Tag Archive for: Thought Leader

On Changes After 15 Years: Nicki Gilmour: CEO And Founder, The Glass Hammer

,

Nicki Gilmour The Glass HammerThe Glass Hammer was founded fifteen years ago (July, 2007) with the distinct intent of helping professional women – especially within financial services, law, technology, Fortune 500 – understand how to navigate their careers with the ultimate goal of advancing. The mission was to inform (provide expert career advice), empower (by bringing women together with events and networking), and inspire (by profiling women who have blazed the path and broken through the glass ceiling in some form). We sit down with Nicki Gilmour to discuss where things stand now as we celebrate this milestone of the longest running career advice publication for professional women.

Q: How have things developed since The Glass Hammer launched?

The world has changed significantly across these past fifteen years. But the pandemic has created the most seismic shift in how people work, how people want to work and how people live. Many people, women in particular, found themselves suddenly dropped into a very different reality as of March 2020 that included swapping the commute and the long office days for long days in front the computer and longer days in some cases homeschooling kids and sanitizing everything.

Perhaps one silver lining of the pandemic, if you can call it that when there was such sorrow and stress for so many, was the chance for all of us to understand that the future of work could happen more quickly than we realized was possible. We saw how we could switch to Zoom, Teams, Webex, Google Meet and other platforms to conduct conversations and share documents. And guess what? We still managed to do business – despite the constraints and challenges, both for individuals and organizations. ‘The future is now’ comes to mind as it is no longer a theory to work remotely as it pertains to equal or increased productivity.

Beyond the practical logistics of work, people also started to really look more deeply at their personal values. When your back is against the wall, it’s time to ask: what really matters here?

Q: What has changed for professional women in the past 15 years?

So much and yet nothing has changed for professional women.

I think the greatest thing that has changed is that people want to see their leaders show more empathy than before and that success and professionalism, as definitions, have become wider and more diverse.

Ambition remains a very personal trait that is present, to a lesser or greater degree in all people as they are individuals with personalities, specific belief and value sets and varying needs and experiences. Many ambitious women still envision a linear path to the top. But I believe that having been through the pandemic and the shift in many realities, people also understand more than ever that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I can’t speak for any other human except myself, but I do see, observationally, as an executive coach and Organizational Development consultant, that generally people are tired of accepting the legacy status quo as the only way forward in terms of what dictates how we work and when we work as well as where we work.

With the ‘Great Resignation,’ some people have literally voted with their feet and walked out of very well-paid jobs including Sheryl Sandberg who left Meta recently. Sheryl, as we know, was the author of Lean In. Well, she’s decided to lean out. I think that says a lot. I believe this was an era of ‘celebritizing’ a handful of women and it continues as VC’s are still backing firms that do close to zero for women on a structural change level and continue to implicitly tell women to just network.

Certainly people, and some companies, have also finally decided to stop tolerating the same biases based on gender, but there is still a lack of transparency around pay equality. Just recently, Google has paid out $118 million in settlement to 15,000 women in a class-action lawsuit about gender pay discrimination. I would hope there comes a day when equality is built through solid processes and good human behaviors not litigation – however, as it seems law suits are still the most effective method, that comes at great cost to the women who bring them.

I definitely see a theme where things, that we didn’t contest in the past, are more explicit and more accessible to contest at least. We are asking companies to walk the talk on equality and meritocracy. That starts and ends with transparency. There still isn’t a consistent pathway to get to the mystery of what you’re being paid and why, depending on who you are from a biology or ethnicity perspective, as pay is not really assigned strictly on merit, experience or even qualifications in most companies.

I have spent the past few years contemplating whether breaking the glass ceiling is a redundant concept for younger professionals in the sense that people don’t want to be on the other side of that glass if the traits it takes to be successful there means assimilating to something that just doesn’t resonate at all. When what’s been holding everything up is the structural walls of rules that clearly don’t favor meritocracy, due to flawed cognitive and social constructs around who gets to lead, is the work that is needed to be centered differently? A new way of looking at this? I am not sure the work is as evolutionary in the linear sense that we all once believed it was.

Q: Say more about how you are approaching the big questions, now.

I think futurism is key now in terms of understanding what can be, as well as what has been, or what is. I think that it’s a time of considering a deeper structural review instead of incremental bricks on the old crumbling foundations. Saying that, there are 41 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 right now, or 8.2 percent, which is a record high. I do not want to dismiss the fact that incremental change is happening, but it isn’t enough in terms of impact for anyone to truly celebrate progress with any sincerity, as if this was a product it would be shelved due to slow adoption in the marketplace. The big question is, are we happy with very gradual, incremental change? And how long will it take for equality to happen? Especially when we take huge hits like the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Title IX and other various cultural backslides that hamper women from an equal existence generally, as well as specifically.

