This month’s blog post is a recap of our recent WIT.Connect from June 18th on resiliency and bouncing back from adversities. Our guest writer is an eleventh grader and future Girls in Technology (GIT) member from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, VA.

WIT.Connect: Resiliency & Bouncing Back!

Deb Alderson, President & CEO of Herndon-based Sotera Defense Solutions, Inc. shared her very personal story of what happened when her high potential career door at SAIC suddenly slammed shut amidst a major corporate contract scandal...and how she found the confidence to open another window to create a career she’d always dreamed of at Sotera Defense.

Jean Stafford, The Executive Coach for Women, an experienced coach and internationally recognized expert on women’s professional leadership potential, drew out of Deb’s impactful story the whys, whats, and hows of responding to crisis and opportunities.

This month’s WIT.Connect was a panel where Deb Alderson spoke with Jean Stafford about resiliency and leadership. Ms. Alderson had many words of wisdom centering on a few key themes:

• Focus on the road ahead
• Demonstrate value
• Take care of people  

Ms. Alderson shared her story of her professional ups and downs and what that taught her about herself. One take-away from the conversation was success in business comes from focusing on the road ahead. If you dwell on your past you are less likely to get anywhere in the future. Ms. Alderson said "you should not forget the experiences you had and always give back to the community.” While not all your experiences are good, they make you who you are and you should not forget them. Instead you should use your experiences, both good and bad, to help the people around you.

For Ms. Alderson, taking care of people is a core value. She considers this, along with serving the business mission, the most critical component to her success. Ms. Alderson reminded us that when you first start out at a business, you do not know your coworkers and they do not know you. You need to take the time to get to know them. It is not enough to say you want something or can do something, you need to demonstrate your value to others.

Ms. Alderson also stressed building the team dynamic and “taking care of people” in the workplace. Your co-workers need to know that you “have their back” and vice versa. This relationship is not a given, it has to be earned and kept. When hiring staff you should look for people with positive attitudes and enthusiastic personalities. When Ms. Alderson faced tough times, she had built up a large support network that helped her in her time of need.

An audience member raised the question of mentoring versus sponsorship and how these play into Ms. Alderson’s management style. For her, both mentoring and sponsorship are very different. Mentors listen to what you have to say, while sponsors push your limitations. Almost anyone can fill the mentor role but sponsors are those people who have seen you demonstrate your value and want to be an active part of your future success.

The audience left this event feeling inspired and encouraged. The group was reminded to never give up on your dreams, even if they seem impossible. A key life lesson Ms. Alderson’s mom conveyed to her early in life was “there is no such thing as a glass ceiling, just break through, and push yourself to keep going." Use challenges as a means to propel forward your career while never forgetting lessons learned from mistakes made along the way.

This month’s blog posting caught our eye. It’s an excerpt from Rebecca Shambaugh posted on June 9th. Please see her bio after the blog post.

Is Culture of Overwork Behind Women’s Stalled Advancement?
by Becky Shambaugh

The speculated reason why fewer women than men reach the leadership ranks has changed over time. From the early to mid-1990s, most explanations for the discrepancy at the top pointed to sexism and sexual harassment of women, according to research from Harvard Business School (HBS). From the mid-90s to 2000, the media chorus shifted to blame women’s exclusion from the “old boy’s club.” By 2001, the focus turned to responsibilities for children as the reason more women couldn’t get ahead.

But in recent years, the pendulum has swung in a different, though related direction—the challenge of balancing work and family, and women’s continued greater burden in managing household matters. Now, a 2015 study being released as part of HBS’s new gender initiative has questioned whether women’s competing work-life demands are really the primary problem—or if America’s corporate culture of overwork is.

The HBS study, co-authored by Harvard professor Robin Ely with researchers Irene Padavic of Florida State University and Erin Reid of Boston University, was based on results from an unnamed global consulting firm with 90 percent male partners. The researchers set out to determine how to both boost the number of women promoted to the higher echelons of the firm, and decrease the number of women who left the firm.

The surprising results were that it wasn’t a lack of family-friendly policies that were the main reason women were held back. Instead, the culprit identified behind this distressing long-term trend was a round-the-clock work culture that demands both women and men alike be constantly available to their boss and colleagues in order to get ahead.

