Tag Archive for: promotion

Asian American Women Leaders: No Equity or Inclusion without Promotion.

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Asian American Women LeadersDiversity is not the same as equity and inclusion, and that case is made strongly by the real gap between the large numbers of Asian Americans and Asian American women in professional roles and the slight numbers holding senior and executive leadership positions.

An evolution of both equitability in promotions and more inclusive images of leadership is needed to breakthrough the nebulous bamboo ceiling – propped up by perceptions, stereotypes, projections and some cultural differences that have very little to do with leadership competency.

It’s A Promotion Issue

When we talk Asian American heritage in the U.S., we are talking about a widely diverse aggregate of people – individuals from distinctive ethnic backgrounds from 3 major regions and over 20 countries: East Asians (incl. Chinese and Japanese individuals), South Asians (incl. Indians and Pakistanis) and Southeast Asians (incl. Thai and Vietnamese individuals).

As a diverse whole, this fastest-growing demographic group of Asian Americans are over-represented among the highly educated and the professional workforce, but highly underrepresented in leadership: they represent 7% of the U.S. population, 13% of the U.S. professional workforce and only 6% of executive posts. Only 4 CEOS of Fortune 500 companies are Asian American women, 4 CEOS of S&P 500, and none of the S&P 100.

Asian Americans are least likely to be promoted to senior management and leadership: In 2016, Ascend found that one of every 12 white men and one of every 28 white women in the professional workforce is an executive, but only one of every 30 Asian American men and one of every 64 Asian American women have reached executive level.

This invisible barrier to senior leadership shows up across professional sectors:

  • Ascend found that only 1 out of every 285 Asian women and 1 out of every 201 Asian men in Silicon Valley was an executive.
  • Yale reported that Asian Americans have the lowest ratio of parters to associates.
  • Asian Americans manage less than 1% of capital in the asset management industry despite meeting and exceeding industry performance benchmarks.
  • While comprising 23% of middle managers and professionals in banking’s six largest U.S. lenders, Asian Americans make up only 7% to 19% of executives in these organizations.

As Buck Gee, researcher and executive advisor to Ascend, summarizes: “The problem is equity of promotions.”

The Gaps in Inclusion and Addressing Discrimination

Not surprisingly, 65% of AAPI managers view the bamboo ceiling as a moderate to serious problem in their careers and nearly all see it as problematic – yet Asians are too often not prioritized or even included in DEI efforts. In Bain’s research on belonging and inclusion, Asians – both men (16%) and women (20%) – felt the least included of anyone, even though more represented than other groups in many environments.

45% of Asian adults have experienced outwardly offensive incidents since the start of the pandemic. 67% of Asians feel business has ignored racism against their community, 58% say racism in the workplace has damaged their relationship to their employer and 55% say little has been practically done to address systemic racism.

As highlighted last year during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the myriad form of discrimination and stereotypes that Asians experience are invalidated, obscured and gaslighted by the “model minority” mythology. These include lack of ethnic discernment, cultural ignorance, imposed cultural stereotypes as well as real cultural values and communication norms at odds with Western ‘masculine’ leadership concepts, racialized sexism/sexualized racism, and disproportionate work expectations due to perceptions of being content with self-sacrificing, hard-working, and delivering high performance standards. In terms of microaggressions, the term “interchangeable Asian” has come to qualify the frequent experience of being mistaken for someone else alongside the presumption of the perpetual foreigner.

Experiences of Exclusion Despite Representation in Tech

Ascend previously found that while Asian Americans comprised the largest cohort of entry-level, non-managerial employees with a college degree in Silicon Valley (47%), they are half as likely as white men and white women to hold positions within two reporting levels of the CEO.

Due to representation, Asian women are often excluded from DEI initiatives, but a Center for Worklife Law report released in April on women of color in tech reveals that the experiences of diverse Asian women in tech more closely parallel other women of color who are underrepresented.

East Asian women report lower engagement and career satisfaction. They are 66% less likely than white women to see a long-term future in tech, 42% more likely to have felt demeaned, disrespected, left out of the loop, or treated as invisible, 47% more likely than white women to have their competence and commitment put into question when becoming mothers, and 38% more likely to have difficulty getting administrative support.

