By Jarod Cerf
When Reshma Saujani was introduced at an event recently, the CEO and Founder of Girls Who Code, former Deputy Public Advocate of New York City, and 2010 candidate for U.S. Congress, was given the mantle of a “poster child for persistence.”
Saujani, however, credits that diligence and desire to serve the public to the courage of her parents, who departed from Idi Amin’s reign in Uganda, and to the insistence of the politicians who advocated for the refugees’ asylum. “I always wanted to be a lawyer,” she reflected. “Even when I was ten, I had that as a goal on our fridge door: that I would go to Yale Law School, and only Yale Law.”
“I think, toward the end, that my family began to wonder if I was too dedicated to that dream. But I spoke to the dean directly—after two prior rejections and taking the train and walking straight up to his office—and he said, ‘if you go elsewhere for a year and make the top 10% of your class, you can come here’.”
Seeing the Need for Change
During her 2010 campaign, though, Saujani became starkly aware of the disparities between the various public schools and the degree to which the students received skill-based training. “It was over a couple days of meetings,” Saujani remarked, “that I saw how little the girls in our schools were engaged with technology as a means of building toward their future careers.”
“And I knew then,” she continued, “that Girls Who Code would have to exist; that we needed to give these young women and potential industry leaders the right access to the right people, to the role models and thought leaders who were contributing to the rise of New York as the next Silicon Valley.”
While the tech industry and supporting regions themselves have flourished, the number of women who receive a Bachelor’s degree in computer science has declined from 29.6% in 1991 to 18.2% as of 2013 (master’s degrees, by contrast, have remained fairly static, with doctorates showing a 7.9% increase over the same period).
One of the most immediate causes, according to Saujani, is the absence of sufficiently positive role models and detailed career paths, as well a lack of industry focus on the issues that women want to address. “We need film and television companies like Disney,” she explained, “to think about the images they put on the screen; we need technology companies to be educators and advocates, to encourage the application of computer science skills in the classroom.”
“This is the literacy of the future,” Saujani affirmed, “and the ability to create something using science, to engineer solutions, to innovate ideas through new and emerging technologies, is what keeps you in the workforce and relevant.”
Making Your Vision a Reality
Though Saujani admitted that the initial summer immersion class in 2012 was “a bit bootstrapped,” with friends and business contacts providing workrooms, computers, and fresh lunches for the twenty young women who attended, she noticed a marked increase in both their technical skills and the confidence they expressed midway through the program.
By August 2012, when Saujani was invited to speak at the United Nation’s 11th Youth Assembly, the newly minted alumni were receiving requests from local and community leaders to build websites, applications, and databases for their businesses.
The most important quality Saujani demonstrates to her students and her team is the willingness to embrace uncertainty, risk, and rejection and to understand the lessons they can teach. “Sure, I lost my Public Advocate race with only 82,000 votes,” she said. “But those were still 82,000 people I’d never met before the campaign, who believed enough in me to say I should be the first South Asian woman elected in the entire city or state of New York, and that I should represent what they need.”
“Too often,” Saujani continued, “women tend to think that they have to ‘do’ the job before they can get it. The good news is, when you teach these girls how to design an app to confront obesity, poverty or the bullying that they witness at school, they’ll invite three or four of their friends to learn along with them and work together with other girls—sometimes from incredibly diverse backgrounds—to create solutions for the world they want.”
Speaking proudly, she stated: “We started in 2012 and we’ll train 3,000 girls this year, and I’m confident that by 2020, we’ll reach a million.”
Movers and Shakers: Emily Griffen, Counsel, Shearman & Sterling
Voices of ExperienceAs a litigator, Emily Griffen is accustomed to speaking out in court or in legal meetings on behalf of her clients. But, like most people and especially women, speaking out about her career didn’t come quite as easily.
That is why Griffen, a litigation Counsel in global law firm Shearman & Sterling’s Bay Area offices, advises other women to have confidence in their skills and knowledge.
“Be vocal about your career interests and find people who will give you the opportunity to share your opinion,” she says. “This is how you will learn and grow.”
Career in Litigation
To date, that approach has taken her far, even though she didn’t really have a definitive career plan set in stone after college. According to Griffen, she was drawn to law school and especially litigation because of the complexity of the subject matter and the enjoyment she found in grappling with challenging legal concepts. She honed her strengths, identified her interests and aligned her passion for legal research, analysis and brief writing with her ultimate professional goal: to join a global law firm with a strong litigation group.
