“In the moment, you might think that your path in life doesn’t seem clear. It might seem like it’s going in a direction that’s not what you had planned,” says Wells Fargo’s Kelli Hill, based in Minneapolis. “I’ve learned to go with it and have confidence that life will take you right where you need to be.”
From unexpected career and personal turns to crossing the finish line at an Ironman Triathlon, Hill shares on navigating towards growth and fulfillment.
Trusting A “Zig-Zagging” Career Track
“Prior to joining Wells Fargo over eight years ago, I would have described my career path as a bit of a zig-zag road. That’s the way that I thought of it.”
While at the University of Minnesota Law School, she wanted to become a public defender. But Hill remembers sitting in a tax class one day and turning to the student next to her and saying, “Isn’t this fantastic?” The reaction she received was quite the contrary.
That was the moment she suspected this might be the field for her.
Out of law school, Hill took a job in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche. She left Deloitte (now Deloitte Tax) to practice law and spent most of private law practice in the trust & estates and business transition planning groups at Minneapolis-based, Fredrikson & Byron, PA. She enjoyed the work, the firm and her colleagues, and was learning a lot, but felt like something was missing.
“I didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I was a successful attorney and worked at a terrific firm with so many talented colleagues, but was never really completely fulfilled.’” reflects Hill.
Hill left private law practice to run the tax, trust and legal group of a single-family office headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was during her time at the family office that Hill discovered the benefits and impact that having a financial plan and, specifically doing strategic wealth planning, can have on high net worth families.
When she joined Wells Fargo as a senior wealth planning strategist in 2012, she began to see congruency in the experiences she’d accumulated and where she was going, eventually rising to a Senior Director of Planning in Wealth Management.
“I thought to myself, ‘my entire career path has been tailor-made for this role and this experience,’” says Hill. “It was no longer a zig-zag to me.”
Working with Individuals and Families
What Hill loves most about her work in wealth management (and wealth planning, in particular) is supporting and advising clients on personal and financial decisions that are otherwise difficult to make, to greater outcomes than you might even imagine.
“As a professional, when you help somebody to make financial decisions, it has a qualitative impact that often far outweighs any tax dollars saved,” she says. “It can have such profound impacts on their lives and, when that happens, the appreciation and gratitude is overwhelming.”
As an exemplary moment of this, Hill recalls working with a family to transition their business to the next generation. Her work led to conversations that, as a family, they had not previously been able to confront.
“We had this moment where they actually told each other how they felt about the business and their desired places in it,” remembers Hill, “I will never forget it.” Beyond ultimately being able to identify solutions that enabled the family to achieve their financial goals, Hill recalls this moment and how important to the family their work together had become.
Being Open and Receptive to Mentorship
“I would not be in the position I am today without having had the benefit of supportive mentors and sponsors,” Hill attests. “I’ve worked with some pretty wonderful people in my career, especially while at Wells Fargo. In fact, most of the mentors and sponsors with whom I’ve had the privilege of having were/are managers of mine.”
If you want to attain strong mentorship and sponsorship, whether you are the mentor or mentee, Hill recommends listening, being receptive and open, and most of all—being yourself. Early in her career, Hill recalls a mentor saying to her “don’t try to fake it, people will know.”
“I always try to be open to feedback, even if it stings a little. I want to continue to improve and work on my professional and personal development,” she notes. “The individuals who have become my mentors and sponsors have pointed out that my openness to feedback and focus on self-improvement are characteristics they enjoy most about working with me. The other is my being authentic, being me.”
Hill says her professional self is just who she is. These days, that includes embracing the realness of her seven year old daughter wanting to say hello to her colleagues on a Zoom call.
“This is me,” says Hill. “I always try to be my authentic self. To really connect with people —your colleagues, your clients —you have to let them see you. I’ve learned that to be a great leader, it’s a good thing to be vulnerable, authentic, natural. To be you.”
Hill also recommends implementing the advice you receive.
“It’s one thing to solicit and ask for advice and guidance,” says Hill. “It’s another thing to actually take it, and I do my best to do so and will continue to.”
Growth Through Change And Adversity
On a personal level, Hill values personal growth through challenge as well as learning through making mistakes.
In her early thirties, she experienced an unexpected divorce that shook her world.
“I took the opportunity to work through a big change in my life very seriously,” says Hill. “I remember saying, ‘This is an opportunity for me to really figure out who I am.’ It impacted my life tremendously, it was traumatic—and yet I would do it all over again, every bump, every hurdle. My life experiences have helped shape who I am today and, as painful as some may have been to go through, I appreciate them all.”
In both personal and work life, Hill is aware the road of transition can be a time of discomfort and challenge, but keeps focused on the vision.
On an organizational level, Wells Fargo has embarked on an evolution to create greater consistency around bringing financial products, services and solutions to all clients through a more horizontal structure. While the work will result in “a more effective and efficient organization for our clients and shareholders, the change can be challenging.”
“When we look back six months from now, we’ll see how we’ve transformed and know that it is right where we are supposed to be.” Hill tells her team.
Trusting Your Own Strength
Hill never for a moment doubted her own vision of being personally successful. Though she came from a single-parent household with modest financial means, Hill is proud of being the first in her family to go to college and then on to law school, which was the beginning of her career path.
While recovering from that divorce years ago, she remembers a moment of personal empowerment that taught her she was capable of anything.
A few years into her career, she was a self-confessed coach potato who realized it was time to change. The first time she put on a pair of tennis shoes and ran a single mile, it took her 14 minutes. But she was thrilled.
Then, she was hooked—training up to participate in marathons and eventually an Ironman triathlon.
“I remember crossing the finish line of the Wisconsin Ironman and thinking, ‘There is nothing I can’t do’” beams Hill, who also met her husband through the triathlon community, with whom she is raising their daughter.
Her contagious enthusiasm has encouraged several others on the running path, and she keeps up a morning workout which she loves, though being a mom is now her number one priority.
Her favorite time with her daughter is bedtime reading. It began with she and her husband reading to their daughter when she was an infant and now it’s listening to their daughter read to them—and Hill wouldn’t trade it for any finish line, not these days.
Abbot Downing, a Wells Fargo business, offers products and services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its various affiliates and subsidiaries. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.
Veronica Willis: Investment Strategy Analyst, Wells Fargo Investment Institute
Movers and Shakers, PeopleWells Fargo’s Willis discusses a career shift into investment strategy, finding her own stride as a leader, and what the remote working environment has taught her so far.
Moving Toward Investment Analysis
A Chicago native, Willis graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in mathematics with a concentration in statistics and a second major in Spanish language and literature.
After joining Wells Fargo in 2012, she put her quantitative prowess into application in researching and running quantitative models for developed and emerging countries, commodities and currencies.
From working in heavy quantitative analysis, she began to investigate the strategic side and felt herself pulled in that direction.
“I realized the writing side was interesting to me,” says Willis. “I began to explore the research and strategy side, especially around commodities. And while the quantitative work still mattered, I found my interests were going in a different direction.”
In 2015, she began to move into research and recommendations around asset allocation with the head of asset allocation, bringing strategic market insight into advising investors on how to minimize risk and maximize success, in alignment with their investment goals.
