By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of The Glass Hammer
Many women have a mentor or maybe even several mentors. But to get to the top, you need more – you need someone advocate for you, cash in their chips for you, and, frankly, wear a t- shirt with your name on it in the meetings you are not in: a sponsor.
The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling report compiled by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and the Center for Work Life Policy with Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of American Express, further defined for us what a sponsor is and what a sponsor does to enhance your career. Sponsorship is a huge part of getting women the stretch assignments they need to be promoted into senior executive positions.
Many women ask me how they should go about finding a sponsor. Now that we know what a sponsor does for you – advocacy at its very best – where does the rubber meet the road with finding one?
The answer: it all starts with networking, or rather building your strategic network (not just collecting a bunch of cards or catching up with a friend at an event). For example, as entrepreneur Heidi Roizen, a board member of TiVo and Yellow Media Inc., explained, “The best way to get to know other people is in the context of accomplishing something, like a volunteer project.”
Goldman Sachs hosted a seminar for women recently on “Building your Board : Unlocking Opportunity through Sponsorship” as part of their fantastic series of events called Brokering Change: A Wall Street Multicultural Women’s Exchange. This event in the series, which is open to women from other firms on the Street, addressed some of the specific challenges faced by Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American women in the industry. In this case, a multi-cultural panel of women recounted their sponsor experiences, and rather than simply recounting the Sponsor Effect‘s findings, held a useful conversation on how to actually find a sponsor.
How to Secure Your Sponsor and Unlock Your Path to the Top
Mentors and SponsorsMany women have a mentor or maybe even several mentors. But to get to the top, you need more – you need someone advocate for you, cash in their chips for you, and, frankly, wear a t- shirt with your name on it in the meetings you are not in: a sponsor.
The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling report compiled by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and the Center for Work Life Policy with Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of American Express, further defined for us what a sponsor is and what a sponsor does to enhance your career. Sponsorship is a huge part of getting women the stretch assignments they need to be promoted into senior executive positions.
Many women ask me how they should go about finding a sponsor. Now that we know what a sponsor does for you – advocacy at its very best – where does the rubber meet the road with finding one?
The answer: it all starts with networking, or rather building your strategic network (not just collecting a bunch of cards or catching up with a friend at an event). For example, as entrepreneur Heidi Roizen, a board member of TiVo and Yellow Media Inc., explained, “The best way to get to know other people is in the context of accomplishing something, like a volunteer project.”
Goldman Sachs hosted a seminar for women recently on “Building your Board : Unlocking Opportunity through Sponsorship” as part of their fantastic series of events called Brokering Change: A Wall Street Multicultural Women’s Exchange. This event in the series, which is open to women from other firms on the Street, addressed some of the specific challenges faced by Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American women in the industry. In this case, a multi-cultural panel of women recounted their sponsor experiences, and rather than simply recounting the Sponsor Effect‘s findings, held a useful conversation on how to actually find a sponsor.
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How Managers Can Increase Trust and Reduce Workplace Drama
Expert AnswersYour staff sits at your meeting with arms crossed and mouths closed. You have invited engagement, but you get nothing. You can’t put your finger on it, but you perceive some negativity. Maybe it’s resentment. Maybe it’s just a manifestation of the “us versus them” mentality. Or maybe, it’s a lack of trust. This article offers four trustbusters and the four antidotes.
Trustbuster #1 Poor Listening
Very few of us admit to being a poor listener, therefore as the saying goes, you can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge. Awareness is the key, so here are the signs of poor listening: Broken promises, multi-tasking while an employee is talking to you, interrupting, discounting, and one way communication which includes preaching, or the opposite–failure to ask questions in a conversation.
Antidote to Poor Listening
When an employee (or anyone else for that matter) speaks to you, become fully present, and use eye contact. Ask a question to clarify that you understand what is being communicated. Acknowledge the other person’s experience. If you say you will do something, schedule it in your calendar, and communicate back to the person when you have completed your agreement. If an employee catches you at a bad time, let them know you have other pressing priorities and set an appointment where you can be present
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Professional Women in Emerging Markets: Painting a Broader Picture
Industry Leaders, LeadershipWhen you consider women in the developing BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – who do you envision? Are they victims? Are they oppressed? Or are they ambitious high performers, managers, and business leaders? As part of its lengthy study on women in these markets, The Center for Work Life Policy recently released the results of its report, “The Battle for Female Talent in China,” which seeks to paint a new picture of educated women in the developing world.
Ripa Rashid, Executive Vice President at the Center for Work Life Policy, explained, “We wanted to create a narrative – a more complete picture of women in these markets. When you hear about women in emerging economies, you often think about microfiance or victimhood or sex trafficking. And these are all important issues. But there is another narrative of successful, ambitious women in these regions as well.”
She continued, “We wanted to bring to light that neglected narrative.” The Center for Work Life Policy study, conducted between 2009 and 2010 and co-authored by Rashid and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, polled hundreds of white-color female professionals in the developing world. The results, which will be published by the Harvard Business School Press this fall, reveal fascinating new insights into the cross-cultural dynamics of ambition and motherhood.
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Honoring Outstanding Women and Storytellers
Managing ChangeLast week The White House Project celebrated outstanding women and storytellers at its annual Epic Awards dinner. The awards honored individuals who are making a difference in the way women and girls view themselves, and the way they are viewed by decision makers.
Activist, philanthropist, and event-chair Mahsa Peloski opened the evening saying, “When women are at the peace making table, the corporate boardroom, and the halls of Congress, they bring a different perspective and change the conversation.”
