“Even during this time of economic turmoil, women are generally positive about the ability to find investments in the industry,” said Kelly Easterling, Principal in the Financial Services Practice at Rothstein Kass and Principal-in-Charge of the Firm’s Walnut Creek office.

Rothstein Kass, the alternative investments professional services firm, recently released the results of its study, “Women in Alternative Investments – Industry Outlook and Trends.” The firm has been performing surveys on industry views since 2007, Easterling explained, but “the vast majority of the respondents had been male. We wanted to find out if perceptions are different for females, who are underrepresented in the industry.”

She pointed out that the alternative investments workforce is roughly 90% male and 10% female. The survey, completed in partnership with 85 Broads, polled 189 female executives in hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. The majority (67.2%) agreed or strongly agreed that the next 18 months would be difficult for the industry.

But 61.9% said there will be more fund launches in the next 18 months than there were in the prior 18 months. Most of the women felt the fund environment would improve.

The researchers had expected a more tempered response, given the state of uncertainty in the economic environment and challenges within the financial services industry. “Women really see this as a viable business opportunity, particularly as more women continue to join the industry,” she said.

Importance of Networking

Only 24.9% of those polled said that it’s just as easy for women to raise capital as male managers. And almost two thirds (63.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that “being a woman makes it difficult to succeed in the industry.”

Many women surveyed felt they are at a disadvantage compared to male peers for a few reasons. For example, 42.9% felt that “women often lack the investment track record of their male peers.” Additionally, 34.4% believed, “women are hindered by the stereotype that they are more committed to personal responsibilities than their work.” Almost a third (31.7%) felt that women managers “have less access to investor networks.”

Easterling said the value of networking was evident by the number of women participating in women’s networks in the industry – like 85 Broads and 100 Women in Hedge Funds. And, the survey revealed, 67.8 % felt that women’s networks were either very useful or moderately useful.

“The majority of women talked about the fact that their personal success is based on their participation in networks,” she said. “It highlights the importance of being able to continue building relationships.”

Building Relationships

Easterling said one of the strengths of the survey was the fact that it also included qualitative input from a panel of senior industry women – like Virginia Cargill, Venture Partner and CEO of Health Focus Media; Helen MacKenzie, Managing Director of Women’s Venture Capital Fund; Cindy Padnos, Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures; and Dorothy Collins Weaver, CEO and Chairman of Collins Capital.

In fact, she said, the participation of so many high level women on the advisory panel revealed senior women’s interest in drawing more women into alternative investments and helping them advance. “Women want to see people succeed in this industry – we didn’t have anyone say no to participating on the advisory panel.”

Many of the women on the panel discussed the importance of building, maintaining, and leveraging relationships for success in alternative investments. Easterling pointed to Weaver’s comments in the survey on the importance of leveraging relationships at fund launch. She said:

“Many funds launch with capital from friends and family, but I haven’t seen many women fund managers go to their own friends and family for initial funding. I’m not sure if they are not asking or if they are asking but not getting the funds.”

That may be related to women’s more understated approach to self-promotion, Easterling commented. “I think men tend to beat their chests, but women are more prone to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t,’ she said.

“The other part is your track record. I think the longer women are in the industry the easier that will get, allowing more women to proliferate in the industry.”

Outreach by female role models will also be key to increasing the percentage of women in the industry. “Weaver also mentioned the significance of mentors. She said mentoring for female leaders is a significant responsibility,” Easterling added.

In a ForbesWoman article earlier this month, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president of the Center for Talent Innovation (formerly Center for Work-Life Policy), wrote that while there are 144 boards with no women in the Fortune 1000 and women make up only 15 percent of all Fortune 1000 directors, there is also some good news when it comes to the effort to achieve board parity.

The good news, Hewlett says, is that over 1,100 directors on Fortune 1000 boards are over 70 years old.

If we only wait just a bit longer, she suggests, soon qualified women can rush into the seats vacated by retiring males. She concludes:

“The time may finally be arriving for women to fulfill B.C. Forbes’ predication. As more women pry open the boardroom door and assume a seat at the table, they can not only serve as a powerful voice for change within each company but can proactively broaden the pipeline of female candidates to ensure that even more women advance.”

Hewlett’s message about being rigorously prepared to assume board service when elected is valuable. But her suggestion that women simply wait their turn to be chosen for board service when the old guys are out of the way is disappointing. Women have been waiting for decades to get to the top, and – as Catalyst data on the percentage of women making it into the boardroom shows – playing the waiting game isn’t getting women anywhere fast.

Need to Pry?

Equally disappointing is the notion that women will still have to “pry” the boardroom door open when all of these seats are presumably up for grabs. If a board is so stubbornly ignoring the value of gender diverse viewpoints that women have to force their way onto it, that seat is not likely to be a pleasant one to occupy.

As Former Xerox CEO and Chairman Anne Mulcahy commented at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit last year, if a board has never had a female member, there are likely other problems within its culture or system of operating. In fact, she advised women not to join boards that don’t have other women. She said, “It’s a bad sign. Boards without women – blacklist those suckers. It’s 2011. They’ve had the time – it’s significant that they don’t have women.”

