Got Ambition?

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“Got Ambition?” as first appeared in http://www.womenonbusiness.com December 13, 2011  Preview here: http://www.womenonbusiness.com/got-ambition/

I recently stumbled upon a women and workplace survey from MORE magazine which raises the question of the ambition of women, and lays out data from the survey related to what we really want from our careers. A few stats especially caught my eye, including “When asked point-blank, 43 percent of women described themselves as less ambitious now than they were 10 years ago; only 15 percent reported feeling more ambitious.”

I discussed this with a fellow (woman) colleague and we both reached the conclusion that from our experience woman are not less ambitious, just giving voice to our conflicted emotions while we seek the ideal work-life balance for our stage in life.

Read more here: http://www.womenonbusiness.com/got-ambition/

The Next Generation of Scientific Women

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I had the pleasure, last week, of going to Boston and hearing my daughter-in-law Jessica Yecies defend her PhD thesis at the Harvard School of Public health. Her thesis was on the role of lipid metabolism in cell signaling via the mTor pathway.  MTor activity, gone awry, is believed to be one of the main factors in the development of cancer.  Her research, therefore, could prove to be seminal towards potential treatments that attack the core activities of cancer cells.  If you are interested in more detail you can read the presentation or see the video.

What is particularly impressive is the body of research Jess was able to accomplish in only 3.5 years.  While the typical PhD path at Harvard is 5-7 years she got her doctorate in a little more than 3.

Besides pride in her accomplishments, I wanted to write about Jess here because it is clear to me that women are alive and well and making MAJOR contributions in the STEM field.  I find it interesting that more than ½ of the PhD biology candidates at Harvard are women.  And beyond academia women are breaking through in biotech at a faster rate than software.  The percentage of women venture capitalists in biotech is double that of software.  Additionally, the number of women founders is higher among venture backed biotech startups.  Why the difference between biology and computer science I don’t know.  Perhaps the direct application to people and the potential to improve public health.  Certainly there is a positive cycle in place already in medicine (1/2 of medical school students are women) and the broader biological sciences are benefiting.  There may be something to learn from this field to assist us in getting more women involved in computer science.

Jess had many of the ingredients for success that I have written about – talent, tremendous work ethic, role models, mentors, and education.  Jess’ mother is an accomplished scientist, doing her own important cancer research at Wyeth, now Pfizer.  Jess had wonderful teachers at Princeton and Harvard.  She had a supportive mentor in her “P.I.” (primary investigator) Brendan Manning and support from her husband Derek and her entire family.  But while these factors are important and she graciously acknowledged them during her presentation, in the end it comes down to her initiative and work to get across the finish line.  We are very proud of what she has accomplished in the field of cancer research that is so important to all of us.

Apologies to the reader if there is too much kvelling in this post J.

Thanksgiving

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There are so many things I’m thankful for.  Having Todd, Emmanuelle, Margot, my parents and in-laws here for the weekend, good health, my husband, my excellent team at work, my home and all of the other privileges we enjoy.  I miss Derek and Jess but am thankful that Derek married into a loving family and of course he will spend some of the holidays with them.  What is top of my mind though for thankfulness this season are my parents and parents-in-law.

I say this as someone who had very close relationships with my grandparents.  We lost my dad’s mother when I was 3 so unfortunately I don’t really remember her but my dad’s father lived in the same apartment building as us until I was 7.  I remember going over to his apartment after school and many family evenings together.  He died when I was in college and Todd is named after him.  My maternal grandparents moved near us in Great Neck when they retired (I was in elementary school).  They babysat for us frequently and drove us often to our activities if my mom was busy with work.  All of my grandparents had very clear values which they shared with me.  These ranged from to the political (I’ll never forget my Grandfather’s disappointment when Hubert Humphrey lost the election), to social issues – my grandparents were outspoken against prejudice – and most importantly values around family.

Amazingly, our parents were already grandparents when they were Steve and my age.  Derek was born when our parents were 44, 45, 46 and 48!  This has been such a gift.  My children’s grandparents have all been very active in their lives.  My mother-in-law has driven in from Stockton innumerable times over the years to watch the kids when Steve and I have had simultaneous business trips.  Our parents have been at the many important lifecycle events – bar mitzvah’s, graduations, recitals, sports games etc.  We have taken wonderful extended family vacations with our parents, siblings, nieces and nephews – 20+ person affairs.  I’m looking forward to attending Jess’ thesis defense next week with my mom (Jess now qualifies for the full granddaughter treatment).  I am quite certain Derek and Todd’s interest in medicine was influenced by their 3 doctor grandparents.

