Tag Archive for: career advice

Better Your Business with Better Storytelling

,

Elise Valmorbida Guest contributed by Elise Valmorbida

The business world is full of people telling other people that they must tell stories.

They’re right in a way, because we like a bit of drama. We resist or resent dull information. Our attention is more and more a scarce asset. None of us has time or energy to spare. And a brand is nothing if not a story.

But the word ‘story’ gets tossed around like litter in the wind. The great story mavens—from Hollywood screen-writers to wilderness faith-healers—are quoted wantonly in business environments everywhere. Urged to tell stories, well-intentioned organisations too often grow narrative moss: pseudo-stories, shaggy old news pages, voiceless forums, scattered chatter across any kind of social media, unread newsletters, explicit claims of brand “passion” that seduce too few…

Whatever tale you need to tell—elevator pitch, brand history, personal profile, case study, script scenario, project proposal—you can use these tips from the world of literary storytelling to boost your brand success.

Deep-vein authenticity.

Why are you telling a story—this story? What’s at its heart? Think philosophically about the essence. Think, really think, until you unearth its unique truth. If you find a paradox or contradiction, chances are that’s the narrative crux. If embellishment is needed, it will emanate from the heart.

Fresh, not stale.

Samuel Beckett wrote his best plays first in French. He must have been fairly good at French, but it was a foreign language. So why did he do it? He wanted to stop the fluent from flowing. It was a defence against cliché. He compelled himself to think quite carefully about every word, rather than lapsing into lazy ideas or phrases. Try to “think fresh” when you make your verbal and visual choices.

Plot.

Just for now, I’d like you to pretend your brand is a cat.

The cat sat on the mat, and then it sat somewhere else, and then it had a nap, and then…

Yawn.

Instead of “and then”, it’s better plotting to think “so”, “but” or “meanwhile”.

The cat sat on the mat, so the dog had to sit somewhere else.

The cat sat on the mat, but the mat reeked of dog.

The cat sat on the mat. Meanwhile, the dog lurked behind the door.

Concrete nouns.

Welsh-noir author and creative writing teacher Malcolm Pryce writes: “Concrete nouns are judgement free. They don’t tell you what to think, they give you the information and allow you to form your own opinion. Rather than tell me the food was disgusting, which is an instruction to be disgusted, imagine you told me instead, the cook ran out of stock, so she took the bandage off her foot and put it in the stew. Presumably this image arouses disgust naturally within you. This is really what we mean by show not tell.”

Emotion.

Try the cook’s stew above.

Poetry.

Think of a representational still-life painting, where a fly appears to have landed on an apple because the apple looks so real; it’s almost a photograph. Now, think of a more abstract painting—say, a group of apples by Cézanne—and you’re invited to notice the brush-strokes, the gestures of the artist, the qualities of the paint and grain of the canvas. That’s how I think of poetic prose. Beyond the job of information, there’s pleasure to be had in the movements and textures of language itself.

Dialogue.

Voiced utterances are like opening a window and letting in fresh air. “I love spoken words!” the reader says. Think quotation, endorsement, testimonial, user review…

Less is more.

“I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time”—so wrote the 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal. When you edit, your story will probably get shorter. That’s good. Each remaining word (or image) will work harder for you. Bonus: your audience will feel respected because you haven’t wasted their time.

Other people’s shoes.

When I write fiction, I imagine the world from each character’s point of view. They have their own beliefs and reasons for doing things—they are not me. Imagine the situation of your reader as they read your story. Don’t tell them what you think they should feel.

Tell your story to one person.

A business doesn’t read your story, a person does.

Action, reaction.

Be clear about your story’s purpose. Are you inviting people to feel, or understand, or spend, or take some kind of action? Don’t overload the narrative with too many wishes—they’ll cancel each other out.

The end is the beginning…

When we finish reading the last words of a good story, we feel a pleasurable little grief. Perhaps we want to read the whole thing again. Perhaps we want to share it with others. Our world has shifted subtly on its axis. We think about things differently now.

About the author

Elise Valmorbida is a communications consultant, multi-published author and teacher of creative writing. Her latest novel The Madonna of the Mountains (Spiegel & Grau, USA) is a New York Post “must-read” and The Times (UK) Book of the Month. Bestselling author Sara Gruen describes it as “powerful and entrancing, a riveting adventure for the soul.”

