By Aimee Hansen
Across the past twelve months, four African-American leaders have stepped down from positions of high visibility in the business and political world.
What’s most striking about these few departures is the size of the gap created by them, highlighting an African-American representation among women in leadership that remains far too small and a diversity movement that remains far too narrow.
The large gap left by losing a few powerful African-American leaders is a wake-up call to widen our diversity, not just in intention but in individual practice and in outcome.
Losing Power Players
This year’s Fortune’s Most Powerful Women 2016 continued to feature Rosalind Brewer (#19 – CEO and President, Sam’s Club and Walmart), Anne-Marie Campbell (#20 – EVP, U.S Stores, Home Depot), and Ursula Burns (#25 – CEO and Chairman of Xerox), with Beyoncé displacing Taylor Swift (#51).
But the 2017 list will look different. Last May, Ursula Burns, the first and only African-American women to run a S&P 500 company, announced that she would step down from her CEO position after splitting Xerox into two companies. After Rosalind Brewer’s recent retirement news, black women – already scarce – will now be absent from the helm of major U.S. companies.
Meanwhile, former FLOTUS Michelle Obama has left the high profile visibility of the White House (although her voice may well remain in the spotlight) and Loretta Lynch has ended her term as the U.S. Attorney General.
These four women (Obama, Lynch, Brewer, and Burns) accounted for over 50% of the African-American names on Forbe’s World’s 100 Most Powerful Women 2016.
Losing four black women from highly visible, influential leadership positions wouldn’t be so striking except – in the context of so few peers in positions of power – it simply is.
Monolithic Diversity
The percentage of women CEOS among Fortune 500 companies dropped to only 4.2% in 2016 (from 24 to 21), which is a hit for all women. The near absence of minorities amidst that 4% testifies that diversity’s approach to advancing women remains very monolithic.
Black women remain caught in the blind spot of intersectionality, and while naming the problem helps, it does not address it. As Melinda Marshall and Tai Wingfield, authors of “Ambition in Black & White: The Feminist Narrative Revised,“ write in the Harvard Business Review, “At the intersections of race and gender, both then and now, black women have labored unseen, even to those lobbying for their advancement.”
As a recent AAUW report highlights, “the specific ways in which they (black women leaders) are disadvantaged clearly differs from the better-understood ways that white women leaders are dis-advantaged.”
The diversity movement falls short of advancing women when we too often ignore the rich diversity of needs, realities, and challenges experienced by different women, and work to address them.
Intersectional Barriers
As research has shown, black women are (three times) more likely to aspire to leadership roles than white women and half as likely to attain one.
As summed up by a 2016 report in the Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, some of the myriad of factors holding African-American women back from the C-Suite include dual bias at the intersection of race and gender (a net that affects everything else), the impact of stereotypes on perceptions (as an example, African-American women are often perceived as aggressive in communication), a lack of career opportunities to showcase skills, having to prove competency more than colleagues, a lack of strategic feedback, workplace isolation and ‘outsider’ status.
The Biggest Barrier is Social Exclusion
But one of the strongest barriers for black women is the lack of access to powerful social networking with influential senior executive leaders, which requires a certain level of ‘insider’ status.
According to Wingfield and Marshall in HBR, black women “have mentors and strong support networks but lack sponsors—leaders who will talk them up behind closed doors, steer plum assignments their way, and defend them against detractors.”
Black Women Executives Research Initiative Revisited by the Executive Leadership Council, the first longitudinal study of black women executives (BWEs) in corporate America (2007 and 2015), gleamed insights into both the challenges and experiences of 59 senior leaders across the eight year period.
The importance of creating and maintaining sponsorship relationships, and building a network of allies, was emphasized by BWEs.
As one interviewee said, “I believe you almost have to have somebody in the room where the conversation is happening that says, ‘this is the person who can make the contributions and be valuable.’ If you don’t have that it’s very hard.”
Research by Catalyst has demonstrated how black women and men who experience a heightened sense of “being different” based on their race/ethnicity within the workplace suffer an “Emotional Tax” that can include impaired sleep, a sense of always being on guard, speaking up less, reduced innovation and creativity, and feeling less psychologically safe in contributing their own voice at work.
However, a sense of inclusion reduces the Emotional Tax, and increases psychological safety, such as feeling leaders and team members ‘have your back’, that mistakes won’t be held against you, and that co-workers are not going to try to undermine your efforts – in other words, a corporate environment in which anyone can feel comfortable in taking risks, not just the majority.
Absence from networks also affects black women entrepreneurs. Despite the fact that African-American women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, their endeavors tend to lack major investment backing or significant outsider funding.
Strategic Career Management
The Executive Leadership Council report also found that 27% of BWEs had advanced in their careers (since 2007), and over 60% did so while in Profit & Loss roles. Yet 46% of BWEs left their companies to start their own business or moved to a different company, sometimes losing ground.
In-depth interviews revealed four factors that were most influential in career developments for these leaders: 1) alignment of values, 2) agility and re-purposement, 3) sponsorship, and 4) relationship-building as politics.
The primary reason for satisfaction among BWEs in their work was alignment of values on an industry, corporate culture, positional or interpersonal level – and the primary reason for dis-satisfaction, and hence job movement, was a deterioration of alignment.
A key career strategy for BWEs, referred to as agility and repurposement, was an ability to move rapidly between challenges to foster “continuous learning, cross-functional, boundary-spanning work and intentional, if not always planned, career expansion.”
Many successful BWEs were keen to take assignments, even adjacent opportunities and glass-cliff appointments, that ultimately advanced their learning, broadened their expertise, and gained visibility and network connections.
