By Nicki Gilmour
Last month, theglasshammer reconvened for the ninth year to assemble senior women for breakfast where we discussed the outlook and current trends in the investment management industry. The panel consisted of Barbara Reinhard, Managing Director, Senior Portfolio Manager & Head of Asset Allocation of Voya Investment Management, Donna Parisi, Partner, Global Co-Head of Finance and Global Co-Head of Financial Institutions Industry Initiative at Shearman and Sterling, Kathleen Kelley, Founder and CEO of Queen Anne’s Gate Capital Management, Shaiza Rizavi, Partner and Portfolio Manager at Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., and Jitania Kandhari, Head of Macroeconomic Research, Emerging Markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. The panelists dynamically addressed questions that were asked by this year’s moderator Amanda Tepper, CEO of Chestnut Advisory Group.
Populism and Protectionism is not good for prosperity
The discussion kicked off with the topic of populism with Jitania Kandhari reminding us this period parallels times in the 20th century specifically, the inter- war period from 1914 to 1945) when periods of boom proceeded busts with the dissatisfaction from those who felt left behind turning to populism. She comments,
“Globalization does bring a lot of prosperity but the elite gain the most. Populists are exclusive not inclusive. They are confrontational not collaborative, and so with reduced commerce and closed borders the results are going to be lowered growth and raised inflation.”
Our panel had varying levels of concern about political risk when it comes to investing but there was an overall agreement on the sentiment that populism and protectionism does not bode overly well for prosperity.
Shaiza Rizavi brought an interesting viewpoint around finding opportunity in the most turbulent of times when she mentioned that many people told her not to go to Kenya in 2008 due to the danger surrounding the dynamics of the election. At the same time, a company she was interested in, Safaricom introduced a new mobile payment platform in Kenya called Mpesa. They had approximately 19,000 subscribers then and now have 26 million subscribers. Payments are made through the platform with many of the poorest being early adopters. Now, 30-40% of Kenya’s GDP now flows via this network. She comments,
“There are growth opportunities even in the most perilous moments if you are willing to take out the fire extinguisher and run into the fire. With the internet and people connected on a second by second basis, you see ideas and flows that were never expected.”
Kathleen Kelley thinks in Europe that we will see higher volatility going forward. She shared an anecdote,
“I did a scientific survey” she says with humor,” of 10 of my male hedge fund friends in London who wanted to vote leave in Brexit and all of them just repeatedly stated that England is the 6th largest economy and that things will be fine. It is interesting how mindsets are built”.
Barbara Reinhard commented on the fact that this is the first time we are truly having a global acceleration since the financial crisis. She stated,
“Europe is making a recovery. We look at earnings growth and earnings revenue and they are going up, yet the sentiment is still nervous and we are still seeing inexplicably more flows into bond funds than equity funds. Economic expansions die of excess, euphoria and leverage. I don’t see any of these things happening right now.”
Inflation: a reality in the making
The moderator Amanda identified that inflation was a topic that everyone had touched on and asked Kathleen about what is happening in the oil markets.
Kathleen gave an outlook continued OPEC cuts and how the surplus we have in storage is not ending as quickly as we would have hoped. She stated,
“In the 3rd quarter, we might feel the effects of the production cuts and start to draw inventory and that would be a better place for the world to be and not feel like we have so much. If cuts do not continue the price per barrel might be back around the $40’s mark.”
Jitania commented that from a macro perspective, suggesting a period of inflation in the next 2-3 years. She commented,
“China has been exporting deflation and we saw the benefits of that but protectionism and the push to produce locally in the US along with breakdown of trade agreements could definitely create changes.”
Shaiza, often dissenting and providing a different angle, focused on how technological innovation is a deflationary force.
“You start to think about the future differently as many of the historic models wont work for future predictions. The power of connecting people who have never before been connected, and the unleashing of their capability is immense.”
She told the audience how she saw this first hand how lanterns sold to people in Africa and India that previously had no access to light after dark, changed how people interacted and ultimately increased their productivity.
She also mentioned that China’s building a new Silk Road which will allow countries around China to be connected to China and the global economy in an entirely new way. 80% of the China’s oil is currently transported from Strait of Malacca to Shanghai, a journey that took 2-3 months, but with a new port in Pakistan and the 16,000 kilometers delivery journey is reduced to 5,000 kilometers. How will that affect things? She implored the audience to consider the power of change and the power of disruption.
Active versus passive trends
Donna updated the audience with some Citi data on how passive investing has grown to 30% of assets under management by the end of 2015 and how the projection sits at $19.2 trillion of asset flows by 2021. When talking about why has there been a shift, she comments,
“It all comes out of the financial crisis, factor in a lower return environment with lower costs of passive investing and that the banks are not holding risk or warehousing like before the crisis. Also, with improved portfolio risk analysis which is tied to fintech and big data, the way people invest is changing.”
Donna talked about how hedge funds are a maturing market and hedge fund growth is going to be there albeit modest and will hit record levels by 2021. Trends within that sector include liquid alternatives, private debt and private equity so hedge funds are looking to asset classes that are not as easy to access as a headline.
Voya’s Reinhard who has a hybrid of both active and passive commented that as macro driven professionals, she does hunt bubbles and predicts that the tide towards passive has some bubble like qualities that could be worrying for some who just rely on it exclusively. She stated,
“Low cost provider doesn’t always mean highest quality product. In fact, you could argue that passive investing is causing opportunities for active managers. Passive investing, will have at some point unintended consequences.”
Jitania commented on recent research that finding Alpha in investing is cyclical (referencing trends as 1990-94 good for active management, 1995-2000 bad, 200-2009 good and 2010 to current bad). For her business of emerging markets, 40% of returns come from currencies, and she reminded us that is something that you cannot harness with passive investing.