When Griffen started at Shearman & Sterling’s San Francisco office, she was involved in a number of securities class action and shareholder derivative cases, but as the scope of the litigation group has expanded, so have Griffen’s role and responsibilities. In recent years, her work has grown to include white collar crime and consumer class action suits, as well as securities and corporate governance litigation, for major clients like LG Electronics Inc. and Toyota Motor Corporation – and that variety is something Griffen is excited about. She works regularly with Shearman & Sterling’s litigation partners in the Bay Area – Patrick Robbins, Jeffrey Facter and Stephen Hibbard – as well as with the firm’s other litigation partners and senior lawyers around the world. Griffen also spent a one-year rotation in Shearman’s international arbitration group in the firm’s Paris office, and continues to work with that group from time to time as well.
In Griffen’s field, it is somewhat rare for a case to go to trial – most disputes are settled well before a jury is empaneled. Yet in only her fourth year as a lawyer, Griffen found herself immersed in a three-week-long jury trial in San Jose in a securities-related employment dispute. “This was an incredible and unique experience for me so early in my career,” said Griffen, who argued complicated pre-trial motions in front of the judge and questioned witnesses at trial. “We won the case, obtaining a complete defense verdict, and I feel so fortunate to have had such a rewarding experience, which is rare for a securities litigator.”
More recently, Griffen found herself on the eve of trial again when she was part of the defense team representing the former CFO of a Silicon Valley software company in a civil enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We obtained a favorable settlement for our client at the last minute after years of litigation, but we had to prepare our case as if we were going to trial. It was a very exciting case to be involved in,” said Griffen. As part of the settlement avoiding trial, the SEC agreed to drop all of its fraud claims against Griffen’s client.
Read more
Susie Scher, Managing Director and Head of Investment Grade Capital Markets/Syndicate and Liability Management, Goldman Sachs
Voices of Experience“It was a turning point in my career when I decided that I just couldn’t hide anymore. I was able to be myself at work all the time,” she added, “and everyone at Goldman Sachs was so incredibly supportive and accepting.”
Her Beginnings in Banking
Although Scher has had a long and fulfilling career in banking, she attributes her start in the industry to serendipity. When Scher entered her final year at Middlebury College as a Political Science major with a minor in English, she was certain that she would either become a lawyer or a writer upon graduation.
Scher did not pursue either of these paths, and instead decided to enter the workforce. “I applied for a bunch of different jobs in banking, consulting, advertising, and marketing, among others,” recalled Scher, “and ended up with thirteen interviews at different companies, including a handful of investment banks.”
Even though Scher had developed a bit of an aversion to math growing up, she did not let this deter her from pursuing a car
eer in banking. She explained, “I loved the energy of the people who interviewed me for the investment banking jobs. They were smart, type A, young individuals, and I thought it would be a lot of fun to work for and alongside those people.”
After the interview process, Scher accepted a job with Salomon Brothers, and the feeling she had about the energy of the business was spot on. Moreover, Scher began to realize that she had an affinity for understanding corporate finance and how companies operated from a strategic perspective.
“I decided to go to business school at Columbia after three years at Solomon Brothers to obtain a broader view of corporate America. Here, it clicked for me that corporate finance was a story being told with numbers,” Scher said. “This is when I realized that banking was for me.”
In business school, Scher also became very interested by how external factors impact the markets, and thus impact businesses. “I paired my interests in corporate finance and the markets and landed in a capital markets function which marries advising companies and executing transactions,” she said.
Her Work at Goldman Sachs
Currently, as head of Investment Grade Capital Markets/Syndicate and Liability Management, Scher takes a lot of pride in the growth of this business considering just ten years ago, the firm was not as strong in the investment grade bond business as it is today. Now, Scher and her team handle many high profile deals and attract even more business when the markets are tumultuous.
“I advise big cap companies on financing, risk management and capital structure,” said Scher, “and right now I am focusing a lot on capital structure optimization and helping companies with the complexities of M&A transactions in a global market.”
She added, “Our clients rely on us for our judgment on complex deals or during tough markets, and I am proud to have been a part of the rebuilding and restructuring of the investment grade debt finance business over the last decade.”