Academically, this is going back to Virginia Schein’s (et al) “Think Manager – Think Male,” which began over 40 years ago. Without knowing the human involved, people in aggregate still vote for the straight male manager as the most leader-like with real traits like productivity, competence and assertiveness. Conversely, they continually mark in the traits survey that women are less competent, productive, and assertive even though there is not a specific woman being assessed, just generally as a cognitive concept of a female manager, which is very disheartening and often the respondents are also women. This remains in play in a very real way in a workplace near you! Never underestimate the power of the cultural wallpaper and what it can do in terms of unchecked internalized misogyny.

Q: Systemically, what cracks are we seeing more clearly than ever, especially now?

It goes back to promises not kept – transparency of pay, transparency of promotional track. The entire system has never been truly re-envisioned to integrate women’s lives or value our spherical lives as a whole. There’s also the blunt fact that organizations still ignore life outside the skyscraper. It has been well-documented that women do the second shift at home and do something like 10 extra hours of housework and childcare relative to their male counterparts. And that’s not just something that occurs in heterosexual relationships. It also shows up in LGBTQ+ families, because someone has to pick up the slack. But systemically and culturally, it has always been a majority of women that do that, while expected to be superwoman at work. Kudos to the men who do it as they rarely get recognized and should be, also.

“There’s been various research studies on remote work showing that many working mothers find it quite beneficial to work remotely because, productivity-wise, it’s helpful to not commute a couple of hours a day. We should be moving to results-oriented work, because professionals know what they have to deliver. We no longer need to wear pinstripe suits, ride a train and be in an office 9-5. We have to get away from this model that was designed last century. LinkedIn is redefining what it means to be “professional,” and it’s no longer being a white man going to the office in a three-piece suit with a briefcase.

“The office is now in your head and on your computer, and the cries to get back to the office are not necessarily based in productivity claims. For organizations and leaders to ignore that employees are actually telling you what they want and to ignore the data around productivity is just basing in (disproportionately white and white male) preferences. Many people can’t understand why they’re at the mercy of their manager’s choice. And now people, who would otherwise continue to work remotely, are worrying about falling on the wrong side of proximity bias. Just as paternity leave and full maternity leave are still underutilized because the hidden penalties and state-by-state and company-by-company inconsistencies do not always support people to feel it’s in their best interest. Often women are torn about how much time they can take for maternity leave in the pressure of 24/7 work with many exhausted and typing emails close to the birthing event. I know I was writing emails right up until the delivery room as that was a badge of honor that I just don’t believe Gen Y and beyond buy into on any level.

Q: So what can organizations who want to lean in, and walk the talk, do right now?

Organizations have a place to play in this because within their sphere of influence, inside and outside of their ‘virtual’ four walls, they can create a microcosm of equality – and it’s not that hard to achieve. It comes from:

  • Being clear in your mission and strategy around DEI aspects, and other aspects such as social responsibility, just as you would decide what you’re going to do with your core product. It’s as simple as that.
  • Make your management practices transparent, clear and consistent – so everyone knows what they have to do, what flies and what doesn’t. Make sure there are explicit norms as opposed to implicit norms that are subjective.
  • Surface anything that is a covert process – meaning: in denial, not on the table for discussion, for whatever reason.
  • Make sure everybody knows their role, their responsibilities, what’s expected of them, what are their goals, and ensure their responsibilities are aligned with their ability to execute on them. Make sure their skills and abilities match the job requirements.
  • Remove as much organizational grind as you can: the barriers, hindrances, obstacles to doing the job the way that people see fit, the way each person sees fit as a professional.
  • Understand individual needs and values, beyond grouping people together based on social identities such as gender, nationality, sexual orientation, or otherwise.
  • Help your people understand what success looks like. Let them know what it means to be doing a good job here.
  • Make sure people know which direction the company is going, what the company values and what are overarching goals, and that can include societal topics: because social issues have never been more integrated into corporate life than they have been in the past two years. To leave things unaddressed is a recipe for disaster. Silence is complicit and colluding.
  • Finally, make sure that when you talk the talk, you walk the talk. Ensure that you are creating actions to meet your espoused values, behaviorally. This means coaching leaders of all genders and creeds to understand how to create and implement positive change for all employees to be engaged and performing in a high but healthy way.

It’s not actually impossible or unreachable – and this is the work that has to take place as opposed to telling women to lean in, keep their head down, and keep at it. Because the last fifteen years has shown us that change has been present, but slow.

Thank you all for your continued presence and readership. We wish you a safe, healthy, enjoyable summer season.

Interviewed by Aimee Hansen

*After this week, The Glass Hammer will be taking a publishing break until September. Enjoy your summer as we are walking the talk on our values and focusing on coaching leaders and developing organizations to connect to the human factor better via our sister site evolvedpeople.com. Enjoy our 8,000+ articles and we will be back in the early Fall.

/by

Caring for Children With Learning Challenges as a Working Parent

,

Erin Garcia

In this Q&A, Erin Garcia, a Vice President in Controllers in Dallas, shares how she supports and advocates for her two sons while working at Goldman Sachs.