The main point I wanted to make about this is that I realize how lucky we are and how lucky my children are.  I am very thankful for this.  We are getting to the stage in life where I see from my friends that this is the exception not the rule – we have truly been blessed these last years to have this multi-generational family.  I hope it lasts many many more.

Another Reason I Love Technology

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I mentioned on this blog the other day that our friend Gary Lauder’s mother Evelyn Lauder passed away last Saturday.  In keeping with the Jewish tradition, the funeral happened quickly – in this case Monday morning.  As much as I wished I could be there (New York) it was not logistically feasible for me to go.  I wasn’t worried so much about disappointing Gary and Laura, I believed that they would understand and I was heartened to know that there would be many many loved ones there to support them.  But nonetheless I felt badly about not going.  I sent a condolence note Sunday night and when I woke up Monday there was an email from Laura saying that the service would be webcasted.  I immediately logged on and lo and behold on my screen was the beautiful Central Synagogue sanctuary.  There was 30 minutes until the starting time and it was already filling up.

I watched and heard the introductory music then Gary’s brother William and his children spoke.  I then switched to the dial-in as it had better audio and I found it easier to concentrate.

I knew from meeting her that Evelyn was an extraordinary person and had a tremendous impact on the world.  But my brief encounters with her were much more prosaic – I met the ebullient, loving, beaming Jewish grandmother, “kvelling” at her grandchildren’s events.  I loved learning more about her – the funny familial stories, her impact on breast cancer research and her incredible personal support for patients and especially the “career woman” and wedding planning stories.  I felt transported to the set of “Mad Men” listening to Leonard’s description of Evelyn and their office in the late 50’s.  But most importantly to me I was able to hear Gary, Laura, Josh and Eliana’s poignant remarks.  I am so glad that in the future of our friendship when Evelyn and even this service comes up, even though I wasn’t there in person, I will be able to remember and understand what happened at this event.  Who would ever have imagined technology helping us in this way.

The Rise Of The Female CEO And The Folly Of Men Who Just Don’t Get It

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“The Rise of The Female CEO And The Folly of Men Who Just Don’t Get It” copyright Forbes 2011 as first appeared in “The Forbes Women Files”, November 15, 2011. Preview here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/7cpg4s4

By Laura Yecies

On Monday last week I woke up a bit before my 5:45 alarm (yes, quite amazing how one can actually adjust to a new schedule) so had a few minutes to scan email and the online news before my hike and came across the headline “Why Most Women Will Never Become CEO.” Gene Marks, the author, is a Forbes contributor.  My first thought when I read that headline was how silly it was. After all, “Most anyone won’t be CEO.”  You can put pretty name your group for the “anyone” place – most men won’t be CEO, most New Yorkers won’t be CEO, even most Harvard MBAs, though they hate to admit it, won’t be CEO.

Then I read on and was irked. And admittedly, while obviously very curious, I had to set the article aside for a few days to temper my reaction. The article starts with a description of some negative teenage behavior (both boys and girls actually) and then a projection (without any evidence) that the silly “high school girl drama” exhibited by the author’s teenage daughters is typical of professional women.

After reading this, I should have just abandoned the article – “Reason #1” was enough to make this article not credible. But my curiosity got the best of me.

The next point is that men are incapable of taking women seriously in the office and are only focused on women’s appearance. I find this to be an insult to the many serious, professional men I have worked with over the last 23 years. Not that I am naïve to human nature and a bit of normal banter (and by the way women occasionally notice men’s hot or not-so-hot appearance) but I do believe we’ve been mostly past this for years. And to the extent it is present, we should treat this behavior as an unacceptable aberration not to be accepted.

Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/7cpg4s4

Circle of Life

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I was bracketed this week by both happy and sad news.  First we received news of 3 engagements!  My first cousin Jon Donenfeld, my daughter-in-law’s brother Justin Lucas and one of our family friends Drew Morris all announced their engagements.  This is such a fun time in the lives of these young people and we are so thrilled to be connected to it.  We’re in the midst of wedding planning for our son Todd and it is such a joy to see him and Emmanuelle so happy.  But life is not just about beginnings, it is sometimes about endings.  My father’s best friend and one of the sweetest people I know, Steve Weisbader died on Friday and our dear friend Gary Lauder lost his mother Evelyn yesterday – both were in their 70’s and in the center of their loving families’ lives – too soon, it seems, to leave us.

