Regarding her career path in technology, Mary Byron notes that it was more of a serendipitous accident as opposed to a calculated plan.
“I didn’t study technology in school, but I was very lucky to have a job in college doing general office work,” said Byron. “One of the tasks was backing up the Word Processing system. They needed someone who could manage pretty basic technology functions and I was fortunate enough to be exposed to this kind of work right around the time personal computing and networking was starting to be widely developed.”
She continued, “As it turns out, I loved technology and I was skilled at it. So I never looked back after starting down that path.”
Career Path in Technology
Throughout her career with Goldman Sachs, Byron has had the opportunity to lead the implementation of many new technologies for the company, including building out the IP network for the firm in the nineties. “I was fortunate that as the Internet really took off, so did all the technologies that supported it and the need for companies to adopt those technologies,” explained Byron.
Byron recalled, “We didn’t even have email when I started at the firm, and every division ran its own technology. In 1994, the company decided to streamline all of the individual IT departments into one centralized division. For seven years we worked on converging eleven different email systems into one uniform system.”
In the early 2000s Byron became the Co-head of Goldman’s technology infrastructure, which included all data centers, networks, computing platforms, operating systems, databases, and help desks.
In 2005, Byron was chosen to be the CIO for Goldman’s Asia business, where she spent six years. “It was exciting to be part of this growth market,” said Byron, “as we were establishing our business in China and India, which are both countries with very different levels of technical prowess and technology adoption.”
During this time, Byron worked on establishing good governance and best practices for the technology division. Organizing this aspect of the business and showing people how to think about technological investments in commercial terms is something that Byron is extremely proud of. She said, “Moving these ideas forward so that they became institutionally recognized as the way we address technology has been very rewarding.”
Byron stated, “I think of all technology as an evolution. In the past, one of the projects I worked on was our first implementation of grid computing, which was the precursor to the cloud. Now, we are working a lot on dynamic computing and the automation of infrastructure, which are things that we identified a need for ten years ago and now have the technology to implement.”
The grid computing project, which Byron referred to as the compute farm, is one project that stands out to her as being one of her most exciting professional achievements. She explained, “When we first started, we anticipated one or two thousand computing engines running on the grid. Now we have tens of thousands computers running on it.”
This dynamic nature of technology and applying technology to solve problems are two things that make Byron excited about the work she currently does in her role as Global Head of Technology for the Federation. “We are spending a lot of time right now working on big data and data governance,” said Byron.
She continued, “Sometimes our best technological ideas are not really about the technology at all, but how we can leverage the technology to make our business bigger and better.”
Voice of Experience: Mary Byron, Global Head of Technology for the Federation, Goldman Sachs
Voices of Experience“I didn’t study technology in school, but I was very lucky to have a job in college doing general office work,” said Byron. “One of the tasks was backing up the Word Processing system. They needed someone who could manage pretty basic technology functions and I was fortunate enough to be exposed to this kind of work right around the time personal computing and networking was starting to be widely developed.”
She continued, “As it turns out, I loved technology and I was skilled at it. So I never looked back after starting down that path.”
Career Path in Technology
Throughout her career with Goldman Sachs, Byron has had the opportunity to lead the implementation of many new technologies for the company, including building out the IP network for the firm in the nineties. “I was fortunate that as the Internet really took off, so did all the technologies that supported it and the need for companies to adopt those technologies,” explained Byron.
Byron recalled, “We didn’t even have email when I started at the firm, and every division ran its own technology. In 1994, the company decided to streamline all of the individual IT departments into one centralized division. For seven years we worked on converging eleven different email systems into one uniform system.”
In the early 2000s Byron became the Co-head of Goldman’s technology infrastructure, which included all data centers, networks, computing platforms, operating systems, databases, and help desks.
In 2005, Byron was chosen to be the CIO for Goldman’s Asia business, where she spent six years. “It was exciting to be part of this growth market,” said Byron, “as we were establishing our business in China and India, which are both countries with very different levels of technical prowess and technology adoption.”
During this time, Byron worked on establishing good governance and best practices for the technology division. Organizing this aspect of the business and showing people how to think about technological investments in commercial terms is something that Byron is extremely proud of. She said, “Moving these ideas forward so that they became institutionally recognized as the way we address technology has been very rewarding.”
Byron stated, “I think of all technology as an evolution. In the past, one of the projects I worked on was our first implementation of grid computing, which was the precursor to the cloud. Now, we are working a lot on dynamic computing and the automation of infrastructure, which are things that we identified a need for ten years ago and now have the technology to implement.”
The grid computing project, which Byron referred to as the compute farm, is one project that stands out to her as being one of her most exciting professional achievements. She explained, “When we first started, we anticipated one or two thousand computing engines running on the grid. Now we have tens of thousands computers running on it.”
This dynamic nature of technology and applying technology to solve problems are two things that make Byron excited about the work she currently does in her role as Global Head of Technology for the Federation. “We are spending a lot of time right now working on big data and data governance,” said Byron.
She continued, “Sometimes our best technological ideas are not really about the technology at all, but how we can leverage the technology to make our business bigger and better.”
