“There are not many people that are willing to take on that challenge of being in a new role and different geography,” reflects Jessica Jones. “I was very open to this change, and put myself forward early in my career. I made sure that my managers knew, that while focused on my current role, this is something that I would be interested in, if the right time came.”
Working in Asia
Born in the UK and raised in South Africa, Jones became comfortable with change, adapting, and being the new person in an environment from an early age.
Jones worked for Goldman Sachs for 17 years, where she headed diversified businesses across Europe, Australia and ultimately in Asia. She took a Hong Kong-based opportunity with PGIM, a top-10 global investment manager after completing her second maternity leave last September.
“I have had a very rewarding and dynamic career with another exciting chapter ahead. Because I’ve had such supportive managers and sponsors, I’ve had fantastic opportunities to step up, and have had the privilege of covering a number of regions and countries from a very early moment,” she says.
After visiting Hong Kong during her gap year, Jones became fascinated with Asia and kept her eye on opportunities in the region. She eventually made the leap ten years ago, taking a Head of Asia-Pacific role based in Australia first, before moving to Hong Kong. As the APAC asset and wealth management industry continues to grow exponentially, driven largely by China, the number of high-net worth clients has grown, and global private banks have sought to expand their footprint–making it an exciting region to work in.
She’s had the privilege of watching her client counterparts move around too: “It’s been incredible to develop these long partnerships with clients who are also moving in their roles all the time. It has helped me to understand the global businesses that our clients are in, so it’s fantastic perspective.”
Immersing in a Culture Through Passion
Accustomed to being the ‘outsider’ who doesn’t speak the local language, and often the only woman in a room, Jones is passionate about getting to know a new region and has found her clients enjoy the different perspectives she can bring to the table.
“I am building teams who are local experts in their regions, who are Cantonese- or Mandarin-speaking in Hong Kong, and who can get much closer than I ever will to the relationship managers or investment counselors,” she says, “They bring the local perspective and the ability to converse and steer me in the right direction. That’s a fascinating aspect of my role–to adapt and enjoy the cultural differences.”
Located in one of the most restrictive quarantine regimes over the last two and a half years, and having yet to meet her PGIM team or clients in an office, Jones still has a feeling of “going through it together.” In Hong Kong, there’s been a rebirth of popularity around the traditional 19th century Chinese tile-based strategy game named Mahjong–involving 144 tiles placed on the table and four players. Having begun playing regularly during semi-lockdown and mostly with women, she’s a self-confessed enthusiast, and highlights language happens in many ways.
“You put these tiles out, shuffle them, and basically try to create order out of the chaos,” she says. “It’s been really fun, and with everything closed, that’s been our chance to network and support each other. It has become a bonding opportunity and stress reliever.”
Jones’ passion for the culture has helped her open new doors and develop great relationships. “The game is about luck and skill, but also has become a way of honing in on my local cultural skills. My clients are amazed I know how to play, although I still have so much to learn. I can’t speak the language, but I can speak the language of Mahjong,” she says.
Jones is emphatic about becoming a part of the region: “I have my residency and both my children were born here, so I’m very much rooted here. This is home for me, and I’m committed to Asia, and so my clients tell me they have adopted me as a local.”
Raise Your Hand and Stretch Your Limbs
Jones attributes her career success both to raising her hand early to say she was open to new opportunities, and a willingness to take on stretch roles as they came up.
“Don’t just assume that people know what you want. You need to make sure that your managers and your stakeholders know that you are interested in other opportunities,” she says. “Don’t be scared to let them know. It’s not like you’re going to be fired because you’re driven and want to move and grow.”
For anyone else who feels the call to get out of their comfort zone, she emphasizes you don’t need to have been there before or know the language to thrive: “If you have the right attitude, being outside of your comfort zone makes you stronger and stretches your mind, and it makes you learn at a very fast pace.”
As the years have accumulated, Jones’s steady base is her product and business acumen, with new regions and new types of wealth management presenting opportunities to stretch. Learning on the job has taught her a lot about herself and how she adapts.
Being brave and taking risks are two traits she feels have supported her journey: “It’s always tempting to stay in the safest option, because you’re scared of making a mistake or damaging your professional reputation. But being open to trying new strategies, new areas, new growth and new innovation are a great way to progress your career. Risk needs to be calculated, but take those risks early.”
She recommends building a strong network from the beginning, and is amazed how much the relationships she has built over two decades help her to stay in touch with lessons, inspiration, opportunities and innovation from different regions.
You Cannot Communicate Enough
“My advice to anyone going into a new leadership role is you can’t communicate enough. There is no such thing as over-communication,” says Jones. “Good communication helps us be connected, engaged and understanding where we are all trying to go.”
As she’s become more senior, Jones has had to get even better at communication.
“As a leader, you need to constantly be communicating your vision–the goals, the purpose of the team, the roles that everyone has and responsibilities. You need to keep communicating the progress that’s being made, within your team but also to stakeholders,” says Jones. “Especially being so far from headquarters, you really need to communicate and advocate for your team, and be the PR agent for your team, your business and the opportunities in the region.”
She’s learned the importance of tailoring your approach: “There’s different communication for different people and learning styles, so I need to keep thinking about how my messages may be coming across. Do I need to adapt the way I communicate to my team and to different stakeholders? Some people want a lot more analytical data, others want the big picture strategy, and also there’s the consideration of different cultures and perspectives–all influence how someone wants to be updated.”
People Want to Work With Others They Like
Blessed with wonderful mentors who championed her growth and her dreams, one of the best pieces of advice Jones has received along the way is that people want to do business with people they like and enjoy working with–and that translates to all regions and parts of life.
“We’re all very busy, so people want to work with people they feel they have a good connection with,” she says, “You want to develop relationships where you become their best business friend or partner, and where you also enable your clients to look good in their role by bringing the best investment advice, research and ideas. I advise my team that we cannot control the investment products or the market, but we can control the relationship we are building with our key partners in the region. Every opportunity you have, make sure to develop a great relationship with impact, and over time that builds a great partnership.”
She also advises women to leverage being the memorable person in the room or the social event or the pitch: “Rather than being intimidated, use it to your advantage because you don’t realize that you are going to be memorable. People are perhaps not going to remember all twelve guys around the table, but they’re going to remember you, so remember you bring a different perspective.”
Above all, she iterates the importance of enjoying what you do, and feeling a sense of purpose and passion.
“For me, living and working in these different cultural environments has broadened my horizons, perspective and experience, personally and professionally, and I feel I have a dream job,” she says. “I get to work and live and travel in such an exciting region of the world and call it my home and it still fascinates me every day.”
Stand Where You Are
If there’s anything Jones has discovered in being unable to leave Hong Kong in the past two and a half years, it’s to take advantage of the place you are living. Before this time, she mostly traveled off to another country for a spectacular beach or to see family or friends, and realizes now she had not been as present in the moment and enjoying where she lives.
Since embracing “staying put,” Jones and her family have been appreciating incredible hiking trails and island beaches and other parts of the surrounding area, right on her doorstep, that she never knew existed.
