Contributed by Mark Palmer, CEO, StreamBase Systems, Inc.
Recently, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the gathering of 2,500 CEOs,heads of state, and visionaries from the arts. At Davos, I saw Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, met Miss Universe, and participated with the “titans of social media” — as the founders of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn squared off. Heady stuff. But mid week, I went to a session that eclipsed them all. It was innocuously entitled The Power of the Purse.
Davos is an economic forum and I went for economic interests. But I went to this session for different reasons. At work I’m a CEO, but at home I’m a widow. When my wife died of cancer three years ago I took on a new, foreign role — mom, and so I attended this session with my 7-year-old daughter Ruby in mind. I thought this session might give me some insight into the world as she will encounter it.
But as I took my seat, I felt out of place. There I was, one of a handful of men with 60 of the most accomplished women in the world. I felt like I had mistakenly slipped behind enemy lines, then been cordially invited to an intimate power lunch in the general’s tent. The panel included Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, author Margaret Atwood, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, former chair of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors.
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Voice of Experience: Susan Allen, FCA, CPA, Audit Partner, TICE Assurance Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Voices of ExperienceMotivated by a “secret love” of being a teacher, Susan Allen, TICE (Technology, Information Communications and Entertainment) Assurance Leader for PwC Canada and Chair of the firm’s Women in Leadership/Retention of Women initiative, has built her career on her leadership capabilities, and is motivated by a passion for encouraging women leaders.
She began her career at the University of Toronto. “I graduated from university with a geography and drama degree, because I wanted to be a teacher,” Allen explained. “I fell into accounting because I took on a job as the University Cashier, and the world of accounting opened up to me as I started taking courses.” Allen joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1981, after taking an introductory accounting course, and was offered a position in training as a new manager – which was perfect for her inclination toward teaching. “Funny that I had to get my CA to be a teacher!” she joked.
A 3 year secondment and two children later, Allen was promoted to senior manager. Commending PwC for the company’s flexibility, she said, “I decided that part time was the answer for me.” Working full time January through April, three days per week May through September, and four days per week September through June allowed her to spend more time with her young children – and still make partner in the regular amount of time.
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6 Steps to Take On the Unwritten Rules Keeping Women out of Leadership Roles
Expert AnswersFor years we’ve been told to be patient.
“Just give it time,” say the powers that be. “We’ll soon see more women leaders in government, corporations, law firms, universities, and more… just give it a little more time…”
The fact is, men still lead 80% to 90% of organizations worldwide. Yes, some women have moved up and into corner offices, but they’re relatively few in number, and the rate of change is painfully slow – in some countries it’s actually stalled.
Women constitute half of the world’s labor force. We now make or influence the majority of consumer buying decisions.
Why, then, do we still see so few women making key decisions in boardrooms and executive suites?
A big part of the answer is the unwritten rules.
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Movers and Shakers: Ann Zeiler, Senior Vice President, North American Sales at Northern Trust
Movers and ShakersAnn Zeiler takes the long view in her position as a saleswoman for Global Fund Services at the 120-year-old bank, Northern Trust Corp. “I am the cheerleader of the group, the perpetual optimist,” said Zeiler. “If someone keeps saying no, it is hard to get a group of people to energize again. Why keep trying?”
She answered her own question: “Because a lost opportunity is your next prospect.”
Zeiler is a natural saleswoman. She is energetic, driven and believable. Her career began 28 years ago at Northern Trust when she was supporting retirees and “on the phone all day working on retirement benefits.” Eventually, her personality opened doors to a marketing role where she was supporting a sales team and responding to requests for proposals.
“I am a team player but I like having individual responsibilities,” said Zeiler. “Buying decisions are emotional decisions. A sale depends on your knowledge and your ability to communicate.”
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A Man’s Undercover Mission into the World of Women Leaders
Men Who "Get It", NewsRecently, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the gathering of 2,500 CEOs,heads of state, and visionaries from the arts. At Davos, I saw Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, met Miss Universe, and participated with the “titans of social media” — as the founders of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn squared off. Heady stuff. But mid week, I went to a session that eclipsed them all. It was innocuously entitled The Power of the Purse.
Davos is an economic forum and I went for economic interests. But I went to this session for different reasons. At work I’m a CEO, but at home I’m a widow. When my wife died of cancer three years ago I took on a new, foreign role — mom, and so I attended this session with my 7-year-old daughter Ruby in mind. I thought this session might give me some insight into the world as she will encounter it.
But as I took my seat, I felt out of place. There I was, one of a handful of men with 60 of the most accomplished women in the world. I felt like I had mistakenly slipped behind enemy lines, then been cordially invited to an intimate power lunch in the general’s tent. The panel included Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, author Margaret Atwood, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, former chair of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors.
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Ask-A-Career-Coach: The Versatility of Specific Graduate Degrees
Ask A Career CoachI recently have graduated with my BS in Business Administration, Finance. I’ve been accepted into University of Richmond to study the Masters of HR Management. I find HR very interesting and want to learn about the subject, but what if later on I decide to focus on a career outside of HR? Will this masters degree hinder me? Since my undergrad is in business, I have absolutely no desire to go for my MBA. They seem like a dime a dozen these days. How would the MHRM be viewed to recruiters in terms of managing other areas of a business? Other departments?
