Career Women Coaching

Women in High-Skill, Specialized Positions

A new study from CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl (EMSI) underscores the continued wage gap in the U.S. On average, men earn $68,300 annually compared to $44,400 for women, and there continues to be a lower percentage of women in the nation’s highest-paying occupations.

The study also shows that while women continue to lag men in leadership roles, trends are pointing in a positive direction with women being more equally represented or surpassing men in various high-skill, specialized positions.

“While employers have made strides in equalizing compensation for both genders, historical gaps are still present in some organizations today,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.  “Also contributing to the disparity in income levels is a higher representation of men working in more lucrative occupations. Fortunately, we’re starting to see that balance out as women account for a larger percentage of the overall workforce and pursue employment in high-paying areas such as information technology, engineering, healthcare, sales, etc.”

Percentages of Men and Women in Best Paid Occupations

From a leadership perspective, the vast majority - 83 percent - of CEOs today are men.  In a separate CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive study, male workers were more likely to report pursuing loftier titles. Twenty-eight percent of men said they aspire to be in a C-level position (CEO, CFO, CMO, etc) at some point in their career compared to 16 percent of women.

Looking at occupations with the highest average compensation rate, women dominated in only four of the top 15 positions according to the CareerBuilder and EMSI study:

1) Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon – $194,085 - 43% men, 57% women

2) Orthodontist – $191,776 - 43% men, 57% women

3) Physician & Surgeon – $187,533 - 55% men, 45% women

4) Dentist, General – $148,096 - 51% men, 49% women

5) Petroleum Engineer – $122,242 - 97% men, 3% women

6) Engineering Manager – $121,888 - 97% men, 3% women

7) Computer & Information Systems Manager – $116,785 - 77% men, 23% women

8) Natural Sciences Manager – $114,744 - 72% men, 28% women

9) Prosthodontist – $114,462 - 38% men, 62% women

10) Air Traffic Controller – $113,547 - 90% men, 10% women

11) Pharmacist – $113,090 - 34% men, 66% women

12) Marketing Manager - $112,424 – 65% men, 35% women

13) Airline Pilot, Copilot & Flight Engineer – $105,518 - 97% men, 3% women

14) Lawyer – $104,395 - 67% men, 33% women

15) General & Operations Manager – $94,744 - 79% men, 21% women 

Occupations Where Women Dominate

Examples of occupations that employ a higher percentage of women include:

1) Registered Nurse – 4% men, 96% women

2) Education Administrator, Elementary & Secondary – 17% men, 83% women

3) Psychiatrist – 38% men, 62% women

4) Anesthesiologist – 43% men, 57% women

5) Pediatrician – 42% men, 58% women

6) Interpreter & Translator – 30% men, 70% women

7) Probation Officer & Correctional Treatment Specialist – 34% men, 66% women

8) Claims Adjuster, Examiner & Investigator – 38% men, 62% women

9) Industrial-Organizational Psychologist – 30% men, 70% women

10) Public Relations Specialist – 36% men, 64% women

11) Curator – 33% men, 67% women

12) Graphic Designer – 40% men, 60% women

13) Editor – 36% men, 64% women

14) Mathematical Technician – 46% men, 54% women

15) Bartender – 41% men, 59% women

Source: CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive survey of 1,746 men and 1,475 women employed full-time, completed in March 2013.

   Barbara A. McEwen: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition (paperback)

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John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women  (ebook editions)

When it comes to anger....

Anger is so strong that it has the capacity to change others' behavior.

No human emotion has the capacity to bend the will of another the way anger can, especially when anger turns to aggression.  But the emotion of anger that we often experience as humans is not always, or even usually, expressed as outward and violent aggression. 

Humans do not act on instinct alone.  Often, people turn these emotions inward to later surface as depression or bitterness.  Anger's power over us individually is immense, and its ripple effect throughout all aspects of our lives--our relationships, careers, educational experiences, health--can be life altering, even devastating.

Although it may seem that our responses are spontaneous and uncontrollable, each one is actually profoundly under our control.  We have a choice of what to do and how to express our anger.  This ability to choose develops as we grow older.

Uncovering what is really making you or another person angry is key to figuring out how to defuse anger.  Like the martial arts master who uses the energy of the opponent to power his own moves, each of us has the ability to detect, harness and train the force of anger in ourselves and others.

