On Tuesday, The Glass Hammer hosted our latest event on career management. Sponsored by Accenture, Bloomberg, and Sungard, the event discussed how women can build professional negotiation skills, and provided tips on networking and how to navigate tricky office politics.
Panelist Carol Frohlinger, Principal at Negotiating Women Inc. and co-author of Her Place at the Table, commented, “Women often suffer from the tiara syndrome – we work hard and wait for someone to place a tiara on our head.” But, she said, in today’s environment, we can not wait for someone to notice hard work or reward it appropriately.
“We must proactively negotiate for the conditions of our own success,” Frohlinger said.
The event’s panelists included Frohlinger, Anne Erni, Head of Leadership, Learning and Diversity, Bloomberg; Camille Mirshokrai, Global Director of Leadership Development, Accenture; Linda Descano, President and CEO, Citi Women & Co.; and Kathleen Weslock, Chief Human Resources Officer, SunGard. The discussion was moderated by Selena Rezvani, co-founder of Women’s Roadmap, Washington Post columnist, and author of The Next Generation of Women Leaders.
Brace Yourself: It’s Almost Holiday Season
Work-LifeI know, I know.
It seems a little too early to start thinking about turkeys, or sugar plums for that matter.
But being caught off guard during the holiday season is the best way to get stressed or sick. Whether or not you yourself celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc., the end of the year usually means parties, networking drinks, and family gatherings. And if you have children, you’ll be doubly busy.
Think ahead now and stay above the fray! Here’s our professional woman’s guide to a relatively frazzle-free November and December.
True story: For a few summers in college, I worked at a large craft supply store – working the register, designing store displays, and stocking merchandise. Mid-July every year, as soon as we packed up our Independence Day craft supplies, up went the DIY Christmas ornaments and decorations.
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The Future of Women in Financial Services at the NCRW’s Women and Money Luncheon
Industry Leaders, LeadershipEarlier this week, the National Council for Research on Women hosted a discussion on women and money at JP Morgan Private Bank. The event featured four notable panelists as well as a conclusion by Jacki Zehner, Vice Chair of the Women’s Funding Network.
The panel discussed the next steps in getting more women into the financial services sector, keeping them there, and getting to them to the top. Zehner explained, “We are moving from a place of less power to more power, and shifting from a moral argument… to an economic one.”
She added, “There is a tremendous amount of research that fuels our activism.”
The panel included Rosie Rios, Treasurer of the United States; Michelle Clayman, Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, New Amsterdam Partners LLC; Joe Keefe, President & CEO, Pax World Management LLC; and Rebecca Patterson, Managing Director and Global Head of Foreign Exchange and Commodities, J.P. Morgan Private Bank. The panel was moderated by Deirdre Bolton, Anchor, Bloomberg Television, and Co-host of “Inside Track.”
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Men Who Get It: Joe Keefe, President and CEO, Pax World
Men Who "Get It"“Pax World is very focused on the notion of gender equality as an investment concept,” said Joe Keefe, President and CEO of Pax World, the first US mutual fund to focus on environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) in investment analysis and decision making.
“Our women’s empowerment platform includes applying a gender lens to all of our funds, while our Global Women’s Equality Fund is the only mutual fund in America focused on investing in companies that are global leaders in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. Additionally, our proxy voting policy is straightforward: if the slate of directors is all male, we withhold support and send a letter to the company explaining why and encouraging them to embrace gender diversity.”
He continued, “And it goes beyond putting more women in the boardroom or senior management. Investing in women and girls is a critical strategy for promoting sustainable development and alleviating global poverty.”
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Ask-a-Career-Coach: How to Choreograph Your Career
Ask A Career CoachA young client’s mother recently asked her what she had learned in our first few coaching sessions. “Always be looking for a job!” was my client’s instant response. This was a hard-won lesson for Mary (not her real name), who had been laid off unexpectedly after a few years at her first job. She had spent those years so focused on the work at hand that she hadn’t yet begun to consider her next job, let alone her long-term career trajectory.
Mary is hardly alone. We tend to get so concentrated on the daily grind of our immediate responsibilities—especially in this job market—that it’s a challenge to visualize, let alone steer, the full arc of our career.
