Hello and welcome to the inaugural Above The Median newsletter!
Ally Warson here: Partner at UP.Partners, amateur pilot, bartender, burner, lover of travel, and daughter of Tracey Warson (former chairman of Citi Private Bank.) Over the past two years, Tracey and I conceived of a project named Above The Median. It is with gratitude and passion that we are officially launching this newsletter series for all our ambitious female friends. You’ve been included on this distribution list because you have either communicated interest in our project, are an advocate for women leaders, or are a close friend.
Note: If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive future ones then you can subscribe here:
Above The Median was a project born out of observation. Throughout my career in venture capital, I’ve spent my time looking at the top business leaders – the chief executive roles – and I kept seeing the same thing…a lot of dudes. What I saw was also corroborated by stories I heard from Tracey during her time at Citi. On catch up phone calls across time zones or while sharing meals during the holidays, Tracey would tell stories about her role as a female executive and the weight of being the only one in the management meetings who was wearing high heels. The repetitive nature of our shared experiences inspired us to dive into the data to see if there was an opportunity to change the status quo. And indeed, the quantitative metrics confirmed our qualitative intuition. The dearth of women executives is astonishing.
According to the Women Business Collaborative (WBC) with Ascend, C200 and Catalyst 2021 report, women represent only 8.2% of Fortune 500 CEOs.
These numbers flat out suck. Society tells women that the odds are less than 10% for a woman to become a business leader. Furthermore, according to McKinsey Women in the Workplace Report, women are below gender parity at every professional position.
And yet, even with these abysmal statistics, Tracey and I observed that there was (and is) a fierce appetite among the next generation of women leaders to defy these odds. Young ambitious women want to fight the systemic narrative of “wait your turn” or “blend in and be well behaved.” This new class of leaders are ready to build and pioneer. BUT, there is clearly a lack of the right kind of resources and a lack of access to the women who already have made it to the top. I was lucky to be born into a family with a strong role model, but who you’re born to doesn’t seem like a very democratic way to unlock the next generation of women leaders, right?
*will tell Tracey’s story in a future newsletter but for a quick juicy nugget, she was featured in The New Yorker with Maggie Siff, who plays the infamous Wendy Rhoades on Billions*
For many years, Tracey and I discussed what we could do to improve the dearth of women executives and, hence, Above The Median was born!
Above The Median democratizes access to the stories of powerful executive women. The Above The Median roster are a compendium of rockstars whose titles include the COO of Blackrock, the Chairman of Pillsbury Winthrop, President of The Schwab Foundation, GP of NEA, Board Director of Berkshire Hathaway, Chief People Officer of Vice, and more. You can find the Above The Median roster here.
By increasing exposure to successful executive women, we hope to unlock psychological shifts in the next generation of female leaders so that they feel equipped to lead or create the next Fortune 500 company. It is scientifically proven (the mere exposure effect) that the more you see something, the more you believe it is possible.
We replace your focus on Hailey Bieber and the Kardashians (*for the record, I enjoy these celebrities) with women who you most likely have never heard of. These are the women who may not have photoshoots in Vogue, but they are running some of the largest and most influential companies in the world. We will unveil these women’s struggles and learnings so you can add to your leadership toolkit as you rise up the ranks. Our goal is to accelerate your careers and rapidly grow the percentage of female Fortune 500 CEOs.
I love equations. This is Above The Median in a nutshell:
Held 5 national focus groups where we asked young women what topics/questions/concerns they had relating to their careers
Interviewed over 60 executive women
Built relationships with the top tier MBA programs (including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley Haas, and Tuck)
Built a website (Abovethemedian.org)
Assembled a writing group of women in the finance world that includes recent graduates of HBS and GSB
We are thrilled to be launching this newsletter as a way to provide drops of digestible information, spotlight amazing executive women, and share memorable stories & tactics. The newsletter is like reading a chapter of a short book once a month.
What should I expect in this newsletter?
In each monthly newsletter, we will tackle a question from our Above The Median focus groups. We will spotlight three Above The Median women who address a specific question. The structure is similar to the “Social Qs” of the NYTimes with the “question of the moment” coming from our focus groups (which were the initial questions we asked our Above The Median
women!)