What are some of the obstacles you have encountered managing both your sons’ learning challenges?

Erin: One of the greatest challenges was explaining to each of my two sons, Cason and Cohen, how their learning and mental health challenges differentiate them from their classmates.

After his dyslexia diagnosis in second grade, Cason began losing self-confidence in reading. I explained to him that his brain is unique and that there is a special way to teach him, and we were making sure he got the specific help that he needed. Since he is a big sports fan, it helped to point out some successful athletes also happen to be dyslexic.

Cohen, on the other hand, didn’t want special attention. He didn’t want to make a big deal out of his having ADHD, nor did he want to be pulled out of class like his older brother.

Listening to their concerns helped me address their needs, advocate for them successfully, and get them both the help they needed.

What have you learned about yourself through these experiences, including most recently during the pandemic?

Erin: Before receiving their diagnoses, my children and I had a number of arguments because I thought they were being lazy with school and didn’t want to try hard enough. Once we received their diagnoses, I felt badly for having been so hard on them. I learned to be more patient.

In the early stages of the pandemic, we just tried to survive! Toward the end of the school year, there wasn’t a lot of structure so it was a “work on your own pace” sort of schedule. We fit in school whenever we wanted, which was helpful for me as I was balancing my own responsibilities in the Fund Accounting department. Once the current school year began, there was more of an adjustment.  The boys have a firm schedule to follow and have to be present in live and virtual meetings with their teachers for most of the day.

We have to do what is best for our family, and every situation is different.

How do you ‘recharge’ your batteries to meet the competing demands of work-life-parenting, and what advice would you share with other caregivers?

Erin: I talk to my friends who are also mothers, and colleagues and mentors who have experienced similar situations. My oldest started middle school this year, which has been a big adjustment. We are all navigating unchartered territory these days, especially working parents. The more we share our stories with each other, the more we feel like we are not in this alone. We are all doing the best we can.

I also have to remind myself that I need a break sometimes, and that’s okay. Everyone should take things one day at a time. Some days are good, but then you will occasionally have that rough day where a progress report comes home reflecting a low grade in a class. Our kids need to know that they are accepted and loved by everyone around them, on good days and on tough days.

How have you managed conversations with colleagues at the firm about your experience as a caregiver?

Erin: For me, honesty is the best policy. A lot of my colleagues have younger children, so these days I try to regularly check in (and made a point to do so when everyone went exclusively remote for work) and continue to be an advocate for working parents.

What would you like people to know about what it’s like to care for loved ones with mental health or learning challenges?

Erin: I think the more we talk about it, the more we educate everyone around us. It was important to me to explain to my oldest son that there is nothing wrong with him. He is intelligent. Once he understood that, he gained the confidence he needed and started engaging more in school.

/by

Thought Leader: Ana Duarte McCarthy, Director of Development, Corporate Partners, Forté

, ,
Ana Duarte McCarthy“I have plenty of runway left myself, but it is always still exciting to see how we can pass the baton,” says Ana Duarte McCarthy of her position helping inspire the next class of future leaders.
Finding a New Purpose

Throughout her career, Duarte McCarthy has focused on diversity and inclusion, most recently serving as a managing director and chief diversity officer for Citi. When she left in 2016, it was a good time to take stock of where her next opportunity could come from. First, she notes, she practiced the self-care we all deserve and took a couple months to travel, remained active on the board of the NJ Somerset County YMCA, and even purged closets and tackled all those small tasks that help us retain control over our personal life.

Then September rolled around, and that “back to school” feeling inspired her to figure out what was next. “I realized I felt untethered without a daily set of goals and objectives, and I missed having the opportunity to make a difference.”

A friend approached her about an opportunity to join Forté, which had been a long-time Citi partner and had a mission that appealed to her with its laser focus on increasing women in business leadership. Her other diversity work had covered a variety of communities, such as veterans, LGBQT+ and other cultural groups—all important. However, women had always been an aspect of these groups, and this gave her a chance to focus more deeply on women’s issues. That was a mission that was especially important to her, since as the mother of a daughter, she had a deep interest in assuring that her daughter had opportunities that had previously been obstacles.

Duarte McCarthy began in a fundraising role and has now moved into the position of director of development for corporate partners, where she works to identify companies that have a commitment to advancing women and express the values of diversity and inclusion. Often these forward-thinking companies are recruiting undergrads or MBA students and want to amplify their brand as a top recruiter for diversity. Having been a diversity lead for so many years, Duarte McCarthy has a special skill in talking with them about their pain points and how Forté can support them in their missions.

