“You need to be able to learn from someone who has the career and work life balance you aspire to,” said Lisa Bebchick, a 33-year old partner in the litigation department at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, explaining why she makes time in her busy schedule to mentor junior associates at her firm. Bebchick, who works in Fried Frank’s New York office, focuses her practice on all aspects of civil and criminal litigation, and has expertise in white collar criminal defense and internal investigations, among other areas. In addition to her billable work, Bebchick also manages to find time for pro bono work, as well as serving on numerous charity boards, taking on leadership initiatives at her firm and recruiting and mentoring the next generation of associates. That’s why Lisa Bebchick is one of the Glass Hammer’s 35 women under 35 to watch, because she is making a difference in the legal world.

The Glass Hammer recently caught up with Bebchick over lunch near her office in the Financial District to learn more about her career choices and her path to partnership at Fried Frank. Here, we share with the Glass Hammer readers some of her advice to aspiring attorneys on how to develop your professional careers, balance work and life, and have fun doing it all.

When asked how she got her start in the law, Bebchick said that she knew relatively early on in life that she wanted to be a lawyer. As an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, Bebchick majored in political science and was fascinated with political communication. She worked on John Kerry’s re-election campaign for the U.S. Senate and in his press office the following year, working for his press secretary. However, she realized that she didn’t want to go into politics herself. She decided to become an attorney because the career seemed like a logical choice for someone with strong writing skills who enjoyed the art of effective communication. “Good communication and strong writing skills are at the heart of being a good litigator,” Bebchick explained. She also was committed to giving back to her community, and saw the legal profession as a great opportunity to do that. After college, she went to law school at Boston University, where she was a member of the Law Review, and graduated magna cum laude in 2001. She began her career as Fried Frank as a summer associate and worked as an associate for eight years before becoming a partner at the firm in the fall of 2009.

Professional Accomplishments

In her nine plus years at Fried Frank, Bebchick has racked up some impressive accomplishments. When asked about the accomplishment she is most proud of, Bebchick points to a case that involved a three month long federal criminal trial in which her client, accused of a white collar crime, faced a ten to twelve year sentence. Although her client was convicted, she successfully advocated for a sentence that did not include any jail time. When the government vigorously appealed the sentence to the Second Circuit and the case was remanded for resentencing, she was able to obtain the same ‘no jail time’ sentence. “I like white collar cases because of the human aspect,” said Bebchick. “When a person’s liberty and livelihood are on the line, it can be very challenging, but also very personally rewarding.”

Bebchick is also a leader in her community and is actively involved in many pursuits outside of the law. She is a member of the Next Generation Philanthropy Board of the Anti-Defamation League, a charitable organization whose mission is to fight all forms of bigotry and intolerance and protect civil rights. She is also a member of the Board of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, an organization that matches community groups and non-profits with pro bono attorneys from law firms and corporate legal departments across New York City. A lifelong tennis player, Bebchick also serves on the benefit committee of the New York Junior Tennis League and has been a vice chair of its annual event sponsored by the Arthur Ashe Foundation to provide free tennis lessons to underprivileged children in New York City. “It is important for young lawyers to be involved in not just bar associations and legal-related charities but also other community organizations,” Bebchick said, “because it allows you to give back more broadly and has the added benefit of providing a refreshing break from your daily work and helping you meet people outside of your profession who could someday become potential clients.”

As a rising star in the white collar criminal defense world and one of Fried Frank’s youngest partners, you would think that Bebchick would have very little time left over for mentoring. However, she explained that she has had some incredible mentors at Fried Frank, and so she makes extra effort to make the time to give back. When seeking out a mentor at work, Bebchick advises female associates not to seek out “gender-specific mentors,” but instead to consider what they can learn from men and women whom they admire. However, that being said, Bebchick stressed the importance of the mentoring relationship she has had with a female senior partner at the firm, as she explained that in the early years of her career, she was amazed by her mentor’s ability to consistently provide outstanding service to her clients while still making time to cook dinner for her family. As a result of this relationship, she has sought out a similar work/life balance (although she is still learning to cook!)

Advice for Lawyers: Find Great Mentors and Take Time for Yourself

Of course, the life of a lawyer at a big law firm can be stressful. She said that the best piece of advice she ever received from her mentor came at a particularly stressful point in her career. “You need to take time for yourself,” Bebchick’s mentor told her. Bebchick said that receiving this advice from a person at the pinnacle of her career really resonated with her, and she came to believe that you cannot do your best work for your clients if you are burning the candle at both ends. So as hard as she works, she tries to take time out to do things that energize her and bring her joy outside of work, like spending time with family, going to Broadway shows, running, and playing tennis. Keeping up with these interests and hobbies helps her stay grounded so she can do her best work for her clients.

Bebchick admits that she found it challenging to maintain a good work/life balance in her twenties, when she focused single-mindedly on building her career and her reputation. “As a single person without a family, I found it challenging to make sure that I took time for myself,” she said. However, she got married in November 2009, to another lawyer who coincidentally went to the same law school as she did, but not at the same time. Now, in addition to all of her professional responsibilities, she makes it a priority to spend time with her husband, as well as with her adorable niece and nephew and her family in Boston.

With the wisdom that comes from experience, Bebchick explained that “you have to pick a few things that are non-starters for you,” and make it clear to the people you work with that you are not willing to give these things up. Whether it’s a child’s soccer game, a yoga class or a book club, you have to pick something that helps you keep your sanity and keeps you grounded, and then make time to do it. While she acknowledges that a busy young career woman probably can’t do all of those things, as much as she would like to, she emphasizes the value of picking the ones that are most important to you and sticking with them. That being said, she notes that young associates also have to make sacrifices and be willing to forgo some things that are less important to them in order to put in the time and energy to advance their careers. However, “figuring out which things are non-negotiable for you” is a good starting point.

When asked for her advice on how to make it to the top, Bebchick had a few key recommendations to share. “You have to rely on other people,” she said. She explained that it is important to develop strong managerial skills and be able to delegate work and supervise people efficiently, in order to be as productive as possible. She also recommends utilizing technology to make your life easier –keeping up to date on all the latest developments in your field by reading blogs and receiving email newsletters to stay on the cutting edge of your practice. As a partner in a law firm, developing relationships with clients is an important part of her job. That’s why she suggests making it a habit each day to reach out to at least one current or potential business connection, by phone, email or in person, in order to maintain and grow your network. “Getting to know your co-workers and business contacts on a personal, social level makes work more rewarding,” Bebchick explained. Finally, she also encourages young professionals to speak up in meetings and not to be afraid to voice their opinions. “Too often,” she said, “young professionals are very task oriented, instead of viewing themselves as members of a team. It is important to add value no matter what you are doing.”

