Sometimes dad knows best. That’s what Natasha Moffitt, Partner at King & Spalding, learned when following her father’s suggestions for her career path.
Raised in Germany by a German mother and American father, Moffitt decided in high school that she wanted to be a lawyer, but her father urged her to leverage her skills in math and science. He counseled her to first pursue a computer engineering degree (an emerging field of study at the time), and then a career in patent law; and that’s when her career path was born.
Moffitt graduated with a computer engineering degree and a minor in German, and then worked as an engineer for several years before pursuing her law degree, focused all the while on becoming a patent attorney.
“Many engineers don’t consider patent law as a career path until later in their careers; I decided to pursue patent law from the get go.” She became a summer associate at King & Spalding in 2000, joined the firm full time in 2001 and was elected to the partnership in 2008.
Meaningful Wins Are Key to Satisfaction
While she is naturally pleased about all the wins she achieves for clients, one win in particular stands out. She defended a client in patent litigation brought by a competitor, with enormous stakes that were “do or die” for both sides.
For more than a month the case was tried, and she was delighted to score an outright win, which was later affirmed on appeal.
“Unfortunately, patent litigation has become a routine ‘cost of doing business’ for many companies, but in this case, the suit was directed toward an important part of the client’s business, and it was critical that we win. I always play to win, but this win was especially sweet.”
Moffitt currently is excited about the business development work she’s doing in Germany and other German-speaking countries. “It’s a good fit, given my language fluency and heritage. German tech companies are frequently sued in the United States for patent infringement. I am fortunate to be collaborating with a group of partners who also have German ties and an interest in expanding our footprint to the German market.” She describes it as a “coming home of sorts,” allowing her to marry her personal history with her profession in a way she never dreamed possible when she started her career.
She also views the recent changes in patent law as an area of ongoing fascination – with the increased interest by the Supreme Court, the media, legislators and company executives. “There is ongoing spirited debate involving patents and what should be patentable,” she says. “Different industries have differing views – there’s a lot of discussion but no clear answers. As the entire industry changes in an unprecedented way, we will be tracking the developments and counseling our clients on what these changes mean for their patent portfolios and litigation strategies.”
More to a Law Career than the Law
As Moffitt has ascended the ladder, she’s learned that law partners must wear multiple hats – as mentors, teachers, managers, recruiters, marketing professionals and accountants.
“When I started my legal career, I expected that lawyers would spend most of their day practicing law; I didn’t appreciate how many roles we would have to play,” she says. “Law school gives you the skills you need to become a great lawyer. It does not train you how to do the rest. Over time, I have learned the business side of law and how to build a practice, but had I realized then what I know now, I would have focused the early part of my career on not only doing excellent work, but also on learning the business of building a practice.”
Changing Perceptions
One challenge she believes women may face in the industry is one of perception. “For high stakes patent litigation, more senior, male litigators may be perceived to be a safer hiring choice than female litigators,” Moffitt says. “Women litigators simply need to demonstrate that this perception is unwarranted. With time we can change these biases, but it takes women stepping up and showing they are as good as, if not better than, their male counterparts.”
She sees the industry becoming more accessible as more women enter into math, science and engineering-related disciplines in college, which may translate into more women practicing in the area of intellectual property, but there is still room for improvement.
She believes it’s important for those already working in the technology industry to educate the women who are following them about what the opportunities are – that they can become engineers, scientists and researchers, but there’s also an alternative path in the law.
And for women who are getting started, she advises them to invest in their career by taking advantage of every opportunity and experience – and if you’re not getting the opportunities you seek, then go find them.
“People will be impressed by the initiative. It’s vital to create opportunities for yourself if they’re not coming to you for one reason or another.”
And she says that while women should be the best they can be at any given moment, they should cut themselves some slack.
“Women can be unnecessarily hard on themselves – we want to be perfect in all areas – as a mom, spouse, and employee – and then we give ourselves a hard time when we feel we’re not meeting our own expectations.”
For women at her level, Moffitt recommends building a practice by focusing on one particular area for business development. “Sometimes lawyers want to appear as a jack of all trades, but that can dilute the expertise you do have,” she says. “Clients are looking for subject matter experts, so you don’t want to spread your expertise too thin.” She sees this as particularly important for women who are balancing family, work and other time commitments, that in order to make your limited time count, you have to identify your strengths and focus your efforts there.
Committed to Diversity
Moffitt says her firm is very committed to diversity with committees, initiatives and events, and she has been active in both informal and formal diversity programs. She feels fortunate that she has had lots of mentors at the firm over the course of her career, and in return she has mentored others in a variety of capacities – always finding the informal relationships to be invaluable.
Currently, she is co-leader of the Atlanta office’s Women’s Initiative, which creates networking and mentoring opportunities for the firm’s Atlanta women lawyers, but also provides tools to help women attorneys expand their profile internally and externally. Recently she hosted a guest speaker to talk to the women attorneys about how to maximize the impact and visibility of their LinkedIn profile, for example.