Okay, now that we know the who, the what, the why, and the vision for the future…it is time to dive into our first episode. Let’s bring home the bacon $$$!
Newsletter 1 Question:
“How do I build a confidence mindset?”
One of the Above The Median focus group women recalls a story: “I was sitting in the audience at a conference and the speaker on stage asked, how many of you think you are a 10 out of 10 worthy? Three women in the crowd raised their hands. Three! Out of hundreds. How do we change our mindsets to be confident in our abilities and celebrate that?”
Here are relevant stories that answer this question. We hear from Mary Cranston, Daisy Auger Dominguez, and Hannah Grove.
Part I: Self Actualization
Above The Median Spotlight: Mary Cranston
Mary attributes her professional and personal success to her growth mindset that she cultivated over many years.
Mary didn’t initially start on the track to run Pillsbury Winthrop (a law firm that has served as counsel to more than 590 public companies and other underwritten securities offerings with an aggregate value exceeding $218 billion.) She grew up in an Irish Catholic family with a twin sister. Mary and her sister both had dreams to be ballerinas and knew nothing about finance or law. However, Mary and her sister traded their tutus for law and medical credentials. Mary went to Stanford Law School where women represented only 20% of the class while her sister went on to become the first female board certified vascular surgeon.
After graduating from Stanford Law School, Mary looked for the most prestigious firms she could join and subsequently spent her legal career at Pillsbury Winthrop. Upon retirement, her title was the Chair and CEO of Pillsbury Winthrop. Today, she sits on over half a dozen prestigious boards including Visa, CSAA, and the Stanford Children's Health.
Mary attests the road to success took mental preparation. Through our conversation, Mary shared her spiritual journey and how she got to her own form of self-awareness and an ‘enlightenment’ of sorts. Growing up, Mary was taught that therapy “was only for schizophrenics.” However, after she read The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck, she realized this conditioned belief was false and sought out a compatible therapist. From the beginning of her therapy work, Mary began to see how she constantly envisioned the need to please others. She also understood that her definition of “power” was tied to money. She mentally worked on how to attain as much “power” as she could in her career as she rose up the ranks. “I leveraged powerful manifesting techniques and prioritized techniques with deeply driven goals to be the rainmaker.” [*Side note: Mary emphasizes that women should not “apologize” for wanting to make money.]
After hitting the rainmaker status, Mary shifted her mental energies from being motivated by power to being motivated to help others. She worked on identifying opportunities in her life to lift others up and took on being Chairman of the Firm, mentoring young women, and advising public companies with Board of Director seats.
As Mary explains, “Your mind is a tool. You know what to do intuitively. After you work on your mind, you can more easily call the right thing to say and the right thing to do.”
One tactic Mary used to achieve her goals was to write them down. Although simple in concept, the physical act of visibly seeing them and knowing she committed to them gave her additional confidence and focus. Mary identified a series of concrete external measurements of her progress.. She taped the paper with the written goals into a drawer so she would see it everyday. “I spent time getting clear on how to achieve what I really wanted. I would look at those goals whenever I opened that drawer.” So when a colleague told Mary she was “too nice to ever become the CEO of Pillsbury Winthrop'', Mary ignored him and visualized the potential. “The comment hit my armor and bounced right off. I showed that colleague wrong.”
Part II: Intention Setting
Above The Median Spotlight: Daisy Auger Dominguez
Daisy Auger Dominguez was born to young teenage parents in New York City. She was raised by her grandparents in the Dominican Republic. Daisy learned grit but she lacked exposure to business acumen. “My family didn’t get promotions in the corporate space. I intentionally followed my curiosity and was open to opportunities.” Daisy’s curiosity, determination, and quick wit unlocked her ability to chase big time roles at companies including Alphabet, Disney, Moody’s, and Warner Media. Today, Daisy is the Chief People Officer at Vice Media and the Founder/CEO of Auger-Dominguez Ventures.