While encouraging women to empower themselves and prepare for board service in a systematic way is obviously important, it’s only part of the gender parity puzzle.

All of this preparation is going to amount to nothing if boards do not fully appreciate the need to hire women or other minority individuals. And judging by the numbers – and Hewlett’s notion that doors will have to be pried open – many boardrooms do not foster a culture that recognizes the value of diverse viewpoints. The real question we should be asking ourselves is how to emphasize the business case in a way that compels meaningful, thought- and action-provoking change in these arenas.

As Elissa Ellis Sangster, Executive Director of the Forte Foundation recently told the Wall Street Journal:

“[Based on research,] the organizations that have a higher representation of women in their leadership make better decisions, they have better corporate governance, they have better risk management, they have better returns. Having that diversity in an organization, whether it’s gender or ethnicity or background skills, those are all important things.”

The willingness of a board to consider the business value of gender diversity also signifies the willingness to consider and rethink long-held and potentially outmoded ways of leading a company. At a time of global uncertainty and upheaval in the corporate and financial space, a board that is willing to rethink tired ideas is one that is positioned for success.

How do you respond to stress? Do you avoid big problems, or confront them head-on? Do you distract yourself with smaller issues, or ignore them to focus on what matters most? Do you seek help from others, or go it alone?

All of these behaviors fall under the banner of ‘coping,’ and each individual does it differently. But if you’re in a position of leadership, your coping style may have a greater impact on your job performance than you think.

Just ask Leslie Pratch. She’s the CEO and founder of Pratch and Company, which specializes in assessing and grooming executives for leadership roles. She also has an MBA and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, so her insights go beyond the surface level. Early in her career, she published a study on gender, motivation, and coping [PDF] as indicators of leadership effectiveness. And she found that the only trait that consistently predicted leadership ability in both men and women was an aptitude for ‘active coping.’

“I want to differentiate my use of the word ‘coping’ from the common connotations, which barely scrape the surface,” Pratch explained. “I use it to refer to a sense of mastery. Individuals can learn to master the situations around them and take an active coping stance, assuming they have the willingness to become more self-aware.”

In other words, anyone who wants to improve her coping methods must take an unflinching look at her entire personality—hidden motivations, unresolved issues, confidence levels and more. And if you think this level of introspection sounds better suited to the psychologist’s couch than to the corner office, Pratch says think again. Drawing on years of extensive research and real-world applications, she asserts that “looking at the subconscious levels of coping is actually the best prognosticator in terms of determining leadership.”

The Four Elements of Active Coping

The building blocks of active coping are four-fold and enhanced by self-awareness. “The first element is integrity,” said Pratch, “which depends on the consistency of your behavior in accordance with your values.” A leader with integrity inspires trust in her team members; her responses to problems stem from an unchanging code of values. To behave with integrity, it is necessary to identify your core values before problems arise. Once a behavioral framework is in place, a leader’s coping will follow a more consistent pattern, minimizing stress for everyone involved.

The second element is psychological autonomy. “That’s the ability to recognize and respect the aims and feelings of others while maintaining the ability to make independent choices,” said Pratch. “It’s the opposite of group-think. It gives us the freedom to choose the best course of action.” This doesn’t mean ignoring the opinions of others; rather, it’s about controlling the impulse to seek constant approval. According to Pratch, this element of the active coping style may be harder for females to develop because they are often expected to be socially oriented, seeking consensus rather than acting independently. “Psychological autonomy is an important dimension for women to focus on, because the pressure is on them to conform to the traditional female stereotype,” she said. “It’s important for them to have that grounding of self-trust.”

Integrative capacity is the third element of active coping. It’s important because big problems rarely stem from a single source—one stressful incident is often symptomatic of underlying issues, and must be responded to as such. “I define integrative capacity as an ingrained ability to blend complex elements into a coherent understanding,” explained Pratch. “Those who don’t have this capacity deal with events one at a time, blind to the connections between them.” If you’re managing a team of professionals with differing skills sets and personalities, all while keeping your eye on a strict budget, a tight schedule and an ambitious goal, this skill is of utmost importance. In fact, says Pratch, among already highly accomplished professionals, it’s one of the strongest predictors of leadership effectiveness.

The final element is catalytic coping, the easiest skill to observe and measure. “It’s the ability to invent creative solutions and carry them out,” said Pratch. “Catalytic copers immediately rethink their options and adjust their plans when faced with changes.” It all comes down to having a plan; an effective leader will anticipate roadblocks and be ready with a Plan B. Otherwise, coping becomes a knee-jerk reaction. “Leaders who lack this quality seem lost and confused when problems arise,” said Pratch. “It’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, or fiddling while Rome burns.”