This juxtaposition is a poignant reminder to treasure the happy moments we have – the circle of life means they will inevitably be interrupted with sad times as well.  I tried to do some “treasuring” this weekend.   Friday we watched Adam play in our high school’s big rivalry football game, Saturday morning a long walk with friends then we drove to Stockton with Adam to have  dinner with my in-laws.  My mother-in-law cooked one of her outstanding meals capped with a homemade berry pie and my father-in-law treated us to an incredible bottle of wine from his cellar, a 1988 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.  A happy dinner with family is as special as it gets – it was nice to recognize that.  Today we spent the day watching Adam’s lacrosse team play in a tournament – three games in a sunny 60’s degree day on the Sac State campus with beautiful foliage around us.  Life is very good, I want to be sure to savor it.

Sleep or Football

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No, I have not taken up 6:00am Football, nor am I watching it on late night TV.  Despite the irony of my having met many famous pro-football players (more on that in another post) I am blissfully ignorant about the game.  I cheer loudly, take pictures of my sons while playing, chat with the other families, and, most of all, pray for no serious injuries.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago entitled “Sleep or School”.  The basic point was that juggling parenting and work is sometimes really hard – there are only 24 hours in the day and sometimes that juggle means giving up sleep.  Well our family had a similar issue this week, only this time, I got 40 winks in my bed and my husband got 5 hours of sitting straight up on a plane with his eyes closed trying to approximate sleep.

The situation was not very complicated.  The HBS Health Care Alumni conference started today in Boston.  My son’s high school football game was yesterday afternoon.  My husband absolutely loves attending the kids’ sports events and helps the coach out quite a bit doing the “stats”.  This conference is interesting for him both from a content and networking point of view (he is CEO of a healthcare startup).  Due to lack of human cloning technology the only solution was the “redeye”.  The point being that juggling work and family is not just a woman’s issue.

Fitness and Friendship

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Here is a link to an article that ran last week in the Wall Street Journal.  It was a fun story.  The author read my blog post, passed to her by a friend, where I mentioned combining socializing with exercise.  She interviewed me by phone then they sent a photographer out with us to do a shoot while we hiked.  The print version actually has more photos than online.  The photographer who had to leave his home in Berkeley at 5 to meet us at the Dish at 6 said he had never been up before sunrise since he lived in the area.  We got a lot of funny looks during our walk as he was taking photos – I think he took a few hundred.  Fortunately our Cooper Hawk friend posed for a photo.

Women Are More Portable

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I happened to read a fascinating article in Harvard Business Review – it’s a couple of years old but it was part of an email to me by HBS and the title caught my eye – “How Star Women Build Portable Skills”.  You can read the full text of the article here.  The thesis is that, unlike men, when star women switch firms, they maintain their “star” performance.  The author, Boris Groysberg, attributes this to two factors:

  • “Unlike men, high-performing women build their success on portable, external relationships – with clients and other outside contacts.
  • Women considering job changes weigh more factors then men do, especially cultural fit, values, and managerial style”

In reading this article I was excited to see it start on such a quantitatively solid footing.  The “star” women were actually equity analysts so their performance and their company’s performance could be clearly measured.  When you get to the factors part I couldn’t help but think – this is a no-brainer.  Of course women build external networks – the “old boy” networks internally are typically unavailable to them and similarly knowing that they may have a strike or two against them in a future company culture they will really do their homework.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true for other minorities as well.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my grandfather Sam when I was in college.  During a visit home my freshman year, he asked me what I was majoring in.  When I told him political science he was not too pleased.  He encouraged me to be sure to have a “skill” – something “portable” though that was not the word he chose.  Doctor was best but accountant was fine, even carpenter would have better than “political scientist” in his view.  The reason for his opinion was reasonable for someone who had to make a living as an immigrant.  If you have to pick up quickly and move to another country due to persecution – you are better off as someone with a clearly sellable skill than as a liberal arts major.  This instinct for self-preservation I think must be present in people who are successful despite a more challenging environment.   It doesn’t just apply to choice of major – it applies to how you conduct your career.

You’re the Top

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I was excited to see the news today of the selection of Virginia Rometty to CEO of IBM.  The breaking of IBM’s glass ceiling is notable, particularly coming on the heels of Meg Whitman’s appointment.  While the number of women CEO’s in the fortune 500 is still ridiculously low (16) it’s interesting that 3 are in the tech field – including Ursula Burns of Xerox.  These are visible, powerful, and important positions

I believe tech is a great field for women.  While there may be fewer women employees (due to the low number of female engineers) I think the rapid pace of change gives women a chance to shine.

The more examples of women leaders in tech the more our unrecognized biases can start to change.