Currently she is part of Wells Fargo Investment Institute, focusing on clients of Wells Fargo’s Wealth & Investment Management division —where much like bridging the rich diversity of her two university majors, she combines an aptitude for quantitative and qualitative insight.
Becoming a Leader
Willis is proud of the new tax efficient asset allocation models that launched on December 1, a project she worked on throughout this year and for which she took the lead.
“It’s been a great opportunity to show my leadership abilities,” reflects Willis. “It’s really amazing we were able to get this completed in this complicated year.”
As she takes on new leadership opportunities and challenges, Willis is coming into stride with the gear-shift that rising to leadership asks of her.
“As a leader, I’m excited to learn how to take the lead in projects, how to manage peers and take ownership,” she says. “That can be a fine balance if you move from working with people as peers to then being in charge of a project. I struggled a little with the shift at first.”
However as she ventured into this territory, Willis quickly gleaned?? that real leadership is never a one-size-fits all approach, but a matter of listening and attentiveness.
“I think the key is to figure out how people want to be managed, style-wise,” says Willis. “Some people want autonomy and to be left alone. Some people want a lot of check-ins. As a leader, you need to meet them in the style that is best for them.”
Willis is now enjoying expanding her experience in people management.
“I want to be a leader who develops people on the team,” she says, “I want to guide them in their careers, especially now in this remote work environment, as teams are geo-diverse, and there’s just not the opportunity to catch up in the office as there once was.”
Attuning the Work-Life Balance
Willis finds that the remote workplace has prompted her to increase mastery of her time management and prioritization skills.
“I’ve learned time management working from home,” says Willis, who produced a massive amount of intensive research during the volatility in the spring. “I used to pull long days and check emails outside of the office constantly. I realized when I was working from home that I had to draw some boundaries and stop at a certain time.”
Stepping away from the office, Willis has found it easier to curtail the 24/7 availability habits and instead create a better work-life balance.
“It’s very easy to stay logged in, checking and replying to emails, long after the work day has finished,” says Willis. “I’ve learned it’s okay to turn off the work phone, and I plan to continue to have the off-time delineation when we go back to the office.”
Mentoring and Supporting Others
During the first year of her career with Wells Fargo, Willis had a formal sponsor who advocated for her and still does to this day.
Willis has found that mentorship is very valuable in building up her transferable skills, and she wishes to pass that support onto others.
“My mentor helped me find my voice to help others and build my skills,” she says. “I mentor people who are now going through the same program that I myself started my career in.”
Outside of work, Willis also serves on a young professional board at the Saint Louis Crisis Nursery, focused on stopping abuse and neglect of children. She supports the organization in creating a safe space for kids to come and providing help-line support for overwhelmed parents in need.
Be Willing to Discern and Expand
If she could say anything to her younger self, it would be to practice discernment and own your ‘no’s’ as much as your ‘yes’s’ in alignment with valuing your time and professional goals.
“It’s okay to say no to some requests,” she reflects. “I was always saying ‘yes’ early in my career, and I would tell my younger self to be more selective, especially if you’re trying to build a specific skill-set.”
Her advice to others is not to let your past interests or roles define the latitude of your future possibilities.
“Don’t necessarily box yourself in — you don’t have to be what you studied in college. You can explore new things that interest you and that you have passion around,” Willis encourages. “It’s okay to build those skill, and then it’s okay to follow your passions and grow.”
Risks
All investing involves risks including the possible loss of principal.
Disclosures
Wells Fargo Investment Institute, Inc., is a registered investment adviser and wholly-owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., a bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.
The information in this report is for general information purposes only and is not intended to predict or guarantee the future performance of any individual security, market sector or the markets generally.
The information contained herein constitutes general information and is not directed to, designed for, or individually tailored to, any particular investor or potential investor. This report is not intended to be a client-specific suitability or best interest analysis or recommendation, an offer to participate in any investment, or a recommendation to buy, hold or sell securities. Do not use this report as the sole basis for investment decisions. Do not select an asset class or investment product based on performance alone. Consider all relevant information, including your existing portfolio, investment objectives, risk tolerance, liquidity needs and investment time horizon.
Wells Fargo Wealth and Investment Management, a division within the Wells Fargo & Company enterprise, provides financial products and services through bank and brokerage affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. Brokerage products and services offered through Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Bank products are offered through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Great Listening Is Still A Two-Way Conversation
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Empathetic listening is an essential component of influential leadership—it fosters better connections, supportive relationships and increased commitment.
Not only does listening require a willingness to listen, but also understanding of both the spoken and unspoken messages, as well as active engagement with the speaker’s opinions and ideas.
If you’ve made a practice of simply not speaking while listening, or parroting back the speaker’s points, it’s time to redefine what good listening looks like.
Listening in a Zoom Office World
Previously, our multi-tasking technology was one of the distractions that made listening more difficult in the workplace. Now, technology has become the workplace itself.
As we conduct most of our group conversations online, we are more inclined than ever to zone out, whilst active listening is even more important to meeting cohesion.
According to Sarah Gershman in Harvard Business Review, President of Green Room Speakers, within a virtual meeting, we are especially subject to the “Ringelmann effect” – the bigger the group for a task, the less responsibility each person feels in making the effort a success and the less personal effort each exerts.
While this effect occurs in an in-person meeting too, the online office amplifies the tendencies to tune out and talk over each other. Whether leading the meeting, one of many participants or engaged in a one-on-one, your quality of listening still matters.
Strategies for doing your part in creating meeting cohesion include:
Good Listening = A Conversation That Elevates
In Harvard Business Review, co-researchers Jack Zenger (CEO) and Joseph Folkman (President) of Zenger/Folkman, assert that good listening is not what most people think: simply not talking over others, making affirming facial expressions and sounds, and repeating back what was heard.
While it’s also not a ping-pong of contrasting viewpoints or oneupmanship stories, zipping your lips is not the golden standard of listening.
Rather, the researchers found that great listening experiences feel like an elevating conversation. The best listeners are more like “trampolines” than “sponges.”
“They are someone you can bounce ideas off of — and rather than absorbing your ideas and energy, they amplify, energize, and clarify your thinking,” writes Zenger and Folkman. “They make you feel better not merely passively absorbing, but by actively supporting. This lets you gain energy and height, just like someone jumping on a trampoline.”
Qualities of a Good Listening Experience
The researchers found these core components of good listening experiences.
Good Listening:
Leveling Up as a Listener
A good listener doesn’t have an agenda—instead, park your own needs, wants and self-concept. Mistake one can be to self-identify as a good listener. Instead, take ‘yourself’ out of the way.
You can skill up by asking yourself these questions, related to levels of listening, which may also lay the trust foundation for making suggestions:
Extra Tips From Listening Leaders
According to Enterprisers Project on being a better listener, CEO Chris Kachris of InAccel suggests to take a page from reflective parenting: “Don’t try to reject or beautify their concerns, their stress, and their worries. Don’t try to convince about your opinion without first understanding their worries.”
Dr. Bahiyyah Moon, president and chief data officer of Polis Institute, advises, “The most important rule of listening is the 3-1 ratio. Listen three times longer than you talk. The next rule is to ask more than you respond. Typically people have a comment after another person speaks. Great leaders follow up with questions.”