According to Scher, one of the most rewarding aspects of her job is having the opportunity to work with some of the most interesting and exciting clients in the world. “I am also really interested in how technology will continue to transform our industry and how we do business in the future,” explained Scher.
Her Experience as a LGBT Woman in Banking
“As a gay woman in banking, I do not feel like I have encountered insurmountable hurdles,” Scher remarked. “The path to success requires all of us –men, women, gay people and straight people –to think about how to be strategic about our careers,” she added.
Read more
Career Breaks: the good, the bad and the ugly
Managing Change, Work-LifeDo you dream of hitting the pause button on your career? You don’t necessarily want to hit stop but you want just enough time to pause and reflect without the day-to-day pressures of a demanding career. But how many of us are willing to take a career break and at what cost?
About 90,000 people take career breaks in the UK every year, 60% of whom are women. Recent surveys have found that while the reasons for career breaks are similar across both genders, the imbalance has a clear reflection on the current and future talent pipeline. According to a 2013 YouGov survey, 58% of women take career breaks to care for children or elderly family members and 9% use career breaks as an opportunity to travel. This contrasts with the reasons men cited; 11% opt to pause their careers for family and 29% for travel.
If more women take career breaks, is it right to assume that we look forward to them? According to the results of a recent survey by London Business School, the simple answer is no. Of the over 2000 female survey participants, 70% stated that they felt anxious about taking a career break. It turns out that the bad and the ugly aspects of career breaks can lead women to opt out altogether.
Embracing the Good
Taking a step back from our careers means that we are able to see challenges and opportunities from a different perspective, which indirectly drives innovation. The skills we develop while on career breaks – learning a new language, working in a different culture, raising another human being – all contribute to our wider personal development, making us more rounded and experienced employees when we return.
Organisations that offer career break programmes realise direct benefits, including talent retention and increased productivity. According to the Great Places to Work Institute, 34 of the “100 Best Workplaces in Europe” in 2007 offered sabbaticals. Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2012 found that almost 25% of the companies offered fully paid sabbaticals. Formal career programmes, such as that recently introduced by Morgan Stanley, clearly contribute to an organisation’s attractiveness rating and companies benefit by attracting top talent.
In the US, 24% of small businesses and 14% of large businesses allowed their employees to take career breaks of 6 months or more (paid or unpaid). However, the 2014 National Study of Employers indicates that since 2008, organisations in the US have reduced the number of provisions in place for enabling extended time away from work; down from 64% to 52%.
If there are net benefits to the employee and employer, why are we seeing this downward trend?
The truth of the matter is that career breaks are still seen as “interruptions” rather than continuums of self-development. This misperception is directly shaping the global workforce.
Dealing with the Bad
McKinsey’s 2007 Women Matter report stated that today’s model “presupposes a linear career path, with no space for career breaks” when in fact 58% of the survey participants stated their careers would not be linear. Company leaders need to recognise this in the way they shape their workforce initiatives.
45% of the women reported in the survey cited “need more time for the children” as the reason for their career break. Despite wanting to return after the break, only 74% successfully got jobs and only 40% found full time work. Sylvia-Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce found that 5% of mothers wanted to return to their previous employers, however barriers such as perception mean that they are not always successful which in turn leads to reduced retention.
Views such as that expressed by a UK politician earlier this year – that women who take time out of work to have children are “worth less” to their employers than their male colleagues – are clearly barriers for returning mothers.
Eliminating the Ugly
The ugly reality of career breaks, mainly the manifestation of “the bad”, is that there can be a direct impact on earning power and career progression.
A 2004 study found that “for each year of interruptions to employment for childcare and family care work, hourly wages decrease by 1% (again, in addition to missing out on the 3% gain for each year of full-time employment)”. Despite picking up new skills and demonstrating the ability to work with multiple demands, returning mothers are recognised as financially less valuable than their peers who have chosen not to take family-related career breaks. Another study, based on work by Waldfogel, found that the “family penalty”, a 10-15% reduction in income for women with families compared to those without (and therefore fewer “interrupted work histories”), exists for women but the opposite – a “marriage premium” – exists for men.
These consequences of career breaks have a direct impact on the talent pipeline and need to be addressed by company leaders and policy makers. While policy changes such as maternity (and more recently paternity) leave entitlement in the UK, have provided more options for returning mothers, there is much more to be done to improve gender representation at executive level.
