By Cathie Ericson
“You have to keep things in perspective throughout your career,” says Pomona Capital’s Vivian Flynn. 
“A career is not a sprint. It’s a marathon, and each stage is about learning, developing and adding to your foundation. You have to expect to make mistakes, but it’s important to learn from them,”
She adds that, “Successful professionals will remember the fundamental importance of staying true and honest to yourself. By recognizing and embracing both your strengths and weaknesses, you define the unique tools you bring to the table. Be confident and know that you belong. Own your accomplishments and celebrate your achievements, and don’t be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone.”
A Front Seat to Industry Evolution
Vivian describes her path as atypical, having attended law school rather than business school like many of her counterparts. The decision paid off. Her legal background provided an incredible foundation to develop skills, such as problem solving and negotiation, she knew she would need regardless of what role she accepted.
Her first job out of law school was in equity operations at Deutsche Bank. She soon parlayed that experience into a role in Goldman Sachs’ Pension Services Group, which was her first introduction to capital raising and investor relations. In this role she developed a niche focusing on real estate private equity and soon moved onto Goldman’s real estate team.
She joined Pomona, which has a strategic partnership with Voya Financial, in 2010, where she became part of an established, yet entrepreneurial, organization. Vivian says that this position offered her “a clean sheet of paper” to help reorganize the business development function. The autonomy and ability to work with a small group of less than 50 people was an excellent opportunity that offered an environment where she could strategically and thoughtfully use her skillset that had been developed throughout her career.
Vivian has now spent 17 years in the alternative space working with both hedge funds and private equity funds, which she calls, “challenging and rewarding — both personally and professionally.” “Building long-term relationships and trust with our investors is what makes my job so fulfilling,” says Vivian.
“Being a part of an environment that changes every day is exciting and forces you to always be on top of your game.”
While some professionals in her field might name their most important accomplishment as their title or how much capital they have raised, Vivian says that she is most proud of how she has controlled various steps throughout her career and navigated through unexpected circumstances while remaining true to herself and never compromising her values.
Vivian appreciates the latitude she’s had with Pomona; while many firms divide investor relations and business development into two groups, she’s always preferred having them together because she believes that the two roles go hand-in-hand. “Relationships with investors don’t end once you get their commitment,” she says. “You have to be able to articulate a product or strategy, but you also need to be able to connect with investors and understand their unique needs to provide solutions.” She finds that the consultative approach she learned at Goldman has helped her along the way.
Over the years, Vivian has witnessed the evolution of investor relations and business development. When she first started, it was not uncommon to raise a multi-billion-dollar fund in a matter of months, but now, it is not uncommon for an investor’s due diligence and decision-making process to take 6 to 12 months, a trend she sees continuing. Additionally, she has seen both the investor relations and businesses development components emerge as important and critical parts to any firm in the industry, a progression that she is excited has occurred.
Addressing Women’s Challenges in the Industry through Support
While fewer women tend to enter and stay in the finance industry, Vivian sees this as an issue that starts at a young age and how different genders are steered in their educational development and rewarded for their behavior.
“We need to encourage young girls to pursue studies in areas where boys tend to be seen more prominently, such as in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It won’t happen overnight, but it can make significant difference down the road,” says Vivian, noting that although the finance industry has made strides, there’s still more to be done.
To that end, Vivian believes that women at senior levels have a fundamental responsibility to act as role models on a daily basis, including displaying confidence and encouraging junior women to seek their place at the table. “We need to inspire young women and provide guidance and opportunities that push them and encourage them to step out of their comfort zone.”
At her firm, she is proud that senior women are represented broadly. Women make up nearly half of the employees, and 1/3 of senior leaders, including two partners.
One of her first career memories was an early mentor who, no matter what, would thank the team and treat everyone equally, and even roll up her own sleeves to achieve success. “This simple approach left a huge and lasting impression on me. I try to practice it every day and set an example for others,” Vivian says.
“It’s important to say thank you and let everyone know how hard the junior staff worked when you accomplish a goal.”
The daughter of Greek immigrants, she appreciates that her parents were ahead of their time in educating her and providing her with the same opportunities as her two brothers.