Sharing Love of Horses and Heritage
A busy mom with three kids ages three, six and nine, Moffitt sees weekend time as family time. One hobby she’s been able to share with them is her love of riding dressage competitively– she recently competed in the U.S. national and regional championships. Her oldest daughter has started riding, and all of them enjoy spending time at the barn.
In addition she is sharing her German heritage, raising them to be bilingual by attending an international school where they learn in German and English.
“It’s a challenge to make time for everything, but it’s worth it. I’ve gotten really good at time management!”
By Cathie Ericson
Reckoning with Institutional Double Standards on International Women’s Day
Career Advice, NetworkingWhat is it that keeps women from ascending to executive levels in business in numbers comparable to men? It’s not for lack of commitment or ambition. It’s not a matter of skill level or about being “tough enough.” It’s not even about negative perceptions on women’s ability to turn a profit.
What it is, is bias. It’s a culture created by men and women that offers men greater opportunities to succeed, while holding women to higher standards. And now, finally, the American public is actually coming to terms with the double-standards keeping women out of leadership roles. In fact, in a recent Pew survey, the majority of respondents acknowledged that women do, in fact, face a tougher road to the top, even today.
“Americans widely believe that men have a better shot at leadership positions in business and politics, even as majorities say that men and women make equally good leaders,” the Pew report states.
In the survey, majorities (including both women and men) agreed that there aren’t many women in executive leadership because companies simply aren’t ready to hire women leaders. It was also recognized that it is because women are held to higher standards than men. Yet, respondents also said women would do just as good a job as men.
The Pew study illuminates a point of view The Glass Hammer has supported for many years. That is: women are not the ones who need changing. The reason women are not advancing into senior leadership roles in greater numbers is because they are locked out by institutional, systemic biases that favor men over women implicitly.
Yet, this runs contrary to so much of the professional advice offered to women – to do more of this or less of that, to behave more in one way or another. Lean in, lean out, be nice, be tough, always wear heels, never let them see you cry. These pieces of advice may work for some women or they may not. Many women may find power or inspiration there, while others may find them empty promises. But they will not fix the problem that persists to this day, that the corporate world is set up to give the benefit of the doubt to men over women every time when it comes to promotion and advancement.
As of January, there were only 26 female Fortune 500 CEOs, according to Pew. And it’s taken 20 years to reach that puny five percent threshold. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!” At this rate, what will the picture of women in leadership be in another twenty years? Is ten percent good enough?
We, as a culture, can do vastly more for women and we should. It will take work by all of us, though, and real acknowledgment from powerful business leaders – both male and female – that double standards are keeping talented, driven women from succeeding. Change starts at the top but is lived by everyone.
Double Standards by the Numbers
Looking at Pew’s numbers, it’s clear that the majority of respondents – a sample of almost 3,000 US adults – agree that women face double standards in the workplace.
Two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) said the reason there aren’t many women running major corporations is that many businesses just “aren’t ready” for to hire women for top jobs. Two in five (43 percent) said this was a “major” reason there weren’t more women in executive positions while 24 percent cited it as a “minor” reason.
Almost the same share (65 percent) of respondents said that women have to “do more to prove themselves,” and the “major” and “minor breakdowns were almost identical.
In comparison, 58 percent of respondents said they believe women’s responsibilities to their families don’t leave much time for executive leadership, with a quarter (23 percent) designating this is a “major” factor that there aren’t more women running companies, while 35 percent cited it as a “minor” factor.
Respondents were also asked to compare whether men or women are more suited toward certain characteristics. A third (34 percent) said women were better at “working out compromises,” while only 9 percent said men were better at that task. Over half (55 percent) said there was no difference between the genders here. Similarly, 31 percent said women were better at being “honest and ethical,” while three percent said men were, and 64 percent said there was no difference between the genders. Three quarters of respondents said there was no difference between the genders when it came to “negotiating deals,” while 18 percent said men were better suited to this task then women, and seven percent said women were better suited to it.
Finally, a third (34%) said men were better at being willing to take risks than women, while five percent said women were better than men at taking risks, and 58 percent said there was no difference between men and women here.
Indeed, men’s propensity for risky behavior has been studied, lauded, condemned, and questioned in equal measure.
Perhaps its time for men, who make up the vast majority of senior business leaders, to take a risk and openly support the advancement of women, by using their influence to challenge unfair workplace institutions and gender biases.
Career Tip of the Week!
Career Tip of the Week!Know your individual needs and values.
Everyone is different. Understand what makes you tick ( and by working with a coach who can work with you/ run psychometric instruments to help you know more about yourself) you can see which types of organizational cultures will best support your needs. Is it about that free coffee in the morning for you or are you wanting to get in and out and need flexibility to do so? These things matter, despite seeming small.
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: Natasha Moffitt, Partner, King & Spalding
Voices of ExperienceRaised in Germany by a German mother and American father, Moffitt decided in high school that she wanted to be a lawyer, but her father urged her to leverage her skills in math and science. He counseled her to first pursue a computer engineering degree (an emerging field of study at the time), and then a career in patent law; and that’s when her career path was born.