We need a shift in attitudes towards career breaks; rather than seeing them as interruptions, they should be seen as an opportunity to shift focus and develop addition skills which build our careers.
Employers: This is not just a nice to have so don’t get left behind. The 2013 “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” required applicants offer at least one fully paid week of leave to new mothers. In many cases it can be an enabler to a firm’s strategy; for example SAP, the global software company, launched a formal Social Sabbatical Programme in 2012 which provides employees with global opportunities but also enables SAP to meet its emerging markets strategy. Not only do such programmes provide structure, they drive a change in culture and perceptions across genders.
Employees: Some of you will see a career break as an inevitable part of the professional and personal growth, so planning ahead for the break is critical. It is important to clearly articulate the case to your employer (what skills will you be gaining during your time away), identify a mentor and also identify those who will make up part of your support network during your break.
Encouraging career breaks is a long term strategy; to think differently and become more innovative we need a change of scenery. As Albert Einstein famously stated: Insanity: doing the same thing over & over again & expecting different results.” Why then would we not encourage our people to do things differently?
Mentoring: 6 Ways to Help Your Mentee Think Strategically
Mentors and SponsorsIf you’re a mentor, you have a lot of responsibility. Your mentee relies on you for valuable guidance, input, and advice on successful career navigation. But of all the lessons you might choose to impart or doors you might open for your protégé, how do you ensure that you are giving the right advice?
One of the primary goals of mentorship is for mentors to assist others in career advancement, preparing often more junior employees for that next promotion or opportunity. Yet research shows that a mentoring relationship doesn’t always result in promotions for women, especially compared to men. A report from Catalyst found that while having a mentor did help decrease the career advancement gender gap, it didn’t eliminate it. The study showed that men were promoted more often than women even when taking into account factors like prior work experience, starting level, and amount of time in their current role, as well as industry and region.
Strategic Thinking Linked to Effective Leadership
By examining this research, it’s clear that one area where mentors can focus their efforts is in helping mentees think more strategically. Strategic thinking can help people at all levels improve their chances for advancement by working smarter and not harder. What’s more, according to Robert Kabacoff in Harvard Business Review, strategic thinkers have been shown in many studies to rank among the most effective leaders within organizations.
For example, a 2013 global study by Management Research Group (MRG) of 60,000 managers in more than 140 countries and 26 industries discovered that taking a strategic approach to leadership was around 10 times more important to how effective a leader was perceived to be. Strategic thinking was found to be twice as important as communication and nearly 50 times more important than tactical, hands-on leadership behaviors.
This speaks volumes about the importance of mentors teaching mentees how to master taking a long-range approach to decision-making and problem-solving. Kabacoff notes that being mentored by someone with the “ability to keep people focused on strategic objectives and the impact of their actions” is a very effective way for mentees to develop their own strategic skills. He also suggests that strategic thinking is “as much of a mindset as a set of techniques.”
How can you as a mentor encourage your mentee to excel at strategic thinking?
Read more
How to Deal with Objections like a Boss: Your Four Step Plan to Rock Your Next Presentation
Guest ContributionLet’s pretend you are presenting a management solution to a group and you’ve done everything right; you’ve laid out a water-tight case, supported by a robust value proposition, strong arguments and an even stronger voice.
You didn’t mumble or stumble or skip over your slides.
You did everything by the book. Heck, you even mastered Fantastic First Impressions Cheat Sheet.
And then, just as you are about to wrap-up, expecting a resounding applause or even a standing ovation, one of the attendees announces that although he is intrigued by your solution, he feels that your solution at the given price would not be able to achieve the required objectives.
He uses words that can slice steel hearts…words like, “impressive presentation” (implying that it doesn’t have any meat, only fluff) or “leaves something to be desired” (translation: It was just a load of crap) or my personal nemesis “having said that” (which essentially means… brace yourself, things are going to get real nasty here)
You feel deflated after your moment of glory and you cannot just stomp your feet and walk out like you used to when you were five.
So what to do instead?
Below is a four step process to deal with valid objections; objections that are not just mud-slinging fests but where the person is genuinely trying to understand something or raising a valid point. It is hard, because it is a battle against the objection as much as it is against your own rationality.
