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Want to Be a Leader at Work? Try Rehearsing in Your Personal Life.

by | Dec 18, 2019 | , , ,

There are days when you think that you might not be cut out for leadership. After all, you’re continually trailing behind instead of leading the pack; you sit at meetings and nod along to mediocre ideas, even though you have a better option tucked away in your notes. You never quite have the courage to speak up and share your inspiration — even though you desperately want to.

Maybe your confidence as a leader will grow when you become an entrepreneur, you think; if you head your own business, you would have to step into the role. But here’s the problem — merely being in a position of leadership won’t make you a leader. If anything, the added pressure and high stakes might make matters worse, leaving you without proper leadership skills, a business, or way forward towards your aspirations.

Statistics support this conclusion. Currently, the failure rate of all U.S. companies after five years stands at just over 50%, and above 70% after ten. Interestingly, one study conducted by CBInsights found that the reason behind these failures tends to root in leadership or directional problems; researchers report that 23% of businesses crumpled because they didn’t have the right team, 19% were outcompeted, 13% fell apart due to disharmony among team members or investors, and 9% failed because they lacked passion.

In short: leadership matters. Your success in business will hinge on your ability to communicate, raise your voice, address interpersonal issues, pick the right team, and inspire trust — regardless of whether you’re an active entrepreneur or a corporate team member.

As CEO and leadership writer Peter Bregman puts the matter in an article for the Harvard Business Review, “Leadership is hard in a very practical way. It’s about managing politics skillfully and effectively to achieve what’s most important […] showing up in critical leadership moments with confidence; connecting with people in a way that inspires their commitment, responding productively to opposition without losing your focus; skillfully handling people who push back; and building trusted relationships, even with difficult people or people you don’t like.”

However, the skills Bregman describes aren’t ones you should — or even can — learn on the fly, not when money and business are on the line. Instead, you should start developing your leadership skills now, while the stakes are low. The best way to grow your interpersonal working abilities is to practice them at home, in an environment that you feel comfortable being bold. Then, after you feel more confident in your communicative skills, you can transition those skills to the office — and, one day, perhaps even a CEO’s chair.

Here are some ways to go about cultivating leadership in your personal life.

Understand Your Communication Breakdowns

As you might have already inferred from Bregman’s comment, leadership leans heavily on effective communication. No one will follow a dictator; eventually, someone will question your ideas or suggest a different course of action. If you cannot learn to listen, address push-back, compromise, or craft compelling cases to those you lead, you will never be able to achieve team buy-in for your ideas.

You need to learn how to present points and disagree productively — and the first step to doing so is to understand where your communication skills tend to break down in your personal and professional lives. We all have fights with our friends, our coworkers, and our families; the question is how constructive those arguments are.

As one writer for Psychology Today describes, “Boiled down, the essence of many quarrels goes something like this: I’m right. You’re wrong. And I absolutely positively will not back down or change the subject until you admit it.”

That kind of thinking exemplifies the heart of an unproductive disagreement. If you argue ineffectively, you aren’t just going to fail to make your point effectively; you may even contribute to toxicity as a leader. People may become passive-aggressive, disengage, or foster workplace incivility. These behaviors can come at a significant cost to your business in the long term; According to one Harvard Business School study, nearly half of surveyed employees who worked in “toxic” environments decreased their work effort and spent less time at work, 38% “intentionally decreased” their work quality, 25% admitted to taking their frustrations out on customers, and 12% left their jobs altogether.

So, the next time you disagree with your roommate, partner, friend, or coworker, stop to think not only of what you’re arguing about but how you’re going about the discussion. If the conversation seems to be reiterating the same points without progress, take a moment to step back and consider how you can make your point clearer to the other party and acknowledge their perspective without abandoning yours.

Everyone communicates differently — sometimes it’s just a matter of meeting someone halfway. Once you know how someone interacts, you can understand their view and respond constructively. You still may not agree, but at least you can discuss your differences productively.

Practice constructive arguing at home, and you may find that the experience empowers you to make your voice heard at work.

Speak Up In Low-Risk Environments

If reaching out and communicating with those who intimidate you makes you uncomfortable, you need to brace yourself and do it more. If you know that you rely on your partner or roommate to talk to the landlord or insurance company representative, step forward and do it yourself. If you have a question about your car bill at the garage, ask the mechanic to walk you through it; if you’re stuck on a call line, tolerate the call center until you have the answers you need. Don’t give up, take the loss, or allow others to step into the responsibility!

Too often, we allow our fears of people thinking us rude, or of taking up time, to stifle our voices. Women, in particular, often hold back, worrying that being confident will come off as being rude to those around them. Speak up — not rudely, but firmly, and with the knowledge that your questions are worth the time. As a leader, this will prepare you for leading meetings, directing conversation, and getting any necessary information — without ever losing control of the conversational flow or giving in to frustration.

Step Out of Your Defined Role

The quickest way to fumble your shot at leadership is to settle into a role that doesn’t challenge you. Once you begin to gain some confidence in yourself as a communicator, start applying the skills you’ve developed at home to the workplace! Volunteer for projects at work if you have the capacity; demonstrate that you can handle the demands of management and project leadership.

Leaders aren’t appointed, but developed over years of dedicated effort — so why wait to sow the seeds of your success?

Here’s How Big Tech Companies Can End the Gender Pay Gap

by | Nov 21, 2019 | , , , ,

Recognizing the myth of the meritocracy is the first step toward ending the gender pay gap for women in tech.

Image credit: Hinterhaus Productions | Getty Images

This post was originally featured on Entrepreneur.com

Silicon Valley is known for its innovation, high-skilled talent and its meritocratic ethos — that is, the focus on evaluating and rewarding employees based not on who they are, but on what they achieve. Big tech companies like Google and Uber famously promote company values that emphasize those ideas as a way of creating equality in the workplace.

When taken at face value, that all seems fair and good. However, reality captures a far different picture. Despite the tech sector’s good intentions, companies with meritocratic principles still face a deep gender gap in their industry and continue to be criticized for their bias. For example, look no further than Google’s memo fiasco or Susan Fowler’s criticism of Uber’s gender bias, management hubris and poor HR support.

How is it that top-tier tech companies can seemingly promote meritocratic ethics while their female employees fight against systemic barriers that prevent them from progressing up the ladder? Research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests that despite the values these companies claim to embody, meritocracy in big tech might not actually exist at all.