Shaiza again provided interesting insight into the power of disruption and how the private sector can take on roles that the government used to own. She relayed,
“ Amazon for example is now fully capable of handling the logistics of packaging and mail. How will that affect the traditional mail system? Disruptive forces provide opportunity and active investing allows you to be nimble enough to take advantage of that opportunity. “
Outlook and advice
Barbara counseled to watch wage growth carefully for risk mitigation. Kathleen agreed with Barbara with both of them agreeing that US growth is going to disappoint this year and that reforms are not going to be passed in 2017.
Kathleen commented further,
“We are seeing wages starting to pick up and consumer sentiment is high – but they have been behaving different and are stepping back as they see price inflation going up. The stronger dollar is hurting both growth and inflation and keep companies from investing and repatriating “
Jitania offered that China is something that should be watched very closely as China has experienced 82% debt growth over last 5 years. She stated,
“China has added money to its system with many unproductive projects. In 2011, $2 of debt was used to create $1 of GDP and now $5 of debt is used to create 1 dollar of GDP. From a macro perspective, it is definitely something to affect the world since China contributes to a third of world economic growth. “
Jitania added insight into deglobalization and the lingering effects of it on strategy.
“We like countries that have domestic drivers of growth that aren’t relying on external capital flows; countries like Indonesia and even some of the Eastern European countries. From a developed market perspective, we prefer Europe to US. I can buy the top 10 European banks for the market cap of Apple in the US and when something like that pops up on my screen, it feels like distortion.”
Amanda Tepper offered that investor relations is an area that has a positive impact on acquiring assets stating her study which shows that firms with good investor relations result in raising four times more capital than the top performers.
What makes investors choose managers? Performance is not in the top five reasons stated Amanda.
“They want to know what you are doing with their money. Invest in your efforts to explain what you are doing to your investors.”
Donna highlighted fintech as an area to watch starting
“With the existing regulatory schemes, the banking sector has the upper hand when it comes to fintech. We do have a regulatory sandboxes – such as exists in the UK but by and large regulation is a barrier to entry for FinTech startups. Asset management has embraced fintech in the area of data analytics. I think we have seen this most in the retail space with robo-advising and partnerships like Betterment and Goldman Sachs and it is an area to follow.”
Shaiza urged us to rethink the vocabulary we use. Rethinking how we define borders and how we bucket ideas and opportunities. It is an interesting moment to think about the permeability of borders and how technology has changed the ways things get done. She added,
“It might not be possible to even have borders and the protectionism that the populism trend is advocating given technology.”
Barbara added a last piece of advice for all of us in the audience.
“My advice is pay attention to your target date funds – think about yourself for 5 minutes and go check your own retirement funds and apply the advice you give to others when investing money to yourself.”
And, she is right.
Voice of Experience: Lye-Sim Lam, Partner, Asset Management Practice, PwC US
Asian American Heritage Month, People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
Success comes from your forging your own organic, authentic interactions and experiences, rather than just from conventional networks, says PwC Partner Lye-Sim Lam.
“I have thrived and learned to be resourceful and adapt to many different cultures, and I’ve built a large, diverse network of colleagues and friends from all walks of life, around the world,” she says. This independence came from acclimating to cities where she didn’t have a ready-made safety net in terms of family and friends, and gravitating to people who also have more distinctive journeys and paths, which she finds relatable.
A Fascinating Career Journey
When Lam turned 19, she moved to Belfast and earned her undergraduate degree in accounting at Queens University. She landed an internship at Coopers & Lybrand after participating in what was called the “milk round” where aspiring candidates interview with seven large accounting firms.
After her internship she decided she wanted to move into the financial services industry and reached out to the human resources manager to find opportunities to work on banking engagements. Since Ireland didn’t then have a thriving financial services industry, she was encouraged to look elsewhere. Coincidentally, the HR department had just received a request from the Cayman Island office for a senior associate.
As Lam says, that sounded “so exotic and perfect,” but since it was 1993, they resorted to the encyclopedia and a paper atlas to find out more about it. A promotional blurb proclaimed it as a growing financial service center, where all the largest institutions have registered offices: That sounded promising so she moved there and got her first exposure to the hedge fund industry which was already a prominent fixture in this little island nation.
She enjoyed studying the industry and learning about the strategies of the asset managers, and decided to continue specializing in the field. However, the client base was relatively small and homogenous, andshe realized after several years that there was a repetition in clients. Her desireto diversify within the industryprompted her move to the United States in 2000.
Looking back, she is proud that she took the leap of faith to follow her career abroad, a big departure from her comfort zone after growing up in Malaysia in what she describes as a relatively insular environment, where she didn’t travel much. The move to Ireland had been a big change, and it opened doors to other offices and experiences — eventually landing her in New York, the epitome of the American Dream.
Over the years she has had much success, eventually becoming a partner at PwC in 2009.
Embracing The Confidence That Comes with Age
Lam says that when she hit age 40, she started to develop a greater sense of calm– what she describes as self-awareness and acceptance –to a point where she feels more comfortable in her own skin. She compares the prior feeling to seeing an outfit online and then realizing that while it looks good, it doesn’t feel quite right on you. Fortunately shehas found that is an experience you outgrow as you become more grounded and sure. “I have a great sense of who I am and my boundaries,” she says. “I am more confident in the decisions I make and feel sure-footed even when I move to uncharted waters.”
Right now she finds the industry particularly exciting because of the changes brought on by technology – not just its impact on productivity, but also how the phenomenon impacts upon behavior and languages.
