By Liz O’Donnell (Boston)
The Institute of Leadership and Management, a UK-based organization that helps companies improve standards of leadership as well as individual and team performance, recently released a research report titled, “Index of Leadership Trust 2009.”
The report looked at six areas by which leadership is measured: ability, understanding, fairness, openness, integrity and consistency and asked respondents to assign importance to each of them. The Institute then examined the results based on the size of the organizations, the length of time in leadership, and the age and gender of managers and subordinates. The report revealed that, “Ageism and sexism are largely and reassuringly absent from the findings of this research. The most significant trend to emerge is that employees show slightly more trust in managers ‘in their own image’ – that is, of the same sex and similar age to themselves.”
While sexism doesn’t play an obvious role in managers building trust, the findings do underscore one of the key challenges in advancing women to the C-suite. Many believe that businesses “hunker down” in difficult times, like the recession and jobless recovery, and tap the resources that walk, talk and look like them. So even though more women are now reporting to work than men are, with so few women still at the top of businesses, the men already in power will typically turn to other men to make key decisions and fill critical roles.
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35 Under 35: Laura Bissell, Managing Director, Okapi Partners
35 Under 35By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)![LABFullPhoto[1]](https://theglasshammer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/LABFullPhoto1-160x240.jpg "LABFullPhoto[1]")
“You have to set goals—even if they are little goals—to achieve something. Every day set a goal,” said Laura Bissell, Managing Director of Okapi Partners. She spent her childhood watching her mother, a well-known interior designer in Boston, do just that, growing her fledgling business into a booming one. “My mother started it out of her home and built it into a thriving company. It took her a lot of hard work and blood, sweat and tears but she knew what she wanted and worked for what she wanted. That is where a lot of my ambition comes from.”
Bissell started her career with Globix, an internet service provider, in the “heyday of the technology sector.” There she underwent four months of intensive training in many different technologies, a background she would have the opportunity to use later in her career.
When it was time to move on, she “fell into” the little-known industry in which she would ultimately make her name: the proxy solicitation industry. “I wanted to be in the financial realm because I’ve always been mathematically-minded. I was networking through people I knew from both Colgate University and [her high school] Andover and found Georgeson Shareholder, a well-known name in the proxy solicitation business. I started there from the bottom up,first working as a project manger in the mutual funds area doing the day-to-day grunt work of proxy solicitation business, like talking to the vendors and really just doing the math.”
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Working Mother Top Companies List: The Success Stories in Big Law
Work-LifeFour law firms made the Working Mother magazine Top 100 companies this year. Considering the legal profession’s reputation, this is encouraging news.
Washington, D.C.-based Arnold & Porter is on the list for the tenth time, and the sixth consecutive year. Says Managing Partner, Richard M. Alexander, “Working mothers are a vital part of our work force. Our goal is to have programs and benefits in place to enable them to balance their professional life with the needs of raising a family.”
The firm was recognized specifically for its unique on ramping/off ramping policies. The practice lets lawyers leave for up to three years and encourages them to keep in touch via development opportunities. Arnold & Porter also offers generous flexibility and child care at its Washington headquarters and close to its Manhattan office. And, particularly relevant this winter as the H1N1 virus is expected to cause turmoil for working parents, Arnold & Palmer lets employees take six paid weeks of leave. Their strategy is clearly paying off. Forty percent of the firm’s managers, 50 percent of its top earners, and 32 percent of its directors are women.
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Voice of Experience: Virginia Gambale, Managing Partner of Azimuth Partners LLC
NewsA career in music requires discipline, years of study, and a desire to perform. Trained early as a classical pianist, Virginia Gambale was well on her way. “My first ‘job’ [as a child] was to take apart a complex Fugue. I had to concentrate for hours at a time, and practice 10 hours a day . [As a result,] I was more mature and focused than any other kid in my grade.”
“I always had a left and right brain battling for dominance,” said Gambale, “so although I was always very strong in math and science, I was planning to pursue a career in music.” She studied at the Hartt Conservatory in Connecticut and spent most of her days in the City studying with the faculty from the New York schools.
Gambale continued, “But when I went to see a musician friend’s debut performance, I said to him that his life was set.” His response to her—‘you don’t understand. I live on Avenue A, bathroom is down the hall and I eat brown rice 3 times a day. Nothing about my life will change’—“hit me like a ton of bricks,” said Gambale. She decided that was not going to be her reality. She said, “I had always been a very independent child and had never wanted to have anyone support me. So independence and the ability to take care of myself was a driving factor.”
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up
NewsContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group.
The U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer’s pre-budget report includes a 50% levy on bank bonuses of more than £25,000. Barack Obama plans to utilise the $200bn of unused Tarp funds to boost job creation. Japan announced a Y7,200bn stimulus package to help the country’s economic recovery. These are but a few highlights of important market events that we’ve gathered to help you start the week well informed.
Economic Backdrop
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Work-Life Balance Retreats for Women
Work-LifeIt’s an unfortunate fact that there are certain things in life that must be re-taught after years of plugging away at work, giving all of ourselves to our employers and families, and going months without a serious break of any kind.
