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Diversity

Diversity, Gender

Ambition and Flexibility: Not Mutually Exclusive


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By Melissa Anderson

Recently More Magazine released the results of a survey on ambition, work/life issues, and other topics. According to the survey of 500 college educated women over 35, 43% of respondents said they were less ambitious now than they were ten years ago.

The headline that many news outlets and websites ran with was along the lines of “Women are Losing Ambition.”

Well, not exactly.

In fact, the survey revealed quite the opposite. Because, while 43% of the survey respondents said they were less ambitious now than they were ten years ago, the majority (57%) said they were just as or more ambitious today.

Diversity, Ethnicity/Nationality, Gender

Increasing the Representation of Multicultural Women in Leadership


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By Melissa J. Anderson

In a recent Harvard Business Review blog post, business writer Roger O. Crockett wrote that when it comes to the corporate space, women of color are “woefully underrepresented in leadership.”

Citing Andrea Jung’s recent departure from Avon, Crockett explained that there are now only two women of color chief executives in the Fortune 500 (Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi and Xerox’s Ursula Burns).

In fact, Catalyst recently released its 2011 Census of Fortune 500 Board Directors, Executive Officers, and Top Earners, which showed that women make up only a small percentage of corporate leadership. While the Census did not track executive officers or top earners by ethnicity, it did record the ethnicity of board directors.

And the numbers were hard to swallow. On average, women made up 16.1% of Fortune 500 boards. But women of color occupied only 3% of director seats. And that could be costly for corporations looking to grow and innovate.

Diversity, Gender, Thought Leadership

Thought Leaders: Anne Izzillo on Boosting Global Corporate Diversity


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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Anne Izzillo, President of the Financial Women’s Association, believes sincerely in the power of networking – in fact, she said, that’s how she got involved in the group in the first place. “I lived and worked in London for 14 and a half years and I came back in 1999, basically without a network.”

“Everybody had gone to the four winds in the almost 15 years I was away,” she explained. “And somebody I know, a friend of a friend actually, suggested, because I was bemoaning the fact that I didn’t have a network anymore… that I join the FWA.”

Izzillo explained that networking externally is critical for building individual careers, but she believes it can also improve corporate diversity on a global scale.

Diversity

Why Diversity Isn’t Yet Built into Senior Leader Succession Planning


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By Tina Vasquez

In 2009 Xerox made an unprecedented move by appointing Ursula Burns as chairperson and CEO of the company. Not only did Burns become the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company (a position she still holds today), but everything about her, from her background to her appearance, was drastically different from her predecessor Ann Mulcahey.

We’ve all heard about the benefits of building diversity into company culture, from an increase in productivity and creativity to increased sales, but as evidenced by Ursula’s distinction as the only African American woman to ever head a Fortune 500 company, very few corporations consider the importance of building diversity into their top levels.

When considering a succession plan for a senior leader, it’s easy to imagine their replacement as someone who looks and acts just like them, but that’s not the best or smartest way to plan for a successful future. In a speech at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Burns argued that leaders and policy makers in all sectors have become too satisfied with the status quo. “Rather than focus on what can’t be done, we all need to exhibit a lot more impatience with what is and more passion for what might be.”

As it turns out, the problem may not be a reluctance to challenge the status quo, but rather that companies are failing to create proper succession plans, let alone build diversity into them.

Diversity, LGBT

Did the HRC Change Corporate Policy with the CEI?


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By Melissa J. Anderson

The Human Rights Campaign released its 2012 Corporate Equality Index earlier this month, announcing the big news: despite increasingly tough standards, 190 of the companies polled received perfect scores.

Three years ago, the HRC announced that it would be creating more stringent goals for companies to achieve in order to gain perfect scores on the index, which has become the gold standard for benchmarking corporate acceptance for LGBT employees. By this year, to gain a 100%, companies would have to provide equal healthcare coverage for transgender individuals, including coverage for sexual reassignment surgery.

The inclusion of transgender healthcare benefits proved challenging for a number of companies – last year, 337 companies earned top rankings. This year that number decreased significantly. But, HRC President Joe Solmonese wrote in a recent article in the Huffington Post, this is all part of the organization’s goal to become more inclusive of its constituents – and to honor those companies that are truly providing “best-in-class” workplaces for their employees. He implied that by upping the ante, the HRC is working to influence companies to change their policies.

Solmonese wrote, “As companies compete to recruit and retain the best employees and influence consumer choices, CEI ratings have redefined the norm for how all companies treat LGBT workers and their families.”

Do corporate rankings really move the needle toward inclusion for underrepresented groups? According to the HRC, they do.

Diversity, Gender

Why is Gender Balance So Slow in the Legal Profession?


