Tag Archive for: tips

Carving Out Your Time – Simplifying for Success

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Guest contributed by Daria Rippingale, CEO, BillPro

simplifying

Image via Shutterstock

Recently I was having a drink with a friend of mine and she was telling me about her newest obsession, the New York Times best seller The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. In it she describes a method of decluttering your home that, according to Kondo, refocuses your mind and your life on the things that “spark joy” for you. Essentially, all of the items in your home should bring you some level of joy, while not adding to your stress, so that you can focus on the most important elements of your life.

The end goal is having a home that is clutter free and creates a relaxing environment. Each possession that takes up space should be meaningful – every piece of clothing, every book, every trinket is chosen with purpose and conviction. Anything that gets in the way of the end goal, anything that isn’t regularly used or doesn’t bring happiness, gets tossed.

I left that conversation thinking about clearing out the clutter in our personal lives and how that applies to our work lives, too. We hear the phrase “Do more with less” all the time, but I cringe at the idea of what that traditionally means – longer hours, the same amount of work done by fewer people and usually a drop in quality as a result.

I know from my own experience that with a little practice and some creative ideas, you can streamline your days, making every minute of your work-life meaningful and therefore less stressful and more effective. De-cluttering your work and even your company will allow you to live the true spirit of “doing more with less”.

Below are a few of my essential strategies:

Hone in on your objectives
Firstly, be clear about your goals and objectives, both for you and for your company. Having the destination in mind will make the trip a lot quicker. To continue the travel analogy, your goals are like your True North on a compass. True North is the objective to which all your projects should lead.

Take time to muse over what those goals and objectives might be. Try setting aside time, once a week, to get away from the rush of the office and just think. It probably sounds counter-intuitive to saving time, but the results can be astonishing. Take a walk, sit with a notepad in a quiet room, or do anything where you won’t have too many distractions, allowing you to fully focus on your thoughts. Stepping back from the daily grind, even for 15 minutes, lets you focus on what is really important.

Once you’re clear on where you’re going, it becomes easier to look at your current and upcoming projects and use your compass to guide you towards True North. Focus on the projects that will move you towards your destination. The others are just “busy work” and will only act as barriers to achieving the important things that do “spark joy”. Merely being busy isn’t the same as being productive. Activity doesn’t necessarily equal results.

Ensure that your team is clear on what their objectives are too. Communicate with them as to how their individual projects will lead to the desired destination. Empower them to identify “busy work” and to ask questions about processes and projects that don’t seem to fit with what the organization is trying to achieve.

Simplify Your Work Day

Clearing the decks of focus-stealing “busy work” will recover lost time at the macro level. Simplifying your day-to-day work stream will recover that time at the micro level. Start by eliminating the two biggest hindrances to your productivity – emergencies (that rarely are) and interruptions.

Start each day by looking at your to-do list and calendar, not your email. This sets your mind in motion on what needs to be done instead of what has already happened. Take a few minutes to order your task list for the day. Be sure to tag tasks that are high value and focus towards True North, not just urgent. Completing the high value tasks will return greater rewards on the time you invest in them.

The next time thief to tackle is interruptions, and the biggest culprit here is email. Email is like a spoiled child who wants your attention, and they want it now.

Start minimizing the impact email has on your day by turning off email alerts. If you’re like me, you know there is a never ending stream of messages, so there really is no need to be constantly reminded. Allow yourself 15-20 minutes for checking in and responding to your emails in between larger tasks, making it a welcome distraction rather than an annoyance.

When you’re ready to corral your email even more, consider the advice of Tim Ferriss from The 4-Hour Work Week. He suggests only checking your email twice a day and using an auto responder stating the times you intend to review messages. For emergencies, they can always call.

Lastly, take 30 minutes before you finish up to reflect on the day. Examine what you accomplished, and what the value of those tasks were. Check your calendar for upcoming meetings and deadlines. This keeps you in that proactive state of mind instead of reactive, and prevents you from feeling anxious about the next day’s tasks.

If you want to do more with the time available to you, start by taking the time to focus on your True North – what’s important to your own goals and to the company. Use this as a compass to guide everything you do. Remove those projects that are simply “busy work” and concentrate on the tasks that move you forward. I believe that focusing on objectives and on simplifying everything has truly been integral to my success in leading the BillPro team on the journey of rapid growth. Certainly, without a sharp focus on the destination, we would not be in this position today.