Moffitt graduated with a computer engineering degree and a minor in German, and then worked as an engineer for several years before pursuing her law degree, focused all the while on becoming a patent attorney.
“Many engineers don’t consider patent law as a career path until later in their careers; I decided to pursue patent law from the get go.” She became a summer associate at King & Spalding in 2000, joined the firm full time in 2001 and was elected to the partnership in 2008.
Meaningful Wins Are Key to Satisfaction
While she is naturally pleased about all the wins she achieves for clients, one win in particular stands out. She defended a client in patent litigation brought by a competitor, with enormous stakes that were “do or die” for both sides.
For more than a month the case was tried, and she was delighted to score an outright win, which was later affirmed on appeal.
“Unfortunately, patent litigation has become a routine ‘cost of doing business’ for many companies, but in this case, the suit was directed toward an important part of the client’s business, and it was critical that we win. I always play to win, but this win was especially sweet.”
Moffitt currently is excited about the business development work she’s doing in Germany and other German-speaking countries. “It’s a good fit, given my language fluency and heritage. German tech companies are frequently sued in the United States for patent infringement. I am fortunate to be collaborating with a group of partners who also have German ties and an interest in expanding our footprint to the German market.” She describes it as a “coming home of sorts,” allowing her to marry her personal history with her profession in a way she never dreamed possible when she started her career.
She also views the recent changes in patent law as an area of ongoing fascination – with the increased interest by the Supreme Court, the media, legislators and company executives. “There is ongoing spirited debate involving patents and what should be patentable,” she says. “Different industries have differing views – there’s a lot of discussion but no clear answers. As the entire industry changes in an unprecedented way, we will be tracking the developments and counseling our clients on what these changes mean for their patent portfolios and litigation strategies.”
More to a Law Career than the Law
As Moffitt has ascended the ladder, she’s learned that law partners must wear multiple hats – as mentors, teachers, managers, recruiters, marketing professionals and accountants.
“When I started my legal career, I expected that lawyers would spend most of their day practicing law; I didn’t appreciate how many roles we would have to play,” she says. “Law school gives you the skills you need to become a great lawyer. It does not train you how to do the rest. Over time, I have learned the business side of law and how to build a practice, but had I realized then what I know now, I would have focused the early part of my career on not only doing excellent work, but also on learning the business of building a practice.”
Changing Perceptions
One challenge she believes women may face in the industry is one of perception. “For high stakes patent litigation, more senior, male litigators may be perceived to be a safer hiring choice than female litigators,” Moffitt says. “Women litigators simply need to demonstrate that this perception is unwarranted. With time we can change these biases, but it takes women stepping up and showing they are as good as, if not better than, their male counterparts.”
She sees the industry becoming more accessible as more women enter into math, science and engineering-related disciplines in college, which may translate into more women practicing in the area of intellectual property, but there is still room for improvement.
She believes it’s important for those already working in the technology industry to educate the women who are following them about what the opportunities are – that they can become engineers, scientists and researchers, but there’s also an alternative path in the law.
And for women who are getting started, she advises them to invest in their career by taking advantage of every opportunity and experience – and if you’re not getting the opportunities you seek, then go find them.
“People will be impressed by the initiative. It’s vital to create opportunities for yourself if they’re not coming to you for one reason or another.”
And she says that while women should be the best they can be at any given moment, they should cut themselves some slack.
“Women can be unnecessarily hard on themselves – we want to be perfect in all areas – as a mom, spouse, and employee – and then we give ourselves a hard time when we feel we’re not meeting our own expectations.”
For women at her level, Moffitt recommends building a practice by focusing on one particular area for business development. “Sometimes lawyers want to appear as a jack of all trades, but that can dilute the expertise you do have,” she says. “Clients are looking for subject matter experts, so you don’t want to spread your expertise too thin.” She sees this as particularly important for women who are balancing family, work and other time commitments, that in order to make your limited time count, you have to identify your strengths and focus your efforts there.
Committed to Diversity
Moffitt says her firm is very committed to diversity with committees, initiatives and events, and she has been active in both informal and formal diversity programs. She feels fortunate that she has had lots of mentors at the firm over the course of her career, and in return she has mentored others in a variety of capacities – always finding the informal relationships to be invaluable.
Currently, she is co-leader of the Atlanta office’s Women’s Initiative, which creates networking and mentoring opportunities for the firm’s Atlanta women lawyers, but also provides tools to help women attorneys expand their profile internally and externally. Recently she hosted a guest speaker to talk to the women attorneys about how to maximize the impact and visibility of their LinkedIn profile, for example.
Sharing Love of Horses and Heritage
A busy mom with three kids ages three, six and nine, Moffitt sees weekend time as family time. One hobby she’s been able to share with them is her love of riding dressage competitively– she recently competed in the U.S. national and regional championships. Her oldest daughter has started riding, and all of them enjoy spending time at the barn.
In addition she is sharing her German heritage, raising them to be bilingual by attending an international school where they learn in German and English.
“It’s a challenge to make time for everything, but it’s worth it. I’ve gotten really good at time management!”
