Remote leadership is in the spotlight in this current COVID-19 reactivity environment of quarantine and social distancing, and leaders are called to remember – now, more than ever – that leadership is not just about the employees or projects you manage, but the human beings you are interconnected with.
As entire offices are now working from home, the question is how to lead and motivate through these times. How do you stay supportive and facilitative to your people through the absence of in-person interaction? With a backdrop of increased uncertainty and lack of control, how do you take it day by day as a manager?
This is Not Last Year’s Remote Office
Prior to the crisis, remote working had grown by 91% in the last ten years and 52% of workers globally were working from home once a week. It was estimated that at least 50% of the U.S. workforce would work remotely by 2020. The current context has blown the statistics apart.
Context is everything. The advantage of working remotely is normally the sense of freedom and flexibility, but for many it’s now a result of imposed restriction, that goes across every aspect of life.
Some team members will struggle deeply with isolation and routine loss. Previous remote workers will not be having the same experience as before.
Elizabeth Grace Saunders, a Time Management Coach, writes in Fast Company, “For some, the idea of working from home is a dream—no commute and no drop-in meetings—pure productivity bliss; for others, it’s terrifying… Ready or not, you’re working remotely.”
American Psychiatric Association (APA) emphasizes, “Many are teleworking full-time for the first time, isolated from co-workers, friends and family. Our daily living routines are disrupted causing added anxiety, stress and strain—physically, mentally, and financially. It is completely natural for this disruption and uncertainty to lead to anxiety and stress.”
6 Ways to Support Your Team
As a remote leader, here are recommended ways you can support your team members:
Establish Work Availability and Boundaries
“When transitioning to a remote team, leaders should prioritize the development of clear boundaries and guidelines,” writes Jason Wingard, dean and professor at the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University, in Forbes. “At its most basic, this involves assisting employees in delineating their availability: when they will be working, how they can be reached for different needs, and how they will address challenges such as childcare.”
Encouraging employees and yourself to establish work hours and be communicative about them will help productivity and avoid burnout.
“There’s a lot more flexibility, which can be exceptionally dangerous,” writes Saunders. “You can end up barely working, working all the time, or somewhere in the middle where you begin your work very late and end up needing to work into the wee hours of the night.”
“Segment out what home or personal tasks you won’t do when you are in your work hours;” she advises, “that way you don’t spend half the day tidying the house and neglecting key tasks.”
Encourage a Routine and Dedicated Work Space
The APA recommends keeping a regular routine including work, family, breaks, and other activities – as well as a designated physical space for work within the home – to support mental health while working from home.
Saunders writes that sticking with your routines – such as wake up, eating, activities and exercise times – support a greater sense of normalcy and clarity.On the other hand, Saunders writes “Abandoning all your routines will lead to decision fatigue and likely a lapse of willpower. You may find yourself home all the time, yet not even showered or dressed most days.”
Denoting a dedicated work space to settle into will help you and team members focus – and reserving that space as much as possible for work.
Be Flexible and Compassionate To Differing Circumstances
Optimal availability, schedule, and routine may look different for each individual, including yourself.
“Your mindset (now) has to shift to flexibility, overcommunication, and compassion,” writes Jay Friedman, president and parter of Goodway Group writes in Business Insider. “Take everyone’s situation into consideration and adopt accordingly.”
Friedman emphasizes the importance of establishing ‘parameters for a work-life integration plan’, which allows employees to adapt their schedule around their total responsibilities, such as home-schooling, and that may look different than a 9-to-5.
“To avoid miscommunication, encourage employees to be open on their calendars by blocking out ‘family’ time;’” he writes, “encourage those without such responsibilities to carve out ‘personal time’ before and after their work day to facilitate healthy work-life harmony.”
Also, re-assess responsibility allocation in your team based on the current situation.
Prioritize Goals, Not Hours
It’s not about hours spent sitting at the desk. Focus on goals and results.
“Don’t worry as much about what is being done. Instead, concentrate on what is being accomplished,” quotes Forbes, from sales and marketing professional Donald Hatter. “If we are meeting our goals, then great. If not, we need to look into the situation further. It is all about accomplishment, not activity.”
“Especially during times like these, look at the team’s achievements and celebrate what they’ve done,” Friedman writes. “The ongoing support and celebration of wins — both large and small — will be a huge motivator.”
Clarifying goals and who supports what can help with delegation, according to authors in Harvard Business Review (HBR): “Clarifying roles among the team helps people understand when they can turn to peers instead of the leader, which prevents the leader from becoming a bottleneck.”
Check In Regularly and Document
46% of remote workers, according to HBR and cited in Forbes, reported that the best managers checked on their team members regularly and frequently.
Checking in, as well as responding quickly, are important to keep connection, while face-to-face virtual meetings retain a sense of closeness and cohesion.
As written in HBR, “The most successful managers are good listeners, communicate trust and respect, inquire about workload and progress without micromanaging, and err on the side of overcommunicating.”
According to John Eades, CEO of LearnLoft in Forbes, questions should be:“What have you done? What are you working on? Where do you need help?” It’s important to give ownership for how things get done with individuals, and trust your people.
Brian de Haaff, Co-founder and CEO of Aha!, points out that documentation is critical when running a team remotely, assuring communication is flowing, messages are accurate, and records are kept. Recording virtual meetings on Xoom, etc helps to catch team members up directly.
Haaff further recommends documenting the three Ps: “problems, progress and plans”, to use as a launching point for weekly check-ins.
When moving around the virtual office, check your bias. Homophily – such as reaching out, relating to, assigning and relying on those with whom you share similarities – is at play. One recommendation is to keep a list of team members with photos around to consult, so you can see if you’ve truly been reaching out to all.