“No matter where you are in the world,” she says, “it helps to realize how lucky you are, and to take full advantage of the present and the place that you are in to get more inspiration.”
By Aimee Hansen
Kate Kenner Archibald: Chief Marketing Officer, Dash Hudson
People, Voices of ExperienceGrowing as a Leader While Surrounded By Women
Having grown up in New York, Archibald idolized the big fashion house vibe. She was magnetized to how creativity and business merged together at Estée Lauder, where she spent 14 years specializing in luxury brands, including Tom Ford Beauty and Bobbi Brown, honing her career towards tech marketing. In November, she moved to Dash Hudson, an all-in-social entertainment insights marketing software platform that works across some of the most influential global brands including Apple, Amazon and Disney.
With three kids (currently, seven years, five years and ten months old) and a husband with a full-time job, maintaining her career through the family journey has been a choice she has committed to, partly because she derives great satisfaction from her work, and also because of the independence mindset she adopted early on.
“My father really impressed upon me the value of being independently successful as a woman and used to impress upon me that I could be a CEO,” she reflects, “He’s been a huge impact in my life, so being independent has always been important for me.”
At Estée Lauder, she was surrounded by a workforce of 85% women, so the vertical track to, and horizontal track across, leadership positions were well-accessible for women who wished to advance, and Archibald navigated across several cross-functional leadership positions.
“I was encouraged and enabled, and there were opportunities,” she says. “You still have to know that nobody is going to hold your hand, and you are the owner of your destiny. But it helps to be in a place where the growth mentality as a woman is appreciated.”
Now at Dash Hudson, Archibald enjoys the mix of professional and personal life supported by the tech-like atmosphere and culture while still leveraging the leadership experiences she gained through her tenure in beauty and luxury.
Creating a Spherical Life and Reserving Family Time
“I am very direct in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish and what we need to do to achieve our goals. I try to get to the root of the problem and reduce the back-and-forth,” Archibald says, accrediting her need for work-family balance for the acute focus. “I also enjoy creating an environment of collaboration by enabling people to see outside of their silos, and to understand how the piece they are contributing is interrelated and contributing to the other teams. I’m a huge proponent of creating a structured collaboration framework and connecting the dots.”
Archibald has recently been inspired by the novel approach her CEO takes to hiring and culture at Dash Hudson: “The mentality is people first. Let’s find the best, smartest, most amazing people and figure out where they can add the most value. The strength of the talent and the true belief that diversity makes us stronger creates an incredible culture. The level of support felt between peers and teams is a real shift for most people when they join the company. Especially in a hybrid environment.”
Within a mostly female environment for over a decade, Archibald has had the benefit of sharing lots of honest conversations with successful women. She has often sought insight on managing professional and family demands, even the basics of keeping a household running. A recommendation she received along the way was to think of your life as a circle or a pie graph that includes everything that is important to you:- family, work, health, friends, spirituality, etc.
“If one part of the pie gets more dominating than you want it to be, you have to consider how to make that part smaller so you can ‘right-size’ your family life or your spiritual life, for example,” she says. “That has really helped me to compartmentalize what I’m doing and how it impacts the other parts of my life.”
As a traditional Jewish family, Archibald and her family observe Shabbat every week, reserving Friday night and Saturday strictly for time with family. Honoring this has been fundamental in helping manage her time, and because that time is a weekly fixed date, it’s also helped her feel more peaceful during the week when she needs to work. Additionally, it ensures that she is aligned with her partner on their collective family goals.
“I think a lot of parents feel guilty if they don’t have dinner every night with their family,” she says. “But for me, every Friday is a guaranteed dinner together with all the family and Saturday is family, all day. No exceptions. It has given me a supportive structure in my life.”
In addition to being influenced by her father’s outlook on independence and her supportive husband, Archibald attests that her mother is the hardest working person she knows. While Archibald went off to first grade, her mother went back to school and obtained her PhD in Neuropsychology. Inspired by her, Archibald wishes to model to her daughter and two sons that a woman can have a career and still be present for her family.
Managing Up and Knowing Your Own Expectations
As she’s grown more senior in her career, Archibald has found herself getting better at reinforcing her own brand of executive presence and managing up: “The transition over your career is toward managing up, and ensuring that you get what you need. I learned this the hard way when faced with health challenges, when I was doing too much and not telling people what I needed. I really have come to see the importance of don’t take on too much and do fewer things better, both of which I pass on to women just starting their career.”
When it comes to mentoring, she also tells everyone, but especially mothers with young children, that if you’re not happy at home, you’re not going to be happy at work.
“If your work is really impacting your home life, take that step back to figure out what and how you can fix it. Push for flexibility, which is becoming more common, or figure out what the issue is,” she says, “But if you’re not satisfied with how much time you have with your family, you’re never going to be happy at work, no matter how much money you’re making.”
Archibald advises women to go back to the sphere and consider the balance across areas and really understand “what does good look like, for you?” which is different for everyone. She says, you have to be able to manage life in a way that works for your expectations for your family and work life ― and honestly, check if your employer is willing to support that for and with you.
Changing Jobs Amidst a Remote Workplace
Having joined Dash Hudson well into the pandemic, and in the middle of her crossover maternity leave, Archibald has yet to meet her new colleagues in person. But in this exceptional context of our times, she has hugely valued a strong and communicative organizational culture, which has supported her onboarding and becoming part of the team.
Together, her family loves skiing in the winter and swimming in the summer in the Hudson Valley, where she loves being outdoors and active in nature. She has a real passion for ice cream and swears her ice cream place in Tivoli, New York is verifiably (just check Food & Wine Magazine) the best in the world.
By Aimee Hansen
Why Micro-affirmations Matter as a Leader
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!, NewsMicroaggressions and Micro-Inequities Create Exclusion
Microaggressions are the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to marginalized groups. Though often unconscious, they perpetuate a devalued “otherness” by: establishing the majority group as the norm, “highlighting a person’s ‘difference’ from the majority represented group” in a way that diminishes, discomforts or disapproves, and reinforcing thinly veiled stereotypes. This includes “complimenting” an individual in a way that implies “exception” to a hidden underlying group assumption.
Verbal examples that different members of BIPOC communities experience include:
In a similar vein, micro-inequities are “cumulative, subtle messages that promote a negative bias and demoralize.” These reaffirm the status quo of power dynamics and discourage, devalue and impair workplace performance for non-majority groups.
Common gender related examples that women face include:
Microaggressions create cumulative psychological harm – impacting upon mental, emotional, and physical health. Long-term exposure is associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and can be corrosive to self-worth and self-esteem.
In Forbes, Paolo Gaudino suggests that one effective way to measure inclusion is to ask people whether and how often they have incidents of exclusion. The sum impact of microaggressions and micro-inequities is the substantial harm of exclusion.