BillPro CEO Daria Rippingale is considered a global authority on merchant processing. As an industry leader in e-commerce innovation, her fresh thinking regarding international payments and risk reduction has brought thousands of previously unserved merchants into the global marketplace. Follow on Twitter @BillProPayments

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Values – As a Leader Are You Living Them?

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By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Pyschologist

Nicki Gilmour

This past year all over the world, the geo-political landscape has been dramatic.

We have watched countries swing wildly, some with populism and conspiracy, creating new scenarios that would have been possibly unimaginable just 12 months ago, while other nations are choosing to elect leaders who refuse to regress on social and environmental issues.

What both of these versions have in common is that they demonstrate values-led leadership as we are seeing many leaders determined to take paths that line up into two narratives- go back to something they think we had before or go forward to what they think will be a new future.

Although I have my opinions and emotions like the next person, I am not expressing them here and not judging here, so, before I get emails telling me not to be political (code for what the Dixie Chicks experienced as ‘Shut up and sing”) I want to explain why we can look at this and understand our career paths and leadership style.

One of the things we look at in coaching is what are your values, how do you live them against your espoused goals in real life? Do your paradigms serve you? Do they truly meet your actual needs of where you want to go?

Can you take other people’s opinions and face a little conflict and work through it to filter what values they are espousing beyond the emotion of difference? And then how that truly sits against your values? Full circle then is, how do your actions sit against your values and are they really your values? Where did they come from? Why do they matter at this moment? What other values mean more to you in reality?

This isn’t just about looking at outdated negative views that a person might hold but also about examining the positive self perceptions that we do not actually live up to. If we say we want to lead, how is our audio matching our visual? If we say we support women, how many do we promote, hire or defer to as an expert?

If we say you are pro-equality then what actions do we take from the voting booth to the banker we use?

Closing the cognitive dissonance gap is not always the aim but understanding and recognizing what it all means to us is pretty key to moving forward in life and work.

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Don’t Let Stereotype Threat Hold You Back

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 Guest contributed by Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris

stereotype

Image via Shutterstock

The belief that certain activities are “appropriate” for women and certain careers are not is the result of stereotype threat, pure and simple. If a woman believes women are good at psychology but not computer science, she is more likely to major in psychology than computer science. If she believes women are good at personal relationships but not finance, she is more likely to take a job in human resources than the treasury department. And if she believes women are not good at negotiating but are good at administrative organization, she is more unlikely to volunteer for a major merger or acquisition and more likely to offer to organize a new filing system.

We recognize that the entire subject of gender-appropriate activities is a highly sensitive one. Pointing out the gender segregation in college majors—85 percent of health service majors are women but only 19 percent of engineering majors are—and occupations—80 percent of social workers are women but only 15 percent of computer programmers are—can quickly be interpreted as a form of “blaming the victim.” Pointing out gender segregation in careers can be taken as an attempt to hold women responsible for having lower status and lower-paying jobs than do men.

We want to make clear that we don’t think some college majors are better than others, that some occupations are better than others, or that some career roles are better than others. There are multiple factors affecting women’s decisions with respect to all of these areas, and we have no interest in making judgments about anyone’s actual choices. What we do have an interest in, however, is making you aware of the segregation by gender that pervades America’s college majors, occupations, and career responsibilities. We believe that if you are sensitive to this segregation, you will be less likely to place limitations and restraints on your own work-related attitudes, choices, and behavior simply because you are a woman. We don’t want women to be more like men, but we do want women to believe and behave as though they can do anything in their careers that men can do—and do it just as well, if not better.

Forty percent of college-educated women and men would need to change their occupations to achieve gender parity across all United States occupations. This occupational gender segregation is most often attributed to “demand-side” influences, that is, employers’ decisions about who they will hire and who they will make feel welcome. There is some evidence that “supply-side” factors also play a role. This means that women’s and men’s personal decisions about where (and at what) they want to work contribute to this segregation. Researchers from McGill University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania looked at the jobs comparably qualified woman and men applied for after having attended an elite, one-year international MBA program.

Their study focused on three factors influencing a person’s choice of a job: how the applicant values the specific rewards offered by the job, whether the applicant identifies with the job, and whether the applicant expects an application for that job will result in a job offer. The study examined how each of these factors affected women’s and men’s applications to work in the fields of finance, consulting, and general management.

