The Glass Hammer
The Glass Hammer is an online community designed for women executives in financial services, law and business. Visit us daily to discover issues that matter, share experiences, and plan networking, your career and your life. Get a new job right here!
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc. The IMF has raised its forecast for global growth this year. Details of the EU’s stress test plan were released Wednesday and European lawmakers gave their backing to an overhaul of Europe’s system for supervising financial institutions and markets. Ernst & Young is to appoint non-executive directors to its global advisory board as it comes under regulatory scrutiny. Overview Global equity markets rebounded this... |
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Leverage Your Relationship DNA in the Workplace
Contributed by Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D. What are your relationship strengths and weaknesses? The answer is not what you think; in fact, it comes down to exploring how one interacts with one’s co-workers. That is what I and my co-authors, Timothy Keiningham and Luke Williams of Ipsos Loyalty, discovered when we embarked on our study about relationship styles. The Ipsos Loyalty study, the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted, comprised thousands of responses for a nationally representative... |
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From CIO to CEO: Beat the Odds and Make the Jump
By Elizabeth Harrin (London) If I don’t have my BlackBerry I don’t feel properly dressed. Given that technology has such a big role to play in our business and personal lives, you would have thought that the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a crucial lynchpin in any organisation. For the most part, CIO’s are seen as important people – but they are just not quite CEO material. The rest of the C-suite see them as slightly geeky and lacking the range of skills required to cut it at the... |
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Voice of Experience: Yvonne Schneider, Senior Vice President Global Commercial Services Technologies, American Express
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) Yvonne Schneider is a panelist at today’s Women in IT event, hosted by The Glass Hammer. “I consider myself a global leader,” said Yvonne Schneider, SVP Global Commercial Services Technologies at American Express. “I align employees across five regions around the world and we’re a high performing team. My employees have a lot of responsibility and visibility.” Schneider’s role at Amex is about managing – and creating – change.... |
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More Women Leaders: Time For A Different Approach
Contributed by Lynn Harris, Author of Unwritten Rules: What Women Need To Know About Leading In Today’s Organizations. One definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result. If we want more women in senior leadership positions we need to take a different approach. The current one isn’t working. We’ve repeatedly called on Board Directors and C-suite executives to act on the strong business case for appointing more female colleagues, with minimal... |
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New AXA Study Shows More Women Saving for Retirement
By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles) According to a new study released by AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, twice as many women than men said their top financial worry was not being able to save enough for retirement. This is for good reason, too. Though many were hit hard by the recent financial crisis, women in particular took a major blow, with fewer women than men able to recover their retirement savings investments. One of the biggest champions behind this study, entitled Retirement in America:... |
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Lawyer or Mom: Choose Only One?
Contributed by Amy Impellizzeri (New York City) As the confirmation hearings on Elena Kagan conclude, one question remains unanswered. What does Kagan’s nomination mean for American lawyer moms? While the nomination of Kagan has been lauded as groundbreaking – setting the stage for three women sitting on the Supreme Court for the first time in American history – the nomination also marks the second time in about a year that President Obama has chosen a childless woman to replace a... |
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Voice of Experience: Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President, Nuveen Investments
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) In talking to Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President of Nuveen Investments, its clear that what she’s valued the most throughout her career is her ability to be a part of and to build effective teams. While her career has taken her from The Bank of New York to Bear Stearns Asset Management, and now to Nuveen Investments, she continues to prize her role as a manager and team builder, investigating and working to improve the dynamic and effectiveness... |
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Happy Independence Day!
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) The Glass Hammer is taking a long weekend to celebrate Independence Day. If you’re not out watching the fireworks, why not take a few minutes to catch up on a few of our recent most popular stories? Voice of Experience: Wendy Stops, Global Managing Director, Quality & Client Satisfaction – Technology, Accenture Mary Schapiro, SEC Chairman, Talks at the FWA Women in Tech: Building Confidence and Visibility Why Female Stars Succeed in New Jobs And,... |
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The Heart of Risk Management? Data
By Sophie Fletcher (Chicago) At the heart of risk management is data management. This is according to three speakers at the Securities Information and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Technology Expo. Edward Hida, partner at Deloitte & Touche, Keith Sexton, the global director of the financial markets at IBM, and Chris Church, the CEO of SWIFT Americas were all given the opportunity to explain how their companies were tackling risk management. Deloitte Surveys Market Participants... |
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Ask-A-Career-Coach: How Do You Position Yourself for Two Different Careers?
Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™ I had a client who had started a business that needed a cash infusion. At the same time, recognizing that cash flow was an issue, he started to explore going back in-house (he had been a successful banker before starting his own shop). He needed to position himself as both an entrepreneur and an employee without diluting either focus or confusing his market. How do you position yourself for two different careers? I see this conundrum... |
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Voice of Experience: Susan Siegmund, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) In honor of Pride Month, The Glass Hammer is featuring an interview with PwC’s Susan Siegmund, the first female partner to sit on the firm’s GLBT Advisory Board. Siegmund’s personal story illustrates the value of GLBT support in the workplace. Susan Siegmund is a Fort Worth, Texas, based audit partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the first female partner to sit on the firm’s GLBT Advisory Board. PwC’s GLBT Advisory Board –... |
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Getting Out of the Gender Ghetto
By Cleo Thompson (London), Founder of The Gender Blog “It’s time to get serious about sex”, declared Avivah Wittenberg-Cox in 2008, at the NYC launch of her book, Why Women Mean Business. Co-authored with Financial Times contributor Alison Maitland, the book took the economic arguments for gender change to the heart of the corporate world and spelled out in no uncertain terms that gender diversity is an economic necessity and is good for women, men, companies and their clients. Two years... |
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Women’s Financial Confidence Rising, Finds Citi’s Women & Co. Research
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) “Women’s one-word association with wealth is security,” said Linda Descano, President and COO at Women & Co., a division of Citi. Recently, Women & Co. released the results of its national survey on women and personal finance, which measured women’s attitudes toward money and financial decision-making following the recent recession. Descano said that even before the recession, women saw wealth as a means to security, and now she... |
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Voice of Experience: Avis Yates Rivers, CEO, Technology Concepts Group International
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) Avis Yates Rivers is the moderator of our upcoming event “Women in IT: Staying Technical and Getting to the Top.” We still have a few tickets left – to register, click here: http://www.theglasshammer.com/events/! Avis Yates Rivers, CEO of Technology Concepts Group International, has spent her career in the technology sector – and after 25 years running successful companies, she says one of the most important things she’s learned is “put the... |
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc. Financial markets fell this week. In the US, the Fed froze rates on Wednesday and financial reform legislation was passed Thursday. The UK will introduce a levy on banks, which is expected to raise £2bn a year. This weekend China ended the peg of the yuan at about 6.83 to the dollar. Economic Backdrop The financial markets this week were dominated by growing doubts about the strength of the global recovery, with the FTSE and... |
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Tips for Re-Entering the Job Market – Get that Senior Level Job Back
By Esther Hanscom, Hanscom Consulting (New York City) Last month, the New York Times published an article entitled “In Job Market Shift, Some Workers Left Behind.” Catherine Rampell reported that for the last two years, the weak economy has created an opportunity for employers to do what they would have done anyway: dismiss millions of people who were displaced by technological advances and international trade. This article struck a chord with me because I work in the recruiting industry... |
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Movers and Shakers: Laura Herman, Managing Director, FSG Social Impact Advisors
By Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, Michigan) At age 14, Laura Herman spent the summer on the north coast of Spain with a host family. It was her first taste of independence, immersion into another culture and glimpse of a society affected by political unrest. Once back in the quiet Boston suburb where she grew up, she determined that not only would she go back to Spain the following summer, but she would do something “international” with her life. That experience kindled a lifelong passion for... |
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Seven Expert Presentation Tips for Women Climbing the Ladder
Contributed by Kristin Arnold, Author and Professional Speaker Giving a presentation is one of the most stressful responsibilities you have in the workplace, especially if you do not give speeches routinely. However, women who have broken the glass ceiling know how to engage and involve their audiences during every presentation. Sure, they get nervous (we ALL do!). But they don’t get caught up in the moment thinking, “Will I make sense? Do I look all right? Am I going to embarrass myself?” To... |
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Back to Work Wisdom: New Directions
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) As the definition for work-life balance continues to evolve, more and more people are choosing to take a “career break” to concentrate on family and personal priorities. This trend has created a new area of focus for employers: how do companies address the gap in experience and the inherent challenges faced by candidates returning to the workforce? The Goldman Sachs New Directions program aims to provide on-rampers with guidance on how to successfully... |