Contributed by Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D.
What are your relationship strengths and weaknesses?
The answer is not what you think; in fact, it comes down to exploring how one interacts with one’s co-workers. That is what I and my co-authors, Timothy Keiningham and Luke Williams of Ipsos Loyalty, discovered when we embarked on our study about relationship styles. The Ipsos Loyalty study, the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted, comprised thousands of responses for a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. In conducting the study, we found key differences between how men and women build relationships with their co-workers whether it be their boss, peers or those who report directly to them.
Knowing and understanding these differences can be of great use to those looking to gain competitive advantages at work and as a leader. In fact, it turns out that the more connected we feel to the people we work with, the more happiness and fulfillment we experience. Sadly, our study revealed that only one in 20 invests the time and effort to build relationships in the workplace.
The key to building better relationships starts with self awareness. We found that everyone has a distinct combination of ten relationship styles that makes up his or her “RELATIONSHIP DNA.” Five of those 10 styles demonstrated the main differences between the sexes: Our results indicated that women excel at three distinct relationship styles and problem coping styles compared to men (empathy, connectedness and emotion-focused coping), but falter in two (security and calculativeness), compared to men.
Taking a closer look, we explain each of the five styles, and dissect the various business pros and cons of each one.
In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
NewsThe IMF has raised its forecast for global growth this year. Details of the EU’s stress test plan were released Wednesday and European lawmakers gave their backing to an overhaul of Europe’s system for supervising financial institutions and markets. Ernst & Young is to appoint non-executive directors to its global advisory board as it comes under regulatory scrutiny.
Overview
Read more
Leverage Your Relationship DNA in the Workplace
Expert AnswersWhat are your relationship strengths and weaknesses?
The answer is not what you think; in fact, it comes down to exploring how one interacts with one’s co-workers. That is what I and my co-authors, Timothy Keiningham and Luke Williams of Ipsos Loyalty, discovered when we embarked on our study about relationship styles. The Ipsos Loyalty study, the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted, comprised thousands of responses for a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. In conducting the study, we found key differences between how men and women build relationships with their co-workers whether it be their boss, peers or those who report directly to them.
Knowing and understanding these differences can be of great use to those looking to gain competitive advantages at work and as a leader. In fact, it turns out that the more connected we feel to the people we work with, the more happiness and fulfillment we experience. Sadly, our study revealed that only one in 20 invests the time and effort to build relationships in the workplace.
The key to building better relationships starts with self awareness. We found that everyone has a distinct combination of ten relationship styles that makes up his or her “RELATIONSHIP DNA.” Five of those 10 styles demonstrated the main differences between the sexes: Our results indicated that women excel at three distinct relationship styles and problem coping styles compared to men (empathy, connectedness and emotion-focused coping), but falter in two (security and calculativeness), compared to men.
Taking a closer look, we explain each of the five styles, and dissect the various business pros and cons of each one.
Read more
From CIO to CEO: Beat the Odds and Make the Jump
Featured, Next LevelIf I don’t have my BlackBerry I don’t feel properly dressed. Given that technology has such a big role to play in our business and personal lives, you would have thought that the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a crucial lynchpin in any organisation. For the most part, CIO’s are seen as important people – but they are just not quite CEO material. The rest of the C-suite see them as slightly geeky and lacking the range of skills required to cut it at the very top. It’s rare for CIOs to make it out of the server room and into the chair at the head of the table.
Of course, there are some exceptions. Philip Clarke, CIO of Tesco, is taking over from Sir Terry Leahy when he retires next year. Of course, Clarke runs the international wing of the UK retailer as well as steering the technology division. It doesn’t look as if his new job title will start a sea change in CIOs becoming top dog. Will CIOs still sadly joke that the acronym stands for Career Is Over?
So why have so few CIOs made the leap to running a company – and how can they get there?
Read more
Voice of Experience: Yvonne Schneider, Senior Vice President Global Commercial Services Technologies, American Express
Voices of ExperienceBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Yvonne Schneider is a panelist at today’s Women in IT event, hosted by The Glass Hammer.
“I consider myself a global leader,” said Yvonne Schneider, SVP Global Commercial Services Technologies at American Express. “I align employees across five regions around the world and we’re a high performing team. My employees have a lot of responsibility and visibility.”
Schneider’s role at Amex is about managing – and creating – change. She works to create and deploy new solutions to the company’s global corporate client base, she explained. “The adoption of emerging technologies is something we’re paying a lot of attention to. But it’s a matter of putting the right technology at the right time in the right market – the same technology is not the right solution everywhere in the world.”
“What we do is work on automating the workforce,” she said, “and this is changing the face of the world and how it operates and its people.”
Read more
More Women Leaders: Time For A Different Approach
Industry Leaders, LeadershipOne definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result. If we want more women in senior leadership positions we need to take a different approach. The current one isn’t working.
We’ve repeatedly called on Board Directors and C-suite executives to act on the strong business case for appointing more female colleagues, with minimal impact.