But who said, winning’s easy?
Step One: Welcome the Objections
Valid objections are caused by a person’s old brain. They are triggered by the fear of making a wrong decision and are typically the last step in the decision-making process. You should therefore welcome objections as a sign that the old brain is getting ready to make a decision and all it needs is some reassurance that the decision is the right one to make. This is the exact same technique but that I recommend when faced with the statement “you are too expensive”.
Objections are also a sign that the person is actually considering the viability of your solution and getting his cognitive resources involved. This is great news…never underestimate the importance of getting his mind engaged because this means they are open to any suggestions that come as part of the rebuttal.
Read more
The Introverted Boss: How to Make Your Personality Work to Your Advantage
Office PoliticsCan introverts successfully lead in business?
After the publication in 2012 of Sara Cain’s New York Times bestselling book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, there has been a rallying cry for introverts everywhere. Cain’s TED talk in February 2012 is lauded by introverts who feel validated and uplifted by her message.
In her TED talk, Cain expounds on the value of introverts to creativity and innovation, but do these qualities translate to effective leadership?
Examples of Successful Introverts
In a 2013 article in Forbes, Victor Lipman, a management communications coach and retired insurance company executive, reflected on his career and the hundreds of executives he worked with. He writes, “…there are just a handful who come to mind as universally admired and respected. Oddly enough, they were all quiet individuals who could all easily be considered introverts – and all shared the same constellation of characteristics.”
Lipman notes that these introverted leaders were universally measured in their responses, highly analytical, good listeners, naturally risk averse, and the frequently the voice of reason. He continued, “Their voice was not the loudest but was often the most listened to.”
Bestselling author, chairman of Avon Products, and former CEO and President of Campbell Soup Company, Doug Conant, writes in a 2011 article that he scores high on the introversion scale. He says, “In meetings, introverts can often be perceived as aloof, disinterested, shy or retiring. … When viewed from the outside, it may seem that I’m not openly contributing as much as I could or should, but that’s just because I’m busy listening and thinking.”
If you are an introvert, know that you can be perceived this way, but remember, too, that listening deeply and thoroughly can give you an advantage when you provide well thought out input after you have processed all of the information presented to you.
A recent article in Entrepreneur indicated the benefits of listening and the importance of honing this soft skill as a business leader. “Typically, we choose leaders for their skill at conveying messages clearly and powerfully. But it is listening that distinguishes the best leaders from the rest. That’s because the better you are at listening, the more likely people will talk to you.”
When leaders listen, they are more likely to actually hear an employee who shares the next big, industry-changing idea. Employees who possess leadership traits have the potential to really thrive when they feel like their ideas are being heard. If you are naturally introverted, you can use your ability to listen and make others feel heard to your advantage.
Mike Jones writes in the Entrepreneur article, “The business world has never been altogether friendly to introverts. Yet roughly four in 10 top executives — including Larry Page, co-founder and now CEO of Google, identify as one. What’s more, their success may not come despite their natural introversion, but because of it, an idea backed up by new research suggesting introverts foster a better team environment than their more outgoing peers.”
The Research
A 2011 study concluded that while extraverts are more likely to be perceived as leaders, their leadership does not always lead to increased group performance. The study by Adam Grant (University of Pennsylvania), Francesa Gino (Harvard University) and David Hofmann (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), concluded “…when employees were not proactive, extraverted leadership was associated with higher group performance. However, when employees were proactive, this pattern reversed, so that extraverted leadership was associated with lower group performance.”
Read more
Voice of Experience: Yas Banifatemi, Partner, Shearman & Sterling
Voices of Experience“What I love about arbitration is that this is a field where you can truly be creative,” she says. “The law is in the making, so you can be a pioneer of the law.”
In many ways, Banifatemi has already been a pioneer. When she joined Shearman & Sterling 17 years ago, the arbitration field was clearly male-dominated. Today, not only is she the head of the firm’s Public International Law practice, but she was instrumental in the development of the firm’s investment arbitration practice and also acts as deputy managing partner of the firm’s Paris office. In her different capacities, she has seen more and more women in senior corporate and government roles and at her firm.
Beginning Her Career in Arbitration
Banifatemi joined Shearman & Sterling’s arbitration practice in 1997 after earning her doctorate in International Law from Panthéon-Assas University in Paris and her Masters of Law from Harvard. “It was quite a hectic year for me as I was juggling between my studies at Harvard and completing my PhD and writing my dissertation,” she says.