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

/by

The Game Changing Power of Allies

,
diversity

Image via Shutterstock

Guest contributed by Lisa Levey

In the challenging work of supporting diversity in the workplace – and diversity as it relates to social justice more broadly – allies play a critical role.

But before exploring why allies make such a difference, it makes sense to begin with the question: what exactly is an ally?

The definition that most accurately captures my vision of a diversity ally is a person who joins with another in a mutually beneficial relationship. While ally relationships can sometimes be framed as a more powerful individual helping a less powerful one, my belief is there is much to be gained on both sides.

Why Do Allies Matter?

Allies matter on both a micro level and a macro level. For an individual, an ally can literally change the direction of someone’s life and in so many cases does: that teacher who believes in a student who is struggling at home against huge odds or that manager who gives a young woman the confidence to imagine reaching her most aspirational goals.

On a macro level, allies change the game by collectively redefining what is normal and acceptable. The 1960’s Freedom Riders were an important piece of the puzzle leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the engagement of those who are heteronormative has played an important role in expanding LGBT rights in recent decades.

Allies provide much needed help in shouldering the heavy load of driving societal change. They provide inspiration, energy, protection, resources and validation. They send the message that you are not alone.

What Does an Ally Look Like?

There is no one recipe for being – or becoming – an ally. Allies do a wide variety of things and come in many different packages. There are allies who are bold and confrontational and those who fly under the radar, quietly driving change.

Male allies described myriad ways in which men support gender equality, responding to problematic situations as they arise as well as working proactively to change norms. With the goal of stopping a male colleague from regularly interrupting women in meetings, a male ally could call out the situation in the moment or reach out to the individual in private at a later time.

Alternatively he could create meeting ground rules that normalize not interrupting others or make it a habit to pick up the thread of conversation and return the floor to the woman after an interruption.

What Do Allies Do?

While there is no one formula for being a diversity ally, there are clear behaviors and activities that are characteristic, as outlined below. You’ll also find examples with ideas for someone seeking to become a diversity ally.

1. Seek to understand the experiences of others:

Allies communicate interest in wanting to listen and learn, doing so in a way that’s respectful and honors the lived experience of others.

Examples: Read articles about families and consider the extent to which these articles reflect the experience of LGBT women and men. Ask women in your life how, if at all, gender has affected their work lives. Conversely, ask men how gender has, if at all, affected their role as a parent.

2. Observe with a fresh eye:

Allies seek to pay close attention, often beginning to develop a new lens and seeing things that previously were invisible. They see the power that systems and structures play in driving outcomes, previously seeing only individual choices and situations.

Examples: Watch who speaks and who listens in meetings at work. Think about the last five to ten people who have been promoted at work and see if there is a pattern.

3. Practice humility:

One of the biggest challenges in discussing inequity is the guilt people feel, or fight mightily to not feel, which puts them on the defense and unable to listen. Allies have a willingness to move out of their comfort zone and to manage their emotional responses so that they can listen to understand rather than to respond.

Examples: Consider what thinking about – racism, sexism, heterosexism – brings up for you and how you can put it in context. Participate in an activity where you are out of your comfort zone and reflect on how that makes you feel – powerful? effective? successful?

4. Are willing to reflect:

Allies observe their own thinking patterns and default assumptions. Becoming conscious of their own internal biases and tendencies enables them to interrupt automatic patterns, think more critically, and respond more effectively.

Examples: Take an Implicit Bias Test to explore your thinking biases. Realize bias is how everyone’s brain is wired and awareness is the first step to disrupting the pattern.

5. Engage as partners:

Allies get involved but are conscious to not take over. They engage in the spirit of walking beside those they are seeking to support and helping to amplify their efforts.

Examples: Attend an employee network meeting at your company to show your support and to learn. Participate in an activity for a group you want to support such as walking in a Pride Parade or attending a conference such as Fatherhood 2.0.

6. Avoid contributing to the problem:

With greater understanding of the challenges of diverse groups, allies become far more conscious of how their own behaviors may contribute to the problem, and act accordingly. If they are unclear about the impact of their behaviors, they ask for feedback.

Examples: Don’t get on the band wagon of stereotypes, woman always do this or men always do that.

