Tag Archive for: Leadership

How I Landed the C-Suite (And Why You Can, Too)

,

Smartly dressed yyoung women shaking hands in a business meeting at office deskGuest Contributed by Deborah Gregory

Ambition, 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.

/by

Why Leaders Need More than Mirror Reflections

,

female-leaders-looking-in-her-mirror-reflection-featuredBy Aimee Hansen

Amidst increasing access to a broader worldview, we are paradoxically retreating into narrowing, amplified, separated tunnels of perspective.

One of the clearest examples is the side-by-side blue feed, red feed posted by The Wall Street Journal. These views are never side-by-side but rather constructions of completely different realities.

Social media (with Facebook at top) is a news source for 62% of U.S. adults, and when our Facebook newsfeed is increasingly a tunnel lined with mirrors, the sum reflection is silos of distortion.

Diversity of thought is a muscle that is essential to leadership, and one that we may be getting weaker at flexing when it comes to developing our worldview in our personal and societal lives. Whatever we practice, we become better at. So arguably, we are getting better at listening to people who think like we already do.

To be effective leaders, we have to increasingly be more vigilant about the practice of inviting diversity of thought in, even when it’s difficult to do so.

How Facebook Is Narrowing Our Feedback Loop

As highlighted in the The New York Times, it’s our interaction with social media that both biases and narrows our exposure to different viewpoints and different stories.

Frank Bruni writes, “The Internet isn’t rigged to give us right or left, conservative or liberal — at least not until we rig it that way. It’s designed to give us more of the same, whatever that same is: one sustained note from the vast and varied music that it holds, one redundant fragrance from a garden of infinite possibility.”

When our ideas and perspectives are not challenged, but only reinforced by our customized curation of news through interaction with social media,“we retreat into enclaves of the like-minded” with increased speed and depth, while missing out on a breadth of perspectives.

According to the NYT, “Technology makes it much easier for us to connect to people who share some single common interest,” said author Marc Dunkelman (“The Vanishing Neighbor”), and easier to avoid “face-to-face interactions with diverse ideas.”

According to network scientist, Vyacheslav Polonski writing for the World Economic Forum, previous research has shown that increased contact with people who share our previously held beliefs makes those beliefs more extreme.

We become more confident, vigorous, and emboldened as we begin to adopt a new group identity. At the same time, we becoming increasingly ignorant to the dynamics of alternative world views. There is both power and peril.

Confirming Our Own Biases

According to The Guardian, “Since online content is often curated to fit our preferences, interests and personality, the internet can even enhance our existing biases and undermine our motivation to learn new things.”

One bias that is supported by echo chambers is confirmation bias, where we look to see our own preconceptions confirmed rather than fully taking facts, data, or opposing viewpoints into consideration. We are drawn to prove ourselves right by consuming information that matches our opinions even though “being exposed to conflicting views tends to reduce prejudice and enhance creative thinking.”

As Warren Buffet said, “What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.” With too much information to deal with, it’s a survival strategy to ignore most of it, but we tend to selectively ignore what does not agree with us.

The Boardroom Echo Chamber

If we want to know more about the dangers of decision-making inside of a (digital) echo chamber, we can look to the corporate boardroom, because that has existed mostly as an echo chamber for decades.

In 2015, Fortune 500 companies filled 399 vacant or newly created seats, the highest number of seats since Heidrick & Struggles began tracking. But when faced with a record opportunity to increase diversity, the Fortune 500 boardroom stuck to its own kind.

Tapping from the “usual suspects” (73% of appointments were current and former CEOs and CFOs), the range of industry backgrounds narrowed, women appointments stalled, Latino appointments remained flat, and Asian-American appointments fell. The only improvements in diversity were African-American (1% point) and international experience (32.2% points).

In sum, older white male seats or new seats were filled with older white males with international experience. From the perspective of social diversity, boards elected more mirrors to reflect similar viewpoints, not more windows to bring in diverse perspectives.

Diversity Makes Us Smarter

According to the Harvard Business Review, the key differentiator of leadership (and the career arc of a leader) is a process of inclusiveness in decision making, the ability to take into account a 360 degree context.

