By Jane Carruthers (London)
How do you define a thoroughly modern heroine? Brave, candid, funny, kind and fantastically good at her job? Well, that’s certainly part of it. It was a job that demanded Marie Colvin took more risks than most people would consider sane, and one that she made peculiarly her own. By her sheer professionalism, personal bravery and awe-inspiring energy Marie Colvin became a legend in the hard-bitten world of war reporting. The newspapers and websites are abuzz with praise for a woman who lived her life to the maximum, working in places closer to a vision of hell than many of us can imagine, and telling the stories of ordinary people so that the world could know about the horrors and the atrocities they faced on a daily basis.
Along with Kate Adie, Christiane Amanpour, and Janine di Giovanni, Colvin crashed the almost exclusively male world of war reporting. Ground-breaking in the latter part of the last century, these women have shown the way to other women who want to pursue their chosen careers without fear of discrimination. Colvin did not do so as a quasi-male. She brought her own brand of femininity to her work, and liked nothing more than having a ritzy manicure and a night out in designer clothes, partying with her large circle of friends when home from an assignment.
Her friends and colleagues speak of someone full of fun, who knew the world’s darkest corners but also how to party – hard. East Timor, Sri Lanka (where she lost an eye), Chechnya, Libya. A roll-call of the horror centres of recent years, and she was there, telling it like it is, like always. Syria was to be her downfall. Murdered in a run-down press HQ in Homs, along with her French photographer Remi Ochlik, she had ‘one more story to file’ and died doing it. Two of her colleagues are still stranded in the bombed-out press centre, injured and desperate to get out.
Yale educated Colvin started her career as a night police reporter with UPI, eventually moving to Europe where she worked in Paris as Bureau chief. She moved to The Sunday Times in 1985 and became Middle East correspondent in one of the most turbulent periods in the region. She could be relied upon to get the scoop, even winning an unheard-of interview with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Award-winning and highly respected around the world for her hard-hitting coverage, her successes came at great personal cost: she lost an eye when she came under fire from the Sri Lankan government forces in an RPG attack, and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder for a year, requiring hospitalisation. Her three marriages failed. Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club in London, where Colvin and her friends would congregate to relax between assignments, said: “She had a tough time. You cannot live a normal life with her job.”
Friend Virginia Bonham Carter, who knew Colvin for over 30 years, said that she managed to combine being brave and serious with incredible joie de vivre and energy for fun: “Marie connected with virtually every person she met.”
Colvin was not shy of using her considerable style and charm to gain entry to some of the most influential offices in the world. When working in the Middle East, she followed the more modest dress code required. A Moslem friend taught her how to tie the hijab around her neck properly, but Colvin insisted that she got better interviews if she showed a bit of cleavage. With Colvin, it was never a sacrifice of personal integrity – but she would – and did – push with every fibre of her determination to get the quote, get the story, file the scoop.
To ask the question “what does it mean to be an intrepid woman?” you need to little more than to read Marie Colvin’s resume. She embodied excellence, passion and humanity.
Much of the coverage of her death dwells on her gender, which is perhaps not surprising given her working world. Perhaps the greatest honour we could do her would be to ensure that it is not her gender for which she will be remembered, but her professionalism and her passion.
Getting on Board: Advice for Minority Women on Pursuing Board Service
Next LevelThree percent. That dismal number reflects the number of overall board seats held by women of color directors among Fortune 500 companies in 2011, according to Catalyst’s latest study on Women on Boards.
We may have grown weary of seeing numbers under 20 percent for women’s total board membership—in the United States, the latest figure is 16.1 percent, with the vast majority of countries studied posting even lower numbers. Yet when we scrutinize the data still further, we see that most board seats in women’s too-small slice of the pie—13.1 percent—are held by white women.
In fact, Catalyst’s research shows that when we look at individual companies, almost 71 percent have zero women of color directors serving on their board. Asian women and Latinas are particularly underrepresented when we examine the data for all women directors, holding only 2.5 percent and 4.9 percent of seats, respectively. Black women account for only 11.3 percent of all women directors.
