By Robin Madell (San Francisco)
Onward and upward is a familiar mantra to those who have encountered professional setbacks. And let’s face it—most everyone at some point must deal with unwanted, and in many cases, unexpected, job-related stumbling blocks along their career path.
Whether due to a layoff, management shakeup, office politics, or a bad boss, career setbacks have the potential to be disorienting at best, and debilitating at worst. By the nature of such disappointments, career blows can affect our sense of professionalism, livelihood, and self-esteem.
Though the initial tendency may be to avoid dealing head-on with major setbacks because of complexity and emotion, taking the time to learn from these experiences can help turn what looks like an end of the road into just a bend. “When dealing with a setback, I really don’t like to figure out what I did wrong, but eventually you have to,” says Becky Walzak, president and CEO of Walzak Consulting. “I have learned that the distance of time is the best microscope for assessing why things happened the way they did.”
Despite the inherent challenges in being faced with career impediments, there are ways you can get back on track more quickly after you’ve been derailed. The Glass Hammer spoke candidly with several women who have suffered significant setbacks in their professional lives yet found ways to successfully overcome their obstacles. The following strategies summarize the group’s best advice on how to move onward and upward from negative job experiences.
Five Important Tips To Get on a Corporate Board
Ask A Career CoachMore and more corporate boards are seeking to diversify their ranks. Yet, in the US only 15.7% of board seats are held by women. The data published by Catalyst, shows companies with three or more women board directors in four of five years outperformed companies with zero women board directors ― by 84% return on sales, 60% return on invested capital, and 46% return on equity.
And corporate boards are one of the best part-time jobs around. Median pay in 2010 was $212,500, up a projected +10% in 2011. That is a pretty good hourly salary for an average of 4.3 hours of work per week according to a survey by NACD. In addition to a great salary, 96% of board members according to a survey by WCD [PDF] are satisfied with their job. Great salary. Short hours. Great job satisfaction. Does this sound like a job you would like to have?
Here’s the challenge. Many women don’t understand the steps to take early in their careers to best position and prepare themselves to get on boards and miss the boat. Another challenge according to a Heidrick & Struggles 2011 Survey done with the Women Corp Directors group, is that it takes women 6 months longer than men (an average of 2.3 yrs vs. 1.7 yrs) to get on a Board. According to the research [PDF], women feel that the primary reasons why there are fewer women on boards is because of the closed networks that decide who gets on what boards. Men on the other hand believe that fewer women on boards is attributable to the fact that there are fewer women in executive roles to choose from.
Here are 5 practical steps to take to increase your chances of getting on a public company board.
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Bounce Back: How to Overcome Professional Setbacks
Managing ChangeOnward and upward is a familiar mantra to those who have encountered professional setbacks. And let’s face it—most everyone at some point must deal with unwanted, and in many cases, unexpected, job-related stumbling blocks along their career path.
Whether due to a layoff, management shakeup, office politics, or a bad boss, career setbacks have the potential to be disorienting at best, and debilitating at worst. By the nature of such disappointments, career blows can affect our sense of professionalism, livelihood, and self-esteem.
Though the initial tendency may be to avoid dealing head-on with major setbacks because of complexity and emotion, taking the time to learn from these experiences can help turn what looks like an end of the road into just a bend. “When dealing with a setback, I really don’t like to figure out what I did wrong, but eventually you have to,” says Becky Walzak, president and CEO of Walzak Consulting. “I have learned that the distance of time is the best microscope for assessing why things happened the way they did.”
Despite the inherent challenges in being faced with career impediments, there are ways you can get back on track more quickly after you’ve been derailed. The Glass Hammer spoke candidly with several women who have suffered significant setbacks in their professional lives yet found ways to successfully overcome their obstacles. The following strategies summarize the group’s best advice on how to move onward and upward from negative job experiences.
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Keeping One Step Ahead: Proactive Career Management
Managing ChangeYou can’t always anticipate the specific work-related challenges you will face. But you can anticipate that you will likely experience challenges. By accepting this fact, you can better navigate those career challenges that many women experience. “The best way to rebound from a career setback is to have prepared for it ahead of time,” says Mary Lee Gannon, president of StartingOverNow.com.
Preparing yourself for potential challenges can help you avoid getting stuck or derailed. While the nature of work life is that it’s unpredictable, your approach to managing it should be more strategic than haphazard. Here are a few strategies for proactive career management that can help you keep one step ahead of the game.
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Voice of Experience: Paula L. Rogers, President, Institutional Capital
Voices of Experience“Right now what I love about the industry is how dynamic it is,” said Paula Rogers, President of the Chicago-based investment firm Institutional Capital.
She explained, “Things are constantly changing, constantly improving, constantly evolving. I love this industry and it has provided me with a rewarding career.”
Rogers provided some key insight into how she’s built a rewarding career in investments and how women can rise to the top of the industry.
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Strategies for Using Social Media to Build Your Personal Brand
Expert AnswersHave you often wondered why so many are updating, posting, reading and retweeting? It could be a full time job if you think about all the information created daily. For some it is – and for some of us it is a way to stay aware of the trends, reports, and news worthy details while highlighting our area of expertise.
Is there a way to leverage what you read to enhance your professional brand?
Many women, already over committed, initially see social media as a waste of time, and let’s face it, do we really need to be posting our whereabouts and food consumption habits? I agree – I am sure many are not really interested in my every move but there are many interested in a slice of my thoughts and it just so happens it is the same slice that provides me many of my career opportunities.
