Guest contributed by Tricia Benn
Over the past century, women have made enormous strides — gaining access to the vote, educational opportunities, military service, executive roles, and other aspects of modern life.
In spite of these advancements, there is plenty of work to be done in order to achieve parity.
Studies have shown that women tend to fall behind early on in their careers and continue to lose ground as they progress, despite the fact that women are earning a majority of college degrees. According to research from McKinsey and LeanIn.org, women make up 47 percent of entry-level hires but are 18 percent less likely to be promoted to managerial positions.
The c-suite is no exception.
A New York Times report stated the number of women leading companies in the Fortune 500, grew to 6.4 percent in 2017 – up almost 3 percentage points from a decade earlier. At this rate, parity would take over a century. In 2018, the number of female chief executives declined 25 percent, according to Fortune’s 2018 list of Fortune 500 companies.
While the number of CEOs continues to decline, the position of the Chief Financial Officer currently has a higher female presence, with almost 13 percent. Still woefully less than the population and graduates with finance degrees would lead us to conclude there should be.
These numbers indicate that there is a clear systemic problem that still sees women executives falling off the corporate ladder — despite, many reports that show women outperforming men in several key competencies like self-awareness, adaptability, and teamwork.
Here are six things that need to be addressed in order to help bridge the gender gap.
Systemic Bias.
Systemic bias is defined as “prejudice, bigotry, or unfairness directed by health, educational, government, judicial, legal, religious, political, financial, media, or cultural institutions of an oppressed or marginalized group.” It’s inevitable to look at a problem, make it personal, feel defensive, and feel the need to justify some decisions. Here are some examples:
Women have to make very difficult choices when it comes to having a family. They have to choose between parenthood or career advancement; whereas their male counterparts don’t have to make that choice. At times, career advancement translates to working longer, or more, hours which also exacerbates itself with finding affordable, and adequate, child care.
While this issue isn’t applicable exclusively to women, the reality is women bear the brunt of the decision-making when it comes to daycare. In a 2018 survey by the Center for American Progress, mothers were 40 percent more likely than fathers to say they personally felt the negative impact of child care issues on their careers.
Of course, these are simplistic examples of systemic bias, but no less effective in making the point.
Think choice sets. Life isn’t binary.
There is no one solution to any problem or any silver bullets. It’s no secret the burden on parenting has typically been more geared towards one parent than another, but the idea that either parent should be sacrificed by working 80 hours a week and being responsible for the family and home while their spouse advances in the workplace is simply wrong. Historically it has been the mother in this role (although there are some great stay-at-home dads), however, women got it right. They earned post-graduate degrees, put in the time, made sacrifices and they still failed to advance. The end result – work got ‘greedy.’
The same argument can be made for stay-at-home dads.
This article’s purpose is not to say it’s wrong for women, or men, to choose to have a full life of family and home care if that is their choice. One could venture to guess that this would be a small percentage, and even smaller still, if we consider the time after the children leave the home.
There are many choices to be made, life isn’t binary by any stretch of the imagination. Why are we treating it as such? Our personal and business lives are (or should be) integrated. We have to step away from thinking about work life and home life as separate, black-and-white issues. They’re not.
Bring the right people on your journey.
People are one of the biggest, and most important, assets for personal and professional advancement. Who you surround yourself with has a direct impact on your bottom line. For example, it’s critical to align your overall team, along with the individuals within the team, with the overall strategic goals. This allows for everyone to know where they fit and be on the same page in order to create the cohesiveness needed to move the team forward.
Your team should be the people who are on the same mission as you – those same people that feed your madness and fuel your drive. These people are aligned directly with you, making it easier to navigate the bumpy roads in business and offering some leeway in supporting what would otherwise be considered sacrifices. It does take a village.
Never stop learning.
Knowledge is something that we all must acquire continuously – regardless of where we are in our careers. It’s a grave mistake to think that a few years, or decades, of professional experience under our belt means we’ve learned everything we need to know. Learning never stops.
When you stop learning, you cease to be relevant. While it’s natural to fear the unknown, it’s crucial to get out of that frame of mind and be open to expanding your horizons. As professionals, we must be willing to embrace change and accept risks made easier by continued learning. Adapting those new skills and experiences in the workplace is only going to advance the marketability of women in their current roles, when higher positions need to be filled.
Make a difference.
Most people think ‘making a difference’ involves donating to a charitable organization. The reality is there are many ways we can make a difference every single day, even while doing business. Everyone has the capability of being a hero – getting up every single day and doing something that takes willpower, fortitude, and effort. For example, if your team sees you putting the maximum effort day in and day out, you’re making a difference for them. You’re setting the tone for how you conduct business. It is bound to be emulated. People are indeed watching.
Becoming a mentor to a younger employee, especially younger females, makes a difference. Former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright famously quipped, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” While she called that particular moment an “undiplomatic moment,” there’s truth in that statement. Mentoring younger executives helps that next generation of professional women climb higher than our generation. That is what we want in order to bridge the gender gap.
Also, be authentic in everything you do including making yourself vulnerable. Great leaders need to foster trusting environments by being upfront with their team. Sharing your humanity puts everyone, not just women, on a higher plane that is capable is sharing, building, creating, and innovating.
Make a difference by rewarding results and judge contributions by the same standard of performance you would anyone else. In fact, that’s one of the principles of The Hero Club – making a difference. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture or volunteering either in order to resonate with whom it’s impacting.
It’s easy to dismiss corporate America as being uptight and part of the problem instead of the solution. There are plenty of problems in corporate America; however, there are solutions to problems there, too. Part of the solution is the lens being used to view the world that surrounds us.