Disrupting the Silos In Business & Diversity
As written in HBR, leadership which aims for real diversity must purposely disrupt silos in the workplace, creating more opportunities for intersectional visibility.
As Wingfield and Marshall write, “Leaders must create a culture in which people at the intersections of functional or affinity identities have equal access to their attention or equal opportunity to earn it.”
And as champions of diversity, we must disrupt the insidious silos that exist within the diversity movement and within. For each non-minority woman in a place of leadership, we can ask if we are doing our part in including African-American women in social networks and enabling opportunities for visibility?
Are we checking our own relative privilege and our own blindspots? As much as we want equality, are we practicing it within the power and influence we hold?
While theglasshammer is putting a focus on African-American women in leadership during February’s Black History Month coverage, minority women are living the lesser-understood intersectional challenges every single day, and we must make a daily practice of staying awake to that.
Are Moms the Original Project Managers?
Career Advice, Work-LifeAs both a mom and a project management trainer, I can’t help but notice the amazing parallels between the two universes. Since I was a project manager long before becoming a mom, I assumed that my project management skills were just amazingly convenient as I juggled the complex labyrinth of motherhood. But as I mingled with other moms years later, I started to notice that the best moms seem to have almost innate project management skills that help them not just survive but thrive when faced with the day to day challenges and complexities of managing life’s most important project – raising our kids!
What Smart Moms Could Teach the Even Best Project Managers
Always Have a Backup Plan
Image via Shutterstock
The best moms know that if it can go wrong, it probably will. Of course, it’s better to hope for the best but plan for the worst and that includes having a solid backup plan – whether it’s an extra sippy cup, a change of clothes, an alternate lunch option, or a favorite toy just in case little Johnny misses his nap and loses his “pleasant personality”. Likewise, project managers can’t just rely on their project plan/schedule as written no matter how much time was spent generating it – they must plan for technology failure, losing a key team member, product delivery delays, etc. from Day 1.
Avoid Theoretical Time Estimate/Pad the Schedule
Every experienced mom know that a trip anywhere (to church, school, play dates, etc.) almost always takes longer than you’d think on paper. Yes, GPS may say that grandma’s house is only a 20 minute drive, but that estimate doesn’t account for the almost predictable traffic jam, the last minute potty trip/diaper change that definitely can’t be rushed, and of course the extra 5 minutes it takes to load everything into the car (race back for whatever you forgot), buckle car seats, settle any arguments, etc. So often project managers fall into the tempting trap of calculating “theoretical task estimates” that also don’t take into account some of the not so unpredictable delays and snags that we should proactively consider when building the timeline.
Temperature Check Regularly
As a busy mom, it’s so tempting to get caught up in the practical day to day minutia and really miss the important connections with our kids. I’ve noticed that moms seem to naturally “check in” with their kids periodically to find out what’s bothering them, what’s their favorite game/song, who’s their new best friend at school, etc. Similarly project managers can get overwhelmed by day to day administrivia and should remember the importance of checking in with the team to assess morale and see what’s working and what’s not. Whether it’s periodic informal lunches or round robin meeting debriefs, you can’t put the team on autopilot – checking in proactively is key!
Build Broad Networks and Firm Up Relationships Before You Need Them
Moms know that “it takes a village” – no one can do it all on their own. So, they actively reach out to establish their village early whether that includes extended family/friends, play groups, before/after care programs, etc. Moms also know the importance of nurturing those relationships constantly so that when she has the last minute babysitting emergency, her favorite nanny is more likely to come over asap – no questions asked J. Similarly, project managers are ultimately responsible for delivering project results on time on budget but are often completely reliant on others (including distant stakeholders at times) to get the job done! They absolutely need to build a strong extended team to help support the project – particularly during times of crisis. But the key is don’t wait until there’s a crisis to try to build the relationship J
Dana Brownlee is an acclaimed keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and team development consultant. She is President of Professionalism Matters, Inc. a boutique professional development corporate training firm based in Atlanta, GA. She can be reached at danapbrownlee@professionalismmatters.com. Connect with her on Linked In and Twitter.
Finding A New Job – The “When” and the “How”
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!There are many reasons to get a new job. It is worth exploring before you jump ship what it is you do not like at your current job and within that, why you do not like it. This way you have a better chance at not repeating the experience in the next job and in actual fact, you might find you ways to stay in your current position and be much happier and more productive. You know what I am going to say- yes, that’s right! Get a good coach to work through any challenges, fears and feelings that you are having right now and to help you articulate what you do want to do in the hours known as work. The “when” to change jobs is a big one. Often people jump to fast or take a very long time to do it, both extremes can be less than optimal to your career plan. If you are saying “what plan?” right about now then hey no judgement but those who plan tend to get what they want faster by virtue of knowing what they want and this process can help with that as the answer is always inside your own heart and mind.
Anyway, If you are sure you that the time is right to find a new job, you might be wondering how to go about it. I say think of it as a pyramid with the peak being knowing a manager or recruiter in a competing team or firm who needs you and by some serendipity has an open spot. Rarely happens, but if you are not networking and talking with peers and competitors and even clients, then you wont know when it does happen. Networking is the number one way to get a new job. Internally and externally- both are equally valid. Ask your mentor and sponsors (careful if they are your boss) if they know of a challenge that would be good next step for you.
The next layer in the pyramid is using a headhunter. Some are better than others but if you can find a good one, then your legwork is greatly reduced and their job is to conquer the art and science of placing the right person in the open job.