Ed Jaffe, founder of Demo Solutions, shares, “It is not just listening, it is trying to see the problem from the side of someone else, and understand why they are saying it. You do not have to validate the idea, but you must validate the person.”
“Listening is the key to asking the right questions” says Nicki Gilmour, the head coach of Evolved People Coaching and Founder of theglasshammer.com. “Tuning in to people requires hearing not just the content of what they are saying, but listening for the meta messages of what is really going on to help people identify what really matters.”
Ultimately, leveling up your listening can only create better connections, and enable you to become a more empathetic and expansive leader.
By Aimee Hansen
Kelli Hill: Senior Director of Planning, Central Region, Wells Fargo Private Bank
People, Voices of Experience“In the moment, you might think that your path in life doesn’t seem clear. It might seem like it’s going in a direction that’s not what you had planned,” says Wells Fargo’s Kelli Hill, based in Minneapolis. “I’ve learned to go with it and have confidence that life will take you right where you need to be.”
From unexpected career and personal turns to crossing the finish line at an Ironman Triathlon, Hill shares on navigating towards growth and fulfillment.
Trusting A “Zig-Zagging” Career Track
“Prior to joining Wells Fargo over eight years ago, I would have described my career path as a bit of a zig-zag road. That’s the way that I thought of it.”
While at the University of Minnesota Law School, she wanted to become a public defender. But Hill remembers sitting in a tax class one day and turning to the student next to her and saying, “Isn’t this fantastic?” The reaction she received was quite the contrary.
That was the moment she suspected this might be the field for her.
Out of law school, Hill took a job in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche. She left Deloitte (now Deloitte Tax) to practice law and spent most of private law practice in the trust & estates and business transition planning groups at Minneapolis-based, Fredrikson & Byron, PA. She enjoyed the work, the firm and her colleagues, and was learning a lot, but felt like something was missing.
“I didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I was a successful attorney and worked at a terrific firm with so many talented colleagues, but was never really completely fulfilled.’” reflects Hill.
Hill left private law practice to run the tax, trust and legal group of a single-family office headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was during her time at the family office that Hill discovered the benefits and impact that having a financial plan and, specifically doing strategic wealth planning, can have on high net worth families.
When she joined Wells Fargo as a senior wealth planning strategist in 2012, she began to see congruency in the experiences she’d accumulated and where she was going, eventually rising to a Senior Director of Planning in Wealth Management.
“I thought to myself, ‘my entire career path has been tailor-made for this role and this experience,’” says Hill. “It was no longer a zig-zag to me.”
Working with Individuals and Families
What Hill loves most about her work in wealth management (and wealth planning, in particular) is supporting and advising clients on personal and financial decisions that are otherwise difficult to make, to greater outcomes than you might even imagine.
“As a professional, when you help somebody to make financial decisions, it has a qualitative impact that often far outweighs any tax dollars saved,” she says. “It can have such profound impacts on their lives and, when that happens, the appreciation and gratitude is overwhelming.”
As an exemplary moment of this, Hill recalls working with a family to transition their business to the next generation. Her work led to conversations that, as a family, they had not previously been able to confront.
“We had this moment where they actually told each other how they felt about the business and their desired places in it,” remembers Hill, “I will never forget it.” Beyond ultimately being able to identify solutions that enabled the family to achieve their financial goals, Hill recalls this moment and how important to the family their work together had become.
Being Open and Receptive to Mentorship
“I would not be in the position I am today without having had the benefit of supportive mentors and sponsors,” Hill attests. “I’ve worked with some pretty wonderful people in my career, especially while at Wells Fargo. In fact, most of the mentors and sponsors with whom I’ve had the privilege of having were/are managers of mine.”
If you want to attain strong mentorship and sponsorship, whether you are the mentor or mentee, Hill recommends listening, being receptive and open, and most of all—being yourself. Early in her career, Hill recalls a mentor saying to her “don’t try to fake it, people will know.”
“I always try to be open to feedback, even if it stings a little. I want to continue to improve and work on my professional and personal development,” she notes. “The individuals who have become my mentors and sponsors have pointed out that my openness to feedback and focus on self-improvement are characteristics they enjoy most about working with me. The other is my being authentic, being me.”
Hill says her professional self is just who she is. These days, that includes embracing the realness of her seven year old daughter wanting to say hello to her colleagues on a Zoom call.
“This is me,” says Hill. “I always try to be my authentic self. To really connect with people —your colleagues, your clients —you have to let them see you. I’ve learned that to be a great leader, it’s a good thing to be vulnerable, authentic, natural. To be you.”
Hill also recommends implementing the advice you receive.
“It’s one thing to solicit and ask for advice and guidance,” says Hill. “It’s another thing to actually take it, and I do my best to do so and will continue to.”
Growth Through Change And Adversity
On a personal level, Hill values personal growth through challenge as well as learning through making mistakes.
In her early thirties, she experienced an unexpected divorce that shook her world.
“I took the opportunity to work through a big change in my life very seriously,” says Hill. “I remember saying, ‘This is an opportunity for me to really figure out who I am.’ It impacted my life tremendously, it was traumatic—and yet I would do it all over again, every bump, every hurdle. My life experiences have helped shape who I am today and, as painful as some may have been to go through, I appreciate them all.”
In both personal and work life, Hill is aware the road of transition can be a time of discomfort and challenge, but keeps focused on the vision.
On an organizational level, Wells Fargo has embarked on an evolution to create greater consistency around bringing financial products, services and solutions to all clients through a more horizontal structure. While the work will result in “a more effective and efficient organization for our clients and shareholders, the change can be challenging.”
“When we look back six months from now, we’ll see how we’ve transformed and know that it is right where we are supposed to be.” Hill tells her team.
Trusting Your Own Strength
Hill never for a moment doubted her own vision of being personally successful. Though she came from a single-parent household with modest financial means, Hill is proud of being the first in her family to go to college and then on to law school, which was the beginning of her career path.
While recovering from that divorce years ago, she remembers a moment of personal empowerment that taught her she was capable of anything.
A few years into her career, she was a self-confessed coach potato who realized it was time to change. The first time she put on a pair of tennis shoes and ran a single mile, it took her 14 minutes. But she was thrilled.
Then, she was hooked—training up to participate in marathons and eventually an Ironman triathlon.
“I remember crossing the finish line of the Wisconsin Ironman and thinking, ‘There is nothing I can’t do’” beams Hill, who also met her husband through the triathlon community, with whom she is raising their daughter.
Her contagious enthusiasm has encouraged several others on the running path, and she keeps up a morning workout which she loves, though being a mom is now her number one priority.
Her favorite time with her daughter is bedtime reading. It began with she and her husband reading to their daughter when she was an infant and now it’s listening to their daughter read to them—and Hill wouldn’t trade it for any finish line, not these days.
Abbot Downing, a Wells Fargo business, offers products and services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its various affiliates and subsidiaries. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.
2020 Year In Review: Are We Ready for the Bigger Questions in 2021?
NewsIn this annual year in review, TheGlassHammer considers the major updates that we’ve witnessed for women, diversity and inclusion.