7. Work to empower others:

One way allies do this is by responding as an advocate, in both subtle and more overt ways, particularly when others marginalize individuals [or groups.]

Examples: Don’t give oxygen or attention to the guy who consistently cracks sexual jokes. As a team leader, be proactive in ensuring women of color in the group [who face major challenges to advancement] get their fair share of stretch assignments.

8. Provide resources:

Allies might provide monetary resources to groups or causes they care about, but they also contribute their time and energy. They demonstrate support by sharing their social capital.

Examples: If someone’s viewpoint in a meeting is being silenced, interrupt and say, “I’d look to hear more about this issue.”

9. Support changes in policies, practices and legislation:

A powerful way to be an ally is to help change the structural norms that reinforce inequality.

Examples: Support equal rights for LGBT men and women. Look at suggested interventions focused on combating sexism, and suggest to your manager or leader an experiment to try one with your team.

10. Identify and act on where they can have impact:

No matter what one’s role, there are many ways to be an ally. The goal is to determine where you can use your influence to make a difference.

Examples: As a parent think about what messages you send through your words and actions about gender roles. As a manager, understand how much you impact the people that work for you. Step back and consider what would you change if your goal was to be an ally.

In a nutshell, allies educate themselves and work to proactively make a positive difference!

/by

Five Top Tips for Effective Working from Home

, ,
accountability

Image via Shutterstock

Guest contributed by Anna Whitehouse

Finding it hard to focus?

Don’t despair, as it’s perfectly possible to make telecommuting or working from working a success if you follow these five handy tips.

1. Create a dedicated space

Separating work from family life is the key to effective home working. A desk in a spare room or study is ideal, as you’ll find it easier to switch off if you can close the door at the end of the day. Alternatively, if space is tight, try setting aside a corner of your bedroom or living room.

Having a dedicated work space also tells family members and friends that you are actually working and that they need to leave you in peace. Avoid working on the sofa or at the kitchen table at all costs, as you’ll be constantly interrupted.

2. Structure your day

It’s very easy to become distracted when you’re working from home, but sticking to a familiar structure will help you to focus. We suggest adhering to set hours, so that your clients know when to contact you and your family and friends know when you’re free to socialize.

Worried about a tight deadline? While it’s tempting to just keep on working until you’ve finished the task, doing this regularly will have an impact on your physical and mental health. Instead of risking burnout, we recommend punctuating your day with regular breaks, as these will keep you motivated and help you to produce better quality work.

If you find that you’ve finished a project and you’re waiting for feedback, resist the urge to turn on the TV and use the time to catch up with admin, update your portfolio or approach potential customers.

3. Banish distractions

Checking social media and emails every five minutes isn’t helpful when you’re working at home, so why not restrict yourself to checking them during your breaks? Seeing this as a reward can be motivating.

Turning off the radio and television could also help you to focus on your work, as a recent study found that clerical workers in a noisy room were less motivated to complete tasks and had elevated stress levels compared to those in a quiet room.

If you find that you’re too distracted by jobs that need doing at home, try spending the occasional morning working in a local coffee shop, library or co-working space. We guarantee that you’ll return to your desk feeling motivated and refreshed.

4. Eat well

While home working means that you don’t have to resist the constant round of staff room treats, you’ll still have easy access to another source of temptation; your fridge. To stay energized, stock up on healthy snacks like dried fruit, nuts, oat cakes and dark chocolate.

Whether you prefer sushi, salad or a sandwich, always make yourself a proper lunch, as this will help you to be more productive. Try to include some protein packed lean meat, eggs, beans or nuts and a serving of salad or veg. Oily fish is also a great choice, as supplementing your diet with omega-3 fish oil could boost your concentration. If you need some lunchtime inspiration, check out the delicious recipes available at The Freelancer’s Cookbook.

If you’re keen to stave off hunger and prevent an afternoon slump, make sure that you stay hydrated. This means limiting the amount of tea and coffee you drink and opting for plain water, water with a slice of lemon in it or water sweetened with a little sugar free squash.

5. Get out and about

Working from home can get lonely even if you’re an introvert, so it’s worth getting out of the house for a change of scenery now and again. Joining a monthly networking group, having lunch with a friend or meeting a client for coffee could all help to combat any feelings of isolation.