Mastering the Coping Skill Set

It’s one thing to grasp the concepts of active coping; it’s something else altogether to implement them. Pratch knows from experience that gaining these skills is no walk in the park—there are no easy fixes. A good leader needs to dig deep. “Sometimes we do things we don’t understand,” she said. “We have unconscious motives. And the more aware we become of those parts of our personalities, the more effectively we can manage them.”

They key, she explained, is openness and awareness. A good leader welcomes feedback of all kinds, maintaining flexibility and learning from others. That doesn’t mean abandoning your personal code of conduct—integrity is important, and striking the right balance between rigidity and receptiveness can be a long process full of trial and error. But the end result is a comprehensive self-awareness, which is well worth the trouble. “Getting in touch with who we are is important,” said Pratch. “The more we are able to behave with flexibility and strength, which is a measure of active coping, the more easily we are able to be successful.”

Recent studies on women in the boardroom reveal that women are getting seats at the table at an unfortunately slow rate. In fact, calls for more women on boards have been more vocal in Europe and the UK.

For example, Britain just announced that companies would have to announce to shareholders by September 2012 their own targets for placing women on their boards, and state clearly how they plan to do so. Countries such as France, Spain, and Norway have already introduced compulsory quotas.

Irene Natividad, chair of Corporate Women Directors International, said, “Something is happening, and it’s driven by Europe.”

But supply seems to be unable to keep up with demand. The CWDI reports that US companies hold about 20.8% of board seats. According to the European Professional Women’s Network, 9.7% of the board members at the top 300 companies. And in China and India, women hold only about 5% of board seats.

This opens up an opportunity for women in the United States to join boards abroad, particularly in Europe where many companies are looking to fill their quotas or mandates.

As Candice Morgan, director of advisory services at Catalyst recently told HR Magazine, “We’ve certainly seen, for a while, an interest in women with international formal experience, since the legislation in Norway.”

Serving on a board is a great opportunity to broaden your horizons, said Lauren Leader-Chivee, Senior Vice President at the Center for Work-Life Policy and Partner at Sylvia Ann Hewlett Associates. “If you aspire to top leadership, being on a board…gives you exposure to a diverse set of management. To be fully competent in your own company you need to have a diverse range of experiences,” she said.

Here are seven tips to keep in mind when you are seeking a board seat abroad.

1. Cultivate your connections. In today’s global economy, it is easier and more important than ever to network abroad. Attend international conferences. Meet the right people. CT Partners, an executive search firm, said many women directors found their board seats through prior relationships they had. Make sure your network connections know of your potential interest in serving on a board and are supportive of your efforts. Chivee says while most women tend to be hesitant to utilize personal contacts, men generally don’t have such qualms and often reach out to friends when looking to join the C-Suite. The European Women’s Network, for example, is a good place to start.

2. Stand out. Consultants and former audit partners find their way onto boards based on their reputations as thought leaders and their successful track records leading professional services firms.

3. Develop a game plan. Many directors who join boards today found those boards through a rigorous and structured approach. Develop a target list of companies that best fit your skills and expertise, and are also free of conflicts. Boards typically look for directors with relevant experience at similarly situated or similar size companies, so it makes sense to target companies within your reach.

4. Get experience. Chivee says that the main thing that will help you get on an international board is previous board experience or experience in the C-Suite. Because the financial services sector has the highest percentage of women on boards, those women have an automatic leg up when it comes to joining an international board.

5. Participate in a board training program. Search for corporate governance training programs in Europe that will familiarize you with the terms and culture abroad. For example, IMD in Switzerland offers a full program for an Executive MBA.

6. Enhance your professional profile. Speak at professional meetings. Offer yourself as a subject matter expert to editors in the business and trade press. People who conduct board searches often look at newspapers and magazines to see who is being quoted and written about.

7. Create a powerful resume. Write a board bio or description of your expertise that clearly states your value proposition for a board. Make sure you highlight your key achievements, strengths, and skills and make your impact at the organizations you have worked at as specific as possible recommends the Australian based nonprofit Women on Boards. Also, don’t forget to include your membership of relevant organizations and relevant ongoing professional development.

As today’s marketplace becomes more global, demand for individuals with international expertise is heating up. As Donna Friedman, chair and CEO of Tower Consultants, an executive search firm, commented, “Having an executive on the ground in the U.S., running the business for a European company seeking to break into the U.S. market, as well as an executive who has experience expanding into emerging markets and who has done work in those markets, is very valuable.”

Getting this experience abroad can be a valuable stepping stone for your career, and by making sure to strategically enhance your profile and resume, an international board seat can help you advance faster.

How do law firms distribute billing origination credit and how does the distribution affect compensation and the advancement of women lawyers to positions of real power and influence in their firms? What steps can law firms take to develop fair and equitable compensation, origination credit, and client succession policies that will help women lawyers to advance and succeed?

As women lawyers become more senior, they experience an increasing shortfall in income compared to male attorneys, and higher attrition rates. Despite the commitment by firms to advance women lawyers, women represent only 16% of equity partners nationwide. These lawyers hold an ownership interest in their firms and occupy the most prestigious, powerful and lucrative positions.