Micro-affirmations Help to Creating Inclusion
According to Mary Rowe at MIT, “micro-affirmations” are “apparently small acts, which are often ephemeral and hard-to-see, events that are public and private, often unconscious but very effective, which occur wherever people wish to help others to succeed.” They foster inclusion, listening, comfort, and support for people who may feel unwelcome or invisible in an environment. Micro-affirmations can proactively affirm belonging, value and sense of self.
As shared by The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University, “Micro-affirmations substitute messages about deficit and exclusion with messages of excellence, openness, and opportunity.”
Drawing on her own experience as an executive at an international engineering firm years ago, Change Catalyst CEO Melinda Briana Epler, defines micro-affirmations as “little ways that you can affirm someone’s identity; recognize and validate their experience and expertise; build confidence; develop trust; foster belonging; and support someone in their career.”
University of Kansas research found that being aware of a male ally who is vocal about gender equality reduces anticipated feelings of isolation for women in STEM and increases anticipation of support and respect. Research has shown that experiencing micro-affirmations – such as “affirmations that people of your culture/ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation are important contributors to advancing knowledge,” “affirmations that you are a scientist,” and “affirmations that you can complete your degree” – help increase student’s integration into the science community and intentions to persist in the STEM field. Other research has suggested that integrating micro-affirmations in academic advising in the college environment could fuel optimal student development and better engagement, retention and graduation outcomes.
Rowe hypothesizes that regular practice of using micro-affirmations could increase one’s tendency to be “universally respectful” to others. Affirming others has the potential to create a positivity loop that ultimately fosters a more inclusive culture – supporting both marginalized voices in the workplace and your female peers and colleagues.
What Do Micro-affirmations Look Like in Action?
As found in the Women in the Workplace 2021 Report, employees report women are more likely showing concern for the overall well-being of their reports, supporting them emotionally and checking in on their work/life challenges
“Allyship is really seeing the person next to us,” says Epler. “And the person missing, who should be standing next to us.” She encourages us to all be allies to each other.
Here are examples of everyday micro-affirmations that you can use to help support others, especially those underrepresented and marginalized voices in your teams:
As Rowe says, micro-affirmations may often even be unconscious, too, as they just feel like caring. But you can actively create inclusion for others by intentionally affirming the value and contribution that we each bring to the table.
By Aimee Hansen
Renee Connolly: Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
People, Voices of ExperienceConnolly talks to why language matters, going for greatness, learning from the past and having the right resources.
From Communications to DEI
Connolly spent her career facilitating understanding in healthcare-related communications, until last August: “For 25 years of my life, I helped to make complex science and life sciences simple and understandable, so people could better support their lives, families and needs.”
As a college senior, Connolly lost her mother (lifelong non- smoker) to lung cancer and was compelled to enter communications in the burgeoning pharmaceutical biotech and life science field.
“I thought to myself, if I could help people on a journey, similar to ours, to better navigate that maze of specialist talk and treatments, then that’s making a difference.”
In taking on her evolved executive role, she agreed to turn her part-time advocacy of DEI into a full-time opportunity to transfer her skills.
There’s still so much to understand in the deep rootedness of what it really means to help people feel they are heard, included, and really belong,” says Connolly. “Language matters and impacts people in different ways, and DEI is a lot about language and the use of words.”
Listening and Language Matters
Now in her DEI remit, Connolly is facilitating how people better understand each other. She collaborates with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s many stakeholders including advising senior leadership, partnering with recruiters, engaging with employees at all levels of the organization and importantly partnering with Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s), to tell their stories and amplify their voices. Working in this space internationally requires her to keep her “ears wide open.”
“It creates constant awareness to be truly open-minded and to not put on blinders, to not put defenders up, and to really listen, wholeheartedly,” she says. “We’re creating an environment where people feel they belong and are nurtured and where we are nourishing our business for top-line growth.”
Connolly notes that her role requires emotional, mental and physical muscles every day – leading with empathy. She feels like the right person in this critical moment for our company and communities, with the right balance of skills and experience to take DEI to the next level for her organization.
Going For Greatness
“The world could be imploding around me, and I have a mantra of ‘It will be great’ or ‘I stand in a place of believing in an outcome filled with ‘greatness’,” says Connolly. “It’s not just positive mindset. I actually believe that even if the journey to get there is full of hard lessons, I’m always looking for greatness.”
When told something is impossible, a discerning question she asks is: “It couldn’t be done? It shouldn’t be done? Or it wouldn’t be done?” And depending on the answer, she may turn to how to make it possible.
The loss of her mom left Connolly with resilience. While she feels every scale of her emotions, she still tends to be a “glass half-full” person who considers herself fortunate and brings positive energy to those around her. She does what she says and says what she does, rallying her team when she commits to a vision.
“I’m a big believer that it’s the team, not the individual, that drives success. It is the collective good of many,” she says. “I love DEI because it drives progress when we realize – in some way, shape, or form – that we’re more alike than we are different.”
That emphasis on “team” has been instilled throughout her life from playing many organized sports. Connolly was a college athlete, and her entire family (including her three teenage sons and her 8 year old daughter) is athletic. She loves observing the parallels between business and individual and team sports. That spirit of healthy competition has gifted her great skillsets as well as a deep appreciation for excelling and accelerating her own growth.
There are many “dominoes” in teamwork that make you have a successful win or loss. In business, Connolly applies this and has come to find that “there’s a wisdom in knowing what you don’t know” and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room.
“Earlier in my career, I thought I had to be the one with the voice. Now, I realize what I have to do is give or encourage or support the voices that have the information required, not always be the voice,” she says. “That’s the muscle you develop with maturity and by realizing the amazing contributions that many voices bring to a conversation. That’s the muscle you develop when you embrace the diversity of thinking in a team to drive forward.“
Retrospectively Conscious, Not Retrospectively Critical
Cultivating patience for herself and others is perhaps a skill Connolly built up by raising four children, as this year she has one in elementary, one in middle, one in high school and one in college. Talk about patience. Each age, experience and interaction requires you to be patient and that has mattered for Connolly as a leader.
“In a field like DEI, you see so much potential right away. But it’s necessary to have the patience to realize there are steps to get there, and you have to do those steps well. You can’t run before you walk,” she says. “Patience is not weakness, as I may have seen it before. It’s a virtue of understanding that you must work towards goals in a methodical way to make sure that you’re iterative enough to get the best possible outcome.”
Aware that she makes her own decision based on current knowledge—and that there will always be more to learn, Connolly tends to not focus on criticizing how past decisions were made, hers or others: “I try to learn from the past, but focus forward. Especially now, every day brings new circumstances and we use our best judgement, and most of us have positive intent.”
This makes her retrospectively conscious, not retrospectively critical, as she puts it – focusing on her responsibility today.
Why You Don’t Need “More”
When Connolly was leveling up from doing to managing others, she used to say she needed “more” to get it all done, but one of her mentors changed her entire frame of thinking: “Your problem is not getting more people or more money or more resources,” he told her. “It’s getting the right people, the right money, the right resources.”
Other words she lives by as a communications professional is to treat every opportunity like opening night: “It doesn’t matter how little or big the engagement is, respect and know your audience. Realize that people are spending time to listen or talk to you so make sure your message lands.”