By following this advice, Bebchick has certainly achieved professional and personal success at a young age. Hopefully, her advice will help Glass Hammer readers to get on the fast track to success as well. Her parting advice? “You are the master of your own career, and so while you might occasionally have to work on something you don’t like or that is not exciting to you, take one for the team. Then seek out the work that does interest you and go for it!”

“I haven’t got time for networking”, one senior woman from a major City of London investment bank told me recently.

“All that standing around in rooms full of complete strangers, drinking either bad wine at the end of a long day, or bad coffee and stale croissants at the start of another day – no thanks. It’s so unstructured and unfocused, and such a bad use of my time. I’m sure there probably ARE useful and interesting people at some of these events – but how on earth do you find them in a packed room, and what use might we be to each other?”

Other women told a similar tale, with one commenting that she had now stopped going along to organised “group meet ups”, as she found that she either knew no-one, or would see a familiar face in the crowd and then “cling to that person for the whole evening, thus negating the idea of meeting new people!”

In response to this changing mindset – and independently of each other – two London based women have begun to evolve a more nuanced, “networking 2.0” framework, which delivers the benefits of what we might perhaps call “old school” networking – expanding your contacts, sharing connections and skills – but which also uses technology and social media interfaces.

Alpha Female: on-line networking

“I’d had the idea bubbling away for years”, explains Carol Paterson Smith, rising star at Rothschild Blackpoint, founder of Alpha Female and recently profiled on The Glass Hammer.

“And I wanted to create something for those women whom Suzanne Doyle Morris (author of “Beyond the Boys’ Club”) has dubbed the “Robo Babes”: women who enjoy being women, who don’t want to ape men, who embrace their femininity; women who are very bright, know their stuff and who are very hard working.

“What my friends, colleagues and contacts were telling me was that they wanted a website which could give them more than just a networking hub – somewhere they could turn when they needed to know things like how to negotiate for a better bonus or how to be a great role model.”

She continues: “I also wanted to create something that is beautiful, chic, inspiring and which celebrates the rewards of working hard. We showcase great places to shop and to visit, and we promote suppliers who appreciate that alpha women work the hours that they do and need their services. It’s important to tell the market that we are here and that we need looking after.”

Paterson Smith is also clear that Alpha Female can appeal to different generations of women, observing that: “For younger women, it’s a one stop shop for finding role models and building your network; for more established women, it’s about connecting them to their peers.”

Twenty-first century women

Her model of targeted networking appears to be a hit – in only a few short weeks since the site’s launch, over 500 women have signed up and Paterson Smith is full of ideas for ways to get the word out and attract more suppliers and female participants.

“Twenty-first century feminism is about fun, success and connecting with like minded women. My goals for Alpha Female are huge, and global too. I’d love to create regional specific site hubs, such as pages on NYC and Paris, and add a philanthropic component by supporting specific charities such as Hera (which helps formerly trafficked women become entrepreneurs). I have plans to add in lots more content, and business focused educational material too. And I can see a time in the not too distant future where an Alpha Female member could, for example, move to Hong Kong from New York and arrive there with a readymade network of contacts with whom she’s previously connected through the site.

“Finally, I also want to work with head-hunters to encourage them to support and advance female candidates and to challenge their thought processes around recruitment and advancement.”

Innovative networking for your career

Staying with the career theme, across town, successful serial entrepreneur Christina Ioannidis is turning her hand to connecting diversity, skills and networking via the use of an innovative suite of social networking tools.

Ioannidis is an organisational and individual development consultant, with a background in telecoms, IT and FMCG who turned entrepreneur. She runs both Aquitude, a consultancy which works with corporate clients to assist them in harnessing diversity and innovation for competitive advantage and Bidiversity, a not-for-profit which aims to fertilise innovative thinking between different business sectors.

Most recently, she has moved into career development for women, by creating Club Purl, an invitation only networking group for women of differing levels of seniority and industries from around the world who can connect via LinkedIn, personal development webinars, privately hosted networking dinners and structured, one-of-a-kind, virtual “speed networking” calls.

Ioannidis, London based and of Greek and Venezuelan heritage, is a committed and passionate networker, dubbing herself the “mistress of reinvention”, following her double corporate redundancy and the failure of her original bespoke accessories business. She is clear that she has learned the hard way that you need to move on in order to create credibility and reinvention – and that networking with your female peers can be one way of progressing.

Branding

“Very often, women consider themselves to be victims in a very difficult business culture – but there are things you can do to get yourself out there and build your own brand. I created Club Purl because women are good at supporting each other but lack the opportunity to do so in a structured way”, she explains.

“Yes, you can go to a networking event and have breakfast, lunch or drinks with a like minded woman – if you happen to find her. But suppose you can’t find her, let alone a number of other women? What I wanted to craft was a framework and a format which would help women to take control of their own careers by using a combination of networking and peer mentoring, in order to extend their circle of influence both in the UK and globally.

“I think of it as insurance; nobody’s really looked at the fact that we pay car, household, health and travel insurance but we’ve never yet had insurance for your career.”

Thus, Ioannidis positions the annual subscription for membership of Club Purl as professional insurance (“for the price of a latte”) – a policy which will help you in the event of business failure or redundancy. It provides a network, a framework and a support system for now or serves as career development for the future.

Participating in this type of structured networking, and using the type of social networking tools with which many of us are already familiar can, Ioannidis believes, help women move towards control and ownership of their own career paths.

Using a process which she’s called Power Minds, Ioannidis has already connected women across the world in locations which include London, Dubai, Australia, and Singapore. She now plans to collaborate and bring the Club Purl/Power Minds concept to NYC. Her innovative suite of structured networking activities includes offering Power Minds conference calls, which enable women to network across geographical boundaries and industries. At present, these consist of around 6-8 women on each call, and are time boxed, with facilitated questions and a wrap up session.

An ardent user of Twitter, Ioannidis also offers Club Purl members access to webinars, which are based around personal branding and what she refers to as “individual DNA – how to use social media, how you’re branded, how you appear on-line and how you can promote yourself, via various channels, messages and achievements.”

The future of networking?

So what will networking look like in the next decade of this brave new world?

Christina believes that the world is getting smaller; “I see a spider’s web of networks across the globe, women connecting with each other and helping each other out. Networking is now no longer limited to physical events but is taking place virtually – and I see a future involving video networking to support that face to face need.”