The under-representation of women among law firm equity partners means fewer women on the compensation committees. According to the 2010 American Bar Association survey study “New Millennium, Same Glass Ceiling” [PDF] of nearly 700 women law firm partners, about half of the respondents had one woman on the committee. One-fifth had none. Another fifth had two women. When women are not part of the dialogue and the decision-making body that charts the future direction of firms, the chances are greater that the policies and practices implemented will be less responsive to the career needs of women lawyers.

Women and Power

According to the survey, the top three factors for compensation decisions or promotion to equity partner are: revenue collected, billing origination, and billable hours. Individual cash flow metrics weigh heavily, while institutional investments, such as contributions to the firm’s human capital and associate development, are given little weight. The underweighting of institutional investments has a particularly deleterious effect because women, especially women of color, are often expected to make more institutional investments than men. These non-billable contributions help build a strong firm culture and should be both recognized as valuable and taken into account in compensation decisions.

Very few women serve on the powerful compensation committees, which make the decisions. 70% of respondents say there was either no woman or only a token woman on the compensation committee, and the lack of female representation led to implicit bias. Research shows that a token woman on a committee of men negatively affects both the woman herself and her ability to influence decision-making.

People automatically prefer people like them. They feel more comfortable with them, remember their positive traits while forgetting their negative ones, and favor them in distributing rewards. Men are thus often given the benefit of the doubt. It is thus important to be in the inner circle, to know and be known. While not all white men are in the “in crowd,” they are more likely to have political relationships with powerful partners. In-group favoritism can have a profound effect on who gets access to the necessary information through their informal networks.

Taking Credit

As for origination credit, 55% of respondents said they had been denied their fair share of origination credit. Minority women partners were more likely to participate in successful client pitches, but not receive origination credit. In all top firms, the expectation of topnotch legal work is completely assumed to such a degree that client management becomes the differentiating factor in evaluations. Women partners’ compensation is negatively impacted by their exclusion from rainmaking opportunities and a proportionate share of the financial rewards associated with successful client pitches. One respondent said, “Women are not groomed in the same way men are at the firm for business development… You have to be in the boy’s club to get the origination, which is really the way power is measured at the firm.”

Thirty percent of respondents reported that they had been subjected to intimidation, threats or bullying when they challenged the allocation of origination credit. The lack of credit for rainmaking adversely affects the prospects of women for firm leadership and compensation. Origination credit and compensation criteria must be transparent so that women lawyers know exactly what they need to do to reach certain compensation levels.

The emphasis on billable hours leads to the hoarding of work, with the consequent failure to match work to the attorney and the relevant skill set, as well as who can provide high-quality legal work in the most cost-efficient fashion. Moreover, the most-hours-wins approach puts female partners at a disadvantage, since most married female partners have working husbands. In contrast, most male partners have stay-at-home wives who can take care of household chores and bear most of the childrearing responsibilities.

There is a severe lack of objectivity and transparency in existing law firm compensation systems and most of the negotiation surrounding origination credit occurs out of sight. In a profession in which 90% of women lawyers report having encountered gender discrimination (according to research by Mary C. Noonan, Mary E. Corcoran & Paul N. Courant), it is not surprising that many talented and educated women lawyers leave large firms to work in-house, at smaller law firms, or exit the legal profession entirely.

The creation and implementation of fair and equitable compensation systems is crucial to encourage women to stay in the profession, which in turn will increase the percentages of women in the equity partner ranks and law firm leadership.

Why, after decades of work to advance and empower women, have we yet to close the gender leadership gap? According to Marie Wilson, founder of The White House Project, one reason could be the brain. “I was convinced so much that if we just didn’t the right things, trained women right – and I’m so tired of ‘fixing women’ – we could just make it work. When I met with Barbara Annis, we started to talk about what I had avoided my whole life – brain differences.”

She added, “Wiring doesn’t mean everything, but it means a lot.”

Wilson was speaking at the first ever Gender Intelligence Summit, a conference organized to discuss the neurobiology of gender. Held in Washington, DC, on Friday, the conference featured preeminent scientists on the subject of gender intelligence, as well as corporate diversity practitioners who have incorporated gender intelligence into diversity and inclusion work – and found success.

When companies take into account gender differences within the brain, and teach individuals and companies to appreciate and value those differences, diversity becomes more than a numbers game. Barbara Annis, Founder and CEO of Barbara Annis & Associates and Chair of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, is an expert on inclusive leadership. She said, “We thought that if we got enough women into the pipeline, some of them would float up.”

But, she continued, true inclusiveness isn’t merely about the numbers. It’s time to consider the neurological reasons women work and lead differently than men, and why companies can benefit from appreciating those differences.

For example, men generally perform better than women when it comes to spatial reasoning, while women usually perform better at reading facial expressions. Both are valuable skills for a business team to have in its toolbox. Learning to appreciate these kinds of distinctions can help instill corporate culture with a reverence for difference – which will drive gender inclusiveness on a more meaningful level than simply injecting more women into the pipeline with fingers crossed for success.