She values the advice to be true to your purpose: “When you’re often counseling senior leaders, do you want to tell them what they want to hear? Or do you want to be true to yourself?” While a job may require different approaches at different times, it’s important to keep a purposeful essence in how one approaches everything (for her, a spirit of greatness and creativity).
Guiding Others and Serving a Mission
Mentoring young talent fulfills her soul. It reminds her of her younger self, looking for guidance after losing her mother. She loves instilling in young women to have the confidence that they can do more than they thought possible. As a mission-centered person, she sits on several boards, from the Massachusetts Conference for Women to the Home for Little Wanderers (child welfare to American Cancer Society (New England). One of her most prized awards was entitled: “Service above Self”—it is this she uses to guide her commitment to share her talents, treasure and time to help those who are in most need.
She emphasizes the importance of having fun. At her best moments in her journey, she was enjoying the work, serving a mission, or making something better.
By Aimee Hansen
How To Weigh The Risks Of Your Next Career Move
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!, NewsThe good news is that there’s no shortage of open positions. As of January 2022, the U.S. had 11.26 million jobs available — a 55% increase from January of 2021. The pressure to hire has encouraged employers to consider increased pay, benefits, and flexibility at work.
Diving into a new job presents plenty of opportunities to develop your career, skills, and financial wellness. It can also be intimidating to learn new processes, develop new relationships, and potentially find yourself in a less-than-ideal working environment.
After refining your resume, applying to positions daily, and attending a few interviews, you may finally find yourself presented with a job offer. A gleaming opportunity that may offer higher pay or a more prestigious job title, but you can’t be sure of its work-life balance or career challenges yet.
Some well-deserving workers may even receive multiple offers to consider. These situations create pressure to make a decision relatively quickly. It’s a good spot to be in, but having the skills to evaluate risk and rewards lets you fully enjoy the moment and guides you to make a confident decision.
If you’re in the middle of a job hunt or considering other career opportunities, here are some steps to help you weigh the options.
1. Identify Your Priorities
Your individual needs for your next career move are unique to you, and understanding those goals helps you create a framework for comparing offers. A majority of workers (56%) are looking for a pay raise, but there are several job benefits to consider, including:
Take time to list the potential benefits of a new job and rank what’s most important to you. This is a great practice before you start applying so you can save your time and energy for positions that best fit your needs. It can also help you decide how well your current position matches your needs to consider if you’re ready for a change or not.
Next, make a spreadsheet or other list that includes all of these benefits and rank how well each job opportunity meets these criteria. This creates an easy and objective reference to compare jobs that you can update to reflect your needs as they evolve.
2. Research The Position
The internet age has given us a range of resources to evaluate employers and job expectations that too many employees don’t take advantage of. While you likely studied a company, its values, and the position itself throughout the interview process, another review before signing on is worth your time.
Start with the company itself and explore its communication channels. YouTube videos, press releases, and the About page can help you identify cultural values, how the company has and continues to grow, and insights into management. Some companies even go as far as to share their hiring secrets — a great reference in the interview phase.
Review sites like Glassdoor provide a peek into the employee experience through position and interview reviews. Check out the site to vet your priorities against what other employees report their experience with the company was. You’ll also have access to salary ranges that will help you negotiate your pay.
Finally, you’ll get the best information straight from current and former employees. Check out the company’s LinkedIn page to find current employees and search the company name to find anyone who previously worked there. You can connect with workers and send a quick chat that you’d like to know more about their experiences. You may be surprised to find how willing people are to help you find a job that fits.
3. List Your Risks
Most people stuck between two options are worried about making the wrong decision more than they are making the best decision. They’re hung up on the risks, wondering if it’s a step backward or if they’re really cut out for the position.
Imposter syndrome aside, it’s important to consider the risks of a new position. To compare the risks of staying and leaving, you need to start by identifying them. Sit with the moment and feel your excitement, fear, hesitation, and joy. What’s the root of each of these feelings? You may think:
List these risks under the decision it ties to. Visually seeing the number of risks for each choice is helpful, but not all risks are equal. Place the biggest risks at the top of each list and continue the list from most to least risky.
4. Evaluate And Control Risk
Now that you have clear lists of your potential risks and rewards, go back and consider how you can negate some of the risks. Here are some examples from the previous exercise:
This practice can also uncover that the risks aren’t holding you back so much as a fear of change. That’s absolutely natural. Especially considering the economic turbulence of the last two years. Still, 80% of employees that quit their job in the last two years have no regrets.
5. Make The Decision That’s Right For You
Changing jobs is an excellent way to advance your career and financial health. Salaries increase an average 14.8% with a new role — especially if you’re early in your career. On the other hand, you’re placed in a new environment to develop new working relationships, which comes with its own networking benefits.
Ultimately, there’s probably not a right or wrong answer. No matter what you choose, you have the option to continue looking for new opportunities if you don’t love where you land. If you land in a position that helps you thrive, that’s a huge win for your well-being and career.
Following the steps above can give you peace of mind that you’re making the best choice with the information available to you. But remember that your next job is far from the end of the line, and there’s always another opportunity around the corner.
By: Bri Marvell is a content creator from Austin with interests in financial wellness and career development. When she’s not at her desk, you can find her exploring the city with her dog, Miko, or getting creative with a new craft.
Jessica Jones: Managing Director, Head of Asia, PGIM Investments
People, Voices of ExperienceWorking in Asia
Born in the UK and raised in South Africa, Jones became comfortable with change, adapting, and being the new person in an environment from an early age.
Jones worked for Goldman Sachs for 17 years, where she headed diversified businesses across Europe, Australia and ultimately in Asia. She took a Hong Kong-based opportunity with PGIM, a top-10 global investment manager after completing her second maternity leave last September.
“I have had a very rewarding and dynamic career with another exciting chapter ahead. Because I’ve had such supportive managers and sponsors, I’ve had fantastic opportunities to step up, and have had the privilege of covering a number of regions and countries from a very early moment,” she says.
After visiting Hong Kong during her gap year, Jones became fascinated with Asia and kept her eye on opportunities in the region. She eventually made the leap ten years ago, taking a Head of Asia-Pacific role based in Australia first, before moving to Hong Kong. As the APAC asset and wealth management industry continues to grow exponentially, driven largely by China, the number of high-net worth clients has grown, and global private banks have sought to expand their footprint–making it an exciting region to work in.
She’s had the privilege of watching her client counterparts move around too: “It’s been incredible to develop these long partnerships with clients who are also moving in their roles all the time. It has helped me to understand the global businesses that our clients are in, so it’s fantastic perspective.”
Immersing in a Culture Through Passion
Accustomed to being the ‘outsider’ who doesn’t speak the local language, and often the only woman in a room, Jones is passionate about getting to know a new region and has found her clients enjoy the different perspectives she can bring to the table.
“I am building teams who are local experts in their regions, who are Cantonese- or Mandarin-speaking in Hong Kong, and who can get much closer than I ever will to the relationship managers or investment counselors,” she says, “They bring the local perspective and the ability to converse and steer me in the right direction. That’s a fascinating aspect of my role–to adapt and enjoy the cultural differences.”
