Posted by Shradha Balakrishnan on Tue, Feb 09, 2010
A guest post by Shannon Wills:
There’s no doubt that the Internet has given us a host of benefits and made the world a much smaller place than it is. We are now connected to every nook and corner of the earth, and information is no longer exclusive to a privileged few. One area where the World Wide Web has made significant contributions is online education – what started out as distance education where students were sent their study material through post and took their exams remotely has now bloomed into a full-fledged business that allows people to earn degrees from the comfort of their home.
The trends in online education have been changing since the time degrees were offered entirely online – earlier, there was a stigma attached to these degrees with employers and society refusing to accept them as equal to regular degrees that were earned in traditional institutions. The existence and rampant success of diploma mills that churned out fake degrees for money also did not help any, with people hesitant to accept even genuine online degrees as the real deal. And this meant that it was only those who had no other option left who turned to online schools to pursue an education.
Today however, there is a vast difference in how people perceive online education, especially since prestigious institutions like MIT have also jumped on this bandwagon and started offering its lessons online through its OpenCourseWare project. So we see the difference in the kind of students who enroll for online courses:
• While it earlier attracted mostly stay-at-home moms who had no time to attend regular college and for older men and women who felt out of place on campus, online education today is the choice of busy career men and women who look to these degrees to help further their profession and climb up the career ladder.
• Also, because of the recent recession, online education has become the savior of those who need to learn new skills to find better jobs, those who do not have enough money to afford a regular college education, those who wish to hold on to their jobs and also earn a degree so that they can further their careers, and for those who have been laid off and who seek to use their time constructively and in a cost-effective way.
• Veterans and others from the armed forces are turning to online education to help them gain skills to re-enter the mainstream workforce and fit better when they leave the army because of injuries or other reasons. They are able to learn from any place in the world, and when they leave the armed forces, they have a degree that will help them go places in the work world and also help support their families.
There’s no doubt that online education will continue to evolve and grow, and one day, it will become the norm rather than the anomaly.
This guest post is contributed by Shannon Wills, she writes on the topic of Online Engineering Degree . She welcomes your comments at her email id: shannonwills23@gmail.com.
Posted by Lauren Travis on Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Here are a couple of great resolution suggestions from Jo Miller of Women's Leadership Coaching, and lead facilitator of FWL's 2010 Leadership Development Program. Registration for the program ends on February 16.
1. Become more influential
Build your ability to influence, persuade, and motivate others, regardless of whether you have a management job title. Influencing Without Authority>>
2. Seek management’s buy-in for a new idea
Take a great technical idea, and sell it to your senior management by partnering with others to build credibility. Selling your technical idea to management >>
3. Don’t let others steal your ideas
Pitch persuasive proposals, and pitch yourself too, to get credit for your work. Getting Credit for Your Ideas >>
4. Learn to delegate effectively
Manage the work performance of others, without hovering about like a micro-manager. How Do I Delegate without Micromanaging >>
5. Build an influential network
You don’t need to be a “shmoozer” to be a good networker, when you include these five key types of people. Five Key People You Need in Your Network >>
To see 5 more resolutions, visit
10 Resolutions Every Women Should Make. To learn more about the LDP and to register for the final information session on February 4, visit the
FWL Leadership Development Program homepage.
Posted by Shradha Balakrishnan on Mon, Jan 25, 2010
The 2010 Haas School of Business Women in Leadership Conference is coming up! Thought this may be just the kind of opportunity many of you have been eagerly awaiting.
Posted by Sonya Banerjee on Thu, Jan 14, 2010
Carla Cooper is a seasoned finance professional who was kind .jpg)
enough to take time out of her busy schedule to share her insight with Future Women Leaders.
Question #1: Tell me a bit about your background.
I have an undergraduate degree from Princeton. I joined Prudential Securities after college and spent three years there. Because I had a liberal arts major, and no finance background, my first four months at Prudential were really a tough challenge - a brutal four month financial education. Many of my peers had finance backgrounds and seemed to be so far ahead, but I knew that I would be able to overcome those challenges. In college, I wrote a 140 page thesis on a complex political topic - I knew I could do anything.
Early on, I really wanted to prove myself - prove that I could handle the challenges of the job. As a result, I ended up pursuing the CFA because I felt it would provide me with the skills I would need to do well at Prudential. And this is key - a lot of people advised me not to pursue the CFA, noting that my time would be better spent doing something else. Ultimately I made my decision based on what I believed would be the right step for me. One lesson I took away from my experience at Prudential is that it is important to look at what the organization values and take steps that will lead you to succeed in that environment.
Question #2: Why did you decide to get an MBA?