Be Connected, Be Personal, Be Empathetic
More than ever, remind yourself that your team members are human beings with emotions stirred up in this moment.
“People suddenly working from home are likely to feel disconnected and lonely, which lowers productivity and engagement,” according to HBR. “Under these circumstances it is tempting to become exclusively task-focused. To address these challenges, making time for personal interaction is more important than ever.”
This means keeping face-to-face connections through virtual tools, especially with those who may need extra support, showing active interest in people’s lives and well-being, being available and approachable as a leader, and acknowledging people’s concerns with compassionate flexibility.
“The best way to ensure people are engaged is to over-communicate. You can do daily check-ins and virtual hangouts like morning coffee or lunch,” advises Friedman. “If the method you’re trying isn’t working, change and adapt quickly.”
Don’t just manage your team or projects. Connect as humans that are mutually inside a challenging environment of disruption and uncertainty, and need support as we help each other through these waves.
By Aimee Hansen
Aimee Hansen is a freelance writer, frequent contributor to theglasshammer and Creator and Facilitator of Storyteller Within Retreats, Lonely Planet recommended women’s circle retreats focused on self-exploration and connecting with your inner truth and sacred expression through writing, yoga, meditation, movement and ceremonies.
Voice of Experience: Tami Gaythwaite, Chief Operating Officer, Centerline Digital
Voices of ExperienceAs you go through your career, it’s important not to be overly focused or worried about the impact of a single mistake or decision, says Tami Gaythwaite.
“That’s because it’s not the actual mistake or decision that’s the impactful moment; it’s what you do after,” she says, adding that the best way to deal with it is to ask yourself if the issue will be important in the next year or even five. “That type of consideration can put any one action into perspective and help you keep moving forward.”
Learning by Doing Propelled Her Career
Like many aspiring professionals, Gaythwaite started at Kelly, the temporary services provider, putting her fantastic typing skills to work at a wide variety of companies. It was an experience that gave her valuable skills, including being able to just walk into a company, assess their needs and get to work.
“I don’t think as many people do temp jobs today, but the experience is invaluable and gave me a good foundation into the type of jobs I wanted, as well as feeling comfortable with walking into the unknown,” she says.
A full-time job at R.J. Reynolds followed, where she worked as a production assistant, helping organize sports promotions with NASCAR. Due to staff changes and turnover, she began to fill in various roles such as writing scripts and learning to edit and produce videos until soon she was running the video department. When the sponsorships came to an end, she took her skills to the freelance world, where she worked as an editor, animator and producer, where she realized that true value would come from choosing an area in which to focus.
As a way to ensure longevity, Gaythwaite decided to focus on the client side and moved to business management and sales with Centerline Digital, where she has been for the past 15 years. Her work expanded to solving client issues in project management and she eventually moved into the COO role, where she oversees the overall health of the business.
“My greatest achievement has been being part of the company’s growth, including finding clients and growing into a role where I can support and work side by side with my fellow team members, overseeing their professional growth,” Gaythwaite says.
Centerline Digital’s core offerings meld storytelling with marketing data that allows the company to conduct sophisticated trend forecasting. “It’s fascinating to see how those will merge as we make sure to continue to focus on the human element and keep the end customer in mind.”
Finding Your Own Path
Gaythwaite says she often works with women who have a couple of years under their belt and worry about the common barriers that women face in the work world, which can be destructive. “Don’t fear the barriers,” she says. “Although you are bound to meet them, you need to learn to push past them, which can be accomplished by aligning yourself with other women who can help you grow.”
In addition, she believes that her peers need to band together and support one another as well, as they are all currently juggling multiple needs: parents, kids and their next career step. “Understanding that we’re all going through the same thing, and are all looking at our past success, yet unsure what the next steps will be, we need to give ourselves and others some leeway.”
She is proud that the entire executive team at her firm is women, many who, like her, have been there a long time, growing up through having families and career success. “We can help nurture the other women who join our team,” she says.
A single mom by choice, Gaythwaite says that life never turns out exactly how you expect, but it can be even more gratifying. “Understand that you will likely be facing multiple speed bumps along the way, and that it won’t be exactly what you envisioned. But keep moving forward and own your own specific path. While it will look different for each person, focus on your own life and what works for you, and that’s how you will define and find success.”
Leading Your Team in a Pandemic: 6 Quick Tips
NewsLeading your team in a pandemic is about navigating
a course that puts control and choice of how much your team wants to talk about the pandemic in their court. This a lot to take in for most people to take in and giving space to let them have their own personal thoughts or feelings and the degree to how much they want to share those feelings, should be very much up to them.
People are psychologically in different places for different reasons including it seems due to location, political affiliation in the USA (nowhere else it turns out, just here) and where they get their news from.
Work towards helping everyone get to the “a-ha” moment of what is happening, by helping them get to a conclusion which resembles the objective reality that is happening. As a psychologist, I am sure that the one thing that matters is that they have to get there themselves. Telling them what is real, is not going to work, as much like gender and other prejudice, so many people cannot get to the experience of objectivity as they are viewing so much through their own subjective experience processing filter lens. The result? If it literally it isn’t happening to them or someone they directly know, they dismiss it as a possibility! Cognitive dissonance is real! If there was ever a time to read Immunity to Change by Kegan and Lahey the Harvard development psychologists, my friends that time is now! Here is a cheat sheet article on theglasshammer.com on the subject.