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Is There a Formula for Effective Leadership?
Managing ChangeA recent Deloitte report [PDF] indicated that, “One size does not fit all” when it comes to corporate leadership. The fact that some businesses are facing an unstable and jagged economic future means they need a leader who can thrive across multiple complex environments. Requiring these top executives, both individually and collectively, to break out of a cookie cutter mold of one-dimensionality and embrace a multifaceted approach to leadership.
Qualities such as a high tolerance for risk and failure, a diverse skill set, a willingness to learn, adaptability, and a passion to engage fellow employees, are what corporations are seeking in a contemporary leader, according to the Deloitte report. But does this set of leadership qualities favor women leaders?
According to an in-house study conducted by Caliper, women leaders are, “more assertive and persuasive, have a stronger need to get things done and are more willing to take risks than male leaders.” The results of the Caliper study also emphasized that women leaders set a new standard of executive leadership by infusing qualities such as empathy, flexibility, and strong interpersonal skills. Is this blending of more traditional leadership qualities and new traits encouraging more women to seek leadership roles?
The answer would seem to be yes, according to Alice Eagly’s work at Northwestern university. She noted, “Cultural stereotypical leadership roles are changing to incorporate more culturally feminine aspects, without losing the culturally masculine aspects.” Professionally, Eagly explained, this is helpful to women, because social skills are being incorporated into the expectations of a leadership role.
“Women do well with an androgynous mix of culturally masculine and feminine behaviors,” Eagly said. “It’s often possible to do both—be assertive while maintaining consideration of others. I think that female leaders/managers often offer a mix of masculine and feminine behaviors, and can be accepted with an appropriate mix. So it’s not a matter of masculine or feminine behavior.”
However, finding the right balance between assertiveness and approachability is critical for female leaders.
Eagly continued, “At higher levels, women are in the minority as leaders everywhere, but there is gradual change overall toward more women in leader roles. We know that in more culturally feminine fields (education, social work, healthcare, community groups) women are relatively more successful and accepted as leaders. In more culturally masculine fields such as business and finance, and especially in highly male-dominated roles, women are less successful as leaders and encounter more prejudice,”
Why? It’s simple, she explained. It is because where expectations are for more masculine behavior and for the presence of men; women are distrusted more and accorded less respect and liking.
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Happy Labor Day!
NewsThe Glass Hammer will resume publishing Tuesday, September 3rd. In the meantime, check out some of our recent articles and profiles:
Tips for Developing Your Soft Skills: Learn How Raising Your EQ Can Boost Your Career
Voice of Experience: Celine Herweijer, Partner, Sustainability, PwC UK
At Work, Giving is the New Getting
Recognition and Respect are Key Issues for Women Professionals
Mentor me: The Value of Male and Female Mentors
Mentors and SponsorsMentoring, mentoring, mentoring. We are all constantly told about the positive impact a mentor can have on one’s career; from formal support and guidance, to very active yet informal promotion of a mentee’s achievements in the presence of senior colleagues. I, too, wrote about this very topic in a previous article, highlighting the benefits of mentoring in rebuilding the image of women at the workplace.
Based on the findings of numerous reports and studies, it is safe to say that mentors are invaluable, and we could all benefit from having someone in our corner. Yet according to a recent LinkedIn survey, 19 percent of professional women in the US stated they have never had a mentor. If the advantages of having a mentor are so clear, why are so many women missing out on the numerous opportunities that mentoring relationships offer?
Finding the Right Mentor
Over half of the LinkedIn survey respondents claim to have never found an appropriate mentor. This begs two questions:
1. Are the available mentors more “appropriate” for male mentees only?
2. Should women be more proactive or strategic in the way they seek mentors?
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Recognition and Respect are Key Issues for Women Professionals
Office PoliticsAccording to a new study by Thomson Reuters, today’s professional workforce is collaborative, entrepreneurial, and looking for a way to live their values at work. The study of more than 1,000 professionals in Brazil, China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States also showed surprising commonalities across genders in terms of work style and habits.
For example, nearly equal proportions of men and women said they prefer an interactive or collaborative team environment (56 percent and 55 percent, respectively). Similarly, 63 percent of both men and women agreed that solving problems is important to them, and 55 percent of men and 56 percent of women said having a vision of what they want to achieve in their careers is important to them. About the same proportions of men and women said challenging work is important to them (53 percent and 56 percent, respectively). Finally, 46 percent and 48 percent of men and women said they want to be able to be entrepreneurial in their jobs.
But the report revealed one big area where genders diverged in how they want to be treated at work: recognition and respect.
According to the data presented in this study, women were more keen to be recognized by management for the work they have accomplished, and they desired more strongly to be respected by their colleagues than men.63 percent of women, compared to 53 percent of men, were much more likely than men to say having their work recognized by superiors is important to them. Similarly, 61 percent of women were also more likely than men to say that gaining the respect of their coworkers was important to them. Gaining the respect of their coworkers was important to just 53 percent of men surveyed.
These are key differences that managers should recognize when leading teams of professionals – either women don’t think they’re getting enough respect at work, or they simply value recognition more than men. Either way, supervisors should take note.