The researchers found no differences in the monetary and other values women and men assigned to these jobs. Nevertheless, women were far less likely to apply for jobs in finance and consulting and far more likely to apply for general management positions than were men. The researchers found this gender disparity in applications was due almost entirely to women not “identifying” with finance jobs because of the strong masculine stereotypes associated with them or with consulting jobs because of anticipated difficulties with “work–life balance.” The researchers concluded that the low number of women in the fields of finance and consulting is largely the result of women’s “gender role socialization,” that is, the stereotypes they held about themselves and particular careers. They also concluded, however, that when a woman can overcome exceptionally high barriers to female participation early in her career, this may actually reduce her “gendered behavior” in subsequent stages of her career.

Gendered behavior is behavior that is shaped or caused by internalized gender stereotypes. Take one well-documented phenomenon: men typically apply for jobs when they meet 60 percent of the job criteria, but women typically don’t apply until they feel they meet 100 percent of the criteria. This is gendered behavior, pure and simple, and it is due in all likelihood to stereotype threat: women’s belief that they are just not as good at particular tasks as men and, therefore, their fear that if they are not fully qualified for the jobs for which they are applying, they are likely to fail. This same fear too frequently causes some women to choose assignments and positions that involve less risk, lower visibility, fewer challenges, less responsibility and less external pressure than those chosen by their male colleagues. If you are in a traditionally male work environment, there are lots of people and situations at work that will hold you back simply because you are a woman. You are as talented, prepared, and capable as the men, so be your own best fan and avoid thinking negatively about yourself or what you are capable of.

This article is adapted with permission from Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work by Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris, Copyright © 2016 by Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris. Published by Bibliomotion, Inc.

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

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Maybe Next Year: The Promotion or Bonus Promise That Was Not Kept

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By Nicki Gilmour

What do you do when you are told that you did great work this year but you are not getting the promotion or the bonus you were set up by these managers or HR people to expect? Nicki Gilmour

Many people come to me with this issue and frankly are not very happy about it. Depending on the exact circumstances, this could be a deal breaker for some professionals who start looking around for a different opportunity in a new firm. For others, it is time of working with their boss to plan to replay what the goals were and to look at instances which met, exceeded or came close to the expectation. Why do this? Why delve into the past? Well, sometimes it can be useful to  ensure that the criteria to progress is made explicit for this year. This process is helpful to set up a system, so that during the year you can have formal or informal check-ins to show that you are meeting the milestones and that your success is hard to refute. Moreover, maybe it is about making busy people notice.

How can you have this conversation without it being inappropriate, weird or reflect badly on you?

Firstly, know your boss. How will he or she react to an after action review? Will they find it constructive if couched as such?

Secondly, know the cultural norms of how things are done there. Stay safe, play within norms (unless you have a huge appetite for risk in which case do what you need to do but be able to live with the consequences).

Lastly, understand the importance or including or excluding HR as each firm is different on the use of human resources and talent processes. I say this with respect, because if you have a strategic and involved HR team who really get the talent retention piece and can see you are trying to develop yourself, then that can help you immensely as their systems might make for a less subjective process. Conversely, if they are all police and there is no strategic process then perhaps finding a different route to your manager as it pertains to how you reach the next level is ok too.

Is it as easy as asking your manager the following? In some cases, yes.

A direct question like “What do I explicitly need to do to get the x title and be paid y with z in bonus starting January 2018?” is suitable for some firms and not for others as is, “If I fulfill on tasks as discussed and fulfill on what we agree realistic success to be, can you give me a reassurance that we are going to be both happy and rewarded this time next year?”

This gives your manager a chance to think about what success looks like for you and them at the very least and in more subtle environments, just asking “what does success look like?” might be a good way to build that relationship and clarify some benchmarks.

Getting any sort of criteria in writing can be useful and on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis as appropriate, send an email to your boss and other stakeholders with an update on how the activity is furthering or completing the stated goal.

And, if it is a moving target then ask your boss to break it down based on today’s live time view and suggest a formal time every month or quarter to talk about how goals are evolving based on the external environment or whatever stimuli is making them constantly move. Just make sure this is not an easy out for your manager to stay vague on purpose.

Because, you do not want to be having the same conversation this time next year now, do you?

(If you are interested in hiring an Executive Coach please contact Nicki@theglasshammer.com to discuss further)

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Burnout Isn’t “Their Issue”: Changing Our Behaviours to Benefit Us All

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By Nneka Orji

For many, burnout is a familiar concept; its association with emotional exhaustion and reduced motivation is widely acknowledged.