“Now that I have my own daughter, I hope to show her the endless possibilities I felt, and impress upon her that, with hard work, she can accomplish anything,” says Vivian. “My own success is not just for me; it’s also for my daughter in providing her with an example of going after what you want and achieving your goals.”
Voice of Experience: Barbra Bukovac, Partner, Vice Chairman, Mid-Central Region, PwC US
People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
On most mornings, Barbra Bukovac is up before the sun. Running shoes tied, she’s out the door knocking out a few miles before her day gets started–even when her weather app shows temperatures in the single digits during Chicago’s winter months. “You have to get it in when you can,” Bukovac says with a laugh. For Bukovac, her morning runs are usually an opportunity to think through the day ahead and organize her thoughts, from what she wants to accomplish to where her kids need to be and when. In fact, the new Vice Chairman of PwC’s Mid-Central Region equates running to having a career.
Finding Success in Balance
“When you’re out for a run, sometimes the best thing to do is to slow down for a bit and then speed up when you’re ready,” says Bukovac. “I think the same holds true in our professional lives as well. Sometimes we have to pull back and then accelerate forward when the time is right.”
Bukovac’s career with PwC began over 25 years ago as an auditor in Chicago where she supported PwC’s international tax practice during their busy season, working with both U.S. companies expanding their international footprint and foreign companies doing business in the United States. But once she had her first daughter, she left the firm to work for a client, worried that she wouldn’t be able to balance working at a professional services firm with her family.
“Looking back at that time in my life, I made a really big career decision without stopping to consider what might be possible at PwC. In fact, there were options, but I didn’t ask. I just assumed,” Bukovac said. Three years later, when her husband took a job requiring the family to move to Boston, Bukovac considered a potential return to the professional services industry and to her old firm.
But there were still many assumptions that she needed to overcome – mainly in figuring out how she would be able to balance client commitments while running a household and also having a working spouse. “When I returned to PwC as a senior tax manager, it was critical for me to have direct communication about my schedule with my teams, my clients and the partners for whom I worked,” Bukovac said. What she found was that more people were understanding and supportive of her schedule as they had similar situations and could rely on her to get the work done.
The move would eventually pay off for Bukovac as a couple years later, she was named partner in the international tax group. After working as a PwC partner full-time for several years, she challenged her own assumptions again and asked her leaders for an 80 percent work schedule with Fridays off. “With two young daughters, it was important for me to be involved in their classrooms and connect with the other professional moms who were similarly choosing to take a day at home,” Bukovac said.
Throughout the years, she has continued to appreciate the focus PwC places on flexibility, which she says is the reason she’s been able to advance her career and be successful in her different roles, while still feeling positive about the balance she has achieved with her family.
A Passion for Mentoring Women
As proud as Bukovac was to become partner, she says her greatest professional achievement has been helping to promote other partners. She has sponsored five women on their path to partner, and she describes the feeling as “incomparable” to see their accomplishments and how far they’ve come.
In fact, she says that identifying a role model and mentor was one of the defining moments of her career, knowing she had superiors of whom she could ask questions. While it’s important for both men and women, she says it’s even more critical for women, particularly as they work to achieve balance.
She has a particular interest in tempering the notion that women need to leave challenging positions in order to simultaneously fulfill work and family goals. “You don’t have to opt out of promotions or the next step; women often assume they don’t have the ability to achieve those higher roles, without ever asking,” Bukovac says. She notes that at PwC, all partners and staff are encouraged to communicate both their personal and professional goals with their managers and staff as there are many programs and policies in place to support individuals’ choices both in and out of the office.
“The roads we run all have twists and turns along the way. So do our careers. Sometimes it’s best to slow down, and other times we need to speed up. It’s important to remember that there isn’t one right choice and having the right guidance along the way makes all the difference. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of my mentors,” Bukovac says.
Mentee to Mentor: Enhancing your Career through Diverse Perspectives
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!, Mentors and SponsorsGuest contributed by Financial Women of San Francisco Board Member Shelby Duncan
A few years ago , I discovered the Financial Women of San Francisco (FWSF), a community of women who work in financial services and are dedicated to advancing the careers of women.