How can we change this situation? Beth Stewart, CEO of Trewstar, which specializes in the placement of women on boards, says that companies need to make adding minority women to boards a specific priority. She explains, “This means that when they come up with a long list of very specific criteria, they need to choose race as the determining factor and not, for instance, supply chain management experience in China. Find that in the next white guy, and accept any type of high level business experience from a minority candidate.”
Stewart emphasizes that this does not mean lowering the criteria, but broadening it. “For example, if you were looking for someone who was a CFO and you find someone who is EVP for Technology, take the EVP for Tech and find the finance person in some other form—or add two directors,” says Stewart.
Other organizations, like the Robert Toigo Foundation, are also hard at work on the problem. Among Toigo’s initiatives is All A Board, a program for connecting boards with diverse candidates.
The program allows women and minority professionals interested in board service to use a free online tool to designate areas of interest and showcase their areas of expertise. The Toigo team uses these profiles to help connect board candidates with public and private companies, nonprofits, and foundations that are looking for leadership talent.
Nancy Sims, president of the Robert Toigo Foundation, also provided advice on what minority and multicultural women can do to improve their chances of landing a board seat—and what companies can do to help facilitate their efforts.
“The pipeline is growing,” says Sims. “But there is more to be done to both prepare women and minorities for board service—and to prepare boards for a change of composition. Creating a bigger supply, or pool of talent, without prompting an increased demand for the talent is only half of a solution. We need both the supply and the demand to expand for greater board diversity to occur.”
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Movers and Shakers: Lynne Laube, President and COO, Cardlytics Inc.
Movers and ShakersTradition may come to mind before innovation when thinking about the financial services industry. But for Lynne Laube, president and COO of Cardlytics, Inc., innovation has consistently come first. “I have always been excited by innovation and knew that was where I wanted to focus my career,” she explained.
After starting her career at Bank One and then spending 13 years at Capital One, most recently as vice president and COO, Laube decided to take a more entrepreneurial route. She co-founded Cardlytics, which offers targeted advertising within banking, in the summer of 2008 with Scott Grimes, Cardlytics CEO. Yet even while serving in her earlier roles in banking, Laube was always on the lookout for opportunities to innovate—and found several.
Over the years, Laube worked on products that have since become ubiquitous in the industry, but at the time were cutting-edge, such as balance transfer, micro-business lending, and private-label lending. “I love creating new products, building new businesses, and trying new models,” she said. “When I joined Capital One, they were at the forefront of innovation within consumer and business lending.”
Toward the end of her tenure, she began focusing on payment innovation, and played a major role in the creation of decoupled debit, a groundbreaking and controversial product. While the product ultimately was unsuccessful, Laube’s work in this area helped her see the potential for other innovations with financial services. “I suspected it would be easier to innovate from a new company rather than within the walls of a very large bank, and that is when I left Capital One and started Cardlytics,” she said.
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Does Work/Life Balance Mean Sacrifice?
Work-LifeAccording to a new study by Accenture, work life balance is becoming the norm. The survey polled almost 4000 male and female executives in 31 countries around the globe, and almost three quarters of respondents (71%) said they have work life balance all or most of the time.
“It was higher than I expected,” said Nellie Borrero, Diversity and Inclusion lead at Accenture. “Several years ago, we may have seen a different answer.”
Nevertheless, the survey, entitled “The Path Forward,” revealed some challenging data. Despite the high percentage of executives who said they had work/life balance, 41% said their career had had a negative impact on their family. In addition, 42% said they often sacrifice time with their family to succeed.
The survey might show that work/life balance is taking on a new understanding – an acknowledgement that ‘having it all’ is not a reality. Balance means there are always going to be sacrifices when it comes to work and family, and that making those sacrifices is okay.
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Thought Leaders: Cynthia Steer, Head of Manager Research & Investment Solutions, BNY Mellon
Thought Leaders“I’ve always been a mentor and I’ve always learned more than I gave,” she continued. Steer explained that she quickly figured out the value of cross-generational relationships when she began her career on a team managing foreign exchange rates. “The team was made up of new kids on the block like me and seasoned individuals – and I saw that every perspective was valuable, but the combination was more valuable than the discrete parts.”