Women’s Representation in Leadership in 2020
First of all, a quick glance at leadership statistics. Based on 2019, an “all-time record” of 37 women were represented among Fortune 500 CEOs, three being women of color. Nearly 93% of top companies are still steered by men, with few black men present.
The Global 500 includes 13 businesses run by women, none being women of color. Over 97% of the world’s top businesses have men at the helm. When it comes to boardrooms seats globally, women held 16.9% of seats though research cites women’s board presence as a business imperative.
Although VC-backed founder teams that include women hire 2.5 times more women, raise more in capital and generate more revenue, 2020 has brought a dip to the already marginal amounts of Venture Capital funds going to women founders (only 1.8% as of September 30th, down from 2.6% in 2019)—with industry speculation that funders are ‘playing it safe’ within their staid networks.
Korn Ferry also observed that global firms have in many ways leaned towards freeze mode rather than opportunity and innovation during the “giant pause,” especially in leadership.
Meanwhile, continued lack of women in tech and tech leadership contributes to rendering women invisible by design in our world.
COVID-19’s Big Impact on Gender Equality
Though many women we’ve interviewed have felt fortunate for the work-life integration of remote working and the Zoom living room office, this sudden shift was brought by collective trauma and simultaneous to at-home care-taking and education responsibilities.
More broadly on a global scale, we’ve tipped into a staggering regression in gender equality that is getting lost in the conversation.
The World Economic Forum declared COVID-19 “the biggest setback to gender equality in a decade.” UN Women reported that “While everyone is facing unprecedented challenges, women are bearing the brunt of the economic and social fallout of COVID-19”—which is widening the gender poverty gap and the gender educational gap.
Women are disproportionately employed in the industries most impacted by the pandemic, and their jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable than men’s, according to McKinsey’s study of pandemic gender impacts.
While women make up 39% of overall employment, they accounted for 54% of job losses as of May 2020 – an employment exodus so overly female that it’s been dubbed a “shecession.”
“As COVID-19 has disproportionately increased the time women spend on family responsibilities,” write the McKinsey researchers in Harvard Business Review, “women have dropped out of the workforce at a higher rate than explained by labor-market dynamics alone.”
In the US, women are taking on 1.5 to 2.0 extra hours of family responsibilities per day – including at home education responsibilities. For many the multiple changes are off-setting mental health, physical well-being and work-life balance.
A Deloitte Global research survey which polled 400 working women around the globe found that 82% found their lives had “been negatively disrupted by the pandemic” and 70% of those women were “concerned about their ability to progress in their careers.”
Deloitte found that among women who had experienced shifts in their daily routine from the pandemic, 65% had more household chores and a third had bigger workloads. Among these women, those shouldering 75% or more of caregiving responsibilities tripled (from 17% to 48%).
The research also found that women without caregiving responsibilities were experiencing different kinds of stressors, more likely to feel they needed to be always “on” and available at work (53% vs. 44%).
These women reported feeling overwhelmed more so than their caregiving peers (58% vs. 41%) – which highlights a need for women to create their own healthy boundaries despite the normalized, technology-enabled business culture of 24/7 availability.
Both teams of researchers push for policymakers and business leaders to “take action now” to curb the impact on women, as the “do nothing” scenarios show far graver gender equality and economic impacts.
Women’s Leadership In Headlines in 2020
While the floor is being seriously shaken on gender equality on a global level, women have featured in the leadership headlines of 2020.
The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) on September 18th, amidst the presidential election campaign, closed a 27 year stint and preceding judicial legacy that included redefining gender roles, challenging sex-discrimination, supporting women’s reproductive rights, voting for same sex marriage and confronting other social inequities. The loss of RBG has thrown the future balance of the highest court decision-making into question.
In RBG’s words, ”Women’s rights are an essential part of the overall human rights agenda, trained on the equal dignity and ability to live in freedom all people should enjoy.”
The Supreme Court replacement was a woman considered to be of conservative ideology, Amy Coney Barrett. This gives us pause as it is a great example of the conflict that arises when we try to hold competing ideas in our head. In this case the happiness of another woman in the seat adjacent to the notion that she may not rule in the interests of women’s rights with a track record to show such tendencies.
Meanwhile U.S. Senator Kamala Harris collected yet another breakthrough first in her expansive leadership career when she became the first women US vice president-elect this November.
As a multiracial woman, she will also be the first Black person and person of South Asian descent to hold the office – with hopes that she may become the first women US president.
And it’s no surprise that Catalyst CEO Champions for Change who pledged to support women and women of color into leadership are leading in bringing more gender and racial equity into leadership.
Where Do We Go In 2021?
A paradox of the events of 2020 is that some conversations have become so divisive they can barely be approached, while other social injustice topics have finally been put on the table where we cannot look away from them—especially, systemic racism.
If we want real change, more conversations need to be put on the unavoidable table, no matter how much vulnerability they bring up or how hard they are to confront, within and between us.
As a culture, we are arguably becoming more conscious of the many aspects of cultural social architecture we have been complicit in accepting as normative – down to the level of making visible the microaggressions that uphold racism.
Many top executive women who have spoken to us this year are emphasizing taking diversity and inclusion out of its departmental silo. As a side dish discussion, it’s at best lip service.
What will the leadership numbers look like when we review the board and executive levels of 2020?
And regardless, we are still talking year after year about top business leadership in the 90th percentiles of men and far too few people of color, as we report on “record highs” that are only micro-progress.
Can we talk about that?
Right now, we are witnessing a drop in women employment so fast that it’s crippling any progress on global gender equality. A few women making headlines in leadership will not offset that.
Do the ethics of companies and leadership still carry a paradigm that depends on this gap?
Can we talk about that?
As we enter into 2021 having already adopted the language of the “new normal,” the question increasingly becomes what do we want to make it?
Will we be willing to make the invisible even more visible? What questions are we willing to ask? Instead of being caught in crisis response, are we ready for real cultural re-envisioning?
What values are at the center of a “new normal” and where is it taking us? What connects us, what divides us, and can we find our way back home?
Where do we need to stop telling the same narrative and further stand up, from within ourselves?
Are we ready to find out, together?
By Aimee Hansen
Melanie Priddy: Chief Talent Officer, Katten
People, Voices of ExperiencePhoto provided by Gittings Photography
“At the end of day, relationships are the key to everything, regardless of what industry you’re in, or what your profession is,” says Melanie Priddy.
Katten’s Chief Talent Officer speaks about the value of connections, the need to merge professional development with diversity and the importance of self-advocacy.
Becoming a Business Professional in Law
“I wish I could tell you this was the plan all along, but sometimes the careers we find are ones we fall into,” says Priddy, about being a people-oriented business professional within the legal industry.
Upon graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, she started her legal career as a practicing lawyer at an Am Law 50 firm.
After a few years as a transactional attorney, Priddy gravitated toward recruiting attorneys for law firms and counseling law students on their career options. She went to work for a staffing firm and then a university and found that she loved advising others on making choices to navigate their career in line with their ambitions.
