Tag Archive for: lgbt

How to Be the Best Ally You Can be to an LGBT Co-worker or Colleague

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By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational PyschologistNicki Gilmour

You are probably fairly evolved when it comes to treating others like you would like to be treated. You stick to this golden rule and that is a good basic strategy as human civility and trust come from simple questions such as ‘Hey, how was your weekend?’

Letting the person respond to ‘the weekend’ question in an authentic way without raising an eyebrow or judging them according to your norms and yardstick is also a good start. Often a simple reply of ‘I went to the cinema with my girlfriend/wife/partner’ becomes an anxiety ridden moment for the gay gal or guy. If there is a sense of not being able to disclose this otherwise very normal and innocuous piece of info about their weekend, they may not trust you. This creates a difference that doesn’t need to be there.  People won’t share, they will change pronouns and generally omit details. Imagine not being able to talk casually about your everyday life? Not fun! Just think that if you are straight, you never run the risk of being accused of having a lifestyle for watching the same Hollywood movie hit as everyone else this past weekend.

The stakes can be high. I am not talking about the lack of legal protections in some states and parts of the world that can result in instant firing for being suspected of being gay (see last week’s column), I am talking about trust. If people do not trust you, you are not going to have the best shot at a high performing team as we have seen from numerous workplace research regardless of LGBT status.

What can you do to ensure you are being inclusive?

– When a new woman joins, do not ask her about her husband, instead use inclusive language like spouse/significant other.
– Show inclusive behavior like mentoring an LGBT team member or being reverse mentored by them.
– Take time to get to know people individually. Just because you know one gay person does not mean you know what all gay people are like.
– Do not say ‘Oh, I have a gay friend’ out of context. Can you imagine if every guy you met made a point of telling you that they had one platonic female friend as an isolated sentence?
– Do tell an anecdotal story about a time that you and your gay friend did something together in context if you want to make the other person aware that you do have exposure to an LGBT person in your life
– Making other people comfortable is a lovely trait no matter who you are and who they are.

If you really want to do more, ask them what they think you can do and open up dialogue. Know that like anything they do not represent all gay people everywhere but rather just one human who like everyone else is getting through life with hopes, dreams, concerns and chores as much as anyone else.

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Alyssa Cowley of Shearman & Sterling Talks About Why She Feels It Is Important to Co-lead Sterling Pride and What She Hopes to Achieve

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Alyssa CowleyThe world was a much different place a decade ago when Sterling Pride, Shearman & Sterling’s LGBT inclusion network, was formed. As a former history major, my mind tends to go to the story of a place or group first. I wonder about the conversations that sparked the idea, and discussions involved in becoming one of the first law firms with an in-house LGBT inclusion network. In June 2006, the firm readily took the first step in giving its LGBT lawyers a voice in how to foster an inclusive environment for LGBT lawyers and staff by creating Sterling Pride. Shearman & Sterling didn’t have to be a leader, but it chose to be.

In 2006, while those conversations were taking place at Shearman, I was a junior at a north Texas high school. That year, my classmates threw around the word “gay” as a synonym for “dumb” or “worthless,” and the Gay-Straight Alliance at my high school was effectively dead on arrival. My best friend, a bisexual man, and I whispered about our “different-ness” backstage during after-school musical rehearsals. The concept of being bisexual barely existed, let alone had achieved any level of acceptance with our peers.

Ten years later, I am so grateful to begin my career as an attorney at a place with a true commitment to the LGBT community and to diversity more broadly. Beginning with the on-campus recruitment process, the visibility of Sterling Pride lawyers signaled to me that Shearman & Sterling was a place that I could focus on growing as a lawyer without the distraction and pressures of having to “cover” as a straight woman. It can be easy to feel a little lost as a first-year associate in a large New York office, but in Sterling Pride, I felt as though I had a built-in community. Being a member of Sterling Pride has connected me to a network of mentors, deepened my connection with my colleagues, and has given me opportunities to meet clients and lawyers across the city. Furthermore, my colleagues, whether partners or first-year associates, have consistently been reflective and engaged, both formally and informally, about how to make the firm’s environment more welcoming, more fair, and more of a meritocracy. I have been able to thrive because of the strong foundation that Sterling Pride members and allies have built.