The lowest, broadest and most time consuming way to find a job is applying to hundreds of jobs on the internet. It can feel like a blackhole and although many people do get hired this way, it can not be counted on as the core of your strategy. Here is a review of job boards and the job search that just came across my desk recently that might help you get this foundational piece in place. It is hard to ignore it as an activity but do not rely on it as the only way to secure your next job. Remember, the closer your qualifications are to the requirements posted, the more likely your resume will be fished out of the pile by hand or robots to be considered further.
Best of Luck!
Nicki Gilmour is an industrial psychologist and qualified career coach as well as Founder and CEO of glasshammer2.wpengine.com
If you wish to be coached by Nicki in 2017 she is taking on a small number of (paying) individual clients this year- please apply nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com
Voice of Experience: Angela Harrell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Voya Financial; President of Voya Foundation
Black History Month, Voices of Experience“Women sometimes feel like they must have all of the answers in a male-dominated industry,” says Voya’s Angela Harrell. Harrell believes that women tend to put pressure on themselves, and hang back, rather than apply for an assignment or position because they might not feel like they check every single box. Men alternatively may only have half the necessary skills, but apply because they plan to manage the uncertainties as they arise. “As women, we need to believe that we are capable and can achieve whatever we set our minds to do. Perfection can be the enemy of good,” she says.
This translates to the board room or in meetings. “Women sometimes risk coming off apologetic or even discount their own expertise with phrases like, ‘You may have already thought of this, but …’ or ‘This might not be a good idea, but ….’ If you have an idea, sell it,” says Angela. “If you are going to speak up, do so with conviction.”
A Varied Career, Focusing on What Really Matters
After earning degrees in foreign affairs, Harrell expected to move into international work. Instead, after grad school, she joined a consulting firm and subsequently an executive recruiting firm, which relocated her to Atlanta. As a Coca-Cola Scholar, she had ties to The Coca-Cola Company and soon joined them as a project manager in the chairman’s office, coincidentally replacing another Coca-Cola Scholar.
There she worked for the chairman and CEO, eventually moving into public affairs and communications, where she performed a wide variety of functions, including executive speech writing, media relations, internal communications, overseeing the annual report, the sustainability report and global photography. During her tenure she travelled extensively, including spending two years as an expat in South Africa.
Two years ago, she joined Voya Financial, where she heads up the corporate responsibility function and serves as president of Voya Foundation. “It is truly a culture that embraces corporate responsibility and all its facets, from ethics and integrity to sustainability and serving clients in a way that reflects our mission and values.”
A Service Ethic
This ethos is evident throughout the company. While Voya employees donate to charities at what Harrell calls “an extraordinary level,” employees are equally as generous with their time. Harrell oversees Voya’s National Day of Service (NDOS), where 60 percent of the company’s 7,000 employees (and 100 percent of its senior leaders) logged 13,500 volunteer hours this year.
For the event, employee-led committees across the country selected community projects for volunteerism efforts. Employees embraced the opportunity to interact with a diverse network of project participants, all in the name of serving the community. Harrell sees this effort as one that encourages ongoing volunteer behavior, since many people desire to help but are daunted at the prospect of diving in on their own. “Volunteering with colleagues to make a difference in a community infuses a different kind of dynamic into relationships and really reinforces the power of working together. In 2016, family members were invited to participate in the event.”
Harrell has acquired a more holistic understanding of how corporate responsibility manifests in financial services, affecting everything from environmental, social and governance (ESG) influences on investment decisions to the importance of transparency and disclosures. “It’s exciting to see businesses and individuals increasingly take ESG into financial investment considerations and think about the long-term impact on people and the planet,” she says.
Imparting Lessons to the Next Generation
When looking over her career, Harrell notes that her achievements of real significance have involved empowering others. “I am proud of how my team members have stretched themselves, either to transform an existing program or to develop a new, groundbreaking one,” she says. “When I stand back to consider my achievements, they center around enabling others to flourish by providing guidance and coaching as a partner, rather than being prescriptive,” says Harrell. “If you give guidance and help clear the runway, people can really soar.”
She adds that the best feedback she can get is positive input about a member of her team. “That is how you multiply and scale your effect,” she says.
Part of this focus stems from her early years when she was self-reliant to a fault, determined to accomplish everything by herself. But that attitude can preclude opportunities to understand other people’s perspectives and how they might approach things, which can influence you to think creatively. She soon realized that asking for help or input would allow her to grow, rather than reflect weakness.
“The kind of leader I want to be is the one who says, ‘How can I help you?’ but lets people succeed on their own,” she says.
She also encourages young women to think about their own personal brand and how they want to be perceived by others. “It’s not about being someone you are not. It’s about making sure you are yourself in all facets of your life,” she says. “If there is too much dissonance between who you are at work and who you are in your personal life, it can be exhausting. You can be your own true self and be successful.”
She mentions one woman who said she was always feeling pressure to “not be too nice” and be less emotional, which was contrary to her personality. Harrell urged her to choose the path where she could be herself, while ensuring that she wasn’t so nice that people would walk all over her.
She reminds senior women to pause and make sure they are continuing to build relationships with those around them, with a special recognition of more junior women.
“Part of our responsibility is to reach our hands down and bring others up with us,” she says, adding that it can be informal and doesn’t need to be overly time consuming, like connecting during lunch or for coffee. “We have to transfer some of the strength we have to those who are less experienced.” As such, Harrell often mentors other women and is active with many of Voya’s employee-led committees.
Noting that many women lead the community-oriented groups at each of Voya’s sites, she says those roles allow women to hone leadership skills they might not otherwise obtain. She recommends women take advantage of leadership opportunities within employee resource groups or through the mentoring programs their companies may offer. They help women flex their leadership muscles and meet colleagues they wouldn’t normally interact with often.
