Well, my husband got the iPad on Saturday (known among techies as “iPadurday”), and I can confirm that it’s pretty amazing. The iBooks application is particularly cool, with the ability to “turn” pages like you would in a real, live book. At the Mac store, I stood in awe as the 3-year-old boy next to me easily figured out how to use this feature without any adult help.

If you are among the proud new iPad owners and you’re looking for a gift for your favorite college graduate this spring, I’m excited to report that my book, Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, is available in the iBooks store. It was pretty cool to see my words on the newest, hottest device on the planet (even if the name does sound like a feminine hygiene product).

Be sure to check out the books written by my Thin Pink Line colleagues as well!

TAGS: Books, using technology

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a woman complain that when she raises an idea at a meeting, she’s ignored only to have a man raise the same idea later and have it regarded as “the magnificent one and only solution”, I’d be off on a wonderful vacation. But I just read about an idea generation technique that might help ─ it’s called “brainwriting”.

We know that brainstorming can be helpful when trying to solve a problem ─ yet sometimes brainstorming is less successful than we’d like. For example, as evident from the common experience above, women can be marginalized in traditional brainstorming sessions. Or, one person can dominate the session, making it difficult for others (male or female) to be heard. Or, if the group leader is less than effective, people start to evaluate the ideas shared prematurely which stifles the energy and undermines the process.

Brainwriting is different that brainstorming in that it requires people to write down their ideas rather than to say them aloud:

1. People begin brainwriting by individually writing an idea relevant to the issue down on a piece of paper. Ideally, each person uses a different color pen so that he/she can be identified as the source of the idea ─ or that the absence of a particular color ink will out the person who doesn’t fully contribute.
2. Each person passes his/her paper to the right.
3. People read the idea on the paper they’ve received and add their own idea, perhaps inspired by the idea already on the paper. If they can’t think of anything to add, they can just pass the paper along.
4. When a piece of paper has about four ideas, it is retired to the center of the table. Then the ideas are evaluated according to criteria previously identified.

Dr. Peter Heslin, a professor at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, whose  2009 article about brainwriting in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology suggests that the discipline of writing the ideas down coupled with the fact that participants are reacting to others’ written ideas may produce more ideas. He also recommends more research to determine whether gender differences present in the brainstorming process may be minimized by brainwriting.

I say it’s worth a try!

TAGS: creativity, group process, LinkedIn, problem-solving

We are delighted to share this guest post from Cleo Thompson, based in London and founder of The Gender Blog.

Last week saw women around the world celebrating the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day – a day marked on 8^th March every year to commemorate the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

If, however,  you are a gay woman in Pakistan, Algeria or Uganda, then you probably have somewhat less to celebrate,  as it’s still illegal to be gay in those countries – and several others.  And if you’re a gay woman and fortunate enough to live elsewhere such as the US or the UK,  a country where you are,  in the recent words of Ulrike Lunacek, an Austrian Member of the European Parliament who co-chairs that entity’s LGBTI group, “… able to be open in your workplace; able to be free to be who you really are …”  but you travel overseas, then here’s a website that you may wish to check out. In addition to serving as a useful resource, it will help to raise your awareness of the other countries out there where the LGBTI community don’t enjoy the same level of personal and professional freedom.

Ulrike Lunacek was speaking at the recent launch of ILGA’s interactive website– a newly available resource for both employers and employees. Designed, hosted and supported by British Telecom , it’s an innovative tool, (accessible in French, Spanish and Portuguese as well as English) which informs people of their rights and their risks when travelling – and as such serves as a wonderful – and timely – resource for both employers and individuals.

ILGA is the International Lesbian, Gay, Trans & Intersex Association which was born in 1978 out of a grass roots movement aimed at creating global change and awareness of the issues facing the LGBTI community. They campaign on the two main pillars of homophobia – law and culture – and it is their hope that the new interactive website will support this vital work.