South Asian women were 60% less likely than white women to see a long-term future in tech, 54% more likely to be given work beneath their skillset, and 54% more likely to feel that distancing from those like them was a politically savvy move at work. Whereas Southeast Asian women were 29% more likely than white women to leave a job for the workplace culture, 57% more likely to feel called on to perform emotional labor, 51% more likely to feel corralled into traditionally feminine roles, 45% more likely to feel perceived as a team player not a leader, and 43% more likely to feel expected to be a worker bee.

Diversifying the Image of Leadership

We previously called out that organizations are blatantly overlooking Asian American women leaders, who are already in the talent pipeline but getting caught in a career plateau, and organizations need to diversify the image of leadership:

  • Western leadership norms that are too narrow and over-emphasize “assertiveness,” not even the best indicator of an effective leader, are keeping East Asians from the US C-Suite. Too often, the cultural norms of humility and conformity are perceived as a lack of confidence or motivation, which they are not.
  • Insights into successful C-Suite Asian American Executives reveal many source their leadership in the non-visible values of continuous learning, collectivism and humility – but a too narrow definition of leadership inhibits companies from recognizing and promoting diverse leaders in, and for, their authentic leadership styles.

Asian-American Bain Partners and researchers, Karthik Venkataraman and Pam Yee, observe that equitability in systemic enablers (relative to everyday behavioral enablers) – such as performance management, promotion and recruitment – are more meaningful to Asian-Americans in creating inclusion. This is not surprising when statistics reveal that systemic inequities are at play in creating unequitable outcomes – and real interventions need to happen.

For one, clearly Asian Americans need to be included in equity and inclusion strategies, and formal executive sponsorship programs are needed to support Asian American women into those leadership spaces. If you’re a leader, considering being the sponsor that supports with visibility and exposure, and advocates for high-profile work and opportunities, for an Asian American woman who is being overlooked. If you’re an Asian American woman and you don’t have one now or have never had one, truly consider finding a sponsor to advocate for you, even if it’s uncomfortable to ask.

Inclusion means that individuals feel equitably valued and supported as their authentic selves, empowered, and able to fulfill their potential in the workplace. Bain Partners Venkataraman and Yee reflect on the leadership gap for Asian Americans, that also exists in their organization, and the potential cost of assimilation their generations made: “We believe that our junior colleagues are going to insist on being able to bring more of their cultures and experiences to the workplace than we did so that they can feel as though they belong as their authentic selves, and we need to do our part to make that possible for them.”

Indeed.

By Aimee Hansen

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How To Get Promoted

If getting promoted at work is on your goal list for the rest of the year, or part of early ruminations for a new year resolution for next year, how then can you do your best to achieve your goal?

How To Get PromotedHere are some things to consider:

1. Do you know what the formal promotional process is? Are you in it? What do you need to do criteria wise to get into it? Who drives it in your firm? What roles respectively do your boss(es) and HR play? What other stakeholders are important?

2. What job do you want? Do you want to take the next promotional step as defined by the company? If so, great, take time to understand the competencies needed to make the leap – both hard skills and behaviors. All jobs have tasks that we prefer over other tasks. Be honest with yourself, how strategically important are the tasks that you are avoiding and how will that impact you when being considered for the promotion?

3. If you do not want the linear next step, think about what you like doing, with who and why you enjoy it. This is a great way to distill what would be a good expansion of your role or even a lateral or a non-linear upward move to a different department. Then, work with your sponsor, boss and HR to craft your path.

4. Culturally, take a long hard look at what behaviors get rewarded at your firm. Do they equally get rewarded no matter what gender you are? What flies? What does not get tolerated? What grabs senior management’s attention? This is an important analysis to do as these data points are all keys to seeing what the future could look like so that you can proactively manage your career, every step of the way.

If you would like to work with an executive coach on navigating the terrain, schedule a free exploratory chat with Nicki Gilmour here.

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Why Relocating Can Boost Your Career—And How to Make It Work For You

Moving-home

By Cathie Ericson

Whether you’re employed at your company’s headquarters and want to find out more about working in a branch office—or vice versa—relocating within your company can boost your career in a myriad of ways.

It shows you’re a team player if you’re moving to fill a necessary role and bolsters your network of champions as you showcase your skills by working with others in various functions, departments and locations.

The reasons for relocation vary: One survey from Impact Group found that while nearly one-quarter relocated for a promotion, more than half said they were doing it for personal career development.
According to a Robert Half poll, 62 percent of respondents would relocate for a job opportunity—and that might be wise, considering that nearly half find they would receive better pay and perks through a move.