A Global Citizen
An avid traveler who has lived in eight countries and traveled to more than 50, Harrell is serious about her globe-trotting. She is an adventurer who immerses herself in different cultures. “I love learning about culture through the way people greet each other, their dress, food and all other nuances you experience when you get off the beaten path. It really fuels me,” she says.
Equally intrinsic are the many experiences she can obtain right in New York. “The entire world is here, no matter what I want to see or eat or the language I want to hear,” she says. “It’s amazing to literally be surrounded by the world.”
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Black Women Leaders in Business: Will Recent Losses Wake Us Up?
Black History Month, Career Advice, FeaturedAcross the past twelve months, four African-American leaders have stepped down from positions of high visibility in the business and political world.
What’s most striking about these few departures is the size of the gap created by them, highlighting an African-American representation among women in leadership that remains far too small and a diversity movement that remains far too narrow.
The large gap left by losing a few powerful African-American leaders is a wake-up call to widen our diversity, not just in intention but in individual practice and in outcome.
Losing Power Players
This year’s Fortune’s Most Powerful Women 2016 continued to feature Rosalind Brewer (#19 – CEO and President, Sam’s Club and Walmart), Anne-Marie Campbell (#20 – EVP, U.S Stores, Home Depot), and Ursula Burns (#25 – CEO and Chairman of Xerox), with Beyoncé displacing Taylor Swift (#51).
But the 2017 list will look different. Last May, Ursula Burns, the first and only African-American women to run a S&P 500 company, announced that she would step down from her CEO position after splitting Xerox into two companies. After Rosalind Brewer’s recent retirement news, black women – already scarce – will now be absent from the helm of major U.S. companies.
Meanwhile, former FLOTUS Michelle Obama has left the high profile visibility of the White House (although her voice may well remain in the spotlight) and Loretta Lynch has ended her term as the U.S. Attorney General.
These four women (Obama, Lynch, Brewer, and Burns) accounted for over 50% of the African-American names on Forbe’s World’s 100 Most Powerful Women 2016.
Losing four black women from highly visible, influential leadership positions wouldn’t be so striking except – in the context of so few peers in positions of power – it simply is.
Monolithic Diversity
The percentage of women CEOS among Fortune 500 companies dropped to only 4.2% in 2016 (from 24 to 21), which is a hit for all women. The near absence of minorities amidst that 4% testifies that diversity’s approach to advancing women remains very monolithic.
Black women remain caught in the blind spot of intersectionality, and while naming the problem helps, it does not address it. As Melinda Marshall and Tai Wingfield, authors of “Ambition in Black & White: The Feminist Narrative Revised,“ write in the Harvard Business Review, “At the intersections of race and gender, both then and now, black women have labored unseen, even to those lobbying for their advancement.”
As a recent AAUW report highlights, “the specific ways in which they (black women leaders) are disadvantaged clearly differs from the better-understood ways that white women leaders are dis-advantaged.”
The diversity movement falls short of advancing women when we too often ignore the rich diversity of needs, realities, and challenges experienced by different women, and work to address them.
Intersectional Barriers
As research has shown, black women are (three times) more likely to aspire to leadership roles than white women and half as likely to attain one.
As summed up by a 2016 report in the Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, some of the myriad of factors holding African-American women back from the C-Suite include dual bias at the intersection of race and gender (a net that affects everything else), the impact of stereotypes on perceptions (as an example, African-American women are often perceived as aggressive in communication), a lack of career opportunities to showcase skills, having to prove competency more than colleagues, a lack of strategic feedback, workplace isolation and ‘outsider’ status.
The Biggest Barrier is Social Exclusion
But one of the strongest barriers for black women is the lack of access to powerful social networking with influential senior executive leaders, which requires a certain level of ‘insider’ status.
According to Wingfield and Marshall in HBR, black women “have mentors and strong support networks but lack sponsors—leaders who will talk them up behind closed doors, steer plum assignments their way, and defend them against detractors.”
Black Women Executives Research Initiative Revisited by the Executive Leadership Council, the first longitudinal study of black women executives (BWEs) in corporate America (2007 and 2015), gleamed insights into both the challenges and experiences of 59 senior leaders across the eight year period.
The importance of creating and maintaining sponsorship relationships, and building a network of allies, was emphasized by BWEs.
As one interviewee said, “I believe you almost have to have somebody in the room where the conversation is happening that says, ‘this is the person who can make the contributions and be valuable.’ If you don’t have that it’s very hard.”
Research by Catalyst has demonstrated how black women and men who experience a heightened sense of “being different” based on their race/ethnicity within the workplace suffer an “Emotional Tax” that can include impaired sleep, a sense of always being on guard, speaking up less, reduced innovation and creativity, and feeling less psychologically safe in contributing their own voice at work.
However, a sense of inclusion reduces the Emotional Tax, and increases psychological safety, such as feeling leaders and team members ‘have your back’, that mistakes won’t be held against you, and that co-workers are not going to try to undermine your efforts – in other words, a corporate environment in which anyone can feel comfortable in taking risks, not just the majority.
Absence from networks also affects black women entrepreneurs. Despite the fact that African-American women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, their endeavors tend to lack major investment backing or significant outsider funding.
Strategic Career Management
The Executive Leadership Council report also found that 27% of BWEs had advanced in their careers (since 2007), and over 60% did so while in Profit & Loss roles. Yet 46% of BWEs left their companies to start their own business or moved to a different company, sometimes losing ground.
In-depth interviews revealed four factors that were most influential in career developments for these leaders: 1) alignment of values, 2) agility and re-purposement, 3) sponsorship, and 4) relationship-building as politics.