By Cathie Ericson
Who is in your network? Will seeking out people just like you at work help your career?
NetworkingBy Aimee Hansen
Theglasshammer in 2015 is addressing the need for women and men to work better together and for men to champion and authorize talented women as well as recognizing talented men. Building your network with all sorts of people who can help you in your career is crucial.
According to an INSEAD study and other research, when you default to those with the same social identity as you at work, this can help or hinder individual performance.
Not surprisingly, the higher leaders are sitting, the more important it is, for their own benefit and the organization’s, to acknowledge and go beyond the leading lens of their own homophilic bias when structuring project teams. This matters for women since it is at the very psychological and behaviorial heart of what used to be the old boys club.
Does working with one group help or hinder your career?
Homophily and homophilic association is the tendency for people to seek out and have greater contact with those who remind them of themselves. Researchers Gokhan Ertug and Martin Gargiulo studied its impact in their INSEAD paper, “Does Homophily Affect Performance?”, observing the relationships of workers in the Equities division of a global investment bank. The study focused on the variable of nationality – controlling other diversity factors like ethnicity, gender, age, religion, education and occupation.
The study confirmed that unsurprisingly employees were more likely to seek out those like themselves when they needed information or advice on a task-related topic. What differed is the outcome of this bias at different levels.
INSEAD found that while homophily helped more junior employees overcome the barrier to accessing information and getting other’s attention to improve performance, it actually created a barrier to performance amongst upper management, who already hold legitimacy and power within the company.
INSEAD researchers stated, “we find that while the tendency to build homophilous ties has a positive effect on the performance of people in the entry rank among bonus-eligible bankers (associate directors in our sample), the same tendency has a negative effect on the performance of employees who are above this entry rank.”
The paper continued, “Relying on similar people to form instrumental ties can be an effective survival strategy for people facing significant difficulties in securing access to the information and knowledge they need to carry out their jobs in the organization. At the same time, sticking to such a strategy when it is no longer necessary can harm performance.”
For executive at more senior levels, homophily became blinding, leading senior employees to ignore qualified colleagues who could help them succeed. The researchers proposed the trade-off homophily can create, “We argue that, while homophily might make it easier for workers to request and obtain knowledge from colleagues, it might also prompt them to approach less qualified colleagues.”
Though it did not correlate to individual performance impact, the INSTEAD study also found secondarily that bankers were more likely to seek task-related inputs from colleagues of the same age, tenure and gender. The implication would seem to follow that low female representation in boardrooms and at senior executive levels suggests lower indirect female influence and access at a senior level too.
Women in the boardroom pose a financial advantage. But if female influence is lost to gender homophily, that’s an advantage companies are not harvesting. A study in the Journal of Business Ethics concludes “Women on the board are positively related with financial performance (measured in terms of return on assets and return on sales) and with ethical and social compliance, which in turn are positively related with firm value.”
Network Closure for Women
A very recent longitudinal study by Mark Lutter to appear in the American Sociological Review toplined “Do Women Suffer from Network Closure?” analyzes gender dynamics in the film industry across 81 years and provided intriguing insight into contexts in which women are more likely to be closed out by homophilious dynamics within a project-based labor market. The study “shows how observed career inequalities between males and females decrease or increase through different forms of network embeddedness.”
The researcher builds on prior research to propose that “gender inequality is particularly striking when women are exposed to cohesive project teams during their careers, whereas gender inequality is less severe when they are involved in weaker, more diverse network structures.”
How can more diverse structures support gender equity? Lutter explains, “This is because information flow in cohesive networks is likely to be redundant and gender-homophilous, which creates stronger disadvantages for women compared to men, because women’s close information networks are lower in status and consist of fewer ties to important (mostly male) sponsors. In diverse networks, however, information is non-redundant, non-exclusive, and beneficial especially to women, because women face fewer network constraints and can more strategically exploit external, weak tie relationships.”
In other words, tight male top-dominated networks function to keep the status quo. Within them, homophily amongst men works against women, and yes, homophily amongst women works against women, too.
Lutter’s report further states, “The more open and diverse team structures become, the more gender equality can be expected in project-based career advancement.”
Networking Opportunity for Women?
Gender homophily amongst women may also serve as a powerful tool for women, if they leverage it as a passport to cross other organizational barriers.
A Harvard Business School paper observed that while both sexes showed gender-based homophily, “it is women more than men who tend to bridge formal structural boundaries in organizations.” While women had the same number of male contacts as males in the studied firm, “they span organizational boundaries in their ties to other women, connecting otherwise disconnected populations, at a higher rate than do men.”
The results suggest (but not prove) that, “homophilous interaction can actually help to span formal organizational boundaries that are otherwise difficult to traverse.” At an individual level, homophily can be a tool for women networking out and up, if women also remember the importance of looking beyond it, and don’t neglect the need for male sponsors and mentors.