After learning about the organization and the importance of their mission, I applied for a scholarship and was fortunate enough to become a recipient. Not only did I receive financial support, but I was given the opportunity to work with a mentor. I had been fortunate enough to have informal mentors throughout my college career, but was extremely fortunate to be given three women from FWSF, all in varying stages in their careers, lives, and outlooks, to support me as formal mentors as I stepped into the corporate world for the first time. The wealth of knowledge and combined experience that they were able to share taught me an insightful and valuable lesson – the greater my mentorship network, the more I could learn and subsequently contribute to my community.
Image via Shutterstock
I applied this knowledge as I began my career – identifying mentors, creating partnerships across my organization, and directly expanding my network by asking for further referrals. I built mentoring relationships with C-Suite men with 30 years of corporate experience, senior women of color seeking to innovate within financial services, and hard-working software developers beginning their careers in the United States having transitioned from careers in India. In building these relationships across a diverse community of people I have been able to see life through many lenses and have benefited from others’ knowledge, intelligence, innovative thinking, and in some cases, their mistakes. The diversity of their perspectives has allowed me the freedom to be more creative and identify solutions to complex problems. The balance in the advice I have received has made me confident that I am being steered in the right direction by the leaders in my life.
For several years now, I have continued to foster my relationships and identify new mentors. As I have progressed in my career, I have had the opportunity to be a mentor myself and have enjoyed helping mentees as they strive to create and meet new career goals.
Here are my steadfast tips and tricks for being a successful mentee:
1. Give back to your mentor – Ask yourself, “What can I do for my mentor?” Mentors set aside time, share contacts and other resources in support of your growth. It’s imperative to identify opportunities to give back and support your mentor. This can come in the form of supporting an organization they are part of, for example volunteering time; supporting them at a speaking engagement by sharing the event with your network and introducing them to people you know; or introducing them to one of your other mentors.
Oftentimes, mentees believe they don’t have much to offer their mentor based on their age or level of experience – but that is not the case! Time, energy, and a fresh perspective are important resources to share with your mentor.
2. Seek diverse mentorships – Leverage your network to identify diverse mentors. Look across industries, levels of experience, age, gender, and ethnicity to cultivate a well-balanced outlook.
3. Maintain the relationship – Building relationships is easy, but maintaining them requires thoughtfulness and time. Be sure to establish a plan with your mentor to determine how often they would like to meet, a location that is convenient for them, and always be willing to treat for coffee or lunch. Ask thoughtful questions about their work, and frame questions that ask for advice. Get to know them, as they are investing their time in getting to know you!
Mentorships are invaluable relationships that are imperative to growing, maintaining and propelling your career. I know that my successes are not solely my own, but a function of the leaders who support me. With that, I encourage you to reflect on the mentors in your life, identify opportunities to gain new mentors, and consider becoming a mentor yourself.
I recently read an amazing book called “We Should All Be Feminists” and here the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (LINK PLEASE TO BOOK) states,
“Today, we live in a vastly different world. The person more qualified to lead is not the physically stronger person. It is the more intelligent, the more knowledgeable, the more creative, more innovative. And there are no hormones for those attributes.”
We Should All Be Feminists, to me, is one of the most critically important works I have read. Written by an immensely insightful and accomplished author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, deeply inspires me as her work is centered on the empowerment of women and their use of community as a tool to reach their objectives. She acknowledges that the collective is more powerful than the individual and that diversity – in gender, ethnicity, culture, and age – are some of societies’ greatest assets. I couldn’t agree more.
Values – As a Leader Are You Living Them?
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Pyschologist
This past year all over the world, the geo-political landscape has been dramatic.
We have watched countries swing wildly, some with populism and conspiracy, creating new scenarios that would have been possibly unimaginable just 12 months ago, while other nations are choosing to elect leaders who refuse to regress on social and environmental issues.
What both of these versions have in common is that they demonstrate values-led leadership as we are seeing many leaders determined to take paths that line up into two narratives- go back to something they think we had before or go forward to what they think will be a new future.
Although I have my opinions and emotions like the next person, I am not expressing them here and not judging here, so, before I get emails telling me not to be political (code for what the Dixie Chicks experienced as ‘Shut up and sing”) I want to explain why we can look at this and understand our career paths and leadership style.