Located in one of the most restrictive quarantine regimes over the last two and a half years, and having yet to meet her PGIM team or clients in an office, Jones still has a feeling of “going through it together.” In Hong Kong, there’s been a rebirth of popularity around the traditional 19th century Chinese tile-based strategy game named Mahjong–involving 144 tiles placed on the table and four players. Having begun playing regularly during semi-lockdown and mostly with women, she’s a self-confessed enthusiast, and highlights language happens in many ways.
“You put these tiles out, shuffle them, and basically try to create order out of the chaos,” she says. “It’s been really fun, and with everything closed, that’s been our chance to network and support each other. It has become a bonding opportunity and stress reliever.”
Jones’ passion for the culture has helped her open new doors and develop great relationships. “The game is about luck and skill, but also has become a way of honing in on my local cultural skills. My clients are amazed I know how to play, although I still have so much to learn. I can’t speak the language, but I can speak the language of Mahjong,” she says.
Jones is emphatic about becoming a part of the region: “I have my residency and both my children were born here, so I’m very much rooted here. This is home for me, and I’m committed to Asia, and so my clients tell me they have adopted me as a local.”
Raise Your Hand and Stretch Your Limbs
Jones attributes her career success both to raising her hand early to say she was open to new opportunities, and a willingness to take on stretch roles as they came up.
“Don’t just assume that people know what you want. You need to make sure that your managers and your stakeholders know that you are interested in other opportunities,” she says. “Don’t be scared to let them know. It’s not like you’re going to be fired because you’re driven and want to move and grow.”
For anyone else who feels the call to get out of their comfort zone, she emphasizes you don’t need to have been there before or know the language to thrive: “If you have the right attitude, being outside of your comfort zone makes you stronger and stretches your mind, and it makes you learn at a very fast pace.”
As the years have accumulated, Jones’s steady base is her product and business acumen, with new regions and new types of wealth management presenting opportunities to stretch. Learning on the job has taught her a lot about herself and how she adapts.
Being brave and taking risks are two traits she feels have supported her journey: “It’s always tempting to stay in the safest option, because you’re scared of making a mistake or damaging your professional reputation. But being open to trying new strategies, new areas, new growth and new innovation are a great way to progress your career. Risk needs to be calculated, but take those risks early.”
She recommends building a strong network from the beginning, and is amazed how much the relationships she has built over two decades help her to stay in touch with lessons, inspiration, opportunities and innovation from different regions.
You Cannot Communicate Enough
“My advice to anyone going into a new leadership role is you can’t communicate enough. There is no such thing as over-communication,” says Jones. “Good communication helps us be connected, engaged and understanding where we are all trying to go.”
As she’s become more senior, Jones has had to get even better at communication.
“As a leader, you need to constantly be communicating your vision–the goals, the purpose of the team, the roles that everyone has and responsibilities. You need to keep communicating the progress that’s being made, within your team but also to stakeholders,” says Jones. “Especially being so far from headquarters, you really need to communicate and advocate for your team, and be the PR agent for your team, your business and the opportunities in the region.”
She’s learned the importance of tailoring your approach: “There’s different communication for different people and learning styles, so I need to keep thinking about how my messages may be coming across. Do I need to adapt the way I communicate to my team and to different stakeholders? Some people want a lot more analytical data, others want the big picture strategy, and also there’s the consideration of different cultures and perspectives–all influence how someone wants to be updated.”
People Want to Work With Others They Like
Blessed with wonderful mentors who championed her growth and her dreams, one of the best pieces of advice Jones has received along the way is that people want to do business with people they like and enjoy working with–and that translates to all regions and parts of life.
“We’re all very busy, so people want to work with people they feel they have a good connection with,” she says, “You want to develop relationships where you become their best business friend or partner, and where you also enable your clients to look good in their role by bringing the best investment advice, research and ideas. I advise my team that we cannot control the investment products or the market, but we can control the relationship we are building with our key partners in the region. Every opportunity you have, make sure to develop a great relationship with impact, and over time that builds a great partnership.”
She also advises women to leverage being the memorable person in the room or the social event or the pitch: “Rather than being intimidated, use it to your advantage because you don’t realize that you are going to be memorable. People are perhaps not going to remember all twelve guys around the table, but they’re going to remember you, so remember you bring a different perspective.”
Above all, she iterates the importance of enjoying what you do, and feeling a sense of purpose and passion.
“For me, living and working in these different cultural environments has broadened my horizons, perspective and experience, personally and professionally, and I feel I have a dream job,” she says. “I get to work and live and travel in such an exciting region of the world and call it my home and it still fascinates me every day.”
Stand Where You Are
If there’s anything Jones has discovered in being unable to leave Hong Kong in the past two and a half years, it’s to take advantage of the place you are living. Before this time, she mostly traveled off to another country for a spectacular beach or to see family or friends, and realizes now she had not been as present in the moment and enjoying where she lives.
Since embracing “staying put,” Jones and her family have been appreciating incredible hiking trails and island beaches and other parts of the surrounding area, right on her doorstep, that she never knew existed.
“No matter where you are in the world,” she says, “it helps to realize how lucky you are, and to take full advantage of the present and the place that you are in to get more inspiration.”
By Aimee Hansen
Inclusion: One Destination, Many Intersectional Paths?
Career Advice, NewsAccording to a new Bain report from a survey of 10,000 people (4,500 women) in seven countries entitled “The Fabric of Belonging: How to Weave an Inclusive Culture,” most people agree on what inclusion looks and feels like, but what actually creates the outcome of feeling fully included is more complicated – not only to organizations, but also to individuals, themselves.
Inclusion is Nearly Universally Defined, But Rare?
We all want to belong, but how we get there, together, can feel enigmatic and the solution is far from a one-size-fits-all approach. People, regardless of individual identities, levels and experiences – describe what inclusion feels like and what it looks like in very similar, nearly universal ways.
When it comes to what inclusion feels like, the researchers define inclusion as: “the feeling of belonging in your organization and team, feeling treated with dignity as an individual, and feeling encouraged to fully participate and bring your uniqueness to work every day.” When it comes to what it looks like, people to tend to come together on the notion that an inclusive organization is diverse and where people are heard, valued and supported. Other research has shown that we feel inclusion only when our needs for both uniqueness and belongingness are met.
While people hold a universal ideal of what inclusion means to them, one of the most “stark” takeaways Bain asserts is that the majority of employees – regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation – do not feel fully included (less than 30%), including those we tend to regard as most favored by the system and in positions of influence and power (straight white men). And no one demographic indicator can predict who feels excluded.
However, as Bain points out, “Even though the feeling of inclusion is fundamentally the same across groups, our research shows that the lived experience of inclusion is driven for various groups by a diverse variety of factors.”
