ANY time you have the chance to see a woman from the C-Suite speak, it’s my personal habit to figure out a way to attend that speech. I have never once regretted it. I have always gotten at least one amazing gold nugget of advice or information or insight. In fact, if Catherine Bessant’s 30 minute conversation was the only part of Mentoring Monday that I had time for, the event still would have been worth it.
What follows is my summary and paraphrasing of the Lori Becker’s interview.
Bank of America’s Chief Operations and Chief Technology Officer, Catherine P Bessant.
Loir Becker, Editor in Chief of the Nashville Business Journal started with, “If you had to give three pointers, ways in which you continue to advance your career, what would they be?”
- I operate under a series of rules that allow me to be NEW. I seek out opportunities and sometimes opportunities within opportunities to be fresh. You always have to be seeking new perspectives. You always have to be learning.
- There is no substitute for being brilliant at what you do. I always set out to be the best.
- This last one is something it too me a long time to learn. Knowing yourself. Being aggressive about knowing your knowledge gaps is important. Being self actualized and self aware are helpful.
“It’s not 10 am yet, we can get that done. Sorry fellas.” – There were about 3 men in a room of several hundred women, and we all knew what she meant with this statement. 😀
Lori continue to say, “It’s easy to do those things when business is good, how do you get through set backs?”
Resilience and fortitude. Getting this far requires it. Failure is part of this growth. If I am interviewing someone and they say that they’ve never failed, I am not hiring them. They are not self actualized enough, honest enough with themselves to work for me.
I got demoted 10-15 years ago. I worked for the CEO and he wanted me to move to Boston. And I had to tell him I didn’t want to move to Boston. I ended up working for someone else who works for the CEO. This was not only a personal failure but a very public one – every article in the Business Journal for months was “Catherine Bessant, recently demoted”… my kids were reading that. That was tough. And I realized that were basically two reasons this happened to me:
- I surprised my boss, which is one thing you should never do. You have to remain open and honest about your needs and wants. I wasn’t doing a good job of telling him what was important to me.
- The second was that my new boss, and I didn’t like hearing this at the time – unvarnished truth (as transformative as it is, and useful as it is) is always hard to hear at the time… My new boss said, I’ve seen you in the community, these people LOVE to work with you. The same can not be said within the walls of this company. As hard as this was, I buckled down and changed. I did the hard work. I realized that I was not listening within the bank the same way I was listening within the community.
So, what I say is to KEEP SHOWING UP. Put one foot in front of the other. Keep your door open. Wear your power suit, because you’re a fighter. I call it G&D, grace and dignity.
On Mentoring
Mentoring is a composite process, it’s never 100% advise. I believe it is both advocacy and advice. Sometimes, it’s unvarnished truth. Mentoring is not going to happen in a structured situation. It’s best iteration is organic.
On Women in Tech
Did you know that women in STEM is worse now than it was 20 years ago? We have to do better in the education process, we need better representation in the tech discipline. We need BETTER PATHWAYS for advancement in tech within companies. If I could fix this problem I would. I have 10 direct reports and 1 of them is a woman. This is no ones fault but my own. There are alot of factors working against us and I think about this alot.
On the Gender Pay Gap
One thing that we are working towards at BOA is reducing the pay gap. Data is clear that it exists. We’ve been talking about it for 15 years or so. We’re holding ourselves accountable. We are at 99% gender pay equity if you compare job titles. This is great, but we are still woefully underrepresented in the highest paid roles within the company. We pay lots of attention to promotion.
On the MeToo Movement
First, I’ve thankfully never been in this situation and it’s not an easy one to talk about. Women need to be better advocates of each other. I believe you need to escalate the situation and escalate it persistently. And ultimately, if the environment is one that does not meet your needs, it’s not the right environment. (And I understand the complexities around job security).
We are in this situation now, with the gender pay gap and the metoo movements where debate is opening up, allowing for contribution to a solution.
On Work Life Balance
I don’t judge myself. I take stock the first day of every month and rebalance. If I see an area where I have neglected putting the time in last month, I will readjust this month. Work-life balance doens’t look the same for any two people. And you have to know, everyone is holding themselves together with paperclips and bandaids. Life without friends is no good. I know it takes a village – there is no sense of pride in doing everything alone. Asking for help set me free on so many levels.
I once heard a quote that went – women have two hands, one to grab the ladder and one to pull someone up with her.