Some people are very distracted by life stuff -very understandable, life has changed for so many of us with a lockdown. I am personally on week 4 with a possible 8 weeks ahead with a spouse on the front lines working in an NYC hospital and “sans babysitter” for a while yet. Yet, understand some people want to distracted by work as its a good way of maintaining sanity if they have the backup to escape to the computer or the necessity to keep the work going to keep the business going. No one wants to fail in their career or business due to the coronavirus, that is a fact. Flex to what you need to be for that person in that moment, this is an evolving emotional ride for most.
Here are 6 tips to lead in a pandemic
1. Acknowledge this is not a normal time for anyone and it is not business as usual
2. Give the other person space by asking them at the start of the meeting, “How would you like to spend this time together to ensure that we honor the professional work agenda and the personal needs of everyone in light of these unusual circumstances?”
3. Be neutral in your reaction to where they are at emotionally, mentally and psychologically in this process of digesting the realities around us. No judgement around if they are in denial or if they are in distress. Instead create a safe environment to express how they feel if they want to. Do not project how you feel unto them with wordy recounts of your life events or feelings around it unless they want that. Work out how you feel and talk to your therapist or coach and then create space for everyone else to have their feelings and thoughts too.
4. Be careful about anxiety provoking questions like ‘how are you doing with homeschooling?” as so many of us are not doing well with many things. Instead ask, “How can i best support you and clear obstacles for you?”
5. Be consistent in actions and clear in communications, as this is leadership even in normal times.
6. Be human, first. Empathy is a muscle.
We are taking a publishing break until mid May to ensure we can coach (email nicki@evolvedpeople.com for coaching 2 sessions for $599, pack of 5 sessions for $1700 on zoom, facetime or phone) and support anyone who needs it and create space for everyone to focus on life priorities and staying well. Enjoy our archives of profiles (1500) and Career Advice (5000 articles)
Stay safe, social distance, ‘Happy Easter, Passover and Happy Spring’ and see you in May with a flatter curve (we hope).
Best Wishes,
Nicki Gilmour
CEO and Publisher
www.theglasshammer.com
Remote Leadership: 6 Ways How To Lead When You Have to Lead From Home
NewsAs entire offices are now working from home, the question is how to lead and motivate through these times. How do you stay supportive and facilitative to your people through the absence of in-person interaction? With a backdrop of increased uncertainty and lack of control, how do you take it day by day as a manager?
This is Not Last Year’s Remote Office
Prior to the crisis, remote working had grown by 91% in the last ten years and 52% of workers globally were working from home once a week. It was estimated that at least 50% of the U.S. workforce would work remotely by 2020. The current context has blown the statistics apart.
Context is everything. The advantage of working remotely is normally the sense of freedom and flexibility, but for many it’s now a result of imposed restriction, that goes across every aspect of life.
Some team members will struggle deeply with isolation and routine loss. Previous remote workers will not be having the same experience as before.
Elizabeth Grace Saunders, a Time Management Coach, writes in Fast Company, “For some, the idea of working from home is a dream—no commute and no drop-in meetings—pure productivity bliss; for others, it’s terrifying… Ready or not, you’re working remotely.”
American Psychiatric Association (APA) emphasizes, “Many are teleworking full-time for the first time, isolated from co-workers, friends and family. Our daily living routines are disrupted causing added anxiety, stress and strain—physically, mentally, and financially. It is completely natural for this disruption and uncertainty to lead to anxiety and stress.”
6 Ways to Support Your Team
As a remote leader, here are recommended ways you can support your team members:
Establish Work Availability and Boundaries
“When transitioning to a remote team, leaders should prioritize the development of clear boundaries and guidelines,” writes Jason Wingard, dean and professor at the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University, in Forbes. “At its most basic, this involves assisting employees in delineating their availability: when they will be working, how they can be reached for different needs, and how they will address challenges such as childcare.”
Encouraging employees and yourself to establish work hours and be communicative about them will help productivity and avoid burnout.
“There’s a lot more flexibility, which can be exceptionally dangerous,” writes Saunders. “You can end up barely working, working all the time, or somewhere in the middle where you begin your work very late and end up needing to work into the wee hours of the night.”
“Segment out what home or personal tasks you won’t do when you are in your work hours;” she advises, “that way you don’t spend half the day tidying the house and neglecting key tasks.”
The APA recommends keeping a regular routine including work, family, breaks, and other activities – as well as a designated physical space for work within the home – to support mental health while working from home.
Saunders writes that sticking with your routines – such as wake up, eating, activities and exercise times – support a greater sense of normalcy and clarity.On the other hand, Saunders writes “Abandoning all your routines will lead to decision fatigue and likely a lapse of willpower. You may find yourself home all the time, yet not even showered or dressed most days.”
Denoting a dedicated work space to settle into will help you and team members focus – and reserving that space as much as possible for work.
Be Flexible and Compassionate To Differing Circumstances
Optimal availability, schedule, and routine may look different for each individual, including yourself.
“Your mindset (now) has to shift to flexibility, overcommunication, and compassion,” writes Jay Friedman, president and parter of Goodway Group writes in Business Insider. “Take everyone’s situation into consideration and adopt accordingly.”
Friedman emphasizes the importance of establishing ‘parameters for a work-life integration plan’, which allows employees to adapt their schedule around their total responsibilities, such as home-schooling, and that may look different than a 9-to-5.
“To avoid miscommunication, encourage employees to be open on their calendars by blocking out ‘family’ time;’” he writes, “encourage those without such responsibilities to carve out ‘personal time’ before and after their work day to facilitate healthy work-life harmony.”
Also, re-assess responsibility allocation in your team based on the current situation.
Prioritize Goals, Not Hours
It’s not about hours spent sitting at the desk. Focus on goals and results.