Underlining the importance of gathering multiple perspectives, Associate Professor Laurence Minksy and Julia Tang Peters write, “Habitual outreach prevents insular thinking, opens doors to ideas and collaborative relationships, expands problem-solving perspectives, and increases the range of resources for implementation.”

As reiterated by Scientific American, social diversity enhances creativity, encourages the search for novel perspectives, and leads to better decision-making and problem solving. Katherine W. Phillips, a Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics, writes, “Simply interacting with individuals who are different forces group members to prepare better, to anticipate alternative viewpoints and to expect that reaching consensus will take effort.”

“Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective,” writes Phillips. This keeps us from effectively processing information, and hinders creativity and innovation. Whereas in a context of diversity, we are less complacent with our perspectives and begin to consider alternatives even before personal interaction takes place.

“Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people believe that differences of perspective might exist among them and that belief makes people change their behavior,” writes Phillips. We work harder on both a cognitive and social level, become more diligent, and more open-minded because we anticipate it will take more to come to a consensus.

Also, disagreement with those who are socially different to us also does more to spark our consideration.

“When we hear dissent from someone who is different from us (eg. by race or political party), it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us,“ writes Phillips. “When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.”

Your Diversity Muscle

As Phillips points out, diversity of thought is a muscle we have to exercise. “You have to push yourself to grow your muscles.”

So as a leader, ask yourself where are you allowing yourself to be drawn into an echo chamber? Are you being inclusive in your own decision-making?

And, where in your workplace do you see a tunnel of mirrors in need of some windows?

/by

How Professional Women Can Turn Anticipation Into a Leadership Boon

,

Managing ChangeSpell “words” backwards, and it becomes “sword.” When it comes to language in management meetings, it turns out that women wield a double-edged sword, a way of either weakening or strengthening their leadership position through the way they wield their words.

Research has found that as they speak, women tend to be more likely to be simultaneously aware of the concerns and agendas of others, and to adjust their language to reflect this. Professor Judith Baxter, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Aston University, UK calls this “double-voicing.”

Simply put, the ability to strategically incorporate what you anticipate others are thinking or feeling as you speak can be a career-boosting skill in your back pocket, if wielded selectively and well.

Anytime you are not only speaking your thoughts or views but are at the same time reflecting and incorporating what you believe others may think or feel into what you say, you’re double-voicing. You’re voicing for yourself and for those you’re speaking to or with.

It’s a “double-edged sword” which you might be using to undercut your leadership presence. But used strategically, it’s a masterful skill you can harness as a powerful leadership asset.

Women and Double-Voicing

In studying top-level conversations across seven major companies in the UK, Baxter found one fundamental distinction between male and female leadership language: “Women were four times more likely than men to be self-critical, qualify their comments, speak indirectly or apologetically when broaching difficult subjects with board members or when managing conflict.”

Baxter argues in a Babel article that as women climb the corporate ladder, in order to gain acceptance and approval they practice “serious linguistic work such as the carefully judged use of apology, humour, self-mockery, understatement, implied meaning and deference in order to minimise direct confrontation or criticism from male colleagues.”

How Double-Voicing Can Dilute Your Leadership

We already know that women’s words often are not treated the same as men’s in the office. When women are more assertive with their words, they can be judged more harshly than men are, for going against gender norms. So there’s strong reasons why women adapt how they speak.

But it’s harmful when women habitually use their tongue to weaken their own leadership stance. According to Baxter, double-voicing can be used to deliver “self-inflicted wounds.” For example, when double-voicing is used to pre-empt how others might perceive you as the speaker, you simply deflate your own authority and words.

This might sound like, “I realize I’m not the expert, but…” or “Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn, but…” or “I don’t mean to be difficult, but…” In her observations of top meetings, Baxter heard one woman caveat that she was “talking too much,” having taking only spoken twice, and watched the men nodding in agreement.

As Baxter told Virgin, women use double-voicing “to pre-empt criticism from colleagues and not to appear demanding or boastful. Double-voicing makes women seem less threatening to colleagues, both male and female.”

But trying to disarm the perceived critical viewpoint of others, when it comes to your authority or expertise as a speaker, has the reverse impact. When a woman hedges the very act of speaking, she is stealing the power of her words before she even gets them out. Baxter consistently found this kind of double-voicing was viewed negatively by all colleagues, damaging to the leadership positioning and authority of women.