A Focus on Latinas

Assisting all women is important, but as a Latina herself of Dominican descent, Duarte McCarthy has a special heart for helping other Latinas. “I meet many women after conferences who might not have people in their immediate circles who can be a mentor so I try to reach out,” she says. And she believes it’s critical to break misperceptions about Hispanic women. “There’s a lot of bundling of Hispanic women together, but we cut across race and ethnicity, and there are also multiple diverse issues around socioeconomic scale and whether someone is a first- or fourth-generation student. It’s an interesting mosaic, and I believe I can support and advance the next generation of Latina women.”

One of the Forté programs she is particularly proud of is the Forté Forum, which enables women to explore the value of an MBA. They can hear from women currently enrolled in business schools and women who have completed their degrees, as well as get tips on completing the admissions process. Duarte McCarthy was particularly delighted when her 23-year-old daughter, a business analyst, came to one of the presentations to consider her future. “She’s always been supportive of me as a working mom, and it’s exciting to see her next chapter.”

More Work to Be Done

As Duarte McCarthy surveys the landscape, she points to an aspect of complacency and fatigue, as many like her have been pursuing the mantle of diversity and inclusion for so long, starting back when it was generally under the portfolio of affirmative action and/or equal employment opportunities.

Significant advances have been made, of course. For example, Forté was launched in 2001, on the heels of research on the value of an MBA for women, which comprised 25%-28% of the enrolled class, a number that has bumped up to 38% today. She is excited by this increase in women pursuing MBAs, as well as the varied career paths they choose to pursue, such as positions in supply chain management and investment banking as they truly take advantage of the breadth of careers available.

While that is heartening, she notes that there is more to be done; notably, that the pay gap persists. “This cultural aspect to pay people equitably needs a lot of attention,” Duarte McCarthy says. In addition, she says that while the drumbeat around MeToo has given people a voice, it’s unfortunate that is such a prevailing narrative in the workplace. “We have made so many strides, but our work is more important than ever.

“We have to keep up the energy because there’s still a lot of work to do,” she says. “We all have an opportunity to make a difference around D&I; it’s not for someone else—none of us can just be a bystander. We can all make a difference with how we lead and support our colleagues and those coming up the ranks.”

/by

Thought Leader: Lorraine Hariton, CEO, Catalyst

Lorraine HaritonBy Nicki Gilmour, CEO and Founder of theglasshammer.com

We caught up with Lorraine Hariton, recently appointed leader of Catalyst to hear her thoughts on change, gender progress at work and what excites her about her in this new role.

Nicki Gilmour (NG): What is your vision as leader of Catalyst?

Lorraine Hariton (LH): I am honored and thrilled to join Catalyst as President and CEO. My career has benefited so much from Catalyst’s work, and I am excited to have the opportunity to help write the next chapter and pay it forward to future generations. I have been involved in women’s advancement leadership initiatives throughout my career. This is a dream opportunity to give back and pay it forward in an area that has been a lifelong passion and indeed my life experience.

There’s so much I want to do with this opportunity. We are at an inflection point in our history—the #MeToo outcry combined with rapid and enormous shifts in how we work offer the opportunity to build a new kind of workplace: one in which women advance to leadership much more rapidly and intentionally than ever before. I see Catalyst leading that charge and I’m excited to be a part of this moment in history.

NG: What has changed for women in the workplace in the past 10/20/30 years?

LH: The workplace of 2018 looks very different from that of 1962, when Catalyst was founded, and will look much different 20 years from now and beyond. Rapidly changing technology and the surge of millennials and Gen Z into the workforce guarantees that advances in technology will continue to significantly change the Future of Work, including shifting demographics, automation, AI, machine learning, the gig economy, more geographically dispersed, culturally diverse teams, changing dynamics in the interaction between humans and machines, etc. The future of work will need soft skills that include empathy, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration. This will require companies to turbocharge their efforts to build diverse and inclusive teams to be competitive. The rapidly changing nature of how we work presents a real opportunity in the “here and now” for women and other marginalized groups in the workplace. It’s essential that women are not left behind in this shifting workforce and that companies are prepared to utilize all of their diverse talent.

However, despite these advancements, women continue to face barriers that are complex and ingrained, especially women of color. Harmful and misleading gender-based stereotypes and biases are alive and well. We need to make sure that the people who are coding and building the machines of the future aren’t also baking in sexist or stereotypic assumptions. Getting women into all aspects of tech, STEM, and also data analytics will allow us to create a future that works for all of us. Gender diversity in the workplace is the right and the smart thing to do. Gender based innovation means ensuring products are built by diverse people so they work for everyone. Tech companies need to be at the table partnering and taking the steps needed to bring about positive change.

NG: How do we take the onus off the individual and instead ask the firm’s to ‘lean in’?

LH: It is vital men do not take a step back in the aftermath of this global wake-up call on sexual harassment or become afraid to advocate for women. The vast majority of men at work have the best intentions but stop short of identifying as champions. Inclusive leaders encourage their male employees to challenge the status quo while also modeling sponsorship behavior. They lead courageous conversations about what concerns men have and how they can step up to become allies for women in the workplace.