“Portfolio management is like fashion in that it always needs to be remade at the edges, with new thinking or new foci, and having multiple generations’ perspectives furthers that.”
She added, “Also, I think it’s vitally important for women like me at this point in my career to stand up in front of the room and be counted. I’m always humbled by the opportunity to do it.”
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March is Women Helping Women Month
Mentors and SponsorsSince the 1980s, we’ve designated March as the month when we celebrate women’s history, to reflect on how far we’ve come, and honor those women who’ve helped us get here. This month on The Glass Hammer, we’re examining one of the most critical factors in our progress up to now and beyond: women helping women.
As former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s oft-repeated quote goes: “I think there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” This month, we want to focus on the ways women have reached out and pulled other women up. It’s time to celebrate those women who have taken a chance on us, lent an ear, lent advice, spoken up for us behind closed doors, pushed for our promotions, and supported us at the table of power. And it’s also time to pay that forward.
Besides the warm fuzzy feeling you get from helping someone else, helping other women up the ladder can help you build stronger relationships and navigate your own career more strategically – no matter what your level in your organization. Here’s how.
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Women, Men, Work, and Family – Why Our Mindset Must Change
Work-LifeIn 2010, I had the opportunity to visit Norway to learn how the country’s gender equality laws work – up close and in person. Norway is famous for enacting legislation in 2003 that required 40% of all board seats of publicly traded companies to be occupied by women. The law went into effect in 2004 and companies were given two years to comply – and if they didn’t, they were delisted.
But this is only one prong of the country’s efforts to encourage gender equity. Much of the root of gender inequality, legislators believed, comes from deep-rooted beliefs about women and men’s gender roles regarding caretaking and family. Therefore, Norway also enacted its second prong – laws designed to enable women to pursue more responsibility at work and encourage men to take on more responsibility at home.
Speaking at a Royal Norwegian Consulate event in New York on Monday, the architect of Norway’s gender equality laws, Arni Hole, Director General of Norway’s Ministry of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion, said, “The key to prosperity in Norway is women. We have the freedom to choose work and family – for women and men alike.”
I spoke with Hole in 2010, and today, in 2012, she is no less insistent that Norway’s system should be widely adopted. More importantly, she points out, any efforts toward gender equity cannot simply be applied to the workplace. They must take home into account too.
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Seven Steps for Making A Difficult Conversation Easier
Ask A Career CoachYou wish your boss would give you more space to make decisions. You think your co-worker is sabotaging you behind your back. You need to talk with an employee about their bad attitude. Many of these situations call for conversations to be had, conversations that often don’t happen, because they are difficult and frankly we’d rather go get a root canal. My goal is for us to all have the personal power to have difficult conversations. So here is a step-by-step checklist for making these difficult conversations easier so that they actually happen.
Step 1 – Are You Seeing the Situation Clearly?
Conversations become difficult when our feelings and emotions are involved. If we are emotional about a given situation, our emotions cloud our judgment and ability to see the situation clearly. We often have filters or stories that impact how we see a situation. The first step in a difficult conversation is to look within.
Leadership Practice
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Global Solutions for Getting More Women into Tech
Industry Leaders, LeadershipToday the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology released its latest report on getting more women into the technology workplace. The report combines best practices from a number of top technology companies on recruiting and retaining women, as well as suggestions on how companies of any size can implement them.
Denise Gammal, PhD, Director of Corporate Partnerships at the Institute, explained, “Last year when we first debuted our top companies of the year award – IBM was the winner – we held a workshop to discuss best practices. And through the year, we’ve increasingly had companies ask us what they can do to hire more talented women.”
This year’s Top Company for Technical Women award, released along with the study, went to American Express. Jerri Barrett, Vice President for Marketing at ABI, said, “This is a company that has achieved over 30 percent technical women.”
Gammal continued, “And it’s at every level of the pipeline, which is an impressive accomplishment.” She added that the industry norm is around 20 percent women at the entry level , and only three to five percent at the very top.
The report, “Solutions to Recruit Technical Women” is the first in a series of papers discussing tested methods to improve the gender ratio in the technology industry. “Our goal really is to come up with an actionable set of recommendations,” Gammal said. “Any company – no matter their size or resources – will find solutions they can implement.”