“Don’t worry as much about what is being done. Instead, concentrate on what is being accomplished,” quotes Forbes, from sales and marketing professional Donald Hatter. “If we are meeting our goals, then great. If not, we need to look into the situation further. It is all about accomplishment, not activity.”
“Especially during times like these, look at the team’s achievements and celebrate what they’ve done,” Friedman writes. “The ongoing support and celebration of wins — both large and small — will be a huge motivator.”
Clarifying goals and who supports what can help with delegation, according to authors in Harvard Business Review (HBR): “Clarifying roles among the team helps people understand when they can turn to peers instead of the leader, which prevents the leader from becoming a bottleneck.”
Check In Regularly and Document
46% of remote workers, according to HBR and cited in Forbes, reported that the best managers checked on their team members regularly and frequently.
Checking in, as well as responding quickly, are important to keep connection, while face-to-face virtual meetings retain a sense of closeness and cohesion.
As written in HBR, “The most successful managers are good listeners, communicate trust and respect, inquire about workload and progress without micromanaging, and err on the side of overcommunicating.”
According to John Eades, CEO of LearnLoft in Forbes, questions should be:“What have you done? What are you working on? Where do you need help?” It’s important to give ownership for how things get done with individuals, and trust your people.
Brian de Haaff, Co-founder and CEO of Aha!, points out that documentation is critical when running a team remotely, assuring communication is flowing, messages are accurate, and records are kept. Recording virtual meetings on Xoom, etc helps to catch team members up directly.
Haaff further recommends documenting the three Ps: “problems, progress and plans”, to use as a launching point for weekly check-ins.
When moving around the virtual office, check your bias. Homophily – such as reaching out, relating to, assigning and relying on those with whom you share similarities – is at play. One recommendation is to keep a list of team members with photos around to consult, so you can see if you’ve truly been reaching out to all.
Be Connected, Be Personal, Be Empathetic
More than ever, remind yourself that your team members are human beings with emotions stirred up in this moment.
“People suddenly working from home are likely to feel disconnected and lonely, which lowers productivity and engagement,” according to HBR. “Under these circumstances it is tempting to become exclusively task-focused. To address these challenges, making time for personal interaction is more important than ever.”
This means keeping face-to-face connections through virtual tools, especially with those who may need extra support, showing active interest in people’s lives and well-being, being available and approachable as a leader, and acknowledging people’s concerns with compassionate flexibility.
“The best way to ensure people are engaged is to over-communicate. You can do daily check-ins and virtual hangouts like morning coffee or lunch,” advises Friedman. “If the method you’re trying isn’t working, change and adapt quickly.”
Don’t just manage your team or projects. Connect as humans that are mutually inside a challenging environment of disruption and uncertainty, and need support as we help each other through these waves.
By Aimee Hansen
Aimee Hansen is a freelance writer, frequent contributor to theglasshammer and Creator and Facilitator of Storyteller Within Retreats, Lonely Planet recommended women’s circle retreats focused on self-exploration and connecting with your inner truth and sacred expression through writing, yoga, meditation, movement and ceremonies.
Vicki Brakl; Senior Vice President, Marketing, Training & Development; Meredith Corporation, MNI Targeted Media
Voices of Experience“If you have a good idea, speak up! Good ideas come from everywhere. What’s most important is for leaders to foster an open-minded environment where all ideas are considered.”
This is something Brakl has experienced throughout her career. She knows firsthand that people (including herself) frequently defer to those in senior positions as a sign of respect. What’s important to distinguish is that respect doesn’t indicate silence. This allows for the strongest ideas to be built upon for all to benefit.
Looking for New Challenges to Stretch her Talents
Status quo is definitely not something Brakl ever sought. In fact, she has always said yes to opportunities where she felt she could learn something new. She describes her career path as “winding”—always moving forward, based on curiosity and a desire to stretch herself along the way.
Brakl says she’s been lucky to never have had to “search for a job,” so to speak, and she attributes that to the fact that she has always done what she’s said she’s going to do; while it sounds simple, this work ethic can be in short supply.
“I want to work with smart, motivated, curious people, but also precise communicators and problem solvers who bring solutions and new ideas. I like to think that I’ve been that person to others,” Brakl says.
She found her ideal career through trial and error, including stints in the legal profession and investment banking. While the culture wasn’t for her, Brakl didn’t want to give up on business overall so she went to business school. After a full-time internship, she received a great job offer and cut her teeth on the client-side at one of the largest consumer packaged goods companies, giving her nine-years of experience. She then went to the agency side where she could work with different types of clients, from retail to pharmaceutical, and then on to a private equity group. All of these opportunities allowed her to learn and hone diverse skillsets.
Brakl’s current job came courtesy of a family friend who needed someone experienced in integrated marketing. Although she’d bought media and created strategic media plans, she’d never been on the sales side, but again, she relished the chance to try something new.
Helping Others Grow Their Careers
Throughout her career, Brakl points to several business successes—from pitching for huge budgets to unwinding companies and making clients whole. But what she’s most proud of is the personal outreach of appreciation from those whose careers she’s touched. “It could be a note that they enjoyed working with me, or that a piece of advice I gave them sent them on a new course, or that they’ve found me to be an inspiring leader. These types of acknowledgments touch me most deeply because the personal relationships are what it’s all about.”
Providing that career upskilling is now an official part of her job, as she was recently promoted and added training to her purview. “For an organization of our size, training oversight is exciting because of the ability it gives me to touch people,” she says, adding that maintaining a strong culture is particularly important given their dispersed and diverse workplace.
“I’m excited about what a formalized training process can do to make a difference in uniting a company where people sit in home offices across 43 markets.” And in her new role, she intends to focus on providing ways for all employees to expand their knowledge base beyond their day-to-day responsibilities.