NG: Tell is about your personal pathway to this work?

LH: I have been involved in women’s advancement leadership initiatives throughout my career. I’ve held senior-level positions in Silicon Valley, including serving as CEO of two Silicon Valley start-ups and holding C-level roles in sales, marketing, and engineering in public companies. Most recently, I was Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for the New York Academy of Sciences, where I was instrumental in creating the Global STEM Alliance and its 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures program, a global mentoring initiative to help girls pursue careers in STEM.

As Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the US Department of State, I established The Global Entrepreneurship Program, the WeCreate Center for women entrepreneurs, and the Secretary’s Council on Women’s Leadership.

I’ve served on several boards of organizations committed to the advancement of women in the workplace, including the UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change, the Stanford Clayman Institute for Gender Research and Watermark.

My eclectic and diverse background helps me to look at the challenges, opportunities and solutions from many different angles.

My career has benefited so much from Catalyst’s work and I’m thrilled to be a part of the next chapter lending my experience to help build workplaces that work for women, and for everybody.

NG: What excites you most about the future on this topic of equality and equity?

LH: This is a critical time in our history. There is a huge spotlight on issues facing women in the workplace. Unfortunately, progress has been stalled for far too long but there’s an opportunity in this #MeToo moment to make a quantum leap ahead for gender equality in workplaces. We at Catalyst will continue to support leaders and organizations in creating inclusive cultures and opportunities that support and advance women. The best defense against sexual harassment is building an inclusive workplace culture with zero tolerance for discrimination and bad behavior.

NG: What is your advice to your younger self?

LH: I would tell my younger self to learn how to be flexible and adaptable, adept in digital literacy and interpersonal skills. I would ensure I took the time to invest in internships and job experiences. There is no longer a traditional linear “major to career” path. I would also remind myself to gravitate to organizations and cultures that support and elevate women. I started my career with IBM and returned back there after Harvard Business School because of their women-centric and women-supportive environment. I would encourage young women starting their careers to similarly seek out cultures and organizations that emphasize women’s inclusion.

NG: A big thanks to Lorraine for taking time out to speak with us and we look forward to more excellent work from Catalyst!
/by

Thought Leader: Grissel Mercado, Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP

grissel mercadoBy Cathie Ericson

Elected to partnership just this past January, Grissel Mercado, shares her insight on her business, the industry and women in the law.

For more about Mercado’s background, read her Voice of Experience profile here.

A Busy Year With Many Successes

With a strong history and expertise in capital markets in Latin America, Mercado’s work there continues. Latin America capital markets have had a very interesting year; although a lot of market players thought there might be a slowdown given international developments such as Brexit and the Trump presidency, it has been a very busy year for the region, she says.

“Investors have continued to be attracted to a lot of issuers there, which has been very positive for our practice. But as I look into the future there will be more question marks with several countries going through elections in 2018. You are still prone to what’s happening socially and in politics when you work in Latin America, so it will be interesting to see what happens in 2018.” Mexico and Colombia are two countries where she has been the busiest, despite an expected slowdown.

Her toughest but most rewarding deal of the year took almost a year and half, but closed this summer. “You become so close to your clients when you spend that much time with them,” she says, adding how excited they were to complete the deal.

She is currently working on bond offerings for companies in Chile and Mexico, who are expecting to be some of the first issuers to launch transactions in early 2018. The practice has also been working on a variety of liability management exercises, including cash tender offers. And this is the time that many foreign private issuers registered with the SEC begin thinking about annual reports, which is where her corporate governance hat comes in, as she helps with prep work for those.

In the industry at large, she anticipates continued growth, even with the political and economic changes that the region is facing.

While there haven’t been too many regulatory changes per se, she anticipates her SEC registered clients will need help transitioning to XBRL, a business reporting language that uses tags for items in financial statements to allow financial information to be used interactively. While SEC registered domestic companies have been using this method for several years, 2018 will be the first year that foreign private issuers have to report in this way. The industry is also grappling to understand how the new MIFID II rules (i.e., product governance obligations applicable to manufacturers and distributors of financial instruments) will apply in the context of capital markets transactions led by non-EEA banks.

Social Issues Will Loom Large

For women, she finds that retention and promotion continue to be an issue. “Women enter law school and often even law firms as a majority, and then the ratio is completely flipped by the time we become senior associates and is even worse at partner ranks,” she notes.

She believes that law firms will retain women as they become more open to technological advances that other industries have already been using, such as work-from-home opportunities, which helps women who many times are the ones with more conflicting responsibilities, such as caring for children and elderly parents.

“If you can deliver top-quality work on time, it shouldn’t matter when and where you do it,” she points out. She sees that the millennial generation wants that for men and women. Firms will also benefit as women keep working rather than opting out. It’s vital to retain a female perspective, she says. “We view problems differently, and our clients are pushing to have these viewpoints at top levels.”