One of the senior BT developers who worked on the site asked the launch audience to imagine how it might feel to be a gay or lesbian member of staff who wasn’t “out” to their manager and who was asked by their employer to go to a country on assignment or on a business trip where their sexuality could put them at risk – how do you, as a gay employee, have that conversation if you don’t have the information to hand which informs both you and your employer of exactly what you could be facing? And how can a manager make appropriate resourcing and deployment issues about their staff without having an up to date awareness of the risks (both potential and actual) in the countries in which the company has a presence?

Thus, on ILGA’s home page you can see a map of the world, into which you can drill via a variety of datasets (such as female to female relationships, or age of consent laws) and then see how the map changes colour based on the legal status of that situation: so we can see that it’s illegal to be a lesbian in Angola and Botswana for example,  legal in many other countries and “legal only in some areas” in Nigeria.  You can also click on (or search for) a specific country of interest and see what the story is with regard to the law there; follow the links and read about the legal background, anti-discrimination laws, asylum and immigration issues and social climate.  There’s also an interactive section,  aimed at mimicking the social networking component of sites such as Trip Advisor,  where users are encouraged to post their stories of life in and/or visits to various countries,  to enable others to gauge the mood and “gay friendliness” (or otherwise) of hotels, bars, restaurants and the country and people in general.

This is a hugely impressive site and should be well used and added to by both travellers and those in the corporate space who are responsible for staff deployment overseas – HR and global mobility teams,  travel offices and so on.  Although a lot of corporate support in the diversity space often is about providing funding for a cause or a group, it does BT great credit that they’ve done so much more than that in this instance – they’ve put their massive technical and intellectual expertise to work to support this great cause and provided a genuinely useful tool which could really make a difference to both their own staff and to LGBTI people worldwide.  The site is very easy to use and there’s a wealth of information available;  it’s clearly been an enormous project and hopefully will have an even more significant impact both as an information source for women and men but also as a risk awareness and a consciousness raising tool.

TAGS: business travel, Cleo Thompson, LGBTI, The Gender Blog, travel

I believe in assets -  of the wallet and of the heart.  Let’s take a moment to count the one’s of the heart and why we should count on them.  

I was the recipient of an extremely nurturing form of perfectionism that came from the loving hands of my 20-year old mother.  Vivien (Vicki) Baxter married my Dad William (Bill) Dickerson (with her parents’ permission) three weeks before her 17^th birthday.  When I was born, I became her real life doll and she took exemplary care of me.  Everything she did for me and with me was as perfectly orchestrated as she could make it.

Perfection had been an important and early discipline for this child bride to master.  Though she was the teenage wife of a young Army/Air Force lieutenant who was just a few years her senior, she was a military wife now – in the midst of “older women” already in their 30s! 

Her perfection for being stylishly appropriate was one of my Mom’s greatest assets.  She practiced what she learned on me.  Where did she learn this grown up sense of the life and style she wanted to provide me?  From my Dad. 

 The story goes:  A few weeks after they were married, he arrived home to change into his military dress uniform and pick up Mom for a squadron party.  He found her dressed like the 17-year old that she was – in her best pleated skirt, white Angora sweater, matching socks and black Mary Jane shoes.  Dad told her she looked beautiful and that he’d like her to save the outfit to wear when just the two of them went out to dinner because in the Air Force there was a sort of uniform for wives too.  “The older women usually wear a cocktail dress,” he said.  “Let’s go get one for you!”

 And so it was that every Friday of those early months of my Mother’s married life that my Dad would take her shopping for her “uniforms”.  One Friday it was for hats.  Another it was for shoes.  The next – for suits.  Yet another for purses and so on.   And so it was with that history and evolution of my Mother’s perfectionism into which I was born and grew up. 

My parents have been gone nearly six years now – first Mom then Dad six months later.  They’d been married 61 years.  This story is always a special memory to me for how tenderly Bill brought Vicki into the world of older – women of a certain age.

 It was this environment that taught me to recognize the value of different kinds of assets in our lives.  Money is an asset and certainly matters.  We should make deposits into our savings and retirement accounts on a regular and committed basis.  

But memories matter, too.  They’re priceless assets and should be considered valuable deposits into our emotional bank accounts.

 Here’s to your health and wealth!

TAGS: Assets, emotional assets, mothers, parents

I recently spoke with Paul Hill about a new website he’s launched with colleagues, Job Search Intelligence. You cannot afford to look for a job (or to ask for a raise) without investing some time on this site.