Meritocracy: the myth contributing to the gender pay gap

Unlike their male counterparts, women aren’t facing an industry that judges them solely on their accomplishments. In actuality, the majority of women operate in organizations muddied with institutionalized biases. At least 42 percent of working women in the United States report that they’ve experienced some form of discrimination, including unconscious bias at work. While sexual harassment is a painful, very explicit form of unfair treatment, biases at work can be far more insidious than that.

When it comes to diversity, Google still has work to do. It’s latest diversity report shows that the number of women and unrepresented minorities barely budged in the past year. The company has faced gender-pay lawsuits. Similarly, Uber suffers from limited female staff and leadership and has also been hit with sexual harassment claims.

MIT research echoes these assumptions, citing how seemingly meritocratic organizations can unintentionally favor men over “equally performing women,” offering them higher bonuses and more favorable career outcomes.

Authors Emilio Castilla and Stephen Bernard called this contradiction the “paradox of meritocracy.” They argue that when progressive companies foster merit-based practices, they assume they’re not biased regarding hiring, retention, compensation or promotion decisions. However, these processes don’t protect against ingrained, demographic bias. For example, a merit-based system still doesn’t stop managers from giving more favorable reviews to employees who are most like them.

“When managers believe their company is a meritocracy because formal evaluative and distributive mechanisms are in place, they are in fact more likely to exhibit the very biases that those systems seek to prevent,” says Castilla for the MIT Sloan Management Review.

Tracy Chou, a tech engineer veteran who has worked at tech companies like Quora and Pinterest, has experienced this kind of bias and marginalization, despite being an expert in her field. Chou confronted biases ranging from everyday microaggressions to sexual harassment from her male coworkers, despite her authority. After hearing similar experiences from women in the tech industry, she started to realize that meritocracy in Silicon Valley is deeply flawed and didn’t support equitable work environments that help women like her succeed.

“Meritocracy is this myth that, if you have merit, you will rise up and people who are in positions of power and success got there because they have the most merit and they most deserve it. Having a lot of markers and credentials that Silicon Valley generally like, I didn’t quite question that either, when I first started working,” Chou told Quartz.

Due to the prevailing biases which persist today, it’s no surprise a truly meritocratic system ceases to thrive. But there may be some light at the end of the tunnel — and it begins with changing work cultures.

Tools and initiatives to help companies curb gender bias

Silicon Valley can incorporate truly meritocratic values, but it requires making a few small, meaningful adjustments to the current structure.

Castilla says, “Companies can develop into meritocracies by implementing merit-based evaluation and reward systems that have both accountability and transparency.”

Clear processes that offer criteria for all employees at any career level can help companies ensure that skilled workers operate in a truly merit-based culture. These programs need to have individuals or groups of individuals that focus on the responsibility, ability and authority to ensure that these formal processes remain fair.

Google has taken a step to help resolve this issue. The tech giant now allows an employee’s qualifications for a promotion to be based on peer recommendations rather than a manager’s decision. These peers (along with all Google employees) are trained to spot and guard against unconscious biases so the review process remains fair. It’s not perfect, but the practice is now the norm in many Silicon Valley tech companies, including Pinterest and Quora.

While Chou no longer works at either of these companies, she now uses her expertise to guard against bias, promote transparent data reporting on gender and reshape big tech’s work cultures. In 2016, she established Project Include, a nonprofit that uses unbiased data programming and advocacy to help these tech giants bring on more diverse employees.

Uber has also managed to redefine its ethos from 14 core values, which ineffectively promoted meritocracy, to eight new cultural norms, which are expected to evolve as Uber grows. The company is still slow to implement more women in leadership and overall staff positions, but it is reinforcing its diversity and inclusion goals to offer an equal playing field for talent.

According to Uber’s 2019 Diversity and Inclusion report, it’s strengthening its hiring manager training program to create more inclusive interviewing skills through the Interview Moderator Initiative. The initiative helps ensure that tech interviews are free from subjective bias and stereotypes. Meanwhile, throughout their Career and Talent teams, they continue to review and redesign their systems and programs to help employees of all backgrounds thrive equally. This includes the creation of performance management and diversity scorecards.

However, biased work cultures will not change without internal awareness and analysis. The World Economic Forum advises companies to incorporate The Implicit Association Test. The free resource from Harvard University helps users gauge their personal biases around gender, race, age, weight, sexuality, tone and more. The tool offers insights into conflicts, addressing how employees think, their assumptions of social norms and how these biases inform our decision making on a daily basis. In all, these tools and initiatives can help make both the hiring and promotion processes more equal.

Reviving meritocracy with gender equality

While it’s often assumed that meritocracy fosters gender equality, it seems to initially have had the opposite effect in companies who promote these principles. It’s not that meritocracy is hurting women’s careers, per se, but that companies with unconscious biases are using meritocratic principles in ways that are ineffective and problematic.

We have a long way to go until businesses reach a truly meritocratic model. It’s time for companies to reexamine their diversity and inclusion goals and offer better support systems that help working women thrive. These companies can only become truly meritocratic workplaces by instilling gender equality policies and thus mindsets, at the core of their cultural value systems. Then, and only then, will we start to build a corporate ethos that is truly based on talent and hard work.

Creating a Workplace that Supports Female Safety

by | Nov 14, 2019 | , , ,

Companies can consciously integrate, adjust and support gender-equal policies to create a safe environment for everyone…

This post was originally featured on ThriveGlobal

Amid the #MeToo movement, widespread reports of sexual assault and harassment exposed the unsafe and hostile workplaces that women regularly experience in every industry across the nation.

Research from Lean In and SurveyMonkey found that 57 percent of working women have experienced some form of harassment in the workplace, not only sidelining their security, but also their career progression.

While 71 percent of companies have reviewed their sexual harassment policies since the advent of the #MeToo movement, women in the workforce continue to face rampant sexual harassment. MarketWatch reports that over half of human resource professionals saw no evident changes in behavior while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw a significant rise in sexual harassment complaints over the past fiscal year.

To make matters worse, at least half of employees think that punishments for perpetrators are not harsh enough, with high performers never or rarely held accountable for their actions.

Clearly, companies still need to make systematic and cultural changes so that women can feel safe and productive in the workplace. For business owners who are looking to be part of the solution, there are several actionable, concrete steps that have been shown to make a difference.