Double-voicing can also take more seemingly benign forms that still undermine speech. “I probably haven’t understood you correctly, but…” or “I have probably got my wires crossed but should we consider…” or “You have probably thought about this point already, but…” This puts the speaker on the back foot.

How Double-Voicing Can Strengthen Your Leadership

In her book, “Double-voicing at Work: Power, Gender and Linguistic Expertise,” Baxter asserts that double-voicing is a form of “linguistic expertise.” The challenge is to use it deliberately.

Baxter writes in a Babel, “I suggest that double-voicing need not be a sign of weakness, but could actually be a source of strength.” She notes, “Double-voicing could be a highly sophisticated strategy to consolidate team relationships while achieving a female leader’s own agenda.”

According to Baxter, double-voicing can be used to “draw out a colleague who is silent, or to silence another who is outspoken, and to anticipate an emerging conflict and to soothe it into resolution.” Above all, it can help you communicate more effectively and inclusively as a leader.

If effective leadership means moving towards social awareness (not just self), being inquisitive (not directive), building power with (not over) colleagues, as well as showing an outward focus in your language, then double-voicing is a very powerful leadership skill when applied well.

For example, when applied not to second-guess your contribution as a speaker, but demonstrate insight and forethought about how others may feel about the content you are sharing, double-voicing can be “a highly constructive tool for leadership.”

It’s a skill to be able to anticipate the likely thoughts of the audience and incorporate those thoughts into your message to bring others onside as you are speaking. It’s a skill to reflect awareness of cultural or situational expectations. It’s a skill to pre-empt or diffuse criticism or agendas that could dilute the impact of the core point you are getting across. It’s a skill to reflect the perceived audience perspective in a way that builds greater solidarity with you as the speaker.

This could sound like, “The first question you may raise is…”, “Right now, you are probably wondering about x, and I’ve thought about that..”, or “At this point, we may all be asking ourselves…”

Double-voicing used intentionally, powerfully and iteratively reflects a “sophisticated linguistic expertise.”

Women’s voices are too seldom heard in the top executive offices and boardrooms for lack of representation. A woman’s double-voicing may reflect an internalization of the dialling down of women’s voices, a trace of acknowledgement that her voice is new here and has not always been validated.

But it’s time to self-validate. Flip double-voicing around as a leadership asset, and it’s one way to dial female leadership right up.

By Aimee Hansen

/by

Latina Leadership: Will Companies Ever Catch On?

, ,

By Aimee Hansen

Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

If you scan Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in 2016, you will be hard-pressed to find a Latina executive, amidst an overall drop in female CEOs to 4% in the Fortune 500 in 2016.

According to a 2016 report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Hispanic women make up 6% of the workforce but only 1.3% of senior-level executive roles in the private sector.

According to the Heidrick & Struggles Board Monitor, “the share of new board appointments for Hispanics (male/female) remained flat for the seventh consecutive year” across the Fortune 500. 4.7% of new directors on average are Hispanic each year, and only 4.0% in 2015.

What makes this even more striking is that new director appointments reached a seven-year high in 2015 (up by 60 appointments from 2014), and women appointments stagnated too. During a recent record (and opportunity) year for new appointments, diversity lost out.

The report indicates a resurgence of selecting new board members from “the usual suspects” (sitting and retired CEOs and CFOs took 73.2% of new seats). Only nine of the Fortune 500 CEOs were Hispanic in 2015, which doesn’t bode well for diversity if the “usual suspects” continue as the primary candidate pool for board appointments.

Meanwhile, a Mercer report predicts female representation at executive level in Latin America to out-pace North America by 2025, rising from 17% (2015) to 44% (2025).

A Perplexing Incongruence

The glaring elephant in the room is that the population, and consumer purchasing power, is rapidly changing, and Fortune 500 boardroom composition shows little proof of catching on.

The gap in representation of Hispanics in corporate leadership has the potential to create a dangerous gap in diversity of thought and insight, driving a deeper wedge between business leadership and consumer composition. Hispanic purchasing power was projected to have increased in the U.S. by 50% from 2010 ($1.0 trillion) to 2015 ($1.5 trillion).

Not only are Hispanics the largest ethnic minority in the country, but according to the government report “Fulfilling America’s Future: Latinas in the U.S., 2015”, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 4 female students are Latina.