Why?

Using “state of the art” methodology (the statisticians involved have serious credentials!), the salary calculator guides you through a series of questions specific to:

• Where you work ─ not only state but the region. For example, if you live in New York, there’s a big difference between what you’ll be able to earn if you work in New York City rather than in Albany.

• The job category ─ e.g. financial specialists, business operations or food services (there are 24 categories in all)

• The specific job description ─ the descriptions are directly tied to the job category

• Your education level ─ if you have a college degree or higher, the calculator factors in: where you went to school as well as your major (and goes one step further to ask you, “How relevant is your degree to the Job Description you are seeking?” and even your grade point average!

• Your work experience

• Your foreign language fluency, if any

• Your credit score

• Your current salary

Once you complete the questionnaire, you immediately receive a comprehensive report that gives you , among other very useful information, a “Market Ranking” (comparison of how you stack up relative  to others seeking the same job in your geographic area), a “Salary Index” and even a “Best Region” suggestion ( good places for people seeking the kind of position you’re seeking.

Paul told me that in certain occupations, gender and race will affect compensation by as much as 30%. So the fact that the Salary Index includes a comparison number for those not impacted by gender or racial bias is particularly useful for women and minorities.

The service is free of charge to job seekers and no registration is required.

The Job Search Intelligence site is absolutely the best site I’ve seen ─ the quality of the datasets, the specificity of the information required and the excellence of the report it generates ─ lead me to recommend it without hesitation.  As I’ve written before, good information is critical for women when they negotiate compensation.

TAGS: benchmarking salary, compensation, salary, salary sites

Even though the job market is ugly, don’t sell yourself short. Marty Orgel made the point recently in The Wall Street Journal that answering the inevitable interview question about salary requirements is tougher than ever. Marty recommended the same salary sites that you read about here right at The Thin Pink Line back in July, 2008.

TAGS: benchmarking salary, compensation. gender wage gap, salary sites

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Cleo Thompson, Executive Producer of ‘“Closing the Gender Gap: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future”.  She had the vision to take her firm’s commitment to women more public and to make it accessible to others though a film.

This thought-provoking film includes interviews with thought leaders from business, academia and politics who encourage businesses to think strategically about the issues that impact women in the workplace now and in the future as a business imperative.

PwC’s Global CEO Sam DiPiazza comments:

“There is no doubt that the global economic picture in 2050 will look very different from today. In addition to economic change, we are going through a period of huge social transformation. The leading companies of the world in 2050 will be those that have found ways to create opportunities for women throughout the organization all the way to the top. They have no choice – the fierce battle for talent means they need to use every resource they have to its full potential – and that includes women.”

Very impressive indeed when a global company renowned for its emphasis on talent management takes the lead to educate other organizations about the importance of retaining and promoting women as a business strategy. Not just a “nice to do” but a “must do”.

I have talked with many women who work for firms that still do not provide the tools and resources to support women who aspire to senior and executive roles. And even some of the firms that do, don’t take the next step ─ to hold executives accountable for results. If you work for a company that hasn’t made the right kinds of investment in women, I suggest you share the link to the film with your colleagues.

And for companies who have started on the journey, there is no doubt that the economic crisis will provide a temptation to cut back on gender initiatives in place currently. Don’t wait until it is too late; share the link to the PwC’ film with whomever holds the purse strings in your firm. You may be able to help them to stave off a bad decision with the solid information the film offers.

Thanks, PwC!

TAGS: business case for advancing women, investing in women, women's initiatives

I read a disturbing statistic the other day─ people are much more likely (almost 50% more likely) to lie when using email to communicate than they are when using snail mail. Hmmm.  The results of study were published in a paper titled,  “Being Honest Online: The Finer Points of Lying in Ultimatum Bargaining”, co-authored by Lubia Belkin (Lehigh University), Terri Kurtzberg (Rutgers University) and Charles Naquin (DePaul University).