Now, as co-chair of Sterling Pride (and as the first woman to serve in such position), I am honored to be an ambassador for our inclusive atmosphere, but I also know that there is work to be done. Women are underrepresented in the law—particularly in the ranks of senior leadership. Women are also underrepresented in LGBT spaces—bisexuals even more so. It is true that bisexual women tend to benefit from invisibility and passing, and thereby enjoy a level of privilege that others within the LGBT community do not. However, for that same reason, they are uniquely positioned to challenge stereotypes and to carry messages of inclusion into hetero-normative spaces. I believe that cultural change is achieved one person at a time, one connection at a time. As we continue to diversify the voices around the table, we reaffirm the value of each individual’s contributions.

Importantly, being a part of Sterling Pride has been a way to begin giving back to—and investing in—the firm that has chosen to invest in me. As part of a firm with a global presence, we have a distinct opportunity to set the tone in all of our offices and to make sure all of our lawyers and staff can grow in their careers regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. As the work of organizations such as Out Leadership and the Williams Institute have shown, diversity makes business sense. Inclusive environments retain talent, increase productivity, and allow employees to be more fully engaged at work. Discrimination is costly, both in terms of underemployment and in expending resources to combat the mental toll that discrimination takes on those who are victimized. Furthering Sterling Pride’s reach within the firm strengthens it overall, making us more competitive in and more adaptive to the changing conditions of the global marketplace.

In closing, I turn back to the history of the firm once again. John William Sterling, one of the firm’s two co-founders, never married but lived together with his best friend and companion, a man, for nearly 50 years. While it is impossible to know what Sterling might think of the firm’s commitment to the LGBT community today, I believe he would be proud of the firm and the enormous progress we have made in supporting LGBT issues in the century since his death. Hopefully, we will all be even prouder in the next hundred years.

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How to be a good Sponsor and Champion to LGBT people in their careers

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LGBT flag featuredBy Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Pyschologist

Following on from last week’s career advice and staying with the LGBTA theme for the month since June is Pride month, today I am going to talk about how to be an Ally, Champion and Sponsor to your LGBT colleagues and co-workers. I come across many people who want to be an inclusive leader and ensure that their team members get to focus on work and not on fitting it or assimilating instead. However, many leaders and managers with the best of intentions still do not have many LGBT mentees or sponsees. Tips to ensure your portfolio of people that you mentor is diverse can include:

Do not be afraid of offering up supportive statements to indicate you are an Ally. Gay team members often do not know where you stand on the topic as a concept because sadly the topic is still at ‘concept’ level ( there are still millions of overtly homophobic people out there some more covert than others, how do we know that you are an ally if you don’t tell us!)
Don’t presume you know them just because you know one other gay person (or even several) because like racial bias, you are stereotyping whether you realize it or not.
Respect their individual personality on how much they want to talk about their spouse and family just as you would any other coworker, not everyone wants to share regardless of their identity. Equally, ask them the questions you ask your other team members ( like: hey how was your weekend, how are the kids etc?)
Coach other less exposed/less evolved executives on your team and know you are a culture carrier.

Know that you have the ability to advance people individually but also change the system so that future generations can truly come to work and not have to come out everyday and fear mixed reactions.

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you want to hire an executive coach to help you navigate your career

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Coming Out, Connecting and Finding Allies

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LGBT flag featuredBy Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

This week and this month on theglasshammer.com we are celebrating LGBT women at work and the Allies that champion and support them. We do this series every year in June since we aim to inspire professional women at work and if you are a gay woman and are out or thinking about coming out then we want to make sure you know you are not the only lesbian executive around. Much like the broader mission of theglasshammer.com, our career advice today in this column is to help you find sponsors, mentors and champions so that you can build your network and connect with people who can ultimately help you. To connect with anyone, both parties need to know a little about each other and build a little trust and that is the number one reason to come out at work. Studies show that if you are not able to bring your full self to work then it is going to be harder to perform, engage and generally stay motivated.