Entrepreneurial Power

Scan the entrepreneurial landscape, and you’ll find a different picture: women are the new face of entrepreneurship, and Latinas are playing a strong role in leading that change.

According to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, there are an estimated 11.3 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., a number which has grown five times faster (45% increase) than the national average (9% increase) over the past nine years.

Nearly 8 out of 10 new women-owned businesses launched since 2007 (2.8 of 3.5 million) have been started by women of color, with the greatest growth among Latinas.

According to the report: “As of 2016, there are just under 1.9 million Latina-owned firms, employing 550,400 workers and generating $97 billion in revenues. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of Latina-owned firms increased by 137% – the highest increase seen among minority women-owned firms.” Trending back 18 years, the 2015 report showed that the number of Latina owned businesses has increased by 224%.

Make no mistake. Latina women are carving their own paths to business leadership.

Playing Down ‘Being Latina’

As the AAUW report authors state, “There is no monolithic ‘women’s experience’ of leadership. Women always have a race and an ethnicity, so a discussion about gender without reference to race and ethnicity (or vice versa) is simplistic and can be misleading.”

A recent Latina@Work study of over 1,000 Latina professional women released by People en Español, sought to understand the experience of Latina women in today’s corporate workplace.

The report found that, “As trailblazers among their families, they are simultaneously breaking cultural barriers and managing cultural expectations, which results in a feeling of ‘otherness’ both at work and at home.”

In the study, 80% of women agreed that “At work, I want to be seen as who I really am, including being Latina.” But many of the women struggled with managing how they are perceived at work, including not being seen as “too Latina.”

Women played down their accent and played up their university degrees. They also moderated appearance more than average. 31% reported having to dress more conservatively than co-workers to be taken seriously (versus 21% of non-hispanic Caucasian women), and 35% reported feeling the way they styled their hair impacted their success at work (versus 25%).

Hispanic women were also twice as likely to agree they have to work twice as hard because of their cultural background.

Intersectionality of Barriers

Latinas and Black women are the most underrepresented at senior leadership levels.

The AAUW report highlighted the intersectionality of barriers and bias: “Not only do women of color confront race and ethnic discrimination that white women do not face, they also experience gender bias differently than white women do—and they experience racial bias differently than do the men in their racial or ethnic group.”

Latinas have a unique set of preconceived biases around leadership perception. For example, “among college and university faculty, Latinas who behave assertively risk being seen as ‘angry’ or ‘emotional,’ even when they reported that they were not angry—they just weren’t deferential.”

According to the report, 60 percent of faculty Latinas reported a backlash against expressing anger, and they tended to shoulder most of the office housework.

As feminist and media-challenger Kat Lazo reflected to The Huffington Post, prominent and narrow media stereotypes have the ability to damage both perception and self-perception, and reinforce barriers to leadership: “What we see in the media right now is a limited version of our humanity.” Lazo stated, “So we internalize these messages and we put limits to who we can be in terms of our professions, in terms of our own identity.”

But nothing is one-dimensional. Lazo highlights that even “Latinx” (a gender neutral alternative) have to check their own privilege.

Amplifying Leadership Presence

In a Latinas Think Big article about developing and amplifying leadership presence, Sandra Tibbs, founder and CEO of Neverest Solutions, writes about cultivating and amplifying leadership presence:

Find your authentic leadership voice – Navigate through the stereotypes, cultural scripts, biases and arising inner conflicts to embrace your whole story and find your own voice.

Create a shared sphere of influence – Cultivate a sphere where listening and connection leads to stronger, and more influential, leadership.

Build resilience in yourself and others – Something every Latina leader will do as she challenges the status quo, and can help to nurture in others.

Tibbs writes about Latina leaders who own their presence: “They are irrefutable leaders who have a presence about them that is unique, authentic and strong. They know exactly who they are, and what impact they want to have. And, they don’t apologize for either. Their leadership presence enables them to overcome stereotypes, biases and even their inner obstacles so they can devote all of themselves to designing the lives they want.”

It is strongly evidenced that Latinas will keep on unapologetically rising to lead business, with or without that coveted access pass from the Fortune 500.