The primary reason for satisfaction among BWEs in their work was alignment of values on an industry, corporate culture, positional or interpersonal level – and the primary reason for dis-satisfaction, and hence job movement, was a deterioration of alignment.
A key career strategy for BWEs, referred to as agility and repurposement, was an ability to move rapidly between challenges to foster “continuous learning, cross-functional, boundary-spanning work and intentional, if not always planned, career expansion.”
Many successful BWEs were keen to take assignments, even adjacent opportunities and glass-cliff appointments, that ultimately advanced their learning, broadened their expertise, and gained visibility and network connections.
Disrupting the Silos In Business & Diversity
As written in HBR, leadership which aims for real diversity must purposely disrupt silos in the workplace, creating more opportunities for intersectional visibility.
As Wingfield and Marshall write, “Leaders must create a culture in which people at the intersections of functional or affinity identities have equal access to their attention or equal opportunity to earn it.”
And as champions of diversity, we must disrupt the insidious silos that exist within the diversity movement and within. For each non-minority woman in a place of leadership, we can ask if we are doing our part in including African-American women in social networks and enabling opportunities for visibility?
Are we checking our own relative privilege and our own blindspots? As much as we want equality, are we practicing it within the power and influence we hold?
While theglasshammer is putting a focus on African-American women in leadership during February’s Black History Month coverage, minority women are living the lesser-understood intersectional challenges every single day, and we must make a daily practice of staying awake to that.
Me, Myself and I: Closing the Gap Between Perception and Reality
Career Advice, Office PoliticsWhen your colleagues describe you and your abilities, do you recognise the description? Does it accurately reflect the reputation you’ve worked hard to establish or is there a chasm between how they perceive you and how you would like to be seen?
In a 2010 report by Opportunity Now, 57% of women pointed to the challenges of being seen as less committed at work as a result of also meeting personal and family commitments. This was in addition to 49% of women identifying “stereotyping and preconceptions of women’s roles and abilities” as barriers to progression. If perception plays such a significant role in female progression, surely we should be investing more time – both as organisations and individuals – in proactively addressing misperceptions.
It could be argued that organisations have gone some way in trying to tackle these gender-specific perception challenges through initiatives such as unconscious bias training, however a number of studies have shown that an individual level, women could be doing more to define and develop their brands to support their career progression. A recently published report by She Runs It, highlighted the gender divide when it comes to personal branding. Conducted with LinkedIn and EY and looking at over 4,000 companies in the media and marketing industry, the report found that on average, men in leadership roles had 15% more connections in their network than women. At every stage of their careers, women should be investing more time and effort in developing their professional networks and building stronger personal brands.
Branding for opportunities
Some readers may feel some level of cynicism or indeed a sense of dread at these words – “personal branding”. We usually associate brands with products and organisations, including brands such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Visa, and Amazon – all in the top 10 of WPP’s 2016 Top 100 BrandZ list. The idea of a personal brand may be seen as another fad trumpeted by self-proclaimed personal branding gurus, however study after study show the value in developing a personal brand.
Having a strong personal brand can open doors to new opportunities – a promotion or a new international opportunity. Even for those who have established personal brands, there may be a need to redefine your brand. According to marketing strategist and Duke University lecturer Dorie Clark, reinventing personal brand is particularly important when looking for a career change. While being an international trade expert may have served well to date, it may not be the brand that provides the best opportunities for the desired next phase of your career. In her “Reinventing Your Personal Brand” article, Dorie emphasises the importance of defining the destination, developing a clear narrative and other key considerations for a successful rebrand.
So does defining your personal brand mean reinventing yourself?
Reinventing brand vs reinventing you
According to Shelly Lazarus, the Chairman Emeritus of Ogilvy & Mather, the answer is no. Having worked with leaders across a number of organisations throughout her career, Shelly advises both women and men to ensure they are comfortable in their own skin rather than creating a brand that does not represent the individual. In her 2014 interview in Harvard Business Review, Shelly talked about the importance of resilience in every successful career and the obstacles created by an inauthentic voice and brand, particularly as women and men progress in their careers. While there may be a perception that personal brands should change with each promotion, Shelly emphasised the merits of consistency: “Brands exist in the hearts and minds of the people who use them, and if you suddenly try to switch them—which I’ve seen many corporations try to do —you alienate the customer.” The same applies to individuals.
Investing in you
Even the most cynical will hopefully acknowledge some of the merits of authentic personal branding in career progression; think of the leaders you find most inspiring and what their brand does for them. Personal branding is also critical to encouraging diverse representation across the global workforce – much needed in today’s organisations. While a quarter of a billion women have joined the workforce since 2006, according to Catalyst workforce participation rate decreased from 52.4% in 1995 to 49.6% in 2015. The report also shows that women hold only 12% of all board seats globally.
More needs to be done to reset expectations and correct misperceptions; women taking full ownership of their personal brands and clearly articulating how they would like to be perceived – not how others choose to perceive them – is an important part in the journey to more balanced representation across our organisations.
Before starting on your journey to defining and living your authentic personal brand, here are four considerations:
1. Define your brand: It is all too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and try to develop a completely new brand. However it is important to pause and acknowledge the valuable traits of your existing brand and use this as a basis to reshape your brand. If your stakeholders always look to you because you have a track record of moving ideas from concept to reality, don’t take this for granted. Maintain this unique aspect of your brand and build on it to, along with other aspects you would like to be known for.
2. Live the brand (and deliver): As the businessman Henry Ford said, “[y]ou can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Being clear in your mind about your personal brand is important, however it means nothing unless you deliver on it and establish your desired reputation amongst your colleagues and broader network. In the same way a number of the aforementioned BrandZ brands have established themselves as market disruptors and innovators, you too will need to demonstrate that you are able to live your brand by delivering on assignments and making the right impact.