Burnout

Image via Shutterstock

However those most vulnerable to burnout are more likely to take a “not me” approach, assuming that burnout is something which others suffer from. However, with studies such as that commissioned by Virgin last year which found that just over half of full-time employees in the UK have suffered from anxiety or burnout, individuals and business leaders can no longer see burnout as an infrequent occurrence to be dealt with by someone else. The scale of burnout and its implications – including low levels of engagement – now calls for a much more concerted effort to ensure work environments and organisational cultures mitigate against the risk of burnout and allow all employees to thrive throughout their careers. It can’t be seen as “their issue” – it impacts us all.
Someone who has taken burnout very personally is Arianna Huffington – founder of Huffington Post who recently set up Thrive Global. Following her burnout experience in 2007 as she was setting up Huffington Post, she took a particular interest in the impact of burnout on her life and the lives of others. “For far too long we have been operating under a collective delusion that burning out is the necessary price for achieving success. This couldn’t be less true.” In her recent interview, Arianna talks about the importance of sleep (and nutrition and exercise) in achieving a healthy and successful lifestyle, and some of the key changes organisations need to make to ensure that mitigating burnout doesn’t sit solely in HR departments but with each business leader and every employee.
It isn’t just a nice to have; being able to manage the risk of burnout and perceptions of burnout directly influence an organisation’s ability to recruit (particularly millennials) and impacts the bottom line. According to Gallup’s recent survey, 24% of German employees interviewed felt “tired or burned out” and 12% said they had dealt with mental or emotional stress including burnout and depression in the preceding 12 months. As a result, employees are taking sick days and working less effectively which Gallup estimates to be costing German employers 9 billion euros in lost productivity each year. With economists highlighting the increasing global productivity gap, business leaders and policy makers should be addressing all aspects negatively impacting productivity – including burnout. Where employees felt that their organisations cared about their overall wellbeing were less likely to feel stressed and burned out, and therefore likely to be more engaged and more productive.
Looking beyond productivity at diversity, another top agenda item in leadership discussions, addressing burnout is also an important aspect when considering workforce gender diversity. Last year Cosmopolitan surveyed over 750 women; with over half of the respondents saying they “obsessed over work” even after working hours and a third (71%) suffering from anxiety and panic attacks at some point, the survey suggested that today’s female workforce had become “generation burnout”. However this isn’t unique to women; research published in 2010 in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour challenged the widely-held belief that women are more likely to suffer from burnout than their male colleagues. Instead the research found that women are more likely to be emotionally exhausted, while men are more likely to be “somewhat more depersonalised” – both signs associated with burnout.
Burnout affects our colleagues, our organisational cultures and our economies. Surely we should each be doing more to challenge the status quo? Yes working effectively and sometimes longer than we would like is sometimes necessary, but it should not be the norm.
We can all play a proactive role in changing the association of unsustainable hours with success. And we do that by spotting the signs of burnout – in others and in ourselves, speaking up to ensure we change the culture and ensure the well-being of our colleagues, and role modelling the right behaviours.
1. Spotting the signs
It’s important to know the signs you should be looking out for and how you identify those colleagues most at risk of burnout. While not all burnout leads to employees quitting, the behaviours demonstrated by those burned out and those quitting are similar. According to Timothy Gardner and Peter Hom, following detailed research on the topic of quitting, there are 13 key signs to look out for – including decreased productivity, reduced focus on job related matters, and expressing dissatisfaction with their supervisors more frequently than usual.
While most of us complain from time to time about tiredness, exhaustion and significant disengagement are very different. By being aware of these 13 behaviours (and more), we are not only better positioned to support the burned out individual in what is a challenging period, we are also able to be more cognisant of the impact his or her behaviours impact the rest of the team.
2. Holding up the mirror
Of course it is much easier to observe these behaviours in others, but we must also be able to spot these behaviours in ourselves. Particularly for top performers who always want to give 100% and sometimes see themselves as invincible to the stresses of work life, it is important to pause and ask if one’s pace is sustainable.
3. Speaking up
Once we have identified the signs of burnout, we must take action and the first step is to talk about it. Ignoring the real challenge of burnout and hoping that one good night’s sleep will address the exhaustion is far from realistic. By talking with colleagues who have been affected by burnout, we are able to address it head on.
Arianna Huffington first started speaking up about burnout after her own personal experiences and has since reached millions of employees – and students who will go into the workforce. When asked about why she has been so proactive in getting the message out to millions of people, Arianna talked about the importance of changing perceptions for the next generation so they are able to associate success with sleep-rich careers.  Sweeping it under the carpet will only lead to the next generation emulating poor behaviours.
4. Being a role model
Finally, role modelling the behaviours is critical. Talking about burnout and how we want to change it will have very little impact if each and every one of us doesn’t commit to changing our behaviours. This isn’t easy – bad habits die hard. However, if we are to enjoy fulfilling careers over the long term, and ensure the next generation of leaders have healthier lifestyles, then we must respond to this call to action.
 