To add some grounding, too, another perspective is that inclusion is really a net effect of day-to-day interactions, and individuals in particular groups experience acts and outcomes of exclusion far more frequently than individuals in other groups. In Forbes, Gaudino writes that “inclusion is invisible to those who enjoy it, because inclusion reflects the absence of negative incidents that make one feel excluded.”
Among the many examples we could draw on, McKinsey notes that black employees are 23% less likely to see there is support to advance and 41% less likely to view the promotion process as fair. Or consider that 59% of black women reported never having a casual interaction with a senior leader, versus 40% for all men and 49% for all women. Or that Asian American women have been the least likely group to experience being promoted to management.
If the experience of feeling “fully included” is pretty low in general, the evidence of exclusion is still highly punctuated for individuals in particular groups.
Feeling Included Matters For Individuals and Organizations
Amidst The Great Resignation, the feeling of inclusion is important to retention. Women who feel excluded at work are 3 times more likely to quit. Employees experiencing low inclusion are up to six times more likely to actively pursue new jobs compared with those in similar demographics experiencing high inclusion.
On the flip side, Bain found that approximately 65% of people across identity groups view an inclusive environment as “very important when considering new roles.” Employees who do feel fully included are much more likely to promote positive word of mouth about their organization. People in more inclusive environments, where psychologically safety is present, are more likely to innovate, challenge the status quo, and bring new ideas to the table. Bain argues the gains in creative thinking from inclusiveness are much greater than increasing diversity alone.
Just What Creates Inclusion?
Not surprisingly, the researchers found people hold different deep-seated notions on what creates inclusion, and those beliefs can clash in ways that create strong discomfort.
What is even more critical is that individual’s perceived notions of which “behavioral” and “systemic changes” would create more inclusion do not always match up to what actually drives impact or the experience of inclusion, so leaders are advised to “listen first for problem identification, not solution design.”
As an example, black women’s perception of how certain enablers are important to their sense of inclusion matched up 55% of the time – high perceived enablers corresponded to actual high impact on their sense of inclusion and same with low perceived enablers. But enablers such as “open and honest communication” and “coaching and professional development” were undervalued in perception, relative to how highly they were attributed to feeling a sense of inclusion for black women. And enablers such as “engagement check-ins” and “team feedback sessions” were overrated in perception relative to how attributed they were to feeling a sense of inclusion.
In inclusive cultures, people feel able to be authentic and supported to fulfill their potential, and Bain found that a common denominator of inclusion for everyone is opportunities for professional development and growth – in which there is much room for more equitable access to opportunities – and where employers can focus effectively.
When it comes to what individuals truly need, or different demographic groups, Bain emphasizes a data-informed intersectional approach that incorporates geography, demographics, and seniority to understand how to identify the systemic and behavioral enablers that can increase a sense of inclusion.
Other research has also indicated that inclusive leadership is fundamental, as Bourke and Titus point out: “what leaders say and do makes up to a 70% difference as to whether an individual reports feeling included.” They found the most important factors in cultivating a culture of inclusion are leadership commitment and demonstrating a visible awareness of the bias within oneself and the organization.
Ultimately, everyone wants to feel a sense of both authenticity and belonging and like they have access to the opportunity to thrive and fulfill their potential. People look to see if leadership is listening to this, and whether they are committed not only to the cause, but to understanding the real needs of their people.
By Aimee Hansen
Dr. Sarah Carrier, MD: Emergency Physician, JH Quillen VA Medical Center
Intrepid Women Series, People, Voices of ExperienceCarrier speaks of the call to become a doctor, establishing herself as a peer among men and why soft skills matter especially in her profession.
Heeding the “Burden” to Pursue Medicine
Carrier did not come from a medical family (her parents were in engineering and real estate), but recalls being drawn from an early age. After being a volunteer “candy striper” in high school, she began to think of a career in medicine. Her mother’s solid advice was to get her foothold in nursing before seeing if she wanted to invest her study and finances in becoming a doctor.
“I spent ten years in nursing. But there’s an expression in this part of the country that people are ‘called to preach.’ They have a burden to preach, meaning they can’t not do it,” she notes. “Well, in my case, I felt called to medicine. I had a burden to be a doctor and it would not go away.”
What catalyzed the decisive moment to embark on becoming a physician, as a thirty-year old working nurse with small children four and six years, was the shock of losing a good friend in a car accident: “When she tragically died, I thought we never know how much time we’ve got on this planet, so I really don’t want to go to my grave without having tried to do what I felt I was called to.”
Despite the bewilderment of her friends, she spent a year preparing for the MCAT entrance exam and then entered medical school while raising what became three children, still practicing nursing during some of her summers.
From Nurse To “Female” Doctor
Having been a nurse before becoming a doctor gave Carrier a kindred respect for nurses: “I think first being a nurse made me a better doctor, because I know what their job is like and I’m there to work with them. Whereas a lot of physicians come in acting like the boss, it’s a different demeanor and often more of an ego thing. I knew first hand that the nurses you work with can either make your job easy or they can make it hard. You should never forget that you are on a team. You may be the Captain but it is still a team. Everyone matters.”
Working in the South, in a generally more paternalistic culture, Carrier admits that the medical environment still carries a bit of pecking order about it, though there are many more women in emergency medicine than when she began. Nonetheless, she has had to regularly “out” herself as the doctor to her patients.
“When I started, I’d go into the room and patients would presume I was the nurse. I realized it was up to me to let them know that I was in fact the doctor,” says Sarah Carrier. “In my line of work, you are meeting people on the fly. No one comes to the ED because they’re having a good day, so that’s where we start. You have to get good at gaining trust and confidence.”
Carrier has never felt she is competing against male peers in the medical field, but she has organically developed tactics to quickly establish herself as a peer, especially when doctors are calling each other up to transfer patients or get patients admitted into specialist departments, and there is just her voice to go on.
“I want to make sure they know that I’m the doctor, not the transfer coordinator, so I use their first name to create more of a level playing field. Instead of saying ‘Dr. Smith’ for example, I’ll say ‘John, this is Sarah Carrier over here in the ER’,” she notes. “I’ve found the conversation comes more collegial with that small, simple thing.”
One mentor Carrier remembers was a chief surgeon at John Hopkins who exhibited tongue-in-cheek confidence. She would walk through the hallway announcing, “Okay, the girl doctor is making the rounds.” She advised Carrier to not take nonsense from anyone and importantly, to not expect perfection from herself.
Carrier has observed the peer dynamic between female physicians is surprisingly more supportive than she experienced as a nurse. She suspects that being fewer in number relatively increases camaraderie and forthcomingness to support each other.
It’s actually outside of the hospital, when working with other women on volunteer projects, that Carrier has felt her role as a physician can seem to affect the way women relate to her, and she might hold back on that detail when first connecting as friends.
The Soft Skills of Emergency Medicine
With a range of patients from pediatrics to geriatric, women are usually involved in emergency visits, from caregivers to mothers to spouses. Carrier has found that women seem to relate better to other women in these contexts of vulnerability, so being a woman is often an asset.
“Generally speaking, I think men will more often stand with the clipboard and take care of business. In my experience, they don’t tend to try to make the emotional connection as often,” she observes. “Whereas women tend to sit down in the room and talk to people and make the emotional connection.”