Now her clients are expected to provide more data quickly and to produce strong returns at a lower cost to their investors. Some of those pressures are, in turn, passed on to their service providers; so the work her team produces has to be delivered quicker and more efficiently at a lower cost basis, yet without jeopardizing quality.
As they all learn to adapt, she says it requires her and her peers to be more agile and embrace a culture shift in terms of being more open to change.
This new reliance on technology will also change the way that the new generation of staff are educated to anticipate the new way of auditing. Lam says that makes her even more proud to work for PwC, as the leaders do an excellent job of looking to the future and equipping the next generation.
Making Progress On Women’s Issues – Slowly
Lam says that unfortunately the challenges of women today are not much different than those her mother’s generation encountered. She finds that women are still at a crossroads when deciding when to start a young family and whether to take a career break. “Caregiving and child care issues still fall squarely on women,” she says, and most women say that the mindset hasn’t moved as quickly as would be expected.
She finds women are still subject to societal biases, and there is a punitive aftertaste when they have to make these choices. “Even the apprehension that surrounds making these decisions tells me that we are not on a level playing field,” she says, adding that although society is making strides, she looks forward to the day when it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice for women to have both a family and career.
One other area where she encourages women to make their own progress is in not minimizing the attributes of females that are beneficial in business, such as creating communities and building networks, lending a helping hand and asking for advice.
She recently dined with a young accountant looking to make a big career change who lamented the lack of recognition from her supervisors and ample rewards for her work, when compared to a male colleague, who tended to be more aggressive, bold and braggadocious to his supervisors.
The young accountant didn’t want to be that way, so Lam reminded her of the beneficial qualities that don’t rely on over-championing your own cause.
Carving Out Free Time
While her life might be balanced, she says her home is a “zoo,” with two Yorkie rescue pups and a cat. Living close to Central Park, she takes advantage of the opportunity to run there to clear her mind.
And, Lam looks forward to the annual pilgrimage to Singapore, where all her immediate family reunite at her mother’s house for two to three weeks. “It takes some juggling to plan, involving three different time zones, but it’s worth all of it to make that trip back home,” she says.
The Simmons Leadership Conference 2017
Career Advice, NewsThe Simmons Leadership Conference was held on April 13, 2017 in Boston and afterwards we caught up with three of the speakers on career topics. Josh Levs, award-winning broadcaster and journalist, and Barbara Fedida, Senior Vice President for Talent and Business, ABC News, The Walt Disney Company all shared their stories around leading with purpose, how passion matters and what insights on leadership they have learned.
Image via Shutterstock
The Wage Gap is Real
Josh Levs gave a presentation at the conference called “Gender Equity: Leveling the Playing Field.” Josh says that he has witnessed first-hand the discrepancies of gender-based office policies that obstruct the development of any workplace. As a father and husband, shortly after his wife delivered, he was not approved by his employer at the time, to take time off to care for his child and wife. It became a case he took to court, and won. Josh is a pioneer in advocating for both women and men to have paid parental time off, and for women to have equal pay. Josh states,
“The wage-gap is real. And ultimately, it also hurts men because their wives are under paid, and families need money.”
As a former fact-checker journalist, Josh provides evidence in his book, “All in,” on why men need to be actively involved in the conversation of pursuing equality for women. He is also active on endorsing the Family Act; funded through employee-paid payroll taxes and administered through their respective disability programs. Functioning as an insurance coverage, it is able to fund time off during Parental/Family leave.
Josh is not only passionate about what he does, he’s genuine and joyful about it!
Nurturing Talent
Barbara Fedida, Head of Talent and Business at ABC News, The Walt Disney Company who sat on the morning panel themed “Leading with Purpose”, commented on the importance of mentoring. She shares:
“There’s no secret sauce or formula to identifying talent, or at least not one that I can sum up in a few sentences. I think all the great journalists of our time share some common traits – passion, hard work, insatiable curiosity, a feeling that good is never good enough, drive, and, perhaps most importantly, a feeling that nothing is impossible.”
Barbara believes that the role of the mentor and boss is key because if you as a mentor can nurture these traits, she states, “Together you can be unstoppable.”
And when it comes to keeping a team engaged and motivated, Barbara says, “Give people credit for their ideas and tell the bosses of their contributions. In fact, don’t just tell them – scream it from the rooftops.”
Whether a famous actress or an accomplished business leader, the speakers at the conference have all had to overcome doors closed in their faces, negative thinking and other obstacles. But they were driven by a purpose larger than themselves. They persevered. They blazed trails for others. They openly shared their experiences, to motivate and inspire us and we look forward to attending the 2018 conference scheduled for April 5 in Boston, MA.
Diversity in the C-Suite: Leaders Championing Change
Career Advice, Men Who "Get It"By Jessica Titlebaum Darmoni
Image via Shutterstock
On April 25, the Executive’s Club of Chicago hosted a discussion between Craig Donohue, Executive Chairman and CEO of Options Clearing Corporation, Aylwin Lewis, Chairman, President and CEO of Potbelly Sandwiches Works and Carter Murray, Worldwide CEO of FCB. Moderated by Nichole Barnes Marshall, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at AON, the conversation focused on how these leaders have addressed and implemented successful diversity and inclusion initiatives within their organizations.
Leveraging Positions of Power
Carter Murray, Worldwide CEO of FCB and the Chicago Foundation of Women’s Male Champion of Change, kicked off the discussion talking about the personal and professional reasons he is committed to gender equality.
“My mom’s family had a successful family business and while my mom was always driven, she grew up being told to get married and have children,” he said.
While his mother was persuaded against working, Murray said it was ironic that it was his mother’s twin brother who ran the family business into the ground.