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A New Vocabulary For Your Daughters: Three ways we can instill confidence, resilience, and grit

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 Guest contributed by Dr. Priscilla G. Sands 

Leadership

Image via Shutterstock

Reaching a position of leadership, no matter your industry, requires hard work, perseverance, and resilience. How can it be made easier for the next generation to reach their potential? Perhaps we can start by simply by being mindful of the words we use.
As we prepare the young women in our lives for their future, we need to assemble a new “guidebook” to help them in their quest towards lives of purpose and meaning. We know this depends in large part on one’s internal grit and determination, and we all need to allow young women to self-advocate and to set their own goals while at the same time provide authentic mentorship.  

As the Head of School at Marlborough School, an all-girls middle and high school, we believe in a community that is free from the barriers and biases that can hold many women back. I am so proud of our graduates, women who break molds and shatter stereotypes while leaving a positive and lasting impact on the world around them.  
After spending nearly three decades in education, most of them in girls’ schools, I am often asked for my advice on raising confident, competent young women.

Here are three key suggestions for talking to the young woman in our lives:

 

1. DON’T tell her she’s smart. This is hollow statement that she will come to doubt when she faces adversity or challenge. It is a sure way for her to bump her head on the glass ceiling. Not only will she not believe you, she won’t be motivated to strive for more.
 
I know this seems counter-intuitive, particularly for high achievers, but for just that reason they may give up when faced with a difficult problem, rather than struggle through it and wrestle with new ideas and concepts. Being wrong is also part of being smart. So instead of simply stating what you see as a fact, but which is likely to be viewed with skepticism or indifference on the part of the young woman, I suggest an alternative.

DO tell her that you love the way she approaches challenging problems. Encourage her to stay with it and praise her willingness to keep working. She will develop a thirst and appetite for the puzzle and the question rather than simply the answer. Share examples of times when you struggled but ultimately succeeded in meeting a goal. Remind her that many of the greatest accomplishments take time and diligence to achieve as well as significant failure along the way.

2. DON’T refer to her or other women or girls as bossy. Too often girls are given the message that women in charge are disliked, which discourages their pursuit of leadership opportunities.  The most successful women were often told they were bossy along the way. In fact, rid your vocabulary of all gender-loaded words.

DO empower her to take on leadership opportunities where she can and use her voice to also empower others. Women reaching out to other women is a powerful chain of empowerment.
Look for opportunities to ask her advice or opinion. Discuss the process you use for leading, being candid with the way you balance the feedback of the team and the objectives of the project.

3. DON’T tell her she’s a math person…or a language person…There is no such thing and that’s a fact. This kind of language is limiting. It suggests that a woman is only one thing, that she can’t be good at both math and linguistics and soccer and painting. As a result, she may be hesitant to explore new avenues. In this century she should not be locking into an academic or intellectual binary, but should be nimble and engaged in many fields and ways of thinking.

DO help her learn that abilities are developed through commitment and hard work, two building blocks for accomplishment. Nothing happens if you don’t try. Risk being vulnerable yourself and learn something new together. Take a poetry class, learn a new language, or learn to code. You can share the process of learning (complete with your frustrations) and have the opportunity to demonstrate your own strategies for perseverance. This provides an opportunity to make memories and give both of you the chance to try something new, and have fun doing so.
Finally, though not really a “do” or “don’t,” I think the most important thing we can do for the young women in our lives is actively listen to them and demonstrate that they matter, they are valued, and they are respected.
 
Dr. Priscilla G. Sands 
Since 2015 Dr. Sands has been head of Marlborough School in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to this appointment Dr. Sands held leadership roles, from Assistant Head of School to Head of School and ultimately as President at Springside School in Philadelphia, later known as the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. At this institution Dr. Sands established the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a program focused on helping students build the skills and mindset required for success in the 21st century. Dr. Sands continues to be a champion of education and wellness and is currently working on the creation of a Mindfulness Program based on the work of Dr. Martin Seligman.