Focusing on the benefits of “unlikeness,” Annis said, is one way to encourage companies to change their game, refine processes to retain women, and, ultimately, make more money. “The business case is compelling. You can’t deny it anymore,” she explained.

Gender and Neurobiology

“Men and women are in so many ways similar, but it so many ways different,” began Dr. Ruben Gur, Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gur gave a brief, but compelling, history of gender research when it comes to the brain. He was among the first scientists to study female brains – which didn’t happen until the ’70s (previously, women were considered too variable to be subjects of scientific research in most areas besides reproduction).

According to Dr. Gur, there are a several differences between male and female brains. First of all, he explained, “just when you sit and relax, women’s brains are idling at a higher rate.” This is because men have a higher proportion of fat in the brain – which insulates the nerve cells. Women’s nerve cells appear to have less insulation and are therefore more active. Additionally, he explained, the higher proportion of fat and fluid in the brain that men have makes them better able to withstand blows to the head – which could be the evolutionary reason behind the disparity.

Secondly, he continued, the brains of men and women tend to have differences when it comes to the amygdala or “reptile” brain. “The job of the amygdala is to detect threat and issue the alarm to the front of the brains,” Dr. Gur explained. Women tend to have a larger orbitofrontal area relative to the amygdala, compared to men, he said. “This is why women are better at modulating anger responses and physical aggression.”

A few more differences he described included females’ (on average) superior ability to detect and express emotion, and males’ (on average) superior spatial processing and motor skills. “Memory is better in women almost for any kind of material,” he added.

Next, Dr. Marianne Legato, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Founder and Director of the Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia University, spoke about the impact of biological gender differences on society. Dr. Legato explained that it’s not just brains that differ between men and women.

For example, she was the first doctor to research differences between men’s and women’s hearts (which wasn’t even considered until the ‘90s). “After six months of research, it was clear to me that the hearts of men and women are completely different,” she said. This has significant implications for public health, pharmaceuticals and medical care, and the insurance industry.

“There are tremendous differences in every system of the body between men and women. The same genes in DNA are expressed differently if you are male or female,” explained Dr. Legato. What are the implications of this research on society, she asked. What are the implications in the workplace?

First of all, she said, while it is possible to compare gender differences in the biology of the brain, we don’t necessarily come out of the womb that way. “The brain is plastic,” she said.

Brains change and grow significantly, even in adults. Could societal gender expectations cause certain biological changes that are observed in the research that Dr. Gur discussed? Does women’s brain chemistry and structure change when they enter a new environment, with new expectations and structures – such as a male dominated and male structured workplace? “Are women becoming more like men in organizations where they have been successful?” she asked. “Are men learning from women?”

Gender Intelligence in the Workplace

As John Hart, Founder & CEO of the Impact Center, pointed out, women are more likely to leave a company not because of work/life issues, but because they don’t feel valued.

As Wilson said, “Gender is not just a matter of how people get along or how companies make money. It’s a matter of how decisions get made.” How can companies better take advantage of gender intelligence differences?

Jennifer Allyn, Managing Director in the Office of Diversity at PwC, said that the firm is working to ease those gender communication conflicts that lead women to feel less valued by companies.

For example, according to Allyn, PwC recently learned that, by and large, women didn’t feel like they were getting enough attention about their career paths and about career opportunities. But it came down to a difference in communication styles in an organization where leaders are predominantly male.

“The things we want to talk about are different than what men want to talk about,” she explained. “It turns out that we don’t agree on what constitutes a meaningful dialogue about career advancement.”

She suggested that while women may want to talk through challenges they could face in a new opportunity, men perceive that as uncertainty. Men, on the other hand, feel they are signaling loyalty when they don’t ask a lot of questions, she said.

To counteract this communication challenge, Allyn said PwC has implemented a sponsorship program called the Bold Initiative to ensure that individuals feel they are having the valuable conversations they need to advance their careers. By considering gender intelligence differences, the firm has been able to better work with women so they feel they are being valued in their careers, and stave off attrition caused by gender-based misunderstandings.

As founder and publisher of theglasshammer.com, I am proud to pen our 2000th article today and to share with you some of our latest thinking and around gender parity. We are proud to have spent the last four years creating a “must read” online publication designed to help professional women actively manage their careers. We have had the pleasure of covering the most progressive research on gender from well-known think tanks and attending events with fantastically inspirational speakers, as well as hosting our own panel discussions and networking events.

It seems appropriate to celebrate our 2000th article with a look at what components could play a major role in helping a critical mass of women to break the glass ceiling over the next few years. After all, if the last twenty years is closely examined, we would find only an incremental change in the number of women in leadership roles in major companies. (For example, as The Economist recently reported, while the proportion of working women has risen from risen from 48% to 64% since the ’70s, women still only make up three percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.) Similarly, the advice given to women since the 1980s hasn’t changed much either and has been predominantly to act more like men.