Hire and Promote More Women

Ever since women have entered the workforce, sexism and harassment have prevented them from breaking the glass ceiling. During the #MeToo movement, the nation saw how patriarchal systems continued to normalize inappropriate behavior and silence female perspectives, showcasing how these male-dominated hierarchies created corrupt work settings by protecting the majority from pushishment or criticism.

A slew of research proves this to be true. The 2018 Hiscox Harassment Study shows that 78 percent of accused harassers are men and 73 percent hold a position senior to the accuser. Research from the Harvard Business Review reports that harassment is more prevalent in workplaces where men hold the most managerial positions.

To counteract negative cultural effects of this hierarchy, a Lean In report advises that companies hire and promote more qualified women, not just in leadership positions, but across the board. Harassment is less likely to occur when women are well-represented in “core” jobs and hold positions of influence. IBM and Starbucks are two corporations that have been recognized for doing exactly that. Gender bias and power imbalances are more effectively controlled when more women have the power to fight in higher numbers for equal rights in the workplace.

Thankfully, a focus on doing the right thing is starting to be recognized as good for businesses, too. Companies that focus on promoting more gender equality at the top can foster more collaborative teams, drive innovation and even make more money.

Enhance Harassment Policies with Interactive Trainings

Of course, there’s a difference between demonstrating dedication to harassment-free environments, and merely offering jargon-filled trainings that simply check the legal liability box. While most companies — 98 percent — do provide conventional anti-harassment policies and sexual harassment trainings, they often makes employees uncomfortable, reinforce gender stereotypes and fail to address the root problem.

Companies interested in finding more effective anti-harassment policies are seeing success with innovative approaches like workplace civility and bystander intervention training programs. These trainings help employees learn how to recognize, intervene, report and show empathy to targets of assault. Research shows it not only increases awareness but also improves attitudes and encourages bystanders to stop assaults before they happen. It also helps survivors report and find support after they experience harassment.

These innovative programs are especially helpful since in-depth zero-tolerance harassment policies, which enforce that harassment of any kind won’t be tolerated in the workplace, are known to backfire. The severity of getting someone fired for inappropriate behavior often lowers the chances of reporting, defeats the goal of learning and can even have polarizing effects on gender relations in the office.

For companies to convince trainees to stay educated on anti-harassment policies without causing fear or resentment, incorporating interactive workplace civility and bystander trainings can effectively permeate cultural changes. Since April 2019, New York City requires by law that all companies with over 15 employees provide these trainings, which could be a long-term solution that soon trickles down to companies across the nation. Since these enhanced programs can foster a sense of community and respect, companies who implement them tend to benefit from safer (and happier) work cultures.

Design the Workplace for Safety

It may be obvious that physical and emotional safety are crucial for a healthy and productive workplace. What’s perhaps not so obvious is how an office’s design can have a drastic impact on worker safety.

Private spaces, for example, allow workers of all genders to have emotional moments, concentrate or take a breather. Too much privacy, however, can be isolating and decrease an employees’ access to help if harassment occurs. Therefore, some private rooms or offices are often designed with transparent features in mind, like glass walls and bright lighting. These designs allow professionals to stay visible during meetings where someone who feels uncomfortable alone with a particular coworker won’t feel as anxious or trapped.

Communal work areas are equally important because they offer the option for coworkers to meet where more bystanders are present. Of course, open, safe offices have enough space for private conversations, too. If possible, companies can enhance safety by incorporating two open exits at the end of each communal room so that people can move about efficiently without fear of being blocked, for example, by an aggressive coworker.

Modern offices need to strike a careful balance between private and communal spaces to cater to the different comfort levels of employees. Research indicates that too much open space can make feel women exposed while too much private space can feel isolating.

Nancy Board, a workplace behavioral health and wellbeing expert, says, “It’s important that women are not ‘trapped’ in corner areas or exposed to areas where they may be locked into a space/office.”

These strategies offer a mixture of emotional safety, a sense of escape, and support — and this is not just for female workers. Studies show workplaces that design with an emphasis on safety improves productivity by eliminating unnecessary stressors in the workday. It’s estimated that for each employee who is sexually harassed, companies lose an average of $22,500 in lost productivity alone. Of course, lost productivity is a small consequence compared to the lasting psychological and emotional impacts harassment can have on those who face it.

Safeguarding The Future of Work

All companies have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that their employees are safe and able to perform their jobs without fear of physical, emotional or mental harm. Businesses that consciously integrate, adjust and support gender-equal policies, systems and spaces are much more likely to foster this kind of environment. And when companies provide safer environments, they can help create more positive workplaces that harness cooperation and help everyone bring their A-game to work. That’s a world worth fighting for.

VR is Incredibly Empowering for Working Women

by | Oct 4, 2019 | , , , ,

Virtual technology can help create a more equal reality.

Image credit: Caiaimage | Sam Edwards | Getty Images

This post was originally featured on Entrepreneur.com

Virtual reality (VR) is changing the way we view the world and each other, literally. Already, the innovation has made advancements throughout numerous industries — entertainment, business, healthcare, etc. — reimagining the way we communicate, learn and work.

Still, critics counter that its software and programming foster sexism and gender bias, evidenced by the traditional power structures that prevail in leadership positions today. However, interest has increased in using the immersive tech for social change, so it’s worth asking: Can we truly realize VR’s potential to help, and not hinder, working women?

The answer, I believe, is yes. While it’s true that programmers must take proactive measures to ensure that VR avoids creating hostile environments for women, groundbreaking VR applications can empower female leaders by nourishing supportive mentorship groups, educating on and preventing sexual harassment and ultimately fostering the empathy that safeguards against workplace sexism.

VR’s Realms of Support and Mentoring

In order for women to thrive at work, it’s important that they have strategic support systems of peers and mentors, specifically those comprised of other women who know first-hand the challenges they face regularly. VR extends the opportunity for women to communicate with each other in networks that help them flourish. One great example is the Lioness app created by the integrated ad company Ogilvy in partnership with Google and UN Women. Due to the lack of female representation within the advertising industry, the app was created to foster a platform where women can share and learn from each other’s experiences. Employing various Google tools, including augmented and virtual reality portals, the app offers features a tour creator to generate visual workplace field trips, inspiring students who wouldn’t otherwise have access to female leaders.