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Do Female Breadwinners Put a Strain on the Family Unit?
Work-LifeThe Glass Hammer recently reported on the increasing number of female breadwinners based on research released by Pew, which indicated that women are the primary financial contributor in 40 percent of households in the United States. According to Pew’s research, 37 percent of female breadwinners are married women who make more than their husband.
Now, in a recent paper entitled, Gender identity and relative income within households [PDF], University of Chicago researchers examine how female breadwinners are impacting the traditional family unit.
The authors, Marianne Bertrand, Emir Kamenica, and Jessica Pan attempt to uncover how the increasing number of female breadwinners is challenging traditional gender-based perceptions and societal norms which suggest that within a married couple, men should earn more money than women. Furthermore, is the presence of more female breadwinners resulting in lower marriage satisfaction and higher divorce rates?
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Tips for Developing Your Soft Skills: Learn How Raising Your EQ Can Boost Your Career
Office PoliticsLearning how to be good at your job is easy, but having what it takes to be great and be recognized by your peers and managers as a rising star requires extra effort and attention to something known as your soft skills. The senior women we interview often encourage young people to distinguish themselves from the pack as early on in their career as they possibly can.
But, this can be easier said than done when you look around and notice that most of your peers are essentially at the same technical level as you are. So what is going to make the difference between good and great at work? Listening, leading with compassion, adapting to change, being a good team player — all of these attributes (and much more) make up your unique set of soft skills, or what is commonly referred to as emotional intelligence.
Improving your soft skills, in addition to keeping your technical skills sharp, is one of the fastest ways to elevate yourself above the competition. Since developing your soft skills is such an important aspect of your career advancement and professional development, we have compiled some important tips for honing your soft skills at work. Following these simple tips will make you a more valuable asset to your company.
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Nature vs. Nurture: What’s the Key Driver Behind Gender Inequity in the Workplace?
Office PoliticsThe Independent, a UK newspaper, recently published a story asserting that women need to change their mindset if they want to get ahead in their careers, or at the very least, compete with their male counterparts. This perspective is based on the brainsex theory research of Dr. Anne Moir, who portends that professional women should learn how the neurological differences between men and women impact workplace behavior, and potentially contribute to gender bias they may encounter.
Could neuroscience be one explanation for the corporate gender gap, or are there other factors at play, such as environmental elements of corporate culture that reinforce societal perceptions of gender stereotypes?
A recent article in Investments & Wealth Monitor indicated that men and women are in fact hardwired differently, and that these gender differences must be kept in mind when financial advisors work with female clients. Kathleen Burns Kingsbury, the article’s author writes,
These generalizations about gender stereotypes have penetrated just about every aspect of life, and have been identified as some of the primary reasons for workplace inequities such as the gender pay gap and the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles. But is it enough to say the gender gap in business exists simply because men and women might be wired differently? That just seems too easy.
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Voice of Experience: Celine Herweijer, Partner, Sustainability, PwC UK
Voices of Experience“In terms of being a leader – I didn’t think about it too much early on,” began Dr Celine Herweijer, Partner in PwC’s Sustainability practice. “I’ve always known that I wanted to spend my life working on issues I feel passionate about, and that I enjoyed being around people and building consensus for change. I guess I’ve really grown organically from that. I’ve met role models along the way who inspired me to keep reaching for the stars.”
In 2012, Herweijer became one of PwC’s youngest partners. Her career had taken her from academia, to the UN, the NGO space and then to the private sector leading a consulting practice before she joined PwC. Despite her diverse work experience, she has been driven by a singular passion – to change the way people, companies, and governments approach sustainability.
She explained, “For my generation, this is an issue we grew up with. We were one of the first to hear regularly in our classrooms and on the news about the stresses we were putting on our planet. I had clarity early on that I wanted to take personal responsibility to influence change.”
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Voice of Experience: Jun Wei, Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells, Beijing
Featured, Voices of ExperienceBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief
Jun Wei, Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells is a stunning example of someone who has overcome adversity early in her life to become a successful lawyer, role model, and champion of women’s advancement in law.
When Wei was young, she was fortunate enough to live a privileged life as the daughter of parents who worked for the central government. But this came to a sudden end when the Cultural Revolution took place in China and Wei’s family was kicked out of Beijing. At this time, she was separated from both of her parents for a couple of years while her father went into custody and her mother was sentenced to work on a remote countryside.
With her unwavering optimism, Wei was able to find the silver lining for herself in all of the struggle and hardship her family endured. Wei explained, “The good part is that after the Cultural Revolution ended, China started to open its doors.” She continued, “I was one of the few fortunate young people, and only one of two females, who could attend the graduate school of Beijing University Law School. My classmates were all men who were at least ten to fifteen years older than me.”
At the undergraduate law school level, the female representation was much higher at 25-30 percent. Wei explained that unlike the United States, law school in China is both undergraduate and graduate school. The first law degree you earn is LLB and the second degree is LLM. When the Cultural Revolution ended, both schools opened at the same time and Wei was admitted at the graduate level.
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