The choice for the corporate world when it comes to cultivating Latina participation in leadership would appear to be this: either catch on, or inevitably you’ll be playing catch up

/by

Elevate Yourself: How to Articulate Your Value and Advance Your Career in Two Easy Steps

, ,
Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

What are your career aspirations? When you’re dreaming about the future, do you see yourself in a bigger role, leading your team to impressive results and having a powerful influence in your company? Then there’s good news. You are the one who can elevate yourself to reach that higher-level position.

It’s true. The leaders who are most successful are the ones who lead themselves and lead others to see them as successful high-achievers worthy of promotion.

Unfortunately, many leaders miss this opportunity. Either they don’t realize how much influence and control they have over their own careers, or they neglect to communicate their value. You can speed up your advancement by taking ownership of your career, knowing your value, and articulating your successes in a way that leads to new opportunities.

Being able to articulate your value is a key tool for success and advancement. Here are the two steps you need to take.

Know Your Value.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I know the impact of my efforts?

2. Have I defined the specific contributions that I’ve made?

3. Can I gracefully, elegantly, and clearly articulate the value that I bring?

If you have difficulty answering these questions, it could be for one of two reasons. One, it may be that you are not adding as much value or making as big a contribution as you would like. If that’s the case, it’s time to rethink your approach so you can be more impactful. Two, it may be that you’re adding plenty of value to your company and even excelling in your role, but you haven’t taken the time to clarify that value in an effective message. If that is the case, it is time to do some wordsmithing and craft the message you can easily share with others to help them see your value.

Either way, whether you are focused on improving your impact or communicating your impact to others, this is an effort that is worth your attention. By knowing and describing your value to others, you will open new doors of opportunity and advancement.

Prove Your Worth.

Once you succeed in identifying and articulating your value, the next step is to prove your worth.

Here are some more questions you can ask yourself:

1. What specific role have I played that created a positive outcome for the company?

2. What outcomes or deliverables have I achieved?

3. What are those roles, outcomes, and deliverables worth?

What you are searching for as you do this analysis are specific metrics: your concrete, measureable results. Look for numbers, percentages, dollar figures and other persuasive metrics that quantify the impact you have made. You’ll know you have proved your worth when you can effectively identify the specific benefits your company has gained as a result of your efforts and achievements.

Remember: when it comes to career advancement, you have more control than you think. Take the time to identify and communicate your value. When you do this for yourself, you’ll increase your confidence and impact. When you share it with others, you’ll elevate yourself into the positions you want.

You really do make an impact. Give yourself the opportunity to be the leader you most want to be by helping others see your value, too.

Howard J. Morgan and Joelle K. Jay, PhD, of the Leadership Research Institute (LRI) are co-authors of THE NEW ADVANTAGE: How Women in Leadership Can Create Win-Wins for Their Companies and Themselves (Praeger / 2016). For more information please visit www.TheNewAdvantageBook.com.

/by

Can Being Slightly Narcissist Help You Become a Leader?

,

female leaderIn the past couple of years, there has been great emphasis on women being more confident in order to become more leaderlike so that they can be promoted to leadership positions. The ugly side of having confidence is being overly entitled and having narcissist tendencies, and this is something that is rarely discussed while looking at leaders of both genders. Are you or is your boss a narcissist?

It turns out that in general men are more narcissistic than women, according to a meta-analysis of 475,000 participants across three decades, which generated headlines running the gamut from The Huffington Post to Science Daily to The Daily Mail, and it did. As The Washington Post responded, “This surprises no one.”

But this isn’t about a battle of the sexes. With findings in hand, researcher Emily Grijalva, PhD, from the University of Buffalo School of Management and her co-authors crack open bigger questions about how our culture shapes people, shapes leadership, shapes outcomes. And how gender-disparate outcomes – playing out in your office and perhaps your career – reinforce the gender stereotypes creating them.

What makes you a narcissist?

The study that was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, examined over 350 journal articles, dissertations, manuscripts and technical manuals and analysed gender differences in three facets of narcissism across nearly half a million people and age groups. The researchers examined responses to statements designed to identify individual levels of each of these three aspects.