Theglasshammer and our consulting arm Evolved Employer did comprehensive research back in 2012 in both NY and London with LGBT women and one of the conclusions was sometimes it is gender bias that is still preventing us from advancing than our LGBT status. Read the US and the UK research here- some nuances to think about.

I also did a piece of work with my a colleague Dr. Frank Golom at a leading Fortune 100 firm on stereotype threat for LGBT people at work (read about that here) and a major career strategy that we recommend from the research is that you need to make sure people know who you are and what you can do at work instead of any preconceived notions they might have. They have these notions for many reasons ( such as the media portrayals, narrow experience of actual gay people or knowing one gay woman and then thinking every other gay person they meet is the same and gender role conformity expectations depending on how you show up on the expression spectrum). Sure, it can be super tedious to educate others all day, every day, but to some extent everyone has to do it albeit, the more non-dominant social identities you have the more it seems you have to educate.

Career advice? Seek out internal and external networking groups if you feel like it will help you formally and informally. It is not for everyone, just as not everyone wants to join a women’s network but if you like to share experiences and seek situational advice from people who have been there then it could be a good fit. Out Leadership have recently formed a women’s group headed up by Stephanie Sandberg. Out and Equal are a fabulous resource also and there are many other groups (GWN and Stonewall in London for example) that host events and get togethers. Many firms have LGBTQIA networks You might find a mentor or at the very least friendship there and remember the A stands for Allies and Allies can sponsor and champion you in your career. We help develop LGBTA networks as well as women’s networks from mission to structure to actual content so contact us if you are leading one or are trying to start one at your firm.

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you wish to hire an executive coach to help you navigate your career

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LGBT Leadership Update: Rising Corporate Activism and Executive Pride

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LGBT flag featuredBy Aimee Hansen

With June, we turn to Pride Month on the diversity calendar, so let’s focus our spotlight to recent progress on advancing LGBT inclusive business cultures and LGBT executive leadership.

Corporate Activism Defends LGBT Rights

Recently, state law setbacks to the LGBT community (and human rights) have one positive side effect: they’ve led to a collective backlash from companies and employers who have united to defend LGBT rights.

Repeatedly, companies have been asserting to state lawmakers that upholding LGBT rights is a necessary condition for attracting and maintaining the best talent for businesses.

Since North Carolina passed an anti-discrimination law that failed to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, over 200 business leaders – including CEOs and executives of major companies such as Apple, Bank of America, Citibank, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, and more – have signed an open letter to the state governor calling for a repeal to the “HB 2” law, stating that “such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business”.

Canceled plans by Paypal, Deutsche Bank and performance artists are estimated to have cost the state “tens of millions in dollars of losses”. Meanwhile, companies also joined in activism with an open letter to state leaders in Mississippi to repeal “HB 1523”, which gives individuals or organizations license to discriminate against LGBT people based on religious justification.

In the Harvard Business Review, author Andrew Winston points out that business has been ahead of the public curve when it comes to LGBT rights. Winston notes that over half of Fortune 500 companies were offering domestic partner benefits ten years ago when only 35% of Americans supported gay marriage (and 55% opposed it), and that today corporate adoption of anti-discrimination policies based on gender identity (66% of companies) outpaces public acceptance of transgender rights.

In the case of LGBT rights, Winston argues the moral imperative of non-discrimination in the workplace and the economic motivation to thrive with diverse customers are so understandably linked that business is “pro-actively influencing societal norms.”

LGBT Diversity Associated with Stock Performance

Influencing policy is part of the equation, but building an LGBT-inclusive culture is another thing. When LGBT employees do not feel free to be themselves, when they feel they have to “hide in plain sight”, it’s proven costly not only to employees but to business.

When diversity is celebrated and genuinely fostered, not only individual productivity but company productivity seems to benefit. According to a recent report by Credit Suisse, the stock of companies that exhibit LGBT diversity outperform the stock of companies that do not.