She appreciates that now as a newly-named partner, she has more of a voice in retention and recruiting and looks forward to a big year of transition. “Clients are used to seeing me lead transactions, but there will be an adjustment as I become the sole lead, and we’ll all work to make the transition as seamless as possible,” she says.

/by

Thought Leader: Elizabeth Diep, Partner, Asset and Wealth Management Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Elizabeth DiepBy Cathie Ericson

Don’t be afraid to pursue the big assignment or job even if you think you don’t meet 100 percent of the qualifications,” says PwC’s Elizabeth Diep. She urges women not to limit themselves because although you won’t always hit it out of the park, you learn from every experience, and often even more from the ones that don’t succeed. “Big jobs are scary but the only way you learn is by practicing.”

And, she cautions, if you say no too many times, people will start assuming you’re not interested and you’ll no longer be on the list for consideration. “Along the way you have to take calculated risks.”
As an assurance partner in the audit practice, Diep focuses on alternative investment clients, which include endowments, hedge funds and private equity clients, ranging from highly complex, multi-national companies to smaller, locally based equity funds. As Diep puts it, that is her “day job,” as she is also involved in other firm business, including assisting with people initiatives as a Human Capital (human resources) partner, where she focuses on helping a group of about 150 more junior colleagues navigate the firm, providing guidance on their development, education and experience.

A Changing Industry Full of Challenges

Because the asset management world within the financial services industry is still fairly male dominated, Diep sees it as one ripe with opportunity. “If someone wants to thrive and be challenged every day, this is the field for them,” she says, noting that in an ever-changing industry, there are constantly new financial instruments being created. “As the world gets more complex, the industry gets more complex,” she says.

The industry also is appealing to anyone with an international mindset. “The opportunities that lie abroad push you to be more open to the world because we’re interacting in a global society every day.”

The industry also calls for flexibility since your day can change with every phone call or email articulating a new client need. “I might have a client interested in investing in transportation out of Greece and Panama so I need to see what resources PwC has to support those needs,” she says. And that’s why success lies in delivering relationships before you need them.

“You’re not just working with people in your office, but other partners and members of the global network. You have to be resourceful and know who can help you find the answer you need. Those connectors become critical to your success.”

She says that today’s workforce is different from generations past when people were expected to have all the answers. Today, it’s more important to know which expert can help you get the answer rather than being expected to know everything personally.

Flexibility Remains a Challenge

Diep cites a recent PwC survey of millennials that explores the importance of flexibility, and unfortunately, she finds that while many firms promote work/life balance, employees still worry that taking advantage of these programs could have a negative impact. And that translates into a pervasive feeling among many women, especially working moms at the mid-career level, that the industry is too demanding if they want to perform well and also have a family.

One program designed to help is the “He for She” program, of which PwC is a sponsor with a goal of having 80 percent of the men join. “At the end of the day it’s primarily men sitting around the table so we have to get them involved in this conversation and advance women’s causes,” Diep says. “When we move away from just women talking about the challenges but have men supporting them, it will be a game changer.”

She says that she has been bolstered in her own career by mentors and sponsors who served as role models with a balance that she has learned to emulate. “It’s not always equal,” she says, noting that sometimes they were working late hours but then they still always made time to disconnect on vacation or take off for their kids’ birthdays. “They gave me an example of how you can use the day how it works best for you, to balance all your key life relationships, while always completing high-quality work.”

/by

Thought Leader: Deborah Lorenzen, Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer, Global Product & Marketing; State Street Global Advisors

Deborah Lorenzen 2To Deborah Lorenzen, talent is everything for a business’ success.

Since 2008, acquiring talent in the financial services sector has largely been a buyer’s market, where it’s been easier for firms to pick and choose the talent they want to bring in. Consequently, they haven’t had to spend as much time or effort making sure people are enthusiastic about joining the firm. But, says Lorenzen, savvy firms know they need to be prepared for the next cycle, which she calls the “War for Talent.”

“We can dramatically improve the front end of our hiring process, but we don’t spend enough time on it,” she says.To that end, she is currently focused on improving three different phases of the talent acquisition cycle.

Making Job Descriptions More Inclusive

First, she says that job descriptions need an overhaul, recommending that they be stripped of corporate speak and made more gender neutral. “Beyond articulating the job requirements, job descriptions are a marketing document, since they are read by hundreds of people who never even apply,” she says. “The majority of those who read them are people in my industry, and I want to leave them with a positive impression of my company.”

One remedy is tools that use an analytical perspective to identify which words attract which people by mapping the factors of a job description that ultimately led to a certain type of hire.

Entering existing job descriptions into the tool yields instant feedback, such as which words are likely to attract female or male candidates, which can then be used to incorporate more balanced verbiage. One lesser-known fact is that if your job description is filled with acronyms, research shows that men are more likely to apply even if they don’t understand the corporate jargon.

“We’re excluding large swaths of the population by how we word things,” Lorenzen says.