Many of those relocaters are women: A Wall Street Journal article reported that women accounted for nearly a quarter of moves by North American employers in 2016—up from 17 percent in 2009, according to surveys of employers by Atlas Van Lines Inc.
Sometimes the relocation is strictly for professional gains, such as your desire to learn new skills or work with new teams, but other times it’s for a personal reason, whether you want to be closer to family or have always wanted to live in other region. Whatever the reason, here are five ways to make the relocation seamless.

1. Explain why it’s in your company’s best interest.

Whether you want to work in a different division or want a change of scenery, it’s important to make your case carefully if it’s a relocation that you’re requesting, as opposed to one that’s been offered to you. Do some clandestine research on how other relocated colleagues have fared elsewhere in the company—did it propel their career or did it put them on the slow track to nowhere? That can help you determine if it’s a wise career move before you even get started.

And then conduct similar research to help you build your case. Find out how your background and skills can be parlayed into helping your division or location of choice achieve their goals and prepare to make a business case to prove your point.

As Erica Perkins, director of human resources business partners at Glassdoor, explains, “Don’t ask for something if you haven’t researched whether or not it’s feasible. Find out what your employer policy is on location transfers and (if international) global mobility programs and assignments/expatriation.”

You’ll also want to make sure you’re not professionally pigeonholing yourself “by taking on a specialist role,” Jennifer Petriglieri, an assistant professor at INSEAD, tells Harvard Business Review.

2. Learn more about the culture of the office and the location.

Ideally the firm will sponsor a trip for you to do some reconnaissance before making your decision, but if not, consider funding the trip yourself—you don’t want to complete all the paperwork and have your family uprooted only to find out that the office is significantly smaller than you had expected, located in a less-desirable area or has a culture that’s far different from your current one.

“Visiting your new office location at least once before you commit, reaching out to new coworkers via email or LinkedIn, or inquiring about the different types of culture-building activities offered to employees (or lack thereof) are just some examples of ways to vet a new opportunity,” recommends Phoebe Licata, an employee engagement consultant.

And utilize the power of social media to find out more about the city in general if you’ve not spent significant time there to make sure that it offers the ambience you prefer, whether that’s for cultural activities, outdoor adventures or a burgeoning restaurant scene.

If you are unable to visit, see how much information you can glean from coworkers—ideally you have a contact in the office who can be candid—or talk to other colleagues who regularly interact with those in the potential location. They might be able to give you important intel that can solidify your decision—or at least ensure you are prepared once you arrive.

3. Negotiate a compelling redo package.

The Robert Half survey found that more than one-third of companies have increased their relocation packages in the past five years, but it’s important to learn who will shoulder the various expenses. Among the aspects to consider are:

  • Funds for a fact-finding trip.
  • Moving expenses.
  • Temporary housing.
  • Housing allowance for a down payment, or a stipulation that the company purchases your existing home if it doesn’t sell.
  • Fees that might be required for new licenses, registration, utilities, etc. Also consider all contracts you have in place you might be breaking.
  • Other assistance, such as finding schools or jobs for your family members.

Also make sure to research the cost of living in the new location; if it’s significantly higher, you might want to ask about a bump in pay or subsidy commensurate with those expected higher expenses.

This is also the time to confirm whether it’s a permanent or temporary assignment and what recourse you have if things don’t go as planned.

4. Consider a “trailing spouse” if you have one.

As Matthew Bidwell, an associate professor at Wharton, explains in the Harvard Business Review article, “It’s not just what does this mean for your career, but what does this mean for our family?” he says.

Companies are realizing the importance of a happy family: The same Atlas survey found that more than 60 percent of employers provided job-hunting aid for spouses or partners in 2017, nearly double the 33 percent who did so in 2007.

And in addition to inquiring about the assistance your employer might offer, think through other networks or opportunities your partner can tap, whether it’s through their current job or LinkedIn connections. See if there are others in your new office who might be families with the industry and have contacts to share.

Making sure your family is on board with the move is a key part of your eventual success.

5. Embrace the adventure.

Whether the relocation was your idea or was something “strongly recommended” by your employer to advance your career, look at it as an incredible opportunity to try something different, meet new people and further enhance your career and your value to your company by bolstering your network and your skill set.

“A career is long; we can all afford a few adventures, and we have plenty of time to experiment and explore,” notes Petriglieri.