A few months ago Deloitte’s Ann Weisberg shared an anecdote with The Glass Hammer that struck a chord with many of us. She relayed the story of a Deloitte senior male partner who spoke on a panel about the issue of gender diversity. He asked the audience, “Would you want your daughters working here? If the answer is no, then you should own part of the solution.” It got us wondering: Could the simple question “Would you want your daughters working here?” change the way companies treat gender diversity?

A Powerful Question

Barbara Adachi is the National Managing Principal for Deloitte’s award-winning Women’s Initiative and yet another believer in the power of the question, “Would you want your daughters working here?” Not only does she believe that considering the question would help senior men see the work environment and culture from a very different and personal perspective, but she’s seen the power of the question at work.

“When we launched the Women’s Initiative in 1993, our CEO Mike Cook had two daughters who were entering the workforce. He personally recognized the importance of women having equal opportunities to advance and he applied this to our culture,” Adachi said. “In a Harvard Business Review article about the Women’s Initiative, [Deloitte Consulting CEO] Doug McCracken cited that the light bulb went on for a male partner when asked, ‘Your daughter is graduating from college. Would you want her to work for a company that has lower expectations for women?’ Suddenly, he got it.”

If a company sincerely wants to improve their efforts when it comes to gender diversity, Adachi recommends treating the women’s initiative as a business imperative, with the foundation being grounded in the business case for gender diversity. “One of our key lessons learned is that our Women’s Initiative is embedded in our culture and in the way that we do business- it is not viewed as an HR initiative or program. It impacts how careers are built, how we develop talent, build communities, and hold ourselves accountable for results.”

This is something that’s been echoed by Camille Alexander, Chartered Financial Analyst and Institutional Consulting Director for Graystone Consulting and one of the White House Project’s Young Women Leaders, who believes that empowering women impacts the entire community.

When Alexander took her CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam certification in the early 1990’s with 80 others, she was one of just a few women and when she moved into her first role as a portfolio manager in the mutual fund industry, she was the sole woman in a group of more than 40 working on the Equity Team.

Despite always being aware of the gender imbalance, Alexander never felt that her gender held her back from succeeding. As a matter of fact, she gives ample credit to “male colleagues of a generation more open to working alongside women as peers, encouraging them, and supporting them” for opening doors to many opportunities in her career.

Obviously, the question of “Would you want your daughters working here?” can be a powerful motivator for more senior men with families and the power to sway how the company conducts its business, but what about younger men just entering the workforce. How can they be part of the solution?

Adachi contends that young men today are facing similar challenges as women and the need for workplace flexibility has crossed the gender borders. “A recent study by the Families & Work Institute indicated that men are struggling more than women with balancing work and life,” Adachi said. “This is why it’s so important for companies to create cultures where people can dial down to meet their personal and family needs, enabling them to pull their weight at home while having a successful career.”

Measuring Your True Culture

For Bob Horst, the founding partner and director of recruiting at Nelson Levine deLuca & Horst, LLC, the answer is a resounding yes. Sixteen years ago the 43-year-old father of three had his first child, a daughter, and though his wife had made him aware of the necessity of equal opportunity, it wasn’t until his daughter was born that it really sunk in.

“I currently have a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old daughter and since they were born, I have become particularly attuned to the dire need for equal opportunity between the genders,” Horst said. “There’s no need to change the playing field, so long as it’s level. Before my children were born, this was not part of my conscious thinking.”

Horst doesn’t want to see his daughters or his seven-year-old son given opportunities simply because of their gender; rather, he’d like to see them thrive in a challenging business environment where their gender is simply a non-issue. Some might argue that this is wishful thinking, but it’s Horst’s belief that the simple act of having a child changes a person’s perspective, even as it pertains to business. Horst wanted to see his children afforded every opportunity possible and as a result, he changed the way he approached people and he has used the question, “Would I want my daughters working here?” as a litmus test for his firm for the past ten years.

In the right hands, this question can be powerful and even life changing for those working at a company with a leader brave enough to ask whether their business practices would be good enough for their daughters. Horst even believes that such a question could be the ultimate telltale sign as to whether or not employees are happy with their place of employment.

“There are multiple benchmarks available to professional service firms that measure performance, profitability, etc.,” Horst said. “If a question were added to an employee survey intended to measure whether or not an employee believes that their child would thrive there, it would provide another very meaningful way to measure employee satisfaction and the true culture within that firm.”

“When I first started, I may have been too competitive,” said Christine Hurtsellers, CIO of Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments for ING Investment Management. She explained, “I had to be the smartest, best, hardest working person… Since then, I’ve learned a lot about working as part of a team. Growing up and evolving is the key to my personal success – as well as great people who’ve helped me out.”

Hurtsellers, a marathon runner and mother of five boys, was one of the individuals charged with turning around ING Investment Management’s fixed income business 2 years ago. “I’m a pretty driven person,” she said.

Looking forward, she said, “Time flies. In ten years, I see myself continuing to push ahead with many possibilities open to me: running a company as CEO… or stepping back and working in a freelance capacity or on boards… or doing advocacy work for charities.”

“Basically, in charge of the world or giving back to humanity!” she said with a laugh.

Facing Down Challenges in Investment Management

After attending Indiana University, Hurtsellers said, “I started my career in banking – in credit lending. Luckily, I happened into the investment management side of the company.”

A few years later, she said, “I decided to take a risk in my career and move to the East Coast.”

Following an attempt at entrepreneurship, Hurtsellers ended up at Alliance Capital in New York, then working for GSE Freddie Mac and managing $600 billion in assets. “And now I’ve been at ING Investment Management for a six years,” she said. “As of December ‘09 I moved from running the US Fixed Income to overseeing our global fixed income boutiques.

Hurtsellers says she’s most proud of her work following the financial crisis. She explained, “I took over as CIO just under 2 years ago – we had a challenged business. Morale was low, and high profile people had left. It felt like a lot of people wondered … ‘could we carry on?’”

She continued, “I was able to pull the team together, and we turned fixed income investment performance around – and now we’re rated in the top quartile of our peer group. Former clients are hiring us again and our assets under management are growing. We have great momentum. It’s incredibly gratifying to pull through a tough spot and see everyone coming together as a team.”

Currently, Hurtsellers says she’s excited to continue, “creating the value proposition for ING, pulling divisions together, pulling the team together, and competing effectively with other asset managers.”

She continued, “Jan Straatman, our global CIO, is a fantastic boss – he has great vision. And he’s working to build an incredibly successful global asset management firm.”

Regarding issues facing the industry, she said, “We’re at a pivotal inflection point for investment management, regarding underinvestment of pension funds, sovereign debt issues, changing client investment behavior.”

“Right now we’re having quite a bit of fun,” she added, with a bit of irony.