Though some men in leadership positions have reported fears of mentoring women in the wake of the #MeToo movement, more companies are now emerging that focus on creating virtual learning and mentoring environments for women. Take Ceresa, for example, which offers structured programs with virtual mentorship meetings to remove the burden of anxiety and build more lasting mentoring relationships.

Virtual reality also allows women to step into the journeys and professional worlds of successful female leaders. For instance, The Female Planet, a YouTube VR series, makes it easier to shadow and learn from global female leaders by tracking the personal and professional experiences of five women from the tech and even entertainment sectors.

As the confidence gap remains a major challenge for female workers, these virtual worlds can build a more empowering reality, offering them the support and learning tools they need to excel.

Virtual Sexual Harassment Training and Monitoring

A 2017 study found that 78 percent of female founders had reported experiencing, or knowing someone who had encountered, sexual harassment at work. However, VR can both train coworkers and monitor the office to safeguard against sexual harassment and abuse.

The key is creating an immersive experience that helps engage trainees and puts the material into a real-life context. Companies like Vantage Point have designed a multi-step, VR sexual harassment training program that essentially transports you to another world. In safe environments, users become educated on how to identify and report sexual assault, practicing the best ways to respond if they find themselves in a similar situation.

Similar to how AI-led companies like Callisto and Botler.ai can monitor and help survivors report sexual harassment in the workplace, it’s worth noting that VR tools with augmented features can identify and monitor when sexual harassment occurs, helping to expose and address its prevalence.

In India, for example, VR is trying to wipe away stigma and deep-rooted fear of reporting sexual assault. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, in partnership with the Rajasthan Police, has created multilingual “Virtual Police Stations” that allow citizens to stay informed on the various laws concerning these issues. By simulating the environment of a real-world police station with 360-degree technology, Google Cardboard and corresponding mobile apps can be used to file a report anonymously.

As an additional bonus, these immersive tools, through exposure-based therapy lessons, show promise of treating post-traumatic stress disorder that sexual assault often creates. If applied as part of an Employee Focus Group or an employee health and wellness benefits package, VR can foster a more emotionally engaged, positive environment.

A More Empathetic Reality for Working Women

Several organizations are already integrating VR to help workers empathize with each other. Nonprofit organizations use it to encourage donor involvement with humanitarian causes, and many companies are using it to create safer spaces and stronger bonds with their employees and customers.

For women, virtual features can help male co-workers in particular, understand how sexual harassment affects them. Recently, the independent filmmaker Jayisha Patel created Notes to My Father, a short documentary that relays the story of a human trafficking survivor. The vivid and uncomfortable presentation demonstrates what it’s like to be the subject of the male gaze.

A VR episode or series doesn’t exist yet that documents the normalized biases, microaggressions and sexism that female founders and workers face from investors and higher-ups, but this approach may provide impetus to create and promote these stories for businesses that are still heavily male-dominated.

As VR introduces people to new perspectives and information, we will be able to share and understand more clearly the sexism and discrimination, either blatant or unconscious, that working women and female leaders regularly experience. There are still many fundamental and systemic societal changes that we need to improve, but with a market projected to be worth $33 billion by 2022 and a unique ability to educate and foster empathy, VR could be the missing technology to help us get there. Virtual reality doesn’t merely offer a vision for the future, but puts in place a support system and empowering technology that helps professional women thrive.

How Your Small Business Can Support Programs Focusing on Women and Girls

by | Sep 19, 2019 | , ,

This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC

Debrah Lee Charatan Img (1)

We know that women have long suffered misrepresentation in the business world. They are scarce in corporate leadership roles and male-dominated fields like science, technology and entrepreneurship. We also know that gender diversity is good for business, resulting in greater profitability and innovation. We all know these facts, and yet the problem persists.

There are a number of ways to address this, but one that is less discussed is the idea of supporting girls and women as a part of a company’s social responsibility program. There’s perhaps nothing more beneficial to businesses and their surrounding communities than supporting young talent, and if that talent consists of women and girls, we’d be doing ourselves an even greater service.

In the entrepreneurial space, only 10 percent of funding globally goes to women, and only 0.2 percent to black women. This is a gross disservice that needs to change and it’s why supporting female-driven programs is so crucial. There are many avenues for doing so, from facilitating mentorships to hosting workshops; depending on your industry and your community, your highest impact options will vary. Take a look at the organizations and nonprofits in your area, as well as schools and community support programs looking for partners. In many cases, your best bet might simply be to donate time or money to the organizations that are already making headway with dynamic programs aimed at supporting women and girls.

Here are a few options that are worth looking into:

  1. Digital Undivided: This organization offers a 9-month incubator program designed to help black and Latinx women through the startup pipeline to launch their own businesses. Participants receive instruction in customer development, product development, and company development. Upon completion, participants pitch their company to active investors.
  2. MakerGirl: This organization provides a STEM education and mentorship program to girls. Honing in on kids in the 7–10 age range, MakerGirl strives to show girls that they can be creative and analytical at the same time. Data shows that girls fall off the STEAM train around middle school, so MakerGirl seeks to grow and deepen their interest before that happens, encouraging participation in creative, analytical projects like 3D printing. MakerGirl also has partnerships with college campuses and facilitates mentorship programs for women.
  3. The National Association of Women Business Owners: For over 40 years, this organization has been helping women working in all industries found and run their own businesses. NAWBO supports networking and mentorship programs, provides educational resources, and advocates for the needs of female business owners.
  4. Pretty Brainy: This nonprofit empowers girls (ages 10–18 as well as their collegiate mentors) by providing them with relevant STEAM learning. Pretty Brainy tailors curricula to hold girls’ interest and gives them the confidence necessary to excel in science and math.
  5. Women Who Tech: This nonprofit showcases and funds female founders. They also monitor the landscape for women in leadership, and have found through their research that about 40 percent of female founders looking to raise capital are sexually harassed and, of those women, 65 percent were offered funding in exchange for sex. Women Who Tech not only raises awareness of these issues, but offers women a safe alternative for funding needs.

Investing in programs that help females is a social cause worth fighting for, or at least one that should command financial support from a business community that stands to benefit from a more diverse workforce. Your support can help a little girl dream beyond what she thinks is possible today. You can help women gain employment, start businesses, and reach financial independence. Until we step up to truly support our women and girls, providing them with confidence and training, we’ll never realize the true potential of our economy.