Priddy joined Katten in 2008 as an attorney recruiting and development manager in the firm’s Los Angeles office, where she managed professional development programs for associates for a few years. She worked at a couple other law firms before she returned to Katten in 2018 as Chief Talent Officer based in the Washington, DC office where she oversees administrative areas including human resources, attorney recruitment, professional development, and diversity and inclusion with an eye on hiring, career growth opportunities, diversity and inclusion efforts, and retention of both attorneys and business professionals.
Diversity and Development Are Inseparable
“To me, diversity and professional development are closely tied,” says Priddy.
At a previous firm, she led recruiting strategies and managed training programs. She took the initiative to expand her role by launching a diverse lawyer mentoring program. She became the Development & Diversity Manager and implemented programs to advance diversity and inclusion within the firm. At a subsequent firm, Priddy was able to incorporate her work in professional development programming with her interest in making workplaces more diverse and inclusive.
“I honestly pressed for it, rather than sitting back and waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder,” says Priddy. “I had to say, ‘I think I would be really good at this combination of roles, and let me explain how and why they should be combined for me to be successful, and what I could do.’ That set the stage for me to be in the role I have now at Katten.”
She’s committed to offering diversity and development support at every level, and integrating it into the decision-making process at law firms.
“My approach has been that diversity is part of every discussion—when you are talking about recruitment, about development, about choices people are making with regards to business or client development or opportunities around training,” states Priddy.
From the top down in law firm hierarchy, diversity should be top of mind.
“One of the things we always talk about is that everyone is responsible for improving diversity in the legal field,” she says. “The diversity professional brings the opportunities and the resources to others in the law firm or legal industry, but everyone is responsible for ensuring a diverse workforce. When you look at it that way, then you’re really going to make progress.”
Priddy emphasizes Katten’s successful participation in the Mansfield Rule, which sets benchmarks for women, attorneys of color, LGBTQ+ attorneys, and attorneys with disabilities to account for at least 30 percent of the candidate pool considered for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions. This initiative, coupled with the firm’s newly launched Kattalyst Sponsorship program aimed at retaining and advancing diverse associates and income partners, works toward the goal of increasing representation of historically underrepresented attorneys in law firm leadership.
Invest in Relationships and Self-Advocacy
Priddy stresses how important it is to nurture relationships and curate a support network for career guidance.
“When I started in my career, as many people do, I thought if you just keep your head down and work hard, everything will be okay. You’ll advance and be rewarded,” she reflects. “What I’ve come to realize over time is the importance of developing relationships—obviously with the people you’re working with and for, but also outside of your immediate circle and within the industry itself.”
She advises others to network within various organizations that align with their interests at all stages of their careers. For example, she has been involved with the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), previously serving on the board of directors and most recently as chair of the nominating committee, which solicits nominations for elected positions, slates members for officer and director positions and administers the election process.
She also stresses the importance of advocating for yourself to achieve your goals.
“As women, often there’s a tendency to downplay your success, your role or leadership skills, whether with a boss or with a group,” she says. “But someone else can’t speak up for you on your behalf, if you don’t do it for yourself first.”
Bring Your Whole Self
“A lot of times as women of color, we bring just a part of ourselves to work and we leave a broader sense of who we are back at home,” she says.
Priddy feels that this year’s remote work environment is helping to break down some barriers with her colleagues.
“Our personal and professional lives are so blended because we’re at home, and you hear my dog barking and you see my kids going through the background—and I’m getting my job done,” says Priddy. “I would say in some respects, because of tearing down these walls, I’m more connected to people now than I was in person.”
She adds, “I see how important it is to bring some vulnerability into the workplace so people feel like they can connect and share and get to know you.”
Supporting Personal and Professional Integration
Priddy has been instrumental in Katten’s efforts to destigmatize mental health issues and to draw attention to substance use disorders within the legal profession by joining the American Bar Association’s well-being pledge and launching a firm-wide wellness program, Katten Well-Being 360: Live Well, Work Well, Be Well to support attorneys and employees with information, training, and helpful resources.
She’s proud of being a mother of two sons, ages 10 and 13, modeling for them a world where they grow up with a mother who has a seat at the table where high-level decisions are made.
Under Priddy’s leadership, Katten created a Parents Affinity Group as a resource and support network for working parents at the firm to connect and discuss approaches to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. She also worked with firm leaders to get the parental leave policy expanded to a 12-week, gender-neutral paid leave, with an extension of 8 more weeks for a total of up to 20 weeks for birth mothers and those who have exceptional circumstances, such as adoptive and surrogate parents.
In this virtual environment, her team is also tasked with seamlessly bringing on new attorneys and employees without daily in-person interactions with co-workers and supervisors. “How do you onboard and integrate new people, or create relationships when you’re never in the same room physically together?” Priddy said. Her answer: offer productive programs that build relationships.
For example, she helped roll out a more elaborate mentoring program involving mentoring circles to foster a sense of connection at the firm, as well as a coaching program covering career development topics, goal setting and development of an action plan for summer associates and first-year associates who joined Katten during the pandemic.
These creative solutions appear to be cultivating connections—whether virtual water cooler moments or shared creative nights from home. With less travel, she finds her colleagues are more available than ever to get on the phone.
Outside of work, she’s enjoying more time at home with her family, cycling on her Peloton bike, and perfecting her green thumb, checking on her tomatoes in the garden. A proponent of integration where it serves better results, Priddy is embracing the experience of blending her home and professional life.
By Aimee Hansen
Caring for Children With Learning Challenges as a Working Parent
People, Thought LeadersIn this Q&A, Erin Garcia, a Vice President in Controllers in Dallas, shares how she supports and advocates for her two sons while working at Goldman Sachs.
What are some of the obstacles you have encountered managing both your sons’ learning challenges?
Erin: One of the greatest challenges was explaining to each of my two sons, Cason and Cohen, how their learning and mental health challenges differentiate them from their classmates.
After his dyslexia diagnosis in second grade, Cason began losing self-confidence in reading. I explained to him that his brain is unique and that there is a special way to teach him, and we were making sure he got the specific help that he needed. Since he is a big sports fan, it helped to point out some successful athletes also happen to be dyslexic.
Cohen, on the other hand, didn’t want special attention. He didn’t want to make a big deal out of his having ADHD, nor did he want to be pulled out of class like his older brother.
Listening to their concerns helped me address their needs, advocate for them successfully, and get them both the help they needed.
What have you learned about yourself through these experiences, including most recently during the pandemic?
Erin: Before receiving their diagnoses, my children and I had a number of arguments because I thought they were being lazy with school and didn’t want to try hard enough. Once we received their diagnoses, I felt badly for having been so hard on them. I learned to be more patient.
In the early stages of the pandemic, we just tried to survive! Toward the end of the school year, there wasn’t a lot of structure so it was a “work on your own pace” sort of schedule. We fit in school whenever we wanted, which was helpful for me as I was balancing my own responsibilities in the Fund Accounting department. Once the current school year began, there was more of an adjustment. The boys have a firm schedule to follow and have to be present in live and virtual meetings with their teachers for most of the day.
We have to do what is best for our family, and every situation is different.
How do you ‘recharge’ your batteries to meet the competing demands of work-life-parenting, and what advice would you share with other caregivers?