Murray explained that he saw how hard she had to work to prove herself, compared to her male counterparts.
“This is fundamentally wrong,” he said.
Leading a global organization, Murray also has a professional perspective on the issue. He has seen employees discriminated against because of their sexual orientation as well as female industry colleagues face sexism in the office.
Murray explained that the issue should be fixed at the top level of management.
“As a white heterosexual male, we need to fix this,” he said. “It starts with leadership. You know that quote that a fish smells from its head? As leaders we need to get this right, policies should be zero tolerance and we should not just talk, but take action.”
Agreeing with Murray, Potbelly President and CEO Aylwin Lewis also believes that inclusion needs to be part of the decision maker’s strategy. He stated,
We can’t see what’s in someone’s heart. You might have good intentions but we can’t gauge that, and we judge people on their actions.”
Craig Donohue, Executive Chairman and CEO of Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), also believes that leaders need to leverage their positions of power.
Donohue joined OCC in January 2014 after an extensive career at the CME Group where he was also committed to gender and pay equality. The CME has always had a diverse group of leaders such as Kate Meyer who led the clearing house division from 1987 to 1998, or more recently Kim Taylor who is the current President of Global Operations and Technology.
It was after speaking with his daughter, a Chicago based lawyer, about the challenges she faced in her career that he focused on the glass half empty perspective rather than the glass half-full. He asked what he could do to help the cause and has determined that bringing awareness and visibility to the issue is his solution. Donohue’s take on doing his part according to him at the event,
“We have a pulpit and we should use it.”
Donohue also talked about his experience as a ‘transformation agent.’
While a small organization, the OCC has great industry output providing clearing and settlement services for all the US options exchanges and acting as the guarantor to every options trade.Among the changes Donohue has implemented was bringing a handful of women to OCC’s Board of Directors.
“OCC had an all male Board but now we have three female members,” said Donohue referring to Susan E. Lester, Christine L. Show and Alice ‘Patricia’ White.
He has also put women in senior level positions and on the Management Committee including Amy Shelly, OCC’s Chief Financial Officer, Jean Cawley, OCC’s Senior Vice President and Special Advisor to the Chairman and Tracy Raben, OCC’s Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer.
Evolving Pool of Talented Candidates
One of the things stressed during the conversation was that companies should look for candidates with diverse backgrounds.
“If you are not looking for something, you won’t find it,” said Donohue.
FCB’s Carter gave advice on what not to do when looking at hiring needs.
While there is onerous on the company to look for diversity within their candidates, it was also noted that the pool of talent is growing, especially in the financial sector.
“The financial industry used to be a man’s world but this is evolving as we are moving away from floor based trading, which was a physical business,” Donohue said. “We used to hire candidates with military backgrounds and that specialized in engineering and mathematics. Women are taking leading positions in these areas so the demographics are changing.”
Bringing It All Together
The Executives Club of Chicago put together an informational event on how organizations can be more successful in their diversity and inclusion initiatives. While a top down approach is most beneficial, it’s important to also bring advocacy and awareness to the issue. Identify benchmarks by looking at the workforce in categories related to diversity and evaluate how you stack up. Also, figure out what you are looking for because if you don’t know, you won’t find it. Finally, look to hire exceptional people, not just to fill quotas.
As the conversation was concluding, Barnes Marshall shared a saying often mentioned at Aon.
“Diversity is counting heads but inclusion is making heads count.”
One Simple Step to Bust Out of Your Career Rut
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!, Guest ContributionThere’s an epidemic in our country that’s impacting 40% of our population.
It’s lowering our immune systems, disturbing our sleep, breaking up our relationships, and creating depression and unwanted weight gain.
The epidemic seems very benign – it’s so common we often ignore it.
It’s called job dissatisfaction.
Historically there been more heart attacks on Monday morning than any other time of the week because so many of us are dragging ourselves to jobs that have depleted us. And even though the research was probably done on men, the implications for women are profound. Having the “wrong” job is not good for you.
Why do we stay?
Three simple reasons:
We’ve been given accolades and compliments all our lives for what we do. We may be keeping our families afloat with these jobs. Our work may serve our social life or give us a strong sense of identity. We feel responsible to our team, our boss, or the company
Along with all that, we tend to see other options as more limited than they really are. We may even believe the industry or functional area the only ones we can be in, so we stay. And stay. And stay. Until our health is bankrupt, our relationships are compromised, and our dream of what we wanted has been lost.
Sound familiar? Don’t despair.
As a CEO coach and corporate strategist, many people from diverse arenas come to me because they want more than anything to love their work, but they don’t know how to get there.
Enter the energize/deplete paradigm.
In your everyday work, you encounter tasks that energize you and work that depletes you. Most people have don’t spend time thinking about it. However, identifying them is the is a big step toward getting to work that feeds your soul (and your bank account).
The first question to ask is: What do I know how to do?
Make a list. Brainstorm. Don’t hold back. Write down all those things you know how to do – think processes, not contents. This can include things beyond your work like your family or social life or even volunteer assignments. This isn’t your job description. This is what you know how to do.
The start of your list might look something like this:
Identify the energizing activities.
Make a star next to the activities on your list that energize you – those things that even if your are working hard at them, you feel good doing them. Time passes in a minute when you are doing things that energize you, even if they take all day.
Do you feel depleted by managing people but are in a managerial position? Do you feel energized by being with people, but your work is behind an admin desk where you never get to interact? Are you energized by being creative, but your work is about collecting data?
Your starred activities are signposts, leading you to work that will feed your soul and make you feel like you are living large.
Your work now is to begin to increase the activities that energize you.
Shift your focus.