3. Champion others and be championed: The She Runs It report highlighted the importance of championing others and also being championed – and men tend to champion others more proactively through endorsements than women. The report found that of the endorsements received by female professionals in leadership positions, only 30% of endorsements were made by other female professionals which compares to the 78% of endorsements made by men for other male professionals. What does this mean for you? Once you’ve developed your brand and demonstrated how you deliver on your brand, ensure you have a group of champions, including mentors, sponsors and fans, who can vouch for your credentials. Don’t forget to champion others while you are being championed.
4. Be authentic and remain consistent: Take a “me, myself and I” approach to personal branding. It is all too easy to emulate those individuals who seem to have it all, however the effort of living someone else’s brand can be all too exhausting and unsustainable. Focus on you and once you have established your own authentic brand, deliver consistently against it. Of course your brand may evolve as you progress or transition careers, but the fundamental characteristics of your brand should be unwavering.
It Takes Seven Seconds to Make a Good First Impression!
Career Advice, Guest ContributionGuest contributed by Carolyn Leonard
No one is comfortable going into a bustling room filled with people that you don’t know. Many of us, despite whatever stature and success we may have achieved, still feel shy and awkward in those situations. To keep me focused and sideline some of the jitters, I set myself a goal of walking out having made two friends. To my mind, it’s not about how many business cards I can collect, but all about connecting, making good first impressions, and trying to forge mutually beneficial relationships from there.
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To that end, a series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov conducted more than a decade ago and published in the July 2006 issue of Psychological Science resulted in some very interesting conclusions. They revealed “that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face”. The authors went on to note that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those initial impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgments).
Women sometimes still face many challenges when it comes to career advancement. In particular, we believe that the quality of our work should speak for itself and for us. So, instead of showing up at a company cocktail party or event where we would meet people who if they knew us could influence our career path or even sponsor us we stay huddled behind the safety of our computer working away.
Part of my business development and marketing game plan is very straightforward. I call it “just show up.” I accept invitations to a breakfast, lunch or dinner where I will have the opportunity to meet new people. We get them in our “inbox” many times a day. I select two events a week to participate in where I will be meeting new people.
In order to make good first impressions I wear a smile and look confident. When I am at an event where I don’t see anyone I know, I scope out the room and try and identify someone who looks interesting. After introducing myself, I am always very conscious of looking for a connection or common interest. Good connections are almost always mutually beneficial.
In early June I went to a networking dinner knowing only one other woman in attendance. During the dinner, we discussed the importance of funding female led initiatives and of women supporting other women. I mentioned an idea that a group of women, myself included, are working to launch. We want to invest time, education and money in early stage, women-led companies. We want to hold workshops and boot camps to educate investors to learn what to look for in making these types of investments.
One of the women at the table perked up and said that that was exactly what she was looking to do with the next phase of her career. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience in building marketing programs and membership organizations from the ground up which no one else in the group has. She is a perfect fit for this venture, and by simply showing up, I found a great partner.
People promote people that they know and like. So becoming a good networker is an important tool in opening doors for new opportunities and friends. Join industry organization like WILD or Women In ETF’s, mentorship programs and women’s initiatives within your organization. Be seen and make meeting new people fun!
Voice of Experience: Mar Gallardo, Partner, Diversity & Inclusion Leader, PwC Spain
Voices of ExperienceEverything takes its own time, says PwC’s Mar Gallardo. “Our career is not a crazy competition for short-term successes, and everyone should drive their career with a medium- or long-term perspective. As you make decisions, you may even learn that some of them were wrong, but learning from mistakes allows you to become stronger and more resilient,” she says.
A Life-Long Career At PwC
Gallardo has honed her long-term career at PwC, joining in 1987 as an auditor. Initially she focused on Telefonica, the major telecom company in Spain, and clients in the automotive sector. Since 1996, her activity has been focused on CIP clients (industrial, automotive, retail and consumer and pharma), including auditing and advising clients on the IPO process, U.S. GAAP and IFRS conversions and in accounting and compliance approaches. She was promoted to partner in 2003, the first ever female partner in PwC Spain.
In 2006 Gallardo assumed responsibility for the assurance practice for industrial products and automotive, as part of the assurance executive committee. She has since added responsibility for business development and is currently the CIP leader and the Diversity & Inclusion leader since 2012. In addition, Gallardo is a patron of the PwC Foundation in Spain and a member of the advisory board of Expansion, a financial newspaper in Spain.
Gallardo says she can’t point to one specific achievement she is most proud of, because after 28 years at PwC, she sees that her success has been a combination of many factors. “When I look back to the start of my career, I see all the experiences acquired, all the projects I have participated in, all the people I have met, and all that I have achieved, and I feel very proud of the sum. I feel very privileged to be able to continue enjoying and learning at work every day.”
The Importance of Retention
Right now, Gallardo is immersed in the many changes and transformation that the CIP industries are facing, as she works with her team to build solutions — adding value to clients while differentiating themselves from competitors in the services they provide. And that demands that they continue to attract, retain and develop the most diverse talent to allow for different points of view.
“As diversity leader in PwC Spain, I know it’s imperative to have diversity as a strategic priority embedded in our organization,” she says, noting it is even more important, due to new EU legislation, which among other requirements, has defined a Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation (MFR) that is impacting the audit market in many ways.
“We are dealing with a significant transformation of our firm and it is more crucial than ever to attract and retain the best talent. With women representing half of the new joiners each year, we cannot afford to lose female talent later in the pipeline.”