It is helpful to recognize that anger is actually a secondary emotion, the offshoot of many possible situations: disappointment, mistreatment, misunderstandings, unmet expectations, feelings of rejection, feelings of being “marginalized” or made to feel unimportant, to name just a few.  

Stress lies at the base of anger, but stress by itself doesn’t cause anger.  Each of us triggers anger through our “self-talk” and how we fixate on the expectations we place on ourselves and others. 

Negative triggering thoughts might include blaming another person for intentionally doing us wrong or blaming someone for failing to adhere to our standards and expectations. 

Through this self-talk, we transform the other person into the offender, relieving ourselves from taking responsibility for our own behavior. It’s a lot easier on us to blame others, but, let’s face it, we need to grow up and take responsibility for our own actions and reactions.  

Anger can surface as a result of feeling overwhelmed by our roles and it’s important to recognize that no one can make us angry. Only we can pull that trigger. Stemming from the negative or hurtful messages we tell ourselves, anger can powerfully work us up.  And, as we all know, swallowing our anger or lashing out are two completely unproductive ways of handling an explosive situation. Since anger is a valid emotion that wastes so much of our precious time, let’s choose to make our anger work for us, not against us.  When a person or a situation has violated or offended us in some way, we must protect ourselves by establishing personal boundaries.  

Volumes of books have been devoted to the management of anger and the practice of boundary-setting. If these are issues that have ballooned in your life, look into anger management and boundary-setting in greater depth.  

Don’t hesitate to seek professional help—remember you don’t have to handle everything on your own. We can choose to take control of all aspects of our lives. Liberating ourselves from anything that jeopardizes our health, welfare, or pursuit of happiness is worth every effort.  

Often, the very best response to a bad situation is to shrug our shoulders.  Even better, have good laugh at the situation. Laughter is not only the greatest medicine, it is also the greatest tool for gaining perspective and releasing tension and anger. A hearty laugh will unwind even the tightest knots in our stomach. Laughter can help us live longer, happier, and more peaceful lives.  

Sources:   Joseph Shrand: Outsmarting Anger: 7 Strategies for Defusing Our Most Dangerous Emotion

  John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women

 

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Financial Field Favors Women in Asia

Shalini Malkani, an executive recruiter at EMA Partners International, says a growing number of women are in charge of big decisions in family businesses or making money themselves and notes that women are especially perceptive in dealing with couples. “Because women often come across as sensitive and empathetic, even many men would rather speak to a woman about personal wealth matters than to another man,” she says.

Some first- or second-generation Asian entrepreneurs, who like to control their own investment decisions, may prefer female bankers because it’s easier to treat them as a friend or family member, according to Lim Li Li, a managing director at Bank of Singapore, the private banking unit of Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking. Lim recalls being on vacation in Japan six years ago when she got an urgent call from a wealthy Thai client. She flew to Bangkok at once and went to the industrialist’s house for a midnight meeting with 20 family members to help solve a crisis. “People recognize that if you’re in private banking in Asia, you need patience, you need to have a listening ear, and therefore it tends to attract women,” Lim says. “I think men tend to go for the more macho things like investment banking or corporate banking.”

Some Asian clients trust female private bankers more than their male counterparts to educate young family members about wealth planning, Lim says. “After a while they get close to you, so you have the relationship with the next generation as well,” she says. “Men tend to be big-picture, and they’re not very into details.”

Amanda Chen, head of Morgan Stanley’s private wealth management unit in Singapore, says she thinks gender is irrelevant to private banking.  “If you take care of a client and you really care about the client’s well-being, whether it’s succession, family, or managing investments,” she says, “you can do all that whether you’re a man or a woman.”

Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, April 22, 2013

 Barbara A. McEwen: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition (paperback)

 John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women (ebook edition)

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Today's Hectic World

It is an understatement to say that women are overworked.  We struggle with too much to do, too many people to please, too few resources, too few hours in our days and too little help.

We live in a busy, noisy, complex, and exciting world where few of us believe we have enough time and energy to devote to our personal wants, desires, and needs.

Meanwhile, new technologies designed to help us can actually add to our sense of guilt and frustration.