AI Can Help Working Women Become Better Negotiators

by | Sep 13, 2019 | , ,

This post was originally featured on ThriveGlobal

Forbes reported last year that 80 percent of companies have already implemented some form of artificial intelligence (AI) while 30 percent plan to expand their AI investments in the next three years. It’s clear why: AI promises to reduce costs, boost efficiency and help employees achieve more productivity.

While AI offers us many advantages in the way we work, it also provides a seemingly random benefit: helping women become better negotiators.

Women have long suffered from fewer economic opportunities as men, and they continue to earn only 82 cents to a man’s dollar. Part of the problem is that women face significant negotiation hurdles. Glassdoor research concludes that 68 percent of women accept starting salaries without negotiating compared to 52 percent of men.

With the pressure on companies to demonstrate progressive change in 2019, it goes without saying that they have an ethical obligation to provide equal pay for equal work. Even so, there are ways women can empower themselves to help close the pay gap by becoming better negotiators — and AI could be the tech that helps them achieve that:

‘Hagglebots’ Lend Support & Strategy

In a world of ingrained gender inequality, research indicates that women don’t negotiate as much as their male counterparts, in part, because they don’t receive the support they need to build confidence. Other times, women fear they’ll be penalized for their ambitions. But that’s where AI may lend a strategic hand.

Science Magazine mentions that “hagglebots,” or AI-driven negotiation systems, can offer a variety of applications when women fail to reach the best agreements. Currently, negotiation support software assists users by suggesting equally beneficial outcomes on sites like eBay. In a job negotiation scenario, it can use data to track issues previously discussed in career conversations, helping women build constructive strategies by assessing the best ways to find a middle ground with superiors.

Computer scientist Tim Baarslag explains how these systems pick up on specific patterns. For example, your boss may have dismissed a large salary increase in previous meetings. In those same meetings, the employee may have brought up parental challenges like child care more than once. The software identifies these patterns and can suggest that employees negotiate for an extra work from home day instead.

Indeed, AI’s negotiation skills are improving. Facebook experimented and trained AI bots to negotiate between themselves and replicate human negotiation techniques. Built with learning algorithms, the bots were able to evaluate different actions and their possible outcomes. Additionally, the tools were able to help users leverage information and determine the best deals possible during a negotiation. The experiment demonstrated how bots are easily trained to imitate linguistic and logical patterns of human behavior, paving the way for them to assist in real-world transactions in the future.

Fully autonomous bots can’t negotiate on their own just yet, but in the future, it may help women thrive at work. Users will need to feed the bots information for now, but Baarslag says that solving political arguments could be done efficiently in virtually any marketplace or industry.

Guard Against Gender Bias

Research shows women are often better at negotiating when they’re doing so on behalf of someone else, not themselves. The articles goes on to report that when it’s on their own behalf, the systems-that-be often expect women to be collaborative in the negotiation process so as to not seem combative. Harvard Business Review examined this “social cost” of negotiating for women. Both male and female professionals were less interested in working with women who try to negotiate better salaries versus men with similar ambitions. Clearly, unconscious bias attributes to the anxiety and insecurity working women experience surrounding salary negotiations.

While women have tried their best to strategize around these barriers since entering the workforce, AI may provide an actual solution. Some tech companies actively seek to improve unconscious bias through programming. Scientists at DeepMind are attempting to eliminate the human bias element through their AI system, the Generative Query Network (GQN). The framework places AI bots in learning environments so they can form their own observations about the world. In doing so, the bots could help employers adhere to fair negotiation practices, identifying and signaling against unconscious bias so employers can understand where and why they were unfair.

San Francisco company, Kanjoya, uses natural language processing (computer algorithms that read for tone and context) to limit gender bias and discrimination. The system processes hundreds of millions of words with emotions so they can determine why a particular subject is being brought up in surveys. Kanjoya then aggregates these and cross references it with hard evidence like starting salary across a particular industry or a specific job position. For example, if more women mention salary, career development or work/life balance in a negative context, the system can indicate to employers that these issues more readily affect women.

Entelo, another San Francisco startup, uses unbiased sourcing models, a tool that anonymizes job candidates. The machine redacts names, photos, gender and other information deemed preferential against a candidate.

Currently, these tools are used for the hiring process, but imagine if everyone could use these technologies to base salary on the professional attributes and accomplishments regardless of gender identification during the review stage. It would help ensure that women get as fair treatment as possible during pay reviews. With the passing of California’s strict Fair Pay Act — a law that puts the burden of proof on companies to show they haven’t shortchanged an employee’s salary based on gender — we could soon see the promotion of these technologies in other places across the country.

Autonomous Tools Inspire More Professional Women

It’s not that women aren’t naturally bad at negotiating, it’s that the structures that keep them disadvantaged are, by and large, what cause them to have less confidence than men during negotiations. To counteract this effect, AI has huge potential going forward. We already have the foundational technologies and processes, but it’s up to employers and leaders to expand them in the workspace.

Companies may find AI intimidating, but since the technology can help put an end to sexism in the workplace and improve the way we communicate, it is definitely worth consideration — not just for the benefit of women but for business as a whole.

Why ‘Womenomics’ Needs to Be Part of Your Business Strategy

by | Aug 22, 2019 | , ,

This post was originally featured on Entrepreneur.com

For women, the American workplace still remains fraught with inequality. Issues like pay disparity, poor maternity leave policies, sexual harassment and unconscious biasare among the various disadvantages preventing women from succeeding and thriving at work.

It’s no surprise that the Council of Foreign Relations ranks the United States as 20th in workplace equality.

IBM research, meanwhile, shows that 79 percent of global companies haven’t even prioritized achieving gender equality in their workplaces. But just because American gender equality and occupational integration appear to have stalled shouldn’t mean we have to wait the 202 years the World Economic Forum has estimated it will take for the gender gap to close.

When Japan faced its own challenges in developing gender equality in its workforce, that nation introduced Womenomics, a concept that seeks to boost domestic product and female representation and focuses on increasing equality and reducing pay disparity.

The concept ultimately helped push female participation in Japan’s workforce up to 67 percent.

If U.S. big business is truly committed to improving gender equality — as over 40 major companies have confirmed — inducting Womenomics principles like data reporting and improved sexual harassment policies into business ethos will not only help to dismantle gender barriers but ultimately make businesses far more sucessful.