Maintaining Consistency Throughout the Interview Process

While competency-based interviews have become the norm, there is still a need to improve consistency. To that end, Lorenzen has helped create tools that lead to better interviews. Managers can quickly select the key competencies for the job they are filling, which brings up a set of pre-worded questions that will give them insight into candidates by prompting specific, measurable examples specific to that skill, such as “Give me an example of a time that you displayed teamwork.” For a trait such as global acumen, managers can choose different questions based on the depth of expertise required by the position level.

After key questions are chosen and position specific questions are added, the manager then can print out the job interview form and use it consistently with all of their candidates. “It allows them to compare apples to apples rather than having different experiences with different people,” she says. “The tools should be intuitive so we set our managers up for success.”

Pre-boarding for Success

In the United States, there is typically a two-week lag from when someone accepts the job until they actually start. In other parts of the world, people might have up to 90 days, a lengthy transition period when companies must engage with their future employees throughout the gap.

Among the support her division supplies are links to company information, “acronym decoders” and details on what to expect the first day. “This is about emotional engagement, so our new hires believe they have made the best decision of their career.”

For example, new employees will learn what to expect on the first day, and what activities to expect in the first 10 days. Setting expectations improves time-to-productivity, which is a key metric for the business.

Another key component of pre-boarding is discussing the wide variety of Employee Resource Groups available. “We want them to know that our company is proud of our diversity and whatever their gender, orientation, culture or background, there’s someone like them here already.”

Data Analytics Drive Decisions

In addition to a focus on better hiring, Lorenzen is immersed in technology infrastructure and data analytics. “Data is the key to understanding both our current environment and our next move,” she says. We can use data to identify products which are high performers and which aren’t meeting expectations, and track those products in real time.

Since decision science is a relatively new field, Lorenzen and her team are constantly tasked with finding the best talent. “They have to come in with diversity of thought, which comes from diversity of experience,” she says. “We must have a variety of perspectives in the room since there’s constant demand to improve the technology architecture.”

A Word for Women

Finally, Lorenzen believes that women have a special role in the industry to help others. And while she sees this as a responsibility, the rewards are mutual. “It gives me great joy to watch young people come up in the organization,” she says.

And she adds, there are few industries that are more competitive. “People are always going to be looking to take you out, but it’s not because you’re a girl, it is because you are competition. We need to raise our voices, as uncomfortable and dangerous as it can feel, when we see bias.” Why? Because for our businesses to thrive in this rapidly changing landscape we need the smartest, most innovative team we can muster, which by definition brings a diversity of thought to the table. This is an obligation for senior executives, including women.

The views expressed in this material are the views of Deborah Lorenzen of State Street Global Advisors through the period ended April 13, 2016.

The whole or any part of this work may not be reproduced, copied or transmitted or any of its contents disclosed to third parties without State Street express written consent.

State Street Corporation, One Lincoln Street, Boston, MA 02111-2900

© 2016 State Street Corporation – All Rights Reserved

/by

Thought Leader: Alison Maitland, Future Work – Moving to an Output-Oriented Work Culture

Alison MaitlandAlison Maitland is a business author, speaker and conference moderator who specialises in leadership, diversity, and the new world of work. She is Director of The Conference Board’s Europe-based Council for Diversity in Business, a Senior Visiting Fellow at London’s Cass Business School, and co-author of the prize-winning book Why Women Mean Business. Alison, with co-author Peter Thomson, recently published the second edition of Future Work and she sat down with theglasshammer.com to share her views on why future work is a critical part of an organisation’s long term success.

The Glass Hammer: How is future work different to flexible working?

Alison Maitland: Flexible work arrangements tend to be tactical initiatives by HR, targeted at individuals and disconnected from any strategy being pursued by the organisation’s leadership. They do not fundamentally alter the current work model.

What we call “future work” is a business strategy to move away from focusing on inputs to viewing work as an activity that produces desired results. The focus is on performance and outcomes, not hours spent in the office, and people have much greater autonomy and choice about how, where and when they carry out their tasks.

Communications technology is of course the great enabler of this. Future work is about giving everyone the tools, information and objectives they need and then letting them get on with the job in the way that works best. To become a core part of a company’s culture, it needs to be driven by leaders across the organisation – IT, finance, communications and real estate as well as HR and leadership development.

TGH: Why is future work important now?

AM: The new workforce is looking for something very different from the traditional career and work model. The International Women’s Forum UK recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a survey asking current and emerging female leaders about success, including what they would do differently if starting again. While many of the senior women said they would not do anything differently, some wished they had said “no” more often during their careers or been less hard on themselves. One said “We have to change the concept of work to make it more relevant to a woman’s life.” The responses from the younger women placed strong value on balance, happiness, fulfilment, and the need to pace and prioritise carefully. These trends are supported by a global ACCA/Mercer survey, which we reference in Future Work. The survey asked over 3,200 millennial finance professionals how they felt about their jobs. It found that this generation wants a much broader range of benefits from working life and that making more money is a less important factor in career success than it was to previous generations.

