By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
We all know that having a role model to look up to can help us grow and advance in our careers. Being able to see “someone like you” thrive at the top is an inspiring privilege that the first generation of women to enter the workforce in large numbers did not have for themselves.
Even today, there are few women leading corporations or law firms, and that means it can be difficult to envision your own self becoming a leader when no one in executive leadership resembles you or knows from experience the kind of challenges you’ve faced. But fortunately, as more and more women are finding ways to make it work, more junior female professionals are able to climb to the next rung of the ladder.
And in fact, one new study out of Wharton and Harvard Business School, shows that the number of female supervisors has a direct impact on the promotion of women in up-or-out professions.
But – the study is complicated. While female bosses do help women climb the ladder a little easier in up-or-out jobs, people are more likely to leave a firm when there is a higher proportion of peers of the same gender. In clearer terms, more women on a team means more women will leave the company. Similarly, more men on a team means more men will leave that company.
The researchers, Katherine L. Milkman and Kathleen L. McGinn, believe the root cause of this is the intersection of “social cohesion” and “social comparison,” in the particular context of a competitive up-or-out environment. Fortunately, there is a solution, and leaders who can crack the challenge here have a better chance of increasing the number of women making it to the top in the future.
Why Female Bosses Matter
Industry Leaders, LeadershipWe all know that having a role model to look up to can help us grow and advance in our careers. Being able to see “someone like you” thrive at the top is an inspiring privilege that the first generation of women to enter the workforce in large numbers did not have for themselves.
Even today, there are few women leading corporations or law firms, and that means it can be difficult to envision your own self becoming a leader when no one in executive leadership resembles you or knows from experience the kind of challenges you’ve faced. But fortunately, as more and more women are finding ways to make it work, more junior female professionals are able to climb to the next rung of the ladder.
And in fact, one new study out of Wharton and Harvard Business School, shows that the number of female supervisors has a direct impact on the promotion of women in up-or-out professions.
But – the study is complicated. While female bosses do help women climb the ladder a little easier in up-or-out jobs, people are more likely to leave a firm when there is a higher proportion of peers of the same gender. In clearer terms, more women on a team means more women will leave the company. Similarly, more men on a team means more men will leave that company.
The researchers, Katherine L. Milkman and Kathleen L. McGinn, believe the root cause of this is the intersection of “social cohesion” and “social comparison,” in the particular context of a competitive up-or-out environment. Fortunately, there is a solution, and leaders who can crack the challenge here have a better chance of increasing the number of women making it to the top in the future.
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Networks Matter: Women, Quotas, and Board Appointments
NetworkingRecently it was revealed that the European Union’s justice commissioner Viviane Reding was likely to move forward with a proposal to implement boardroom gender quotas. The Financial Times reported that companies throughout the EU’s 27 member states will have to meet a 40 percent target for women board directors.
The FT’s James Fontanella-Khan writes:
Furthermore, a report by the New York Times continued, while publicly traded companies will have until 2020 to meet the target, state-owned companies will have to do so by 2018.
The news comes off the back of two recent studies that showed how personal networks make a huge difference when it comes to board appointments – “who you know” significantly influences which boards you’ll be appointed to, and how much you’ll get paid.
And because most boardrooms in the UK and around the world are dominated by men, women have less of an opportunity to break through – simply because of whose personal networks they belong to and in what context they are there. The research shows that networks matter – and that’s why gender quotas may help close the gap.
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From Ladder to Lattice: How the Economy Changed the Meaning of Career Growth
Next LevelIn other words, the economy has changed the meaning of career growth: the ladder is gone and the emerging model is the lattice.
Cleaver’s new book, The Career Lattice: Combat Brain Drain, Improve Company Culture, and Attract Top Talent is her guide to strategic lateral moves, compiled after conducting dozens of interviews and case studies on how individuals and employers can grow and thrive in a slow-growth economy. The book couldn’t have been possible without Cleaver’s research partner, The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), a national nonprofit that collaborates with major employers and thousands of colleges to introduce new career pathways for working adults. CAEL was actually credited with popularizing the term “career lattice” back in 2002. (And the idea of latticing was also bolstered by Cathy Benko and Anne C. Weisberg, in their book Mass Career Customization.)
According to Cleaver’s book, a career lattice is a diagonal framework that braids lateral experiences, adjacent skill acquisition, and peer networking to move employees to any of a variety of positions for which they have become qualified. Cleaver writes that the lattice is about evolution. It’s about adding new skills, experience, abilities, and networks to those that already exist. It’s about letting go of the bits that are no longer relevant in the workforce while blending in new elements that anticipate and encourage the growth of individuals and organizations.
Cleaver says there are two crucial elements that need to be in place to make latticing work: the willingness to celebrate growth no matter how it looks, and the ability to recognize a wide spectrum of professional development. The look of success is changing and employers need to be able to not just recognize, but rally around these newly emerging paths to growth.
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Coaching To Listen to Your Inner Voice
NewsAre you ever in situations where no matter how hard you push your brain you remain confused about important decisions? As I faced my own personal mid-life questions, my brain often came up short on answers to these:
Interestingly, one of the most read articles on Harvard Business Review’s site is Clay Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?” suggesting we all ponder these questions from time to time. Yet our workplaces seldom equip us with answering them. As we get into higher level positions we are faced with many decisions where the answers are not black or white, but dwell frustratingly in the gray. With all the emphasis in the business world on facts and data and logical conclusions, it’s easy for us to let an important part of our decision-making center lapse.