Brakl sees that the work world is moving more toward valuing productivity and results versus hours and thinks that will be a benefit to all, but especially to women. “You have to find the right place where you can work on your own terms in your own way. It’s not just about balance per se, but managing your life and career over the long haul in a way that’s sustainable.”
She encourages young professionals to ask for challenges in order to bolster their career. “When you are offered an opportunity, take it and run. Don’t be afraid to ask questions because that’s where the learning happens,” she says.
And while asking questions is important, so is speaking up in general. She cautions other women not to allow others to appropriate their ideas. She’s seen it all too often: you will offer an idea only for someone else to tweak it and play it off as their own. “Say it again and don’t let them get away with it. Gracefully bring it back to you with a calm remark such as, ‘As I said,’” she suggests.
Currently, two-thirds of the workforce at her company are women, with 60% at director level, and Brakl is one of four on the executive team. While the numbers continue to grow, she knows there can always be improvement and looks forward to making a difference in her new role.
Outside of work, Brakl is busy with her 5-year-old, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t learn something new by seeing the world through her eyes. “I try to harness her viewpoint and be as non-judgmental as a child. It has really affected my perspective.”Yoga keeps her mind and body flexible; it’s just a matter of finding the time. Brakl notes that along with family, friends and keeping yourself healthy, that’s a full plate. “It all helps you be a better professional and mom,” she says.
Emily O’Daniel, CFA; Vice President, Intermediary and Retail Specialist; PineBridge Investments
Movers and ShakersThe best strategy is to always be willing to take on responsibilities and be vocal about what you want. “People can’t read your mind, so ask for opportunities and get more comfortable saying no to requests that no longer fit in your job description if you are spread too thin..”
And she adds, it’s hard to know what roles are out there and “what you want to be when you grow up” so you always have to ask questions, attend conferences and do your research to find out what other jobs are like in order to determine what suits you best.
A Growing Company, A Rising Career
That can-do spirit has served her well.
Spending her whole career with one employer has been fulfilling for O’Daniel, if a bit unusual in her generation, she points out. However, it’s given her the chance to wear many hats and take on diverse roles, all at one firm. While she had been offered a position at PwC following an internship in forensic accounting, she liked the possibilities she was offered at PineBridge as she believed working at a smaller firm would be more fruitful and lead to more opportunities faster.
Her first position was as the only analyst covering the Americas institutional sales team. After gaining some experience supporting the larger team as the sole analyst, she asked take on a specialized role within the intermediary & retail team —an area she deliberately chose since it was a channel she knew the least about so the learning curve was steep. That channel has grown since then, as has the company, with four analysts now on the sales team.
Eventually O’Daniel was promoted into her own sales role and for two years has been an independent sales woman focusing on identifying new business. In addition, she supports the firm’s sub advisory business, which she says is much like being a teacher. “You’re working with clients and helping them understand the investment strategy we’ve developed. Often it can be easy to get stuck in your day-to-day job and not see the end result so it’s rewarding to have insight direct impact as you watch people save for retirement and know you’re helping them.”
However, in terms of the professional achievement she is most proud of so far, it doesn’t even have to do with that rapid ascension, but rather in earning her CFA designation, given the challenge inherent in the three-level test, where each level only has about a 30% pass rate. She was able to juggle that massive responsibility with working full time, but she believes that accomplishing that has made a big difference in her career.
Strong Mentors Support and Teach
When O’Daniel began her career, she had expected that the corporate world would be far more competitive in terms of interpersonal relationships, which would make it hard to be yourself, especially as a novice. She has been pleasantly surprised to find that while there are all kinds of people, , by and large people have been friendly and helpful. “Even when I am in meetings with competitors, you get the sense that people want to collaborate and be friendly.”
She has been fortunate along the way to have had several role models—starting with her father, who was in sales and reminded her to always find the fun in what you’re doing. “If you like what you’re doing, you’ll be better at it,” she says, adding that he also taught her that cutting corners is never the way to succeed.
In addition, she was inspired by a women with whom she interned, who ran a successful business while maintaining a caring and kind demeanor. And she’s learned from many other colleagues, both male and female, informally and formally, through the robust mentor program PineBridge offers where you are matched annually with someone new. She says her PineBridge mentors have not only given her great advice, but advocated for her. “It’s been a great way to gain exposure to people outside of my group,” she says.
O’Daniel is also active in a recently developed PineBridge Women’s Network, which is an internal resource group to network and talk about challenges in professional and personal development. And, she’s a member of an external group, the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), that is currently focusing on diversity and inclusion.
Since her role is largely numbers driven, outside of work O’Daniel enjoys exercising her creative side, from knitting to painting, making jewelry and handling any number of DIY projects. In addition she enjoys spending time with her family, frequently traveling to visit them in the Washington D.C. area.
Invisible By Design: The Data Loop that Perpetuates A “Default Male” World
NewsWe often see binary gender statistics reported in regards to the small numbers represented by women. Let’s flip the statistics to instead reflect the large numbers represented by men.
Over 93% of Fortune 500 CEO’s are male – a record low. 79% of C-Suite executives are men. 83% of boardroom seats worldwide and 95% of board chairs are held by men, and also 82% of boardroom seats in North America and over 95% of chairs are held by men. 98% of the CEOS for financial institutions and over 80% of executive board members are men.
100% of U.S. presidents and vice presidents are male and so now is the 2020 major party campaign race, which – in the context of many countries with influential strong female heads of state in their cultural history – is hinging on becoming an All-“American” leadership trademark.
75% of parliamentary seats are held by men globally. 94% of Nobel Prizes handed out since 1901 have been to men.