Getting out is also good for your physical health, as sitting for long periods of time slows down your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure. However, recent research states that it’s possible to reduce the effect of sitting still if you exercise. So how about going for a brisk lunchtime walk or trying out an online yoga session?

Take our tips on board and we guarantee that working from home will become an enjoyable and productive experience. You’ll achieve more, feel healthier and be able to relax properly at the end of the working day.

What are your top tips for home working? We’d love to know!

Anna Whitehouse writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in finding candidates their perfect internship. To browse our graduate jobs, visit our website.

/by

Reluctant Leaders – Why You Might Be Readier to Lead than You Think

,

Latina

Guest contributed by Sarah Dixon

Ann thought that she knew herself well.

At 45-year-old, she’d been tested by life often enough to know her strengths and weaknesses. She’d done a few personality tests over the years and had a handle on how she worked most effectively at work.

Then Ann’s firm called in team-building experts, who carried out personality evaluations on the whole team. As Ann read her report, she saw something that she’d never considered before. She had tested well for leadership ability.
Ann had never thought of pursuing more responsibility in her career. Work, for her, had always taken a second place to looking after the children. But with the kids at university, Ann began to think about the possibility. Once she turned thought into action, it wasn’t long before she started rising through her organisation.

This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, let alone to Ann. Many of the qualities that make a good leader are gained through the sort of life experiences that women deal with day in, day out. There are examples of these kinds of experiences throughout this article, but these are not the only way those qualities can be acquired. Hopefully they will enable you to identify a similar experience in your life, if you have not had that particular one yourself.

Empathy

There have been many studies over the years which have shown that women are more empathic than men. While this empathy is sometimes perceived as a weakness, when you’re building a team being able to understand your staff and find ways to motivate them has obvious advantages. Rather than adopting a dictatorial style, it allows you to build a deeper connection with staff which pays dividends in terms of loyalty and commitment.

Empowerment

Girls compete, women empower – or so the meme goes. But this isn’t just about feminism and giving your fellow females a leg-up. Managers who delegate tasks within their team, and give their staff the tools they need to excel are more successful than their more controlling counterparts. As women, we spend a lot of our time facilitating for others. Whether it’s our partners, children, or friends we are used to supporting others to achieve for themselves. Carrying this instinct into a leadership role brings you a loyal, talented and effective team.

Resilience

Whether it’s banging your head on the glass ceiling, or dealing with the sorts of experiences highlighted by the #metoo campaign, women have a head start in continuing in the face of adversity. Resilience doesn’t mean bullishly pushing on regardless of what comes your way. Cassandra Stavrou of Propercorn wrote in The Telegraph explained how for her, resilience was about thinking strategically rather than simply being strong. It led her to develop recognisable packaging to ensure that her boxes were not lost in vast warehouses.

Communication

Because women take on the burden of emotional labor, we also become adept as communicators. Being well organized, and finding the right words to get things done are skills that we often overlook, simply because they are taken for granted by society as a whole. But if you’ve ever had to talk down a toddler who has been given triangles of toast when they wanted squares, you’ve been prepared for negotiation. Handling relationship breakdowns gives us experience in making deals, even when the stakes are high. Life teaches us the importance of saying what we need to say.

Accountability

Ultimately, a good manager needs to be able to hold their hand up and take responsibility if things don’t go to plan. If someone on your team screws up? The buck stops with you. But, doesn’t it always? Whether it’s birth control, avoiding sexual assault or many other issues women are constantly being asked to stay accountable for the actions of others. While those expectations are often unfair, perhaps the silver lining is that they prepare us to be willing to shoulder the burdens of our team.

No Better Time

There is perhaps no better time than the present to look for more responsibility. The world is changing. Women’s voices are finally being heard and men are beginning to really see the equality problem. We can hope that the coming generations will find their lives so much easier, their paths to leadership more assured.

But for those of us who find ourselves standing on the threshold of management via a more circuitous route, we can take comfort in the fact that while the journey may not have been easy, it has at least prepared us for what is to come.

Sarah Dixon writes for Inspiring Interns, which specializes in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

/by

Time to look for a new job

,

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

So you figured out that you need a new job!

There are many ways to start a job search yet sometimes it can seem so daunting to start the process.

