needed. If you work for someone else, your employer is purchasing your contributions, ideas, and expertise. You don’t think twice whether you are needed as an employee because, like a business owner, you have something of value to offer.
The importance of a positive mindset comes into play when we consider the value of our skills or our products or services. Yet, it seems to be difficult for many of us to identify our own personal value proposition and talk with ease and confidence about the real dollar value associated with what we personally offer. Women especially struggle with determining their worth and communicating it clearly and fearlessly.
Why is it that verbalizing our value to others can be pure torture? Why is it so difficult to ask with confidence for that promotion/raise/hot job/ or the next big opportunity? Why don’t others simply see our worth and volunteer to compensate us accordingly?
While that would be great that’s not how business works. It is up to us to tell and sell.
Before I share with you my personal tips that propelled me from $135,000 in debt to becoming a multi-millionaire, here is something that may help you wrap your head around how thoughts affect outcomes. I find it fascinating how quantum physics relates to Law of Attraction and the power of positive thinking. It is all about how energy influences everything around us. Here’s a YouTube video that will shed some light on creating our perfect lives and attracting abundance. There was also a wonderful experiment where researchers focused energy into water then studies the crystalline structures of frozen droplets. They discovered good vibes created the most beautiful crystals and bad vibes created formless blobs. You can find the astonishing results here.
Now let’s translate that into our everyday world. Have you ever had a bad morning that snowballed into a bad day? From the bank teller who miscounted your withdrawal, to the grumpy grocery store clerk, to your dog barking all night long for seemingly no reason… Conflict all day long. In comparison, have you ever had that day when you woke up feeling on top of the world and good things kept coming your way from morning through night? In essence, each of these examples illustrates the principle. The mindset that exudes happiness and confidence from within is completely irresistible and attracts success.
But what if we are not in a good place emotionally and we can’t stop our mind from pulling us into the abyss of our own negative thinking?
Personally, I got myself out of my downward spiral by searching for statements that I could truly believe in. During what I call it the decade of disaster for a reason I refused to believe I would be a failure and have to declare bankruptcy. My first thought was, “This can’t be all there is for me.” The entire story can be found in my book, Happy Woman Happy World.
That little adjustment to my thoughts is what helped me get from bad to great. At the time, I couldn’t believe I was going to be making millions, but I did believe that declaring bankruptcy would not be the end of my story.
If you want a six-figure income, you’ll never get there if you don’t truly believe you are worth it. And it’s the connection between wanting it and believing it’s possible that can make all the difference. You’ll never close the gap between those two points with a negative mindset.
What is a thought in which you can truly believe? “I am making an impact.” “I will change the world.” “I am creating a better future for my children.” “I am able to operate at a much, much larger scale.” These thoughts are the first steps to a positive mindset.
Be careful to avoid turning these thoughts into their negative opposites. “I am not making the impact I should.” “How could someone like me change the world?” “I am trying to do my best.” “Why don’t they see how good I am?” Practice switching negative statements into positive ones.
Beginning today, I ask you to pay close attention to the way you think. Success will still take hard work, determination, and time. But with a positive mindset, your energy will be flowing in the right direction propelling you forward. Please do let me know how this is going for you—I’d love to hear your story of success!
By Beate Chelette
Career Tip of the Week
Career Tip of the Week!, Thought Leaders“After Action Reviews” or AAR are great ways to unpack a recent project with your team or boss. What went well? What could have been done better/differently?
This is a great way to seek out feedback.
Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.
By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist
Voice of Experience: Kelli P. Washington, Managing Director at Cambridge Associates
People, Voices of ExperienceShe began her post-undergraduate career in the financial services industry, where she spent 10 years at Edward Jones as a due diligence analyst and portfolio manager. She began in a rotational program that gave her an inside view of departments like operations or marketing, and she knows that background knowledge increased her value to the firm. “I would attend meetings where people wouldn’t know where to find answers, but I became a go-to source since I knew different parts of the organization that others didn’t.”