  • Entitlement/Exploitation (E/E) is the most maladaptive facet, correlated with negative behaviors and outcomes such as aggression and manipulation.
  • Illustrative questions: “I insist upon getting the respect that is due to me” and “I find it easy to manipulate people.”
  • Leadership/authority (L/A) – is the most adapative facet and reflects motivation for authority and desire for power.
  • Illustrative questions: “I would prefer to be a leader” and, “I like having authority over people.”
  • Grandiosity/Exhibitionism (G/E) – is tendencies of vanity, self-absorption, exhibitionism, and superiority.
  • Illustrative questions: “I really like to be the center of attention” and “I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so.”

Grijalva notes that because narcissism is associated with outcomes, examining gender differences in narcissism may help to explain gender disparity when it comes to women in leadership positions in Corporate America.

A little bit of Narcissism can help you in your career

“I think it’s best characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, believing you are more important and special than other people and being less empathetic to others,” author Grijalva says of narcissism in a video interview.

While it would be widely agreed that narcissism is not an attractive aspect of the human condition – cross-cultural fables after all tend to emphasize the perils- it still nets some positive individual outcomes.In fact, healthy or adaptive narcissism – the right aspects in the “right degree” – relate to positive well-being, confidence, self-sufficiency and even parenting.

“Narcissism is associated with various interpersonal dysfunctions, including an inability to maintain healthy long-term relationships, unethical behavior and aggression,” said author Grijalva.

“At the same time, narcissism is shown to boost self-esteem, emotional stability and the tendency to emerge as a leader.” She also points out that it’s associated with making a strong first impression and being perceived as charismatic.

The study found that men, across generations and regardless of age, consistently scored measurably higher than women in the first two categories of narcissism.

The widest gender gap was in the maladaptive facet of entitlement and exploitation.

According to the researchers,on average men, but of course not every man, are more likely to feel entitled to special privileges and be willing to exploit others to advance self-interest.

This is interesting since research has demonstrated that one impact of having women present on corporate boards is higher ethical and social compliance.

The second largest gap was in leadership and authority, where the researchers assert men demonstrated greater assertiveness and desire for power (for its sake) than women.

But when it came to grandiosity and exhibitionism, or traits like vanity and self-absorption, there was no gap between genders.

Messaging from a young age and the impact on stereotypes

Pulling on previous research, the study speculates the narcissism gap may be reflective of both biological and social differences, ingrained and self-fulfilling gender stereotypes. This means narcissism could be encouraged and developed in males, or punished and suppressed in females, through gender conditioning.

The researchers suggest societal “agentic” definitions of masculinity overlap with narcissism and societal “communal” definitions of femininity exclude it.

“Individuals tend to observe and learn gender roles from a young age, and may face backlash for deviating from society’s expectations,” Grijalva says. “In particular, women often receive harsh criticism for being aggressive or authoritative, which creates pressure for women, more so than for men, to suppress displays of narcissistic behavior.”

The researchers suggest it’s more socially acceptable for men to display “agentic characteristics” such as dominance and assertiveness, which reinforces more narcissistic personality tendencies, and also means they emerge as leaders.

This gender-disparate outcome self-perpetuates: men keep emerging as leaders, leadership traits continue to be male-associated, and more women continue to suppress their “agentic” sides to conform to gender expectations and avoid cultural backlash.

Society keeps looking at its face in the mirror, and seeing the same reflection.

Interestingly, the study also looked at college students from 1990-2013 and found no evidence that neither men nor women had become more or less narcissistic with time, letting the Millennial generation off the hook in this particular study- despite the rise in “selfies”.

/by

Leadership: How to be authentic at work and why sincerity can hinder that

,

thought-leadershipBy Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Pyschologist

The trouble with “authenticity” in the workplace is that there are many definitions of what being authentic is and in reality we are often defined by the role we play. There are two types of roles and the first and most tangible is the task role we have at work, literally the duties we have to deploy to get paid. The second type of role is deeper and more or less mandated formally. It is the psychological role we are given or that we take up willingly due to gender stereotypes. Look around your office, who buys the birthday cards? (the person who plays the office “mom” or “wife” usually is a woman and often works in HR). Who gets given the important tasks etc? I have written many times about the fact that by default and in aggregate men are given the mantle of being viewed leader-like (these are men as a concept not actual individual men that we know,I may add). If there are 8 major traits to being a leader such as competence and productivity, then why do we assume that straight white men just automatically have them?