Everyone is pressing us to do more in less time.  Conversations are routinely interrupted by cell phones and text messaging, people pressure each other to make themselves available at all hours of the day, and world-wide access creates a demand for meetings in the very early morning or very late evening.  Our time does not feel like our own!

Although we have more timesaving helpers and systems than ever before, we still don’t have enough time to juggle all the things we think must be done in a day. The media tells us that we are experiencing an enhanced quality of life, so we continue adding to our stress levels by taking on more tasks than we have the resources to handle. We desperately need new methods, systems, and, above all, new habits to keep us on track—and to permit us to go off-track when we want to.

Our research tells us that it is a mistake to believe that it is simply a matter of working more effectively, prioritizing, or planning ahead. Those are just a part of the total picture. It is about all of those things and so much more. We must feel empowered to do what is important for us, to discover, use and develop our signature talents, to discipline ourselves to stay focused, and to just say ‘no’ when we need to.

Effective utilization of our time offers us the chance to restore our energies as we bend, stretch, and bounce between our work and our personal lives.

Sources:  Barbara A. McEwen: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition

 John G. Agno: Women and Time

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Visualizing Your Success

The workbook edition of "When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women" is intended to help you get in touch with who you are and where you want to go.

It is based on the principle that all things are created twice—first in our minds, and secondly in our actions; to gain a clear understanding of our destination.  It means understanding where you are now, so you can make sure that the steps you take are always in the right direction.  

We’ve all taken on tasks and then asked ourselves why.  We need to understand that there is a huge difference between being busy and doing the things that will help us achieve our goals or calling.  It is amazingly easy to be blindsided by the things that matter least when what we want to be focusing on are those things that matter most.

When we have a destination in mind, we need a good compass or GPS system—and even then, it is easy to get off track. This is where we must rely upon our inner compass.  This book is intended to help you understand and work with your unique inner compass.  As you complete the exercises in the workbook edition, you will be amazed at what you learn about yourself.

Change is within your reach. You can learn to manage your time and your life in a way that will give you peace, a sense of fulfillment, and the strength to give yourself permission to do what is best for you.  

Hope encourages us to see beyond the present.  Hope motivates us to gain the self-knowledge necessary to implement positive change.  This self-awareness gives us the patience to develop our signature talents into personal strengths.  The more self-knowledge we have, the more motivation for change we will have, and the more change we incorporate into our lives, the more satisfied we will become with our life.  

Self-knowledge is the operant word.  

This book is dedicated to all those hardworking women everywhere who are willing to embrace liberating change.  Believe that your situation can change and you are halfway down the road to making significant changes.  Know that change always comes bearing unexpected gifts.  Change starts with the right attitude and the motivation to reclaim your time and your life!

For specific "things to do" on time management, self-knowledge and many other career subjects, please consider purchasing the paperback "Workbook Edition" of "When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women:"

 Barbara A. McEwen: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition (paperback) 

 John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women (ebook edition)

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We Have to Talk

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Do You Have a Sponsor?

As Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook tells it, what accounts for her spectacular leap to leadership is her unfettered embrace of career opportunity. By “leaning in,” she maintains in her new book, she has been able to join the male-dominated ranks of corporate executives.

But it’s simply not enough for a woman to put her self-doubt aside, grab hold of ambition and aim for the top, as Ms. Sandberg advises. A woman needs someone to lean in with her. That’s according to recent research by the Center for Talent Innovation, an organization I founded that focuses on advancing women and minorities.

To get ahead, women need to acquire a sponsor — a powerfully positioned champion — to help them escape the “marzipan layer,” that sticky middle slice of management where so many driven and talented women languish.

A two-year study, which sampled some 12,000 men and women in white-collar occupations across the United States and Britain, shows how sponsorship — unlike mentorship, its weaker cousin — makes a measurable difference in career progress.

Mentorship, let’s be clear, is a relatively loose relationship. Mentors act as a sounding board or a shoulder to cry on, offering advice as needed and support and guidance as requested; they expect very little in return.  Sponsors, in contrast, are much more vested in their protégés, offering guidance and critical feedback because they believe in them.

Sponsors advocate on their protégés’ behalf, connecting them to important players and assignments. In doing so, they make themselves look good.  And precisely because sponsors go out on a limb, they expect stellar performance and loyalty.