She knew she wanted to stay in the industry but she also wanted to pursue a career path that was more meaningful, and for her that was the field of education.
“I had been fortunate to receive a college scholarship, but at the time I didn’t understand why I still had to take out loans if the college had such an ample endowment,” she says. “As I learned more about the responsibility of the endowment, I realized that I wanted to put my skills to work as an endowment investment manager.”
The Intersection of Finance and Non-Profits
She pursued her MBA at Yale to move into endowment management and has now been at Cambridge Associates for more than seven years.
When she reflects on her career, she is proud of the dedication it took to earn the designations of both CFA and MBA.
She says earning the CFA was not just challenging, but “often heartbreaking.” When she returned to school for her MBA, she already had a decade of experience, making her relatively older, which she says allowed her to focus on taking not only the classes she needed, but also those that were interesting to her. Her younger classmates who were in school for a career switch had a large number of classes they were obligated to take, where she took advantage of her unique opportunity to take more classes related to non-profits than business.
She has parlayed that expertise into her current role, helping non-profits manage their endowment assets. She’s particularly excited about one client she’s recently started working with, in which the nature of their relationship has allowed her to learn more about their mission.
“I talk with them about investment strategies, but the way they work on an integrated model has allowed me to have more interaction with their board members and their non-investment staff where I can learn more about their great work and programming at a deeper level.”
Her work is a perfect combination of exposure to both traditional finance and the non-profit space.
On the finance front, she says that everyone is acutely aware that many of the changes in the regulatory environment will have unintended consequences, even though many were necessary because of the financial crisis. She cites how the new regulatory environment has changed the landscape of the trading markets. The full impact may not be known until the next market correction.
“When the next bear market occurs, how will the markets behave and will we be in a position where we can create liquidity for our clients?” she asks.
And, on the other side of the coin, she draws from her unique space in the non-profit world to wonder how they can make sufficient money to be able to continue to serve their constituents.
She works with many organizations with deep pockets, but knows there are lots of smaller ones that won’t exist in 10 years because their endowments can’t support their missions and they can’t fundraise sufficiently.
“People can’t donate to all the wonderful groups out there, of course, so they have to choose those most closely aligned with their values. However, it’s a little scary to know that there will be people who will fall through some cracks. For example from a personal viewpoint, I fear that someone might not get the education that I am blessed to have because someone gave money to Washington University.”
Paying Attention
Washington has one lament about her earlier years – she wishes she had paid more attention. “It’s often hard to focus in the moment, but there are times I have an epiphany that I know something — but I didn’t know I knew it. It has helped me become more aware of what I’m working on and how it can help either myself or others down the road.” She advises women starting their careers to learn as much as they can and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.
During her tenure at Cambridge, Washington has spent time in two of the eight offices, and admires its focus on establishing mentoring programs. When she first started, she had several mentors from whom she could ask questions outside of her immediate team. The firm also matches investment directors and analysts.
“I personally try to informally mentor as many of my analyst partners as I can and spend time with them to ensure they are growing and developing as they need to. Of course, I have a special place for the women since I’ve been there and know what it’s like to be one of the few.”
She believes that the lack of women in the industry is a self-fulfilling process — there aren’t enough women or African Americans to act as mentors and role models. “Young women don’t see other women so they don’t see themselves,” she says, adding that for the past 20 years she has actively been involved in recruiting.
She notes that ample numbers of women will attend an informational session, but the numbers dwindle as they matriculate through the interview process. “I don’t have the solution but I know we all need to do as much as we can to encourage diversity.”
Seeing the World
Outside of the office, Washington loves to travel internationally and and recently completed a 10-day European tour with her parents. She has also earned her scuba diving certification and looks forward to planning a dive trip this year.