Kurtzberg commented:

“These findings are consistent with our other work that shows that e-mail communication decreases the amount of trust and cooperation we see in professional group-work, and increases the negativity in performance evaluations, all as opposed to pen-and-paper systems. People seem to feel more justified in acting in self-serving ways when typing as opposed to writing.”

While the sample size was small (48 MBA students at Lehigh University) and the findings limited to comparing email with traditional written communication, it made me wonder about implications for negotiation.

I’ve been concerned for awhile that the ubiquitous use of email as a method for people to communicate means that all too often, rather than pick up the phone or meet n person, people negotiate via email. I’ve asked groups with whom I’ve spoken why this is case.

(more…)

TAGS: email, Negotiation, negotiators

You don’t have to be leading the meaning to be concerned about the engagement level at the meeting. Any time you have a speaking role, you need to be thinking about how to compete with “Blackberry Obsession” as well as sleep deprivation for people’s attention.

Suggestions:

Share the stage — think carefully about the information you need to disseminate. Don’t default to the standard “tell” format is another way that makes sense. For example, if you need to report on your team’s progress on a project, structure the report by asking other members of the team to cover certain topics.

Benefits:

• people tend to pay more attention when they know they will be speaking
• a variety of voices/styles is more interesting than one voice alone
• people always find information more interesting when it is facilitated from them rather than told to them

Make it easy for people to contribute. For example, if you are communicating news about changes in the organization, you might encourage participation by providing some information and, rather than asking a closed question, (“Do you have any questions?), ask an open question instead (“What questions do you have?” Or “What are your reactions?”.

Benefits:

• when you ask questions, you invite people to speak up; generally, they rise to the occasion
• when you ask open questions (those which can’t be answered by one word or one phrase answer), you make room for people to take the conversation in a direction that is useful to them

Once you’ve asked your question, wait for an answer. There is nothing that shuts people down faster than a person who answers her own questions. It takes people a bit of time to formulate an answer to a question; don’t preempt them!

TAGS: demonstrating leadership, keeping people engaged, meetings. leadership

Whether you employ one person or one thousand people, you need to find the right person for the job(s) you do have.  Here are some tricks we use in our office to increase the likelihood of hiring that right person:

1.  Write down the 5 – 7  most important characteristics for success on the job.  That’s characteristics, not qualifications.   People are far more likely to fail if they don’t have the characteristics needed to succeed in the job and your company culture.  If you’re looking for someone who thinks of their feet, is able to multi-task, and is great with customers be sure to prepare questions that will enable you to observe those behaviors.  For example, don’t ask, “Can you think on your feet” (who is going to say no?).  Instead, throw out several questions in quick succession and see how agile the candidate is in responding to them.  If they get flustered, they most likely won’t think on their feet in the real situation either. 

2.  When advertising, provide your company website somewhere in the ad (in your e-mail address is perfect) and request a cover letter along with a resume.  Now you’re looking for a few things:  did they go the extra mile and look up your company on the internet before responding? Did they provide the cover letter? If so, was it well written and geared toward your job?  If the answer is no to any one of those questions you may have someone who will only do what’s needed and not much more.  They go to the bottom of my list.

3.  E-mail a short pre-interview questionnaire to further narrow the field of those you have an interest in.  We ask questions like why does this particular job appeal to you, describe how you handled a difficult boss or customer, and how would your last boss describe you?  You’d be surprised how many people don’t bother to answer.  Cross them off my list entirely.  Those who do answer have now provided further evidence of their ability to write — and think. 

4.  Conduct initial telephone interviews.  Some people look great on paper but this way of blind interviewing gives you an idea of how they communicate verbally.  If possible, have them call you at a pre-scheduled time.  This will give you an idea of how punctual or responsible they are.  In my experience, one in four candidates doesn’t call at all.   The list is dwindling. 

5.  Observe and document behaviors, not just answers.  It’s true that actions speak more loudly than words.  If a candidate is lethargic, speaks so slowly that you want to pull the words out of their mouth, or so quickly that you can’t understand them it’s all grist for the mill.  If I have a position that requires one of those behaviors it’s a good thing.  Otherwise, behavior at the extremes rarely yields a valuable employee in the long-term. 

TAGS: hiring, interview techniques, Interviewing candidates