LGBT diversity was factored by companies that have openly LGBT leaders and senior management, are voted as leading LGBT employers, or have many employees in local LGBT business networks.

The LGBT basket of 270 companies outperformed the MSCI ACWI by 3% annually since 2010, as well as outperforming a custom basket of companies in US, Europe and Australia by 1.4% annually.

The correlation of LGBT diversity with performance is important, since according to the report, 72% of senior LGBT executives say they have not come out at work, which is not surprising when it’s still legal to fire someone based on sexual orientation in over twenty states and based on gender identity in over thirty states.

Celebrating LGBT Executive Role Models

Celebrating diversity at the very top, for the first time in the three years since its introduction, a woman topped the 2015 list of the 100 Most Powerful LGBT Executives in the World, named by OUTstanding and the Financial Times.

Inga Beale is the first female CEO of Lloyd’s of London and openly bi-sexual. As she told The Guardian, “It’s not about me. It’s about what you do for other people. For me, it’s so important because you need these role models.”

According to OUTstanding as reported in Entreprenuer, recognition is critical since closeted LGBT employees are 70% more likely to leave a company within the first three years.

The list of LGBT power executives, for which activism outside of the workplace is also taken into account, included several from the finance world, including Accenture’s Sander van‘t Noordende (10), Citi’s Bob Annibale (28), Goldman Sach’s Gavin Wills (36), and PwC’s Andy Woodfield (78) and Mark Gossington (82).

Speaking to the inclusive culture fostered at Accenture, Sander van’t Noordende has said, “Only when people are comfortable in their workplace will they be able to get the best out of themselves,” advising individuals to not only value their difference, but also find a company that values their difference too.

Promoting LGBT C-Suite Leadership

Stanford is also stepping up to encourage aspiring LGBT executives to value their difference. Stanford Graduate School of Business introduced the Stanford LGBT Executive Leadership Program, which will first take place in late July 2016 and is accepting applications until June 24th.

With a focus on fostering authentic and impactful senior LGBT leadership and network building, Stanford states, “This is the only Executive Education program of its kind offered by a leading business school to address the significant gap in leadership for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the C-suite.”

According to program co-director Tom Wurster, the one-week training is ideally aimed at “the LGBT executive with a minimum of 10 years professional experience and 5 years of management experience who is preparing to take on more significant leadership roles.”

More visible leadership within more significant leadership roles – out and proud and C-Suite is the call.

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LGBT Update: Corporate Culture and Leadership Key to supporting LGBT professionals in your team

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By Aimee Hansen

Every June is celebrated on the diversity calendar as Pride Month in many corporations and we also like to update you on the progress being made for LGBT professionals and shine a light also on how straight allies can help advance talented individuals who may identify as LGBT in your office.

Out Now’s LGBT 2020, the world’s largest LGBT research project, puts a $9 billion a year cost on not paying attention to this issue. That’s how much the US economy could save if organizations were better at implementing diversity and inclusion policies for LGBT staff, or to make it clear, if LGBT employees felt more comfortable.

The “LGBT Diversity: Show me the business case” research measures the financial savings for companies who foster an inclusive work culture where LGBT employees are comfortable to be themselves. The research reveals that LGBT staff who are open with all co-workers about their sexuality are significantly more likely to stay in their job than those who are not out to anyone at work, creating a rewarding staff retention dividend.

Ian Johnson, Chief Executive of Out Now, says, “This report for the first time enables companies to see exactly why investing in a more equitable and supportive workplace for everyone is a sound business investment that demonstrates solid returns.”

Corporate Culture is Key

The degree to which formal corporate LGBT diversity & inclusion policies are effective may come down to how well they are truly reflected informally within the corporate culture.

The aforementioned LGBT2020 study found that among a diverse range of workers in the USA, 38% were out to everybody (and more likely to strongly disagree with leaving their job in the near future) while 35% of people were out to nobody or a few trusted people.