By Cathie Ericson
The Little Engine that Could: Believe in yourself, and others will too
Life HacksSimilar to a sense of confidence, self-efficacy is the psychological term used to measure a person’s belief in their capacity to achieve their goals. Research shows that a person’s degree of self-efficacy has a significant impact on the kinds of goals they choose, and the amount of effort and persistence they put toward achieving those goals.
The most interesting aspect of leadership development models that use self-efficacy as the meter for determining a person’s success, especially as related to the glass-ceiling, is their shift in focus from external barriers—like sexism and stereotyping—to internal factors, like our own personalities. Whereas none of us can control the world around us, we are all masters of our own perception. This means that what we believe about ourselves, as women, what we are and aren’t supposed to do, has the primary influence over our ability to lead and achieve. A 2003 study on the influence of self-efficacy on the glass-ceiling phenomenon, reveals some evidence that it is women themselves, and their own self-confidence, that is holding them back.
Interestingly, the study concludes that a majority of senior managers gave the reason that women were not ready for advancement because they lacked the necessary confidence when they chose not to promote the female candidates.
Wells (2001) reported that the only competency on which women managers scored lower than men was self-confidence, and that this lack of confidence was self-limiting. When asked about their career aspirations, the women were looking only about two positions up from their current one.
The researchers are clear that it is not their intention to blame women, as the external barriers are real. And, sex-identity is determined largely by the ideas and messages we receive as children, but once we are adults, we do have the capacity to determine our own thoughts and feelings about who we are and who we want to become.
Lisa Falzone: A model of confidence
For Lisa Falzone, co-founder and CEO of Revel Systems, the rise to the top was a natural progression from the gender-neutral environment of women’s athletics to leading a brand new tech-company.
As Falzone was only three years of out of college when she began the work of designing an iPad point of sale system used by some large chain restaurants, she says she “never realized sexism” and was “oblivious to it, in a sense.” As a college athlete, Falzone was used to competition, and she felt that her team worked and played just as hard as men. She says that she never questioned that the business world would be any different. While she acknowledges that the venture capitalist landscape needs to change, and that the only other women she sees there are “super models” at the secretary’s desk, she also says that, “women just need to try” if they want to be more successful. She comments,
“Women are more prone to fear because they need to be encouraged more. I think it’s just a matter of time before women can see themselves as leaders and entrepreneurs—they haven’t seen other role models. The investment landscape has to change as well; the VC’s like to invest in people who are more like them. For some reason, VC’s are not getting women into being partners.”
Falzone, on Forbes’ 2014 list of the Top 30 Under 30, is young enough that finding her own identity, as a leader, was a natural part of her personal development. Falzone’s story is an inspiring representation of how much a woman can accomplish when she is not bogged down by worrying about how others might view her, or how she is supposed to act.
Increase your self-efficacy today
Anthony Bandura’s original research defining self-efficacy offers a variety of exercises for increasing a person’s sense of their ability to achieve their goals. Some of these are:
Evaluate your success as you go
Each time you achieve a goal, take the time to acknowledge how you got there and the fact that you actually did what you set out to do. Even small accomplishments count in getting you further toward your final goal.
Visualize success
When we see ourselves as successful people, we engage our brains in the process of helping us get there, instead of wearing us down with negative thoughts or insecurities. Allowing ourselves to imagine what we want to be also helps us plan the smaller steps we need to take to get there.
Insecurity is okay
Everyone experiences feelings of self-doubt. The danger comes when we allow these feelings to define who we are. When we view insecurity as a natural part of the growth process, we are better able to accept them and move on.
Be Happy
Honing your ability to determine your mood is key. Remember that song that used to have you singing in traffic when you first got your license? Put it on your morning playlist. Do you love chocolate but limit your indulgence? Maybe it’s time to step up your exercise and feel happier by allowing yourself to have more of the things you enjoy.
Ditch the downers
You know that friend who always was to remind you of that time in middle school when you didn’t get asked to the dance? Or, do you have a hard time saying no to that work colleague who loves to invite you to lunch and complain about how nothing is every working out for her? Well, these people are not likely to send you the encouraging messages you need to be your best self. Let Negative Nancy find a new friend while you are out with that new mentor you’ve been meaning to find.