Before joining the firm, Banifatemi had considered a career in academia, but after studying under Arthur van Mehren at Harvard, a leading figure in arbitration in the US, she decided to practice law. “I wanted to be engaged in the process and be an agent of change – to make a difference instead of staying behind the scenes and merely reflecting on matters,” Banifatemi says. “Given how few firms practiced arbitration back then and how few positions existed in the field, joining Shearman’s arbitration practice and having the opportunity to work with Emmanuel Gaillard, one of the world’s leading figures in arbitration, felt like a miracle.”
Although a practitioner first and foremost, Banifatemi has been fortunate enough to indulge her academic interests, conducting seminars in Paris and all over the world and being a co-founder of the Arbitration Academy, an international institution providing for advanced courses in the field.
Overcoming the Odds
Many naysayers told Banifatemi that it was practically impossible to become a practitioner in public international law, which governs the rights and obligations of states and international organizations. International arbitration seemed like the safer bet, and Banifatemi initially focused her efforts on this area of law instead. However, she persisted in her quest to become a specialist in public international law, and as fate would have it, she worked on a matter that would change her career path.
“Three months after I started,” she recalls, “Shearman & Sterling landed a major treaty arbitration case for Slovakia. We were one of the first firms to work on treaty arbitration. I worked specifically on the international law aspects of the case and have been engaged in treaty arbitration and public international law issues ever since.”
Read more
Intrepid Women: Reshma Saujani, CEO and Founder, Girls Who Code
Intrepid Women SeriesWhen Reshma Saujani was introduced at an event recently, the CEO and Founder of Girls Who Code, former Deputy Public Advocate of New York City, and 2010 candidate for U.S. Congress, was given the mantle of a “poster child for persistence.”
Saujani, however, credits that diligence and desire to serve the public to the courage of her parents, who departed from Idi Amin’s reign in Uganda, and to the insistence of the politicians who advocated for the refugees’ asylum. “I always wanted to be a lawyer,” she reflected. “Even when I was ten, I had that as a goal on our fridge door: that I would go to Yale Law School, and only Yale Law.”
“I think, toward the end, that my family began to wonder if I was too dedicated to that dream. But I spoke to the dean directly—after two prior rejections and taking the train and walking straight up to his office—and he said, ‘if you go elsewhere for a year and make the top 10% of your class, you can come here’.”
Seeing the Need for Change
During her 2010 campaign, though, Saujani became starkly aware of the disparities between the various public schools and the degree to which the students received skill-based training. “It was over a couple days of meetings,” Saujani remarked, “that I saw how little the girls in our schools were engaged with technology as a means of building toward their future careers.”
“And I knew then,” she continued, “that Girls Who Code would have to exist; that we needed to give these young women and potential industry leaders the right access to the right people, to the role models and thought leaders who were contributing to the rise of New York as the next Silicon Valley.”
While the tech industry and supporting regions themselves have flourished, the number of women who receive a Bachelor’s degree in computer science has declined from 29.6% in 1991 to 18.2% as of 2013 (master’s degrees, by contrast, have remained fairly static, with doctorates showing a 7.9% increase over the same period).
One of the most immediate causes, according to Saujani, is the absence of sufficiently positive role models and detailed career paths, as well a lack of industry focus on the issues that women want to address. “We need film and television companies like Disney,” she explained, “to think about the images they put on the screen; we need technology companies to be educators and advocates, to encourage the application of computer science skills in the classroom.”
“This is the literacy of the future,” Saujani affirmed, “and the ability to create something using science, to engineer solutions, to innovate ideas through new and emerging technologies, is what keeps you in the workforce and relevant.”
Making Your Vision a Reality
Though Saujani admitted that the initial summer immersion class in 2012 was “a bit bootstrapped,” with friends and business contacts providing workrooms, computers, and fresh lunches for the twenty young women who attended, she noticed a marked increase in both their technical skills and the confidence they expressed midway through the program.
By August 2012, when Saujani was invited to speak at the United Nation’s 11th Youth Assembly, the newly minted alumni were receiving requests from local and community leaders to build websites, applications, and databases for their businesses.