In Summary
Homophily is a bias wielded by both sexes that can help and hurt at an individual level based on where you sit, but ultimately it is more foe than friend when it comes to moving organizations towards diversity and gender equity. Women simply do not have the numbers at higher level management to mitigate this bias. The inevitable disadvantage to career progression remains with women as long as men disproportionately dominate executive positions, and leadership circles remain tight.
Real change will come when the organizations realize the disadvantage lies also with them.
Rising Star: Olamide Bello, Assistant Vice President of Private Placements, Voya Investment Management
Rising StarsBy Cathie Ericson
“Women, and everybody else in the professional environment, must recognize that sponsors and mentors are critical to your success. Maintain your relationship with them – it’s like a bank account; you can’t withdraw what you haven’t saved,” says Olamide Bello, who credits these strong relationships as a key factor in her career ascension.
Bello is the first to admit that her career is atypical – although she studied physics in college, her first job was at a bank in Nigeria. She soon realized that banking wasn’t for her so she joined Accenture, a global management consulting firm, where she quickly realized how much she enjoyed working in the team environment. She decided to pursue her MBA at Emory University, and after graduating accepted a position with Voya Investment Management (Voya IM), where she has been for more than six years.
Read more
Rising Star: Latrisha Whitehead, Project Manager Platform Metrics; TIAA-CREF
Rising StarsNever accept defeat! Those are the words that have propelled Latrisha Whitehead forward in her fast-moving career, spanning a wide variety of companies and industries.
For just over three years, she’s served in her current role as a project manager with TIAA- CREF’s platform metrics group, where she supports and manages the dashboard development for TIAA Today. TIAA Today Dashboard is a tool that provides near real-time Client Systems data to executives, management, IT, operations and the business to inform them about key platform metrics. These dashboards are intended to provide operational insight to current production performance compared to the peak and average.
Prior to that, she held a variety of business analyst positions in industries that ranged from human resources to finance to entertainment. During her stint in entertainment at Twentieth Century Fox, Whitehead’s position had taken her to California, but she was lured back east by a previous manager from Wells Fargo. Knowing the caliber of her work, Whitehead’s manager asked if she would return to oversee the reporting efforts supporting customer relationship managers and wealth managers.
These many moves taught her one of the most valuable career lessons: to value independence. She says that when she initially moved from her home state of North Carolina for a consulting job, she was worried that she would lack support. “My mom has always been my biggest supporter and it was hard to think about her not being close by. But I knew I just needed to get used to being on my own, and once I gained that confidence, I not only survived, but thrived. I began to see myself in a different light.”
Inspiring Confidence in Others
That confidence she found in herself not only shaped her career positively, but it also impacted others’ views of her. Along the way, she’s worked with a wide variety of managers, all with different styles and expectations. But one thing she says they’ve all had in common is their complete confidence in her abilities. “That’s probably what I’m proudest of in my career,” she says, “That in every role I’ve had and every manager I’ve reported to, they’ve never second guessed or micromanaged me. They’ve known that I will see the task through to accomplish the goal.”
Earning Respect
Whitehead says that before she entered the corporate world, she had the impression that women in in the workplace might not earn the respect they deserved. She had heard stories about women who were ignored or spoken over in meetings and had their opinions overlooked.
Fortunately, that stereotype did not ring true in her case. “I don’t know if it was my personality or the combination of my skills and experience, but I’ve found that no one has ever treated me differently because I am a women,” she says. “When they saw that I was dedicated and results driven, they had confidence in my abilities and my opinion on how we could achieve success.”
That respect has come not just from her managers but her peers as well. Whitehead says that she frequently receives feedback from her managers on positive reports from others in the organization. “It makes all the hard work worthwhile,” she says. Since most of her clients are internal, she appreciates that she can make an impact on the external end user customer through the work that she does. “I’m so customer focused that I appreciate hearing that my role has a direct correlation on our company’s success with our customers. Making sure that your internal customers are supported efficiently gives a downstream impact.”
Every Project Offers A Chance for Success
Part of Whitehead’s job satisfaction stems from her ability to find something exciting and fresh in each new project. From each one, she is able to learn more about the company’s business overall, and get a picture of its direction and how her work relates to aspects that don’t directly involve her.
“My team is always innovating; we have to come up with new and original designs and a fresh outlook for each project.”
She says that a project will often come in two seemingly disparate mockups and her team will pull it together. “It always amazes the clients when we present the finished product, and they find that they can see at one high level something that historically they had to look at in drill-down mode. They think we’ve produced magic!”
Passing it On
Whitehead knows she has been the beneficiary of mentoring along the way, including groups that TIAA-CREF hosts, such as its Women’s Employee Resource Group and a Lean In circle. She actively participates in both, and has found it particularly uplifting to hear and see how other
women are breaking the proverbial glass ceiling.
Over the years, she has seen the benefits of having both mentors and sponsors. She says that it has been impactful to see other women in leadership roles which might have historically been male dominated.
She passes on her valuable experience through her volunteer work with a girls’ mentoring group called Dynamic Youth Mentoring Program where she works with girls, ages 13 – 18, which she knows is a critical time in their development. She and other mentors meet with the girls in group settings, and then one-one-one once a month to do something either fun or educational.