I stumbled across this easy, yet effective, way to keep my knowledge and expertise front and center. Here’s how I did it.
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Study: Women in Alternative Investments See Brighter Days Ahead
Industry Leaders, Leadership“Even during this time of economic turmoil, women are generally positive about the ability to find investments in the industry,” said Kelly Easterling, Principal in the Financial Services Practice at Rothstein Kass and Principal-in-Charge of the Firm’s Walnut Creek office.
Rothstein Kass, the alternative investments professional services firm, recently released the results of its study, “Women in Alternative Investments – Industry Outlook and Trends.” The firm has been performing surveys on industry views since 2007, Easterling explained, but “the vast majority of the respondents had been male. We wanted to find out if perceptions are different for females, who are underrepresented in the industry.”
She pointed out that the alternative investments workforce is roughly 90% male and 10% female. The survey, completed in partnership with 85 Broads, polled 189 female executives in hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. The majority (67.2%) agreed or strongly agreed that the next 18 months would be difficult for the industry.
But 61.9% said there will be more fund launches in the next 18 months than there were in the prior 18 months. Most of the women felt the fund environment would improve.
The researchers had expected a more tempered response, given the state of uncertainty in the economic environment and challenges within the financial services industry. “Women really see this as a viable business opportunity, particularly as more women continue to join the industry,” she said.
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Must Women Pry the Boardroom Door Open?
Industry Leaders, LeadershipIn a ForbesWoman article earlier this month, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president of the Center for Talent Innovation (formerly Center for Work-Life Policy), wrote that while there are 144 boards with no women in the Fortune 1000 and women make up only 15 percent of all Fortune 1000 directors, there is also some good news when it comes to the effort to achieve board parity.
The good news, Hewlett says, is that over 1,100 directors on Fortune 1000 boards are over 70 years old.
If we only wait just a bit longer, she suggests, soon qualified women can rush into the seats vacated by retiring males. She concludes:
Hewlett’s message about being rigorously prepared to assume board service when elected is valuable. But her suggestion that women simply wait their turn to be chosen for board service when the old guys are out of the way is disappointing. Women have been waiting for decades to get to the top, and – as Catalyst data on the percentage of women making it into the boardroom shows – playing the waiting game isn’t getting women anywhere fast.
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Transition Coaching: Is It Time for a New Approach to Working Mothers?
Expert AnswersThe United States and United Kingdom share many common bonds and approaches to business. However, in the area of maternity leave and support for working mothers we have widely differing views.
I recently spent time in New York to assess how US enterprises approach the business of executive coaching – specifically in the support of women preparing for maternity leave, during their leave and through the process of returning to work. I was expecting to find more similarities than differences, but what I found was interestingly the reverse. I should make it clear that I’m not criticising either approach. But I do feel that we can learn from each other. A quick look at the small number of women on the boards of major companies on both sides of the Atlantic (approximately 15% in the US and 13% in the UK) is enough to prove that both systems have a long way to go yet to achieve their goals. My other caveat is that whilst I’ll talk here in generalities, women are of course all different, with differing circumstances, approaches and ambitions, and so solutions in each case have to be tailored.
The most obvious difference is that in the US, there is no federal law regarding paid maternity leave. In the UK, legislation enables women to take up to a year off and still have the right to come back to a similar or equivalent job. Those wishing to return sooner can come back to the same job after six months. Women in the UK are eligible for statutory maternity pay up to nine months. In the US, if you want to stay out longer than three months, application can be made under the Disability Leave policy.
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Three Convenient Non-Excuses Keeping Women Off Boards
Managing ChangeThe Financial Times recently reported that the number of female executive directors on FTSE 350 boards has slipped in the past year – even after significant work to raise awareness of the benefits of board diversity in the UK following the release of the Lord Davies Report.
In fact, wrote Elizabeth Rigsby, the FT’s Chief Political Correspondent, “89 per cent of FTSE 350 companies have no female executives on their boards.”
Prospective female directors in the US are faring better – but not by much. According to Catalyst research released late last year, women occupy only 16.1 percent of Fortune 500 board directorships. That means over four out of five board seats belong to men. And, the report said, about one in ten Fortune 500 companies had no women on their boards.
Why is it that, despite all the research pointing to the business value of boardroom diversity, companies still stubbornly refuse to open the boardroom door to diverse candidates? Here are three convenient non-excuses that boards make for their lack of business-building diversity – and how to counter them.
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Five Ways to Talk to Your Manager into Supporting Your Flex Schedule
Work-LifeIf workplace flexibility is so good for employees and their managers, why is it such a hard sell?
A recent survey conducted by WorldatWork in 2011 found that workplace flexibility is positively correlated with employee engagement, worker satisfaction and low turnover. But the same survey found that most organizations do not offer adequate training for middle managers to effectively handle non-traditional schedules. As a result, these managers often turn down employee requests for increased flexibility.
Rose Stanley is a work-life practice leader for WorldatWork, a nonprofit organization that provides research and education on human resources issues. When it comes to flexibility, she says, “It is true that middle managers can be a deal breaker. But the more they understand the business side of flexibility…the more accepting they are.”
Diane Burrus is a senior consultant and workplace flexibility practice leader at WFD Consulting, which works with leading global companies to enable greater work-life integration. “We have found flexibility to be an area that organizations need to focus on in order to really attract, motivate and engage talented people,” she said.
How can employees convince a stubborn manager that a flex schedule is the right answer for them? “It’s all in the presentation,” said Stanley. “The way they are requesting it can really make all the difference.” Here are five effective ways to approach the conversation.
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