It’s not easy to find a sponsor. You need to earn this kind of investment. “Sponsorship only works when it’s a two-way street,” says Patricia Fili-Krushel, chairwoman of the news group at NBCUniversal. “It can’t be just ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme — I need help, I need advice.’ ” You must demonstrate that you’ll deliver outstanding performance — “you’ve got to consistently make your boss look good,” she says.

“Trust is at the heart of this relationship,” says Kerrie Peraino, global head of talent at American Express. “When I put my faith in up-and-coming talent and become their sponsor, I need to know I can totally depend on them — because they are, after all, walking around with my brand on.”

It’s in this area of trust that women and minorities often fail to get the help they need. When it comes to figuring out whom to sponsor, senior leaders — typically white men — most readily turn to the people they feel most comfortable with. Most often, that means other white men.  Employers need to work to counteract this natural tendency.

Source:  The New York Times, April 14, 2013, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist, is the founding president and C.E.O. of the Center for Talent Innovation in Manhattan and the author of “Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor,” forthcoming from Harvard Business Review Press.

 Sylvia Ann Hewlett: Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career

 Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

 John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women

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Bias in the Workplace

 

 

 

Women in large numbers believe they face disadvantages in the workplace, including lower pay than men and other forms of discrimination.  

Decades after women began flooding into the workforce, 84% of women say men are paid more for similar work, a view borne out by government data but which draws agreement from only two-thirds of men.  More than four in 10 women say they have faced gender discrimination personally, most often in the workplace. Both findings are little changed from a 1997 survey.

But despite the perceived challenges in the workplace, a growing number of women say they can strike a balance between work and home life.  The share who say most women can't "have it all'' without making a lot of sacrifices at work and at home has fallen from 78% in 1997 to 66% today.

The poll of 1,000 adults, conducted April 5-8, reflects a current robust debate about women in the workforce. Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, is urging them in a new book to "lean in"—to stop holding back their ambitions and to work harder to overcome barriers.

Younger women, in particular, are less inclined to agree that they can't have both a work and home life without making many sacrifices, with 38% of those aged 18-34 saying they disagree with that statement, compared with 31% aged 35-54 and 32% of those older than 55.

Men diverge little from women on the ability of women to balance work and home lives, but they are less likely than women to see discrimination in the workplace.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2013

 Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

 John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women

 Barbara A. McEwen: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition

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Work/Life Balance Planning

Perhaps, you would agree that "only Superwoman can juggle it all"....because in her fictional world she does not encounter the same challenges that career women face today.

Every so often life throws a curveball.  As more women enter the workforce, and many become the primary breadwinners, there is a structural shift taking place in organizations and households.  Changes at work and in the home are often both necessary in order to continue living life at the status quo, and these adjustments often times bring stress and other emotional barriers. 

In "The Work/Life Balance Planner: Resetting Your Goals" and "When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women" the authors help career women recognize and anticipate these impending changes, assess options and predict outcomes with one objective in mind: making sure life-long goals are met.

These books are excellent resources for any working woman going through a shift in her career, adaptable to almost any lifestyle change and allows the reader to work at their own pace, gather facts and define goals.

Investigating a career change affects everyone in a family.  Even if a job change is a short-term situation, the impact on the family can color the way members interact with one another.  Life can become stressful and relationships strained unless everyone makes an effort to pull together and move through this period.

As you know, career women struggle with countless expectations, too much to do in too little time, and the fact that they receive little of the support or recognition they want and deserve.  In an effort to squeeze even more into their nightmarish schedules, these women continue to make choices that actually undermine their health, family life, careers and important relationships.

Women are dancing to a frenzied beat, believing just because they can, they should.  They have been taught, if they are capable of doing something, it shouldn't be necessary to look for help.   This has led women to become frustrated by experiencing long days and frantic schedules.  Many working women are exhausted.  Isn't it time that career women reclaimed their time and life?

On the other hand, this situation can be positive.  This may be the opportunity you and other family members have been waiting for.  This could be the chance to look at a different career for yourself or others in the family.  Perhaps evaluating other options will be the action that will change the family dynamics in a positive way.