What does this mean for organisations? Employers can no longer assume that employees will put up with having to work at rigid times in a fixed location if it does not make sense to do so. If employers don’t offer greater autonomy and choice, they will struggle to attract top talent. Future work also allows companies to draw from a broader and more diverse talent pool, which in turn should lead to more innovative organisations. Future work is not a nice-to-have – it should be a viewed as a priority by leaders looking to deliver sustainable success.

TGH: Are leaders really convinced about the benefits of future work?

AM: Those we feature in the book definitely are! But many managers still fear that people won’t work if they can’t see them sitting at their desks around them – hence the jacket-on-chair syndrome. In reality, most people are more productive and motivated when they feel empowered and trusted by their managers to get the work done, regardless of time or place. Through a combination of surveys and case studies, we’ve shown that there is a wide range of benefits for business, including increased productivity, more reliable business continuity, faster access to market, and reduced costs. Organisations need to do a better job of measuring these benefits to see what a difference future work can make.

Read more

/by

Thought Leader: TJ Huntley, Managing Director, Internal Audit, Citi

TJ HuntleyThis month, TJ Huntley, Managing Director of Internal Audit at Citi, celebrates 22 years of working in the financial services industry. She remarked, “This industry allows you to make a difference with customers and clients and simultaneously engage in various analysis of key risk, independently assess the design and operating effectiveness of key controls, and engage in various operational process initiatives.”

As the financial services industry has evolved over the years, so has Huntley. Throughout her career, she has always embraced change and new challenges. This, she noted, is a key component of professional growth and development. Huntley advised, “You cannot survive as a leader if you are not equipped to handle changes that may be required in your strategy, vision, or leadership style. Innovation requires change.”

Huntley added, “You have to believe that you can contribute at a fast pace in an environment full of change, like the financial services industry, where so much is happening from a regulatory perspective.”

Navigating the Regulatory Environment of Financial Services
According to Huntley, the challenges presented by regulatory compliance are currently a key focus for senior level executives in financial services. “Right now, various organizations are going through a series of transformations, looking at what they do and figuring out how to do it better. Having a strong and independent internal audit department is important for interpreting, assessing, and identifying the gaps within an organization, and advising the boards on the risks and independent audit assessments associated with different business practices.”

Regulators have what Huntley referred to as heightened expectations for large national banks and federal savings associations to strengthen the minimum expectations and force organizations in the financial services industry to look at their risk management practices, which include assessing the controls to mitigate risk and demonstrating sustainability of those controls. “These expectations are driving the actions of all the critical banks,” said Huntley.

Read more

/by

Thought Leader: Suzanne Penavić, Director of Employee Engagement, SunGard

Suzanne PenavićSuzanne Penavić, Director of Employee Engagement, SunGard encourages women to recognize the generosity of the network around them, and to actively reach out and make themselves available to it. “Networking played a big part in making my shift into diversity, inclusion, and engagement successful,” said Penavić. “That is one thing I wish I had realized earlier in my career.”

Penavić graduated from Cornell University in 1987 with a degree in Developmental Psychology. “From a career path perspective I think I followed a pretty nontraditional path,” said Penavić. This is because instead of choosing a career related to her college major, Penavić accepted a job at JP Morgan on Wall St. She said, “I caught the tail end of the Wall Street Eighties boom and I joined JP Morgan the summer before the crash.”

Career Path in Finance and Tech

Although Penavić’s time as a banker was short-lived, she was first introduced to technology, as it relates to financial services, when the entire FX back office at JP Morgan was being replaced.

“I was in charge of the Payment Investigations portion of the project,” explained Penavić, “and after that I ended up running the middle and back offices of the derivatives operations. It was the early nineties, and it was definitely the Wild West when it came to swaps and options, but it was booming. I found myself having to put these very complex synthetic instruments into an infrastructure that wasn’t designed for it.”

It was at this juncture that Penavić decided that banking wasn’t the best professional fit for her and made a swift career change when she accepted a job with a privately held software company called Microbank. Penavić recalled, “There was forty five people at the company, software was a fairly new concept at the time, and my parents thought I was crazy for leaving my job on Wall St.” She continued, “It was an opportunity I did not foresee, but it had a huge influence on my career path.”

“I essentially grew up with Microbank,” said Penavić, “As the company matured, we started a client services organization separate from development, built out proper professional services delivery capabilities, and then took it to the next level by implementing a product management and strategy function, which I was in charge of.”

Microbank was eventually acquired by Sungard, where Penavić now serves as the Director of Employee Engagement after working in several senior level product management roles in the Financial Services division. Currently, Penavić is really excited about the work she is doing to build out SunGard’s corporate social responsibility, community investment, and employee volunteerism policies and programs. “It is such a huge lever for engagement,” explained Penavić.

Read more

/by