Companies are rewriting rules to help achieve equal pay

A major component of Japan’s Womenomics policy focuses on securing equal pay, and thus ensuring representation and financial stability for working women. In the United States only 65 companies, according to Just Capital, have reviewed their gender pay gap, showing the need for U.S. businesses to foster business models that maximize Womenomics’ potential.

One way companies can do this is by incorporating business practices that require them to collect and report pay data.

In the United Kingdom, for example, companies didn’t address the gender pay gap until a government requirement pressured them to make the data public. Now that over 250 U.K. companies have published pay data, that move is expected to boost transparency and ensure pay equity.

As Quartz reported, salary reports are essential to identifying structural inequality of opportunity patterns and the unequal distribution of well-paying jobs. Salary data can also reveal stark differences, based on salary levels, in women’s access to bonuses and rewards; bonuses and other rewards help widen the gender pay gap.

Then, when businesses don’t report their pay data, “naming and shaming” methods can hold these enterprises accountable.

What’s happening in this country

The current push for American companies’ data may soon give this Womenomics strategy precedence. Recently, a federal judge reinstated an Obama-era ruling for companies with over 100 employees to report pay data by gender, race and ethnicity.

It’s unclear if companies need to comply by the May 31 deadline, but this legal ruling could be a useful impetus to close the gender pay gap.

Even so, Natasha Lamb of Arjuna Capital has told Bloomberg that while this regulatory mandate from the EEOC might help narrow pay gaps, it won’t make the data transparent to investors. Said Lamb: “We want to be able to measure ‘apples to apples’ on how companies are doing on narrowing those gaps.”

It’s imperative, as Lamb pointed out, that we find ways to push companies to collect and report their data. And, in fact, pay transparency is starting to become more of a trend across multiple industries. Recently, for instance, tech companies like SumAll and Buffer have implemented transparency as a core tenant of their company culture, with positive results.

Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne listed staff salaries on the company website — including his own paycheck — along with the formula used to calculate those salaries.

Other companies like Starbucks have partnered with 25 other U.S. employers in something called the Employers for Pay Equity consortium: Members agree to a shared set of pay equity principles: equal footing, transparency and accountability.

Along with pay-data reporting, Starbucks’ VP of Global Public Policy Zulima Espinel has spoken about her company’s focus on helping women achieve better paying roles. Specifically, Starbucks has pledged to promote organizational changes with gender parity in senior leadership by 2020.

As more major companies align their business principles with transparent data-reporting practices and equal pay initiatives, they will not only bolster their reputations and appeal to more female workers, but also strengthen their potential for longevity. As Business Insider has reported, studies indicate that these practices increase productivity and performance.

Strategies of support

Japan’s Womenomics concept centers around the idea that women’s equal participation will improve the economy as a whole; and U.S. companies need to become equally savvy, creating safer, more supportive professional spaces where women have the ability and desire to participate, especially in traditionally male-domainted industries.

More supportive sexual harassment policies are a key element here: In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported, 52 percent of companies surveyed reviewed their sexual harassment policies.

That’s a start, but it’s not enough to curb the harassment that over 54 percent of women reportedly face in professional settings, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll.

Companies can build more support by changing the culture through initiatives like no-retaliation policies and networks other than HR where women can report harassment. Strategic training goals (like employee resource groups, unconscious bias training and empathy training) are another move. So is the creation of a diversity governance structure that limits any minimization of these issues.

At KPMG, a Women’s Advisory Board supports women at all stages of their work lives and careers, targeting programming and strategies to meet their needs. Other companies like Google and Mogul foster unconscious bias training to pull apart the foundations of toxic work cultures. Goldman Sachs includes a diversity committee in each geographic region, three of which focus on affinity networks and training as key levers in achieving diversity objectives.

Maternity and parental leave

Maternity and parental leave are especially important supportive policies. One of Japan’s Womenomics philosophies centers around support for working mothers. Currently, only 13 percent of American workers, according to Glassdoor data, have access to paid parental leave.

KPMG is again at the forefront here, with its paid leave policy of up to 17 weeks for new mothers and four to six weeks for new fathers; the company also offers up to $20,000 for child adoption assistance subsidies.

At Deloitte, programs like the “Reconnect Program” coach new parents at work, giving them the knowledge and confidence to support both their careers and families. They also receive financial support for childcare once they do return to work.

Wiser Womenomics policies for winning solutions

Economic policies work better when cultural and financial policies change with them. To help close the gender gap, we must push companies to spearhead new, holistic approaches to Womenomics within their respective industries.

As businesses make commitments to women through integral initiatives and policies, they will redefine how our culture treats working women and women in general. When we have finally achieved that level of gender equality, those among us who are sexist and ignorant will witness and accept the incredible things we can accomplish together as a united gender-equal society.

3 Major Myths on Confidence Working Women Should Avoid

by | Jul 19, 2019 | , , ,

This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC

For women in the workplace, building, maintaining or even regaining confidence in our professional lives can be a major challenge. Many influential women from Beyoncé Knowles to PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, have struggled with feelings of self-doubt.

Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that working women, including female business leaders, often face bias when it comes to how others view their confidence. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why women hold fewer leadership positions than men and only a quarter of women ask for a raise compared to their male counterparts. But working women shouldn’t have to conform to the societal expectation that they must acquire more traditionally masculine qualities to appear more self-confident.

While there are deeply ingrained systems that keep women from gaining influence and power at work, female business leaders can uplift themselves and each other by dispelling myths about confidence and learning how to better cope with any insecurities and preconceived notions they may face in the workplace.

Myth #1: I Must Feel Perfect Before I Am Confident

In their book “The Confidence Code,” Katty Kay and Claire Shipman show how a lot of women harbor this mentality. It holds us back from answering questions, asking for a raise or applying for jobs. For instance, women at Hewlett-Packard applied for promotions at their workplace only when they felt they were 100 percent qualified for the job, whereas men applied when they met 60 percent of the job description.

Similarly, when asked about giving young women extra responsibilities and leadership opportunities in her campaign, Hillary Clinton says that women often ask, “Do you think I’m ready?’ But when I ask a man, he goes, ‘How high, how fast, when do I start?!’” Clinton’s response was that women are too hard on themselves and, as a result, sell themselves short.