There are general strategies to job hunting, such as if you know vaguely the target companies that you would like to interview with then start investigating the opportunities there. LinkedIn is a great way to see if you know anyone directly or indirectly at your preferred firms and a good place to start is to mine your current network to build your future one. Apply to job postings but know that any personal connection will probably help you so it is worth checking your network and refreshing your relationships with coffees and lunch with influencers and mentors.

What people don’t tell you is that what you will want to do in the hunt matters. What you tell yourself and your own perceptions of yourself will also matter as does your confidence and level of extroversion.

If you don’t know what is next, it is worth working with a coach ( such as myself and the vetted coaches who partner with theglasshammer) to help you refine what is the next stage of your career and help you secure the job you want, whether it is within your current industry or perhaps a pivot into something new altogether?

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com is you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work.

/by

Tips on successful career networking

, ,

Professional-networking-advice featured

Guest contributed by Avery Philips

Before you step foot in any networking event, it’s best to have some questions prepared to avoid those awkward moments of silence.

Ask these questions the next time you’re at a networking event to secure connections:

  • How did you hear about this event?
  • What’s your favorite thing about your job?
  • Have you always wanted to work in this field?
  • How can I help you?

These kinds of questions show your interest in the other person and allow for longer conversations. You can also learn something new and discover the kind of connections they have with other people. Finally, by offering your services to prospective business connections, they may offer their services in return.

Utilize Alumni Networks

As it turns out, a college education can provide a lot more than a degree and student debt. Alumni associations like Arizona State’s offer a wide variety of networking resources to help you advance in your career. Here’s are some best practices for alumni networking you can do:

  • Attend events that are open to alumni. Use these get-togethers to form in-person connections that can result in lasting relationships.
  • Volunteer at your alumni association. Getting involved shows your overall interest and your willingness to put in the effort to take advantage of these resources. It will also get you into contact with like-minded individuals who will remember you when opportunities arise.
  • When you get in touch, stay in touch. Plan coffee and lunch meetups to keep you fresh in business professionals’ minds. Don’t forget to email them as well and see what’s new with them.
Explore Other Networking Groups

Although the college you graduated from offers a wealth of networking resources, there are plenty of other networking outlets at your disposal. That way, networking can work for you instead of the other way around. Here are a few you should look into:

  • General Networking: There are many conferences all over that allow a variety of people to come together and network. Even if someone isn’t in your field, you can find different opportunities and new paths to take by networking with different kinds of people.
  • Seminars: Accomplish two things by signing up for a seminar. Not only will you get to learn new things, you’ll also be able to network with speakers and attendees. You never networkingknow who will come to these events, so it’s best to be observant and to talk to as many people as you can.
  • Social Media: Almost everyone is on social media, and they’re only one direct message away. Look for business professionals you think would be instrumental in your career and comment on their posts. Ask them questions about themselves and how they became successful. More likely than not, they’ll be more than happy to tell you.

Networking is a must if you want to be successful in your career. Who you know can be just as important as how well you do your job. By following these tips, your networking skills will be as stellar as your job performance, opening the doors to many job opportunities for you.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

/by

Doing the work of others

,

By Nicki Gilmour, Organizational Psychologist and Executive Coach

What are you recognized and rewarded for?

How does what you are supposed to be doing and get paid for, stack up against the other stuff that just creeps in? Task creep as its known happens to most of us, but in excess it can stop you from optimally performing,make you tired and stop you from getting to your real work.

Think about what your job is supposed to be as defined by your boss, your year end review criteria and the job spec and then think all the other things that happen 9-5 beside the official stuff. Be a team player by all means but learn to recognize systemic dysfunction.

Make a list of what you do every day for a period of a week to see what is officially within your remit and what creeps in there. It might be illuminating to see how you are paid for driving the train but also at times asked to lay the track, clean the engine etc which is time consuming and often not conducive to your time management or skill set.

Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com is you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work.

/by

Asian American Women 2018: Often The Professional, Too Rarely The Executive

, ,
Asian

Image via Shutterstock

By Aimee Hansen

When it comes to Asian American women in business leadership, the steady storyline is often the professional, less likely the manager, and rarely the executive.

Asian Americans make up 6% of the US population, 12% of U.S. professionals, and yet only 5% of executives, leaving them “stuck in the middle”.

On Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, Asians comprise even higher percentages of professionals, but a much smaller percentage of senior executives. They make up 26.9% of professionals at Goldman Sachs but only 10.7% of senior executives, 23.1% of professionals at Citigroup Inc. but only 12.7% of executives, and 20.6% at JP Morgan but only 6.8% of executives.

Buck Gee, a retired Cisco Systems Inc. vice president and co-author of a new report from the nonprofit Ascend Leadership, said in Bloomberg: “We are the most successful minority.” But when the lens turns to C-suites and upper management, “we’re the least successful minority.”

It’s not an education problem or a hiring problem, or necessarily even a pipeline problem. It is, however, cultural – largely, a corporate cultural issue.

The corporate-defined stereotypes of leadership (masculine, aggressive) and the intersection of gender and racial stereotypes through which Asian American women are perceived play at least as big of a role as the instilled cultural norms that may keep Asians from advocating for themselves as leaders, while trusting in hard work being enough to bring results.

Companies are called to practice inclusivity: leadership development and demonstration that bridges (not falls through) the cultural gaps to get diverse talent into leadership roles.

Stereotypes and “Model Minority”

Due to high education, professional employment and income levels, strong entrepreneurism, and the “model minority” reputation, Asian Americans are often overlooked when it comes to encouraging diversity.

But Asian American women face both “positive” and “negative” stereotypes – that may lead to envy, resentment, dislike, or perceived lack of leadership qualification – and can hinder organizational advancement. They face the intersectional discrimination of “racialized-sexism” and “sexualized-racism.” Even the seemingly positive reputation of “model minority” is a skewed and distorted box that inhibits advancement when it comes to leadership. And, studies have shown “that Asian Americans, like other minority groups, are aware of and may even internalize the stereotypes attributed to them.”

According to a qualitative study published in the Global Journal of Human-Social Science that tracked 16 Asian female middle managers, Asian women reported that they “sometimes benefited from the positive associations of their Asian ethnicity with qualities such as intelligence and diligence, and sometimes they face the demerits of being Asians, that reinforce a view of them being passive and lacking in leadership skills.”

According to the research, the experiences of these women were “complex and conflicting.” Some participants reported that they were able to seize opportunities for self-actualization, personal empowerment, and career growth “by leveraging their Asian culture,” but others talked about a subtle cultural disconnect that created barriers to networking, as well as to conforming with the norms of American corporate culture.

Meanwhile, when it comes to executive ambition, Asian women are “more likely than white women to say that their goal is to reach the top of their profession.”

Missing at Executive and Middle-Management

“The Illusion of Asian Success” report focusing on the San Francisco Bay area tech companies, by the Ascend Foundation, found that despite being the biggest professional racial cohort across 2007–2015, Asians were the least likely to be promoted to manager or executive level.

“Asians are still the least upwardly mobile demographic to reach leadership positions in (San Francisco) Bay Area technology companies,” state the authors. “The widely-held notion of Asian executive success is largely an illusion.”

The report found that while they are “outnumbered by Asian men and women in the entry-level professional workforce, white men and women were twice as likely as Asians to become executives and held almost 3x the number of executive jobs.”

Ascend previously created the Executive Parity Index™ (EPI) – which “scores a company’s diversity in its executive workforce relative to its entry-level workforce.” The report found that between 2007 and 2015, white women went from 12% below parity to 17% above in 2015, but all racial and ethnic minorities remained below parity.

Asian women were especially unlikely to become Executives – going from 76% below (.24 EPI) executive parity in 2007 to 66% below (.34 EPI) in 2015. Meanwhile, Asian men went from 44% below parity to 38% below parity.

Ascend also introduced a new Management Parity Index™ (MPI) to look at mid-level management representation. Asian women had the lowest MPI of .54 in 2007 (45% below parity) and .69 (31% below parity) in 2015.

“Asians were the only minority group underrepresented in middle management,” the authors were surprised to find. “We conclude that Asians were not only the least likely to be executives in 2015, but also the least likely to become Executives in the near future.”

While the executive gender gap for Asian women is only 85% with Asian men, the racial gap is 246% with white women. As white women were promoted, race became the increasingly dominant limiting factor – going from twice as big as sex in 2007 to three times as big in 2015.