This may mean delegating the work that depletes you (anything that is not energizing you may very well be depleting you) or talking to your boss about shifting your focus at work towards what energizes you.
What if this list shows that nothing you do at work energizes you? What if all of your energizing how-tos are ones that you do out of work?
That’s fantastic information. And it might mean an overhaul of what you do for work. Chances are you can stay in your industry, but you may have to change what you do in this industry.
The Amazing Result.
What’s amazing about this simple exercise is that it activates something called the reticular activating system in the brain. The reticular activating system is the part of our brain that begins to notice red cars right when we decide we want a red car. Once we become aware of what energizes us, our subconscious begins to move us toward it.
As soon as we identify what depletes us, our defense system will begin to find ways to move away from those activities.We find ourselves making decisions about work that lead us toward those activities that we love.
Can it really be this simple?
Try it. See what happens.
Elizabeth Crook has been the CEO of Orchard Advisors for over 20 years, helping CEO’s grow their bottom line and have more fun. She believes that if everyone had the work and life they love, we could change the world! Her book, Live Large – The Achiever’s Guide to What’s Next will be released May 2017.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of our guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
Developing Mental Complexity Will Help You at Work (and Life)
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!The world is increasingly complex and can be quite confusing these days.
How do you ensure you have the guts, glory, stamina and agility to survive all this change?
Mental complexity is the answer according Harvard psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey in their book “Immunity to change”. This is my personal favorite book right now for two reasons; I am writing a paper on behavioral change and also am grateful for the change I have personally experienced from committing to examining paradigms that no longer serve me.
This work can take the guise of coaching but touches on all aspects of your existence and is a vehicle for a happy sustainable life in my opinion.
Kegan and Lahey talk about how we tend to be in one of 3 “minds” or mindsets when it comes to our mental complexity levels and this has nothing to do with IQ.
So, level one is a “socialized mind” and is where the majority of people operate. Certainly, junior and middle managers can be successful here as part of being here requires following, caring what people think of you and generally towing the line be it within a corporation, culture or even a religion. People here are good team players. But, what does one lose by seeing life though this lens? If you do not fit with what the norm is, you might find yourself feeling inadequate and uncomfortable or undeserving in some way.
At work, you may be at the mercy of the effects of politics and feeling not aligned (and in society too). You will fight yourself to get aligned and reduce your cognitive dissonance. At what cost?
The next “mind” is the “Self-authoring” mind which with this increased mental complexity, you can relegate others opinions (and even your own opinions) to an appropriate place where they can be referenced within a bigger system than your own direct value set. Therefore, outliers from yourself and others will not consume you, and instead give you the power to bed the author of our own reality. You get to direct the movie in your head.
I can personally attest when I stared to think with this self-authoring mindset it was growth. It changed my life and I see it work well for my coaching clients and when (if) they get there then I can honestly say the ball is in their court which usually results in happier choices and happiness with choices made as well as robust future decision making ability.
This is particularly good for people who have set high standards for themselves or seek approval from others. This level of processing information will move you from having subjective feelings and suffering the emotional fallout from them to seeing things more objectively and in perspective.
By learning to look at as well as through certain lenses, you can evolve and as Kegan and Lahey put it “not be forever captive of one’s own theory, system, script, framework or ideology”. Then, you can start to be in the zone of the “Self-transforming mind” where expansiveness around what you see and hear at work is not uniquely filtered to meet your informational needs. In plain English, you can make meaning on a big picture level and not feel the anxiety around how it effects you which if you are in the socialized mind, will trigger you and make you take it personally. You can care and not be consumed by caring. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
So, how do you build mental complexity to thrive at work and in a crazy world? Tune in next week to find out more….
Developing Mental Complexity Will Help You at Work (and Life)
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!By Nicki Gilmour
The world is increasingly complex and can be quite confusing these days. How do you ensure you have the guts, glory, stamina and agility to survive all this change?
Mental complexity is the answer according Harvard psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey in their book “Immunity to change”. This is my personal favorite book right now for two reasons; I am writing a paper on behavioral change and also am grateful for the change I have personally experienced from committing to examining paradigms that no longer serve me.
This work can take the guise of coaching but touches on all aspects of your existence and is a vehicle for a happy sustainable life in my opinion.
Kegan and Lahey talk about how we tend to be in one of 3 “minds” or mindsets when it comes to our mental complexity levels and this has nothing to do with IQ.
So, level one is a “socialized mind” and is where the majority of people operate. Certainly, junior and middle managers can be successful here as part of being here requires following, caring what people think of you and generally towing the line be it within a corporation, culture or even a religion. People here are good team players. But, what does one lose by seeing life though this lens? If you do not fit with what the norm is, you might find yourself feeling inadequate and uncomfortable or undeserving in some way.
At work, you may be at the mercy of the effects of politics and feeling not aligned (and in society too). You will fight yourself to get aligned and reduce your cognitive dissonance. At what cost?
The next “mind” is the “Self-authoring” mind which with this increased mental complexity, you can relegate others opinions (and even your own opinions) to an appropriate place where they can be referenced within a bigger system than your own direct value set. Therefore, outliers from yourself and others will not consume you, and instead give you the power to bed the author of our own reality. You get to direct the movie in your head.
I can personally attest when I stared to think with this self-authoring mindset it was growth. It changed my life and I see it work well for my coaching clients and when (if) they get there then I can honestly say the ball is in their court which usually results in happier choices and happiness with choices made as well as robust future decision making ability.
This is particularly good for people who have set high standards for themselves or seek approval from others. This level of processing information will move you from having subjective feelings and suffering the emotional fallout from them to seeing things more objectively and in perspective.