Sometimes we must re-learn how to take care of ourselves, how to make time for ourselves, how to become rested, centered, and refocused. Providing women with the platform and tools necessary to make these things happen has recently become a top priority for Martha Simpson and Jo Adams, whose UK-based LadyLeader Retreats are currently making a big splash in their native Scotland.
Both Simpson and Adams are life coaches who, after meeting over a cup of coffee at a networking event, decided to move forward with Simpson’s plan of creating a personal and professional development program specifically geared towards women.
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The Walker Report: What’s Next for Corporate Governance in the UK?
NewsBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)
Earlier this year Sir David Walker was asked by the UK Government to examine corporate governance in the banking industry. His consultative report was released in July and caused a stir with its far-reaching recommendations about the role of non-executive directors, the establishment of board risk committees and remuneration. There was a lot of chatter in the news about the fact that the Government was not going to adopt these recommendations. Were they too unpopular? Too wide-ranging? Too complicated? Probably a bit of all of those.
However, the final Walker report has just been issued and on 26 November the UK Government announced that they would “move quickly” to implement the necessary reforms.
What started out as a report into the state of banking was extended to cover other financial institutions, where the recommendations were applicable. It was an extensive study of what could be better, including how financial incentives for board members impact the propensity to manage risk effectively, the balance of skills, experience and independence required on boards and whether the UK approach is consistent with international practice. The overarching message throughout the report is one of poor governance practices, and Sir David is clear about the lack of control. “Serious deficiencies in prudential oversight and financial regulation in the period before the [economic] crisis were accompanied by major governance failures within banks,” he writes. “These contributed materially to excessive risk taking and to the breadth and depth of the crisis.”
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Voice of Experience: Dr. Sherry Cooper, Executive Vice-President and Global Economic Strategist of BMO Financial Group and Chief Economist of BMO Capital Markets
Voices of ExperienceDr. Sherry Cooper, Executive Vice-President and Global Economic Strategist of BMO Financial Group, was destined for the world of finance. An entrepreneur from an early age, Dr. Cooper said, “When I was 12, I spent the summer babysitting. But I didn’t just watch one child. I would gather all the children from up and down the street and take them into my backyard and watch them. At $50 per child, I made quite a bit of money that summer.” One of her role models was her great aunt, who was a “hotshot in mortgage finance” long before it was even a possibility for most women.
But despite the early attraction to finance, it took some time before she embraced it as a career path. Dr. Cooper marveled, “I always assumed that I would just get married and be a homemaker. Until I got to Goucher College, it never occurred to me that I would have a career for the rest of my life.”
She graduated first in her class with a dual degree in economics and math, and then continued on to the University of Pittsburgh for a Ph.D. in economics. Although Dr. Cooper wasn’t interested in academia, she still didn’t see any future in a financial institution. “I grew up in a time when there were very few women in banking or finance so it never occurred to me as a possibility.”
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Managing Men
Industry Leaders, LeadershipThe Institute of Leadership and Management, a UK-based organization that helps companies improve standards of leadership as well as individual and team performance, recently released a research report titled, “Index of Leadership Trust 2009.”
The report looked at six areas by which leadership is measured: ability, understanding, fairness, openness, integrity and consistency and asked respondents to assign importance to each of them. The Institute then examined the results based on the size of the organizations, the length of time in leadership, and the age and gender of managers and subordinates. The report revealed that, “Ageism and sexism are largely and reassuringly absent from the findings of this research. The most significant trend to emerge is that employees show slightly more trust in managers ‘in their own image’ – that is, of the same sex and similar age to themselves.”
While sexism doesn’t play an obvious role in managers building trust, the findings do underscore one of the key challenges in advancing women to the C-suite. Many believe that businesses “hunker down” in difficult times, like the recession and jobless recovery, and tap the resources that walk, talk and look like them. So even though more women are now reporting to work than men are, with so few women still at the top of businesses, the men already in power will typically turn to other men to make key decisions and fill critical roles.
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Ask-A-Career Coach: Gratitude As A Career Management Tool
Ask A Career CoachGiven the upcoming holidays, I thought about writing about holiday networking, job search during the holidays or perhaps office party etiquette. Here’s why gratitude works not just around the holiday table but for your career as well:
Gratitude puts you in a spirit of plenty – of having, instead of lacking. This leads to confidence, energy and a position of strength that is attractive to the people around you, whether it’s prospective employers or senior management looking for whom to tap for leadership.
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Sharing Inspiration for Success: NAFE’s 2009 Women of Excellence
Movers and ShakersOn Friday, December 4, the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) honored its 2009 Women of Excellence. NAFE is the largest professional association of women. The awards celebrated successful female business leaders dedicated to making a difference in their workplace, the larger community, and the world.
Keynote speakers and Pulitzer-prize-winning writers Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn opened the event with a call to make a difference in women’s lives around the globe, as detailed in their book Half the Sky.
They stressed the importance of addressing women’s issues around the world, not only because it’s simply the right thing to do, but because meeting women’s economic needs can help overcome poverty and violence. As Kristoff explained, “the paramount moral challenge of the 21st century is the brutality inflicted on women and girls around the globe.”
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