However, it is a fact in Spain that industrywide, more women than men leave before they reach leadership levels.
“Lost female talent at upper levels is a complex problem with many contributing factors both structural and corporate,” Gallardo says.
Since women still shoulder the bulk of home and child-related responsibilities, they often choose not to pay the price of long hours at the office. In addition she notes that as result, women have less time to dedicate to developing professional relationships and therefore can have less visibility inside the organization. Finally, some women demonstrate less self-confidence and therefore find it difficult to ask for promotions; although she sees this changing as millennials enter the workforce with increased confidence.
Finally, she sees that the culture of companies can present a barrier, due to unconscious bias, which affects leadership styles and how decisions are made and relationships formed.
“This is not a social question, but one of financial impact,” Gallardo stresses. “We have to be focused on retaining that talent as a business issue.”
That’s why she urges women entering the industry to drive their own career and exude confidence, unafraid to be ambitious and participate in open discussions regarding professional development and their objectives.
And she urges her peers to make the effort to support other women to grow and overcome the barriers they encounter in professional development, by dedicating time to be role models.
“I am convinced that if we dedicate time to know, understand and support female professionals along their careers, as their formal and informal mentors, and let them work in a flexible manner focused on objectives, we will be able to retain and advance women at all levels.”
Gallardo says she is focused on establishing objectives and implementing measures in light of the information obtained from the firm’s diversity balance scorecard. Built in 2010, it is a detailed analytical process which contains data on all key process of human capital affecting the professional development of women in PwC.
“What can´t be measured does not exist and it is crucial to have quality information to analyze and subsequently establish measures of accountability,” she says. Their work on the scorecard was reinforced with the adoption of the Global Inclusion Index, the PwC network D&I accountability framework.
In addition, Gallardo emphasizes that care is a key value, as they seek to understand each individual and what matters to them. “We have to make the effort to recognize the value each person contributes, while supporting others to grow and work in the way that brings out their best.”
A Full Life, Inside and Outside of Work
While Gallardo acknowledges that it would appear difficult to balance a demanding work schedule with family life and hobbies, she says that careful planning can allow you to accomplish all your goals.
Gallado couldn’t be prouder of her children, ages 17 and 20, and makes time for annual skiing and beach trips with her family. “Vacation is important to allow you not only to explore new places but share quality time with your loved ones,” she notes.
Since she was young, she has enjoyed snow and water skiing, tennis and paddle ball. In addition, she loves listening to music and is just one year away from a degree in music theory.
“While I have many hobbies, I have to say that I also really have fun working. It cannot be any other way.”
Mover and Shaker: Kristin Manning, Equity Analyst at Voya Investment Management
Movers and Shakers“It’s crucial in this business to stay humble and truthful with yourself,” says Kristin Manning, equity analyst at Voya Investment Management. Over the years she’s seen much success, which she credits in part to being able to maintain a level clarity, especially during difficult times. “Recognizing when something has changed and avoiding compounding one bad decision with another is key,” she says. “Learning from mistakes is a huge part of anyone’s growth in this industry, including my own.”
Building a Career by Capitalizing on Opportunities
Manning began her career in a rotational program with Strong Capital Management, with the ultimate goal to move to the investment department. When one of Strong’s top portfolio managers had an opening for an administrative assistant, she applied, knowing he had a history of promoting his assistants. She took that leap of faith to get her foot in the door and within six months was promoted to an open analyst position.
In 2006 she joined ING (now Voya) as a financial analyst and progressed through several roles, ending as assistant portfolio manager of a midcap fund in 2012. At that time, she decided to relocate with her young family to be near her Midwest roots. She accepted a position as an analyst at Waddell and Reed in Kansas City, where she stayed until her former boss at Voya reached out and asked if she would consider returning to his team working remotely. She agreed, and is now a senior consumer analyst on Voya’s growth team. She spends one week a month in New York City and the rest in a small Voya sales office in Kansas City – an arrangement that works very well for her as a working mother.
The industry continues to fascinate her, including the current interplay between technology and consumer industries. “When you think of retail and e-commerce, media and the emergence of online video options, or mobile ordering at restaurants, there’s virtually no area of the consumer industry untouched by technology, which is exciting and challenging at the same time.”
Relationships Contribute to Success
The professional achievement she is most proud of so far is a basic one: breaking into the industry at all, given that she had what she calls a relatively unremarkable background with no connections to the finance world. “I had to prove myself, and I am fortunate there were people at Strong who believed in me and gave me opportunities.”
When she first started in the industry, she hoped her hard work would be rewarded and is proud to have worked in firms that reward professionals based on merit, rather than their ability to play politics.
Over the years, her career has been elevated through the relationships she has built, including one with the manager who ran the rotational program at Strong, who was instrumental in securing that first assistant position. “That was critical to my success,” she notes, as was the assistance she received from her current manager Jeff Bianchi, who invited her back to Voya after relocating. .
In addition, she mentions role models such as Ann Miletti, now lead portfolio manager at Wells Capital (formerly Strong), who mentored Manning early in her investment career. Manning notes that Miletti also came to the investment industry from a non-traditional avenue, and has had great success in the industry, all while remaining down-to-earth and juggling the dual demands of career and family.
Finding the Balance
Manning acknowledges Voya’s role in allowing her to succeed as both a professional and mother, mentioning the firm has always been supportive of women.. “It’s paid off in terms of attracting and retaining top talent,” she says.
Now the mom of two daughters, ages 2 and 5, she believes it’s important to be a role model for them and the next generation of women. Manning loves to travel and has started introducing her girls to new places in order to expand their perspectives of the world, with recent trips to Germany and St. Lucia.
