By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
Renee Pendleton had a steady babysitting job in college. That wouldn’t necessarily distinguish her from many others her age. But how many babysitters parlay advice from their employer into a successful career path?
“I had wanted to be a controller in a small company but, he convinced me to try public accounting first because, if I didn’t like it, I could always go to a private company. But it would be difficult to go into public accounting if I did it the other way.” She followed the advice with the intention to “get in, stay for two years and get out,” but decided to stay at the end of that period to learn a bit more. “Now, here I am 22 years later, still in public accounting,” she said, laughing, “And I blame that guy to this day.”
Raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, Pendleton started off majoring in psychology at Old Dominion University. She intended to learn to help people with their problems; however, after one semester of psychology, “I thought, these people are out of their minds. I just don’t get it!”
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10 Reasons You Need a Mentor, Especially Mid-Career
Mentors and SponsorsBehind every corporate logo is a culture filled with personalities, politics, and procedures. How do you navigate this new landscape, excel at your job, and advance your career? Find a mentor.
A report released by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology found that “mentoring has been associated with higher job satisfaction, higher promotion rates, higher future income, increased work success, and higher retention rates.”
Dr. Lois Zachary, author of The Mentor’s Guide – Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You, and Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide, asserts that mentoring is a leadership competency. “Mentoring shouldn’t just be the result of a formal program, leaders should always be looking to grow. Learning is the purpose, process, and product of mentoring.”
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Against All Odds, Women are Thriving in Michigan – Here’s How
Industry Leaders, LeadershipThe latest Inforum Center for Leadership report shows that the number of women reaching the boardroom in the Top 100 public companies in Michigan hasn’t improved in recent years and, at 9.6%, is far below the national average of 15.1% (in 2008). 46 companies (46%) have no women directors (up from 41% in 2007). And, as of October 2009, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the U.S.
In light of its bleak economic picture and seemingly unbreakable glass ceiling, Michigan’s business climate appears to be a cold one for women. However, these businesswomen aren’t singing the blues. What do they have in common? They work for either a woman-owned business or a large company with a balanced executive suite.
What’s their secret? Collectively, these companies value their female (and male) employees by implementing work/life balance initiatives, supporting mentoring programs, and fostering good communication and a team-oriented environment.
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up
NewsContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group.
The U.S. Federal Reserve upgraded its assessment of the economy and left discount rates unchanged. ExxonMobil is to buy XTO Energy, a U.S. natural gas company in a $31bn all stock deal. Terra Firma launched a multibillion-pound lawsuit against Citigroup. 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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Five Top Books for Working Women
ReviewsWondering what to put on your holiday gift list? Well, there’s always more space on the bookshelf for a great career-boosting book. Here’s our round-up of the best business books for women at work.
This is a practical guide to identify ‘what a strength is’ and how to put your strengths to work. “It is great for individual contributors and a powerful tool for managers looking to motivate teams and change the dynamic of the dreaded performance management discussion, which is so often focused on weaknesses,” says Camille Mirshokrai, Director, Global Leadership Development at Accenture. “This book is especially timely because Gen Y is focused on feedback, and this book can help managers channel that feedback in productive ways for the individual and the company.”
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Voice of Experience: Renee Pendleton, CPA, Partner, Cherry, Bekaert & Holland
Voices of ExperienceRenee Pendleton had a steady babysitting job in college. That wouldn’t necessarily distinguish her from many others her age. But how many babysitters parlay advice from their employer into a successful career path?
“I had wanted to be a controller in a small company but, he convinced me to try public accounting first because, if I didn’t like it, I could always go to a private company. But it would be difficult to go into public accounting if I did it the other way.” She followed the advice with the intention to “get in, stay for two years and get out,” but decided to stay at the end of that period to learn a bit more. “Now, here I am 22 years later, still in public accounting,” she said, laughing, “And I blame that guy to this day.”
Raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, Pendleton started off majoring in psychology at Old Dominion University. She intended to learn to help people with their problems; however, after one semester of psychology, “I thought, these people are out of their minds. I just don’t get it!”
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Supporting and Retaining Talent at Lovells LLP
Mentors and SponsorsLovells was the first top ten UK law firm to vote in a female managing partner, Lesley McDonagh, in 1995. Ruth Grant has just completed a three-year term as regional managing partner for London and recently assumed the role of global people development partner. The company has a strong history of promoting women so you’d expect Lovells to be at the forefront of developing schemes to support emerging female talent – and they are. This year they have set up a mentoring programme as part of their women’s network.
“We launched the mentoring programme pilot in direct response to the requests of members of the Women’s Network,” says Katherine Mulhern, partner and co-chair of the Network. “Mentoring programmes have been identified as having particular benefit for women seeking to progress internally. The objective of our pilot mentoring programme is to stimulate and progress the professional development and personal growth of women within the firm necessary to deliver sustained business growth.”
The scheme is open to all women, in both support and legal functions, and was launched this September. The plan is to run the programme for between nine and twelve months and see how it goes. “To ensure we get the best results from this programme we have invited Mairi Eastwood and Peninah Thomson from Praesta, an executive coaching and mentoring organisation, to brief our mentors on some useful mentoring frameworks and skills for effective communication,” says Mulhern. “The exact shape and flow of each mentoring assignment will be different. We asked mentees to identify any particular objectives that they wish to achieve from the mentoring programme and have sought to match them with mentors who would be best placed to assist them.”
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Elizabeth Schneider, Managing Director, Citisoft
Voices of Experience“Education is continuous. The day I stop learning is the day I’ll die,” said Elizabeth Schneider, the managing director at Citisoft.
She credits her mother for instilling this value in her. “My mother was the oldest of nine children in a very poor family. My mother, who barely spoke English at the time, took on the role of trying to educate herself and raise her brothers and sisters in a very tough time right during the Depression. She realized that if you look at education as a lifestyle and more than academic you will grow and learn things that will propel you forward much more quickly than just classroom learning. From an early age, my siblings and I were involved in learning in all forms: drama, dance, community service, sports, and travel.”
After graduating from McGill University with a Bachelor of Science, Schneider entered into the evening MBA program at Babson College. And shortly thereafter, she got her first break at Fidelity Investments in entry level fund accounting. “[The man] who hired me took a chance and hired me [even though I had no experience working with securities].” Schneider continued, “Unlike today, there wasn’t anywhere in the academic world that focused on trading operations. At the time, the only way you learned this was through experience. [My boss] gave me the opportunity to get in there and learn.”
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Building Diversity: The AXA Equitable Connection
NewsWould you attend a summit called ‘Finding Your Passion and Living Your Purpose’? Plenty of female employees at AXA Equitable did. “We thought that women at AXA would benefit from working together to create opportunities to do more – for themselves and for the company,” says Barbara Goodstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company. “We wanted to do something to help create a community for women at AXA. We also feel that given the financial crisis around us, this is the ideal time to connect the women in the company and create a community to support and enable each other.”
This event was the launch of The AXA Equitable Connection – the company’s new women’s programme. Approximately 63 percent of the total AXA Equitable employee population is female, and the company realised that women’s financial needs are different. “Women live longer, they often have been less involved in managing the family finances, and women historically have earned 80% of what men earn for similar jobs,” says Goodstein. “So there is a real need for financial education and support. We want to be the first company women think of when they are looking for financial information and guidance; we want to be the first company women consider when they are interested in pursuing a career in financial services.”
Through The AXA Equitable Connection female employees and financial professionals are building a community through which they can draw from their collective strength, insight and experience to enhance career growth and opportunities. The plans is that AXA Equitable will foster this community through events, mentoring relationships, employee resource groups and networking.
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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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