One thing professional women in particular need to remember is that perfection is impossible. You can strive for mastery, but mistakes will always be made — and the most you can do is learn from those mistakes. Plus, it’s important to remember that confidence and even mastery are developing processes with no realistic end goal of perfection. Instead, let mastery guide you on your way to confidence. As Kay and Shipman say, “The confidence you get from mastery is contagious. It spreads…mastering one thing gives you the confidence to try something else.” Knowing you have mastered certain skills gives you a feeling of emotional security that is kin to confidence.”

Myth #2: Confidence Means Being Loud and Pushy

We typically think of confident leaders as loud, ruthless and extroverted; dominant types with stereotypically masculine qualities. But confidence can be observant and stoic as well. According to counseling expert Meg Selig, while “extrovert confidence” is a reality, so is “introvert confidence.” While it’s not showy, this confidence style prevails by a person who demonstrates strong values and sticks to them. As such, respect for their skills, communication and modesty help them succeed.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an extrovert or an introvert (or both!), you can always learn to be a caring and effective leader. Author Carolyn Webb offered her own definition of confidence as being “how you feel when you’re being your best self.”

Myth #3: You Either Have Confidence or You Don’t

Often the perfectionist aspect of confidence gets the best of us. Recent research indicates that self-criticism is one barrier to women’s success in the workforce. Because women are often socialized to be modest and polite, it’s no surprise that we underestimate our own skills.

Some people are naturally confident when they lead their teams, brainstorm strategies or pitch ideas, but confidence is a learned skill that anyone can gain. No one expects you to jump onto a tennis court and play like a pro. Confidence works the same way: it’s a learnable skill and practice helps you excel.

Despite facing bias at work, women have some power when it comes to improving their inner confidence. One is to increase your “confidence quotient” by taking risks, learning new skills and setting small and large goals. To reflect an inner sense of confidence, you could even write out positive affirmations and scripts so you know how to better handle mistakes.

Sheryl Sandberg said, “Confidence and leadership are muscles. You must learn to use them or you don’t.”

As we research and gain more awareness of our own confidence (or sometimes lack thereof), working women can more efficiently address not only the inner, but the systematic issues which keep women unempowered in the workforce. As we recognize that it’s totally normal to doubt ourselves, feel nervous or imperfect, we can be aware of the issue and focus on our positive attributes instead.

Vulnerability Builds Better Businesses (and Makes You a Better Person)

by | Jul 12, 2019 | , , ,

Acknowledging your vulnerabilities and using them to your advantage can improve business, build a better work culture and help you grow…

This post was originally featured on ThriveGlobal

Vulnerability is often associated with weakness, high stakes emotions and a lack of confidence.

It’s the opposite of what we typically expect business leaders to show in a brainstorming session, on the public speaking stage or in the boardroom.

Often, entrepreneurs actively seek to hide their vulnerable traits, but being vulnerable has its strengths. Not only does it help us foster better relationships, but it also, surprisingly, acts as a beneficial strategy in growing stronger businesses.

An article from the World Economic Forum shows our trust in CEOs has floundered as many business leaders seek to remake the image of the self-serving business leader. Customers, investors, employees and the general public now expect them to share their vulnerabilities — and their company’s vulnerabilities — with the world.

The reason comes down to how vulnerability helps us build better businesses, excel as business leaders and ultimately, become better people.

Vulnerability Fosters Creativity

“Perfectionists perish. There’s nothing worse for a team than someone afraid to make a mistake,” tells sports psychologist Graham Betchart to CNBC.

Betchart knows this better than most. He has studied vulnerability and has helped train NBA athletes on how to develop mental fortitude and how to handle pressure.

What Betchart has found is that when we work to intentionally avoid mistakes, we limit our creativity. Being willing to accept that things may not go according to our plans or expectations — in other words, being vulnerable — gives us a greater chance of finding creative solutions.

University of Houston professor and leading researcher on vulnerability, Brené Brown, mirrors this idea. Brown argues that vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation and creativity. She says, “I would challenge anyone to point to any act of innovation that was not born of vulnerability, that was not born of putting an idea on a table that half the people in the room thought was stupid. That the other half questioned. If the idea makes sense to everyone right away, there’s nothing innovative about it, right?”

Vulnerability Improves Trust

Brené Brown’s research also delves into how vulnerability can create a trusting workplace. In her famous “The Power of Vulnerability” TED talk, she says that vulnerability lies at the very foundation of authentic connection with others. In her research, Brown determined that “a sense of worthiness” is what defines people who have a strong sense of belonging from those who feel alone. Those who have “the courage to be imperfect” and embrace their vulnerabilities are more likely to build meaningful and trusting connections.

“We live in a vulnerable world. And one of the ways we deal with it is we numb vulnerability,” Brown says. Unfortunately, that habit of hiding our emotions and imperfections ultimately leads to disconnection and distrust.

When leading a business, that focus on building better connections can really pay off. According to the Harvard Business Review, transparent communication builds better levels of hope and trust which improves employee performance. It also builds a culture of forgiveness where we don’t punish mistakes, and instead learn from them — a mindset that has proven to benefit productivity.

Betchart told CNBC Make It, “We’ve found that when a leader, a person in charge, is able to be vulnerable and say, ‘I’m human just like you and I make mistakes,’ it empowers the group. People really resonate when they can connect.”

Build Better Character But Safeguard Your Boundaries

While it’s important to be open, there’s a fine line when it comes to being too vulnerable at work. For instance, oversharing and expressing self-doubt excessively makes others start to question your ability or credibility.

You also don’t want to fake vulnerabilities to build relationships. Quartz reports that when vulnerability veers away from authenticity, it can start to feel scripted and even hurt you professionally. Instead, It’s important to ask yourself if what you’re sharing is helpful to others, including yourself. Gradually, it’s reasonable to include vulnerable aspects of yourself while inspiring others in the process.

Vulnerability for business leaders isn’t just about showing your emotions or pain points to connect with others. It’s about being more self-aware and actively collaborating with others to examine important problems and solve them creatively. Yes, vulnerability makes us more real, more communicative and more trusting, but it also helps us build stronger teams, bigger businesses and better communities. It’s time to start using our vulnerabilities to our advantage rather than thinking of them as weaknesses to be overcome.