The researchers saw a 6% drop in those “out to all” (38% vs 44%) over the last two years, stating “This represents a significant and worrying fall, especially when LGBT workplace diversity has been placed on the agenda of an increasing number of larger US companies during this time.” They speculate this could reflect a toning down related to the saliency of marriage equality being pitched against religious beliefs. Half of those LGBT employees surveyed reported overhearing homophobic comments at work.

Being fully out correlated with a 30% productivity benefit. Among USA employees “out to all”, 67% strongly agreed they were “respected as a productive and valuable team member.” But among those “out to no one”, only 38% felt so.

When it came to feeling that coming out could impact upon future promotions in the workplace, 24% of lesbians, 30% of gay men, 40% of bisexuals, and 55% of transgender employees agreed. And while 80% of employees rated diversity policies at their next company as fairly or very important, only 45% would feel comfortable to ask about those policies in an interview. That highlights the subtle difference between corporate policies and corporate culture.

Discriminative Nuances of the Corporate Closet

The LGBT 2020 statistics echo the findings of HRC’s Cost of the Closet survey of 800 LGBT workers. This research reported an “invisible workforce” of 53% of LGBT employees “having to hide in plain sight”. The study showed that employers are losing talent and engagement due to “treatable problems with workplace environment or culture.”

The study identified overseen dynamics that contribute to social exclusion, since work culture largely consists of informal conversations and cues: “The primary influences on workplace cultures are so ubiquitous, they are almost easy to miss.”

For LGBT employees, daily non-work related conversations about weekend and dinner plans and photos on your desk create an identity-related dilemma. While “81% of non-LGBT respondents feel that LGBT people ‘should not have to hide’ who they are in the workplace,” the reality is that “less than half of non-LGBT employees would feel comfortable hearing LGBT workers talk about dating.”

So it’s no surprise that 35% of LGBT employees felt compelled to lie about their personal lives, many reporting exhaustion and distraction.

The researchers reported, “This double standard emerges in our study, where frequent personal conversations occur among coworkers, and LGBT employees are receiving the message that their contributions are not welcome, or worse, inappropriate. In fact, 70% of non-LGBT workers agree that ‘it is unprofessional’ to talk about sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace.”

While sharing is an intrinsic part of any corporate culture, not everyone’s sharing is received equally: “When sharing the same day-to-day anecdotes with co-workers, LGBT people are seen as over-sharing, or forcing their ‘lifestyle’ upon co-workers.”

Missing Out on Networks

An Italian study found a culture of silence, “prevents LGBT employees from constructing a work identity which encompasses their sexual identity and prevents the organizations from achieving their aim of being fully inclusive workplaces.” It would appear so does a cultural of cues of subtle disapproval.

The HRC researchers point out that not being able to be open at work “can isolate a person and erode valuable rapport with co-workers, managers and would-be mentors.” Some of the top reasons for not coming out include making co-workers feel uncomfortable or losing connection with them, but when LGBT employees feel compelled to hide their lives, they are already cut off.

This matters to career development. LGBT employees risk being excluded from informal networks that can lead to career advancement, the invisible channels through which individuals build trust and rapport with colleagues and get noticed for sponsorship and advancement by senior management. This kind of social exclusion doesn’t require official discrimination, just the right amount of invisible cues and signals.

Corporate Non-Discrimination Policies Are Improving

The Corporate Equality Index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) for 2015, the national benchmarking tool on LGBT corporate policies and practices, reports that a record 366 businesses (20% increase on 2014) have earned a top score of 100 percent and distinction of “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.”

The criteria is based upon equal benefits for same-sex partners and spouses, ending benefits discrimination for transgender employees and dependents, firm-wide organizational competency on LGBT issues, and public commitment to the LGBT community.

This is nearly double the companies who earned that ranking three years ago in 2012 and the report notes that transgender progress is greatest – with a rising number of companies offering healthcare, transition support, and gender-identity non-discrimination.

Federal Non-Discrimination Policies Are Lacking

Chad Griffin, President of the HRC Foundation, remarks there’s still a long way to go. “Despite 66% of all Fortune 500 companies now including gender identity in the employment protections, we know that this does not always translate into everyday inclusion of the transgender community. While many companies are leading the way, our nation’s federal non-discrimination protections are lagging behind. Critical cultural shifts need to take place to foster greater inclusion.”