One of the things we look at in coaching is what are your values, how do you live them against your espoused goals in real life? Do your paradigms serve you? Do they truly meet your actual needs of where you want to go?
Can you take other people’s opinions and face a little conflict and work through it to filter what values they are espousing beyond the emotion of difference? And then how that truly sits against your values? Full circle then is, how do your actions sit against your values and are they really your values? Where did they come from? Why do they matter at this moment? What other values mean more to you in reality?
This isn’t just about looking at outdated negative views that a person might hold but also about examining the positive self perceptions that we do not actually live up to. If we say we want to lead, how is our audio matching our visual? If we say we support women, how many do we promote, hire or defer to as an expert?
If we say you are pro-equality then what actions do we take from the voting booth to the banker we use?
Closing the cognitive dissonance gap is not always the aim but understanding and recognizing what it all means to us is pretty key to moving forward in life and work.
Voice of Experience: Vivian Flynn, Managing Director of Investor Relations, Pomona Capital
People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
“You have to keep things in perspective throughout your career,” says Pomona Capital’s Vivian Flynn.
She adds that, “Successful professionals will remember the fundamental importance of staying true and honest to yourself. By recognizing and embracing both your strengths and weaknesses, you define the unique tools you bring to the table. Be confident and know that you belong. Own your accomplishments and celebrate your achievements, and don’t be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone.”
A Front Seat to Industry Evolution
Vivian describes her path as atypical, having attended law school rather than business school like many of her counterparts. The decision paid off. Her legal background provided an incredible foundation to develop skills, such as problem solving and negotiation, she knew she would need regardless of what role she accepted.
Her first job out of law school was in equity operations at Deutsche Bank. She soon parlayed that experience into a role in Goldman Sachs’ Pension Services Group, which was her first introduction to capital raising and investor relations. In this role she developed a niche focusing on real estate private equity and soon moved onto Goldman’s real estate team.
She joined Pomona, which has a strategic partnership with Voya Financial, in 2010, where she became part of an established, yet entrepreneurial, organization. Vivian says that this position offered her “a clean sheet of paper” to help reorganize the business development function. The autonomy and ability to work with a small group of less than 50 people was an excellent opportunity that offered an environment where she could strategically and thoughtfully use her skillset that had been developed throughout her career.
Vivian has now spent 17 years in the alternative space working with both hedge funds and private equity funds, which she calls, “challenging and rewarding — both personally and professionally.” “Building long-term relationships and trust with our investors is what makes my job so fulfilling,” says Vivian.
While some professionals in her field might name their most important accomplishment as their title or how much capital they have raised, Vivian says that she is most proud of how she has controlled various steps throughout her career and navigated through unexpected circumstances while remaining true to herself and never compromising her values.
Vivian appreciates the latitude she’s had with Pomona; while many firms divide investor relations and business development into two groups, she’s always preferred having them together because she believes that the two roles go hand-in-hand. “Relationships with investors don’t end once you get their commitment,” she says. “You have to be able to articulate a product or strategy, but you also need to be able to connect with investors and understand their unique needs to provide solutions.” She finds that the consultative approach she learned at Goldman has helped her along the way.
Over the years, Vivian has witnessed the evolution of investor relations and business development. When she first started, it was not uncommon to raise a multi-billion-dollar fund in a matter of months, but now, it is not uncommon for an investor’s due diligence and decision-making process to take 6 to 12 months, a trend she sees continuing. Additionally, she has seen both the investor relations and businesses development components emerge as important and critical parts to any firm in the industry, a progression that she is excited has occurred.
Addressing Women’s Challenges in the Industry through Support
While fewer women tend to enter and stay in the finance industry, Vivian sees this as an issue that starts at a young age and how different genders are steered in their educational development and rewarded for their behavior.
“We need to encourage young girls to pursue studies in areas where boys tend to be seen more prominently, such as in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It won’t happen overnight, but it can make significant difference down the road,” says Vivian, noting that although the finance industry has made strides, there’s still more to be done.
To that end, Vivian believes that women at senior levels have a fundamental responsibility to act as role models on a daily basis, including displaying confidence and encouraging junior women to seek their place at the table. “We need to inspire young women and provide guidance and opportunities that push them and encourage them to step out of their comfort zone.”