She notes, “You don’t have to spend a lot of extra time, but to just sit down and ask, ‘are you under a lot of stress?‘ or ‘what’s been going on besides the baby being sick?’ is enough to let them know that you identify with their situation.”
Carrier often has to speak transparently about health to patients she’s known for only five minutes before the tests, and while she values telling it like it is, she also says that in any profession there’s a delicate line to observe: “I think patients appreciate the fact that you’ll sit down and say, ‘I’ve got some things I’ve got to tell you. Some of them are going to be hard to listen to. Some are good. Some are not so good’. You can be honest, but you don’t have to be brutally honest. You don’t have to say,’ ‘you’ve got a lung mass and it’s probably cancer’. But you can say, ’there’s something there that doesn’t belong there, we need to get some more tests and here’s the five things that might be.'”
Seeing Her Role as Education
Carrier encourages questions and educating people in a way that empowers them in their own health. She has appeared on Discovery Channel’s “Untold Stories of the ER” four times, and while the show dramatizes the emergency room, it also allows her to educate people. An episode in which she throughly explains a heart attack, around a situation where a patient was resisting the diagnosis while going into cardiac arrest, has been viewed over 500,000 times and could save lives.
“I’m basically explaining the physiology of a heart attack, which is something I deal with nearly every day. But the average person doesn’t really understand how they get from feeling fine to being literally at death’s door,” notes Carrier. “So that particular episode where I could explain in very simple terms how a heart attack works matters.”
Appreciation and Presence
Working in a 24/7 emergency situation requires calm in navigating chaos. Carrier has learned how to compartmentalize and switch gears from an urgent situation to a more standard injury, while being present to each patient. Being an emergency physician during Covid has definitely stretched her stamina.
More than anything, her job is a constant reminder of the relative nature of problems, and to appreciate her life. Since returning to school with young children, preserving quality time with family mattered more to her than achieving perfect grades. And it still matters to make that time.
She enjoys being involved in organizations where she can work beside other women outside of the medical field, such as in volunteer groups and, presently, an art commission.
By Aimee Hansen
Using Our Experience, Skills, and Power to Advocate for Social Issues That Matter
Guest Contribution, NewsTo achieve their goals, women have also fought to shatter the glass ceiling by finding corporate success as leaders of Fortune 500 companies. For example, Susan Wojcicki took the helm of YouTube in 2014; but long before her rise as the video-sharing platform’s CEO, she was already an entrepreneur paving her way as one of today’s highest-performing female CEOs. Similarly, in 2012, Ginni Rometty was announced as president and CEO of IBM, becoming the company’s first female chief in its 108-year history.
For certain women leaders, however, achieving professional success and recognition is simply not enough. That’s why many of them find ways to use their corporate influence to impact change—and some even transition away from the corporate world altogether and, instead, use the skills they’ve gained to start social impact programs that truly make a difference in the lives of others.
Take Melissa Lightfoot Levick, for example. Lightfoot Levick is the executive director of ONEHOPE Foundation. Through the contacts and experience she gained in her prior leadership roles in tech businesses, she now uses her knowledge and skills to connect nonprofit organizations with commercial companies, which then enables customers to support brands with charitable affiliations.
It’s no surprise, either, that we see women leaders dedicated to improving children’s lives—such as by better protecting their online experiences, for example. The KIDS TOO Movement was recently launched to further this goal. KIDS TOO works collaboratively with other nonprofits to drive legislation that protects children from online predators, child sexual abuse material, and sex trafficking. The organization also provides parents with helpful information about how to spot warning signs and how to educate their children about the appropriate use of digital devices and platforms.
For all women in the workplace, no matter what their community passions are, there are all sorts of ways for them to use their experience and skills to advocate for all the social issues that matter most to them. For example, women can:
Throughout the ages, in spite of regular and ongoing obstacles and challenges, women have always played a pivotal role in tackling social issues. As such, their leadership, experience, skills, and power should continue to be leveraged in positive ways to address the many pressing needs identified throughout the world today. Now, during Women’s History Month, it is especially vital to remember and honor women’s collective power and to acknowledge how successful women have been—and will continue to be—at shaping our communities in healthy and positive ways.
By Tania Haigh, founder of the KIDS TOO Movement and co-founder of Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (P.A.X.A.)
Bessie Kokalis Pescio: Vice President, Global Internal Communications, Philip Morris International
People, Voices of ExperienceThe pandemic she believes has evoked progress in the workplace as it pertains to creating more access and interaction between senior leaders and employees, creating opportunity for careers to flourish. She comments on how interesting it is that employee habits changed so quickly and how things shifted when the traditional working environment went remote.
“The pandemic created a democratization of communications. How much easier is it to get in touch, to send a message to a senior executive now than before? Even the CEO is accessible in a way that wasn’t possible until recently. Throughout his inaugural listening tour we had 15,000 people interacting with him, asking questions and sharing their perspective.”
She is passionate about connecting people and letting them tell their stories. She is excited to see the electronic PMI platform, called One PMI, let people connect in a way that wasn’t used as optimally pre-pandemic. She cites that when you combine the right types of tools, it helps connect people to others and to their communities with pride and dignity as something that is energizing her at work right now.
“We have a unique opportunity to facilitate a dialogue between senior leaders and employees. A two-way conversation to learn what people want to talk about is now possible with technology and intent.”
In fact, this idea of a two-way conversation between managers and employees is at the heart of the PMI’s internal communications strategy and exploring what success, growth, and belonging looks like for each person is the central tenet for this year. She adds that the three main questions that occur are around how to be successful, how to grow and what can people contribute to be part of a community. This came through time and time again, and giving people a range of ways to connect and relate to each other, from podcasts to panels, is at the heart of the progress plan.
“People are tired of slogans and campaigns and want to see how the workplace is experienced. Who doesn’t? You have got to be straight with people and transparent. You have to do what you say you are doing to make work ‘work’ for people today.”
The Path to PMI
Kokalis Pescio grew up in a bilingual home and originally planned to follow an academic career as a French language professor. It was in an entrepreneurial environment while working as a linguist that she realized she loved learning about business, the customer, work habits and continuous learning itself. Flash forward to an MBA and DC-based consulting work in healthcare later, she joined PMI (Phillip Morris International) and now is the Vice President, Global Internal Communications, based in Switzerland. She recalls entering the firm sixteen years ago completely compelled by the mission and continues to be fascinated by the operational and culture change that is happening at PMI, noting that the best part is that the company has really put its money where its mouth is for the change work involved in creating a smoke-free future.
“People at PMI feel aligned to the same incredible mission. Change isn’t easy, but we have had such a clear idea of where we are going and watching the company be successful in taking a legacy product to fund a new and innovative product, upskilling people, and operationally transforming at the same time has been a great journey to be part of.”
Career strategies
Kokalis Pescio believes the most important thing to do is to know yourself. Her advice to her younger self would be to try to self-aware, to have the sensibility to ask yourself where you are truly with relationships, and to know the parts of your personality and traits that show up.