This is true for LGBT inclusion broadly. Sarah McBridge at the Center for American Progress, introducing her co-authored We The People report for governmental LGBT non-discrimination, illustrates the atmosphere of uncertainty for LGBT employees: “In 14 states, individuals can legally marry their same-sex partner on Sunday and then legally be fired from their jobs on Monday simply for exercising that right.”

It turns out that “out and proud” are valuable words indeed. The opposite is costly both to LGBT individuals and to organizations.

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Being Out at Work: Exploring LGBT women’s workplace experience in the UK | Whitepaper

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It is my pleasure to publish this piece of research focusing on the experience of LGBT women who work within the UK’s financial and professional services industries. We aim to explore the perceptions, realities, and trends around how women interpret their environment whilst at work.

Our respondents to this UK survey are mainly readers of TheGlassHammer.com, some of whom attended our 2012 event “Managing Multiple Identities: Being Out at Work,” which was held in London. Our methodology was both qualitative and quantitative for this research and we formed questions around the following hypothesis:

“Competence assumed and compensation being equal, LGBT employees feel more engaged at work if they are shown increased organisational and managerial support.”

This approach to our research is very much at the core of the work we do at Evolved Employer. We engage with clients to examine and improve organisational culture and work with leadership to increase competency around diversity and inclusion issues so that talent and business strategies can be successful. After all, if culture can be defined as “the way we do things around here” then it is critical for leaders to understand how to engage and include different types of people. This has been shown to increase performance and engagement and this is the business case for diversity work.

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Does Being LGBT Still Matter or Are We in a Post-Bias World at Work?

Nicki GilmourRecently, I was asked to speak at The Conference Board’s Diversity and Inclusion conference in NY. My topic can be paraphrased into ‘why culture eats strategy for breakfast when it comes to diversity’ and most other things for that matter. In my session I was asked, “Do you still think that being LGBT matters since there has been considerable societal and workplace progress recently?”

My response was, “It depends on which firm you work for.” This holds true for a similar question regarding gender and essentially any social identity matter these days. Anecdotally, over the past seven years of theglasshammer’s existence, a small number of you have told me that it does not matter; that you are a woman at work and it has no bearing on your career. I see a small group of people echoing this sentiment when it comes to applying the same question to being LGBT at work. Conversely, most of you have told me or have acknowledged formally in print that, yes being a woman does matter and having other social identities, such as LGBT or being Multicultural, are factors that affect how people perceive you at work regardless of your talents. It even has affected how some of you see yourselves, famously coined as the imposter syndrome.

My first caveat is that you are entitled to any construct of belief that works for you, as personality and personal experiences are so often overlooked or discredited when they should not be. Ambition and access to the right relationships along with the natural desire often embedded into our personalities (conscious or otherwise) to assimilate to dominant group behaviors can trump a lot of adversity in any part of the world or in any workplace.

Many people enjoy hard work and find the climb exhilarating. There is something to be said for believing something and then growing your reality from that place. That is why we have theglasshammer and why books like Lean In exist; to give you every chance to think about networking, negotiation, and career advancement on your terms should you choose it. Further to that, if you buy into the concept that you control your destiny, you won’t see or perceive obstacles to be because of your social identity at work; this concept works for some people, myself included, until I studied Organizational Psychology. There is a certain personality who can make it anywhere, but the question sometimes becomes at what cost? I count myself in this category. If I was a flower I could grow happily on a rock. The downside of this strategy is that I would be completely ignoring the environmental forces around me that help other flowers grow with less energy and better soil on the meadow.

Stereotypes- Alive and Well

I want to share a shocking, previously unseen study with you that my good friend and associate Dr. Frank Golom conducted to prove that we don’t live in a post-bias world and that social identity matters.

The new study uses the famous and now forty-year-old “Think Manager, Think Male” trait research conducted and progressed by Virginia Schein. This new study by Dr. Golom et al extends the groups to include gay managers and lesbian managers in addition to (presumed) straight female and male manager categories.