In a recent article in The New York Times, Claire Cain Miller notes that this workaholic expectation is particularly acute in industries like consulting, finance, law, and accounting. Data from the Current Population Survey shows high earners work the longest hours, and that Americans of both genders spend significantly more time in the office today than they did in past decades.

Some take-home points from the HBS study:

• Men quit at the same rate as women, and were as likely as women (or more so) to blame long hours at work for interfering with their family lives.

• While more women took advantage of formal flexible work policies (like working part-time) than men, deciding to do so often derailed their careers.

• Men used different strategies than women to try to deal with the problem of long hours expectations. Unlike women, men often worked their preferred number of hours without asking for their company’s permission, while others reduced travel by finding more local clients or arranging informally for colleagues to cover for them while they attended their children’s events.

• While men’s attempts like these to maintain work-life balance often led to promotion, women were not similarly rewarded by the company if they left the office at the end of the day or flexed their schedule creatively. In Miller’s article, she reported that the researchers said, “When a man left at 5 p.m., people at the office assumed he was meeting a client. When a woman left, they assumed she was going home to her children.” 

There are no easy answers here, yet the study raises new questions about what types of changes in corporate culture might help the problem of women’s stalled advancement. In Miller’s article, she quotes HBS study co-author Ely as asking, “Is it really necessary for people to be on call 24/7? The answer is increasingly no. These professions are beholden to the whims of the client, and every question has to be answered immediately—but it probably doesn’t.”

To learn more about how SHAMBAUGH can help you build inclusive/integrated leadership within your organization, or about SHAMBAUGH’s targeted women’s leadership development programs, executive coaching, and other core services, visit www.shambaughleadership.com.

Rebecca Shambaugh is author of the best-selling books “It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor”, “Make Room for Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model to Achieve Extraordinary Results” and "Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton."

Rebecca Shambaugh’s Biography

Rebecca Shambaugh is an internationally recognized leadership expert, author, and keynote speaker. She speaks before thousands of leaders around the world every year, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions about how to lead in today’s business environment. Her compelling and new vision for leadership in the 21st Century has electrified and inspired audiences on six continents.

Rebecca is President of SHAMBAUGH, a global leadership development organization and Founder of Women In Leadership and Learning (WILL), one of the first executive leadership development programs in the country, dedicated to the research, advancement, and retention of women leaders and executives. Rebecca has coached and advised over a hundred leaders and executives and has enhanced their overall level of excellence in such areas as communications, strategic thinking, inclusive leadership, employee engagement, executive presence, and culture transformation.

Prior to starting her own company, Rebecca has worked for such premier organizations as General Motors, Fairchild Industries, and Amax Inc. as a senior executive in the leadership and human capital arena.

Rebecca has been showcased on CNBC, TED Talks, Fox News (New York), NPR, Washington Business, ABC, and numerous syndicated radio talk shows. She has been featured in publications such as: Leader to Leader, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time Magazine, USA Today, Fortune Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Pink Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Rebecca is a known thought leader in the industry and is the author of two best seller books titled, “It’s Not A Glass Ceiling, It’s A Sticky Floor” and “Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton,” and her new book, “Make Room For Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model To Achieve Extraordinary Results,” all published by McGraw-Hill. Her books illustrate her unconventional and results-focused approach to creating great leaders.

Rebecca partners with a cross-section of clients such as: Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Chemical, Hilton Worldwide, KPMG, Marriott International, IBM, Cisco, National Grid, Humana, HP, Intelsat, MedImmune, Microsoft, and J&J. She is a member of the National Press Club, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on the Board of Visitors for Marymount University, on the Board of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, and on the Executive Board for the Virginia Women’s Center. Rebecca is also the Chairman of the Board of Young Women Lead and an Executive Partner for Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business, as well as on the Board of the Red Cross. Other accomplishments include recipient of the Smart CEO Brava! Award, Women Who Mean Business Award, Entrepreneur Organization of the Year Award, and Finalist for the Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award for Woman-Owned Business of the Year.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Relations from Purdue University and a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Development from Marymount University.