On a larger scale, Hurtsellers says she’s carefully examining new financial regulations and policy – as well as possible unintended consequences.

Advice for Women in Investment Management

One of the challenges women face in the investment management industry, Hurtsellers said, was the impact of globalization. She explained, “The Blackberry never goes off – first Europe picks up… then Asia picks up… It’s a 24-hour job with lots of travel – it adds to life strain.”

Hurtsellers explained that she feels we need to change the way we think about the glass ceiling – it’s about culture change as much as it is about individuals getting to the top, she said.

She explained, “We have to think a lot about how to get the right balance to attract women. When you think about women with children and then men with stay-at-home wives… the women often think, ‘how can I compete and stick with this?’.”

“It’s about creating a culture where women don’t feel they have to work 60 hour weeks. To make breakthroughs, we have to value different perspectives, cultures, and talents. We’re still not addressing the sacrifices [many women make].”

Regarding work/life balance, Hurtsellers said, “I think I’m very unique in the industry. I have five boys – and I’ve managed to stay married to the same guy for 20 years. What you have to do is modify your behavior through your life. You need to be cognizant of when to push the gas pedal in your life and when not to. Within that context, it’s not easy, but you can have work/life balance.”

Hurtsellers says one of the ways she manages her work/life commitments is to set boundaries for herself. “I try to get home at a set hour and I promise myself not to touch the Blackberry when the kids are there (unless there’s something like a financial crisis!).”

“We all need great support – whether from parents, relatives, husbands, nannies – people who can provide a sense of continuity for your kids. You can find it,” she continued.

Hurtsellers advises young women entering the industry to “work really hard. Be a sponge, and learn, learn, learn. Get to be a great networker while you can. And get yourself exposure – ask questions of senior people. Get exposure to people who have more experience than you.”

For women who are approaching leadership positions, she said, “Be confident in yourself. Take some risks and don’t feel you need to have all the answers or be a subject matter expert to take on new responsibilities.”

She continued, “Women tend to be more apologetic about making mistakes than men. We need to learn to shrug our shoulders and move on.”

She said, “In terms of work, [my advice is] not to worry so much – create conscious mental boundaries and compartmentalize. For instance, doing yoga and meditation has helped me through some tough times.”

Mentors and Inspiration

Hurtsellers explained that she’s had several mentors over the course of her career. “Rob Kapito, Vice Chair of Blackrock, pushed and encouraged me to move to the East Coast – to take a risk with my career, and that made all the difference.”

“And within ING, Kathy Murphy – now a senior person at Fidelity – is an amazing person. She’s grounded, approachable, and wise. At ING, we have a pretty serious mentoring program for women and minorities,” she explained. Additionally, Hurtsellers serves on the company’s management council of its top 50 women globally.

Personally, she said, “Of course I’m proud of my five boys. And I’m running the New York Marathon in November. Every time I’m out running in the 88 degree heat here in Atlanta, I ask myself ‘why?’.”

She continued, “Triathlons and marathons are great for me. Women are so stretched – but I can’t praise enough how exercise helps me and gives me so much energy. I really recommend trying to find the time.”

Finally, Hursellers said, she serves on the advisory board of a pilot program at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. She said, “It’s a collegiate recovery group that rehabilitates young people. It mirrors Alcoholics Anonymous. The program tries to get kids successfully through college. Getting an education makes all the difference,” she said.

Christine Hurtsellers is a panelist at The Glass Hammer’s upcoming event Women on the Buy-Side – 2011: A Look at the Landscape Ahead. For more information, contact melissa@theglasshammer.com.

The web provides so many ways to bring women together, and help them get to the next step in their careers. And The Glass Hammer is always looking for ways to collaborate with and support other publications that have a mission similar to our own – to inform, empower, and inspire professional women to break glass ceilings every day.

But with the vast wealth of information on the internet – including websites, social networks, newsletters, and more – one new media segment is often overlooked: web radio.

Recently, our founder and CEO Nicki Gilmour had the opportunity to contribute to Head Over Heels Women’s Business Radio with Bonnie Marcus. Marcus, in turn, agreed to tell us why she thinks web radio is the next big thing.

Marcus explained, “The show started as an extension to my coaching practice. Two years ago, I was having lunch with one of my mentors, who said, ‘You have a unique message, how do you want to go on coaching? One-on-one, or do you want to have a more global influence?’”

She continued, “It really hit me – the radio show opportunity came along so I grabbed it – it’s an opportunity to reach a more global audience.”

“I first launched the site September 22, 2009 under the name Women Mean Business. In January, I changed it to Head over Heels Women’s Business Radio.”

Reaching a Critical Mass

Marcus explained that she wanted to explore how women can thrive in business, covering topics such as negotiation, body language, mentoring, collaboration, accessing venture capital, social medial, work/life balance, etc.

She said, “I thought that radio was a really good way to reach that critical mass.” In fact, she said, according to Arbitron/Edison research, 69 million Americans listened to online radio in May. “Online radio is really number one for me… I think it can be pretty powerful.”

Marcus says she supplements her radio presence with her website and her blog. Her show, which airs Tuesday mornings, features valuable research and advice from well-known subject matter experts.

She continued, “We talk about the topics I think are really important that women need to cope with or overcome to be successful – and I’m always looking for feedback from listeners.”

Advice for Women

Marcus, who speaks with experts regularly – and is an expert coach herself – had a few pieces of advice for professional women.

She began, “I’m a little biased because my niche is self promotion for professional women, because I really think it’s so important. When facing subtle and not-so-subtle gender bias that does exist, it’s one way women create credibility and visibility for themselves and their business.”

She continued, “Women have to stay connected to their values and have to communicate. There are so many things women do that keep them in the background – like working long hours, keeping their head down, not getting out there and schmoozing. Self promotion and networking is important, and quite frankly, men do it better than we do.”

Finally, she said, “I’m always amazed at the wealth of information and the generosity of women on the show in sharing their expertise. In fact, I’m learning every day. It’s really one of the benefits of doing the show.”

To listen to Head Over Heels Women’s Business Radio, tune in Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern/ 11am Pacific, or you can download a podcast, and listen whenever you’re ready.

This article originally appeared on our new site Evolved Employer, a website dedicated to good corporate citizenship, diversity, and employee engagement best practices.

Last month’s issue of Wired Magazine featured an article by Jonah Lehrer detailing the effects of certain kinds of workplace stress on the immune system. “Under Pressure” discussed the work of Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a professor of Biology and Neurology at Stanford University, as well as summarized several other studies from around the world – revealing an important link between stress, power, and wellbeing.