Dr. Sands earned a B.F.A. from the University of Rhode Island, a Master’s in Liberal Studies from Villanova and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

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

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Is it time for a vacation?

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Beach-chairsAre you feeling overworked and not as productive as usual? Maybe it’s time for a vacation.

Science indicates that breaks help increase productivity and whilst short breaks during your working day may improve concentration, longer breaks and vacations can improve overall job performance. They help improve the state of our mental health by giving us better life perspective and making us more motivated to achieve our goals when we return to work.

So, my advice this week is to take more vacations, as recharging your batteries can make you more productive! On that note, whilst I’m on vacation in Florida, Career Tip will return next week.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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

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Help, my manager is killing my career

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women stressedChances are if you like your manager, your team mates and the tasks at hand are still interesting, then you may be less likely to jump ship unless you are vastly underpaid or you have a personal situation that requires your attention. There is a saying that “People leave managers, not companies,” and a bad manager changes everything. If your relationship is less than cordial with your manager, this can permeate daily interactions to a point where you feel that he or she is a hindrance to your advancement or even your emotional wellbeing in the worst case scenario (and I hear about this more than you think with serial offenders showing patterns with the new hires.) This issue is very tricky and I hesitate to give advice in a one size fits all matter since there is nuance to this topic and I would advise you to speak to your career coach or a trusted advisor first.

What can you do? Explore other options within the same company and navigate the politics by lunching with peers from other teams and even get a sponsor who a leader (the boss of your boss, or higher or a different team leader) so that you can start to understand the bigger picture of mobility, project allocation and promotional tracks. Also, sometimes a bad manager isn’t just someone who has a bad personality but someone who is stuck between a rock and a hard place themselves suffering from systemic constraints ( such as lack of resources, understaffed etc.) and so you have to figure out if this is a temporary issue or a true sign of dysfunction of the entire company.

Failing that, sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade and move on. There are other firms out there.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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

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Overdue Change? How Women Impact On Boardroom Dynamics and Why Boards Need It

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focused-diverse-women-working-trading-strategyCurrently, Boards Are Underperforming and a recent article in HBR went further to declare that “boards aren’t working.” Boards are failing at “their core mission: providing strong oversight and strategic support for management’s efforts to create long-term value.”

Bartman & Wiseman reported that boards are at the top of the blame list for pressuring companies to focus on short-term financial results, with board members being the first to admit so. A previous McKinsey study among board directors revealed serious gaps in understanding company strategies, how firms create value, and in-depth knowledge of industry dynamics.

As a core part in how to address this issue, the authors stated, “Part of the lack is in deep, strategic understanding of the business… If the aim is fostering the proper long-term view, what matters most is the quality and depth of the strategic conversations that take place.”

So, boardrooms are broken? How can gender diversity help?

Increasing the number of women directors changes boardroom dynamics, says a recent article in the Harvard Business Review penned by Laura Liswood, Secretary General, Council of Women World Leaders – who reflects upon ongoing progress.

Real Gender-Diversity Creates Results

The impact of gender diversity on results has been repeatedly demonstrated. Recently a French study found that women in boardrooms has a “significant and positive impact on economic performance” and that “gender diversity even reduces corporate inefficiencies and enables firms to come closer to their optimal performance.” Studies show that corporations with more women in the boardroom experienced greater financial performance.

Beth Brooke-Marciniak, Global Vice Chair of Policy at Ernst & Young, stated, “The evidence abounds: In 2012, Ernst & Young reviewed 22,000 audits that our member firms were performing in four countries on three continents. We found that gender-balanced teams were much more successful than other teams. They don’t just outperform other teams in quality – they also bring back better returns…Research shows that companies with at least one woman on the board have a higher return on equity, higher earnings and a stronger growth in stock price than companies with all-male boards. Bringing diverse voices to the table improves the solutions we see.”

Critical Mass Matters

Many studies demonstrate that a critical mass of women on the board, not just tokenistic representation, leads to better financial results and a greater impact on boardroom dynamics. As an article in Forbes put it, “Forget ‘one and done’ or ‘two and through’ – put three or more women on the board and the financial results are even better.”