At her firm, she is proud that senior women are represented broadly. Women make up nearly half of the employees, and 1/3 of senior leaders, including two partners.
One of her first career memories was an early mentor who, no matter what, would thank the team and treat everyone equally, and even roll up her own sleeves to achieve success. “This simple approach left a huge and lasting impression on me. I try to practice it every day and set an example for others,” Vivian says.
The daughter of Greek immigrants, she appreciates that her parents were ahead of their time in educating her and providing her with the same opportunities as her two brothers.
“Now that I have my own daughter, I hope to show her the endless possibilities I felt, and impress upon her that, with hard work, she can accomplish anything,” says Vivian. “My own success is not just for me; it’s also for my daughter in providing her with an example of going after what you want and achieving your goals.”
Asian American Heritage Month
Asian American Heritage MonthAs Asian American Heritage month comes to a close, we hope you have enjoyed the inspiring career profiles of Asian American Female leaders we have featured this month.
Image via Shutterstock
Take a look at previous articles written by theglasshammer.com writers during previous Asian American month celebrations.
The Bamboo Ceiling Could Be Costing Business
Do Asian-American Women Face a Glass Ceiling or a Bamboo Ceiling? Both, and More.
Asian-American Women and the Bamboo Ceiling
Refusing to Provide Salary History Information During Job Interviews
Career Advice, Guest ContributionLaid Off? Do Not Get Derailed
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!At some point in your career, you will probably get laid off due to many factors that are usually beyond your control like downsizing, mergers and acquisitions and cyclical market turns in financial services. Do not take it personally! Hard advice if you have given the job 110% of your time and energy and have shown a loyalty that you perceive has not been returned.
Often people come to coaching at this point threatening to leave their industry and wanting to transfer their skills and make a pivot. My job as a coach is to help my client really have an honest look at what is going on- beyond the hurt and the emotion to see if they are truly done with their sector and not just their firm.
Sometimes, after testing the reasoning around why you might want to leave, the answer is then yes and we set about working out a plan on how to transition into the right job in the right firm in the right industry.
Sometimes however, doing the deep work results in you realizing that you love doing the tasks that you were doing, in the industry that you know and love and it was just the shock of being laid off or being somehow displaced in a shuffle that has made you feel resentful, done or stuck. In some cases, people have even taken another job only to find that they want back in. All scenarios are valid and none are really that bad when you have a little perspective. My job is to get you to where you truly want to be. We work out the destination and then figure out the journey together in a way that will get you there. The worst that can happen is that you took a small detour, or maybe you will find that a new destination is what you wanted all along.
Mover and Shaker: Yuko Ikeda, Vice President, Senior Human Resources Generalist, Voya Investment Management
Asian American Heritage Month, Voices of ExperienceYuko Ikeda carries with her the image of a young woman navigating the streets of New York, holding a tote bag emblazoned with the words “Carry yourself with the confidence of a man.”
To her that is the epitome of what will help women succeed in the workplace. “I believe some women create their own barriers by underestimating their abilities and waiting too long to grab opportunities,” she says. “Also, projecting confidence is a big part of advancing your career. Generally, men do this better than women.”
This is why she advises young women to work hard, but effectively, and with a purpose. “Be smart by having a keen focus on the big picture,” she says. “You have to understand your business and how your company makes money, and then develop a line of sight to how you connect to that and how you can contribute. Volunteer to fill gaps and look around to find ways to help the team succeed with the interests of the firm at heart.”
She recalls the words of one of her sources of inspiration, General Electric’s Jack Welch, who reminds people to “Control your destiny or someone else will.”
“While hard work is only the ticket to entry, high performance will broaden your choices since people are watching and will offer you new opportunities,” says Yuko.
Creating Her Own Success
Ikeda has seen that philosophy at work as she has created her own HR trajectory.
Born and raised in Japan, Ikeda started her career in the Tokyo human resource offices of American companies. Her first stint was with semiconductor firm General Instruments; since they didn’t have an official HR department, she describes her three years there as a time of self-learning, where she attended seminars and read books to understand HR theories and best practices. She was fortunate to have a great mentor who guided her throughout her time there, which demonstrated the importance of having mentors in your life. After that valuable experience, she developed relationships with two other life mentors later in her career – one Japanese and one American – who became indispensable in her personal development which she cherishes to this day.