Dr. Golom, whilst at Columbia University, surveyed almost 200 undergraduate and graduate students in the NY metro area. Eighty percent were women and a small percentage of all respondents were LGBT-identified. The results will astound you and make you think twice about any beliefs you may have around the next generation creating change just by virtue of being born as Gen Y.

Despite the survey responders being mostly women, the group that was elected as having the most leader-like traits was the straight male manager group. This group was ranked as most competent, productive, and emotionally stable amongst other attributes.

So perhaps these young, educated women might answer a direct question such as, “Do you want to be CEO?” as, “yes”, yet blatantly stated their group as a whole to be a less able group (remember this is a stereotype, actual competency levels were not measured as no individuals were presented here as subjects).

Furthermore, lesbians as a stereotyped group were rated as hostile and less competent than straight men yet had an edge over straight women ( as ranked by straight women, go figure?). Gay men really bore the brunt of the evils of stereotyping in this survey. They were assigned very low rankings on every trait that is considered to be leader-like, despite the slogans that people write on their Facebook such as, “It gets better”.

How can this be, I hear you ask? Well, you have all heard about unconscious bias and stereotyping but perhaps it is good to note that (mostly straight) women are guilty of it too. It is less discussed that (mostly white) women have a role in keeping the status quo in place due to their proximity to the current power structure, just as it is also a stereotype to think men don’t want to be involved and do something.

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Voice of Experience: Julie Harris, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Julie HarrisWelcome to Pride Week on The Glass Hammer — we’ll be profiling successful LGBT business women all week long!

Julie Harris, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, had a master plan when she entered college – or so she thought. “I come from a blue collar family,” said Harris, “and while my parents have always been incredibly supportive, they did not have a lot of advice on career choices, so I picked a major that seemed challenging and figured I would get a good job. That was my mental model.”

Harris decided that she was going to major in Computer Science and get a job programming. This trajectory probably would have served Harris very well had she not determined in her senior year of college that while she was very interested in applying technology to business problems, she did not love programming.

It was at this juncture that Harris first tapped into a bit of profound professional wisdom. Harris said, “It was the first time I made the distinction between knowing what you can do and are good at, versus knowing what you love doing.” She adds, “This is something I have thought a lot about throughout my career when making choices. When you follow passions instead of just capabilities, it can be the difference between good and great.”

Although Harris had just spent four years preparing to graduate with a Computer Science major and enter the workforce as a top notch programmer, she was unwilling to settle. So, instead of heading to a traditional programming job, Harris decided to apply her technology background in a burgeoning industry at the time known as consulting.

“All the big accounting firms started building consulting arms because clients wanted total solutions.” Harris continued, “I started working at what was then known as Arthur Andersen, which became Andersen Consulting, and is now Accenture, in the Management Information Consulting division.” Out of the nine years Harris spent there, she only focused on programming for two of those years, ultimately moving to business analysis roles which focused more on application of technology to business problems .

Even though this experience formed the foundation for Harris’ professional career, she gleaned much more from her time as a consultant. Harris explained, “The great thing about a firm like that is that it taught someone who didn’t have professional experience how to be structured and disciplined, essentially how to be a professional.”

If Harris was going to continue to be a key player in the corporate arena she knew she had to familiarize herself with the business landscape in order to successfully navigate it. Although her knowledge of business, particularly in the financial services sector, was limited, Harris was not deterred. Instead, this motivated her to enroll in the MBA program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.

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What it Means to Be an LGBT Woman at Work | Managing Identities 2012 Event | UK

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diverse women in the boardroomLast week’s event, Managing Identities: Being out at Work, brought to the UK by The Glass Hammer and hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, gave a unique insight into the personal journeys that notable LGBT women in the financial and professional services have experienced being out at work and the difference coming out has made to their careers.