A study by Thomson Reuters across 4,255 public companies found that while 64% had women on the board, only 20% had boards with over 20% women – while indices made up of mixed boards performed better. Debra Walton, Chief Content Officer, writes, “One idea in particular resonates for me. It’s called the ‘Power of Three’: One woman is a token, two are a presence, and three are a voice. Some would argue that company boards — which, after all, exist to offer insight on important strategic decisions — need that power because of the potential it offers.”

Some studies assert that women in insignificant numbers impact insignificantly on board performance, whereas the inclusion of at least three women on the board has a positive impact on firm value. Organizations like law firm Herbert Smith Freehills aim for 30% representation. Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions Stephen Wilkinson said, “Just about every respectable study that has come out in the last ten years shows organisations which have a greater gender balance at management level are financially more successful.”

Impacts of Critical Mass on Boardroom Dynamics

Featured in the HBR and in his book Challenging Boardroom Homogeneity: Corporate Law, Governance and Diversity, Dr. Aaron A. Dhir’s work provides an insider look into Norwegian boardrooms and illustrates the impact of having at least 3 women in the boardroom. Dhir identified seven effects of gender-based boardroom heterogeneity for work, governance, and group dynamics:

  • Enhanced dialogue
  • Better decision making, including the value of dissent
  • More effective risk mitigation and crisis management, and a better balance between risk-welcoming and risk aversion behavior
  • Higher quality monitoring of and guidance to management
  • Positive changes to the boardroom environment and culture
  • More orderly and systematic board work
  • Positive changes in the behavior of men

He also noted outsider status and independence were powerful influences, opening up closed social groups and network dynamics and restructuring social bonds between directors, the CEO, and high-level management.

Enhanced Dialogue & More Thorough Decision Making

Dhir found that many women brought “a different set of perspectives, experiences, angles and viewpoints” than their male counterparts. Lisswood noted, “Board members also observed that female directors are ‘more likely than their male counterparts to probe deeply into the issues at hand’ by asking more questions, leading to more robust intra-board deliberations. Most women appeared to be uninterested in presenting a façade of knowledge and were loath to make decisions they did not fully understand.”

Female directors tended to foster a different approach to engagement – seeking the opinions of others and working to ensure everyone had a say in the matter.

The importance of diversity in decision-making is paramount. Research has found that homogenous groups don’t reach better decisions, but they’ll think they have. Heterogenous groups arrive at better decisions, but won’t think so. Experience and outcome are two different things.

INSEAD research postulates that in-group and out-group dynamics in a diverse group lead to more contentious and comprehensive discussions, and results in “more thorough, more comprehensive decisions” when women are on boards.

The importance of diversity in decision-making is paramount.

Diversity Disrupts Groupthink

Groupthink is defined as a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics – a serious liability of homogenous boards. Disrupting it is a big asset of women in the boardroom, even if and especially if they disrupt the existing dynamic.

“Groupthink seriously imperils the board’s decision-making process as it introduces decision biases and blind spots into the process. This is mainly attributed to directors’ endeavor to maintain cohesiveness and solidarity within the board at all costs. Such group pressure compels many directors to ‘go with the flow’ instead of challenging the dominant view in the boardroom,” states Fause Antelo Ersheid, Economist and Senior Corporate Governance Analyst & Researcher at the Abu Dhabi Center for Corporate Governance.

Ersheid recommends, “To overcome this decision-making impediment, companies need to implement a comprehensive diversification program in the boardroom; the board should be as diverse as the company’s client base and perhaps more.” He recommends gender, age, racial, and professional diversity and individually-appointed directors, underlining chairs must champion diversification.

As Thomson Reuter’s Walton states, “Diversity of gender brings a diversity of thought. Getting more women involved reduces groupthink, unlocks fresh perspectives, and fosters innovation and organizational creativity – ultimately emulating a diverse customer base. Only with a broad range of viewpoints can a board make governance and advisory functions meaningful and offer a balanced approach to risk management.”

Not a pipe dream?

According to Liswood, “The Norwegian experience has provided a window into what might happen if and when board leaders and companies elsewhere decide to seriously commit to making sure their boards are truly diverse, moving consciously from homogeneity to heterogeneity.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Career Tip of the Week!

Nicki GilmourThis Week’s Tip Is…

Enjoy the journey, but know the destination.

Like Steven Covey’s advice of “begin with the end in mind”, it is good to review how your current job is a pathway to gathering the skills and relationships needed to take you to your next job.

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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