A New Vocabulary For Your Daughters: Three ways we can instill confidence, resilience, and grit
Career Advice, Guest ContributionGuest contributed by Dr. Priscilla G. Sands
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As the Head of School at Marlborough School, an all-girls middle and high school, we believe in a community that is free from the barriers and biases that can hold many women back. I am so proud of our graduates, women who break molds and shatter stereotypes while leaving a positive and lasting impact on the world around them.
Here are three key suggestions for talking to the young woman in our lives:
DO tell her that you love the way she approaches challenging problems. Encourage her to stay with it and praise her willingness to keep working. She will develop a thirst and appetite for the puzzle and the question rather than simply the answer. Share examples of times when you struggled but ultimately succeeded in meeting a goal. Remind her that many of the greatest accomplishments take time and diligence to achieve as well as significant failure along the way.
2. DON’T refer to her or other women or girls as bossy. Too often girls are given the message that women in charge are disliked, which discourages their pursuit of leadership opportunities. The most successful women were often told they were bossy along the way. In fact, rid your vocabulary of all gender-loaded words.
DO empower her to take on leadership opportunities where she can and use her voice to also empower others. Women reaching out to other women is a powerful chain of empowerment.
3. DON’T tell her she’s a math person…or a language person…There is no such thing and that’s a fact. This kind of language is limiting. It suggests that a woman is only one thing, that she can’t be good at both math and linguistics and soccer and painting. As a result, she may be hesitant to explore new avenues. In this century she should not be locking into an academic or intellectual binary, but should be nimble and engaged in many fields and ways of thinking.
DO help her learn that abilities are developed through commitment and hard work, two building blocks for accomplishment. Nothing happens if you don’t try. Risk being vulnerable yourself and learn something new together. Take a poetry class, learn a new language, or learn to code. You can share the process of learning (complete with your frustrations) and have the opportunity to demonstrate your own strategies for perseverance. This provides an opportunity to make memories and give both of you the chance to try something new, and have fun doing so.
Dr. Sands earned a B.F.A. from the University of Rhode Island, a Master’s in Liberal Studies from Villanova and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of our Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
How I Landed the C-Suite (And Why You Can, Too)
Career Advice, LeadershipAmbition, potential, and talent are incredible gifts, but so often they aren’t big enough hammers to help women shatter the glass ceiling. Difficulty breaking through to the C-suite can be frustrating, but I believe everyone has what it takes to become a leader worthy of notice. As I worked my way from law school to the IRS’ Office of Chief Counsel to finally co-founding my own law firm, I found that hard work, personal responsibility, goals, and gratitude are game changers that can propel anyone forward. Once you get those facets of your life in tune, anything is possible.
Focus on your dreams, not your gender
My mom always said, “Anything boys can do, girls can do better.” But when I was growing up, I didn’t see the world in terms of “boys’ activities” and “girls’ activities.” I just saw what I wanted to do, and I did it. Belief isn’t just a fundamental part of who we are, it’s a fundamental ingredient in what we’re able to accomplish. You really can do anything—as long as you believe you can.
Hard work beats talent
People tend to get hung up on whose more talented, but I find that hard work trumps talent every time. When I was in preschool, another student kept beating me at multiplication tables test, and I hated coming in second. I could have said, “Oh well, she’s just more talented than me,” but instead I started waking up early every morning to study even longer. I began making the best grades in the class, and the same strategy has worked for me ever since.
Don’t get hung up on talent—yours or others’. You may not always be the smartest person in the room, but you can always control how hard you work. Be the most prepared person in the room instead. That’s how you’ll get the deal, land the promotion, and break one more layer of the glass ceiling.
Own up to your mistakes
People are scared of making mistakes, but mistakes don’t actually define us. The way we handle the moments after a mistake is what truly shows the world what we’re made of. When you make a mistake, don’t bury it, ignore it, or blame someone else. Instead of running away, be proactive and own up to your mistake. Tell your supervisor and prove you will never let it happen again. Taking responsibility for your mishaps will show those you work with that you’re honorable, you’re responsible, and you care, which will earn their trust.
Know where you’re going
I’m continually surprised that most women don’t have their goals written down. If you don’t have a map, how do you know where you’re going? Not having written goals is a career killer, yet it’s simple enough to do. Think about what inspires and excites you, and write your goals down twice a day. I write my core career goals down every morning and every night, and that simple task often changes the course of my day. Writing your goals down is simple, but it can change everything.
Start and end your days with reminders of gratitude and goals
Our days are defined by how we start and finish them. If you begin your mornings with a negative attitude and focus on what could go wrong and what you don’t like, the entire day is over before it can get started. I have a routine that keeps my attitude in check and my actions focused, and I think it’s a huge part of why I have been successful. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I take a moment to list the things I am grateful for. I even give thanks in advance for great things I believe will happen that day. When I get up, I write down my goals to remind myself of the clear direction I want for my life. I repeat a similar process at night to ensure I’m continually grateful and living a life of intent. Mindfully focusing on gratitude and goals reminds you of what you have to be thankful for and what you have to look forward to, instantly uplifting your attitude and your power to work for those ideals.
About Deborah Gregory
Deborah Gregory, Esq., is cofounder of Gregory Law Group, PLLC, a Texas based boutique law firm specializing in tax representation as well as business and estate planning. After attending the South Texas College of Law and Boston University School of Law, Gregory launched her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an international tax associate. She then worked for the IRS for more than 10 years, becoming a senior attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel. Gregory cofounded Gregory Law Group in 2013 to specialize in domestic and international tax issues and assist with all phases of audit, litigation, and collection processes.