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Got promoted? 7 Tips When Choosing a Successor

Smartly dressed young women shaking hands in a business meeting at office desk

Guest Contribution

As you get promoted, you may be asked to help to select the right person to take over when you leave.

If legacy is important to you, you’ll probably want to have time to train your successor to handle their new role just as expertly as you do now.

Here are seven ways to make the process better for everyone.

1. Make Development the Focus

All too often, leaders make the mistake of scouting out employees with the same traits and skill sets and spend less time on what potentially a successor could do. A smooth transition includes not only figuring out who can do the job as well as you but it’s also about giving them the tools they need far in advance of the time they’ll have to use them.

So, as you begin to think about finding your successor, keep in mind that their confidence and hard work aren’t enough to ready them for your role. Development training should be part of the plan, too. Many companies have made this mistake, promoting someone into a position that they certainly have earned from successes as an individual contributor or even as a manager in another team, but for which they don’t particularly have the right skill set for this next role.

So, make sure development is at the heart of your succession plan. It’s not just workplace mentoring or shadowing, although those are important methods, too. Development is all about learning leadership skills that will make the promotion into a starring role more natural. Conferences or workshops can provide training, also, and reinvigorate leaders-in-training in their current positions.

2. Choose the Right Person

The first step in the process is to find the right candidate to take over for you. You might know exactly who that person is already, and it might be someone who works closely with you or someone who is excelling in a role that’s tied closely to yours. Consider the person’s skill set and make sure they’re already knowledgeable in some of the areas you deal with on a day-to-day basis. For extra padding, you could select more than one potential successor and, through training, see who is the best fit.

3. Consider the Logistics – And Revisit Regularly

When is it a good time to start succession planning? There is not one answer here, and it is depends on how senior you are and what is talent process is. Thomas Collura, partner at Hodgson Russ, says that the biggest mistake is failure to properly plan for succession early and neglecting to revisit those plans. As the business changes, so should your plans. Be open with your successor as well so that any changes can be considered well in advance.

4. Look to the Future

You shouldn’t make your succession plan with just the present taken into consideration. Instead, it’s vital that you have a broader outlook as you sit down to determine who’s right for the role. In the short term, someone just like you could be the solution, but, in the long run, you might make a mistake. Every company’s plans and forecasts are different, but you should know the trajectory of your role before you choose the replacement person.

5. Avoid Any Bias

Whether we like it or not, there are unconscious biases that come with the hiring process. They’re deemed to be unconscious because they’re not something we do purposefully, but these tendencies can stifle workplace diversity.

Taking certain precautions can prevent yourself from falling into this trap. Some hiring managers look at resumes without considering the candidate’s names so that gender bias can’t come into play. This practice could rule out any race-related biases, too.Of course, choosing a successor might mean you’re selecting candidates you already know. In this case, practice staying open to picking a new leader who’s not exactly like you.

6. Be a Mentor

Once you’ve narrowed in on the person or people who have the potential to take over in your absence, you should provide on-the-job training as well as the leadership development mentioned above. A great way to teach someone how to do your job is to show them first-hand, and a mentoring program would allow you to do that with ease. There are more benefits to mentoring than just training a successor. It makes all employees more skilled in their roles, and it makes them feel more satisfied with the workplace because it provides them opportunities to learn and grow. So, offer the program on a broader scale, but ensure your mentees are those who you’ve earmarked as potential leaders. That way, they can learn directly from you.

7. Write It All Down

Finally, as you wind down your role and prepare to hand over the reins to your successor, do one last thing to make it all simpler — provide them with a written set of instructions. Yes, it’s old school, but it’s also extremely helpful. All of your in-person training was great, but there are always going to be critical pieces of information that are worth repeating — write those down.
Not only will this make the succession plan easier for your replacement and your company, but it will make you feel at ease about everything, too. If you’re devising the right strategy for easing the transition, you care — and you can walk away knowing that you handled it well, chose the right person and prepared them as best you could. And there’s no better feeling to have when moving forward than that.

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

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Got Your Sights Set On A Promotion? Don’t Assume They Know How Good You Are

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business meeting at office deskMost people only think about their resume when they’re looking for a new job. While often that means moving to a new employer, sometimes opportunity appears in your own back yard. Someone at a higher level leaves or is promoted leaving an opening perfect for you.

If you think a resume is overkill when applying for an internal promotion, you would be wrong. A winning resume can dramatically increase your odds of securing that new role, particularly when you’re competing with outside candidates with brand-new achievement–based resumes.