If you ask 10 recruiters the same question, you will get a range of answers. Careers are not an exact science and vary based on an individual’s goals, skill set, personality, drive, etc. In this case, the only thing I am sure about is that you will find some recruiters who highly value the MHRM, some who dismiss it and some who will be in-between.
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Championing the Flexwork Initiative at Your Company: How and Why
Expert AnswersLast week U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama opened the White House’s conference on workplace flexibility, a topic near and dear to her heart. She said, “for many years before coming to Washington, I was a working mother, doing my best to juggle the demands of my job with the needs of my family, with a husband who has crazy ideas.”
She told the story of her last job interview before moving to Washington – she was unable to find a babysitter for her daughter, so ended up having to take her along to the interview. The interviewer was understanding, and she got the job. But, she said, she was lucky – many women wouldn’t have had such good fortune.
The conference, hosted by the Obamas, coincided with the release of a new report by the Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers, “Work-Life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility” [PDF]. The report makes an economic argument for flexible work programs, noting that there are many challenges to instituting such programs – not the least of which is a lack of facts about their actual costs and related benefits.
The Glass Hammer talked with workplace flexibility expert and co-founder of FlexPaths Meryl Rosenthal on why women can benefit from flexible work arrangements, and how they can encourage flexible work programs in their office.
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Paying the Price: Work/life Issues Most Challenging for Women in Investment Banking
Work-LifeThose who’ve been immersed in the world of investment banking for years know all too well that it’s an incredibly difficult, demanding, and time-consuming career path that requires making sacrifices on a very personal level. As if that’s not asking enough of one person, some troubling information has come to light thanks to new research by two of the world’s most esteemed economists, Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Development of the American Economy program, and Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard and a research associate at the NBER.
The study, entitled “Harvard and Beyond,” surveyed 6,500 former Harvard and Radcliff students who graduated between the years 1969 and 1992 and essentially, the economists found that women pay an incredibly high price to be in the finance industry, which is now considered a profession more demanding than medicine or law.
On first read, the report almost sounds as though financial services is one industry hell-bent on not letting women have it all. In the survey, Goldin and Katz found that female investment bankers, for example, who made up for the work they missed after taking time off to have a child, still saw the largest pay decreases.
It also indicates that female investment bankers who took a year and a half off made 41 percent less than their counterparts.
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Voices of Experience: Janet Thomas, Director, Citi FX Prime
Voices of Experience“Foreign Exchange is exciting,” says Janet Thomas, Director at Citi Foreign Exchange Prime. “The pace of change is so fast that trading takes place in microseconds.”
Thomas has played a key role expanding the business from a start-up to being ranked a key global FX Prime of strategic importance to clients. “The relationship I have with clients is one of the most rewarding aspects of my position,” she says. “Some clients have expanded their business through acquisitions as unprecedented market conditions presented once in a life time opportunities; others have devised pioneering new models of business and substantially increased their profits.”
Thomas joined Citi FX Prime in 2006, and was very excited about the challenges ahead – and economically it has been an interesting time since then. She believes that the foreign exchange market has been incredibly resilient during the credit crisis which has decimated other business areas in financial services. “It’s at the epicentre of any political, economic and social change and these factors impact the market immediately,” she says.
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Top Five Body Language Tips to Earn Your Next Promotion
Expert AnswersBody language and wining trust with our nonverbal signals are some of the most important gestures in business.
There are some fundamental pieces of nonverbal communication that you can use to better control a conversation, command attention and convey the right messages, because they are fundamentally about our cultural shared physicality – regardless of gender. Here are the top five tips body language tips from my new book Winning Body Language (McGraw-Hill 2010).
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Gender parity in the workplace: Is it only a matter of CEOs believing the business case for change?
Featured, Industry Leaders, LeadershipYes and no. Yes we need all CEO’s to understand the bottom line impact of this productivity issue on their businesses. However that is only part of the solution as strategic plans must be designed and implemented with some sort of a target attached and consequences if targets are continually missed- like any other business function.
The 2010 Catalyst awards dinner showcased their latest research Pipeline’s Broken Promise, which is an excellent piece of work. The new study highlights that men have higher starting salaries in their first post-MBA job than women even after taking into account number of years of prior experience, time since MBA, first post-MBA job level, global region, and industry. These salary differences are not due to different aspirations or parenthood.
Career profiles were examined from 9,927 alumni who graduated between 1996 and 2007 from MBA programs at 26 leading business schools in Asia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. As the Catalyst report points out, the premise of the promise of gender parity occurring sooner rather than later is that the pipeline for women into senior leadership is robust. After all, over the past 15 years, women have been graduating with advanced professional degrees in record numbers – often equal to or even surpassing the rates for men, swelling women’s representation in managerial ranks. Concurrently, companies implemented diversity and inclusion programs to eliminate structural biases and foster women’s full participation in leadership. However the percentage growth of women in senior leadership positions would suggest otherwise. Hence the promise is broken that there is a pipeline of women coming up through the ranks.
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