This part is called our inner voice or intuition. I call it the inner coach. Our inner coach connects us to our own authenticity, our core, our values. When we listen to our inner voice it helps us be at peace with important decisions. It also helps us be a more authentic leader.
Albert Einstein said “the intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Here are five practices that have worked for me to tap into the gift we all have been given.
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Voice of Experience: Judith Posnikoff, PhD, Co-Founder & Managing Director, PAAMCO
Voices of Experience“I think what I wish I had known when I was starting out was to be a little more flexible – to really jump into opportunities even if they’re outside the path I expected to follow,” began Judith Posnikoff, PhD, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO).
Posnikoff began her career as an academic – and had intended to stay there, she explained, until one day she got a fateful call from a friend asking for help at his firm. That opportunity eventually led to a whole new career, she explained.
“Really look at opportunities, even it seems way out of what you considered before,” she added.
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Voice of Experience: Gabriela Franco Parcella, Chief Executive Officer, Mellon Capital Management Corporation
Voices of ExperienceAccording to Gabriela Franco Parcella, CEO of Mellon Capital Management Corporation, it’s important to keep an open mind when thinking about where your career might take you. Looking back on her early career, she said, “I could have had more impact on a company in my first 5 years by thinking more broadly.”
“We put ourselves in boxes. I thought of myself as a lawyer and I thought I would always be a lawyer. It took a while before I realized I could use my lawyer skills in other roles.”
After moving from Mellon Capital’s legal department to roles in operations, and gradually gaining more responsibilities, Parcella was named CEO of Mellon Capital last year. She encouraged young women to keep their minds open to various career paths.
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Voice of Experience: Denise Higgins, CFA, Client Portfolio Manager, ING U.S. Investment Management
Voices of ExperienceHaving spent most of her career as a portfolio manager, Denise Higgins, CFA, Client Portfolio Manager at ING U.S. Investment Management, says she feels very fortunate to have worked in a profession where women succeeded based on merit. “As a portfolio manager, you get a report card every day and your performance can be judged very objectively. If you deliver strong results, you will advance,” she said. However, one of the key challenges for women in the industry is that there are still few female role models at the very top.
But, she continued, she believes things are improving and that senior women can help facilitate the change – by actively mentoring and sponsoring the next generation of women in the pipeline.
“Take the time to be a mentor. You can mentor formally, but do it informally too. Identify the people who have good promise and try to give it back by advising them and raising their exposure. The only way to get more women in management roles in the industry is to lend a hand and be proactive about it,” she encouraged.
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Measuring Small Achievements, Setting Ambitious Goals
Managing ChangePhew! This was one busy summer here at The Glass Hammer – and according to a recent online poll of our readers it’s likely been a busy one for you too!
Only 11 percent of you said you wouldn’t be taking any work on vacation this summer. Twelve percent said you’d be working during vacation – or at least checking in a few times. And – the bad news – a whopping 64 percent of our respondents asked, “what vacation?”
Yikes! We hope you got the rest you needed, because this fall is going to be a busy one. We’re running (at least) three events between now and the end of the year (including this year’s breakfast panel in our popular Top Women on the Buy-Side event series and our Women in Technology career development panel) and we’ve got a few more plans underway as well.
You, no doubt, also have plenty of big business targets to accomplish before the end of 2012. So now as you take last big gulp of summer air before sprinting toward the end of the year, it might be the perfect opportunity to take stock of the career resolutions you set in January. In fact, it might be the perfect time to think about the big, intimidating career aspirations you have too.
Be brave – is the work you’re doing now going to get you where you want to go?
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Turn Your Lateral Move into a Career Catapult
Next LevelThe only thing between you and retirement is your replacement. Instead of looking behind you, look over.
Those are messages that Joanne Cleaver, author of the new book The Career Lattice: Combat Brain Drain, Improve Company Culture, and Attract Top Talent has for executives and professionals across diverse industries—including financial services, law, and technology.
In an exclusive interview, The Glass Hammer asked Cleaver for strategies that executive women can use to turn lateral moves into career catapults rather than career killers.
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Men Who Get It: John Sensiba, Managing Partner, Sensiba San Filippo LLP
Men Who "Get It"By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
“Diversity is the best resource we have,” explained John Sensiba, Managing Partner of the Northern California CPA and Business consulting firm Sensiba San Filippo LLP, “it’s not just me who thinks that – all our partners understand that diversity brings strength more than anything.” In an industry not known to have a wide range of diversity, a firm that expands its vision of what a partner looks like can gain a competitive edge, Sensiba notes.
Likewise, he continued, changing the gender make-up of a conversation will change its tone. “When we added our first woman partner, that changed the conversation. Having a balance tends to raise the level of conversation.”
That’s why the business case for diversity is clear, he continued. “If you define diversity in terms of gender, it’s an easy question. You’re ignoring 50% of the opportunities in the workplace if you look only to one gender. If you have a homogeneous group, you get a homogeneous answer – and that makes you weak.”
But it’s not just about business, Sensiba continued. “I think we’re a firm who gets it – it’s just a matter of following the golden rule: treating people the way you want to be treated. If you follow that rule, other characteristics don’t really matter.”
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