The 2009 Catalyst Census of Fortune 500 Women Board Directors revealed that less than one fifth of companies have three or more women on their boards, and more than 40 percent have no women directors whatsoever.
At the last count, women comprised only 15.2 and 13.5 percent of board directors and corporate officers respectively in Fortune 500 companies.
The United States is not alone in its boys club mentality. Canada’s Financial Post 500 companies have only 14 percent female board directors, and 16.9 percent corporate officers. Similarly, women hold only 9.7 percent board positions in Europe’s top 300 companies.
Research shows companies with at least three female board members, and more women in senior leadership roles, produce stronger-than-average financial and organizational results. But the boys at the top just aren’t buying it.
It’s time to stop banging our heads against the same brick wall and instead, think more broadly about where we might influence change.
Read more
New AXA Study Shows More Women Saving for Retirement
NewsAccording to a new study released by AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, twice as many women than men said their top financial worry was not being able to save enough for retirement. This is for good reason, too. Though many were hit hard by the recent financial crisis, women in particular took a major blow, with fewer women than men able to recover their retirement savings investments.
One of the biggest champions behind this study, entitled Retirement in America: A Survey of Concerns and Expectations, was Barbara Goodstein, AXA’s Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer. For the past three years, Goodstein was part of the team that conducted extensive research on women’s financial goals. According to the Goodstein, when considering the hardships women face as they get older, it should come as no surprise that they’re more concerned about retirement.
“Women are more concerned for their financial future because they find themselves in very different positions than men later in life,” Goodstein said. “In many cases, women make about 80 percent of what men make doing similar work. Over the span of their lifetime, men work about twelve years longer than women. Women live longer than men and 40 percent of marriages end in divorce. When you consider these facts, it becomes clear that many single women and widows are likely to face retirement alone and all of the financial difficulties that come with that.”
Read more
Lawyer or Mom: Choose Only One?
Work-LifeAs the confirmation hearings on Elena Kagan conclude, one question remains unanswered. What does Kagan’s nomination mean for American lawyer moms?
While the nomination of Kagan has been lauded as groundbreaking – setting the stage for three women sitting on the Supreme Court for the first time in American history – the nomination also marks the second time in about a year that President Obama has chosen a childless woman to replace a male justice on the Court.
That Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are unmarried and childless has many commentators speculating about the choices women today must make in order to achieve heights in their chosen careers, particularly in the legal field.
Indeed, few American lawyers, answering honestly, would cite coincidence that both Sotomayor and Kagan are childless and highly successful lawyers. Most call Kagan and Sotomayor’s paths ones of personal choice. No doubt. But framing the relevant issue as one of choice between children and career leaves American moms feeling marginalized. American lawyer moms? Even more so.
Read more
Voice of Experience: Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President, Nuveen Investments
Voices of ExperienceIn talking to Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President of Nuveen Investments, its clear that what she’s valued the most throughout her career is her ability to be a part of and to build effective teams.
While her career has taken her from The Bank of New York to Bear Stearns Asset Management, and now to Nuveen Investments, she continues to prize her role as a manager and team builder, investigating and working to improve the dynamic and effectiveness of the groups she’s led.
Cook said, “The most rewarding thing is to have a strong team that works together well. They know how to respond to challenges, and move ahead. It may be more time consuming – but a strong team can accomplish more than a group of people acting as individuals.”
Read more
Happy Independence Day!
NewsThe Glass Hammer is taking a long weekend to celebrate Independence Day. If you’re not out watching the fireworks, why not take a few minutes to catch up on a few of our recent most popular stories?
And, don’t forget to check out our Thursday, July 8 event: Women in IT – Staying Technical and Getting to the Top. We’re also planning two more events for this fall, so keep an eye on our events page!
Finally, The Glass Hammer is always looking for more writers. Do you have a story to tell? Email me at melissa@theglasshammer.com and we’ll talk about putting your voice on the site!
The Heart of Risk Management? Data
NewsAt the heart of risk management is data management. This is according to three speakers at the Securities Information and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Technology Expo. Edward Hida, partner at Deloitte & Touche, Keith Sexton, the global director of the financial markets at IBM, and Chris Church, the CEO of SWIFT Americas were all given the opportunity to explain how their companies were tackling risk management.
Deloitte Surveys Market Participants For Answers
Deloitte & Touche interviewed regulators, securities broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, and exchanges to find out how they defined and viewed systemic risk. They also set out to discover what information was needed from these financial institutions to identify, measure and monitor systemic risk.
What they came up with was a variety of approaches involving regulators, clearing houses and financial institutions that would help manage and measure a firm’s exposure to risk. The range of solutions involved regulators developing stress tests and financial institutions performing, analyzing and reporting the results as well as regulators developing a consistent standard for enterprise-wide risk reporting across the market.
Hida also described an approach that involved building a trade repository where firms would provide data and where regulators and clearing houses could measure and monitor that information in terms of risk exposure.
Read more