Is this strategy working for women? Whilst it definitely makes sense to provide women with a guidebook to how the game is played currently, I cannot help but feel this method ignores the elephant in the room. What might that be? Culture.

It means addressing the culture question and exploring tough topics around why macho works styles are still revered. Asking how culture is formed and maintained and who gets to most heavily influence it should be on every leader’s list of things to look at in 2012. This examination and honest diagnostic approach would enable senior management to look at the systemic issues that are preventing women and other minorities from advancing from middle management to senior management roles and onwards to the boardroom.

Behind the scenes here at theglasshammer.com, beyond creating empowering content for our readers and community members, we have begun to conduct research and write white papers on under-represented groups in the workplace. Our work explores topics  such as women in technology teams, LGBT women at work, and multicultural women in financial services. This work is conducted via our sister site Evolved Employer and is focused on helping companies understand how to architect their company culture to be inclusive and supportive of talented people who don’t necessary fit or want to be categorized into one box or other based on their outward appearance. (Hello Generation Y.)

Many companies and the people in them are still not clear on the business case for spending time developing talent as a business driver. “Smart people come in different packages” is the best way I can explain the need for dispelling myths around what a leader looks like. Diversity work is deeply personal and quite hard because it challenges every deeply held belief we’ve ever had. No one wants to admit to ourselves that we have biases. Often, unconscious bias, even those held by women, protects those who have historically held power, in order to uphold the status quo and maintain workplace traditions. Micro-inequities are often upheld by the very people who are most hindered by them.

What Does Meritocracy Really Mean?

The unpopularity of the proposal around workplace quotas for women by women themselves is possibly the one of the most interesting positions that I have seen this year. Those who believe that their workplace is a meritocracy question the need for quotas since they believe that merit alone will get women to the corner office and dismiss quotas as damaging tokenism.

Those who question meritocracy and look hard at the numbers and the slow growth of promotional rates for women at senior executive level are often still reluctant to endorse quotas for fear of creating perceived tokenism. I would offer up instead that currently, we are exactly perpetrating our own myths and setting up women to fail so that it in the end it looks like tokenism took place.

Many less-than-capable men have been promoted into roles that they cannot handle. The executive failure rates of men are just that – statistics of executive failure rates. We are telling our boys to go out and try, and telling our girls to pipe down and play it safe.

That is why sponsorship is such an interesting concept. It gives women much-needed access to exciting projects, and the chance to explore their abilities with someone on their side whether it turns out to be guts or glory. Men have always had this, and executive failure isn’t the end of the world as the company (mostly) recovers, the person (mostly) gets fired and life goes on. It is an expected fact that a young man will be promoted at some point in his career on promise and potential. Why then, must women only be promoted on past performance?

Then we go full circle, back to the argument that there quotas don’t work, because there isn’t a suitable women to promote as none have the experience, etc. This cycle gets old for me, very quickly, and is one of the reasons why we seemingly have been having the same conversation for the past 30 years (I joined it 5 years ago).

Leadership is Key to Culture

Executive management and leaders of teams and departments have the ability to create or destroy an inclusive environment and the ability to promote women equally. Leaders have the floor, and their tacit or vocal endorsement of norms, values, or behaviors around equality and fairness, as well as allowing inconsistent management practices, make micro-inequities a real issue, despite being invisible to the naked eye. As long as one set of beliefs is held as superior to all others, then no amount of programming and policy-making to create change will work as effectively as visible and genuine action from the leader that communicates change is happening for real. Hire women, start a sponsor program, measure your diversity work, and make it a business objective. In other words, take it seriously!

The numbers show that women are still very much relegated to middle management at best. Ilene Lang, President of Catalyst, drew grasps from the room last March at the annual Catalyst awards dinner when she announced that 72,000,000 women work in the USA and only 735 hold executive positions in the Fortune 500. Catalyst’s research also shows that women and men, all things being equal with the same experience and freshly minted MBA, are likely to earn different starting salaries.

While institutional change comes to the top, there are strategies that women can employ to break this cycle. Request an invite to our annual Navigating, Negotiating, and Building your Strategic Network event to learn more about how to get to the corner office. Some companies really are better than others.

For years, we’ve been led to believe that once women had the “right” education, the “right” training, and the “right” work experience, not only would they succeed at the highest levels of business, but they’d also reach parity in the c-suite. According to the Catalyst report The Pipeline’s Broken Promise [PDF], the premise of this assumption was that the pipeline for women into senior leadership was robust, but it appears that the hopes surrounding parity were too optimistic.

Catalyst reports that when it comes to top talent, women lag in advancement, compensation, and career satisfaction and in order to combat this systematic gender inequity, companies must better develop and fully leverage highly talented women in the workforce.

The good news is that there are major companies, like Time Warner, American Express, and McKinsey, that are working to plug the leaky pipeline at the mid-management level.