76% of news coverage when considering 20 years and 114 countries focuses on men, and 73% of news stories are reported by men. 69% of characters speaking in popular films are men, 77% of protagonists are men, and 79% of filmmakers are men – across eleven countries.
All Academy Awards for Best Director have been claimed by men amidst primarily male nominees, except one.
When men occupy 70% to 100% of representation across spheres, “underrepresented” is a gross understatement when it comes to women.
What is apparent is the pervasiveness of men in our worldwide culture as the default leader, voice, achiever, speaker, storyteller, even…human.
What Does a “Default Male” World Mean?
In her book Invisible Women: Data Bias In A World Designed For Men, feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez points to the “default male” premise upon which much of our daily world is created – because women are either not though of at all, or just written off as a complexity.
“When typical female heart attack symptoms are called ‘typical,’ this is default male. When ‘gender-neutral’ toxicity levels for chemicals are determined using data on men, this is default male,” says Perez in an interview for Evoke. “When researchers complain that female bodies are too complicated to test on, this is default male—how else could you justify excluding half the world for reasons of simplicity?”
Social activist and journalist, Perez has a track record of advocating for women’s inclusion and visibility. She previously campaigned successfully to keep a woman on the British banknote. She also co-founded the The Women’s Room – a database of over 2,500 women experts in their fields – to increase the representation of female experts quoted in the media.
The database’s homepage addresses the disproportionate representation of male experts: “The media says that this is because there just aren’t that many female experts around, and the media just reflects the reality of the world. This website is about proving them wrong.”
It could be working to help do so, as women increased from 24% of experts in 2010 to 36% of experts in 2015.
How “Unthinking” Creates a “Default Male” World
As written in Wired about Perez’s findings: “There exists a real gender data gap that is ‘both a cause and a consequence of the type of unthinking that conceives of humanity as almost exclusively male.”
This “unthinking” impacts on women’s health and even lives. What first compelled Perez towards this book was the deadly gender gap of knowledge in the medical world.
As Perez shares in Evoke, “… because public health information focuses on male symptoms, women don’t realize they’re having heart attacks. Worse, doctors don’t realize. The result is that women are more likely to die following a heart attack than men… Our society positions science as neutral; as objective and free of bias. Science deals in facts. In truth. Only, now it turned out that our cultural positioning of men as the default humans was corrupting science.”
Perez gives examples of how ‘default male’ data feeds algorithms that make dangerous leaps and false assumptions: “First, because the datasets on which we train algorithms are hopelessly male biased, voice recognition software doesn’t recognize female voices, translation software translates female doctors into male doctors, and image-labeling software labels men as women if they are standing next to an oven.”
The evidence that the world is not designed for women appears in everything from the size of smartphones, transport and snow-clearing routes that do not reflect the amount of unpaid work women do or their daily travel behavior, automotive crash systems and seats and seatbelts designed for men’s bodies (women have a 47% greater chance of serious injury in a car accident), restroom layouts that don’t reflect the different uses or time needed by the genders, CPR training which normalizes touching male chests only (men have a 23% higher chance of resuscitation in public), and even the temperature deemed comfortable for the office space you may be working in.
The “Default Male” Data and Design Loop
In her book, Perez writes, “No one meant to deliberately exclude women. It’s just what may seem objective is actually highly male-biased.”
The tech industry and the design industry are very male-dominated industries. 74% of computing jobs are held by men, and the turnover rate for women is over double that of men (41% vs. 17%). Across 1980 to 2010, 88% of all information technology patents were obtained by male-only invention teams (only 2% were by female-only invention teams). 88% of engineers in Silicon Valley startups and 89% of executives in Silicon Valley companies are men.
Perez is quick to say that design tends to reflect the needs of the people who are doing the design (for example those who have never been pregnant may not think of pregnancy parking spaces), and there is a catch-22 loop that feeds into male-dominated design.
“Ninety-three percent of venture capitalists (VCs) are men, and these teams suffer from the same problem as male-dominated developer teams: they simply aren’t aware of certain female needs,” says Perez in Evoke. “As a result, entrepreneurs developing new tech for women need good data because they will not be able to rely on a VC already having personal experience with, for example, how terrible all the current breast pump options are. …But because we lack data on female bodies, such entrepreneurs are less likely to have the information they need to make the case for their ideas. They are therefore less likely to get funding. And so tech for women remains, for the most part, of the shrink it, pink it and price it up variety, rather than genuinely catering to women’s needs.”
In Wired, Perez shares that exclusion goes to yet another level when it comes down to excuses or shortcuts for not considering women. She cites a scaled-down male dummy being used to represent a female: “That’s not forgetting. That’s a deliberate act.”
Perez told Evoke, “The excuse I came across most often in the course of writing the book was that women are just too complicated. This excuse appeared in fields ranging from the economy, to travel infrastructure, to medicine. Women’s working lives are too complicated, our travel patterns are too complicated, our bodies are too complicated. And instead of engaging with that complexity, researchers prefer to just exclude half the world. They choose to save money rather than to save women’s lives.”
How To Disrupt a “Default Male” World?
Disrupting the “default male” world is overdue, and that too is an understatement.
The way this will ultimately happen is if there’s more women involved in data collection, design and development – so women’s differences and needs will neither be forgotten about nor dismissed.
“Seeing men as the human default is fundamental to the structure of human society,” Criado Perez writes, as noted in Science News. “It’s time for women to be seen.”
Authors Bio: Aimee Hansen is a freelance writer, frequent contributor to theglasshammer and Creator and Facilitator of Storyteller Within Retreats, Lonely Planet recommended women’s circle retreats focused on self-exploration and connecting with your inner truth and sacred expression through writing, yoga, meditation, movement and ceremonies.