By honoring the individuals who are changing the conversation about women, The White House Project hopes to increase the numbers of women in positions of power as well.
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Voice of Experience: Sonja Barendregt-Roojers, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V.
Voices of Experience“Becoming a partner in a time frame when it was not common for women to join the partnership is one of my proudest professional experiences,” said Sonja Barendregt-Roojers, a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V. Barendregt-Roojers has, in fact, been with the firm since she was a teenager – beginning her career at one of PwC’s predecessor firms right after high school.
After graduating from Erasmus University Rotterdam and becoming a chartered accountant, Barendregt-Roojers stayed with the firm. After being named a partner in 1998, she became the Investment Management industry leader for the Netherlands and joined the European Investment Management Leadership team. In 2004, Barendregt-Roojers said she became chair of the Pension Funds industry group in the Netherlands and founded the International Pensions group.
As she has climbed the ladder at PwC, Barendregt-Roojers said one of the things she wishes she had learned earlier on was the differences in how men and women behave – inside and outside the workplace, “Men and women are different in certain ways. Because of my high school education, in a group with 30 boys and only 4 girls, I never noticed any difference, but in fact there are differences. Had I known them at that time, it could have given a boost to my career.”
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Diversity and Inclusion: A Commercial Imperative
Office PoliticsThis article originally appeared on our sister site Evolved Employer.
Last week, Deutsche Bank hosted the first ever Out On the Street conference, an event designed to address the commercial advantage of LGBT inclusiveness for Wall Street firms.
Seth Waugh, CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, explained that the conference held two missions. First of all, “to make sure Wall Street is an attractive and welcome place for all LGBT professionals.” And secondly, “it’s not only the right thing to do, but it is a commercial imperative.”
He explained that a broad perspective of view points enables companies to make better decisions and appeal to a broader audience of potential clients. The need for diversity of perspectives is gaining steady acceptance. This is important, Waugh said, because “Things that are nice to have but not ‘needs to have’ tend not to have a long lifespan.”
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Microfinance in the BRIC Countries
NetworkingAudrey Choi, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Global Sustainable Finance, moderated a panel discussion last week entitled, “Will Microfinance Succeed in the BRIC countries? Does Regulation Matter?” The answer to both questions, according to panelists Hans Dellien, Chikako Kuno, and Elisabeth Rhyne, is yes.
The event, organized by Financial Women’s Association and sponsored by Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance and Women’s Initiative, focused on how regulation promotes and hinders microfinance institutions in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, collectively referred to as the BRIC countries. Though these countries are known as emerging opportunities for investors, they have “enormous potential and enormously different market dynamics,” says Choi.
She asked, “As we get to a real evolution of the field, where you have investors coming into microfinance with very different motivations, very different kinds of checkbooks…What happens? What is the right way to untangle mission and profit and fiduciary responsibility?”
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Ask for More Now, Ladies – Here’s How to Get That Raise
Money TalksWhen was the last time you negotiated a raise? If it’s been a while (or perhaps, if your answer was ‘never’), chances are you could be making more. According to Matt Wallaert, lead scientist at GetRaised, “The research shows that women don’t ask for raises as often as men do, and when they do, they’re not as successful at it.”
Carol Frohlinger, co-author of Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success, agreed. She said, “The challenge for women is that not only are we reluctant to ask because of socialization, but the reality is that both men and women expect women to negotiate differently than men. So when we ask, we get push-back, or we heard about someone else who asked and it didn’t go well, so we don’t try.”
But that’s no reason to be discouraged – research and planning can help you ask for and get more.
GetRaised, for instance, shows women how much they could be making, based on its extensive database of market-based compensation research, and then provides women with a tool to help frame the negotiation conversation. According to Wallaert, tens of thousands women have now used GetRaised – and 75% of the women who have used it have gotten a raise. On average, the site’s users receive a raise of about $6,000.
This is about confidence. The success of GetRaised’s users shows women just aren’t asking. It’s time for women to start negotiating with the confidence that they can get more.
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Getting to Gravitas: The Business Sweet Spot
Expert AnswersJoan Steinberg, Morgan Stanley’s Global Head of Philanthropy, was quoted in The Glass Hammer recently emphasizing the importance of projecting professionalism and leadership when seeking advancement.
“You have to be at the next level,” advised Steinberg. “Be the role you want to be, so that it’s easy for others to see you that way,” she said.
Excellent advice, but do women really know what she means, and how to achieve it? I haven’t met Joan, but I know what she means, and she means gravitas.
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Ask-A-Career-Coach: Let’s Get Political!
Ask A Career CoachLike many summa cum laude graduates, I started my career with confidence in my talents and abilities. So much so that I refused to get involved in anything that smacked of “office politics.” I believed that work and career were all about merit, not about backroom bartering or Happy Hour schmoozing. Today I look back at my younger self with amusement and affection, recognizing that what she considered integrity was actually a tangle of naiveté and arrogance.
Oh, how I wish Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback had been around to set me straight.
In their new book, Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, Harvard business prof Hill and business exec Lineback make an argument for office politics to which even the indignant Ms. Daly would have conceded. Here’s how I imagine such a conversation might have gone:
Q: Office politics are a waste of my time, and I don’t want to deal with them. Why should I bother?
A: Well, for one thing, your organization, like all organizations, is inherently political. Where there are people, there are power relations. If you ignore that reality, you’ll miss out on an essential tool you need to get your work and your team’s work accomplished—because your ability to obtain necessary resources often depends upon the intelligence you gather and the partnerships you’ve established. Even more, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to influence (read: lead) the direction of your organization.
Q: But what about that old saying, “power corrupts”?
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