As leaders, we need to take an active role in adapting and leading with conviction. In doing so not only will there be an increase of female leaders in mid-to-senior-level positions, but workplace cultures and structures will change for the better across all industries. There is no doubt that the rate at which women are representing management and c-suite roles can go going up. The business savvy capabilities and drive women embody are unmatchable, and it’s only a matter of time before the ratio of men to women in leading business roles is as it should be – equal.
About the Author
Tricia Benn is the Executive Vice-President of the C-Suite Network and General Manager of The Hero Club, an invitation-only membership organization for CEOs, founders, and investors. As an executive within both organizations, her mission is to build a platform and community that accelerates the success of c-level executives. She is a leader in creating an executive community of collaboration, based on integrity, transparency, and measuring success beyond the numbers alone – ‘The Hero Factor.’
This approach has driven her more than 20-year track record of industry disruption in building new businesses, revenue streams, and delivering double digit, year-over-year growth.
Learn more at www.c-suitenetwork.com and https://heroceoclub.com/ or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.
The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com
Voice of Experience: Tatiana Segal, Head Of Risk Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Voices of ExperienceDon’t underestimate the importance of the company culture when making a decision about your career choices.
“Make sure the company’s values and philosophy are aligned with yours.” says Segal. “You need to be assertive and understand your options, and then put yourself in a position where you can leverage your skills to the highest possible degree,” she says.
A Career Rooted in Seizing Opportunity
Segal has a wide-ranging experience with both buy-side and sell-side firms. She started her career as an intern at BlackRock while earning her degree in economics at Columbia University and then joined full time as an analyst, a position she held for three years before moving to Goldman Sachs.
After having two children, she began looking for a healthier work-life balance and moved to Banque Nationale De Paris and from there to Nomura Securities. Ultimately she sought experience with alternative investments and went to Citi to assume a risk oversight role for the liquid portion of Citi Alternative Investments.
Segal left for a prestigious hedge fund launch, which ended up not getting off the ground as seed commitments evaporated in the midst of the 2008 crisis, and she found herself looking for work during the downturn. Segal joined Cerberus Capital Management as their first-ever head of risk management and built out both a risk team and risk capabilities to support both private equity and hedge funds. In 2011 she joined SkyBridge Capital as the head of risk management. In August 2019, she joined Morgan Stanley Investment Management as Head of Risk Management. Tatiana is enjoying the global and dynamic nature of the role and is looking forward to living up to Morgan Stanley’s four core values: Doing the Right Thing, Putting Clients First, Leading with Exceptional Ideas and Giving Back.
Understanding Your Worth
In addition to her impressive career Segal prioritizes her family—as mentioned earlier, she made choices based on the desire to have more time with her kids. “In the late ‘90s, the expectations of face time were immense, which could conflict with your desire to be with your children. It is astonishing to me that at many firms face time is still used as a measure of productivity. I believe that successful firms will be the ones that nurture more flexibility.”
Segal feels that the younger generation has been more likely to understand early in life that balance is important. “Rather than just living to work, they tend to prioritize spending time with friends and family,” she says.
In fact, Segal encourages women who are coming up the ranks to realize they need to stand their ground; it’s important to be assertive or you can end up unfulfilled. “Know your worth and your value, and be objective about what you can offer the company—that’s how you will earn respect and eventually flexibility. You need to put yourself in a position where your supervisors understand you can be equally effective without spending long hours at the office.”
Segal is part of 100 Women in Finance group where she co-chairs the risk peer advisory group. She believes it’s important to network with her peers, compare stories, and share views.
Segal carries on this mentoring spirit in her personal life, as well. In fact, one of her most impactful roles is as a board member for the Tenement Museum, which shares the hard stories about immigration history for the various groups who made America the “melting pot” it is today.
“There were women who couldn’t have their fingerprints taken because they had literally worked their fingers to the bone,” she says. “The museum did a remarkable job restoring the tenement building, and looking at where we came from—to really see the strides we have made—is both humbling and life-affirming,” she says.
How to Be Present and Gain Greater Power in Communication
Guest ContributionWe are taught that focusing on one aim or purpose in life or business to the exclusion of everything else is how to be present. What if that actually keeps you from being present and therefore being able to authentically engage and have greater power in communication with others? Being present doesn’t mean being single-minded. Being present doesn’t mean putting blinders on. In fact, focusing on one thing or person requires you to cut off everything else around you.
What if you could be aware of everything that is going on, being said and happening around you? That is being present.
So why would you do that?
Abraham Maslow said, “The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” The quality of your life depends on your presence in the moment and that is the key to gain greater power in communication as well.
Being in the moment does not require effort if you allow yourself to expand and give up being single-minded. You lose focus is because you’ve learned to hone in on one thing and if something else is getting your attention, you don’t know how to be present with everything.
Rather than being caught up in conclusions or decisions of what is required right now – trust your knowing, your inner voice, your intuition, which often leads you in a direction throughout the day that you might not have thought of or been able to plan. Would you be willing to have that trust in yourself?
What prevents a lot of people from following their knowing or their inner voice is their reluctance to be open to the unknown, which is sometimes uncomfortable but can stretch your life to greater possibilities. Get comfortable being uncomfortable – that is where change happens, and you become greater. Your presence will increase, and you will become unstoppable.
Here are five tips to total presence and gaining influence:
1. Asking questions
A question always opens up new possibilities. Ask to be present as then it becomes something you be and not something you do.
Another question: what requires my attention right now? If I allow myself to be present with everything what do I know here? What action could I take next?
2. Be interested not interesting
To gain greater power in communication a vital element is to listen and be interested in the other person. This is a way to make the other person feel worthy and helps them open up to you.
3. Exercise
Be aware and get present with three points of your body. This is a great way to bring you back to yourself. Whenever you have the feeling you are everywhere and nowhere, and therefore you are not able to be present with what is going on in the moment, recall this exercise. You’ll experience for yourself how easy it is to get centered. Just try!
4. Lower your barriers
The next time you start getting defensive or feel like you need to forcefully put forward your side of the argument, stop, breathe and just imagine pushing your walls or defenses down.
How does it work? Ask for your barriers to lower in any moment of your life. Practice it in your daily life so that you get a sense for what occurs.
Barriers separate us from each other, and true presence is not possible with them. You always will be hiding behind walls, which does not allow you to fully engage with the moment.
What creates the ability for other people to judge you or oppose you is when you resist and react or when there is something to bounce off.
Whatever people throw at you it is not real, it’s just their point of view.
The other person will be stuck with their judgment, not you, when you have your barriers down. Lowering your barriers will free you.
Being totally present and pulling down all of your barriers and having no point of view of what they may or may not think of you disarms every person and changes the situation. This is the space of allowance that is possible when you are without barriers and walls.
5. The key to being neutral
Choosing to function from what some would call a neutral or open-minded perspective, so as not to hold on to any point of view, gives you more choices and flexibility. Holding on to a point of view keeps you from having power as it limits you within right and wrong/good and bad parameters. A key element of gaining power in communication is not holding on to any point of view, but to have the freedom of all choices in the moment and the willingness to receive any information.
How many thoughts about you and being present do you have that are filled with judgments? By living them over and over again, you continue to attract more of them. This way of thinking takes you away from the presence that is possible and fuels the fight against you.
These points of view can really lock up and limit your life, your business and your reality. So, the key to freedom is, “Everything is just an interesting point of view,” as this starts to unlock the limitations defined by the point of view.
Here’s how it works: every time you get into a mind spin where you are circling around a point of view you can say to yourself, “Interesting point of view, I have this point of view.” Repeat this ten times and sense the freedom that opens up. You will gain more clarity and create ease in your world.
You can feel fully alive or miserable in any moment. It is the choice you make that creates your influence and impact with every conversation you have. Stop resisting the present. Instead engage with every moment and make your choices towards being present and gaining greater power in communication by using these tools and never give up.
Guest Contributed by Doris Schachenhofer
About the Author
After completing her social work studies in Vienna, Doris Schachenhofer worked with children, homeless people, delinquent teenagers and prisoners transitioning back into the real world. Today she travels the world teaching and supporting people to be more of themselves. Follow Doris here and on Instagram.
The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com
Voice of Experience: Kelly Hutchinson, Special Counsel, Katten
Voices of Experience“I tell young people that there is a counterpart to your role across the table, and you should get to know them because they will rise in their careers as you do in yours,” she said. As Hutchinson, a member of Katten’s Government and Public Finance practice group, points out, “You might not have a connection to the director but you might have one with the analyst, and eventually he or she will become the Managing Director, or Issuer, and you will have a great relationship that you forged many years ago.”
She also believes that employees at a junior level should realize the value they can bring every day. For example, a supervisor might not have time to read a wide variety of articles related to their industry, but more junior staff members often do have time, so they should so that they can educate themselves and contribute valuable insight to the discussion.
Finding Opportunities in Down Times
Hutchinson attended Pomona College in Southern California where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in media studies. While in college, she attended the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College’s Business Bridge Program, a four-week immersive summer program with experiential project-based learning and personalized coaching and career development. The experience set Hutchinson on a career path that led her to become an investment banking analyst in the oil and gas industry.
A few years later, Hutchinson enrolled in Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. But the year before she was set to graduate, the disastrous Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, forcing her to flee the city and the university to close for months. Hutchinson returned to Chicago where she finished classes as a visiting student at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
While in law school, Hutchinson started working for a financial advisory firm and coincidentally found herself at Katten, working with attorneys there, on her first day. After graduation, she stayed on with them for more than 10 years, advising large municipalities on bond financing and eventually serving as director and chief compliance officer.
During the financial crisis, Hutchinson found that opportunities were available to really dig in and become known as a problem solver. She was offered the chance to work for the State of Illinois as director of capital markets to manage debt issuances and the debt portfolio. That was in 2015, during a time when the when the state was in the midst of an unprecedented budget impasse. Hutchinson found herself in the right spot to navigate complicated problems that were similar to others she had handled in previous positions.
“I believe the best time for public service is when your expertise will be valuable,” she says. “Every day I could go in and add value.”
Her first year in that role, Hutchinson conducted seven public market transactions totaling nearly $3 billion right before she gave birth to her first child. All in, she spent 3-1/2 years with the State, managing $30 billion of debt and raising over $10 billion of debt in the capital market. In May, she joined Katten, where she is familiar with many of its attorneys in the municipal bonds market and can leverage her transaction experience, making for an easy transition to this, her next chapter. “I decided it was time to try another spot at the table, providing counsel from a different perspective,” she explains.
Control Your Destiny
All those experiences have shown Hutchinson that the only thing you can control is what you do—you can’t take ownership of how people see you and want to interact with you, but you can take charge of how you present yourself and live according to your values.
Part of that is merely showing up and taking advantage of opportunities, she says. “As a minority, you’re taught to put your head down and work hard, but you also need to take that extra step of making an effort to be present at meetings and social events and getting out to know your clients,” she says.
She predicts a long career, given that her late great uncle was an attorney who didn’t stop going to court until he was 95 years old. For now, Hutchinson enjoys her time with her 3-year-old son, especially appreciating the times that they travel together. “I want him to be a citizen of the world so we take one international trip a year,” she says.
Review Last Year’s New Year’s Resolutions Now!
Career Tip of the Week!Why? Firstly, you can review how you did against those espoused goals. If the answer to that is “not great” then you have a massive opportunity to ask yourself “What matters now?”
You can start to work towards a 30-day plan to really address whatever you still care about.
Secondly, before entering the season where you can feel as tired and pushed and possibly partied out as any other time in the year (referring to entertaining family more than swinging from the chandeliers), give yourself mental room to think. Even if that only means that it gives you a head start on thinking what will make it into 2020’s goals. A plan for the plan if you will. Reflecting before formulating those January 1st ideas might give you the mindfulness you need to get what you really want.
Think holistically, what do you need for every area of your life to feel good in 2020? So many of us reading this site (and writing it) are hard-charging overachievers. Work and career is front and center. Take a moment to think about how you would like your life to look a year from now. How will you have spent your time? What will have changed? What will you have done more of? And less of?
What worked this year and what have you simply outgrown? What will it take to let go of that habit that isn’t serving you? Ask yourself: what do you have to gain by spending your time/energy/sanity/money elsewhere?
If you would like to go into 2020 with a coach on your side, we are offering a coaching deal of five (60 mins) sessions for the price of four (phone/video), if you sign up between now and thanksgiving to start in January. Book with Nicki Gilmour and start making your 2020 a year that changes everything.
Leadership Advice for Women – Actionable Items to Implement
Guest ContributionGuest contributed by Tricia Benn
Over the past century, women have made enormous strides — gaining access to the vote, educational opportunities, military service, executive roles, and other aspects of modern life.
In spite of these advancements, there is plenty of work to be done in order to achieve parity.
Studies have shown that women tend to fall behind early on in their careers and continue to lose ground as they progress, despite the fact that women are earning a majority of college degrees. According to research from McKinsey and LeanIn.org, women make up 47 percent of entry-level hires but are 18 percent less likely to be promoted to managerial positions.
The c-suite is no exception.
A New York Times report stated the number of women leading companies in the Fortune 500, grew to 6.4 percent in 2017 – up almost 3 percentage points from a decade earlier. At this rate, parity would take over a century. In 2018, the number of female chief executives declined 25 percent, according to Fortune’s 2018 list of Fortune 500 companies.
While the number of CEOs continues to decline, the position of the Chief Financial Officer currently has a higher female presence, with almost 13 percent. Still woefully less than the population and graduates with finance degrees would lead us to conclude there should be.
These numbers indicate that there is a clear systemic problem that still sees women executives falling off the corporate ladder — despite, many reports that show women outperforming men in several key competencies like self-awareness, adaptability, and teamwork.
Here are six things that need to be addressed in order to help bridge the gender gap.
Systemic Bias.
Systemic bias is defined as “prejudice, bigotry, or unfairness directed by health, educational, government, judicial, legal, religious, political, financial, media, or cultural institutions of an oppressed or marginalized group.” It’s inevitable to look at a problem, make it personal, feel defensive, and feel the need to justify some decisions. Here are some examples:
Women have to make very difficult choices when it comes to having a family. They have to choose between parenthood or career advancement; whereas their male counterparts don’t have to make that choice. At times, career advancement translates to working longer, or more, hours which also exacerbates itself with finding affordable, and adequate, child care.
While this issue isn’t applicable exclusively to women, the reality is women bear the brunt of the decision-making when it comes to daycare. In a 2018 survey by the Center for American Progress, mothers were 40 percent more likely than fathers to say they personally felt the negative impact of child care issues on their careers.
Of course, these are simplistic examples of systemic bias, but no less effective in making the point.
Think choice sets. Life isn’t binary.
There is no one solution to any problem or any silver bullets. It’s no secret the burden on parenting has typically been more geared towards one parent than another, but the idea that either parent should be sacrificed by working 80 hours a week and being responsible for the family and home while their spouse advances in the workplace is simply wrong. Historically it has been the mother in this role (although there are some great stay-at-home dads), however, women got it right. They earned post-graduate degrees, put in the time, made sacrifices and they still failed to advance. The end result – work got ‘greedy.’
The same argument can be made for stay-at-home dads.
This article’s purpose is not to say it’s wrong for women, or men, to choose to have a full life of family and home care if that is their choice. One could venture to guess that this would be a small percentage, and even smaller still, if we consider the time after the children leave the home.
There are many choices to be made, life isn’t binary by any stretch of the imagination. Why are we treating it as such? Our personal and business lives are (or should be) integrated. We have to step away from thinking about work life and home life as separate, black-and-white issues. They’re not.
Bring the right people on your journey.
People are one of the biggest, and most important, assets for personal and professional advancement. Who you surround yourself with has a direct impact on your bottom line. For example, it’s critical to align your overall team, along with the individuals within the team, with the overall strategic goals. This allows for everyone to know where they fit and be on the same page in order to create the cohesiveness needed to move the team forward.
Your team should be the people who are on the same mission as you – those same people that feed your madness and fuel your drive. These people are aligned directly with you, making it easier to navigate the bumpy roads in business and offering some leeway in supporting what would otherwise be considered sacrifices. It does take a village.
Never stop learning.
Knowledge is something that we all must acquire continuously – regardless of where we are in our careers. It’s a grave mistake to think that a few years, or decades, of professional experience under our belt means we’ve learned everything we need to know. Learning never stops.
When you stop learning, you cease to be relevant. While it’s natural to fear the unknown, it’s crucial to get out of that frame of mind and be open to expanding your horizons. As professionals, we must be willing to embrace change and accept risks made easier by continued learning. Adapting those new skills and experiences in the workplace is only going to advance the marketability of women in their current roles, when higher positions need to be filled.
Make a difference.
Most people think ‘making a difference’ involves donating to a charitable organization. The reality is there are many ways we can make a difference every single day, even while doing business. Everyone has the capability of being a hero – getting up every single day and doing something that takes willpower, fortitude, and effort. For example, if your team sees you putting the maximum effort day in and day out, you’re making a difference for them. You’re setting the tone for how you conduct business. It is bound to be emulated. People are indeed watching.
Becoming a mentor to a younger employee, especially younger females, makes a difference. Former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright famously quipped, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” While she called that particular moment an “undiplomatic moment,” there’s truth in that statement. Mentoring younger executives helps that next generation of professional women climb higher than our generation. That is what we want in order to bridge the gender gap.
Also, be authentic in everything you do including making yourself vulnerable. Great leaders need to foster trusting environments by being upfront with their team. Sharing your humanity puts everyone, not just women, on a higher plane that is capable is sharing, building, creating, and innovating.
Make a difference by rewarding results and judge contributions by the same standard of performance you would anyone else. In fact, that’s one of the principles of The Hero Club – making a difference. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture or volunteering either in order to resonate with whom it’s impacting.
It’s easy to dismiss corporate America as being uptight and part of the problem instead of the solution. There are plenty of problems in corporate America; however, there are solutions to problems there, too. Part of the solution is the lens being used to view the world that surrounds us.
As leaders, we need to take an active role in adapting and leading with conviction. In doing so not only will there be an increase of female leaders in mid-to-senior-level positions, but workplace cultures and structures will change for the better across all industries. There is no doubt that the rate at which women are representing management and c-suite roles can go going up. The business savvy capabilities and drive women embody are unmatchable, and it’s only a matter of time before the ratio of men to women in leading business roles is as it should be – equal.
About the Author
Tricia Benn is the Executive Vice-President of the C-Suite Network and General Manager of The Hero Club, an invitation-only membership organization for CEOs, founders, and investors. As an executive within both organizations, her mission is to build a platform and community that accelerates the success of c-level executives. She is a leader in creating an executive community of collaboration, based on integrity, transparency, and measuring success beyond the numbers alone – ‘The Hero Factor.’
This approach has driven her more than 20-year track record of industry disruption in building new businesses, revenue streams, and delivering double digit, year-over-year growth.
Learn more at www.c-suitenetwork.com and https://heroceoclub.com/ or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.
The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com
Krista Goryl, Regional Manager and Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Advisors
Voices of ExperienceIn fact, she added that one of the best options is to look at a job description for your ideal job to identify the traits that are needed and then then begin to both develop and showcase them to others to position you for that next opportunity.
“You have to articulate your career goals explicitly and surround yourself with people who can help guide you on that path. I have been fortunate to benefit from extraordinary managers and mentors that continue to challenge me and advocate for me when I meet those challenges,” she says.
Goryl says that she was recently inspired by a speaker who offered an interesting viewpoint: When presented with something that might be outside your comfort zone, don’t dwell on the potential negative, but instead ask yourself, “What is the best that can happen?” if you were to take the risk.
Developing Talent from Outside and Within
Goryl began her career as an analyst with Goldman Sachs, but soon relocated to the West Coast where she joined Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor (FA) before joining Wells Fargo Advisors (WFA). She became a regional manager for the company’s Western region in 2016, which she says is the role she’s most proud of so far because she is able to share best practice and help shape the culture of in her region. Not only that, but when she accepted the position, she had a toddler and a newborn—proving not only her ability to balance work and life but also that WFA was a place that valued its team.
As a regional manager, she particularly enjoys helping managers to recruit experienced advisors to the company. “WFA provides an unprecedented choice and flexibility for FAs and their clients through distinct business channels supported by established products, services and technology,” she says. “The breadth of resources—such as lending, philanthropic services and real estate asset management, for example— offered at WFA really resonates with advisors that want the ability to provide all wealth management solutions to their clients locally.”
Goryl is also an active member of the women’s recruiting committee, which focuses on hiring more female advisors, as well as attracting female clients as there continues to be an incredible wealth transfer to the hands of women.
The need for new talent is also crucial as approximately one-third, or 32,000, are likely to be retiring in the next 10 years, across the industry. WFA’s Next Generation Talent program is helping to address that.
Since its start, the program has brought new career opportunities to more than 1,800 team members, enhancing the WFA team with increased diversity in age, sexual orientation, gender and ethnicity. “I love coaching them and seeing them use their training to help clients create successful financial plans,” Goryl says.
While WFA is a woman-forward firm, Goryl finds that it’s still often necessary to overcome the feelings of intimidation that women can face in a male-dominated industry, particularly as their career level rises and the female representation dwindles. For example, according to global research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates, of the 310,504 total advisors across the industry—48,631 or about 16 percent—are women. “If we socialize the benefits of our industry, we can bolster its reputation as an ideal career for women,” Goryl says.
And she believes that women in upper levels have a responsibility to sponsor future female leaders. “We have the opportunity to create a brand that underscores that our company, and industry as a whole for that matter, are female-friendly,” she added.
Goryl suggests that a great way to do that is by getting to know the women who are climbing the ladder in your organization and advocating for them, adding, “Challenge the way things were always done with a fresh alternative. Women can be excellent at effecting change.”
One program she has found particularly meaningful over the years is WFA’s Women’s Best Practice Forum, which provides the opportunity for female finance professionals to convene and build a supportive network and discuss practice management ideas. Since the forum’s launch eight years ago, the company has hosted 75 events around the country.
Encouraging Balance
Goryl finds that the ability to juggle roles as a manager, spouse and mother is only possible if you create a village of people to support you—such as family, friends or babysitters. And she says coworkers can play a role, too. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help and don’t minimize the importance of self-care, particularly in this fast-paced, always-connected digital world,” she advises.
She and her husband took that advice before having children and embarked on a six-month trip around the world, covering 43,000 miles and visiting 16 countries.
While spending time with her family and on her hobbies helps replenish her enthusiasm and commitment, Goryl also appreciates the opportunity to give back through WFA’s volunteer program. Currently, she helps to recruit veterans to WFA and serves as a liaison between the company and Camp Pendleton, a nearby military base.
When Krista isn’t working, she enjoys traveling, spending time at the beach just a mile away from her home and one favorite hobby: as a dancer for a popular San Diego band.
“I’ve always been passionate about dancing and was very active in high school and college,” Krista says. “Four years ago, I was at an event and was watching the band when I noticed one of the dancers was a woman I’d worked with at a brokerage firm years ago. She helped me land an audition and now I perform with the band multiple times a month. I’m so proud to be a part of the Atomic Groove experience.”
“I had a corporate coach who endorsed the idea of maintaining a hobby 100 percent. I learned to prioritize and to say “No” to things that were unfulfilling and to say “yes” to things that helped me grow as a person like this,” Krista says. What matters is that it’s rewarding and fulfilling—like my career.”
Voice of Experience: Aamena Khan, Partner, PwC Middle East
Voices of ExperienceShe began her professional life in industry, starting in Washington D.C and 15 years ago in 2004, she followed her career to the Middle East with her son, a student at New York University. Today, Khan is a Financial Services Consulting Partner focusing on People and Organization at PwC Middle East, and more recently, was appointed COO of Financial Services, a huge area of investment for the firm.
Khan is an accomplished professional with over 20 years of industry and consulting experience in multiple other industries including aviation, technology, media, logistics and higher education. She is also a subject matter expert on organizational design, change management, employee engagement, leadership development, succession planning and workforce nationalization. However, in the present moment, her passion is fuelled by the limitless possibilities of FinTech and the level of disruption financial institutions are experiencing.
Embracing her profession in consulting today, Khan recognizes that she can make a greater impact as a consultant than when she was in industry. She is excited about working with and leading some of the world’s best and brightest talent, in the face of extremely challenging environments and opportunities.
“I am learning more now than I ever have over the course of my career,” she shares. Her passion for learning is clearly what drives her excitement – energized by ongoing growth and development in all areas of her business, while leading with the attributes of a true leader. “I don’t believe in old school leadership such as command and control. My role is not to be the person in the room who knows everything, it is my role to listen and understand the client’s problem and bring the best people from around the network together to solve their most important problems. For me, it is very important to give other people a chance to be part of the story and to make their mark too – there is a greater purpose in everything we do, than simply ourselves.”
Khan joined PwC as a director and impressively made partner within two years. Coming from outside the firm and profession, this was an incredible achievement for Khan while also acknowledging the firm’s commitment to advocating and promoting different archetypes of leaders and partners.
As a strong advocate for gender balance, Khan also leads the firm’s Women in Tech initiative for the region, which is based on three pillars: promoting, advocating digital thinking in the way PwC teams conduct their work and contributing to community outreach programs by connecting with schools to reach the grassroots level of tomorrow’s talent. She is also working on a digital platform that centers around employee engagement and related predictive analytics.
Her inspirational leadership style is clearly a reflection of a very self-aware and grounded person: “Success comes in many different forms, I know that now. I used to see scope of responsibility and the size of budgets or teams I managed as the only indicators of my success, but today my definition of success is very different. Today I am driven by opportunities to learn, do interesting work and have fun! To work in line with my values, to give good people the opportunity to have a voice – I don’t need to be the person in the room to have all the answers, my role is to empower others. This is far more powerful and enables us all to be successful.”
In her journey to be successful, she also embraces failure. When asked what advice she would give to her younger self, Khan replied: “Don’t be so brutal – if you don’t show yourself some humanity, how will you give it to others? If you fail, fail fast and move on but more importantly, don’t avoid failure – don’t stagnate in a safe zone. Step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself because when you do that, that’s when magic happens for you and those around you.”
Magic, humanity, continuous learning, fun and excitement; Khan clearly proves that these can be our most effective capabilities and emotions to be a strong, ambitious, successful and driven leader of the future.
Can Supporting Other Women Be Dangerous for Your Career?
Guest ContributionGuest Contributed by Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris
Approximately 85 percent of senior corporate executives and corporate board members are white men, a percentage that has remained basically unchanged for many years.
An important key to effectively combatting the gender bias that typically accompanies such a high concentration of male power is the active support, mentoring, and advocacy by women for the advancement of other women.
Negative Consequences of Advocating for Other Women
Unfortunately, when women actively work to advance the careers of other women, they often suffer personal career penalties. This is made clear in two-related studies published together in 2017 in The Academy of Management Journal. In the first study, the researchers surveyed 350 executives about their diversity-valuing behaviors—behaviors that sought to actively promote a demographic balance within their organizations’ leadership ranks. The researchers found that no executive, female or male, received higher ratings for competence or performance when they engaged in such behaviors. But when women executives engaged in diversity-valuing behaviors, they received much worse competence and performance ratings than did women who did not actively promote gender diversity.
In the second study, the researchers asked 307 working adults to evaluate a fictitious female or male manager after the manager had hired either a woman or a man. The researchers found that both female and male participants rated the fictitious female manager as less effective when she hired a female applicant than when she hired a man. As in the first study, it made no difference to the evaluations of the fictitious male manager whether he hired a woman or a man.
In summarizing their conclusions in the Harvard Business Review, the researchers wrote:
We know that in the U.S., there is still a power and status gap between men and women. High status groups, mainly white men, are given freedom to deviate from the status quo because their competence is assumed based on their membership in the high status group. In contrast, when women advocate for other women, it highlights their low-status demographics, activating the stereotype of incompetence, and leads to worse performance ratings.
What Can Be Done to Ameliorate the Risks of Advocating for Other Women?
Anne Welsh McNulty, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, thinks women should simply ignore the career risks of advocating for other women. She writes:
The antidote to being penalized for sponsoring women may just be to do it more—and to do it vocally, loudly, and proudly—until we’re able to change perceptions. There are massive benefits for the individual and the organization when women support each other.
McNulty’s recommendation carries substantial risk in light of the studies we cited earlier. Doubling down on advocating for the advancement of other women may be a viable strategy for senior women leaders who are secure in their positions. For women in middle and junior roles, however, it can have a real downside. That being so, how can women advocate for other women and not risk a career penalty?
There are at least two effective, relatively low risk strategies available. First, women can channel their mutual support and advocacy through their workplace networks, whether these are formal or informal. When women come together to talk and share their experiences, they see that many of their career difficulties are not unique to them but are common obstacles to the advancement of all women’s careers. Realizing they are not alone can provide women with positive benefits by increasing their self-confidence. By working together, women can concentrate their energies on concrete steps to move forward as individuals and to overcome the systemic obstacles negatively affecting women’s careers generally.
The second strategy is to enlist senior male leaders as allies in the effort to advocate for the advancement of women. Obtaining committed male allies is an important step toward changing the discriminatory nature of gendered workplaces. When men stick up for women at meetings, ask women to elaborate on the points they make, praise women for their contributions, and make sure that women are seen as valued team participants, this sends a strong message to other men that women are serious players. And, when men call out incivility, snubs, and microaggressions against women, they can often be effective in ending these biased practices.
Women may be at their best when, as Sophia A. Nelson has written they know other women “are at their sides and have their backs,” but active male support is also a very effective way to break through gender bias.
The Way Forward
Women working together collectively with strong male allies have the potential to make significant progress toward moving more women up and into senior leadership positions. It is important, however, for everyone to recognize advocacy is not enough. The focus needs to be on changing workplace practices and policies to interrupt the discriminatory operation of gender bias by stripping as much subjectivity as possible out of the assignment, evaluation, compensation, and promotion processes. Gender bias can only do its discriminatory mischief when gut instinct, personal preference, and feelings of comfort and familiarity are allowed to play major roles in career-affecting decisions.
It must also be remembered that the negative consequences for women’s career opportunities of there being concentrated, entrenched male power at the top of our major organizations is not going to be changed overnight through fundamental, culture-altering changes. Significant gender diversity in senior leadership is only going to come about through what Shelley Correll at Stanford University calls “small wins,” that is, “concrete, implementable actions … of moderate importance [that] produce visible results.” When a small win is achieved, “it often creates new allies and makes visible the next target of change.”
When women work collectively with male allies to rid their organizations of subjective evaluations and concentrate on small wins, women supporting other women would no longer be dangerous to their careers.
About the Authors
Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris are authors of It’s Not You, It’s the Workplace: Women’s Conflict At Work and the Bias That Built It (Nicholas Brealey/Hachette 2019). Andie and Al have both served in senior management positions and have in-depth experience with all aspects of personnel management including recruiting, hiring and firing, individual and team supervision, compensation, and promotion. For more than 30 years they have worked to promote gender equality in the workplace.
The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com
Voice of Experience: Adina Brownstein, Managing Director, Barclays Investment Bank
Voices of ExperienceHowever, before long, she notes, working collaboratively evolves your thinking, and you realize that having someone help you with your work is a benefit, rather than a risk. This co-creation also helps you build relationships, which are crucial down the road. “Having firm and industry sources who can help you out when you have a question is invaluable, and something you could never imagine when you’re starting out.”
A Non-Linear Career Brings Success
Those relationships have helped bolster Brownstein throughout her career. While her path has been built on diverse experiences, there is a thread that runs throughout—taking on new challenges, all different, but all including her core skillset. While she adroitly changed industries and types of roles, in each she brought her expertise in building relationships and exercising soft skills, then learned the necessary technical skills along the way.
“I believe that anyone can learn the content of a role if they have the willingness. But at the core, you must have strong writing and communication skills and the ability to flex your style to deal with different stakeholders.”
The first part of Brownstein’s career was in the telecommunications industry, the latter part spent at KPMG Consulting. In 2007 after she had started her family, she realized the life of a consultant had become a challenge; she started looking for a new opportunity and delved into her resume from a skills and toolkit perspective, finding commonalities in the work she’d done with clients and in the regulatory space.
She realized client management and regulatory knowledge was a good fit for large-scale program management and client management projects, and before long got a call from a friend at JP Morgan, who knew of a division that needed those two skills sets. In her new role, Brownstein was working on a multi-million dollar program that used her skills in managing multiple work streams and external and internal stakeholders.
Soon after, the financial crisis hit and her skill in working with large regulatory programs went from being an added value to a critical service. In 2010 she was recruited to Barclays, where she first managed a large regulatory program, and was quickly asked to work on a new regulatory request to create a resolution plan to unwind the broker/dealer function in an orderly fashion. They learned from the ground up, working hand-in-hand with consultants and attorneys; then with the Federal Reserve and the FDIC and also the Bank of England for a UK perspective on what resolution plan should include.
“It was exciting and daunting at the same time,” she says. “None of the jobs I did at that time were what I thought I was going to do, but I learned what I needed to.”
Before long it was clear that the relevance around financial services and regulation was more a requirement than a driving force. She saw a great opportunity to move to American Express as the head of regulatory relations, where she could again start something from scratch—a skill she was known for: learning quickly and helping businesses adapt. She had kept in touch with her Barclays colleagues and eventually was asked to come back in a similar role, as Head of Recovery and Resolution planning in the United States, also working with UK counterparts.
She finds it thrilling to be part of a space where she can have a seat at the table. “It’s exciting to be an advocate who can meet with regulators and share insight; we hope that our work is influencing regulation as they are tailoring rules in today’s political climate.”
Creating a Better Workplace through Mentoring and Coaching
As the mom of two daughters, Brownstein hopes that things will have evolved by the time they are in her seat. She finds that although the issues of pay gap and responsibility have improved, we are not yet to the point of equality.
She knows that different industries face different challenges, and in financial services, for example, it’s not the just the people but the nature of the work that can make balance challenging. Yet while it will never be a 9-to-5 job, Brownstein sees improvement via initiatives designed to promote better work/life balance and flexible work schedules.
As part of her commitment to an improved workplace, Brownstein believes that it’s vital to invest the time to coach and mentor. “I’ve learned you have to figure out your management style and how you want your team to perceive you, which allows you to build a collaborative group that’s adaptive,” she says. “I am really proud of my current team and our reputation for our ability to help people on different projects and engagements.” And, she adds, not only did she get to build her current team from scratch, but she has been able to help them evolve and grow, which pays dividends in a cohesive work environment, where team members will gladly abandon plans as needed to help one another.
And she shares her mentoring skills outside of her division, too, as a member of the Women’s Initiative Network steering committee that focuses on engagement and development. For the past few years she has helped with a group mentoring cohort of five to seven more junior women, where she hosts a series of mentoring sessions that cover topics that are immediately applicable to their current job status. “Helping the next generation is invaluable; even though it takes more time at the moment, the payoff is lasting.”
A supporter of the firm’s Encore! program, she recently hired a woman who had been temporarily out of the workforce. Barclays’ program is different than some in that anyone who sponsors an Encore employee has to have head count availability for them, making it a true path to a career option.
And she just joined a reverse mentoring program with a junior employee, eager to get their perspective and how they see things from a different lens.
An active volunteer, Brownstein has served on various boards with the Jewish Federation in MetroWest New Jersey, this year sitting on the allocations committee. She was recently asked to serve on the advisory board for the LEAD Program, an organization which provides high potential teens of diverse backgrounds with the opportunity to spend time on a college campus and meet with companies to learn more about different skillsets that will be needed in the workplace.
Tennis is her go-to for relaxation. And with two teens, including one a senior who is heading to college, Brownstein appreciates all the time she can enjoy with her family.
Six Differentiating Tools Every Personal Brand Needs
Guest ContributionGuest Contributed by Elizabeth Harr
In a recent article, I talked about the steps required for creating your personal brand strategy.
In this article, I’ll cover how to design the supporting tools and infrastructure you’ll need to really bring your brand to life in a differentiated fashion.
Tool #1: Media Kit. I see this quite often – executives trying to get placements as a keynote speaker or panelist, but to no avail. Often times, firms overlook the importance of a media kit – a go-to place where speaking committees can easily access downloadable headshots, bios of different lengths, and access to published work or speaking samples. More than that though, a media kit is a vetting committee’s window into what their audience might experience in their exposure to you as an expert. For that reason, as the development of your personal brand strategy progresses, consider assembling public speaking clips into a video reel – it need only be a few minutes long, but this really gives speaking committees a sense of how you command the stage. It also gives prospective clients an excellent idea of what it might be like to work with you.
Tool #2: Polish up your bio and website. Boost the credibility of your bio and website by adding such features as recent articles and presentations you’ve made, as well as any recognitions you’ve received or awards you’ve won — basically, whatever could help convince your audience that you’re the genuine article, and worthy of their limited time.
Tool #3. Get ready to blog. Here again, your path depends on your level of independence. If you’re with a firm that has a blog, learn how you can become a regular contributor. If you need approval from others in the organization, explain your goal, and then work with the people who can help you get exposure. If you’re setting up your own blog, find and invest in the resources you need to make it happen. Why a blog? A well-written blog allows open access (i.e. no one has to give you an email in exchange for reading your blog) to your personal brand – it’s the path of least resistance audiences will use to experience your expertise.
Tool #4. Add conversion tools. To turn web visitors and blog readers into leads (one of your key goals), offer them something that’s so compelling, they’ll provide their name and email address in exchange for it. Typically, this is a more substantial type of content, such as an educational guide, whitepaper or e-book. After you create this content, place it behind a registration form on your site or blog. Make sure to include an enticing downloading offer to readers (see example at right). To be on the safe side, consider including language with your form explaining that the reader will be receiving additional emails containing valuable educational materials and advice — and that they can cancel at any time.
Tool #5. Customize your profiles on social media. Start by completing your LinkedIn profile, which is by far the most important platform for professional services experts. Next, look for active groups to join that people in your target audience tend to frequent. Twitter is another platform to consider joining, as it can help you promote your content. In some cases, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms may be helpful as well, although our research shows that most experts focus their limited time and effort elsewhere.
Tool #6. Practice and grow your skills. Make a habit of working on your new skills by carving out a little time every day to work on one or two pieces at a time. Remember, this is a business commitment, not a hobby. That means it’s not only okay, but actually important, to devote part of each workday to upgrading your personal brand. It’s an ongoing project — and one that will never end.
Now, It’s Launch Time!
Now it’s time to give your plan one more read — and then, dive in! Implementing it will be slow going at first, but it’s important to get your tools and resources in place before you set out. If you are an expert who seeks to become a leader in your industry, the roadmap I’ve laid out here can help you get on the right path, and keep on it.
The secret to launching a successful personal branding strategy is to break down the work into manageable pieces. Little by little, you will start to see results — a few email inquiries starting to arrive, a speaking opportunity or two popping up, and hopefully, a growing tide of new followers. At some point, people will begin asking to meet with you to discuss their particular challenge. And eventually, a few will decide to hire you and your firm — based on nothing more than your reputation and visibility. Take it from me: seeing that steady progress will make all the hard work more than worth it.
You’ve got your strategy, now put it to work!
About the Author
Elizabeth Harr, Partner at Hinge, is an accomplished entrepreneur and experienced executive with a background in strategic planning, branding and growth for professional services. Elizabeth co-founded a Microsoft solutions provider company and grew it into a thriving organization that became known for its expertise in Microsoft customer relationship management.
The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com