I wanted a flexible degree that would provide me with options in business. I decided to attend Kellogg because I felt it was a well-rounded school, which was an important aspect for me since I was considering getting out of finance. I spent my first summer in business school working in marketing - in some ways it was a horrible experience, but in other ways it was fantastic. I'd like to note here that difficult experiences really sharpen your thought process - there is usually something to be learned. I wouldn't seek out difficult experiences, but I wouldn't avoid them either. After that summer, and after spending time hearing about what friends in finance were doing, I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in finance.
Something to consider when evaluating a job prospect - you can accept a job for the person you will be working for, if not for the job itself. After business school, I went to work for the co-director of Equity Research at Robert W. Baird & Co. and I became his right-hand woman. At Baird, I worked my way up from an Associate position to a Senior Analyst role. I spent about 10 years in sell-side research with Baird before I decided to transition to Baird Investment Management (where I have been for 4 years).
Question #3: What are the biggest work-related challenges you have faced? How did you overcome them?
- My Prudential experience (described in Question 1) - when I chose to pursue the CFA
- I had a challenging boss early in my career, and in terms of lessons I took away from that experience: have a thick skin - don't take things personally. If someone is being difficult, understand that there is another story underlying their behavior - might not be you
- Also - I had two kids while working as a Senior sell-side Research Analyst - no easy feat (I am blessed to have a supportive spouse). Something to consider - don't let others dictate to you what makes a good mom; it is important for your kids to see you as a happy person - so do what makes you happy
Question #4: Tell me about the mentors you have had in your life (male/female).
- My first boss at Baird - I really learned how to think things through and improved my interpersonal skills
- I had a great mentor at Prudential - someone who rescued me from the challenging boss I described earlier. She was smart, had a great presence - was strong and definitive and a great role model partly because she was a woman
Question #5: Anything you wish you had known when you were in earlier stages of your career?
Rules of the corporate or business world are sometimes unspoken - i.e. not as crystal clear as "these are the things you need to do to get an A." Sometimes you need to take risks or seek out guidance
Always weigh the costs and benefits of your actions. Don't be risk averse, but people can sometimes forget that the downside is higher than the incremental upside that they are focused on
Just have to figure things out as you go.
Question #6: What are leadership qualities you value most in others?
- Directness
- Good blocking and tackling
- Someone who is consistent versus someone who is on once a year
- Engage with the people/work/process/everything and has some commitment to periodically stepping back and reviewing the strategy/goal
Question #7: What is your greatest achievement?
- I was really proud that I was a top ranked Senior Research Analyst at a firm I really respect.
- I was proud to have stayed on track professionally at the same time as I was raising a family
- You have to love what you do because there will come a day when being with your kids will become really attractive
Question #8: Who inspires you?
My husband inspires me because he is so level headed and is always thinking about how to solve problems. I am also frequently inspired by what I read and by people I meet.
Question #9: Do you have a mission statement or a tenet that you try to live by?
- You aren't learning anything if you are talking; make sure to listen!
- What goes around comes around
- Golden rule - treat others as you would like to be treated
Question #10: Do you have work/life balance?
- I have work/life balance - but I am always on the go; I don't get to sleep much, but that is ok with me
- I have three regular volunteer commitments - which I enjoy
- Exercise is definitely my stress release
Posted by Shradha Balakrishnan on Tue, Jan 12, 2010
A guest post by Lynn Harris:
Every month or so new research appears about women in senior leadership – either there aren’t enough of them, or they’re not being treated on a par with men when they do make it to the top.
Two of the most recent examples are the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Gender Gap Report, and a new survey from The Corporate Library on the relative earnings of female CEOs.
The Gender Gap report gives a league table of how well countries use their resource of female talent (predictably, not very well for most countries). The Corporate Library survey reveals that female CEOs (those rare creatures) earn just 58 percent of what males earn; they also get lower bonuses.
One might surmise (as some women do when they read these kind of statistics), that there’s some kind of male conspiracy to keep women out of boardrooms and corner offices.
I don’t believe that’s so.
Men don’t get up in the morning and think, “How can I keep women down today?” At least not any men I know. Most of them just aren’t very interested in the issue. They’re focused on climbing the corporate ladder, and don’t really think gender gaps at the top are that important.
So, if it’s not a male conspiracy, why ARE there relatively few women in the upper echelons?
It’s tempting to look for single causes: women have lower self-esteem, or women are not genetically programmed to lead, or men are more committed and ambitious for power – the list goes on and on.
In fact, media articles that quote new research almost always focus on a single cause for the lack of women at the top. After all, if there were a single reason why more women don’t influence government policy, run academic institutions or lead corporations, it would be relatively easy to assign blame and fix the problem.
Unfortunately, for complex issues such as this one, there is never a single point of causality.