Erin: I talk to my friends who are also mothers, and colleagues and mentors who have experienced similar situations. My oldest started middle school this year, which has been a big adjustment. We are all navigating unchartered territory these days, especially working parents. The more we share our stories with each other, the more we feel like we are not in this alone. We are all doing the best we can.
I also have to remind myself that I need a break sometimes, and that’s okay. Everyone should take things one day at a time. Some days are good, but then you will occasionally have that rough day where a progress report comes home reflecting a low grade in a class. Our kids need to know that they are accepted and loved by everyone around them, on good days and on tough days.
How have you managed conversations with colleagues at the firm about your experience as a caregiver?
Erin: For me, honesty is the best policy. A lot of my colleagues have younger children, so these days I try to regularly check in (and made a point to do so when everyone went exclusively remote for work) and continue to be an advocate for working parents.
What would you like people to know about what it’s like to care for loved ones with mental health or learning challenges?
Erin: I think the more we talk about it, the more we educate everyone around us. It was important to me to explain to my oldest son that there is nothing wrong with him. He is intelligent. Once he understood that, he gained the confidence he needed and started engaging more in school.
Sheetal Prasad, CFA: Managing Director, Jennison Associates
People, Voices of ExperiencePrasad talks about the continuous learning curve, the value of culture, diversity of thought and being your whole self at work.
From Pre-Med to Portfolio Manager
Like a “good Indian girl”, Prasad began pre-med at Georgetown. When she realized being a doctor was not her calling, she switched to business. At first, she remained in the healthcare territory, working in a market research firm before moving to Wall Street.
A few years in, she leapt from the sell-side research to buy-side investment management, and then landed at Jennison, thirteen years ago. Soon she was challenged to diversify her expertise.
“I got the opportunity to become a small-cap portfolio manager, but you have to know stocks across the entire universe – not just healthcare, but tech stocks and consumer stocks and industrial stocks,” says Prasad. “The truth is I didn’t have the background for that, but you’re given an opportunity, and you take it.”
Today, most of her time is spent on mid-cap portfolio management.
“I had to learn to love to read. It’s so critical. My job is predicting the future to some degree. It’s finding those companies that are so well-positioned in certain industries that they can continue to grow from being a smaller market value to larger over time,” says Prasad. “The way you do that is by constantly reading or listening and continuing to learn. Learning is the best part of my job everyday.”
How I Built This, Invest Like The Best, The Knowledge Project and Masters of Scale are among podcasts that inform her professionally.
Culture & Social Responsibility Matter More Now
“It’s pretty clear that we aren’t going back to the old normal, so what is that ‘new normal’?” asks Prasad. “How are we going to work – and play – differently? How will life change? Who are the companies that will enable that change and are going to be able to thrive?”
In addition to new companies and business models, Prasad is paying attention to company culture. The post-pandemic world has brought out the true value of culture.
“I have a much greater appreciation for culture today in my investment portfolios and the companies that I invest in,” she says. “Because I think that really is the difference between a company that can grow to be bigger, versus a company that might not make it.”
Investing responsibly is paramount to Prasad, such as considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
“As our portfolio companies are becoming more social stewards, we also have to follow that,” states Prasad. “If I don’t feel good about investing in a company, I don’t have to do it.”
“I take my fiduciary and social responsibilities very seriously. It’s the way the investment business is going to be going forward, and we have to be good at it,” she says. “Part of who I am is having a social responsibility to my family, my community, but also to my job and my investors.“
Diversity of Thought And Voices
“In our business, diversity is not just on the outside, but it’s really about diversity of thought,” notes Prasad. “If we all think the same way, we’re not going to do well in a stock market, where we need to be prepared for low probability events and be willing to react.”
Diversity of thought is essential to preventing blindspots, cognitive dissonance and ‘thesis creep’, since her team’s success requires staying open-minded to ‘what ifs’ and the healthy friction of debate.
A candidate that questions a stock the firm holds, from a genuine and informed place, is an asset.
“Everybody is absolutely respectful, but you can’t be shy,” says Prasad. “We don’t hire wallflowers. We want people to express their opinions, because an exchange of ideas is critical to performance.”
Be Visible And Ask Questions
“The financial services industry is behind in their ability to attract and retain and promote women,” states Prasad, though Jennison does better. “And it’s both a top-down problem and a bottom-up problem.”
While face-time is essential to building culture and relationship, she feels the post-pandemic disruption has revealed it’s possible to work more virtually. This could help to attract women and diversity of thought.
Prasad encourages women to sit visibly at the table, not the periphery, and express their opinions. If there’s one thing she wishes she’d known earlier, it is to not be afraid to ask “dumb questions”. Be communicative and ask questions, especially when you shift between roles or jobs.
“I’m asking dumb questions all the time,” she says. “Chances are there’s somebody else sitting at the table that also doesn’t understand.”
She encourages women to take a page from men’s confidence book, and when opportunity presents, take the leap before you think you are ready – knowing you will figure it out, and it’s okay also to fail sometimes.
“I’ve long come to realize that I have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” she states. “I’ve had imposter syndrome throughout my entire career. I’ve had to use that discomfort to get smarter, to get better, and to drive towards better performance. It doesn’t stop.”
Being Your Whole Self
Prasad begins her days with yoga before logging on, and recommends to take the time to do whatever helps clear your mind and support your well-being, as often as possible. She is finding working at home is also allowing her to feel more present at work.
“I think very often in life you can’t be really good at your job if you feel as though you’re not giving 100% to your personal life, because that really is the core of who you are. My children, my family, are so important to me,” she says. ”The fact that I can be here for my family allows me to give just as much energy to my job.”
Prasad has learned the value of bringing her authentic self, including her emotions and extroversion, that complements some of her colleagues, to her work.
“In my early career, I was stoic. I felt like it’s all about the job,” she recalls. “Over time, I came to realize it’s okay to care. It’s okay to share. I am going to be emotional about this job and it’s okay. Because the best part of a job really is the people and the relationships you develop.”
“I love my team so much that I think it’s okay for me to show that I’m a woman, that I’ve got family obligations, that I laugh or I cry, or show what bothers me.” She exhales. “Chances are someone else might be going through something similar, and if you can share, they feel like they can. That’s where the team dynamic really comes through. Those small personal interactions go a long way.”
By Aimee Hansen
Amber Ghauri: Vice President, Wealth Advisor, Wells Fargo Private Bank
Movers and Shakers, PeopleEntering Finance on Her Terms
Born and raised in Pakistan, Ghauri moved to Houston, Texas in the middle of working toward her economics degree. Even though Amber experienced immense culture shock in a challenging international move, she completed her economics degree and then decided to stay at home for a few years to raise her first child.
While at home with her two and a half year old son, she began prepping to enter the University of Houston for her MBA in Finance. As part of the program she participated in the Cougar fund, student-led portfolio management hedge fund program.
“It’s a very sought after program and many Houston based energy and financial companies will hire you directly out of that program,” says Ghauri. “I was offered several positions, but didn’t accept any of those.”
Following graduation and expecting her second child, she stayed home for a few years, fully aware this would make her initial leap into a finance career more challenging. Adding to that challenge was the fact that she would not be coming directly out of her MBA, nor would she be licensed.
