Leadership

Having an open and honest dialogue with your manager can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have an especially warm relationship. (Think: the manager who only responds with “it was fine” when you ask about their weekend.) But getting into the habit of seeking out feedback and sharing your opinions on a regular basis (even if they conflict with what you know your boss wants to hear) can improve your relationship and enhance your performance. Demonstrating a commitment to growth and candor will help you to stand out as a lifelong learner who’s open to feedback (and score major points on your next performance review). You’ll also gain a more solid understanding of your manager’s expectations and hone in on your areas for improvement. So, as awkward as these little chats might be, they’re well worth the effort. Here’s how to get started: Start small If you don’t have a particularly comfortable relationship with your boss (and … [Read more...] about Here’s how to start having honest and open dialogues with your manager

A few months before the Harvey Weinstein story broke last fall, Silicon Valley had its own reckoning, when numerous VCs were accused of sexual harassment. Cowboy Ventures cofounder Aileen Lee, one of the most prominent female VCs in the Valley, approached women in her network and proposed that they come together to do something. The result was All Raise, a collective of more than 30 VCs that seeks to both mentor and increase the number of women founders and women in venture capital. “We’re really trying to build scaffolding around the entire ecosystem,” Lee says, “to create incentive and pressure for the industry to change faster.” A key change All Raise hopes to facilitate is upping the number of female partners at venture firms—which would empower far more women to write checks and lead deals. And while some firms have made an effort to hire more women over the years, they aren’t necessarily in the higher ranks. As of March, All Raise found … [Read more...] about This is how we get more women in venture capital

Yael Rosencwajg recently had an experience that was unusual for a woman in tech. Speaking at a conference for executives in the blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) space, Rosencwajg found herself explaining the digital ledger system that forms the basis of blockchain technology to about 200 people, most of whom were white, male CEOs. “There was a lot they didn’t know,” the founder of startup Blockchain Israel tells Fast Company. The difference was that the audience was respectful and deferential, despite the prevailing reality that when women are outnumbered in a work setting like this, several studies show that they are talked over, interrupted, or simply ignored. Rosencwajg chalks it up to the relative newness of the blockchain space. The technology is only 10 years old and was initially used to record bitcoin transactions. But its applications have since moved from solely recording bitcoin and other digital currency transfers to smart contracts and other … [Read more...] about Meet the women who are making sure blockchain is inclusive

Simple decisions are best made using cold, hard logic. This way, we can work through the incremental steps that lead to an answer. But the same isn’t true for complex decisions, ones that require more creativity in meshing together a web of interconnected ideas. These decisions can be impossible to work through with logic and reason alone. That’s why we need to tap into the proven power of our subconscious mind. We’re wired to remember what we’re in the middle of more than what we’ve completed, a phenomenon known in psychology circles as the Zeigarnik effect, named after Bluma Zeigarnik, the first person to study this concept. As a result, uncompleted tasks and decisions weigh more heavily on our minds than ones we’ve finished—focus comes when we close these distracting open loops. While annoying during attempts to focus, the Zeigarnik effect can do something stunning when we scatter our attention and let our mind wander. Chances are … [Read more...] about How to solve complex problems (by not focusing on them)

It’s one thing for men to talk about women. It’s another thing for them to talk about women’s issues. And it’s an entirely different thing for them to actually sit down and try to put themselves in women’s shoes so they can suss out what their female coworkers may really be experiencing on the job. I know because my cofounder, Daniel, did it. And what he learned was pretty surprising–at least to him. In fact, it was so revealing that he ended up quitting his job and dedicating his career to building InHerSight, the company we started together to improve workforce gender equality. It started when the two of us were working together at a midsize financial tech company. The company we worked for was one of those rare gems that had an obsession, albeit a healthy one, with making sure its employees are happy and feel supported. They offered just about every employee benefit you can imagine: unlimited paid time off, a game room, free food, yoga and … [Read more...] about Men: Have you really stopped to think about gender equality?