She reports that her current manager is one of the best she has ever reported to, due in large part to the support she receives for both her professional and personal life.
But she looks even farther up to identify a professional role model – none other than First Lady Michelle Obama. “She advances her platform so effectively, but it’s clear that she is comfortable in her own skin.
You can tell that she’s not giving false appearances but is true to herself.”
Running Toward Success
Off the job, she devotes her free time to healthy pursuits. She has completed a half marathon and is currently training for another one and has completed a sprint triathlon as well.
She is involved with a women’s running group called Sole Society that focuses on women’s health, from eating clean to exercising to helping ward off the diseases that attack women.
“We have so many roles, from wife to parent to worker that we need to focus just on ourselves sometimes.”
Her professional success is intertwined with her running, since with both she makes sure to make measurable and attainable goals, and review them often to ensure she is progressing toward them. “I strive for continuous improvement, and beating myself each time, whether it’s in the office or at a race.”
Career Tip of the Week!
Career Tip of the Week!Who is in your network? Who do you eat lunch with?
Do a network audit- is there only one type of person in your network? If this cuts along the lines of social identity (gender, ethnicity, LGBT status, class, nationality etc) or even functionality (department and teams) then make a conscious effort to go to lunch with someone different to you. If you only eat lunch with women, ask your male colleagues out for lunch to talk about a business issue.
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: Stephanie Smith, Managing Director, Global Head Credit Operations, Goldman Sachs
People, Voices of ExperienceSmith joined Goldman Sachs in July 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. Though her background was in marketing, she was drawn in by the interesting work that Goldman was doing in e-commerce and spent five years developing strategy for the business. Then, in 2004, she leveraged the many internal relationships she had formed through networking to pursue a new opportunity in the firm’s Operations Division.
While Operations was not necessarily an expected career change, she was immensely curious about the space. Smith was offered an opportunity to join the Client Onboarding team, which is responsible for creating new accounts for clients across all products traded by the firm. “I was quickly catapulted from being a team member working on projects to leading a team of 20,” she recalls. “I was out of my comfort zone, but loving every minute of it!”
Her next “yes” was to the Credit Operations group. “Again, I had no background in this specific industry but was curious about the product and the business. I realized that even if I didn’t have direct experience, I was highly motivated to learn and excited to dive into the opportunity to try something new,” Smith says. “Ultimately I felt supported by the firm that if it didn’t work out, they would redeploy me. Trying something new was 50% fun and 50% challenge.” She soon rose from her initial regional oversight to managing the global team of over 400 people.
In her current role, Smith is excited to be constantly challenged to learn new regulatory rules, partner with her peers and team to develop implementation strategies and develop ideas that will build operational efficiency in the support of fixed income and derivative products.
She relishes a role that enables her to think strategically about issues such as how the firm should build its technological architecture, what consortiums it should join, and what its response should be to proposed rule changes. “We are working with industry partners and leaders internally on how to scale this business and what technological infrastructures we should put in place to help us in the future.”
She says that many of the current changes are driven by the changing regulatory environment and also because of client demand. “Our clients are looking for more creative ways of generating and preserving revenue, and at Goldman Sachs we continually challenge ourselves to develop solutions that meet their needs.”
Just Say Yes
Smith’s advice, especially for women, is simple. “You have to take a chance and speak up, ask questions and expand your network.” Smith says women have a tendency to opt themselves out – after achieving academic success in school, they tend to withdraw when surrounded by a team of smart people. This manifests itself in staying quiet if you don’t have the perfect answer or know 100 percent about a product or solution.
“I was guilty of opting out early in my career, but by working with mentors over the years I’ve learned that we’re all just trying to figure it out,” Smith says. “The beauty of success is harnessing the power of the team — I bring something to the table, you bring something and collectively we develop an answer.”
And that is the advice she believes young women need to hear as they start their career: to jump in with both feet; take risks; and say yes.
“Even when I didn’t know all the details of what I was asked to do, I trusted my managers and said yes, in spite of the butterflies in my stomach. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it.”
This “yes” mentality, combined with her curiosity, is what has led Smith up the ladder.
Along the way, she has learned valuable lessons about perspective and pivoting. Each success and setback is part of a broader journey and should not be evaluated in isolation.
Smith acknowledges she had roles in which she performed well but didn’t feel sufficiently motivated. However, she notes, “I learned something through every experience that led me to my next step, whether it was because I met new and interesting people or learned about a new line of business.”
She says she is most proud of her opportunity and ability to change course in her career. Smith remarks, “I joined the firm in the Securities Division headed in one path, then pivoted to Operations where I was heading down the path of being a strategic individual contributor, and then I pivoted again to management. That’s the beauty of Goldman Sachs — it doesn’t matter where you start, you have the ability to remake yourself multiple times throughout your career.”
Mentoring Emerging Leaders
Smith is active in the firm’s Emerging Leaders Program, which identifies up-and-coming diverse leaders within the firm and offers a network where they can receive coaching and establish informal and formal mentoring relationships.