The most important quality Saujani demonstrates to her students and her team is the willingness to embrace uncertainty, risk, and rejection and to understand the lessons they can teach. “Sure, I lost my Public Advocate race with only 82,000 votes,” she said. “But those were still 82,000 people I’d never met before the campaign, who believed enough in me to say I should be the first South Asian woman elected in the entire city or state of New York, and that I should represent what they need.”
“Too often,” Saujani continued, “women tend to think that they have to ‘do’ the job before they can get it. The good news is, when you teach these girls how to design an app to confront obesity, poverty or the bullying that they witness at school, they’ll invite three or four of their friends to learn along with them and work together with other girls—sometimes from incredibly diverse backgrounds—to create solutions for the world they want.”
Speaking proudly, she stated: “We started in 2012 and we’ll train 3,000 girls this year, and I’m confident that by 2020, we’ll reach a million.”
Voice of Experience: Daphne Karydas, Director, Senior Equity Analyst, The Boston Company Asset Management LLC
Voices of ExperienceSeeking a different career path, she decided to earn her MBA from Harvard Business School and proceeded to work as an Investment Banker in the Healthcare sector at Goldman Sachs for 4 years.
“I was not able to leverage my entire skill set in investment banking,” explained Karydas, “and it was important for me to find a role that fully utilized my skill set and professional interests.”
Career in Asset Management
It wasn’t until Karydas transitioned into Asset Management as a healthcare analyst that she felt truly fulfilled by her career path. “The nature of the industry gives me the opportunity to utilize my scientific background and financial markets training while still being able achieve a healthy work-life balance,” she said.
Now, as a Director and Senior Equity Analyst at The Boston Company, Karydas says one of the exciting aspects of her job is moving away from traditional models and incorporating more alternative strategies to maximize the portfolio performance. “It is challenging but interesting work trying to determine new ways to add value for clients,” Karydas noted.
Women in Asset Management: Mentoring is Key
According to Karydas, there is a still a wide leadership gap in asset management, but she is encouraged by the increasing number of women she sees emerging in the industry. As more female asset managers are coming on to the scene, Karydas emphasized just how important mentoring and sponsorship will be in developing the next generation.
“The cycle of mentoring is critical,” Karydas noted, “and when you have influential leaders taking the time to identify young talent and help them navigate their careers, there can be a big impact..”
Finding a mentor and developing that relationship is important to career advancement, but Karydas also stresses the value of hard work and dedication. “Performance matters in Asset Management so you have to work hard and be proactive about your career,” she advised.
Read more
How Being an Athlete Can Help Women Advance in Business
Guest ContributionI read with great interest Hadley Catalano’s article “What Do Sports Teach Women in Business” in the recent issue of Glass Hammer. It’s an important perspective, certainly helpful to a great many women, and men should listen up as well! As Hadley states, where prowess in athletics and competitive sports can give us an advantage, so can our emotional intelligence skills. Here’s where women can have an advantage in business leadership. Business is about relationships, how we influence others, how we make others feel about themselves. Women generally have higher emotional intelligence skills than men, and that matters, greatly!
Being athletic gives many of us a sense of inner-confidence, which is so important in business leadership. Yet, to keep egos in check, inner-confidence is best balanced by humility. Certainly, sports keep us humble. Let’s face it, a good batter gets a hit three out of every ten times to the plate, a good free throw shooter may make seven or eight of ten tries at the basket, and certainly a golfer is used to a number of poor shots in every round.
I had the privilege of serving on the board of the Women’s Sports Foundation for a number of years. The foundation was established in 1974 by Billie Jean King and has remained a force ever since. In fact, the foundation is considered the guardian angel of Title IX, standing up for equity for women in sports, business, academia – in life!
Many of the people I know through the work of the Women’s Sports Foundation are simply amazing people, outstanding athletes in soccer, tennis, golf, swimming, diving, sailing, softball, running, gymnastics and other sports. I am talking Olympic caliber, the very best in the world. Yet, they are humble and truly interested in others, helping others succeed.
Are all athletes secure and successful in business? No, certainly not, and here’s a lesson. I cannot take credit for this lesson; credit goes to Mariah Burton Nelson, whom I met through the Women’s Sports Foundation. Mariah was a competitive swimmer and a star center on Stanford’s basketball team. She is now an author and motivational speaker.
Read more