Since this post is part two of me telling you to read Herminia Ibarra’s book “ Act Like A Leader, Think Like a Leader”, let us look at how you can show up authentically but strike the right balance of being authoritative when needed with the right amount of gravitas whilst still being seen as human.

So, How do you show up as when you are supposedly just being you? Stanford psychologist, Hazel Markus showed that people’s identities are based just as much on future possibilities as they are on formative past and present states. Why does sincerity matter? And when is too much sincerity a bad thing? When you can not possibly do everything you say you will and still be productive or when you have to disclose every detail of the business plan leaving no room for executive flexibility and reducing our credibility in the process.

I have taught courses on being authentic as it pertains to being in alignment with your values and purpose. This too is something that Herminia Ibarra comments is open to then providing a free range of behaviors that allows for flexibility and adaptability. This is optimal as it allows us to have emotional intelligence (EQ), to be chameleon like when we need to but without losing ourselves.

Sounds good, right? Without this ‘reading the room’ piece all of us are totally at the mercy of our personalities which are fairly fixed and intrinsic. I am a believer in Lewin’s theory- that our behaviors are a product of the perfect storm of our personality and our environment that we operated in. So, on those bad ‘back against the wall’ days at work, we have to be able to modulate our reactions and the most eccentric, confrontational and bold amongst us will suffer in most teams far more than the passive aggressive folks as that sadly is totally normal in many corporate cultures today.

When I was at Columbia university studying the topic of leadership, the faculty repeated time and time again that it is really important if you are a leader to have followers and without them you are just a person who has your name on the corner office. Even if you are not yet at the corner office the same rings true. So, “Fake it til you make it” as the popular saying goes, but “make sure you make it” is the part I feel needs to be added.

You can do it!!

If you are interested in hiring an executive coach to help you navigate your career then please contact nicki@theglasshammer.com who will be happy to discuss things further

/by

Do women want to be CEO? Or is their goal thwarted by incongruous perceptions?

business-race-women-and-men-in-officeWhat is stopping women from reaching the highest echelons of management and leadership in the corporate world? Is it about systemic barriers preventing females from advancing?

Yes, in part, as there are visible and less visible organizational mechanisms that can prevent women from excelling based solely on the fact that they are women. An example of this is the performance review research that we explore in this article. There is also a misunderstanding of what power is and how it can encumber a woman’s pursuit of leadership more than it would for a male colleague. Do women simply not understand the rewards? Are we told not to expect them as quickly or ever? Is the unlevel playing field too exhausting? Or do we simply not want it enough?

Systemic Hinderances – Bias in the Humans Means Bias in the System

A study by Kieran Synder produced some interesting findings. It was based on 248 reviews that she gathered from 180 people— 105 men and 75 women. The reviews came from 28 different companies and included large technology corporations, mid-size companies, and smaller environments. Snyder’s objective was to determine the correlation between gender and negative feedback. Corporate evaluations of this type are generally considered a platform for constructive criticism that can help a professional grow and become more productive. But how “constructive” is a biased assessment? Snyder’s study revealed that reviews for women were far more likely to contain acrimonious evaluations and caustic notes about personality flaws. While both men and women were given suggestions that could be considered constructive, it was primarily women who were told to change their ways. The findings were the same whether the reviewing manager was male or female.

Snyder details 83 critical reviews received by men. Only 2 had comments about the professional’s personality. However, the 94 critical reviews of female professionals contained 71 negative personality comments. The upshot of the findings is that while 76% of the females had been assigned traits by their assessor that were perceived as “personality flaws” those same traits were ignored (and possibly seen as a positive) in male counterparts since only 2.4% of males “personality” were even commented on in the reviews.

What Women Want

Melinda Marshall is the co-author of the report, from the Center of Talent Innovation, “Women Want Five Things.” Her extensive research on women in the 35-50 age range revealed a dip in their aspiration for more power despite the key finding that it is power that enables women to achieve what they want.

There is an incongruous perception amongst women who are at the peak of their careers regarding power. Their viewpoint is that the burden of an authoritative position outweighs the benefits. This perspective is shared by 60% of the women surveyed in the U.S., 65 % of women in the U.K., and 49% of women in Germany.

It is not that they lack proper ambition and qualification. Rather, it is that these women do not see executive roles as a viable means of achieving what they are really after: “the ability to flourish, a way of reaching for meaning and purpose, and the desire to excel, empower others, and be empowered.”