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By Hua Wang

New research shows that how law firms distribute billing origination credit and compensation affects the advancement of women lawyers to positions of real power and influence in their firm. What steps can law firms take to develop fair and equitable compensation, origination credit, and client succession policies that will help drive gender balance at the top ranks?

As women lawyers become more senior, they experience an increasing shortfall in income compared to male attorneys, and firms see higher attrition rates of women senior women lawyers. Despite commitments to build a more gender balanced senior echelon at law firms, women represent only 16% of equity partners nationwide. These lawyers hold an ownership interest in their firms and occupy the most prestigious, powerful and lucrative positions.

The underrepresentation of women among law firm equity partners means fewer women on compensation committees, which research shows, impacts the compensation of women across the board. According to the 2010 American Bar Association survey study “New Millennium, Same Glass Ceiling” [PDF] of nearly 700 women law firm partners, about half of the respondents had one woman on the committee. One-fifth had none. Another fifth had two women. When women are not part of the dialogue and the decision-making body that charts the future direction of firms, the chances are greater that the policies and practices implemented will be less responsive to the career needs of women lawyers.

Diversity

Why Inclusive Sponsorship is Needed to Make Diversity Work


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By Melissa J. Anderson

Diversity is a necessity, wrote Laura Liswood recently in the Huffington Post. Liswood, Co-founder, The Council of Women World Leaders, said that in today’s complex, global, changing world, diversity of thought is sorely needed in order to come up with creative, competitive solutions to problems.

But, she said, leveraging the benefits of diversity means we must treat diversity as more than a numbers game. She explained:

“By the benefits, I mean the advantage of capturing the differing ways people think about issues and experiences and creation of a truly level playing field. Without an even playing field, a real meritocracy that neither subtly advantages some nor disadvantages others, it is my opinion that organizations will never obtain the benefits they seek from their diversity initiatives.”

One of the key steps to fostering diversity of thought is ensuring that everyone feels their voices can and should be heard – that they feel entitled to be bold. Inclusive leadership should ask themselves who speaks up most in their organization, and why this might be. As Liswood explains, “This is not rocket science, but it does require a far greater consciousness about who gets heard and how to ensure that all are included. How we unconsciously react to diversity is the key step that often gets skipped.”

Diversity, Gender

Women Seeking More Flexible Work


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By Melissa J. Anderson

According to a new survey from Microsoft Office 365 and 85 Broads, women are interested in a more flexible work arrangement. According to the survey of members of the women’s networking group 85 Broads, a full 90% of respondents would prefer a regular remote working schedule, and 81% of women said they’d be more satisfied with their jobs as a result of remote working. Given the opportunity, they would work from home 3.1 days per week.

That’s more than half the week away from the office. The main reasons women desired a more flexible work arrangement included work/life issues, better productivity, and a shorter commute. In fact, it is notable that so many individuals felt being at work prevented them from getting work done. What is it about the workplace that is so draining?

Diversity, Gender

Gender Intelligence: How to Make it Work in Your Company


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By Melissa J. Anderson

On Friday, The Impact Center hosted the first ever Gender Intelligence Summit in Washington, DC, which focused on what Gender Intelligence is and how it can help advance the diversity conversation at today’s top companies.

Yesterday, we discussed how Gender Intelligence can help further the diversity and inclusion conversation – by focusing on and valuing differences between the genders, rather than the similarities.

By implementing diversity programming that incorporates the value of these differences, companies can change the structure and culture of their workforce. As Marie Wilson, Founder of The White House Project commented at the Summit, “Gender is not just a matter of how people get along or how companies make money. It’s a matter of how decisions get made.” How can companies better take advantage of Gender Intelligence differences?

Diversity, Gender

Gender Intelligence: The Next Step in Inclusion


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By Melissa J. Anderson

How can companies better galvanize support for building inclusive cultures? According to proponents of Gender Intelligence, one way is to focus on the differences between men and women, rather than the similarities.

John Hart, Founder and CEO of the Impact Center, explained, “For me, as a man coming into this, the unique nature of gender intelligence speaks to the next challenge… to make sure men are included in the conversation. For me it came down to the data.”

He explained that research on Gender Intelligence showed him the importance of including multiple diverse points of view in the workplace. “We believe the true sustainability of the conversation going forward will be in collaboration with one another.”

Hart was speaking at the first ever Gender Intelligence Summit, held in Washington, DC, on Friday. The conference featured preeminent scientists on the neurobiological differences between male and female brains, as well expert diversity practitioners on how companies can take advantage of these differences to build more inclusive and productive workplaces.

As Barbara Annis, Founder and CEO of Barbara Annis & Associates and Chair of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said, “The business case is compelling. You can’t deny it anymore.”