By Aimee Hansen
Jack Ginter, President, Abbot Downing, a boutique wealth business of Wells Fargo Wealth and Investment Management
Men Who "Get It"Ginter recognizes that mentors and sponsors including “two very strong women” were the people willing to speak up for him on his behalf throughout his career. He has been in wealth management for more than 25 years and risen through the ranks having client facing, portfolio experience as well as significant management experience. Ginter was part of the team that founded Abbot Downing in 2012 merging three businesses previously known as Calibre, Lowry Hill and Wells Fargo Family Wealth and now manages employees and serves clients across all 50 states.
Ginter is inspired to lead from the front on creating an inclusive workforce that runs on meritocratic principles. Personally, he is passionate to build opportunities for talented women, and is motivated to use his voice, power and position to drive change.
Ginter wants to ensure that everyone gets the chance to understand that diversity is a topic for everyone and encourages everyone to do the work that is needed to clear the deck for honest conversations.
“We have spent time here at Abbot Downing on unconscious bias and what microaggressions are. Men have to engage as allies and really dig deep into the topic to move the needle.”
He urges women to seek out men who get it. Engaging with others who want to embrace the talent within the organization is essential to personal and professional growth.
“I have a daughter who is 19 and I have nieces that I want to have opportunities different than a decade ago. We have incredibly talented women on my current team who I want to see succeed and get to the next level. These women have had a significant impact on our business and the wealth industry. I believe the success of our business depends on contributions from individuals who have different perspectives and innovative ideas.”
Jack participates in supporting women and creating change as an adviser to the Wells Fargo Women’s Team Member Network, a program that is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture at Wells Fargo for women through personal and professional development, mentoring, leadership engagement, networking and community outreach opportunities.
He is a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Council which spans all Wealth and Investment Management. He recounts how years ago, a female mentor of his team told him something that stuck with him.
“She told me that if I had a voice that has power, I have to use it. I have never forgotten that. Sometimes it is not easy to have uncomfortable conversations but men need to be engaged in the conversation. It is hard to own the fact you might have had privilege, but the overarching message here is that you have to engage and be direct in calling out behavior that needs to be called out.”
Holding People Accountable
Ginter is convinced that leaders can commit and engage in inclusive behaviors that attracts others who also believe to ensure a strong future with a complete understanding of what progress looks like. He believes in always having diverse slate of candidates when recruiting talent, a diverse hiring panel and understanding what a good culture looks like for real retention.
“We need a strong, healthy and diverse team. That is the future of our business.”
Ginter believes reverse mentoring, where a senior leader is mentored by a member of the broader team, has been a successful way for him and other leaders to really learn and listen. In this role, Ginter says he had to trust, be transparent and open with his mentor. Through difficult discussions he was able to work through communication and style issues and discuss common interests and goals.
When Ginter reflects on what advice would he give his younger self, regarding diversity and the narratives and needs of other people’s lives, he offers,
“I think looking back, I would tell myself to be more curious, listen more to other people and most importantly to never take away the other person’s decision making power.”
5 Tips to Manage your Productivity, Sanity and Career during the Coronavirus
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!, NewsAided by peace of mind which none of us have right now in the midst of a pandemic.
As someone who invented and launched theglasshammer from my living room in Brooklyn, I can testify to needing utmost grit, tenacity, determination and focus to produce a large volume of work on a daily basis for thirteen years through good and bad times looking at a wall or a screen. In fact, the irony is, social distancing feels rather similar to my everyday professional life of walk the dog, write editorial, do coaching on zoom/facetime, cook lunch, walk the dog, write, coach, cook, childcare on repeat. I even lived in the woods for two years so social isolation is clearly what I have been training for, dear readers.
Here are my top 5 tips for keeping it all going during this time:
1. Set Boundaries- physical, mental and emotion for yourself
Physical boundaries are the easiest. Delineate areas in your house, even a corner of your apartment to work from. Do what you need to do to make it “nice” for you. Pictures, or a bare desk, you know who you are. Keep it clean by clorox wiping the bottom of your laptop and keys and screen once a day. Ditto phone.
Mental and emotional boundaries are harder. Confine work to work and don’t check email on the couch on your phone for example. Also, to emotionally protect yourself during work do not read news, instead listen to soothing classical music, jazz, a radio station that you like ( for me BBC Radio 2 cannot be beaten) or an old “album” that brings you back to a good time. Create nostalgia if you need that on dark quarantine days as this is going to last for a while so stamina and strategy are crucial elements to keeping sane and therefore productive.
2. Get Exercise
Get up and walk outside (while keeping a distance of course) or peleton or bike yourself skinny. Whatever your jam is, and is still ok to do, do it. You can sit on an exercise ball and have a stand up adjustable desk, there are ways to create variety. Get your trainer to work with you virtually. You don’t have to go as far as Sarah Conner in Terminator 2 doing chin ups on the metal bed frame ( humor will get us though this).
3. Get hobbies.
Ever wanted to speak a language? I learned to cook when i lived in the woods, cook like Julia Child with WW2 dried goods. Challenge yourself to be resourceful. Grow veggies, knit, read books about foraging mushrooms even if you never do it. It is amazing what you learn skill wise and more importantly what you learn about yourself.
Have kids? Explore new stuff with them in the down time. Coloring is extremely soothing and Frozen 2 will provide you with plenty to do there including googling “let it go” in many languages and belting it out “Libre Soy”.