While she is now able to speak about successfully navigating the firm, she didn’t arrive understanding the rules of the road, some of which she attributes to her background as a first generation immigrant.
“I didn’t know what to expect or how to navigate Wall Street,” she says, adding that although she worked extremely hard during her first couple of years and achieved success, her exposure and impact were limited because she kept her head down. “I assumed that if I worked hard, someone would recognize me, but it wasn’t until one of my managers challenged me to be more vocal and develop my network that my career took off.”
Smith is sure to share her advice across the spectrum of diversity found at Goldman Sachs, be it racial, gender, sexual orientation or cultural. “By celebrating our diversity, we create a more cohesive firm that makes us more effective in our day jobs.”
Goldman Sachs also values diversity outside of work. The firm sponsors and partners with several successful organizations that promote the development of diverse talent. Smith currently serves on the board of one such organization, Council of Urban Professionals (CUP). Founded in 2007, this non-profit’s mission is to connect, empower and mobilize the next generation of diverse business and civic leaders in financial services, legal, media, entertainment and both non-profit and public sectors.
“I love CUP because it allows us to supplement our leadership development as a firm. We can create networks and informal connections between Goldman Sachs professionals and our peers in the industry.”
Outside of work, Smith spends time with her husband and two sons, whom she says keep her grounded and focused.
Men Who Get It: Justin Gmelich, Global Head of Credit Trading, Management Committee Member; Goldman Sachs
Men Who "Get It", PeopleThe father of six, including four daughters, Gmelich is intimately familiar with the dynamics of diversity. He understands the opportunities and challenges ahead for his own daughters in the workplace, drawing from his personal experience and the insight from his wife, a former mortgage bond trader, and sister, who also works on Wall Street.
“This awareness definitely weighs on how I think about the world and what I’d like to see happen on Wall Street in general, and at Goldman Sachs in particular,” Gmelich says.
“Building a better framework to get the most out of the organization requires a different viewpoint around diversity. I’m keenly aware of the dynamics at Goldman and committed to working to bolster our culture and atmosphere to allow all our people to succeed.”
Starting Them Young
As part of Gmelich’s passion for education, he and his wife have invested both time and energy in creating the next generation of leaders.
They developed a scholarship program in their son’s name to fund private education for at-risk kids through high school. The program has resulted in more than three dozen graduates around the country.
These philanthropic endeavors migrated into the development of a need-blind STEM high school, Trinity Hall in Monmouth, N.J. Their oldest daughter, a sophomore, is part of the inaugural class.
Gmelich says that the goal of the high school is to change the way our society teaches girls about their job opportunities. “There’s some cultural bias that steers young women away from rigorous quantitative career paths,” he says, adding that Trinity Hall focuses on coding, physics, math and other skills needed to succeed in STEM careers.
Mentoring at Work
This allegiance to raising up the next generation of successful women is complemented by his current work at Goldman Sachs. “I wear the hat at work and at home,” he says.
To that end, he is active in a program at Goldman Sachs called the Women’s Trader Initiative, which he says is meant to demystify the trading function, as well as provide support and sponsorship for women traders in a department where there are fewer female role models.
He says that his goal as a mentor is to be involved in people’s careers by acting as a sounding board. “The best traders are those who can learn from other people — if you’re an effective mentor, you’re trying to prevent your mentees from making the same mistakes you might have made. I think it creates empathy when you share your own war stories of how best to navigate the job.”
Over the years Gmelich has found that one secret to career success is to embrace the tough conversations and seek appropriate feedback. “Many of the most successful people in the organization are the ones who want to spend 55 minutes of a 60 minute feedback session knowing what they can do better. That’s what makes people grow and develop.”
He says that it’s the obligation of mentors to offer that feedback through the lens of constructive criticism. “We can disagree but we don’t have to be disagreeable.”
Gmelich knows that the best way for leaders to advance those conversations is to underscore the importance of communication and accessibility “You have to use the type of mitigating language that lets people know they can speak their mind, by setting up a communication system where people are comfortable coming to you early and often.”
One way to nurture that feeling of trust is for leaders to show vulnerability and empathy, so that colleagues can see that even if he has a senior role, he’s overcome challenges in his career like anyone else.
“There’s a lot of humanity around that,” he says. “Empathy really matters and whether the recipient agrees with your perception or not, they appreciate that you are trying to give visibility to their career – someone is thinking about how to help them succeed.”
Diversity Must Be Omnipresent
Gmelich doesn’t believe in the common perception that the benefit of diversity advocacy goes to those who receive it. “We mistake the beneficiary,” he says. “With socioeconomic leveling I believe those who benefit equally are those who are getting the exposure to different viewpoints when we open the door.”
He says that when you look around Goldman Sachs, the decision-making process is strengthened when diverse groups actively participate and bring new approaches and perspectives to solving traditional problems. “It’s critical for any organization to realize that.”
As Gmelich demonstrates through his personal and professional life, diversity isn’t a switch you can flip on and off. “You have to practice what you preach in every aspect of your life.”