By Rebecca S. Caum
Overdue Change? How Women Impact On Boardroom Dynamics and Why Boards Need It
Career Advice, Next LevelBartman & Wiseman reported that boards are at the top of the blame list for pressuring companies to focus on short-term financial results, with board members being the first to admit so. A previous McKinsey study among board directors revealed serious gaps in understanding company strategies, how firms create value, and in-depth knowledge of industry dynamics.
As a core part in how to address this issue, the authors stated, “Part of the lack is in deep, strategic understanding of the business… If the aim is fostering the proper long-term view, what matters most is the quality and depth of the strategic conversations that take place.”
So, boardrooms are broken? How can gender diversity help?
Increasing the number of women directors changes boardroom dynamics, says a recent article in the Harvard Business Review penned by Laura Liswood, Secretary General, Council of Women World Leaders – who reflects upon ongoing progress.
Real Gender-Diversity Creates Results
The impact of gender diversity on results has been repeatedly demonstrated. Recently a French study found that women in boardrooms has a “significant and positive impact on economic performance” and that “gender diversity even reduces corporate inefficiencies and enables firms to come closer to their optimal performance.” Studies show that corporations with more women in the boardroom experienced greater financial performance.
Beth Brooke-Marciniak, Global Vice Chair of Policy at Ernst & Young, stated, “The evidence abounds: In 2012, Ernst & Young reviewed 22,000 audits that our member firms were performing in four countries on three continents. We found that gender-balanced teams were much more successful than other teams. They don’t just outperform other teams in quality – they also bring back better returns…Research shows that companies with at least one woman on the board have a higher return on equity, higher earnings and a stronger growth in stock price than companies with all-male boards. Bringing diverse voices to the table improves the solutions we see.”
Critical Mass Matters
Many studies demonstrate that a critical mass of women on the board, not just tokenistic representation, leads to better financial results and a greater impact on boardroom dynamics. As an article in Forbes put it, “Forget ‘one and done’ or ‘two and through’ – put three or more women on the board and the financial results are even better.”
A study by Thomson Reuters across 4,255 public companies found that while 64% had women on the board, only 20% had boards with over 20% women – while indices made up of mixed boards performed better. Debra Walton, Chief Content Officer, writes, “One idea in particular resonates for me. It’s called the ‘Power of Three’: One woman is a token, two are a presence, and three are a voice. Some would argue that company boards — which, after all, exist to offer insight on important strategic decisions — need that power because of the potential it offers.”
Some studies assert that women in insignificant numbers impact insignificantly on board performance, whereas the inclusion of at least three women on the board has a positive impact on firm value. Organizations like law firm Herbert Smith Freehills aim for 30% representation. Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions Stephen Wilkinson said, “Just about every respectable study that has come out in the last ten years shows organisations which have a greater gender balance at management level are financially more successful.”
Impacts of Critical Mass on Boardroom Dynamics
Featured in the HBR and in his book Challenging Boardroom Homogeneity: Corporate Law, Governance and Diversity, Dr. Aaron A. Dhir’s work provides an insider look into Norwegian boardrooms and illustrates the impact of having at least 3 women in the boardroom. Dhir identified seven effects of gender-based boardroom heterogeneity for work, governance, and group dynamics:
He also noted outsider status and independence were powerful influences, opening up closed social groups and network dynamics and restructuring social bonds between directors, the CEO, and high-level management.
Enhanced Dialogue & More Thorough Decision Making
Dhir found that many women brought “a different set of perspectives, experiences, angles and viewpoints” than their male counterparts. Lisswood noted, “Board members also observed that female directors are ‘more likely than their male counterparts to probe deeply into the issues at hand’ by asking more questions, leading to more robust intra-board deliberations. Most women appeared to be uninterested in presenting a façade of knowledge and were loath to make decisions they did not fully understand.”