Nicki Gilmour, CEO of The Glass Hammer, kicked off the evening with a thought provoking snapshot of the latest research that she and her team are conducting around being “the L in LGBT” at work in financial services. Despite the rise of LGBT groups in companies and the increase of attention by the media on LGBT life in the world at large, out of about 100 people surveyed so far only 59% confirmed they were out at work.

The panel, craftfully moderated by Jane Hill of the BBC, began by inviting the five openly gay women from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Nomura International, and Marsh USA to share their own journeys of coming out at work.

Coming Out at Work

When Sarah Walker, Executive Director of the Enterprise Data & Services Group and Global Head of Securities Reference Data; IT & Data Operations at Morgan Stanley, started work in Australia, she was “19, dating guys and still straight, had a boyfriend, but during that time I realised I wanted to see women.” During the process of coming out to her family and friends, she didn’t feel it was important to come out at work. On reflection, she felt she didn’t have any role models or examples of others coming out at work and didn’t really know how to handle the situation.

The answer? “It seemed easier to move companies than to come out.”  The good news is that it has gotten better for Walker since then. When she moved jobs, she decided she would be open about who she was immediately. “It changed from being a big deal to not a big deal, it was easier, and it was part of me then.”

Julia Hoggett, Head of Covered Bonds and FIG (Financial Institutions) Flow Financing EMEA and Head of Short Term Fixed Income Origination EMEA at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was on drugs when she came out. She was recovering in hospital from spinal surgery on morphine and when her Managing Director visited her, she introduced her girlfriend. It was three days later that she realised she had just outed herself at work. Following the incident, Hoggett was asked to contribute more to the firm and join the gay and lesbian network. She really appreciated that endorsement early on in her career.

All of the panelists agreed how important it was that they had support from those they came out to at work. As Angela Best, EMEA Group Tax Controller at Nomura, put it, “It only takes one person to build on your confidence to come out.” Next the panelists considered how, as most firms have set up Allies programs, being LGBT can still be an issue. For the global community that we all operate in, it is. As Toni Mohammed, Client Manager at Marsh Inc., explained, “It is still illegal to be gay in Trinidad & Tobago,” and this is the crux of it. Similarly, Lale Topcuoglu, Portfolio Manager, Managing Director, Co-head of Global Investment Grade Portfolio Management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, hasn’t had an issue about being gay at work and has found Goldman Sachs to be supportive, including having her CEO speak out publicly about marriage equality in the US. But she feels that there are legal issues that need to be addressed outside of work. “I only had to cross the river and my marriage was not recognised and I didn’t have the same rights over my kids,” she pointed out. For Mohammed, talking to clients was a continual challenge. She recalled, “You had to remember the lie you told one other person, to another person,” and she found herself deflecting a lot of the time before coming out to selective clients with whom she has long term relationships.

Supportive Groups

The panelists examined how Allies groups create a platform for LGBT issues to be understood, but they also provide an opportunity to build networks and ultimately business.

The panel discussed how education and awareness contribute to a more inclusive environment at work. This is achieved by stronger relationships with your co-workers. The need for role models at senior levels is very important. “If you are seen as a success, but not relatable to, then you are not necessarily going to be an accessible role model for women coming up through the ranks,” said Hoggett.

All felt it important that if you are in a senior level position you should be open and available for questions from women working through the ranks, and be frank of your achievements as an open gay woman as well. Hoggett continues, “You are only going to get ahead in this industry if you are good. The fact that you’re gay is one thing that makes up who you are, but it’s not the driving thing. You have to prove that you are effective. You have to put yourself forward and have people recognize what you have achieved, and that is something that women tend to gloss over.”

Finally, when asked if the panelists saw themselves as role models Mohammed answered that she “considers all the people before us as role models.” She has recently been asked to join the Marsh USA diversity council as a representative of the Pride group and feels it is “a great opportunity for a company like Marsh, to draw our business into the LGBT world as we are a huge market and can show everyone what we can bring to the table.”

Are you an LGBT woman working in the financial services in the UK? If so, please help us with upcoming research by taking our confidential and anonymous survey! Click here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/882311/LGB-Workplace-Survey

By Lucy Sandilands (London)

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