By learning to look at as well as through certain lenses, you can evolve and as Kegan and Lahey put it “ not be forever captive of one’s own theory, system, script, framework or ideology”. Then, you can start to be in the zone of the “Self-transforming mind” where expansiveness around what you see and hear at work is not uniquely filtered to meet your informational needs. In plain English, you can make meaning on a big picture level and not feel the anxiety around how it effects you which if you are in the socialized mind, will trigger you and make you take it personally. You can care and not be consumed by caring. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
So, how do you build mental complexity to thrive at work and in a crazy world? Tune in next week to find out more….
Voice of Experience: Hae-Ran Song, Counsel in the Capital Markets Group, Hong Kong, Shearman & Sterling
Asian American Heritage Month, People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
“The best part of my job is working alongside my Shearman colleagues, who are not only extremely talented, but with whom I truly enjoy spending time,” says Hae-Ran Song.
She finds this to be a crucial aspect of an office since so much of her work involves teamwork and having one another’s support to get the deals done. “Both senior and junior colleagues have to work in tandem to divide and conquer to successfully execute the transactions,” she says, noting that this carries over to her home life as well. “In the same way, I think having the support and encouragement of my husband and kids in what I do has been instrumental in my success.”
Developing Experience Globally
After attending law school in Australia, where she grew up, Song started her career at a Sydney-based multinational law firm, but had always intended to work overseas, preferably in a U.S. firm. That’s why she was delighted when an opportunity to work at Shearman came up after just one year, much earlier than she had expected. She initially joined the Hong Kong office but was able to relocate to the New York office to join her husband in a job transfer, eventually returning to Hong Kong for family reasons.
Along the way, she’s maintained her focus on corporate transactional work, appreciating the opportunity to meet and work with many different colleagues and clients, while feeling supported by the firm in her relocation needs.
She finds her work in Asia advising foreign issuer and financial institutional clients in connection with international and U.S. capital markets offerings exciting. Because Asia is still a growing and evolving market, she constantly is working to address or overcome issues specific to the region, such as local regulatory requirements or hurdles, which means no deal is ever the same — and no deal is ever easy.
“I’m always learning, and I always have to be on my toes,” she says, adding that structuring transactions and coming up with solutions to meet both local and U.S. requirements is particularly interesting since it involves brainstorming to identify creative solutions that will meet the clients’ needs.
Balancing The Roles of Full-Time Mom With Full-Time Lawyer
Song says that when she first started her career, she was focused singularly on her job rather than on a potential family. As she became more senior, her priorities changed, and she wanted to have kids and be an involved mom as much as possible.
After she had her first child, she began to wonder if she could be the mom she wanted to be, while simultaneously a full-time attorney, often working crazy hours. “I was worried that I would fall short at both things, but whenever I start feeling that way, I take a moment to realize that I have to stop putting pressure on myself and focus on my priorities.”
She says that while many people wonder how to find the perfect balance between work and family (and a social life!), she’s come to realize that a perfect balance is impossible. Instead, you have to figure out the right balance for you, which is different for everyone. “Don’t let your reality be dictated by what anyone else says or what popular culture says,” she advises.
And while it can be challenging, she is proud of the balancing act she has achieved, calling herself both a full-time mom to her kids, ages 5 and 8, while also a full-time lawyer. She achieves that by realizing that while she can’t always be with her kids, she has to make the most of the time she does have with them, on weekends and evenings. “I choose to focus on what I can do,” she says. “It’s a matter of attitude and perspective and choosing how to balance your time to fit in work, family, travel and hobbies – whatever is important to you.”
Key to that balance is learning to be flexible and adapting to your circumstances, in her case, moving from being single to married to having kids.
It’s also important to know both your strengths and limitations, and to leverage those strengths, such as multi-tasking.
In addition to the support she receives from her family and firm, she appreciates the Shearman initiative WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) and other opportunities to get together with women colleagues. “It’s important for women to hear each other’s stories, and I find it encouraging when you hear about struggles in addition to successes, so you know you’re not alone.”
Asian Americans: Held At Outsider Status
Asian American Heritage Month, Career Advice, Featured, Spotlight on AsiaBy Aimee Hansen
Image via Shutterstock
For the first time in history, three Asian American women are in the Senate during this 115th Congress – Senator Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (Illinois), and Kamala Harris (California). When elected in 2012, Senator Hirono was the first Asian American woman elected to the Senate. Harris is also the first Indian-American to serve in the Senate.
When it comes to Forbes and Fortune power rankings, Indra Nooyi is the only Asian American woman on the lists – #2 in Fortune’s 2016 50 “Most Powerful Women in Business” and #14 in Forbes “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” But as theglasshammer highlighted last year, Forbe’s America’s Self-Made Richest Women tells a different story about Asian American women at the helm: they make up 15% of this ranking.
According to a Girls in Tech survey of 582 women, Asian American women are the least likely to hold leadership positions in tech. This echoed the findings from the previously highlighted Hidden In Plain Sight tech diversity study by Ascend.
The Asian effect is 3.7X greater than the gender effect on creating a ceiling. Women were 42% less likely than men to hold executive roles. But Asians were 154% less likely to hold executive roles than Caucasians. Asian-American women, in the intersection of both, faced the greatest gap in likelihood to hold executive positions.
Persistent Asian-American Stereotypes
As shared in Sparks, Malini Johar Schueller, Department of English professor at University of Florida says that Asian American women are often seen as “perpetual foreigners,” never truly being seen as a “American” (or insiders), but rather as “abnormal foreigners” (outsiders). For Schueller, this means having to “qualify” herself to teach in her department, even to students.