However, when Ghauri was ready in 2014, JP Morgan hired her for their investment department while supporting her to complete her CFP. She worked at JP Morgan with senior advisors for nearly five years, until she met the sponsor who would help her find her personal path to thriving.
Help in Finding Her Greater Alignment
While Ghauri was successful in her investment role at JP Morgan, she was ready for broader responsibility. It was during a single networking lunch with Amy Bracken at Wells Fargo that she received the kind of valuable external reflection that turns a key and changes everything.
“You’re not a behind the desk kind of person. You’re in the wrong role,” Bracken told her, according to Ghauri. “You’re a relationship kind of person, and that’s the role you should be taking on.”
Ghauri skeptically moved to Wells Fargo in a Wealth Advisor Associate role working for Bracken. Within three months, she was promoted to Wealth Advisor. Less than two years later, she was promoted to VP. Her combination of business acumen, investment knowledge and natural relatability propelled her to success.
As her sponsor and mentor, Bracken continues to be supportive of Ghauri whenever she is looking for career encouragement.
“Amy will impress you to no end, she is somebody that’s relatable, admires Ghauri of her mentor. “She gauges the goals of other women and enables them for success.”
Self-Advocacy, Learning and Honesty
Ghauri has thrived being a single parent, being an immigrant and being seen as young, relative to members of her team – and she’s proud of it. She shares some principles behind her success.
“I’ve always pushed for more. I was never shy in asking and putting it out there to leadership what I wanted,” she says. “If I got the opportunity or not, that’s beside the point.”
When it comes to self-advocacy, she recommends to let leadership know where your personal goals are, long term and short term.
“Talk to immediate leadership. Have the conversation you’re always hesitant to bring up,” she recommends using the opportunity of reviews. “Unless you speak for yourself, nobody else is going to.”
What energizes Ghauri in her current role is her ability to work with clients on their diverse needs through holistic wealth planning. She and her team help clients better understand their investment portfolios, create customize wealth preservation and transfer strategies, manage the asset and liabilities side of the balance sheet and provide other solutions including business valuations and M&A advisory services.
“Learn more than what you are expected to do, and more than what you’re doing in your current job capacity,” she recommends. “Broaden your knowledge base. Don’t be caught with a blank expression on your face when someone asks a question.”
Ghauri values honesty and efficiency and letting her clients know they are an important priority for her. “If you reach out to me, you’ll get a response from me quickly saying I acknowledge you”, says Amber stressing the importance of a responsive connection to others.
Coping with Disruption: Struggle To Growth
Speaking of honesty, Ghauri admits the onset of COVID-19 hit her really hard, but she has ultimately witnessed personal growth and an increased sense of her own leadership ability.
“I overcame many challenges moving to another country. I was not working until I was in my thirties. And now, the moment my career took off – I’m thinking, I’ve arrived,” she reflects. “And then COVID hit. I was feeling a deep depression.”
As a vibrant person who communicates with her entire presence, she felt the need to continue to explore ways to connect with clients in creative ways during the pandemic.
“I have a new approach and stronger bond with internal partners that has improved the way we serve clients,” she says.
When she felt concerns about the COVID having an impact on her performance, as a self-admitting strong Type A personality, she received valuable, nurturing advice from her leaders. During the stressful times of COVID, they have reminded her to put the emphasis on relationships.
“Focusing outside the relationships that sustain us can create a self-inflicted pressure which will only create more challenges” leaders advised her, according to Ghauri. They encouraged her to lean into her natural strengths of connecting and relating – even during the work from home period due to COVID.
Since Ghauri has focused her attentions away from the pressures of the job and more to the work which inspires her, she has felt herself thrive again, even though finding work/home boundaries are still a learning experience.
Ghauri has been indulging in her passion for cooking, and when she is able to, she will again enjoy avid world traveling with her two sons.
By Aimee Hansen
How to Achieve What You Want Professionally in 2021
Career Tip of the Week!, NewsWorking with a coach is a great way to accurately goal set and get clarity and not just rely on hope as a strategy. Executive coaching helps you behaviorally align to achieve what you want, no matter what 2021 throws our way. Self- efficacy is a pretty interesting topic at a time when productivity hacks are definitely top of mind.
Promotion or Just a Better Version of Yourself?
Whether it is promotion, advancement, enjoyment, renewal, growth or balance and boundaries at work, most people have some thoughts about how they want 2021 to play out. Coaching is a process but it is also very much a relationship between coach and ‘coachee’. It can be very intimate in the sense that both the coach and the client has to show up with honesty and vulnerability. Curiosity is important , but not for curiosity’s sake but rather to truly evoke true insights that the client can experience to help them further their leadership or career journey. Sometimes people know the questions and answers consciously and just need help with options. Sometimes people may not know the questions or answers that they need to solve for their challenges or mindset.
The What, The Why, The How and The When
Everyone who comes to coaching knows they want to change something. Or at the very least, the know they want to be a better version of their current selves at work, as a leader or an aspiring leader. Figuring out what you want to achieve, defining it and making sure it is really want you want is cemented by checking in on the ‘why’ you want it. This way we tap into understanding your motivation so we can leverage that to make it actually happen. Are you committed? If not, let’s find out why! And, find out what you really want.
The best way to succeed in 2021 is to clear the life long mental debris, and surface any lingering competing agendas that hunker down in your subconscious and tell you things like you don’t have time or you aren’t good enough which stops you from going after your goals.
More often than not, the subconscious sometimes heard in self-talk, drives the bus, so goal setting is futile if behaviors are not aligning with achieving those goals and your brain tricks you into rationalizing it all that everything is as it should be. Literally, coaching work we do here at theglasshammer is based on a methodology developed at Columbia university and further developed by our head coach. It encompasses adult learning theory, developmental psychology and our immunity to change, neuroscience, behavioral science, social or individual/organizational psychology known as I/O psychology and psycho-dynamic theory around groups and how they operate. In plain english? It boils down to two things:
In coaching, the co-creation of the “how to” begins with a serious look at context, where do you work and what are the organizational norms as these do vary depending on the team and workplace. How does work get done? What is rewarded and what gets tolerated that should be?
Coaching Leaders in Real Life
If you are a leader who struggles with followership after a very successful career built on getting things done, then it is a matter of looking at how work gets done around you.
EQ is about adapting. So, if despite your technical competence and generally mastery of skills, you just cannot get people onboard with the plan the way you want to see it executed, you may be left scratching your head.
Chances are you are not hearing people around you when they explicitly or infer things to you about the project and how they see their role in it. Not listening to feedback, everyday conversations, observations on how people act and react is probably part of what is going on there.
When talking about feedback, I am not referring to the once per year performance formal feedback review. The answers are always in front of you, even in passive aggressive “covert process” type teams and organizations where people seem to say yes but do what they want anyway.
Maybe, you are a manager whose peers and managers do not think you are ready for the next step. Again, what are you missing here? Is it a behavior of yours? Is it something you are or are not doing? What should you do more of, less of and maybe stop or start doing?