Add that to a new report by Gallup showing how wellbeing affects employee engagement (especially in this current economic environment), and the issue of stress becomes even more pertinent for employers. According to Sapolsky (and Lehrer), stress negatively impacts your immune system, making you more at risk of both the sniffles and long term chronic illnesses.

But it’s not just any stress. Sapolsky is specifically talking about the kind of stress that comes from feeling powerless in one’s job or social position. And with layoffs, paycuts, and unemployment we’re all facing right now, many employees are beginning to feel the push.

Stress and Power

According to Sapolsky, stress can cause a “staggeringly diverse” range of ailments:

“…from the common cold and lower-back pain to Alzheimer’s disease, major depressive disorder, and heart attack. Stress hollows out our bones and atrophies our muscles. It triggers adult-onset diabetes and is a leading cause of male impotence. In fact, numerous studies of human longevity in developed countries have found that psychosocial factors such as stress are the single most important variable in determining the length of a life. It’s not that genes and risk factors like smoking don’t matter. It’s that our levels of stress matter more.”

Frightened yet? And, Sapolsky says, stress makes medical care less effective as well. Lehrer writes, “Antibiotics, for instance, are far less effective when our immune system is suppressed by stress; that fancy heart surgery will work only if the patient can learn to shed stress.” But it’s a specific kind of stress that causes us to get (and stay) so sick.

According to Sapolsky, and a number of other studies cited within the article, the stress of feeling powerless or downtrodden with one’s situation is the most dangerous to one’s health. For example, Lehrer cites a 25 year longitudinal study by Michael Marmot, a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London of civil servants in the strictly hierarchical British bureaucracy. He writes:

“After tracking thousands of civil servants for decades, Marmot was able to demonstrate that between the ages of 40 and 64, workers at the bottom of the hierarchy had a mortality rate four times higher than that of people at the top. Even after accounting for genetic risks and behaviors like smoking and binge drinking, civil servants at the bottom of the pecking order still had nearly double the mortality rate of those at the top.”

While individuals at the top of the ladder may feel a lot of stress in their jobs, they also have a lot of power over what they do. Individuals on the lower rungs may be equally stressed – but they don’t have much power at all. In fact, “getting promoted from the lowest level in the British civil service reduced the probability of heart disease by up to 13 percentage points. Climbing the social ladder makes us live longer.”

Lehrer says this corresponds with the rate of heart disease in female office workers. When women first entered the workforce, it was expected that workplace stress would cause the rate of heart disease in women to increase significantly. But it didn’t. In fact, he writes:

“Working women didn’t have more heart attacks. There were, however, two glaring statistical exceptions to the rule: Women developed significantly more heart disease if they performed menial clerical work or when they had an unsupportive boss. The work, in other words, wasn’t the problem. It was the subordination.”

Stress-induced sickness is, in large part, due to control or the lack thereof. According to the article:

“Researchers call it the “demand-control” model of stress, in which the damage caused by chronic stress depends not just on the demands of the job but on the extent to which we can control our response to those demands.”

Lehrer continues, “While a relentlessly intense job like a senior executive position leads to a slightly increased risk of heart disease and death, a job with no control is significantly more dangerous.”

Empowering, Engaging, and Improving Wellness

Is the demand-control model of workplace stress making employees more sick than ever? It’s an important question – and not just because of rising health care costs and an increasingly sharp laser-focus on productivity. Healthy, empowered employees are the ones who will stick with your company through tough times – and as the demand for high-performing employees increases, employee engagement is more and more critical.

According to an August Gallup Management Journal article, engagement and wellbeing go hand in hand. In “Engagement, Wellbeing, and the Downturn,” Jennifer Robison summarized the results of a March 2009 survey of engagement and wellbeing of US workers.

“Workers’ perception of their wellbeing also differed depending on their engagement level. In terms of their wellbeing, among engaged workers, 60% were thriving, 37% were struggling, and only 3% were suffering. Among workers who were not engaged, 47% were thriving and 48% were struggling, while 5% were suffering. Actively disengaged workers, on the other hand, showed much higher percentages of suffering and struggling wellbeing levels: only 28% were thriving, while 60% were struggling and 12% were suffering.”

How can employers engage their employees in this economy, and thereby improve wellbeing? Robison writes:

“There are many ways managers and executives can help employees manage their stress: frequent, honest, and informative communication; involving the workforce in understanding new strategies and explaining how they’re essential to the new plans; an emphasis on recognition for good work; and a focus on hope. ‘Everything we’ve seen suggests that trust, compassion, stability, and hope are what people need from leaders in times of trouble,’ says Jim Harter, Ph.D., Gallup’s chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing and coauthor of 12: The Elements of Great Managing.”

It seems simple: make your employees feel valuable. Communicate what the company is doing and why they are an important part. In other words, make them feel empowered. It will go a long way in keeping them in the fold, and might even help them stay healthy and live longer.

“Advise and evangelize, that’s what interests me,” said Niamh Bushnell, North American Senior Vice President at MoneyMate, a provider of investment data management solutions to global asset managers. Bushnell, who’s worked throughout Europe and now in the US and was recently named one of the 50 Most Influential Irish-American Women in 2010 by the Irish Voice, has made a career of helping technology companies strategically position themselves and their products.

She continued, “I meet a lot of executives – I’m very often impressed by their focus, ambition, and understanding of their industry.”

But, she said, everyday things inspire her just as much as her work. “I’m inspired by unexpected good humor – a bright smile from the server at the deli or the newspaper guy I bump into – the people watching the morning chaos who have the time and the interest to connect with you.”

“When I have that experience I feel it’s a lucky day.”

Choosing a Career in Technology

“I was brought up in Ireland and came to the states when I was 28. I did my degree at the University of Limerick, a tech and engineering focused school,” said Bushnell.

She continued, “When I graduated, many multinational American technology companies, like Microsoft and Intel were investing in Ireland. So when I finished, I thought why not take advantage of these large companies at my doorstep?”

“These companies were selling into Europe and were looking for marketing and sales people with languages. I had studied in France and Italy while in college so was a good fit. I found myself at a Silicon Valley based company called Frame Technology, in their European sales and marketing HQ in Dublin.”

Bushnell stayed at the company for two years, learning, she said, “how important it is for a software company to get its strategic positioning right.”

Then, Bushnell said, she caught the travel bug. She continued, “Still in my early 20s, I wanted to get on the road again. I went to Barcelona, knocked on a few friends doors, and spent 12 months teaching English freelance to executives and lawyers. I loved the challenge of trying to help very smart and accomplished people understand things that have no logic – like phrasal verbs.”