A recent article in Harvard Business Review suggests that two intersecting stereotypes are at the crux of the general Asian-American leadership gap: “Stereotypes about Asians being highly competent can make Asians appear threatening in the workplace, and stereotypes about Asians lacking social skills make them seem unfit for leadership.”
Studies have revealed that those who held the stereotypes that Asians were highly competent felt admiration and envy. Those who held the stereotypes that Asians lacked social skills felt hostility and fear. People who are emotionally reacting to stereotypes they hold are less likely to have interest in interacting with Asian-Americans. And of course, personal interaction is what can challenge stereotypes.
Leaders who hold stereotypical narratives about Asian Americans would hold them at a distance, and potentially at a distance from leadership.
As stated in HBR,
In The Asian American Achievement Paradox, professors of sociology Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou challenge ‘the narrative of Asian American “exceptionalism”’ and the assumption that Asian American educational achievement is solely reflective of cultural values. The authors illustrate that a confluence of hyper-selectivity in immigration laws, institutions, and cultural success frames have promoted high achievement among certain Asian American groups.
The study asserts that while stereotype promise (“the boost in performance that comes with being favorably perceived and treated as smart, high-achieving, hardworking, and deserving students”) may help Asian American students, it also re-creates stereotypes that hinder at the leadership level.
Broken Leadership Stereotypes
As argued in HBR, we tend to expect workers to be “competent, intelligent and dedicated,” but attach further qualities to leadership (charismatic, socially-skilled, authoritarian) that do not match up to stereotypes we hold about Asian Americans.
But it’s not only the mis-match between these two that is flawed when it comes to elevating Asian Americans into leadership. The archaic leadership stereotypes themselves are broken.
“It is time to rethink the ‘good leader’ prototype of being masculine, dictatorial, and charismatic,” states the HBR authors. “Evidence shows that neither men nor women prefer to be treated in an aggressive fashion, yet that model persists as a valid expectation for leadership.”
Cultural values can also mean that Asian Americans are less inclined to the self-promotion that is encouraged by Western norms. However, those who break the stereotype of being deferential face the double-bind of being perceived negatively.
Bridging the Distance
Recently, whitewashing in films – casting white actors to tell Asian stories – has received growing awareness and protest, while Asian American actors find only one-dimensional, stereotype-reinforcing roles available to them.
Thai American actor Pun Bandhu told the Guardian. “When a white actor gets the role, it denies us our bodies and it denies us our voices.”
More and more, we are being asked to consider how we are each complicit within the net of our culture in denying the bodies and voices of others through our implicit biases.
Harvard social psychologist Mahzarin R. Banaji, creator of the the implicit bias test, spoke in a conversation with Krista Tippett about being challenged by her own test when it comes to making associations that go against the socialized norm: “And when I can’t do it, I understand. I understand that I’m a product of a culture where the culture has now gotten into my head enough that I am the culture. I cannot say, ‘There’s a culture out there. It’s biased, not me.’ Consciously, that’s true. But not at this other level.”
When people gather around the meeting room or even the Senate, they all come with their stereotypes and hidden biases, but nothing is more important than the interaction that helps to break down the ideas we hold of each other, collectively.
Three Asian American women in the Senate may not seem like a lot, but each woman is helping to change the face of leadership.
Should You Say No to Networking?
Career Advice, Guest Contribution, NetworkingGuest Contributed by Kelly Hoey
Image via Shutterstock
From Populism to Passive Investing: Theglasshammer.com’s 9th Annual Top Women on the Buyside event
Past Events, Women on the Buy-SideBy Nicki Gilmour
Last month, theglasshammer reconvened for the ninth year to assemble senior women for breakfast where we discussed the outlook and current trends in the investment management industry. The panel consisted of Barbara Reinhard, Managing Director, Senior Portfolio Manager & Head of Asset Allocation of Voya Investment Management, Donna Parisi, Partner, Global Co-Head of Finance and Global Co-Head of Financial Institutions Industry Initiative at Shearman and Sterling, Kathleen Kelley, Founder and CEO of Queen Anne’s Gate Capital Management, Shaiza Rizavi, Partner and Portfolio Manager at Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., and Jitania Kandhari, Head of Macroeconomic Research, Emerging Markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. The panelists dynamically addressed questions that were asked by this year’s moderator Amanda Tepper, CEO of Chestnut Advisory Group.
Populism and Protectionism is not good for prosperity
The discussion kicked off with the topic of populism with Jitania Kandhari reminding us this period parallels times in the 20th century specifically, the inter- war period from 1914 to 1945) when periods of boom proceeded busts with the dissatisfaction from those who felt left behind turning to populism. She comments,
Our panel had varying levels of concern about political risk when it comes to investing but there was an overall agreement on the sentiment that populism and protectionism does not bode overly well for prosperity.
Shaiza Rizavi brought an interesting viewpoint around finding opportunity in the most turbulent of times when she mentioned that many people told her not to go to Kenya in 2008 due to the danger surrounding the dynamics of the election. At the same time, a company she was interested in, Safaricom introduced a new mobile payment platform in Kenya called Mpesa. They had approximately 19,000 subscribers then and now have 26 million subscribers. Payments are made through the platform with many of the poorest being early adopters. Now, 30-40% of Kenya’s GDP now flows via this network. She comments,
“There are growth opportunities even in the most perilous moments if you are willing to take out the fire extinguisher and run into the fire. With the internet and people connected on a second by second basis, you see ideas and flows that were never expected.”
Kathleen Kelley thinks in Europe that we will see higher volatility going forward. She shared an anecdote,
“I did a scientific survey” she says with humor,” of 10 of my male hedge fund friends in London who wanted to vote leave in Brexit and all of them just repeatedly stated that England is the 6th largest economy and that things will be fine. It is interesting how mindsets are built”.