Simplistic analyses that say women need to be more assertive, more confident or more ambitious, are well intentioned, but misleading. They result in confusing advice for women who want to lead.
Women are told, for example, that they need to be more assertive, but not so assertive that they are disliked; they need to be collaborative, but not so friendly that they lack credibility; they need to be more competent than their male colleagues, but in a way that does not threaten them; and they need to be role models for other women, but need to behave more like men to succeed. Women obviously also need a good sense of humor!
Instead of looking for a single cause, we need to look at the different forces that interact to create leadership and organizational norms that favor men and disadvantage women. I call these forces the “unwritten rules.”
These rules aren’t explicitly acknowledged in organizations, but we all know they exist. They create a culture or environment in which it is more difficult for women to get to the top, and even to stay there once they have succeeded.
The unwritten rules are not part of some dastardly male conspiracy to keep women down. Rather, they are leadership norms that have evolved and become more extreme over time. Unfortunately, they are so firmly entrenched in organizations that they show little signs of changing.
What can be done to change this unbalanced status quo?
There seems to be a growing movement that recognizes women as a vastly underutilized leadership resource that could lead us back to economic stability, and clean up some of the dubious business practices that have led to the current worldwide economic recession.
Saadia Zahidi, co-author of the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, says “Women and girls make up one half of the human resources available to the world and it will be imperative that they are educated, empowered and integrated for rapid economic recovery.”
The Corporate Library survey of Female CEO Pay demonstrates the need for parity at the top, even after women have made it to the corner office.
This is unlikely to happen, however, unless we move away from conspiracy theories and singular causes. Instead, we need to confront the reality of the unwritten rules, and recognize how they produce leadership behavior that maintains a status quo that significantly disadvantages women who want to lead. Women then have a clear choice. Learn the skills to succeed within the rules; or expose the rules and try to change the game.
About Lynn Harris:
Lynn Harris brings over 20 years of managerial, leadership and consulting experience in large organizations. She runs her own executive development practice based in Montreal, Canada where she specializes in executive coaching, team development and meeting facilitation. She also works internationally with colleagues from Europe delivering organizational change projects and leadership development workshops.
Author: Unwritten Rules What Women Need To Know About Leading In Today's Organizations
www.unwrittenrulesthebook.com
Posted by Shradha Balakrishnan on Mon, Jan 04, 2010
As a 28-year old who was born in India, went to university in Japan and is now working in the US, I felt as if this article was speaking directly to me! While I don't work crazy hours and in fact, love my nonprofit job, the article gave me an opportunity to self-reflect. Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did.
TRIBAL WORKERS
(Copyright The Financial Times Limited)
Today's generation of high-earning professionals maintain that their personal fulfilment comes from their jobs and the hours they work. They should grow up, says Thomas Barlow.
A friend of mine recently met a young American woman who was studying on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. She already had two degrees from top US universities, had worked as a lawyer and as a social worker in the US, and somewhere along the way had acquired a black belt in kung fu. Now, however, her course at Oxford was coming to an end and she was thoroughly angst-ridden about what to do next.
Her problem was no ordinary one.
She couldn't decide whether she should make a lot of money as a corporate lawyer/management consultant, devote herself to charity work helping battered wives in disadvantaged Communities, or go to Hollywood to work as a stunt double in kung fu films. What most struck my friend was not the disparity of this woman's choices, but the earnestness and bad grace with which she ruminated on them. It was almost as though she begrudged her own talents, Opportunities and freedom - as though the world had treated her unkindly by forcing her to make such a hard choice.
Her case is symptomatic of our times. In recent years, there has grown up a culture of discontent among the highly educated young something that seems to flare up, especially, when people reach their late 20s and early 30s. It arises not from frustration caused by lack of opportunity, as may have been true in the past, but from an excess of possibilities.
Continued here: http://msittig.freeshell.org/articles/FinT_TribalWorkers.html
Posted by Shradha Balakrishnan on Thu, Dec 31, 2009
A very timely guest post by Pat Obuchowski:
"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." |
| ~Charles DuBos |
Transition is the process of letting go of the way things used to be and then taking hold of the way they subsequently become. Sounds easy, but in reality, it is really hard letting go of the comfort of sameness.
 |
Gateway by Sigma |
We resist transition not because we can't accept the change, but because we can't accept letting go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up when and because the situation has changed.
Although transitions are hard they are key times in the natural process of our self-renewal.
Major transition is happening. And it has, and is, and will be happening to each of us. It cannot be avoided.
No matter how hard we scream "NO!"
William Bridges' famous book "Transitions" offers a simple three passage way through transitions:
- Endings. Every transition begins with an ending. These endings are not to be confused with finalities. We cannot say to ourselves "It is finished!" We need to recognize that an ending is actually a new beginning and every ending has one. This is where we "Let Go."