American Express – Sponsorship

As chief diversity officer and vice president of executive recruitment at American Express, Jennifer Christie believes that the issues affecting women in mid-management are the same that affect those at any level, everything from work/life balance issues to making difficult choices and career trade-offs while trying to make their way to the top. One issue proving to be particularly difficult to overcome is communication. According to Christie, women who are supervised by men sometimes don’t get the feedback they need because of their difference in communication styles, which eventually affects sponsorship opportunities.

“One of the challenges that we have uncovered through our extensive research with the Center for Work Life Policy is that women do not easily build sponsorship with men at more senior levels,” Christie said. “We find that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored and while mentors are important for your career, sponsorship is a critical relationship that advances your career. It’s about building organic relationships with those who can truly be your advocate and propel your career forward.”

American Express partnered with the Center for Work Life Policy for the report entitled The Sponsor Effect, which outlines the ways in which women are missing out when it comes to sponsorship. This report was one of the key drivers that helped the company shape their Women in the Pipeline and at the Top initiative, which Christie says brought more clarity on the challenges senior women face within the organization, while also helping American Express better understand the effect of sponsorship on career advancement and retention.

Essentially, the initiative really pushes sponsorship opportunities between women and senior leaders and creates a community for women to network and share their experiences. “The real focus,” Christie said, “is to create a more gender intelligent organization, one that enables sponsorship and community.”

It appears as if it’s working. At the recent conclusion of Women in the Pipeline and at the Top’s first year, American Express increased their c-suite female representation and doubled its instances of career movement among women in their highest ranks.

Time Warner – Broadening Experience

Not only has Time Warner created innovative organizational approaches to address the recruitment, development, and advancement of women, but they’ve also been honored by Catalyst for their efforts and cited by Joanna Barsh, McKinsey & Company’s New York director, as taking a truly proactive approach to remedying the pipeline issue.

From 2003-2009, a strong pipeline of women slated for the c-suite increased from 37 to 42 percent and during this same period, women’s representation in executive management rose from 18 to 23 percent. The company cites its high-potential development programs and employee resource groups as contributing factors to women’s advancement in the company.

The most important factor, however, comes from the company’s push to have leadership candidates gain operational experience in all areas of the company. Not only is it a crucial step to becoming general manager, but it also results in a “zigzag effect” that forces women out of their comfort zones and ideally, into a partnership with a sponsor who can provide crucial resources and support during the process.

McKinsey – Spotlight on Role Models

In the study Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the U.S. Economy, Barsh references a CEO who told her “there are a thousand reasons for a thousand little leaks in the talent pipeline,” which is why she says companies are trying to put together programs featuring flexible work options and mentorship opportunities, hoping to nail the problem. By doing this, companies fail to realize that the reasons why some women leave and others get left behind should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

“Companies want a silver bullet and there isn’t one,” Barsh said. “They have to take the time to understand where each woman is coming from. They have to become curious and care enough to investigate why women in their company aren’t getting to where they want to go. What’s holding women back and what is the company doing that’s causing it to happen?”

Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the U.S. Economy also revealed some common reasons for the pipeline problem, including exclusion from informal networks, not having a sponsor, and a lack of role models. According to Barsh, if a company has a woman CEO, there will be more women flowing through the pipeline. Women need to see themselves represented at the top so they’re not discouraged to move forward.

Unfortunately, the most powerful thing holding women back is also the one thing that’s entirely out of their control. According to Barsh’s report, it’s not necessarily overt discrimination, but rather “mindsets that limit opportunity.”

As an example, Barsh cites a recent study which found that women are most often promoted based on performance, whereas men are often promoted based on potential. Barsh says this is happening because there’s less of a safety net for women, meaning there’s more of a risk that they’ll stumble and when they do, it’ll be in the spotlight. Companies know that men will be protected, so they’re given more opportunities.

“Here at McKinsey we believe that a company must have at least 30 percent of its top jobs held by women in order for it to matter and not just be a matter of tokenism,” Barsh said. “If you want women to truly flourish, there must be role models other women can look up to, sponsorships must be offered, and informal networks must be inclusive of women. If you can do these three things, hitting 30 percent shouldn’t be a problem.”

In today’s fast-paced workplace and tough economic environment, difficult situations are bound to arise. But whether you’ve been tasked with delivering unpleasant news or downsizing a team, as a leader, how you handle the situation influences its outcome significantly.

“I think the most important thing to remember is that it’s not just about you,” explained Hyune Hand, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Wolters Kluwer (WK) Corporate Legal Services. She continued, “There is a whole team behind you looking at you, relying on you, to make sure you get to the right outcome.”

As a leader, it’s your job to make sure you evaluate every situation thoughtfully for the good of your company. Here are five ways to ensure you handle any tough situation with poise and maintain the respect of your colleagues.

1. Train Yourself

First of all, Hand said, the composure factor is something you develop over time. She explained, “You have to train yourself, program yourself, to be calmer than you would normally be – this takes time, but quickly in your career you start to determine what’s really important.”

2. Understand Your Purpose

Next she said, understanding your ultimate purpose within the organization can help you get through difficult choices. “You really need to understand the purpose of why you exist in the context of the business – not just your business objective but also your fundamental purpose.”