If you are a busy person, chances are there are several TV shows you have wanted to catch up on. I just started Outlander, a celtic time traveling tale that lasts for 6 or 7 seasons, that will be a great mental distraction to invest in (also life in 1743 makes our current reality as dire as it is, still better). And novels, remember them? Have virtual book clubs with your friends. Virtual wine and cheese ( i have been invited to one already). Business books and professional development books are also good and here are my recommendations for the next few weeks:
Authentic Gravitas
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader
Everyday Negotiations
You are a Badass
Immunity to Change
Buy extra coffee, tea, candy, chocolate, vodka, wine or whatever you need for the days that you need a cheap thrill.
4. Get reflective time
See this as opportunity to look inwards and reflect what is meaningful to you. Take a list of “should do’s” and figure out what is real and what is not. What is working for you? What is not? What do you want to do differently when we emerge from this? What has been the best of 2020 so far that you can expand on at work? Meditate – however and whatever method works and watch how you can regain the power of your mind.
5. Use technology to get the job done
There is actually a lot to be said for saving time not commuting. You might find you do more old fashioned calling and videoconferencing with someone because you do lack the human contact factor. Email is still email. It is by getting sucked into facebook and other productivity sucks like cat videos that you will wonder why the “to-do” list is still there.
Video call your friends near and far, call your parents and older friends as they have to stay in the most.
Good luck and if you need executive and frankly, life coaching on how to thrive professionally and personally during this unusual time, book in with me at nicki@theglasshammer.com – 3 video sessions x 90 mins long that you can use all year long for $899 or book a 15 mins chat to see if it for you here
I am a professionally certified coach (PCC) with a masters in Social (I/O) Psychology, i am your person on this one.
Write “coach me” in the email headline and we can set up a time or book now if you are ready for a full session here.
You will get through this! STAY SAFE.
14 Best Tips for Working Virtually From Home
Career Advice, NewsThese tips should help.
Best Tips for Working Virtually:
The most important thing to do is take it slowly and try and remain calm. Contact a friend or associate and chat. Reach out and say hi. Turn off the news. Now I’m not saying don’t listen to the news, just avoid the 24/7 news cycle as that can be overwhelming. And finally, know that this too shall pass. We all will get through this and the other side will be spectacular.
Author Bio:
Diana Ennen, President of Virtual Word Publishing, https://virtualwordpublishing.com offers PR and Marketing services, book marketing services, virtual assisting services, and PR and Virtual Assistant Coaching. She is also co-author of Virtual Assistant the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA. She has been featured in USA Weekly, Forbes, Inc. Radio, Fox News, Women’s World, USA Today, CNN, Wall Street Journal, and many more. She also has many valuable resources such as her PR Success Webinar Series – https://virtualwordpublishing.com/coaching-and-classes/pr-success-series/
Voice of Experience: Raquel Rosenthal, CEO of Digilant
People, Voices of Experience“Don’t let the little stuff get to you, but keep looking at the goals with your eye on the prize,” she says, an attitude that she attributes to her sales background.
“When you’re young and on a superstar path, you want to get there quickly, but you need to continue to work on yourself. With any blip, I kept focused and realized that even if my time wasn’t now, it was coming.”
Riding the Wave of Transformative Technologies
That determination has given Rosenthal a front row seat to the transformation of the digital world over her career. In college she worked at her campus radio station as a sales manager, then got a position at a local publication called the Advantage where she worked for a year before starting her own publication, which she ran for four years. “While I started on the traditional side, I focused my career on the digital advertising industry and emerging markets. I have always been entrepreneurial, which has shaped me and how I’ve grown my career,” she says.
While she loved advertising and selling, when she started her career at DoubleClick, a company acquired by Google, she realized she had found her passion. With the digital industry just emerging,it was an exciting challenge to work with large companies to convince them to pivot their marketing budgets. She held management roles at other tech companies, including Belo Interactive Media and dataxu, and then seeking a new challenge, she joined Digilant in 2011, ascending from Senior Vice President of Sales and Chief Revenue Officer to CEO.
“I feel very fortunate to have been part of this emerging field,” she says, adding that while she is proud that she’s been able to switch gears from being a contributor to becoming a CEO, even more so she considers herself a “turnaround” CEO. “I was able to leverage my revenue mindset and take the company from where it was losing money to today, where we are headed into our third consecutive year of growth,” she says.
Always on the forefront of emerging trends, Rosenthal closely watches the current landscape within the advertising space, where there’s been a merger of adtech agency services and consulting. “It’s significant when companies with that financial prowess enter the space, so we have been focused on retooling our company to ensure we can compete alongside the larger companies.”
Along with that, Digilant is focused on eliminating siloed data within organizations and the industry to help create a seamless customer experience. Rosenthal states, “we are shifting to a single source of truth to help understand how the consumer is looking to get their data and how analytics can help us improve the consumer journey.”
A Growing World of Opportunity
Looking at the talent landscape, Rosenthal sees many more opportunities for women in middle management and leadership positions than when she started, and although there are still fewer women than is ideal, she feels optimistic about what lies ahead. Using her own company as an example, Digilant has four women in executive leadership positions, attributed to recent growth.
With a focus on diversity of gender and culture, they have implemented “Women and Wisdom”,a monthly discussion group that covers a diverse array of topics, from gender roles to climate change, all chosen by women. A robust mentorship program is also key to helping elevate women.
Rosenthal believes it’s important to stay focused on your work, but in order to bring your best self to work and position yourself for success, you also have to focus on yourself. She says, “it could be walking the dog or reading a chapter every day, but you have to have something that helps you decompress and get away from work to bring that fresh mindset that breeds creativity.”
She definitely takes her own advice, including a daily three-mile walk with her dogs and setting aside time to read books on managing, such as Radical Candor and Good to Great. “People are in constant evolution, including myself, so I love to focus on those topics that will help both myself and the company.”