“Always be looking for a job!” was Mary’s enthusiastic reduction of our first few conversations. She and I continue to explore the distinction between a job and a career. It’s like the distinction between an enduring mission and a current tactic. Mary’s mission is to improve the health of her community. Her current job in event fundraising is just her current tactic. It is a means, not an end. Tactics are necessarily provisional; in order to remain effective, they must continually adapt to changing conditions. No job lasts forever, nor should it.
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Building Our Girls’ Club
NetworkingEveryone knows that men get a lot of their business through the “boys’ club.” Now women are getting in on the action. Yes, women are forming their own version – a girls’ club.
Building Women’s Networks
The numbers show that women have a lot of catching up to do. Only 3% of all women-owned firms have revenues of $1 million or more compared with 6% of men-owned firms according to the Center for Women’s Business Research.
Organizations like the Women Presidents’ Organization and Women’s Leadership Exchange are giving women lots of opportunities to meet women in similar positions of power to share resources, connections and advice.
At the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), women attend monthly chapter meetings with about 20 other women in non-competing industries to discuss business alongside personal issues, such as how having children affects the growth of a company. There are 90 chapters around the world. In order to be a member, product based companies must earn at least $2 million in gross annual sales or a $1 million for service based businesses and women must either be an owner or a senior manager.
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Coalition of Investors Calls for Gender Diverse Leadership
Industry Leaders, LeadershipDespite a global movement to increase the number of women in leadership, a new report shows that, in the past year, women in the boardroom have only increased by .2%. This is not nearly enough for the improvement in governance diversity that many investors are calling for.
“Women on Boards,” a statistical review performed by Governance Results International, counted female representation on boards of directors, and showed little change in the number of women in leadership roles across the globe.
Julie Gorte, Pax World’s Senior VP for Sustainable Investing said, “Women are under represented on boards. They are better represented now than they have been previously, but the needle hasn’t moved far.”
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Voice of Experience: Brenda T. Dieck, Partner, White & Case
Voices of Experience“I love the thrill of negotiating and the satisfaction of closing the deal,” said Brenda T. Dieck, Partner in the New York and Los Angeles Bank Finance Practice Group at the law firm of White & Case LLP. “There are so many interesting puzzles to solve,” she explained.
Currently charged with building the firm’s LA bank finance practice, Dieck said, “It’s a unique opportunity to be part of a well-established practice group in New York, and at the same time, have the opportunity to be somewhat of an entrepreneur in LA, building a complementary team on the West Coast.”
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
NewsThe US Federal Reserve confirmed a much-anticipated expansion of its asset purchase programme with a second round of quantitative easing – dubbed QE2 – when it said it would buy $600bn of longer-term Treasury securities by mid-2011. Interest rates rose in both Australia and India, while the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, and the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged.
Economic Backdrop
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5 Ways to Get More Women Into Green Jobs
Green is GoodThis article originally appeared on our corporate citizenship website Evolved Employer.
Talk of more green jobs has been everywhere lately, touted as a solution to our economic crisis soaring unemployment rate, and impending climate change situation. However, most green jobs to date have been male-dominated, labor-intensive roles in construction and manufacturing. With women comprising nearly 50% of the current workforce, the green solution will not be nearly as effective without involving more women and utilizing their strengths.
The EPA reported that U.S. buildings are responsible for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s total carbon emissions and almost 75 percent of total electricity consumption each year. Strides toward more environmentally-friendly new construction, as well as retro-fitting older buildings to improve their carbon footprint could make a huge impact. Men may dominate the manual labor market for this niche, but woman could help lead the way.
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Why Negotiating and Networking Go Hand in Hand
Career Management, Featured, NetworkingPanelist Carol Frohlinger, Principal at Negotiating Women Inc. and co-author of Her Place at the Table, commented, “Women often suffer from the tiara syndrome – we work hard and wait for someone to place a tiara on our head.” But, she said, in today’s environment, we can not wait for someone to notice hard work or reward it appropriately.
“We must proactively negotiate for the conditions of our own success,” Frohlinger said.
The event’s panelists included Frohlinger, Anne Erni, Head of Leadership, Learning and Diversity, Bloomberg; Camille Mirshokrai, Global Director of Leadership Development, Accenture; Linda Descano, President and CEO, Citi Women & Co.; and Kathleen Weslock, Chief Human Resources Officer, SunGard. The discussion was moderated by Selena Rezvani, co-founder of Women’s Roadmap, Washington Post columnist, and author of The Next Generation of Women Leaders.
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