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Voice of Experience: Nicole Arnaboldi, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Alternative Investments, Credit Suisse
Voices of Experience“While I’m not normally a fan of sports analogies, there’s a great Wayne Gretzky quote,” began Nicole Arnaboldi, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Alternative Investments in Credit Suisse’s Asset Management division. “It goes something like ‘Head for where the puck is going to be, not where it is.’ When you think about your career, think about where the world is heading, and go to where the tide is rising.”
“I think asset management is one of those areas where the puck is heading,” she pointed out, considering the rise in global wealth.
“This advice isn’t limited to young people. Even as you have become more senior, take a step back and think about where the world is heading, and about what the opportunities are for you,” she continued.
Having spent almost 30 years rising through the alternative investment business, Arnaboldi shared her advice and expertise, based on her career of “going to where the puck is heading.”
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Intrepid Woman: Marie Colvin (12 January 1956 – 22 February 2012)
Intrepid Women SeriesHow do you define a thoroughly modern heroine? Brave, candid, funny, kind and fantastically good at her job? Well, that’s certainly part of it. It was a job that demanded Marie Colvin took more risks than most people would consider sane, and one that she made peculiarly her own. By her sheer professionalism, personal bravery and awe-inspiring energy Marie Colvin became a legend in the hard-bitten world of war reporting. The newspapers and websites are abuzz with praise for a woman who lived her life to the maximum, working in places closer to a vision of hell than many of us can imagine, and telling the stories of ordinary people so that the world could know about the horrors and the atrocities they faced on a daily basis.
Along with Kate Adie, Christiane Amanpour, and Janine di Giovanni, Colvin crashed the almost exclusively male world of war reporting. Ground-breaking in the latter part of the last century, these women have shown the way to other women who want to pursue their chosen careers without fear of discrimination. Colvin did not do so as a quasi-male. She brought her own brand of femininity to her work, and liked nothing more than having a ritzy manicure and a night out in designer clothes, partying with her large circle of friends when home from an assignment.
Her friends and colleagues speak of someone full of fun, who knew the world’s darkest corners but also how to party – hard. East Timor, Sri Lanka (where she lost an eye), Chechnya, Libya. A roll-call of the horror centres of recent years, and she was there, telling it like it is, like always. Syria was to be her downfall. Murdered in a run-down press HQ in Homs, along with her French photographer Remi Ochlik, she had ‘one more story to file’ and died doing it. Two of her colleagues are still stranded in the bombed-out press centre, injured and desperate to get out.
Yale educated Colvin started her career as a night police reporter with UPI, eventually moving to Europe where she worked in Paris as Bureau chief. She moved to The Sunday Times in 1985 and became Middle East correspondent in one of the most turbulent periods in the region. She could be relied upon to get the scoop, even winning an unheard-of interview with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Award-winning and highly respected around the world for her hard-hitting coverage, her successes came at great personal cost: she lost an eye when she came under fire from the Sri Lankan government forces in an RPG attack, and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder for a year, requiring hospitalisation. Her three marriages failed. Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club in London, where Colvin and her friends would congregate to relax between assignments, said: “She had a tough time. You cannot live a normal life with her job.”
Friend Virginia Bonham Carter, who knew Colvin for over 30 years, said that she managed to combine being brave and serious with incredible joie de vivre and energy for fun: “Marie connected with virtually every person she met.”
Colvin was not shy of using her considerable style and charm to gain entry to some of the most influential offices in the world. When working in the Middle East, she followed the more modest dress code required. A Moslem friend taught her how to tie the hijab around her neck properly, but Colvin insisted that she got better interviews if she showed a bit of cleavage. With Colvin, it was never a sacrifice of personal integrity – but she would – and did – push with every fibre of her determination to get the quote, get the story, file the scoop.
To ask the question “what does it mean to be an intrepid woman?” you need to little more than to read Marie Colvin’s resume. She embodied excellence, passion and humanity.
Much of the coverage of her death dwells on her gender, which is perhaps not surprising given her working world. Perhaps the greatest honour we could do her would be to ensure that it is not her gender for which she will be remembered, but her professionalism and her passion.