“As a leader, I live and breathe small businesses – my purpose is to make that small business owner’s life easier and to provide stability,” she explained. Remembering that purpose can help transcend negative aspects of your day.

“You have to understand your value proposition,” she added.

3. Get Perspective

“For me, I would say an inflection point was learning to gain perspective, asking questions like ‘Can I control the situation,’” Hand continued.

She recalled a time in her career when she had the difficult responsibility to disband a team she had been tapped to lead. “It was a tough call. We had finite resources and dollars, and I was paid to make tough choices. Could I have controlled that on the front end? The turning point was getting the organization in the right place.”

While you may not have control over external circumstances, she continued, “One thing you can control is your own mind. You can control yourself and your emotions. You can control your process.” Gaining that perspective can help pave the way toward a smooth and effective outcome.

4. Maintain and Communicate the Clarity of Your Mission

Hand said that one key to gaining the support of a team when having made an unpopular decision ensuring they understand the reasoning behind it. While it may not be pleasant, having that clarity can ensure colleagues understand what they have to do and why they have to do it.

“My mission was to be sure the right people were deployed in the right places. When situations change this can be difficult for people – unless you have clarity there is going to be spinning,” she explained.

5. Don’t View Yourself as a Victim

Particularly for women, maintaining composure is important. Research, like McKinsey and Co.’s 2010 Women Matter report, has shown that women tend to be looked upon more negatively than men for revealing emotion on the job. But Hand said that women should not allow themselves to feel victimized. Measures toward equality exist for a reason, and taking advantage of them can help level the playing field.

“I think women should not feel that because they are women they should do things differently. It’s a mind shift – never feel like you are a victim. “

She continued, “We live in a really good world and have a mechanism of equality and support. I think we should look at the force of equality as an advantage and see it as an opportunity.”

“I’m an easy crier,” began Cheri Beranek, CEO of Clearfield, a NASDAQ-traded broadband company. “I’ve learned that there can be a right time for crying, but it can’t be about business.”

Beranek recalled recently losing a CFO to a heart attack – and when she informed her staff, she shed some tears. But, she said, she also worked hard to maintain poise. As a leader, she explained, it was her responsibility to respect her team’s emotions as well. “It’s about knowing how to support your staff, while also communicating the fragility of life,” she said. “Regardless of the situation, you always have to have empathy with the environment.”

“Remembering that it’s not just about my emotions, but also someone else’s helps me to be more objective,” she continued. “You have to approach people with dignity and approach people with empathy.”

In her 25 years in the telcom industry, Beranek said, she’s learned a lot about leading with empathy. “Gravitas, dignity, and depth of personality is something you are constantly developing.”

Create Balance through Depth

Beranek explained that taking a balanced approach to emotion is how she leads with integrity. She explained, “It’s easy to put people on one end or the other of the spectrum – as either ‘hard as nails,’ or ‘ultra soft.’ It’s difficult to create balance.”

She continued, “The importance of having that dignity and depth creates a rhythm to your life.”

“In order for us professional women to be successful, we need to be respected. And respect is never given – it’s earned. Creating a level of depth will earn you that respect – you’ll be able to get things done.”

“When it comes to the ‘hard as nails’ approach, there’s a difference between commanding and earning respect. And on the ‘soft’ side, you might be liked but not respected. But the depth and poise that come with that gravitas and balance is earned and achieved,” she explained.

Being Human

“When I got the call about Bruce [the CFO], I wanted to walk through the right way to manage the situation. My first concern was to remember the individuals – to communicate to his family first, then to employees, and to communicate it in a way so they could make the choice on how to handle the situation.”

Beranek’s announcement also happened to fall about two hours before the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting – but, she said, she felt it was her responsibility to share the circumstances. “Humans are emotional beings, and to deny the fact that it was affecting us would have been less than human,” she said.

She illustrated her point by sharing another story. The week she was being promoted to CEO, her sister-in-law was close to passing away from breast cancer. The day of the board meeting, she had gotten dressed in the dark, to avoid waking up her husband.

“When I got there, one of the board members leaned over and whispered to me that my shirt was inside out,” she recalled. “I wanted to be tough as nails that day, but sharing my situation made it okay. It could have been a bad situation, but being open about my emotions allowed me to bring everyone in the room with me. “

“It’s about honesty and the integrity that goes with it,” she added.

Women in Technology

“In the tech and telcom world, there’s a high percentage of men,” Beranek said. “You can only be yourself. We don’t have to pretend to be men, or anything other than ourselves. When you look at everybody you work with as an individual, whether you’re a man or a woman won’t matter.”

“That said,” she continued, “You are going to have situations – even in the 21st century – that will be difficult. It does happen. Your choice is to deal with it in a way that you are not a victim. Operate with your eyes open, but having a chip on your shoulder doesn’t do anybody any good.”

“If you choose to be happy, chances are you’ll be happy. If you choose to be successful, chances are you’ll be successful. But if you choose to be unhappy, no one can change that,” she added.