Female directors tended to foster a different approach to engagement – seeking the opinions of others and working to ensure everyone had a say in the matter.
The importance of diversity in decision-making is paramount. Research has found that homogenous groups don’t reach better decisions, but they’ll think they have. Heterogenous groups arrive at better decisions, but won’t think so. Experience and outcome are two different things.
INSEAD research postulates that in-group and out-group dynamics in a diverse group lead to more contentious and comprehensive discussions, and results in “more thorough, more comprehensive decisions” when women are on boards.
Diversity Disrupts Groupthink
Groupthink is defined as a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics – a serious liability of homogenous boards. Disrupting it is a big asset of women in the boardroom, even if and especially if they disrupt the existing dynamic.
“Groupthink seriously imperils the board’s decision-making process as it introduces decision biases and blind spots into the process. This is mainly attributed to directors’ endeavor to maintain cohesiveness and solidarity within the board at all costs. Such group pressure compels many directors to ‘go with the flow’ instead of challenging the dominant view in the boardroom,” states Fause Antelo Ersheid, Economist and Senior Corporate Governance Analyst & Researcher at the Abu Dhabi Center for Corporate Governance.
Ersheid recommends, “To overcome this decision-making impediment, companies need to implement a comprehensive diversification program in the boardroom; the board should be as diverse as the company’s client base and perhaps more.” He recommends gender, age, racial, and professional diversity and individually-appointed directors, underlining chairs must champion diversification.
As Thomson Reuter’s Walton states, “Diversity of gender brings a diversity of thought. Getting more women involved reduces groupthink, unlocks fresh perspectives, and fosters innovation and organizational creativity – ultimately emulating a diverse customer base. Only with a broad range of viewpoints can a board make governance and advisory functions meaningful and offer a balanced approach to risk management.”
Not a pipe dream?
According to Liswood, “The Norwegian experience has provided a window into what might happen if and when board leaders and companies elsewhere decide to seriously commit to making sure their boards are truly diverse, moving consciously from homogeneity to heterogeneity.”
By Aimee Hansen
Changemakers: The Athena Leadership Column
Career Advice, Guest ContributionThis led her to co-found StarVest Partners – now a hugely successful VC firm – in 1998, when women angels and VCs in the tech world were mythically rare characters. She is revered today as one of those women who is not only vastly successful, but also down-to-earth, funny, and focused on mentoring younger women in technology.
What is the secret to success?
In this series of Athena Changemakers articles, I want to ask the question: what makes the outliers in women’s leadership, different? What lessons did they teach themselves? What skill sets do they themselves highlight? This set of questions, put to this small, unusual population of female “superachievers”, is critical at our point in US and global history. It is now well documented what institutional hurdles women are facing in the workplace; but far less well documented – since it is much less socially acceptable to talk about. Is the bottom-line learning about what the very successful cadre of female changemakers actually did differently from their equally talented peers? Tracking that ‘difference’ in these unusual women’s approach and perhaps even philosophy is the goal of this series.
In a recent interview, Sullivan identified six guidelines for success for women starting out in the tech field – or in any field.
Rule #1
First, “identify your passion,” she insisted. She knew early on that she herself was “an inner geek”and she comments that “I was the one who wanted to take the watch apart.” She also stresses how important it is to trust one’s own unique sensibilities: “with all the windows out there, I knew one was lit for me.”
Rule #2
Then: “Put role models in front of girls.” “We only were teachers, mommies, nurses and secretaries,” she explains of her generation – but she knew that “I wanted to carry a briefcase. I wanted to be in the business world.”