If you are a leader who needs to internalize that leadership identity, chances are you have “imposter syndrome” and you might be working very hard in the same way as you always have. Often people who have these tendencies of being “insecure overachievers” do not realize that the behaviors of large amounts of quality work output that got them so far, is not what is going to take them to the higher echelons of company management. Authenticity comes into play here as they struggle to shift identities as fear dictates so much around losing the identity of being the expert.
Cognitive understanding of what you need to do is one thing, behavioral change is another and it is very hard to do. That is where a good coach can come in to help you look at your options. Caveat emptor, buyer beware, there are millions of coaches out there as the industry is under-regulated, feel out the fit with a chemistry meet and ask for their methods and see if they are certified by the ICF at PCC level.
What should you expect? After a time, some people can start to reflect not just on action but in action and make behavioral choices in the meeting live time no longer beholden to the old ways that were not longer working for them. Real strategic insights and executive muscle can be built.
You get to be in the movie and watch the movie at the same time. Who wouldn’t want that?
To book an exploratory call with Nicki our founder and Head Coach select a time below
Ronni G. Davidowitz: Partner, Head of New York Private Wealth, Katten
People, Voices of ExperiencePhoto provided by Gittings Photography
“When someone asks me about job longevity at one firm—as it is not often you see that nowadays—I say, ‘either I must love it or I cannot get another job,’” jokes Katten partner Ronni Davidowitz. “So I would like to think I love it.”
One look at her resume reveals Davidowitz is a lawyer who finds helping her clients with their estate and wealth plans both stimulating and rewarding. She shares her wisdom and lessons learned over decades of experience.
Finding a Home in Law
Davidowitz is ultimately a career one-firm woman who has utterly devoted her professional life to trusts and estates (T&E) law.
She began her legal career in 1979 at a small boutique firm with a heavy concentration in the trusts and estates field and then moved in 1985 to the New York City-based Rosenman & Colin LLP, which then merged in 2002 with a Chicago firm to become Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, creating a 35-year tenure for Davidowitz at one firm.
“Given the amount of time, it feels like that has been my only home,” says Davidowitz.
After finishing law school at St. John’s University, Davidowitz, as noted earlier, worked briefly at a small firm where she gained experience handling trusts and estates matters, but eventually grew “fidgety.” While lunching with a fellow lawyer and sharing her plans to move on, serendipity struck—a perfect vacancy in his firm, which ultimately became known as Katten.
“I did not even have a resume together because I was really mulling over what I wanted to do,” recalls Davidowitz. “Next thing you know, I was in there, had an interview, did not interview anywhere else, they made me an offer and the rest—as they say—is history.”
“What has kept me at the same firm honestly is the people,” she muses. “It is a terrific group of people that I admire and respect, and I think it is mutual. I am just very fortunate to work with smart, capable, good and truly nice people. It makes a big difference.”
Practicing in Trusts & Estates Law
“I love the balance of the personal interactions and the intellectual challenges in advising clients on estate planning and wealth management needs and helping them avoid litigation,” says Davidowitz.
In her work, Davidowitz often develops relationships with generations of the same family, who are looking for assistance with succession planning and come with all the facets that family dynamics bring.
“The challenge in my area is that although money is what it translates to in terms of property and assets,” she says, “the undercurrent is the emotional charge.”
Working with wealthy families and individuals, each case is as unique as her clients and their personal needs. With such diversified work, she is grateful to call on her colleagues in different disciplines, such as real estate, corporate and tax attorneys who can offer more services to clients, like handling the transactional capabilities most frequently needed by ultra-high-net-worth individuals and the privately held businesses they run.
“I tend to think of us as the closest you might come to a generalist in the legal profession, much like a general practitioner in the medical field, versus all the various sub-specialties,” she says.
“Intellectually, it is stimulating,” states Davidowitz, who enjoys devising cutting-edge tax strategies so clients can save on income, estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. “You really need to be mindful of what’s important to the individual—that is why there is no off-the-shelf answer.”
Witnessing the Influx of Women
Davidowitz is a daughter of Holocaust survivors, and as a first-generation U.S.-born citizen was the first in her family to attend college and graduate from law school.
She remembers a time when there were as few as ten women in her own law school class, whereas now women make up more than 50 percent of student enrollment. So she has witnessed the increase in women entering the profession, even close to home. Her own daughter is a “second generation” T&E lawyer.
At Katten, the firm has fostered an inclusive culture, focused on attracting, developing and retaining diverse talent.
“I know the firm’s leadership management has openly and often articulated its policy of diversity, inclusion and sensitivity to it,” she says of Katten.
Years ago, she became involved at an executive level in Katten’s Women’s Leadership Forum, when it was first formed to support the growth and retention of women attorneys through various initiatives, mentoring and professional development programs, and social and networking events.
Making Contacts and Creating Opportunities
One of her important lessons has been to invest in relationships that are mutually agreeable—and then be willing to leverage those connections.
“I have learned that contacts are really important. When you have identified people that you genuinely like, that you respect, then do not be shy about reaching out to them,” advises Davidowitz.
Unique in her practice area is that lawyers from different firms often get together in discussion groups and cultivate ties to one another.
“One of those women, who is a personal friend of mine now, was with-the-hand-at-the-small-of-your-back sort of guiding me,” Davidowitz says.
Not only did Davidowitz succeed her friend in becoming the chair of New York City Bar’s Estate and Gift Taxation Committee, but she was also recommended by her as state chair for Downstate New York for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a 5-year term she is now completing.
“These are positions of prestige, so I have had the benefit of having someone who took that extra interest and looked out for me,” says Davidowitz. “And I try to pay that back. I try to make opportunities for my associates, male or female, though I personally have a large female group.”
Being True to Yourself
Another way Davidowitz supports young attorneys is how she approaches performance evaluations.
She prides herself on being a good judge of character, and considers that part of any evaluation process is to guide lawyers to achieve their goals—she iterates that it is very personal, for example not everybody wants to be partner, but those who do have steps to take.
“Evaluations are more than saying ‘people think you write well,’ or ‘you are a thoughtful attorney,’” she says. “An important part of the process is guidance—career development, advice on how to proceed, or maybe a suggestion to take a step back if there is too much pressure with the family balance and workload.”
She advises being really true to yourself, and figuring out the pace that will work for you. She sets achievable goals of five-year increments to get where she wants to go—a reasonable time period to get set up for success.
For example, she focused on completing the necessary requirements, like public speaking and involvement in bar associations, to be elected as a Fellow to ACTEC.
One way she creates opportunities for associates is having them co-author articles or chapters with her, from which they receive byline credit, or helping to place other lawyers on bar association committees aligned to their interests.
Proud Lawyer, Prouder Grandmother
Davidowitz is proud of her leadership involvement in many organizations like ACTEC, being surrounded with the top minds in the field with the opportunity to give back.
She had been honored for her work and her civic contributions by 400 of her peers at the United Jewish Appeal (UJA)-Federation of New York, a philanthropic organization in which she also had served as chair of its T&E committee.
What she is most devoted to, however, is her family and her six grandchildren. “I have told anyone that the best club to be in is the grandparent’s club,” she says.
As a self-confessed “voracious reader,” Davidowitz seeks to pass on her own passion by building a little book club among her grandkids.
By Aimee Hansen