Real Estate Veteran Debrah Lee Charatan Offers Advice to Young Entrepreneurs

Real Estate Veteran Debrah Lee Charatan Offers Advice to Young Entrepreneurs

by | Jun 7, 2019 | , , , ,

This article, by Krystal Perkins, was published on Prague Post

Real estate veteran Debrah Lee Charatan has long been hailed for her entrepreneurial insight, decades of industry experience, and passion for supporting communities throughout the New York metropolitan area. Charatan is the President and Cofounder of BCB Property Management, a leading multi-family real estate investment firm dedicated to the acquisition, renovation, and management of buildings in some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods. Since 2008, she has led BCB to acquire over 1.6 million square feet of New York and New Jersey real estate, and a portfolio of over 120 buildings and 1,800 apartments.

Debrah Lee Charatan’s impact today is vast, but she never forgets her humble beginnings. Starting as a secretary while completing her BS at Baruch College, she sought out an opportunity as a property manager at a local real estate firm where she began to make her deals in the 1970s.

From there, Chartan leveraged her resources and real estate expertise to create her own company, Bach Realty, which she grew into one of the most prominent names in New York’s commercial real estate space during the 1980s. Bach Realty is recognized as New York City’s first all-female real estate brokerage, and Charatan’s entrepreneurial success saw her profiled in USA Today, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Inc., the New York Daily News along with dozens of other media outlets.

In 1993, Charatan kicked off another career landmark by launching Debrah Lee Charatan Realty, where she continued her dedication to her entrepreneurial team and New York’s communities at large. Since then, Charatan has become a prolific thought leader on female entrepreneurship, and has been published in the likes of Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, VentureBeat, Thrive Global and SCORE NYC.

Charatan’s focuses much of her community engagement and charitable ventures through the Charatan/Holm Family Foundation, including the support of numerous arts organizations and cultural and civic causes including New York’s Central Park Conservancy and the Jewish Partisan Education Foundation. Also, Charatan sits on the Women’s Leadership Council of the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Real Estate Council.

As a daughter of Holocaust survivors, Debrah Lee Charatan actively supports the preservation of Jewish historical and cultural institutions including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Park East Synagogue, Chai Lifeline, Southampton Chabad and the Jewish Musem. Currently, Charatan serves as the Vice President on the Board of Trustees for Selfhelp Community Services Foundation, an organization that seeks to support elderly and other vulnerable New York residents, including Holocaust survivors, through independent living that offer community-based services.

How can new entrepreneurs learn to maximize their productivity?

Staying productive requires a steady routine. Like most entrepreneurs, I wake up early to get a head-start on the day. I’m up at 5 am on weekdays to work out for an hour and get to the office early so I can make the most of each day. Choose something that raises your energy and sets a positive pace for the rest of your day.

On the job, the real trick is to set goals and write those goals down. I make “to do” lists — the night before, or first thing in the morning — that detail what I’m going to do that day to achieve those goals. That way, when I get to work, I know what meetings, calls, tasks, and other big-picture items I have on my plate, and more importantly, why they are on my plate.

If you diligently keep track of everything you need to accomplish, you’ll make sure the essentials are crossed off.

What do you think are the best resources for young entrepreneurs to utilize?

Your best resources are time, your budget, your skill set, and your network.

Manage your time and your budget wisely. When you have spare time, use it to develop your skills or learn more about what it takes to survive and thrive in your industry. Create a budget in advance and track your revenue and spending, so you identify where you need to put your efforts that support a growing business.

Relationships are also key. Building genuine trust amongst your peers, colleagues, and competitors offer you one-of-a-kind advantages and opportunities that you won’t have access to anywhere else.

How can young entrepreneurs take advantage of the disruption in their industries?

As I mentioned above, I’m a big fan of writing things down: my goals, my tasks, and my ideas.

One benefit of writing down your goals is that you start to recognize opportunities that come your way that can impact the future of your business in a significant way. It also helps you think more open-mindedly about how to adapt and take your ideas in a new direction as you develop your business.

Also, remember not to take “no” for an answer when a hurdle presents itself, either deal with it head-on or look for ways to redirect your energy and work around it.

What are some of the most effective growth strategies that have helped BCB Property Management succeed?

If you want to grow your business, you need to invest in its success. And in any business, an entrepreneur is only as good as the team that supports their work.

When I founded Bach Realty in the 1980s, and I started to make money, I immediately reinvested those funds back into the business. I hired new talent, updated our equipment, and made practical office renovations. This habit of reinvesting capital into my business is one that helped me thrive at Bach Realty and Debrah Lee Charatan Realty and helps me to this day at BCB Property Management.

Be patient and invest for the long-term. I’ve spent many years reinvesting my money and resources into my companies, and it’s afforded me opportunities for growth that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

How did you become so involved with philanthropy?

I believe every entrepreneur ought to invest in their local community, big or small. When I first started Bach Realty, I made a point to encourage female entrepreneurship by supporting the city’s first all-female real estate team because I knew I could make an impact and help better women’s lives. Today, I maintain relationships with professional female business communities and sit on the Women’s Leadership Council of the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund in New York City.

When you align yourself with local communities, you more clearly understand their needs, and it allows you to create a strong foundation of mutual support and professional development. I continue to foster community ties, especially through The Charatan/Holm Family Foundation, which focuses on arts, cultural, medical and other humanitarian causes in the greater New York area and beyond.

Do mentorship opportunities help new entrepreneurs succeed?

Absolutely. Mentorship gives both the mentor and mentee new perspectives and a broader network. Don’t be afraid to reach out to an entrepreneur who inspires you. With consistent effort, a two-way mentoring relationship allows any business leader to expand their network, their industry knowledge, and even their company’s bottom line.

You’ve been particularly influential in supporting women in business. What advice can you give female executives?

Many women still let bias or negative self-talk hinder their progress and confidence. My advice: don’t doubt yourself. If you do doubt yourself, learn how to push those negative thoughts to the back of your mind while you work because those doubts will clutter your vision.

One of my biggest regrets as an entrepreneur was that I didn’t realize my leadership potential at a younger age. It’s essential to get ahead of the game and go for it, developing your knowledge and skills in your younger years.

On another note, remember to support other women! While female leaders are growing in number, it’s still essential to create a space that allows us to succeed in a heavily male-dominated world.

As a veteran entrepreneur, what is one essential piece of advice you’d give to emerging entrepreneurs?

As I’ve said, I believe in setting goals. Make daily, weekly and yearly targets. Even better: write them down. Advise your employees and business partners to do the same and offer any support you can to help them reach those goals. Holding yourself and others accountable for progress is the best way to make dreams a reality.