Although, external candidates widen the pool, you have one big thing going for you. You’re a known quantity. This means they don’t have to worry whether or not you’re a good fit for the company culture.

Hopefully, you also know some, if not all, of the players that might include the hiring manager, the HR team, and anyone else with influence.
That said, you still need to sell yourself to get the job.

Many people assume that if they’ve been with an employer for several years that their reputation precedes them. They mistakenly think that if they’ve generated X amount of dollars by landing an important client or saved time by streamlining the end-of-month close process that the right people will know.

Unfortunately, they may not. The only way to be sure is to tell them, on your resume.

Whether you’ve been with your employer for 10 months or even 10 years, you can’t expect those in decision-making roles to be aware of how much you have accomplished. You need to sell yourself with an achievement-based resume geared towards your target role. Here are five ways to make a positive impression with your resume.

Emphasize Leadership – If your target position is a step up, it’s essential to identify instances that demonstrate your leadership abilities. Activities like training, supervising and mentoring staff; participating in company leadership or management development programs; any outside professional development or certifications can increase your leadership quotient.

Put the “I” in Team – Dealing with team projects can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. While acknowleging the team’s success is important, you need to consider the specific contributions you made. Maybe you contributed some particular knowledge or served as unofficial team leader. Perhaps you were the one who got buy-in from the boss to move forward.

Identify Initiative – Mention any cases whenyou stepped up to take on additional responsibilities, particularly if they had an impact on your department or the company. For example, maybe you managed a project for your current supervisor so he or she could focus on other things like business development. Even better if it ties to an important new client.

Underscore Relationships – Consider any instances where you excelled in relationship building. Maybe you were part of an interdepartmental or cross-company team. Perhaps you collaborated with the head of another department to solve a company-wide problem or negotated better terms with a vendor. Again, even better if your actions had a positive impact on the company.

Showcase Recognition – Think about any recognition you’ve earned during your career. Have you received any company or industry awards? Were you selected for a prestigious leadership program? Acknowledged by a happy client or two? It might even be something from an employment review.

Wherever you are in your career begin keeping track of your accomplishments today. Create a “brag book” with letters from clients, notes from colleagues, and performance reviews. Keep it at home not your office, just in case.

Spend some time looking back on your current and previous positions to identify any challenges you have faced. Maybe you took over a department with low morale or came onboard only to find outdated equipment and/or processes. Next look at the steps you took to solve the problem or at least mitigate it. Finish with the results. If you were part of a team remember to include your contributions.
Demonstrating how you overcame challenges will set you apart from other candidates, internal and external, applying for the same position. It will help to tell your career story. Update your resume every six months so you’ll be ready when the perfect opportunity arises.

Author Bio:

Annette Richmond, principal of career intelligence Resume Writing & Career Services, is a Certified Resume Writer, Certified LinkedIn Profile Writer, and former recruiter. Her career advice has been featured in notable media outlets including Monster, Vault, Business Insider, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. Annette’s work was selected for Resumes For Dummies (August 2015).

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Making sure you are in the running for a promotion

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women shaking handsIf you are lucky enough to work for a really great company that has a robust, unbiased, transparent talent process then you can probably skip this post. But wait, not so fast, how can you tell if your firm is good at ensuring that the best talent regardless of any other factor gets promoted?

I can think of three ways to heighten your chances

  • Ask what the process is
  • Ask what you have to do specifically to get to the next level/beyond
  • Make sure you have sponsors to broaden and deepen your portfolio of work because women still mostly get promoted on past performance as opposed to some men truly get promoted on what others think they will be capable of growing into (future potential not fact- yes this still happens)

Here is the kicker. I have done several consulting projects with women’s networks and I even wrote a Masters thesis at Columbia University on how networks can be formally connected to the talent process (sadly, often they are not related to a direct promotional path and interestingly this if often due to the resistance of the women inside the network-which in part is often due to the reason the network exists is to provide a container for shared experiences). So, if you want your membership of a network to be part of your strategy to advance, then make sure it is doing that and ways to tangibly use it include access to senior management, find a sponsor and more that we have covered in the past 4-5 weeks in this column.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire a coach to help you navigate your career

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Career Tip of the Week

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woman sitting at deskThis Week’s Tip Is…

Waiting for a promotion? Think about what you have actively done in the past 3 months to ensure your boss/manager/sponsors knows you want to move head to the next level.

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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