The report co-author Denise Peck, a former vice president at Cisco, stated “Minority women continue to bump against a double-paned glass ceiling. The data show that a general focus on developing women leaders has not addressed the distinct challenges for Asian, Black, or Hispanic women. This has been an unspoken truth in the minority community, and we hope that our report opens a long overdue dialogue.”

Companies Need to Build a Cultural Bridge

In the LA Times, writers Ramakrishnan and Lee note how a few highly visible tech leaders can create a false perception of Asian prominence among leadership: “while Asian Americans can get through Silicon Valley’s doors, they are unable to move up the ladders.”
The article asserts that Asian Americans are often perceived as having more hard skills (competence) and fewer soft skills (communication, collaboration), but that there is a gap in soft skill development and demonstration opportunities for Asian professionals.

In the 2016 National Asian American Survey, 68% of white employees indicated planning or chairing a meeting at work, while only 51% of Asian American employees had done so, despite an equal percentage (40%) indicating they served in a supervisor capacity.

Again, the gap grew among women, as Asian American women were “25 percentage points less likely to chair a meeting when compared with white women.” The LA Times writers state, “One obvious, simple and costless solution is for employers to make sure that everyone who’s qualified gets an opportunity to lead a business meeting.”

During Bloomberg’s “Walk the Talk” feature on why so many Asian Americans are absent from the C-Suite, Laura Colby said “many Asian executives who I talk to will themselves say that they credit a bit of their upbringing for them not being as aggressive perhaps as might be considered necessary to show that you want to advance in Corporate America.”

Colby emphasized, however, that companies have to be more inclusive to bridge exactly these cultural nuances: “There are some programs out there, but several of the people I spoke with said you really have to make a point of engaging all the groups in a corporation, not focus on a specific group, or blame people for their own lack of being able to climb the ladder when really it might be the ladder itself that is tilted and preventing them from getting where they want to get.”

Sometimes, it’s the ladder that is broken, or too narrow, or too weak, or too rigid, to allow change to climb as high as it needs to.

/by

Not to Be Missed Articles

book
Did you miss these popular articles?

Take a look at the articles below previously published on theglasshammer:

The Long Hours Game

By Aimee Hansen

The 24/7 hour work week marches on and on. The get up and go and keep on going. The long hours game. We all do it from time to time.

How can you have a healthy, sustainable lifestyle and build your career?

The action-packed day of the executive continues to be a glorified image of leadership, and arguably one that is dangerously unsustainable and at best questionable in effectiveness. At theglasshammer, we’ve covered how the 24/7 work week is not only disastrous for gender equality on a whole, but also diminishes your personal leadership effectiveness and your health.

Read more here

Motivating Millennial Lawyers: More About Possibility Than Precedent

By Aimee Hansen

“Millennials bring new ideas and expectations to the workplace, as did the generations before them,” states a 2016 Thomson-Reuters report on The Generational Shift in Legal Departments. But, as the story goes, senior lawyers are resisting those changes.

By 2025, Millennials will comprise 75% of the workforce. The real question is not if change will happen, but how it will unfold.

What Do Millennials Want?

Millennials work preferences are characterized as valuing mentorship (vs bossing) and collaboration (vs hierarchy), wishing to be involved in processes and decision-making, receiving regular feedback, having opportunities for growth, working for a firm that aligns to their values, and desiring work/life flexibility.

According to an article in the National Law Review, managing Millennials “means an almost 180-degree change in the way associates have been managed in the past.”

Read more here

/by

Build Your Career by Optimal Networking

,

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

On the 20th June, theglasshammer.com will convene the top women in the asset management industry to talk about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, especially as it pertains to big data and technology.

We organize this peer breakfast so optimal networking can take place between women who run the money world, or least lots of assets that make the world turn.

Optimal networking in my opinion, is in a format that allows women to do serious business with each other. Qualified discussions with qualified people is key. Having a cocktail and making gestures to find common ground can be useful and certainly it does feel nice to have support by people who may be going through similar challenges but that is not the same as power networking. By going to events where people are interested in your skills and experience, you may be more effective in your connections, because if you can help someone solve their firm’s pain points, then there can be a follow up meeting and a process to see direct results. It is also good to know people as well for future meetings.

/by