Barbara Reinhard commented on the fact that this is the first time we are truly having a global acceleration since the financial crisis. She stated,
“Europe is making a recovery. We look at earnings growth and earnings revenue and they are going up, yet the sentiment is still nervous and we are still seeing inexplicably more flows into bond funds than equity funds. Economic expansions die of excess, euphoria and leverage. I don’t see any of these things happening right now.”
Inflation: a reality in the making
The moderator Amanda identified that inflation was a topic that everyone had touched on and asked Kathleen about what is happening in the oil markets.
Kathleen gave an outlook continued OPEC cuts and how the surplus we have in storage is not ending as quickly as we would have hoped. She stated,
Jitania commented that from a macro perspective, suggesting a period of inflation in the next 2-3 years. She commented,
“China has been exporting deflation and we saw the benefits of that but protectionism and the push to produce locally in the US along with breakdown of trade agreements could definitely create changes.”
Shaiza, often dissenting and providing a different angle, focused on how technological innovation is a deflationary force.
“You start to think about the future differently as many of the historic models wont work for future predictions. The power of connecting people who have never before been connected, and the unleashing of their capability is immense.”
She told the audience how she saw this first hand how lanterns sold to people in Africa and India that previously had no access to light after dark, changed how people interacted and ultimately increased their productivity.
She also mentioned that China’s building a new Silk Road which will allow countries around China to be connected to China and the global economy in an entirely new way. 80% of the China’s oil is currently transported from Strait of Malacca to Shanghai, a journey that took 2-3 months, but with a new port in Pakistan and the 16,000 kilometers delivery journey is reduced to 5,000 kilometers. How will that affect things? She implored the audience to consider the power of change and the power of disruption.
Active versus passive trends
Donna updated the audience with some Citi data on how passive investing has grown to 30% of assets under management by the end of 2015 and how the projection sits at $19.2 trillion of asset flows by 2021. When talking about why has there been a shift, she comments,
“It all comes out of the financial crisis, factor in a lower return environment with lower costs of passive investing and that the banks are not holding risk or warehousing like before the crisis. Also, with improved portfolio risk analysis which is tied to fintech and big data, the way people invest is changing.”
Donna talked about how hedge funds are a maturing market and hedge fund growth is going to be there albeit modest and will hit record levels by 2021. Trends within that sector include liquid alternatives, private debt and private equity so hedge funds are looking to asset classes that are not as easy to access as a headline.
Voya’s Reinhard who has a hybrid of both active and passive commented that as macro driven professionals, she does hunt bubbles and predicts that the tide towards passive has some bubble like qualities that could be worrying for some who just rely on it exclusively. She stated,
Jitania commented on recent research that finding Alpha in investing is cyclical (referencing trends as 1990-94 good for active management, 1995-2000 bad, 200-2009 good and 2010 to current bad). For her business of emerging markets, 40% of returns come from currencies, and she reminded us that is something that you cannot harness with passive investing.
Shaiza again provided interesting insight into the power of disruption and how the private sector can take on roles that the government used to own. She relayed,
“ Amazon for example is now fully capable of handling the logistics of packaging and mail. How will that affect the traditional mail system? Disruptive forces provide opportunity and active investing allows you to be nimble enough to take advantage of that opportunity. “
Outlook and advice
Barbara counseled to watch wage growth carefully for risk mitigation. Kathleen agreed with Barbara with both of them agreeing that US growth is going to disappoint this year and that reforms are not going to be passed in 2017.
Kathleen commented further,
“We are seeing wages starting to pick up and consumer sentiment is high – but they have been behaving different and are stepping back as they see price inflation going up. The stronger dollar is hurting both growth and inflation and keep companies from investing and repatriating “
Jitania offered that China is something that should be watched very closely as China has experienced 82% debt growth over last 5 years. She stated,
“China has added money to its system with many unproductive projects. In 2011, $2 of debt was used to create $1 of GDP and now $5 of debt is used to create 1 dollar of GDP. From a macro perspective, it is definitely something to affect the world since China contributes to a third of world economic growth. “
Jitania added insight into deglobalization and the lingering effects of it on strategy.
“We like countries that have domestic drivers of growth that aren’t relying on external capital flows; countries like Indonesia and even some of the Eastern European countries. From a developed market perspective, we prefer Europe to US. I can buy the top 10 European banks for the market cap of Apple in the US and when something like that pops up on my screen, it feels like distortion.”
Amanda Tepper offered that investor relations is an area that has a positive impact on acquiring assets stating her study which shows that firms with good investor relations result in raising four times more capital than the top performers.
What makes investors choose managers? Performance is not in the top five reasons stated Amanda.
“They want to know what you are doing with their money. Invest in your efforts to explain what you are doing to your investors.”
Donna highlighted fintech as an area to watch starting
“With the existing regulatory schemes, the banking sector has the upper hand when it comes to fintech. We do have a regulatory sandboxes – such as exists in the UK but by and large regulation is a barrier to entry for FinTech startups. Asset management has embraced fintech in the area of data analytics. I think we have seen this most in the retail space with robo-advising and partnerships like Betterment and Goldman Sachs and it is an area to follow.”
Shaiza urged us to rethink the vocabulary we use. Rethinking how we define borders and how we bucket ideas and opportunities. It is an interesting moment to think about the permeability of borders and how technology has changed the ways things get done. She added,
“It might not be possible to even have borders and the protectionism that the populism trend is advocating given technology.”
Barbara added a last piece of advice for all of us in the audience.
And, she is right.