After about twelve months, she got a call from her father. “He said the Irish economy had finally woken up and companies were starting to recruit. And he was right. Two or three weeks later, I was back in Dublin and had joined another American multinational, called World Merchandise Exchange, based in Connecticut. The company offered a business to business intranet solution for large retail purchasing. It was a very efficient way to purchase wholesale but was also maybe a few years before its time. The technology was leading edge, so it was a great learning experience for everyone there. ”

Two years and a lot of airmiles later, Bushnell prepared for another new start.

She recalled, “My father was the managing director of an Irish company and was always frustrated at how difficult it was to find good market research companies in Ireland, particularly for mystery shopping. He suggested to myself and my brother that we set up a company to fill the gap. So I co-founded PAN. I stayed in the company for 6 months and helped bring in the first key deal. The company is still going strong today”

She continued, “But I had wanderlust again.”

Irish Companies in America

“I saw an ad in the Irish Times for the Irish Trade Board (now Enterprise Ireland) looking for experienced executives to fill roles at a number of international offices. I saw the words “New York,” put my finger on them and said, ‘I’m going to get that job.’”

She joked, “My friends used to call me the 200% European, and there I was, all of a sudden, moving to the US. I worked as VP of Software for Enterprise Ireland for six years – which I loved.”

She explained, “I worked with young Irish companies that wanted to build their US business. Ireland and the US are culturally very close and, given the size of the Irish market, the US is the obvious first step for a company looking for growth, whether they’re selling technology into entertainment, healthcare, financial services, or ebusiness markets.

“This was my first experience working in the US,” said Bushnell. “I had never heard the term ‘elevator pitch’ before but I loved the idea of it and the philosophy behind it”

“I helped guide companies on how to sell, hire, market and position themselves – basic Marketing 101 stuff, the same stuff that’s still important today.”

She continued, “I worked at Enterprise Ireland during the peak of the Celtic tiger. It was boom-time for everybody and everybody had an idea. I left Enterprise Ireland when my contract in the States was up – I had to either go back to Ireland or leave the organization so I jumped ship to stay stateside.”

She explained, “I loved New York, and and had just gotten married to an American. At that stage, I thought of setting up my own company, but wasn’t quite ready. I went to work for Orbiscom, a young and dynamic Irish company in the payments business (recently bought by Mastercard Worldwide). I managed our clients, which included Citibank, MBNA (now Bank of America) and latterly Paypal. I learned a lot about online payments, online banking, and the value of online real estate.”

Striking Out on Her Own

Then, she said, “Two and a half years later I started my own company, Bushnell Solutions, in March of ‘06. The idea was to get out on my own and consult with young technology companies trying to enter the US market. I had 15 years experience in the technology world, and had built up a good network of contacts with Irish companies so that’s where I started.”

She continued, “It’s the professional achievement I’m most proud of so far – creating and marketing my own product. I loved the challenge to flex my muscles, deliver to my client’s expectations and learn new things every day. I typically worked on a couple of different projects at a time – business development, market feasibility, market entry strategy for young, ambitious companies. I also ran some group client projects for Enterprise Ireland and published a number of industry reports for them in areas like Information Security and Payments. It was during this time that I was engaged by MoneyMate to research their opportunity in the US market. ”

“They were anxious to get a better understanding of how asset managers market their funds and what the competitive and regulatory trends were in the market Bushnell explained.

“A few months into the engagement we discussed me taking on a more full time role and I found the offer compelling. There were some big and exciting changes taking place in fund data management so I decided to dive in and help them to capitalize on them.”

Nourishing Networks

Bushnell is, at heart, a networker. She explained, “I’m good at building networks. I connect with people easily but the difficulty is nourishing those connections – keeping in touch with them even when our business paths stop crossing.”

She continued, “Networks are not just important for your bottom line – they constantly enrich your personal and professional life with other perspectives and ways to accomplish your goals,”

She said, “I moved from network to network when I was younger and lost a lot of people along the way. I’ve been rebuilding these contacts for the last few years and it’s been great to get back in touch.”

Looking forward, she said, “I know life goes faster the older you get. I don’t like to plan too far ahead – I like to keep an open mind and a few questions going. The world is a wide open place. I like to travel, but I have a young son now so, I’m traveling less.

She continued, “In terms of work, I see myself probably working for myself again or with a small group [in the next five or ten years]. I’d like to be with a young company again, bringing technology to life.”

Or she said, “Maybe working for a non-profit or a for profit philantropic company. I really like the 360 degrees of companies giving back, being socially aware and their bottom line benefit ting as a result.

Currently though, Bushnell said, “I’m particularly interested in fulfilling my asset management clients’ goals around managing their data in the streamlined, competitive and defensible fashion.”

“Apart from that I’m curious to watch how asset management companies are figuring out social networking and social media.”

She continued, “It’s not necessarily a game changer, but it offers a lot of opportunities and challenges. It can open doors wider even within an investment management firm.”

Bushnell has just joined the the strategic advisory board of Rising Tide Capital, a Jersey City based non profit focused on “helping entrepreneurs from minority backgrounds build successful businesses.”

“These entrepreneurs have an idea and RTC gives them the support and business training they need to bring it to fruition.”

She continued, “It’s fantastic to see the determination of people to build something and work for themselves, become independent.

Women in Technology

Bushnell said that when she was starting out in Ireland, I had a lot of female senior managers. She said, “I took it for granted at first, but realized as I moved around corporations that my early experience was the exception rather than the norm”

she said, “I still don’t see a lot of women in technical roles. I don’t know why that is. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and I don’t think I’ve met one female CTO yet. It’s something I would love to see.”

But there are increasing numbers of women on the business side, she said. “I haven’t had any challenges as a woman in the industry. If you’re a good communicator, you like people, understand their motivations, and can think creatively you’re going to deliver results. And that’s what people care about.”

“I had my son in May ‘09. I worked up to the day I went in to have the baby. I brought my laptop with me in fact. It didn’t make sense to my husband at the time, but it made sense to me,” she joked.

“[Work/life balance] is always a challenge.” She explained, “I have a home office that’s pretty much soundproofed. And I work there any time I can. It’s a very focused environment. The great thing is that at the end of the day’s work I can walk from the office right into the playroom.”

Now that she has a child, Bushnell says, her life is consumed by work and family. “Unfortunately friends and hobbies take a backseat. I think back to before I had kids, about how often we [friends] saw each other, and wonder, ‘what did we talk about all the time?’. Now if I see them once a month it’s good..”

Advice for Women

“It’s very important for young women in business not to lose their ability to think independently and follow their gut feeling. Listening is very important, of course but then you need to think about what you’ve heard and form your own opinion about it, that’s equally critical to success.