During her tenure, she built the infrastructure they needed, implementing various processes such as customized performance reviews, all without formal training. “It was like creating my own business school curriculum where I would apply theories and make them practical,” she says.
Thanks to her active participation in one particular seminar she attended, she was noticed by GE Capital and recruited there, an important move considering GE is known as a luminary and trailblazer in the HR field. Their well-established HR function helped propel her to the next phase of her career. “It was like drinking from a fire hose,” she says.
She was offered to be on GE’s “HR Leadership Program (HRLP)”, a program designed to help develop and nurture the leadership pipeline at GE . She rotated through stretch assignments and global seminars during the two-year program, giving her career an enormous boost. At the end of the program, she was assigned to be head of recruitment, leading a group of older team members, many of them male. She quickly found that not all of them felt comfortable being managed by a younger female, which ultimately offered another step in her growth.
When AIG acquired one of the units, Ikeda was chosen to be the head of Japan human resources for their asset management arm, AIG Global Investment Group. This opportunity constituted a major promotion which she held for four years. At the time she was reporting to the global head of human resources who asked her in 2008 if she would be interested in a newly created global HR Generalist role based out of the New York office. In this new role, Ikeda partnered with the equities, fixed income and business development teams on a global basis. A month later, the AIG meltdown occurred, which expanded her responsibilities to include leading the HR effort on the separation and divestiture activities. This gave her invaluable experience with change management and navigating through uncertainties.
Five years ago, she moved to Voya Investment Management, working with various investment platforms as a senior HR generalist. She is currently leading the talent review process, where the senior leadership team comes together for a full day to discuss succession planning as well as identifying emerging talent for Voya’s future leadership pipeline and building bench strength. “We are entrusted with people’s money, so it’s vital to have a strong succession plan in place to ensure our clients remain our focus and their money we are entrusted with has the best talent overseeing it.”
A key part of that is talent retention; she is proud that Voya Investment Management is routinely named one of the best places to work, which reflects well on its culture and provides an important differentiator in a saturated industry.
“Our focus on culture and talent development not only leads to better company performance but also provides a competitive edge,” she notes. “When we are in the finals or part of a due diligence process, we may be competing against companies with similarly strong performance and competitive fees, so we believe that culture is increasingly becoming a key decision factor.”
Being Mindful Can Help Reduce Unconscious Bias
Ikeda believes it’s important to be mindful for two key reasons. “One, it helps you grow – the more conscious and focused you are on the moving parts, the more you see the connections between the tasks you are busy fulfilling, as opposed to being on auto pilot.”
Secondly, she says that being mindful will allow professionals to see deeper into unconscious bias to help identify it and make an effort to explore with curiosity how to address it. “This concept has been increasingly a part of our conversation, and we have to deepen our understanding of why it happens, which is the only way we can work toward changing it.”
She believes that it’s important for professionals to choose a company that is consciously making an effort in diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as Voya is with the women’s network and various other programs of which she is a part.
When not helping improve HR at Voya, Ikeda enjoys traveling with her life partner, particularly seeking out experiences where she can be in nature. “It gives me perspective in life and renews the energy I bring to my work,” she says.
The Girl With The Draggin’ W-2
Career Advice, Gender Pay GapBy theglasshammer team
Image via Shutterstock
Wells Fargo Securities’ Economics Department recently released a report entitled, The Girl with the Draggin’ W-2, which explores the complexities of the gender pay gap. Following publication, we received many questions from interested readers. Diane Schumaker-Krieg, Global Head of Research, Economics, & Strategy for Wells Fargo Securities, responds to these questions below.
Despite huge advances in technology and the ability to work remotely, the highest paying jobs continue to reward those who can work the longest and least flexible hours. Physically showing up at the office (or wherever you’re required to be) is still a prerequisite for getting ahead. And that puts primary caregivers — usually working moms — at a disadvantage.
Actually we are. The wage gap would be six percent higher if women were not out-achieving men educationally. But women are more likely than men to major in fields that pay less upon graduation — for example, education and social work versus computer science and engineering.