- The Neutral Zone. This is a time when we feel disconnected from people, places and things in our lives. We feel emotionally unconnected and can't find that connection we once felt. This is normal. This is a time of reorientation and looking for a new beginning.
- The New Beginning. We come to beginnings only at the end. It is at this time that we are ready to launch into something new for ourselves. We look for the signs and take action that point the way to our future and complete the transition process.
If you are feeling you are in a transition right now. Whether it be a job or career transition, a transition in your relationship, or just a time for self-renewal, here are a few ideas to help you get and stay into action:
- Take your time. You cannot rush the inner process that will change.
- Arrange temporary structures. Sameness of some aspect helps.
- Don't act for the sake of action. Transitions require that we bring a chapter of our lives to conclusion and that we discover whatever we need to learn for the next step we are going to take.
- Recognize why you are uncomfortable. Recognize the phases of transitions and identify where you are at: Denial; Resistance; Exploration; Commitment.
- Take care of yourself in little (or BIG) ways.
- Get someone to talk to. Find allies.
- Begin a Journal. This gives you the opportunity to reflect and look back.
- Find out what is waiting in the wings of your life. Journal around the question, "What is waiting to happen in my life now?" Don't plan it out or try to figure it out, just start writing and write as quickly as you can.
- Find a regular time and place to be alone. Spend time in quiet and meditation.
- Take this opportunity to discover what you really want.
- Take a few days to go on your own version of a 'Passage Journey'. Take time away from your every day surroundings.
- Spend time in nature.
"When you can't see straight ahead, it's because you're about to turn a corner." ~Myrtle Reed
Step into leading and play a Bigger Game in your life…don't wait…model leadership…the World needs us to do this.
Lead strong!
About Pat Obuchowski:
Pat Obuchowski is CEO (Chief Empowerment Officer) of inVisionaria, a Leadership and Team coaching organization. She currently serves as a Global Board Director for the International Coach Federation, the largest professional coaching association in the World.
Web: www.inVisionaria.com
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patobuchowski
*Photo entitled Gateway by Sigma
Posted by Lauren Travis on Mon, Dec 14, 2009
These days, it is so important to put your best foot forward,
whether you are trying to progress in your job or trying to find a new
position. Knowing your strengths and how to use them to your best
ability is vital. Taking the steps to build your leadership skills and
self-awareness is an investment that will pay off for a lifetime.
In mid-November, Future Women Leaders held an information session for our 2010 Leadership Development Program,
which is designed to help women truly come in to themselves as
leaders. We discussed the goals of the program, the content, and how
women can make this investment possible. Here are some of the
takeaways on how you can find the time and funds to attend:
- Ask your company to sponsor your attendance. Be clear
about the program outcomes and why you think your participation would
be valuable for you, and for them. Offer to make a presention to your
team on your learnings. Make this training part of your performance
development plan.
- Negotiate. If your company is unable to sponsor your
entire participation fee, perhaps they can supplement it. As an
alternative, ask to take time for the sessions as training days rather
than vacation or PTO.
- Ask your family to sponsor you. Ask for the gift of
personal development this holiday season! It is a great way for your
loved ones to be involved in your success.
- Invest in your self. Draw up a weekly or monthly payment
plan agreement with your self, and budget a set amount for each month
to put towards to program.
At the end of the day, this program is for YOU and you will reap the
greatest rewards, so it is worth investing your time and energy TODAY
on something that will benefit you for years to come.
For more information about the 2010 Leadership Development program, scheduled to begin in Februrary, please visit http://www.futurewomenleaders.net/leadership-development-program.
The site includes a description of the program, as well a link to our
registration page and the presentation from the Nov 11 Information
Session.
Posted by Sonya Banerjee on Fri, Dec 11, 2009
Great Business Week blog posting regarding a study that found that hedge funds run by women delivered nearly double the investment performance of those managed by men (time frame: January 2000 to May 31, 2009). Additionally, the article notes that women may be better at manging risk when it comes to other areas of finance as well. To read more: click here.
Posted by Megan Bergtholdt on Fri, Dec 11, 2009
The FWL officer team got together last weekend for a little holiday shindig at one of our officer's adorable apartments. We sat down for some pizza, wine, and great conversation. It was wonderful to be surrounded by such incredible women - I left the evening feeling inspired and ready to take on a new year. Here's a group picture from the evening:
As part of our holiday party, everyone brought a gently used item of professional clothing to donate to Dress for Success. When you get together with your girlfriends I encourage you to think of ways to give back as a group. It's one of the best ways to celebrate the holidays.
Happy holidays from the FWL officer team!