She continued, “the higher you go in an organization the more important listening and independent judgment calls become.

The best advice she’s ever received, she said, is “think properly, but not too much – a friend said that very casually to me, one day while waiting for the subway.

She explained, “It suits me so perfectly. Think properly because it’s essential to making healthy decisions – but not too much, never brood! That advice will always be in my little box of treasures.”

Have you dreamed of going back to school? Hours in the library, long conversations with intelligent professors and nothing to worry about except the deadline for that next assignment. Studying as an adult isn’t much like that, unfortunately. However, if you are unemployed with time on your hands, or want some extra skills to boost your resume, this could be the ideal time to dust off your books and get back in the classroom.

What’s your existing skill set?

“Everyone who wants to excel in business needs to understand finance and accounting,” says Dr. Linda D. Henman, President of the Henman Performance Group. “If you’ve studied HR but don’t seem to be getting anywhere, now would be a good time to pick up those classes. If you’re a finance professional, advanced training and a masters can only help.”

There has never been a better time to study finance and economics, as Jennifer Small, a graduate of Stetson University in Central Florida, found out when she studied for her executive MBA. “The classroom curriculum was naturally adjusted to reflect the challenges of this period, in addressing the tactical, economic, and ethical aspects of the economic meltdown,” she says. “I feel these valuable discussions and explorations have given me the tools to anticipate future economic calamities. I feel I’ve been provided with the means of identifying challenges and problematic trends before they transpire through the thorough examination of examples of past mistakes that led up to this recession. I strongly believe this has made me more forward-thinking in comprehending the importance and relevance of developing contingency plans to survive the economy’s many ebbs and flows.”

Small feels that studying in the context of the recession has given her new skills and a broader focus. “One of my very first classes was Economics, where recent headlines were not only explained, but heavily delved into with the professor leading lengthy discussions carried out by classmates from all areas of U.S. industry. The concept of ‘too big to fail’ was examined and scrutinised, in regards to government bailouts of certain banks and institutions. These tough economic times have shown the spotlight on business areas such as executive compensation, financial risk factors, and conflicts of interest.”

Learning new skills also has the benefit of making you more valuable to employers. “As a professor of a number of MBA schools, further education makes many professionals more viable,” says Dr. Ted Sun, Professor of Organisational Leadership at SMC University, Switzerland. “When there’s a layoff, the least valued employees are let go. If you’re in school and bringing new knowledge and skills, you’re the last to get let go. Even in this recession, I’ve had students who get promotions based on what they’re capable of doing, well before the finished the degree. Especially for females, the glass ceiling is still present. Further education is a must to compete.”

Can you support yourself?

Two (or more) years of tuition fees and lost earnings is a daunting prospect for many women. Even if you study part-time, there’s a chance that your job might not be there for you when you want to return to full-time work. Knowing you have some degree of financial security to cope with a period of education and the resulting job search will ensure you only worry about exam results and not how to pay your mortgage.

“Do you have the ability to support yourself for two years while in school and pay off the debts of student loans?” asks Blythe McGarvie, CEO of consultancy firm LIF Group, and an MBA from Kellogg. “If not, then be realistic about your education. There are scholarships available or even some companies that pay for schooling. First get into the best school, then ask the development office about financial support.”

However, on the subject of money, education can be a sound investment. “Especially during uncertain economic times, investing in an advanced professional degree program, such as an MBA, is the one positive move you can make to take control of your future,” says Beth Walker, Associate Dean for the MBA programme at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. “Though the economic downturn makes the decision to return to school seem more difficult, earning an MBA right now will provide a launching pad for new career opportunities when the economy rebounds. Women who earn an MBA degree with a focus in finance will be especially sought after in the marketplace. Look for a reputable program, such as the W. P. Carey MBA and others ranked highly by U.S. News & World Report.”

What will you get out of education?

An education is no guarantee of a job according to research by online outplacement service MyWorkSearch. With 47 per cent of jobseekers qualified to graduate or post-graduate level, getting a degree might not open all the doors you had hoped.

“Getting a sociology degree will not help you in the job market,” says McGarvie, who was previously CFO for a Fortune 500 company. “Why do you want to go back to school? If it is to learn new ways of thinking or skills to be more valuable in the job market, have a rough idea what you want to do after graduating. Getting a MBA or analytic training could help. Lifelong learning is the secret to success in any chosen career. However, in today’s difficult job market, many people who have skills that can not be outsourced are getting jobs.”

An executive MBA can be a very useful thing if you want to join the hordes leaving their countries to take up expat roles elsewhere. A good school can offer you a door to an international network of business colleagues – an bonus that could be worth more to you than the letters after your name, if you want the opportunity to work abroad or in a globally influential role.

Going back to school has to be an individual decision, but if you can afford it and are clear about your overall goals, it could be an excellent move. Now, where’s my library card?

Dubbed the ‘opt out revolution’ by the New York Times, the phrase refers to the mass exodus of highly educated professional women from the workforce when they become mothers. These women presumably made a conscious choice to forgo earnings for the luxury of raising their children themselves. Is the opt-out revolution a proven phenomenon, or is it just media hype?

Women Are Not Abandoning the Workplace: The Facts

According to 2007 Census Bureau data, only about 26 percent of mothers with a college degree stay home, while more than 40 percent of mothers lacking high school diplomas are at home. College-educated women are more successful in combining work and family than other groups in part because they tend to have the resources to pay for child care and other help.

Research has shown that thehappiest couples are upper-middle-class, two-career couples. They report three times the marital contentment of the next happiest group — working- and middle-class families who favor a traditional division of labor and have only one breadwinner.

Better educated women are more likely to be in the labor force than less educated women. Raising children while building a serious career is hard for women, and when presented with the choice, many women opt for the latter. Half of Germany’s female scientists, for example, reportedly do not have children.

In 2001, economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett studied high-achieving women, defined as being both high-earners and “super-credentialed” — with graduate degrees, for example — and found that the more women earned, the more likely they were to be single and without children.

‘Opt Out’ or ‘Pushed Out’?

Many women who remain employed nonetheless step off the fast track, working part time, as independent contractors, or full time on the so-called “mommy track.”

In a 2004 study of highly qualified women, 86 percent said work-related reasons, including workplace inflexibility, were key considerations in their decisions to quit. In a 2006, the Economist claimed that “women remain the world’s most under-utilized resource.” “To make full use of their national pools of female talent,” the article stated, “governments need to remove obstacles that make it hard for women to combine work with having children,” such as “parental leave and child care, allowing more flexible working hours, and reforming tax and social-security systems that create disincentives for women to work.”