Though corporate goals for both genders are similar, the motivation among female professionals is waning. They simply cannot see how the value of having a top position warrants the struggle necessary to reach and maintain it.

Marshall concluded that “Sometimes women do not have clear goals, early mentorship and sponsorship by women leaders who can make a difference.” By making an effort to single out promising women and encouraging early positive dialogue, corporations can aid in developing female executive talent before aspiration begins to dwindle.

In addition to identifying the value proposition of women with leadership potential, Women Want Five Things contrasts the “realities” of holding a powerful position with the “female expectations” of having a powerful position. Instead of regarding power as something that will hold them back from reaching their five point value proposition, women can begin to view leadership as a positive force that can help them achieve their goals. Marshall explains the equivocation many females have about attaining power. They may hear and focus on the guilt a female leader experiences after having made personal sacrifices, and they conclude that reaching for the top is simply not worth the effort. However, when women are able to see that their value proposition will be fulfilled with a position of power, they are compelled to strive for success.

Nicki Gilmour, organizational psychologist and CEO of theglasshammer.com comments “Power and authority dynamics are at the very heart of the diversity question. Women and men often have similar corporate goals, and it is rarely discussed that men should be anything else but successful at work which is a huge disservice to both sexes since some men just like some women just aren’t that ambitious. It is, however, but the constant scrutiny of female executives’ behavior along with the systemic hindrances that are built into the system historically that continues to define what leadership traits look like. The incongruence lies here not with the individual’s desire for power since with every other message women are given throughout their life on how to be is very misaligned with traditional ideas of how an executive should act, therefore being it less appealing.”

By Kathleen Delaney

/by

Leadership – How to develop yourself to be the leader you need and want to be | Part one

,

female leaderBy Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Pyschologist

One of my favorite books on leadership and women at work generally is called “Act Like A Leader, Think Like a Leader” written by one of my most admired academics, Herminia Ibarra from INSEAD. Why I like her book so much is that it is practical yet deeply rooted in a subject her and I both have passion for. What is that? Organizational learning and leadership development work.

In fact, one of her sub chapters in the book on how to be a great leader is called,”Steal Like An Artist”. She states that nothing is original and we have to stand on the shoulders of giants to keep evolved concepts and ideas. True to that, the book itself encompasses many of the best theories from other top academics so you get to read it all on one place as well as read Herminia’s insights which I think are top notch. So since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am going to endorse and share with you over the next two weeks in this column what Ms. Ibarra has to say on being more of a leader, being authentic as a leader and finally ensuring you want to be one.

Let’s start with looking at a self-assessment from her book – do you want to step up? Are you in a career building period? Or a career maintenance or a even a career transitioning period? Note: people come to me to be coached in any of these three stages.

Answer the questions with a yes or a no.

Have you been in the same job or career path for at least seven years?
Do you find yourself restless professionally?
Do you find your job more draining than energizing?
Do you resent not having more time for outside interests or family?
Do you have a changing family configuration that will allow you to explore other options?
Are you admiring folks around you who are making big changes?
Has your work lost some meaning for you?
Do you find that your career ambitions are changing?
Recent events have left me appraising what I really want?
Do you find your enthusiam has waned for your work projects?

If you answered yes to 6-10 statements then you could already be deeply in a career-transitioning period. Make time to reflect on your goals and see if your life goals are evolving also.

If you answered yes 3-5 times then you may be entering a career-transitioning period. Work to increase insights and “outsights” which are new horizons that appear from doing new things and meeting new people.

If you got 2 or less yeses then you are more likely to be in a career-building period in your current job so you are busy working on developing within that role, team or firm.

Ultimately, people often go for bigger jobs when they feel the excitement wane, so if that’s the case, let’s see how we can help you get what you want at work!

If you are interested in hiring an executive coach to help you navigate your career the contact nicki@theglasshammer.com for a no obligation chat.

/by

How to Make Your Team the Best It Can Be

,

woman chairing a boardroom meetingImagine a world where your boss genuinely cares about you, where he or she nurtures you, recognizes and rewards you fairly, always taking time to acknowledge your hard work and dedication. Not only that, but they respect you and support your professional growth.

Read more

/by