He advocates that those who want to expand their world spend time volunteering, whether at a high school or another non-profit that speaks to them.
“The more you do it, the better you get,” he says. “When I think about the interplay between my diversity work at Goldman Sachs and my philanthropic endeavors, you could say I’m a believer, both on and off the job.”
Mover & Shaker, Gina Love, Counsel at Shearman & Sterling LLP
Movers and Shakers, People“I literally started counting people of color – especially women of color,” recalls Love, a counsel at global law firm Shearman & Sterling. Of those she met, several were from New York, so Love and her new acquaintances came up with the idea of organizing a get-together of people with diverse backgrounds as a networking opportunity when they returned to convention the following year. Their outreach was decidedly grassroots – emailing people they knew and handing out fliers — so they were stunned that word had spread so fast that they were joined by nearly 200 people.
“We knew we were on to something so I started organizing it as an unofficial event at ICSC every year, securing sponsors, inviting speakers and raising money,” says Love, adding that Shearman & Sterling has been unequivocally supportive over the years. For 11 years, Love kept the event afloat on her own time, which though laborious was extremely rewarding. “It’s amazing to see the room clogged with people, many of them telling me that they come to ICSC’s convention primarily for this event,” she says. Eventually, though, she realized the reception needed to be self-sustaining, and ICSC agreed to officially take it over.
Today, the ICSC’s Diversity Reception is attended by anywhere from 600-850 people and has a long list of impressive financial sponsors and speakers from throughout the real estate industry. At the 2014 event, the ICSC announced the creation two scholarships: the “Retail Real Estate Diversity Scholarship” to offer tuition assistance to graduate students entering the retail and real estate industries; and the “Love Scholarship for Diversity,” named in Love’s honor to offer tuition assistance to sophomore, junior and senior university students belonging to an underrepresented minority group. “The whole thing started so innocently, and it was amazing to watch how it grew,” Love says. “It was really wonderful to see that my decade of work to increase diversity in the real estate industry was honored and appreciated by the leadership of ICSC, and I am delighted the legacy will go on.”
Real Estate Roots
Love chose a career in law because she felt it offered a way for her to showcase her strengths in writing and research. She preferred the business-oriented classes during law school and though she did a rotation in litigation, Love gravitated toward a specialization in real estate. Her family had built a background in various facets of real estate – from her aunt who was a broker and real estate investor to her grandfather who had built a residential development and construction company in Jamaica, W. I. , where she is from – so it was an industry with which she was quite familiar. And she has not been disappointed by her expectations of a career in law. Ever since her initial stint as a summer associate, she viewed the field of law as one with multiple challenges, but also extremely rewarding moments.
Recently, Love experienced one of those moments when she helped close a key phase of a complex international deal she had been working on with her Shearman & Sterling counterparts in Germany, along with Mexican counsel. “There were cultural differences to navigate but we had a solid team and it was very satisfying work,” she says. “That kind of international transaction is a real focus for me and for our firm.”
That is part of the appeal of the real estate specialization for Love – the constant diversity. For example, she is also representing a high-end luxury fashion client that recently received a significant influx of capital and is opening stores around the US.
“One of the reasons I really like real estate is because I feel as though it’s one of the only segments of law where you can see the creative result of your work,” she explains. “Real estate attorneys in New York can walk around this city and see visible, tangible signs of what he or she has accomplished — We aren’t the architects or the developers, but as lawyers, we do a lot of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ work to make it happen. Sometimes law is hard to explain to others, and I find the real estate specialty to be one of the few where you can really show people something you had a hand in creating.”
Mentors Helped Her Succeed
Love knows that mentors and sponsors have had a major impact on her career. At her former firm, Nixon Peabody, she knew of at least four partners in the real estate practice area whom she said were extremely supportive of her career from the beginning. “I would say that they really guided, guarded and watched over my career,” she recalls fondly.
Now, she has mentors both inside and outside Shearman & Sterling. At Shearman & Sterling, she says she has been guided and supported by real estate practice leader Chris Smith, who has been particularly helpful in the areas of networking, developing client relationships and deal work.
She also has an ongoing mentor relationship with a former colleague at Nixon Peabody, Elizabeth Moore, who is now General Counsel at Consolidated Edison. She says, “We were drawn to each other because she also has Caribbean roots, and we just related really well. It’s fascinating to talk with her about the different facets of her career, since she has had so many completely different roles. She was in State government then became a labor and employment law partner before becoming the GC of Con Ed. We talk frequently about how to deal with specific professional situations, but also just in general how life is going. Our relationship has been very valuable.”
A Clear Plan for Growth
When Love reflects on the qualities that have set her up for success, her method is simple but effective. “I set my goals, chart my plan and start working toward it,” she says, noting that it’s imperative to have multiple plans of action to address eventualities that might come up. She says this approach is something she learned from her father, her biggest role model, who worked as a chemical engineer but also earned a business degree. “You have to adjust periodically to what isn’t working anymore and take personal responsibility for what you do.,” she says. “The road might not always be smooth, but you can get there with a clear but flexible plan.”