Not advocating for oneself forcefully enough is certainly a factor. A well-known Carnegie Mellon study showed that men are four times more likely than women to ask for a raise and when women do ask, they typically request 30 percent less than men. This may be rational because women are viewed more negatively for asking! Of course, if you don’t ask, the answer is always “no.”
And women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored. Mentors can be great sounding boards, but their influence on one’s career trajectory often ends with advice. On the other hand, sponsors tend to be senior executives who can publically advocate on behalf of their protégés and accelerate their advancement. Women are 50 percent less likely than men to have a sponsor.
Finally, women often don’t get the benefit of honest performance feedback because male managers are reluctant to provide it, fearing an “emotional response” or risk to their own careers.
I I have worked on Wall Street for most of my career, and it has certainly gotten a lot better, especially on the trading floor. But overall, hard-charging occupations like investment banking, private equity, venture capital and M&A are more difficult for anyone, not just women, who need more flexibility. One of the advantages of working in Research is that while there is a great deal of travel and frequent client dinners, there is no penalty for writing a research report at your kitchen table at 3 A.M. So even within hard-charging occupations, there are opportunities for flexibility.
Greater labor force participation — many women are now on the sidelines because after factoring in the cost of childcare (which has grown more than twice as fast as median household income), for many, it doesn’t pay to work. A McKinsey Global Institute study indicated that full gender equality could add 11% to 26% to global GDP by 2025 — a staggering $12 to $28 trillion. One positive factor is women returning to the workforce and working late into their 60’s and even 70’s. Nearly 30 percent of women aged 65-69 are working (up from 15 percent in the late 80’s).
For businesses, closing the gender pay gap would not only attract more women but just as importantly help businesses retain the high-caliber women they already have by making it more economical for working moms to stay in the game. And of course there are countless studies showing that more diverse companies simply perform better — higher ROE, higher sales growth and stronger corporate oversight. That’s because they’re tapping into a deeper pool of talent that mirrors the diversity of their customers and discourages groupthink.
On the legislative front, I think it’s very interesting that the state of Massachusetts now makes it illegal to ask a job applicant about their prior compensation. This could be a huge step forward, since women are generally paid less and asking for prior compensation perpetuates the wage gap.
In the UK, companies with 250 or more employees must publish their gender pay gaps within the next year under a new legal requirement and will be encouraged to detail an action plan to address inequities.
In the private sector, shareholders can and should hold companies accountable. In fact, nine tech companies were asked by shareholders to study compensation and commit to closing the pay gap. Several of them publicly made commitments to do so. Amazon, Apple and Intel have reported that they’re near 100 percent pay parity.8
Diane Schumaker-Krieg is Global Head of Research, Economics and Strategy and leads all fundamental research across all sectors and asset classes for Wells Fargo.
Fear of Change and Other Mental Models That Hold Us Back
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Last week, we spoke about how expanding your mindset can truly take perspective mentally and not be beholden to your home-grown beliefs, paradigms and basically anything that your granny and society told you that you had to think, act and feel. We talked about the more we can move things from purely subjective to being an object then we can be more open to working with new ideas. I describe this to my clients using the glass half full/glass half empty adage, if you reframe it to an object, let’s face it, it is just a glass with some liquid in it and you don’t have to have any feelings around that at all.
Nearly all of us show courage at work and life. Nearly all of us have fears. Those fears are often deeply rooted in paradigms and mental models that we hold that play out in our “inner theater” telling us we could fail, we could lose something, we could look silly (amongst many other things.)
How do you take these anxiety ridden based on nothing assumptions and recognize them as the Gremlins that they are? They are present to sabotage your ability to take the next step and embrace whatever comes with that change?
Kegan and Lahey in their brilliant book “Immunity to Change” offer actual exercises on how to understand what your worries are and how they are often competing commitments to your main objective. For example, you might be keen on delegating more but find that you ultimately want things done your way; making your goal harder to reach.
It is the assumptions (those built in paradigms) that create these competing unconscious and conscious thoughts and behaviors. By surfacing and testing your assumptions – such as what it is that makes you assume that your way is best, you can make real progress towards growing, succeeding and leading!
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