Most mothers do not opt out; they are pushed out by workplace inflexibility, the lack of family support, and workplace bias against mothers. Dr. June Robinson, a Professor at Northwestern University Medical School, observes that “it is really unfortunate that this country has not found a way to provide childcare. In Scandinavia, for example, it is taken care of. No one is made to feel guilty for leaving their child in professional childcare services. They don’t have to scramble around to find a… nanny to care for their children.”

Women’s Economic Jeopardy

A 2005 study published in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review found that women experienced a significant negative effect on wages even 20 years after a career interruption. The Center for Work-Life Policy found that women lose an average of 18 percent of their earning power when they temporarily leave the work force. Women in business sectors lose 28 percent.

The American economy has lots of good, long-hours jobs, but part time jobs tend to be hard to find, dead end, and low paid. “I felt like I threw away my career with the placenta,” said one anonymous lawyer, who returned to work part time after giving birth. The economic penalty associated with part-time work is much harsher in the United States than in Europe. Women who work part time in teh US earn 21 percent less per hour than full timers, a penalty seven times higher than in Sweden and more than twice as high as in the UK. On average, according to The American Prospect, “people who work 44 hours per week in the United States earn more than twice what those working 34 hours per week earn.”

The United States cannot maintain its competitiveness if it continues to pay large sums to educate the many women who then find themselves “deskilled” —driven out of good jobs and into less good ones — by inflexible workplaces and family responsibilities discrimination.

The untold story is that mothers are pushed out of the paid workforce by inflexible workplaces, discrimination, and the lack of public policy to support working families creates challenges for employers and policymakers alike. The key message for employers is that they need to match today’s workplace to today’s workforce. For policymakers, the key message is that working families need greater support and that, without them, U.S. competitiveness in a rapidly globalizing world is at risk.

Better Educated Women Work More

Women with more education are less likely to leave the labor force, and tend to work more hours, than women with less education.

Why do more highly educated women tend to work more? They have more to lose by passing up employment: As economists would say, their opportunity costs of eschewing employment are higher. Being a waitress is not as attractive a career track as being a middle-level manager or professional, and quality childcare is much more affordable for an executive or a lawyer than for a waitress.

College-educated women have flooded into high-paying, high-status and traditionally male dominated careers, whereas female high-school drop outs are much more likely to be stuck in low-paid, dead-end sex-segregated jobs.

Education fuels employment: Women with more education are more likely to be employed and to work more hours — a strong and consistent trend that the Opt Out story ignores.

Image via JW Magazine

The best piece of advice I ever got,” said Alexandra Lebenthal, CEO of Alexandra & James, a financial firm specializing in tax-free municipal bonds and high net-worth wealth management, “was in reference to driving a boat. ‘Whatever happens, just relax. You’ll always be able to turn around and get out of it.’”

“Sometimes you glide on the water, sometimes you go against a current – as soon as you relax all kind of things can happen.” She joked, “It’s something I should do much more of in life.”

Lebenthal, so far, has navigated her life’s currents well – in addition to having built a successful company from the ground up, she recently published a new novel, The Recessionistas, a book about New York socialites following the 2008 crash.

Building Her Own Company

After graduating from Princeton in 1986 with a degree in history, Lebenthal said, “All of my friends were going to work on Wall Street. So I went to work for Kidder Peabody. After two years, I went to my family’s firm, and I worked my way up.”

She continued, “In 1994, at the age of 31, I became head of the firm. I sold it in 2001, and for the next few years I worked for the parent company. Then it was sold again to Merrill Lynch. I left and went out on my own toward the end of 2006.”

Lebenthal says that, so far, she’s most proud of starting her own company – despite the harsh financial environment. She said she’s proud of “starting all over again with nothing and building up a whole firm in the midst of the recession.”

One of the most important lessons she learned, she said, “was how important having access to capital is at the very beginning – having as much as you need to grow your business. You never know where market’s going to be.”

Regarding new regulatory changes facing Wall Street, Lebenthal said, “There are a lot of nuances. Things will need to be clarified. I’m bracing for what will happen.”

She continued, “I’m also very focused and passionate about small business lending opportunities. Currently there’s a bill in Congress that improves loan opportunities for small business to increase capital. I don’t see the economy fully starting to regrow until small businesses have access to capital.”

Moving forward, she says, “I have a lot to do in terms of building this company.” She’s also excited about her “budding career as a novelist – I enjoy writing fiction a lot.”

She continued, “I’m sort of in the middle of the PR push for the book and reveling in that. And working my tail off at the office as well!”

Women In Financial Services

“There are so many more women in powerful positions today than 10 years ago,” Lebenthal began. “There are more success stories at the top.”

She continued, “There are still a lot of challenges – it’s a more intense lifestyle. You have to have a tough skin. And you have to work that much harder as a mom. It’s helpful to have a home life where you don’t have to do everything – either an amazing husband or great help or both.”

“Sometimes it all works and sometimes it doesn’t. One thing I’ve learned – and need a constant reminder for – is getting to the point where I can say, ‘this is not something I need to do.’”

Regarding work/life balance she said, “Balance is a thing that sometimes works. Think about somebody balancing on a balance beam or at the circus – balance is that moment when it works, but it’s not permanent.”

Young women starting in the financial services industry should “be willing to take on any task. If you don’t have enough to do, ask. Be very clear about what you want, but not overly aggressive.”

She continued, “It’s interesting, we have a few young women who are distinguishing themselves so much, so we finally decided to give these three young women a top position to share. It’s so great when you can reward people, when you see talent and ability and take the steps to make it grow.”

“There’s a lot of talk about Gen Y being entitled or demanding – but these three women really want to do a good job. It’s fun to see them get to the next level.”

As women approach more senior levels she advised, “Women have to make it very clear that they want to be in a leadership position. They have to be clear about what they want.”

Inspiration

Lebenthal says she looks to one of her business partners as inspiration. She said, “Right now my business partner Michelle Smith who runs our Wealth Management business inspires me. She’s a single mother with a special needs kid.” She explained that not only did Smith build the company’s divorce specialty from scratch, but also helped to found a school.

She continued, “She inspires me. She doesn’t let anything stand in her way. She gets stuff done, even in adversity. And her little boy has shown her – and me – what’s valuable in life.”

In 1996, Lebenthal co-founded the Women’s Executive Circle at the UJA [United Jewish Appeal] Federation. She’s also involved in a mentoring program and actively takes part in several philanthropic endeavors around New York, including the Reta Hayworth Gala, Alzheimer’s Association, and the Hale House in Harlem.