Let's be clear, these books aren't just for the dissatisfied.  They are a prescription for identifying the various aspects of your life that make you unique, without which, you may never be able to understand why you behave or react the way you do.  These books are neither relaxing nor a break from reality where the reader just rides along.  They are a vehicle where the reader is in the driver's seat and sets the GPS to get to where she wants to be in her career and personal life.

Sources:  Ann Kepler: The Work/Life Balance Planner: Resetting Your Goals

 Barbara A. McEwen: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition

 John G. Agno: Women and Time
  

 

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Gender Issues at Work

Sheryl Sandberg has a message for managers: It’s not illegal to talk about gender issues in the workplace with your staff.

The Facebook chief operating officer’s best-selling manifesto, “Lean In,” has helped spark national discussion about career ambition, parenting and the state of women in the workplace. But these conversations are surprisingly difficult to have in one of the places where they matter most: In the office, between bosses and staff.

“People genuinely want to handle gender issues in the workplace well, but it’s a topic that makes everyone uncomfortable,” says Sandberg. “No one wants to be insensitive, so often they say nothing at all.” One male manager told Sandberg he would rather talk about his sex life in public than take up gender issues with his staff.

A new study looks at who's giving up their careers: mothers who attended elite colleges.

Joni Hersch, a law and economics at Vanderbilt University, analyzed data from the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates and crossed the information with the Carnegie Foundation's classifications of schools and selectivity measures from Barron's Profiles of American Colleges.  She found that women who attended highly selective schools are more likely to opt out of the workforce than are their counterparts from less selective schools.

Just 45.3% of mothers with bachelor's degrees from "Tier 1" schools had full-time jobs in the 2003 report, below the 57% of those from "Tier 4" schools.

The most dramatic difference in employment activity comes among married mothers with M.B.A.s.  Ms. Hersch found that 34.8% of those who attended selective undergraduate schools were fully employed, compared with 66.1% of those who attended less selective colleges. That divergence is present even after controlling for the selectivity of the M.B.A. program, occupations, family background and number and age of children.

There are consequences to this opt-out trend, she says: Elite companies hire from elite schools, but women from elite schools don't stick around for long, limiting the talent pipeline for leadership positions.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2013

 Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

 John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women

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Catherine Rampell happens to be an educated young woman who loves her job, sometimes gushingly, occasionally annoyingly.

And yet, even in this enlightened age, she had two relationships end — at least in large part — thanks to that clammy-palmed discussion in which couples plot hypothetical milestones and life goals. The gentlemen in question said that, somewhere in their semicharted future, they expected her to quit her job.  At least for a couple of years, anyway, in order to be the kind of hypothetical mother they wanted to raise their hypothetical kids, if that hypothetical day ever came.

Rampell doesn’t pretend to know how common this situation is, and how many other young women have found themselves in it.  But it clarified not only the choices that future mothers must make about their careers, but also how early in their careers they must begin to think about them.  And while fairness and feminism may urge us to find better ways for women to balance work and life — Sheryl Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter have certainly made impassioned cries — the most convincing argument seems to be an economic one.

In the United States, women represent not only a majority of college graduates but also a majority of advanced-degree holders. But the lack of policies facilitating the work-life balance — like paid maternity leave and flexible work hours — has millions of them underemployed. It’s hard to quantify exactly how much human capital is being wasted, but one clue lies in a study by economists at the University of Chicago and Stanford.  It estimates that 15 to 20 percent of American productivity growth over the last five decades has come from more efficient allocation of underrepresented groups, like women, into occupations that were largely off-limits, like doctors or lawyers.  Even more efficient allocation of women’s talents would, presumably, drive further growth, which will become even more critical in the years ahead.  By 2050, there are projected to be just 2.6 working-age Americans for every American of retirement age. (In 2008, it was 4.7.)

Other rich countries have figured out ways to keep women in the labor force.  The European Union has issued a directive that all member countries must allow parents — men and women — to request part-time, flexible or home-based work arrangements in addition to paid leave. Other developed countries also have affordable, high-quality public childcare.

Such policies contribute to these countries’ swollen welfare states and higher tax burdens, but they do keep women at work.

Source: "Lean In, Dad" The New York Times, April 7, 2013

 John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women

 Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

 John G. Agno: Women and Time

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