Rule #3
Her third rule – “Build your networks.” Sullivan’s supportive Italian family of eight kids was a resource for her in boosting her sense that she could do anything. But she explains that with what she calls “intelligent teams”, citing the work of MIT professor Thomas Malone, anyone can create that supportive emotional/ professional environment around herself. In 1980, she joined a law firm that attracted ‘computer geeks” and built her first “kitchen cabinet”. She stresses the value of always cultivating an “intelligent team” of vibrant, supportive men and women to nurture one’s goals. Sullivan makes the case that it is up to the woman to hand-pick this group around her. This guidance is quite different from the usual advice women are given about success in the workplace – advice to adapt and fit in, strategize and suppress. It is startling to consider, as it presumes a truly healthy female consciousness and a revamped social Darwinianism: a woman is actually choosing her own environment to enhance her own chances of success, rather than being at the mercy of her environment.
Rule #4
Her fourth rule for success is surprising in its simplicity: “Go to conferences.” Sullivan did not grow up in privilege – she worked hard to enrich her own environment. She explains that any young woman can take her curiosity and passion – whether it is for fashion, tech, or any sector – and find a conference. It is cheap, she says, or free, to go inside. And if you ask questions, people will tell you anything, she notes. She claims that she learned about the tech world from “covering the floor” at conferences: “Are you hiring?” and “Who are your competitors?” are some of the questions she asked. This easy, practical step “into” a world is actually quite important: the obstacle many young women face in imagining what to do next to realize their professional dreams is a sense of mystification – that the world they want to enter is behind high locked walls with secret passcodes.
Rule #5
Her fifth rule? “Don’t look for ‘Safe”’. Sullivan cautions that women are often risk-averse – a finding that is confirmed by the research compiled at Barnard College’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies. Indeed, the latest peer-reviewed studies show that women in the workplace tend to identify for themselves an aversion to taking bold, strategic risks – along with a reluctance to advocate for themselves, and a hesitation to engage in longterm visioning — as areas in which they themselves would like to grow. Sullivan argues that in today’s world, you should not stay in a safe environment that lacks challenges, but should “punch your ticket and move along” as the landscape for opportunity is so vibrant.
Her most provocative conclusions are grouped under a riff she calls, I think hilariously, “Stupid Things Women Do.” I recognize these from years of watching women pitch, and from presentations to me by young women seeking mentoring. “Be prepared,” she says. “Read the board package! Many women show up to the pitch meeting not fully prepared. Ask them pointed, informed questions. Pitch better! Spit it out of your mouth!” she laughs. “Tell me what you are building!” Indeed, there is often so much anticipatory language – what we in journalism call “throat-clearing” – in women’s pitches, that her advice to get right to the gist of the matter is invaluable.
“How do you get there?” she asks, of that perfect pitch? By testing it with your “personal board of advisors.” She adds that you have to “know how to execute and scale”; that women often “leave off the marketing plan.” Finally, she reminds us, “have domain knowledge” – whatever it is, in the sector in which you want to “play big,” you have to know your field and show that you do.
Finally – back to your “intelligent teams” — call the people around you to open up those doors. “That is what guys do,” she remarks. “They call their buddies. ‘You saw that guy last month – can you get me a meeting?’ Do you know women who do that?” she asks rhetorically, as we all know the answer. Sullivan, in fact, cites a study that shows that if a woman knew her best friend’s husband could fund her venture – she still would not ask him for investment. That hesitation to be “pushy” with one’s peers, alone, is a real disadvantage for women.
The beauty of a role model such as Jeanne Sullivan is that she makes geeky, tech-savvy, knowledgeable, ambitious, even pushy advocacy for one’s own idea – seem really charming, inspiring, amusing, delightful, and eminently do-able. Sullivan sees a different future for the young women of today with their own ventures and dreams: “I see a kinder, gentler user interface of women VCs and Angels” she says. “Not gentler in the sense of softer but – they want you, young women, to succeed.”
With Sullivan’s advice and example, many more of them surely will.
By Naomi Wolf
Career Tip of the Week
Career Tip of the Week!, Thought LeadersDo you have a sponsor? What do you reciprocate with as part that arrangement?
How useful is this relationship in practical terms? How could this relationship become more useful?
Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.
By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist