Voice of Experience: Kathy Matsui, Vice Chair, Global Investment Research, Goldman Sachs

Kathy MatsuiIn the years since she was first profiled by The Glass Hammer in 2013, Matsui’s role at Goldman Sachs has evolved – while she continues to focus on Japan portfolio strategy, she also serves as vice chair of Goldman Sachs Japan.

Her responsibilities in this role include representing the firm in various external activities, including serving on government advisory committees and speaking at conferences, where she is regularly asked to comment on Japan’s stock market and macro economy. However, Matsui notes that “the main core of my job hasn’t changed – I still publish research and meet with clients regularly.”

During her undergraduate years at Harvard, Matsui developed an interest in international affairs and government policy, and initially planned to pursue a career in the foreign service. After her first internship experience within the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department, she earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, spent time in Japan where she met her husband, then worked for several years at Barclays de Zoete Wedd in investment research before joining Goldman Sachs in 1994. Commenting on the arc of her career to date, Matsui says: “Despite giving up on the foreign service, my career as a research analyst has ironically allowed me to make a contribution to the gender diversity movement in Japan and help drive change in this important space.”

The Worst Advice I’ve Ever Received

As a junior analyst, Matsui was told to ‘work hard, keep your head down, and you will go far.’ Today, she says: “This was the worst advice I could have been given as a woman just beginning her career, but when I first began working the idea that an ‘invisible hand’ would simply promote you was widespread.”

Matsui recommends that junior women focus on doing their job well, but also engage in networking in order to educate senior stakeholders on their role. “Aside from excelling in one’s job, women need to also identify mentors, connect with others across their organization, and share their accomplishments.”

Overcoming Unimaginable Obstacles

A year after making partner at Goldman Sachs, Matsui was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36. “I had no symptoms, and I was in denial that I was sick – with two young children at home,” she says. “I took eight months off work for surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and during this period my family and I felt the full support of the firm. This level of support is one of the reasons why I’ve been at Goldman Sachs for 25 years.”

Empowering Other Women to Succeed

In addition to the research she conducts tied to women in the workforce, Matsui is a board member of the Asian University for Women (AUW) Support Foundation. The Foundation provides funding to AUW, a liberal arts, women-only university in Bangladesh that educates individuals that are the first to attend college in their family.

“Working with the AUW ties into my personal passion for women’s empowerment, and the key to empowerment is education,” she notes. “If you want to effect change and take on a leadership role in your community, you really need to have a tertiary education beyond secondary school – and this university is helping empower women around the world.”

Evolving Role, Evolving Research

Matsui, who was ranked number one in Japan Equity Strategy by Institutional Investor multiple times, initially became interested in examining the demographic challenges Japan’s economy faced after seeing many of her peers remain at home after having children. “Japan has faced acute challenges because there are widespread unconscious biases and gender role stereotypes throughout the country,” explains Matsui. “I experienced this firsthand when a lot of my Japanese friends who were new moms did not return to work in the same way I did due to various factors.”

Matsui thus began to delve deep into the “structural challenges” that were affecting the Japanese economy, including identifying potential solutions that could be enacted by the government to spur greater female representation in the workplace. In the initial 1999 Womenomics report, Matsui and her team recommended the government institute enhanced labor laws, expand childcare facilities, and revise the tax structure, while corporations should provide additional childcare support and clear maternity leave policies. In addition, Matsui called on ‘male champions’ and other women to make it more “socially acceptable to participate in the workforce while having a family.”

In Womenomics 5.0, Matsui revisits the progress that has been made in the last 20 years to boost female workplace participation in Japan, noting that the participation rate has increased to 71 percent, surpassing that of the US (66 percent). In the report, Matsui again makes recommendations for the public and private sectors, as well as society overall:

  • Government policy: more flexible labor contracts, gender pay gap disclosures, tax reforms, parliamentary gender quotas, promotion of female entrepreneurship and looser immigration rules.
  • Corporations: proactive career management, more flexible work environments, performance-based evaluations, gender target-setting and male diversity champions.
  • Societal shifts: avoid gender role stereotypes in the media and promote more women in STEM.

Reflecting on the progress made in Japan in the last 20 years, Matsui says: “There have been definite areas of progress, but there is still significant work to do to elevate women into leadership positions.”

Learn more by listening to an Exchanges at Goldman Sachs podcast featuring Kathy Matsui: “Is Womenomics Working?”

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Got laid off? What to do next.

Nicki GilmourCompanies downsize and restructure, and if you are reading this from a seat in the financial services industry then you know that this cycle is probably about to start soon if you haven’t already seen some movement on this already.

If your company is downsizing and you got a tap on the shoulder informing you that your team is being consolidated and there is no place for you or, in a more extreme fashion, they even marched you out of the building, then what should you do? Recover.

You are faced with choices, albeit unconscious sometimes, of how to recover and to move on and up to bigger and better. This is an opportunity. Frame it that way, do not take it personally.

Yes, there are many emotions and thoughts involved with this type of situation. The best thing you can do is let go of any negative emotion (anger, bitterness, etc.) and list what you enjoyed most and what you enjoyed least about both the job itself and the company culture. This will help you figure out what is next for you, professionally!

If you have any kind of financial cushion, make a promise to yourself that you will not make rash decisions and instead take the time to reflect on what you really want to do next.

What do you really want? More satisfaction, more time, more flexibility, more money, a different title, a different industry? What do you want less of? What is on your “should” list?  Defining that is a great way to purge what you think you have to do, as opposed to want you actually want to do.

These are all elements that you can now think about as maybe it is time to go up the ladder or take a lateral move?  Either way, now is ultimately an ideal time to figure out what you want and what works for you at this juncture as last time you interviewed for a job, you might have been in a different place in your life. Not least, you have a chance to think about your enhanced skillset since that last time around.

If you need a coach to help you navigate what is next, we offer coaching services and you can have a free exploratory call to see if coaching is for you with Nicki Gilmour, head of theglasshammer and certified coach by booking a time here. 

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Women, Men, and the Two Sides of Confidence

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Professional Women

Guest Contributed by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Even when our assessment of other people’s competence is wrong, their self-confidence can still have self-fulfilling effects, opening doors and opportunities to those who simply seem more confident.

This is one of the reasons that so many well-intentioned people have advised women to be more confident to get ahead at work and in their careers. There are several problems with this kind of advice.

First, it fails to recognize that confidence has two sides. Although confidence is an internal belief, it also has an external side, which concerns how assertive you seem in the eyes of others. This external side of confidence is the most consequential because it is often mistaken for real competence.

The bottom line: regardless of how confident we feel internally, when we come across as confident to others, they will often assume that we are competent, at least until we prove them wrong.

This link between perceived confidence and competence is important. Although women are assumed to be less confident than men and some studies have shown that women appear to be less confident, a closer look at the research shows that women are internally confident. In fact, men and women are both overconfident—even if men are still more overconfident than women.
As Harvard Business School’s Robin Ely and Georgetown’s Catherine Tinsley write in the Harvard Business Review, the idea that women lack confidence is a “fallacy”:

That assertion is commonly invoked to explain why women speak up less in meetings and do not put themselves forward for promotions unless they are 100% certain they meet all the job requirements. But research does not corroborate the idea that women are less confident than men. Analyzing more than 200 studies, Kristen Kling and colleagues concluded that the only noticeable differences occurred during adolescence; starting at age 23, differences become negligible.

A team of European academics studied hundreds of engineers and replicated Kling’s finding, reporting that women do feel confident in general.21 But the researchers also noted that women’s confidence wasn’t always recognized by others. Although both women and men reported feeling confident, men were much more likely to be rated by other people as appearing confident. Women’s self-reports of confidence had no correlation with how others saw their confidence.

To make matters worse, for the female engineers, appearing confident had no leadership benefits at all. For the men, seeming confident translated into having influence, but for women, appearing confident did not have the same effect. To have any impact in the organization, the women had to be seen as confident, competent, and caring; all three traits were inseparable. For men, confidence alone translated into greater organizational clout, whereas a caring attitude had no effect on people’s perception of leadership potential.

We are, it seems, less likely to tolerate high confidence in women than we are in men. This bias creates a lose-lose situation for women. Since women are seen as less confident than men and since we see confidence as pivotal to leadership, we demand extra displays of confidence in women to consider them worthy of leadership positions. However, when a woman does seem as confident as, or more confident than, men, we are put off by her because high confidence does not fit our gender stereotypes.

If women don’t lack confidence, then why do we see differences in how men and women behave? Why are women less likely to apply to jobs or to request a promotion unless they’re 100 percent qualified? Why else would women speak less in meetings and be more likely to hedge their bets when making recommendations?

If the answer is not how women feel internally, it must be how they are perceived externally. In other words, differences in behavior arise not because of differences in how men and women are, but in how men and women are treated. This is what the evidence shows: women are less likely to get useful feedback, their mistakes are judged more harshly and remembered longer, their behavior is scrutinized more carefully, and their colleagues are less likely to share vital information with them. When women speak, they’re more likely to be interrupted or ignored.

In this context, it makes sense that even an extremely confident women would behave differently from a man. As Ely and Tinsley observed at a biotech company, the female research scientists were far less likely to speak up in meetings, even though in one-on-one interactions, they shared a lot of useful information. Leaders attributed this difference to a lack of confidence: “What these leaders had failed to see was that when women did speak in meetings, their ideas tended to be either ignored until a man restated them or shot down quickly if they contained even the slightest flaw. In contrast, when men’s ideas were flawed, the meritorious elements were salvaged. Women therefore felt they needed to be 110 percent sure of their ideas before they would venture to share them. In a context in which being smart was the coin of the realm, it seemed better to remain silent than to have one’s ideas repeatedly dismissed.” Thus, because we choose leaders by how confident they appear rather than by how confident or competent they are, we not only end up choosing more men to lead us but ultimately choose more-incompetent men.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. He has published nine books and over 130 scientific papers. His most recent book is Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)?

This article is adapted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)? by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Copyright 2019 Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. All rights reserved.

The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com

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Voice of Experience: Mariana Bush, Research Director, Wells Fargo Investment Institute

Mariana BushOver the years, Mariana Bush has been proud of the clarity she’s been able to provide to advisors around the complex issues in the funds she covers.

It was a lesson learned the hard way in the early-‘90s, when she realized that sophisticated investors didn’t fully understand leveraged closed-end funds.

When short- and long-term interest rates unexpectedly rose, and these fund buyers had never experienced the negative aspect of leverage, she “was ready to move to another city, change jobs and career,” she says, with a laugh in hindsight. She moved to Washington DC, but the experience instead colored everything she’s done since, which means she is more careful than ever to make sure that people understand the risks they are getting into.

“While most investment options are unique and offer benefits, potential investors also need to understand the risks and carefully consider whether they can tolerate what can happen in a worst-case scenario,” Bush says, adding that not even 2008 felt as painful as 1994. “And now I have the confidence that I’ve been through several cycles of closed-end fund stress periods and can identify when closed-end fund investors have probably overreacted creating an opportunity for investors, but only if they can handle the accompanying risks.”

She finds that lesson extends to work life in general; in fact, sometimes investors aren’t sure which questions they should be asking, she says. Having answered thousands of inquiries on closed-end funds from financial advisers over the years, sometimes she clarifies for them what they should be asking for. She finds that women are often more likely to ask for explanations, rather than being afraid to ask questions in a meeting or conference call.

One Firm, Many Names and Many Experiences

Bush’s career path has been straightforward, yet never boring. She has specialized in research since graduating from college 30 years ago, and with the exception of the first two years of her career has been with the same company, albeit with multiple names.

“I wish I had kept my business cards because while I have been at the same firm since 1991, my business cards have gone through six firm names,” she says. The most recent move was from Wells Fargo Advisors to the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, and while she says her team is still adapting to their new home, she’s excited about the strengths that will be realized by combining the benefits of the team’s new and old “homes.” “We’re combining them to create a 1+1=3 situation,” Bush says.

Describing the many transitions as a “whirlwind,” she says she has learned a lot from everyone, including that there was likely to be another one each time one was complete—even when joining Wells Fargo, one of the largest financial institutions in the world.

“The lesson learned is that there is always change and will continue to be, and during each transition you just need to focus on what you know you need to do,” Bush says. “Rather than wasting time fretting, we have to focus on what we can control and just do what we need to do every day. And if you always put the client first, ultimately that will take you in the right direction.”

Bush also has found that her curiosity has taken her interesting places; for example as she is from Peru, early in her career she would often ask about Latin American closed-end funds, and one day the Director of Research asked her to cover closed-end funds, not only those with a Latin America exposure. “It was hard—much like being thrown into the lion’s den— and I had to learn about them solo.” A few years later, the financial advisers started asking her about exchange-traded funds (ETFs) because they assumed she would know about those relatively new vehicles for the simple reason that they traded on an exchange, just like the closed-end funds that she was already familiar with. But as she started asking questions about these ETFs, she realized the only people who knew about them were a few traders, so she took it upon herself to learn more about this vehicle that has become a disruptive technology in the investment world, realizing that the more knowledge you gain, the more valuable you are to the team.

Setting a Good Example

While she sees that women usually continue to take over the heavier burden for family care, Bush believes things are changing and hopes the pace accelerates. “My husband is progressive, and I expect that our daughters’ spouses will be even more so,” she notes.

She advises that women make time for themselves, both physically and mentally, as we need steady energy to keep us going. “Whatever your grandmother told you still matters: Eat nutritiously, get enough sleep, and exercise,” Bush says.

As a board member and currently chair of the finance committee of her daughters’ all-girls school, the National Cathedral School, she finds the appointment gives her energy as she applies the skills she’s learned at work to the school, and is also able to take best practices from school back to her work. “It’s been so inspirational to see what these young women accomplish, and often I benefit from their wise advice,” Bush says.

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Voice of Experience: Stephanie Epstein, Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, Global Marketing, BlackRock

by Cathie Ericson

Stephanie Epstein“Find a passion that you will get excited about every day,” recommends BlackRock’s Stephanie Epstein.

She finds that young professionals are often overly focused on job titles, rather than the job function itself. For example, she found herself debating between two choices—investment banking or consulting—so she focused on determining which activities she most enjoyed and was best at, such as problem-solving, which helped clarify her career goals. “Have an open mind as there are so many opportunities available today that allow you to be creative, whether it’s trading operations, technology or marketing,” she says.

A Career At One Firm, Marked By Different Roles

That advice has served her well over the course of her career. Epstein joined BlackRock, a leading global asset manager, in 2002, but thinks about her career in four distinct phases even though they were all at the same firm. She first joined the firm’s institutional client business, working mainly with U.S. pension plans, which she said afforded her the opportunity to really learn the ecosystem of asset management. Then from 2005 to 2010, she assumed a more operational role, assisting with efficiently integrating the different corporate acquisitions that BlackRock was making to build out its capabilities; it was then that she also learned the inner workings of Aladdin, BlackRock’s risk management technology.

Her third phase was as chief of staff to the president, where she led a team who managed business activities on behalf of BlackRock’s president, building out the role, as she says, “from a white sheet of paper.” It was during that time that she made a lasting impact on the firm’s culture, which she describes as its “secret sauce.” One effort she’s particularly proud of was instituting a firmwide rewards and recognition program that enters its sixth year this summer. The awards are designed to honor employees who embody the firm’s principles, recognizes those who foster an inclusive culture or are excellent people managers.

“It’s a chance to acknowledge amazing colleagues who are great examples of our culture,” Epstein says. “I am proud to see that it gets stronger every year.”

And her fourth and current role is as Chief Operating Officer for BlackRock’s global marketing department, where she is responsible for helping accelerate its transformation to be more data driven. “The marketing world today is so exciting; we are on a journey to articulate our purpose and embed it in everything we do, both externally and internally,” Epstein says.

“Externally, we are focused on helping more people experience financial well-being. From a marketing standpoint, we do that by creating different types of content that prioritize story-telling on a human level to present the empathic side of our brand. Then internally, we want to help our employees connect their strengths back to BlackRock’s purpose of helping others experience financial wellness,” she explains.

Epstein is fascinated by how brand voice can impact the business. Her team recently spearheaded the launch of a new brand identity that incorporates color, typography and tone that all work together to present what she calls a “category-busting look and feel.” While most financial services firms rely on blue tones, BlackRock’s new look breaks out of that mold and leans into black and warmer colors, like orange and yellow. In addition, they are using real people in their photography, which has resonated well and helped strengthen connections with clients, she says.

Paying it Forward to Increase Diversity

Epstein has been fortunate to have been surrounded by amazing women who have acted as role models and sponsors. Now she pays it forward by helping develop women in leadership roles.

One group that has been helpful to her is BlackRock’s Women’s Leadership Program, which helps high-performing women advance their careers. “It is specialized to women with aspirations to make a bigger impact, and it is tremendously helpful for the cohort of women who have been through it, both for sponsorship opportunities and for the ability to network.”

In addition, the Women’s Initiative Network, now in its 12th year, is one of the firm’s most sophisticated employee networks, and she notes another important diversity-related program called “LEAD,” for Leadership Excellence and Development, which is designed to help build out the company’s bench of diverse leaders.

“Many industries are tackling the issues of diversity and inclusion, and financial services is not immune to challenges, so it’s gratifying to help pave the way to further the advancement of women,” Epstein says.

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Calling All Imposters

By Monisha Jayakumar, Portfolio Manager with Wells Fargo Asset Management’s Analytic Investors Team

Monisha Jayakumar Imposter Syndrome. It’s a term I’ve heard a lot recently. It seems mysterious and eerily like a medical diagnosis—but fear not, it isn’t.

It’s just a tiny critical voice in your head that says “You don’t belong here!” when you’re on the brink of doing something courageous. It calls out when you are about to speak in front of an audience, take on a new role, pitch a new idea in an email, raise your hand and ask a question, or consider asking for a raise. So when we encourage people to speak up, stand up, and be seen, what if you are the one holding yourself back?

My title at work is portfolio manager with the Analytic Investors team within Wells Fargo Asset Management. I oversee approximately $8 billion in quantitative factor-enhanced strategies. In plain speak, I work with financial data and code processes to extract useful information that our team uses to make investing decisions for our clients’ assets.

As someone who analyzes data to create usable information, I have found that imposter syndrome is ubiquitous. My informal data collection—which includes many smart, ambitious, and successful women and men in my book clubs, parent groups, and friend circles—tells me that this lurking feeling of inadequacy at work is a feeling many of us share. We just haven’t had the courage to openly discuss it at the workplace.

I recently came across the work of Brené Brown, a courage and vulnerability researcher. In delving into her book Daring Greatly, I discovered a contrary idea to the years of “fake it till you make it” advice I’d been getting. Brown states: “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. True belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world.” According to the author, courage requires embracing three things: vulnerability, uncertainty and risk. She goes on to make a radical connection: without vulnerability and courage, there’s no creativity and innovation.

Courage is about vulnerability. Vulnerability builds trust and authentic connections. Isn’t that what businesses need? During the summer before graduate school, I was assigned heaps of summer reading that I did not get through. My “imposter” self was convinced that everyone else probably knew the reading assignment forwards and backwards. Anxiety rumbled that morning during our orientation breakfast when a fellow classmate whispered, “I still have several chapters I haven’t finished and I’m kind of nervous about it.” Pure relief and an authentic friendship ensued.

Courage is being okay with uncertainty. I was once afraid to ask for a pay raise for eight years. The small employee-owned firm that I was with at the time regularly researched pay scales and provided timely pay raises. But I am fully aware this is not commonplace. When I debated asking for a raise—something I believe was well earned—I would hear that “imposter” voice that doubted my worth. Accepting the uncertainty of an outcome is the key to your courage and vulnerability. When I let go of being wedded to a specific outcome, it became easier to express myself. And despite the discomfort of the conversation, there was great comfort in knowing I advocated for myself.

Courage is about risk taking. If you work in a profession where you stand out, it means you took a risk. There was a time when I didn’t understand that gender differences really matter. Why would I care if 10% or 50% were women? But here’s the thing: The more people who’ve done this before, looking or sounding exactly like you, the more confident you feel replicating prior success. In some ways it was motherhood that made me stop pretending it didn’t matter if I was a woman. In grappling with reasonable expectations I could set about maternity leave, a mentor said, “No one can do your job like you do it.” I realized that what I need, and what we all need, is different. I also realized what I contribute is different. I began asking for what I needed from a place of self-worth instead of a place of fear. Have the courage to value your uniqueness and own your seat at the table.

If there’s no courage, there’s no creativity and innovation. People and corporations both value these tenets – but are we making room to empower one another to truly be courageous? At some point in our careers, we’ve all seen unhealthy posturing. In my industry, the loud hyper-competent facade doesn’t serve anymore. What if being courageous enough to be vulnerable is the antidote? What if being authentic could be the key to actually shedding this personal and collective “imposter” syndrome?

Looking forward, I want to grow within the system but also encourage it to expand. So here’s my call to action. Risk being vulnerable: when you take on a new role or when you have changes in your personal life, share your fears and hopes. Accept uncertainty and have the uncomfortable conversations on inclusion and pay transparency. Take chances. If you are asked to speak at a conference, ignore the “imposter” voice and say yes, and empower others to do the same. Participate in creating the culture you wish could be created for you. And then watch that spark light the fire.

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Voice of Experience: Karen Nelson, Partner, Katten

Karen NelsonPerspective is a wonderful thing, finds Katten’s Karen Nelson.

“It’s natural to get wrapped up in stressful aspects of deals, and as young lawyers, it’s easy to become overwrought when things aren’t going perfectly,” she said. “However an accumulation of experience helps you see that everything is resolvable, and we can work through it. It allows you to maintain that sense of calm and confidence that clients need.”

Relationships as the Core

Nelson has achieved this perspective throughout her career, which began in Chicago after she graduated from Northwestern University School of Law, relocating to Charlotte in 2006. A commercial real estate finance attorney, Nelson has been at Katten’s Charlotte office since 2012, where she has advised some of the largest commercial and investment banks, insurance companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) across the country, leading large and complicated finance transactions on behalf of her clients. Nelson’s success stems from not only her diligence and business-savviness as an attorney and skillful practitioner in the real estate industry, but also her belief in the value of fostering relationships with her clients and getting to know their business as if they were her own.

In fact, those long and deep relationships represent the professional achievement she is most proud of. “The best part of my job is being fully integrated with these clients, in relationships I developed professionally and that have become personal as well, as we have worked together for more than a decade,” Nelson said. Her case load has continued to expand, and that is a continuing inspiration as she strives to further grow her practice.

Expanding Roles for Women

Both the firm as a whole and the Charlotte office of Katten are highly female-friendly, Nelson says, which has been helpful for her career. But what she’s found interesting and gratifying over the past decade is the increase in females throughout the industry—as clients and attorneys on the other side of deals. “It’s been noticeable, and now many deals might be driven completely by women, from in-house counsel to the attorneys on both sides. It’s been exciting to see that trend as more women populate the industry,” she said.

At Katten, Nelson has been active in the Women’s Leadership Forum where she leads a team in developing programs to assist female attorneys with defining, achieving and managing their career goals. She particularly enjoys participating in the annual events where members of the firm convene both for industry trainings and to build their exposure within the firm.

As part of the forum’s national mentoring panel, Nelson advises women attorneys on how to develop good business relationships, including connecting with others who are at their same level at client organizations, and shares her advice and experience regarding managing a family and a practice.

Nelson sees unending opportunity for young women attorneys, and advises them to trust their knowledge and capabilities, and not be hesitant to leave their comfort zone. “If you have ambition to grow your career, don’t be afraid to take a leap and see how it can bolster your trajectory,” she says.

As women progress, she says there is a natural pressure point once you’ve achieved the level you’ve strived for. “It can become even more important to search for that balance, as more is demanded of you as you move up the ladder,” she says. She recommends that women focus on even just taking a short break to walk outside and feel the sunshine and get re-energized before returning to a project. “Sometimes those five minutes can make all the difference,” she notes.

Nelson offers that advice from a place of experience. As a mother of two kids, ages six and eight, she devotes the majority of her time outside of work to them, while finding time to release stress through activities like climbing.

“It’s been very important for me to be at a place where I could have a meaningful, successful career and not miss out on life’s events. I strive to lead by example in my commitment to work-life balance and career development. Simply put, managing and expanding my practice while making sure that I have time for my growing family is my number one priority,” Nelson said.

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Launch With GS: Lead Investors on Their Investing Philosophy and Keys to Success

Launch with GS
Last month, Launch With GS, Goldman Sachs’ commitment to invest $500 million in women-led companies and investment managers, celebrated its one-year anniversary.

The initiative aims to narrow the gender investing gap and build a global network of business leaders to facilitate connections, share ideas, and uncover opportunities.

Launch With GS was founded based on the view that diversity of gender, thought and background leads to outperformance, driving growth for Goldman Sachs’ clients, shareholders and communities. In this edition of The Glass Hammer, we spoke with three Goldman Sachs partners who are lead investors for Launch With GS on their approach to investing and their advice for entrepreneurs, as well as individuals interested in pursuing a career in investing. Meet the Goldman Sachs investors:

Nicole Agnew is a partner in the Merchant Banking Division and a lead investor for Launch With GS.

Stephanie Hui is head of the Merchant Banking Division in Asia Pacific. She is also on the Board of Advisors of Launch With GS.

Jo Natauri is a partner in the Merchant Banking Division and a lead investor for Launch With GS.

How do you think Launch With GS is helping to change the investing landscape?

Stephanie Hui: It’s not just about supporting diversity, it’s fundamentally good for business to have the whole investing ecosystem become more diverse. As an investor in Asia, I’ve seen that women have a more difficult time accessing capital than male entrepreneurs, and Launch With GS is particularly impactful because it helps transform the whole supply chain – we’re seeking out women entrepreneurs who are high potential and who require funding, but might not have received it through traditional means.

Nicole Agnew: I think it’s a great initiative that the firm has started to support and invest in female-founded and female-led businesses. The inbound interest has been very high, and we’ve seen that a network and community of female entrepreneurs is being developed around Launch – and we hope this ecosystem continues to grow to generate even more investing opportunities for female founders.

Jo Natauri: Launch With GS has helped to raise a level of awareness around the importance of diversity when evaluating potential transactions. Diversity is now a key factor we think about when moving forward with deals.

What factors help you decide to make an investment?

Jo: First and foremost, we evaluate if a potential investment is a good business – we look at industry trends, competitive dynamics, how the business is run, what if any, upsides there are to the business, and support the management team might need from investors.

Nicole: We are generally interested in businesses with a strong financial record, high return on capital, a growing top-line and strong margin performance. As a general philosophy, we love to back excellent management teams, and the talent that a business has is a very important factor as well.

Stephanie: We evaluate potential investments from both a top-down and bottoms-up perspective. Top-down refers to the size of the market, the growth potential of the sector, and the number of competitors and economics of the company. Bottoms-up means that we evaluate the quality of the management team, market positioning of the business, and “moat” around the business (e.g., distinguishing technology).

What advice do you have for people who want to go into investing?

Nicole: People who are happy and fulfilled in an investing role generally have a natural curiosity about businesses and want to go deep to learn how things work. Investing is also a relatively analytical business, so people with an ability to dissect information are more likely to be successful.

Stephanie: You should have a very long-term view if you’re interested in a career in investing, because typically investments take at least five years from gestation to fruition. You have to think about a career in decades – and the good thing about this business is, the longer you’re at it, the better you become as your judgement is refined over time.

Jo: It’s important to have a mix of skills sets. You need both analytical qualities in order to assess businesses, but you also need to be able to work well with others, such as the management teams of businesses you invest in.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs / individuals interested in starting their own business?

Stephanie: Particularly for female entrepreneurs, it’s important to think big and evaluate how they can scale their business. I would also recommend that entrepreneurs develop a network around them that helps ensure they have support across all different specialties – it goes back to the old saying, ‘hire people who are more capable than yourself.’

Jo: The key is to remain open-minded, pay attention to how your industry is changing, and be able to adapt, particularly as technology continues to alter businesses.

Nicole: Number one, you have to be very passionate and ensure you’re well prepared to start your own business. In addition, people who are able to adapt and be flexible in their thinking and approach seem to be more likely to succeed.

What do you look for in a founding team?

Jo: Leadership teams that have a long-term vision and are able to execute on that vision are typically teams that we’re most interested in. It’s also important for management teams to be flexible and adapt, because every industry is constantly evolving and changing.

Stephanie: Being humble, down to earth and hard-working are characteristics we look for in founding teams. Complementary teams that are able to share feedback and have honest conversations with one another tend to be the teams that succeed.

What interesting market trends are you seeing / what opportunities do you expect?

Nicole: The traditional aspects of consumer and retail are being disrupted by technology and changing consumer preferences – businesses successful in these industries in the past are not necessarily growing today. As a result, we’re interested in companies that are focused on the experiences they’re providing to their customers, as opposed to solely the product.

Stephanie: The digitization of traditional businesses via e-commerce platforms and the availability of data is substantially changing the way we approach, understand and speak with customers. A second big trend is that the younger generation is very formidable in terms of spending. And third, social media is changing purchasing behavior – people now rely more on friends’ recommendations.

What are you passionate about outside of the office?

Stephanie: I have three teenage boys, and they’re my passion and focus outside of the office. I was previously on the board of the Women’s Foundation, which is an organization based in Hong Kong that advocates for the female population and diversity in the workforce in Hong Kong. In addition, I’m on the board of the Save the Children Hong Kong chapter – as a mother of three it’s really important to me that all children have access to opportunities and life changes.

Nicole: I try to live a very balanced life, because working in investing and private equity can take up 100 percent of your time if you allow it. I place an emphasis on spending time with my family and friends and supporting them in all that they do.

Jo: I have three young kids, so my family is top of mind and my top priority. I also spend a lot of time in the nonprofit world around domestic violence – I sit on the board of Safe Horizons and I’ve also started my own foundation that is developing a device to help reduce violence against women, which is in the late development stage.

 

Learn more about Launch With GS.

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Managing your Emotions at Work for Maximum Productivity

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You take a coffee or healthy snack, start a friendly conversation with a colleague, listen to your favorite music, watch some funny YouTube stuff (but don’t go overboard), visit your favorite site, rearrange or make up your working place, make a list of places to visit or movies to watch.

Emotions at workThese are great mood busters that will help you in critical situations. When the initial fire is coped, you need to sit down and analyze the case, identify the source of distress, and how you can overcome it.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up a good performance at the workplace. The burden of responsibilities, tight deadlines, a never satisfied boss, unfriendly customers, and co-workers, can turn your work into hell. Everyone may face similar situations, but not everyone knows how to avoid negative emotions.

The ability to control your feelings is no less important than well-honed professional skills. Negative feelings like frustration, anxiety, anger or distress may undermine your reputation, hinder working productivity or even lead to burnout. Nonetheless, there is a solution of how to deal with emotions to maximize productivity.

Below, you will find four elements to consider that will help you deal with your emotions and maximize your productivity:
Self Control

Research and surveys have shown that negative emotions are quite common in the workplace. The pressure of constant duties gradually degrades our mental and physical stability, which may result in a lack of emotional control. Eventually, problems may demotivate or strike the working efficiency, and people give up to negative emotions.

The majority of people are used to suppressing their feelings, but psychologists suggest that the better option is to learn to control your emotions. Constant restrain or denial of emotional issues does not solve the initial problem, and when negative emotions gradually pile up, it may eventually lead to a nervous breakdown or burnout.

So, how do you stop negative emotions at the initial stage? The most common way is to pause if you feel that negative emotions or frustration overwhelms you. It’s great if you have the possibility to take a short break and evaluate the situation from different perspectives.

Try to realize the primary cause that has put you out of balance. For example, if a client or your boss is late to the meeting, the worst option is getting annoyed. Instead, it is better to accept the situation and use this time for relaxation, to get a jump on the next task or answer a quick email.

Emotions Are Necessary For Work

Of course, we are not robots. It’s human nature to experience emotions. In some cases, feelings are necessary for work. Empathy, positivity, and politeness are highly important in the workplace, especially in the service field. However, while positive emotions are preferable, negative feelings should be put aside.. Excess emotionality may cause misunderstandings and problems even in simple situations. For example, aggression is a surefire way to lose customers and ruin a company’s reputation. Employees that directly communicate with customers create the overall impression of the organization. Besides, negative emotions may worsen the atmosphere in the team and demotivate your colleagues. The workplace is an interconnected ecosystem, where the emotional sustainability and welfare of each employee depend on everyone.

Short Pause

Sometimes it is hard to preserve a healthy working atmosphere, especially when people don’t know how to effectively cope with their emotions. Some choose to withdraw from social activity and limit communication, while others prefer to take the anger out on colleagues which is a self-destructive way, as it damages social connections and team unity. The good news is that there are plenty of positive methods that you can use to control your emotions. In this respect, relaxation and distraction are the best friends of each overwhelmed worker. Sometimes you need a short pause. Distract yourself from your task for a moment to gain perspective. Or take a longer break as today more and more companies offer wellness activities and understand the importance of mental and physical health.

Find A Golden Mean

The next step is to learn how to prevent negative emotions. Avoid any sources of anxiety. For example, organize your time to do all tasks on time and stop the rush. Set achievable goals to bypass frustration. It is also necessary to improve your mindset. Be respectful and courteous to your colleagues and clients. Treat every person as you’d treat yourself, or better still how you would like to be treated, and you will avoid accumulation of negativity right on the spot. Finally, it is essential to find a balance between those things that you enjoy, and those that take you out of the comfort zone. It’s necessary for your self-development and performance.

All of us face bad days and black lines: high working load, miscommunication, or personal issues. But we shouldn’t allow them to control our social and professional life. Of course, emotions make us human beings, but we need to use them wisely so that they do not destroy our lives. Try to avoid focusing on negative feelings and prevent excessive expression. Relax when you need it, analyze the problematic situation, listen to other people, and find a golden mean of your working performance. That will definitely help in both dealing with negative emotions and maximizing your productivity.

About the Author

Matthew Finnighan is a professional content writer. He writes for various blogs about higher education, entertainment, and social media. He aims to supply quality and unique content on the basis of human need. He is happy to share experience in writing, education, and self-development in his publications. If you are interested in his writing, you can find Matthew on Twitter or Facebook.

The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com

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Voice of Experience: Terri L. Phillips, M.D., Vice President and Global Head of Medical Affairs at Merz

Terri Phillips featuredDr. Terri L. Phillips is a big believer in not limiting yourself in your career.

 “Don’t believe for a minute that any option isn’t open to you; understand your own career goals and identify the people who can provide guidance to get there. Be careful not to waver or let in fear that your goal is not possible, even if you don’t see someone like you in front of you who’s already doing it.”

Then as you move forward in establishing your career, earning promotions into the leadership ranks, she has learned it’s perfectly acceptable not to have every answer—and it’s actually even more important to surround yourself with good teams. “I believe that the team will always be better than an individual alone, so it’s important to have the courage to hire people who are smarter than you and build excellent teams.”

A Varied Career Offers a 360-Degree View

With almost 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a practicing physician since 1986, Dr. Phillips has had a breadth of experiences. Her career has spanned a broad range that includes pediatrics, neonatal and perinatal medicine; and she has also worked across academia, healthcare and corporate America, as well as spending 14 years in the Army Medical Corps.

Currently vice president and global head of medical affairs at Merz, Dr. Phillips is proud to be building a best-in-class medical affairs organization to grow aesthetic and neurotoxin markets worldwide. “The industry is entering a new era where there is an expectation for transparency, and there is a demand for more information and new ways of packaging and receiving it,” she says. And with that comes a new set of expectations and pressures on the industry since they have to be sure they are meeting providers and consumers where they need to be.

That’s why she maintains her focus on educating healthcare providers on their products, taking into account that the vehicles for education have changed significantly, as some medical professionals turn away from more traditional avenues, such as attending large medical conferences or reading journals.

When developing a treatment, it’s important to represent both the consumer and healthcare practitioner voice at every step, she says; first, to gain a better understanding from the consumer who will ultimately select the treatment of which features and attributes are appealing to them, and then focusing on how to educate and train practitioners to make it safe. “I would tell my younger self to spend more time with the customer to understand their needs and make sure we are meeting them,” she says.

Encouraging Women at All Levels

Women these days have a complicated juggle, Dr. Phillips acknowledges. The mother of four children herself, she knows firsthand the struggle of establishing your career while simultaneously giving your family what they need. However, she advises young women to look for women who model this balance successfully, and the more role models, the more possible it seems for others.

Whether it’s through informal networks on social media or making connections on LinkedIn, she recommends that younger professionals reach out to successful women they come across at meetings or other events to gain career knowledge and advice. “Young women can and have reached out to me, and I am always happy to share my “lessons learned,” she says.

That’s a responsibility she feels based on her own experiences. When she first was promoted to the executive ranks, she was the fifth female vice president, and none of the women she saw in front of her had families. Of course, that introduced questions of whether it’s possible, so she appreciates that today’s career women are changing the narrative and showing both younger women and their male counterparts that it’s beneficial to establish a more inclusive workforce and leadership team.

On that note, she thinks it’s important for women who have achieved career success to support one another, rather than viewing others as competition. “We have to dispel the myth that there are finite opportunities, and instead encourage the next generation of young women to see that there are plenty of seats at the table.” There is plenty of work to be done, she says, in achieving pay parity and establishing more representation on boards and at leadership levels. “Those who have achieved a level of stature have an obligation to reach back and bring others forward,” Dr. Phillips says.

Clearly, family has always been very important to her, and when she was not at work, Dr. Phillips’ time was spent with her husband and family. Now empty nesters—aside from a 15-year-old dog—she and her husband remain huge sports fans. She played sports all through high school and even wanted to be a basketball player. But, she adds, their “nest” won’t be empty of children for long (visiting anyway!) as they eagerly anticipate a granddaughter on the way.

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