“Knowing where you are and who you are can enable self-correction where appropriate and also allow you to be authentic.” She believes that knowing this information about yourself can help you to take advantage of opportunities in your career and help you capitalize on your strengths and partner with others who can either teach you or be partner experts in doing the work that they are good at also.
“Figure out who can help. You cannot be a master of everything, nor should you be. Get a distributed style of management to get further, faster. Ask yourself who do I know and what do I need to learn?”
Kokalis Pescio is passionate about mentoring women and is doing so as part of PMI’s gender-focused employee resource group, Women’s Inspiration Network (WIN), and externally as part of her alma mater, Babson College’s F.W. School of Management. She admits that she didn’t have a formal mentor as she was coming up the ranks and reiterates that with or without a mentor everyone, not just women, should stand up for themselves.
“Have the courage, dignity, and self-respect to understand your boundaries, this will make you confident and comfortable. People make tradeoffs, those compromises, if you go too far, can make you lose a little part of your soul. It is important to stay within your boundaries.”
When asked what has surprised her most on the journey? She replied that she was surprised by how much she can learn constantly from the people around her.
“I have learned to not be afraid to do something new, no matter how large or small the task. While I have worked at a large corporation for 16 years, my career path is far from traditional. This aspect of my career, working not only across many different divisions, but also with employees from and located in numerous countries, has taught me to continuously be open to trying different things. Some are harder than others, and some efforts are more successful than others, but I am always ready to try something different.”
By Nicki Gilmour
Will Companies Value the Leaders Who Invest In Inclusion?
Career Advice, NewsWill companies begin to put their money (financial and career trajectory rewards) where their mouths are? If not, allowing women to disproportionally shoulder the “unpaid work” of empathetic management and DEI is a strategy for losing the leaders who are tapped in and more valuable than ever.
Our Times Call for Compassionate Leadership
Amidst the pandemic, leadership has become more oriented towards supporting individuals as a whole person, not just as employees, with qualities such as emotional intelligence and active listening. As written in Forbes: “One of the key lessons young people can take from today’s successful executives and leaders is the value of taking care of your people.”
According to Catalyst, employees who report their leaders are empathetic are far more likely to feel engaged, respected and valued, are more likely to stay in their place of work, be innovative and feel a sense of inclusion. When people sense their leaders are empathetic, they also feel more able to navigate the demands of work and family life.
People who see their leadership as empathetic in decision making are also likely to be collaborative and empathetic themselves. And when leaders are more empathetic, it fosters better levels of mental health in their organization. Using empathy as the catalyst for leading with more compassion (not ‘I feel with you’ but ‘I am here to help,’ as we are inherently interconnected) creates even more effective leadership.
As Tracy Bower, Ph.D. sociologist and the author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work, writes in Forbes, “Leaders don’t have to be experts in mental health in order to demonstrate they care and are paying attention. It’s enough to check in, ask questions and take cues from the employee about how much they want to share” – and this drives positive relationships, engagement and organizational results.
Women Are Leading The Deep Cultural Work
According to the Women in the Workplace 2021 Report – a collaboration between McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org collected from over 423 organizations and 65,000 employee surveys – women are more likely to be carrying the torch of the “deep cultural work” necessary to transform workplaces “healthily and sustainably” in these times.
Women managers are consistently more likely to be supporting employees in their work lives (making the workload manageable, navigating work/life challenges, preventing and managing burnout). Women are also much more likely to be checking in on employee’s overall well-being and supporting them emotionally. In essence, employees are reporting that their female managers are showing up more with the active compassion of ‘how can I help?’
Also, women are more likely to be doing informal DEI work, beyond formal job responsibilities, and spending substantial time doing so. Compared to their male peers, senior female leaders are twice as likely to be making DEI work a part of their weekly work flow (1 in 5 vs 1 in 10). Women are also likely to recruit from and support underrepresented groups, be allies to women of color, to educate themselves, to speak out again discrimination, and to advocate for, mentor or sponsor women of color – although it’s important to note there are still big gaps to bridge in embodying the allies people would most value.
Ultimately, the work women are doing is driving better outcomes for everyone – because employees who feel their managers support their well-being, or who feel DEI is a priority and strong allies are present, are significantly happier, less burned out and more likely to stay around.
Women Are Stepping Up, And Burning Out
Yet while women managers and leaders are heeding the leadership call of our times, they are also undeniably overburdened themselves, with many not only carrying the double-shift of childcare and work, but also feeling the expectation to be “always on” in the absence of clear work/life boundaries in the remote and hybrid workplaces – another issue companies can help to address.
In 2021, 1 in 3 women were thinking about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce, up from 1 in 4 women a few months into the pandemic in 2020. 4 in 10 women were looking to leave their company or switch jobs. 42% of women felt often or almost always burned out in 2021, a big jump up from 32% in 2020, and compared to 35% of men. That burnout feeling escalates with responsibility level. Among senior women who are managing entire teams, 50% were often or always burned out, and 40% were considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers.
Valued in Words, But Not In Actions
Companies are espousing that DEI and employee well-being are important to them. But while 87% of companies say that supporting employee well-being is critical and 70% say DEI work is critical, only about 25% are formally recognizing this work – and even fewer are rewarding it.
Despite stating gender and racial diversity as top priorities, only two-thirds of companies hold senior leaders accountable for progress on DEI goals, and less than one-third hold managers accountable, who are essential to creating cultures of inclusion. Among those who hold senior leaders accountable, fewer than half factor progress on diversity metrics into their performance reviews and less than a quarter build in financial incentives for progress on performance goals – meaning ultimately, the work is overlooked.
Right now, these highly sought leadership behaviors are adding up to be the new “unpaid work” highlighting where companies need to put more value. That women are disproportionally carrying this is a dangerous liability for employers during the Great Resignation. According to the report authors, “Companies risk losing the very leaders they need right now, and it’s hard to imagine organizations navigating the pandemic and building inclusive workplaces if this work isn’t truly prioritized.”
The authors urge organizations to treat DEI like any business priority, including following goals through to assessing effort and progress within performance reviews, and relating that to career advancement and compensation.
It’s Time to Recognize and Reward The Work
Right now, women are feeling burned out while taking personal leadership initiative on collective responsibilities. Companies are sabotaging progress on what they allege to be business priorities by not threading that priority through to enacting accountability, monitoring results and rewarding effectiveness.
“Companies need to incentivize and reward the things that women are doing to create these better working cultures,” says Jess Huang, co-author of the report. “This helps all employees because if it’s rewarded, more leaders will do it.”
Going further, she suggests: ”One solution companies should consider is incorporating criteria into performance reviews that recognizes the work managers are putting into supporting their teams and DEI efforts. Companies should use upward feedback provided by employees on their managers to help take this into account.”
It’s not enough to talk about valuing DEI and supporting the well-being of your employees. More companies need to demonstrate they value the work it takes to make it happen – to retain the leaders that are doing that work.
By Aimee Hansen