Daisy learned the skills of business while leaning on her moral compass, and shadowing powerful women such as Anita Hill (her life mentor.) Daisy attributes her core values (honesty, consistency, kindness, and candor) and mental fortitude to her success. While values are less tangible for us to try and emulate, mental strategies are something we can all learn. Daisy implemented both long term and short term mental strategies to succeed. We will call one the “Chapter Break Strategy” and one the “Weekly Recap Strategy.”
“The Chapter Break”
Daisy had a toxic manager at one of her former employers [rescinded the name for privacy] that pushed her towards resigning. Her reactive solution was to quit and immediately find a new job. “I was about to go into the ‘job search mode right away’, because that’s what I do - work,” says Daisy. However, Daisy’s executive coach advised an alternative to the ‘bias to action’ mindset. Instead, her coach encouraged Daisy to take time off and reflect on her present reality. Begrudgingly, Daisy obliged and ended up taking a full year off. A hard-earned privilege. “Let me tell you, that year was transformative. It brought me back to myself and my family,” says Daisy. With her time off, Daisy learned to stop making choices based on what others wanted her to do. She was able to physically and mentally step away from the “shoulds” of the world. With the time off, Daisy gave herself time to recharge with family and gain clarity on what she really wanted in her next role.
The “Chapter Break” is a “between job” strategy to take time off and embrace the discomfort of the unknown for the benefit of unlocking an intentional future path. To take a pause without a guaranteed offer letter signed can feel more risky because you do not have the financial assurance of the next role. However, taking the time for yourself sometimes gives you the holistic deep breath that you didn’t even know you needed. You can step off the metaphorical treadmill to see if you are running in the direction you really want to be in the rat race of life. Sometimes we cannot afford (literally $) to take 1-3 months off, but IF you can, we encourage you to consider the benefits of the “chapter break.” Taking time off between jobs without necessarily having the next one locked down is higher risk but may resort to higher utility.
“Weekly Reflection”
Daisy’s long term mental fortitude strategy complements her Sunday weekly practice, which she calls her “Weekly Reflection.” For the last decade, Daisy has written an email reflection every Sunday night for her direct reports. Daisy includes a reflection on the highs/lows of the week - both personal and professional, her team’s priorities, an evaluation of performance, and market trends. The email is symbolically a commentary on the actions of the past, feelings of the present, and intentions for the future. Interestingly, over the past 24 months, Daisy acknowledges that there has been a shift in vulnerability from the prior 400+ weekly emails sent out. “Over the years, I have become significantly more vulnerable with real life experiences that sometimes when you are a leader you hide it under the rug, I share this with my team.” Daisy’s weekly email forces her to be intentional in her actions. By writing them and sending them to others, she also levels up the accountability of her intentions.
Part III: Embrace Failure
Positive affirmations and mental rituals to be primed for success are important. It’s equally important to embrace the potential for failure.
Above The Median Spotlight: Hannah Grove
Hannah grew up in the UK and Ireland as an aspiring actress, which led to her working as a waitress, taking food orders and busing tables. One of her customers recommended she try a gig in PR. Because she didn’t go to college or university, she had to knock on hundreds of doors. “I think one firm finally took pity on me and offered me a job,” Hannah jokes. Her big break ended up not being in Hollywood, but when one of her venture capital clients offered to have her take over internal PR for them. Fast forward 22 years and Hannah has held multiple leadership roles at State Street Corporation, a financial institution that generates more than $11 billion in revenue annually and has over $3.4 trillion assets under management. For the last 12 years of her career at State Street she served as its Chief Marketing Office (CMO.) Following her retirement in late 2020, Hannah was appointed to the board of abrdn PLC (L: ABDN), a global investment firm.
Hannah attributes her career arc to a combination of fortitude, luck, and learning on the job, including being open to failures. “People don't seem to like failure in the US -- it’s almost like a bad thing and can only talk about success and achievement,” says Hannah. Culturally, we are wired to avoid failure. However, when you contextualize how failure leads to real learning and breakthroughs, it starts to become less scary.
Hannah encourages people to fail and not be afraid: “Falling flat is fine as long as you can get right back up, because that’s when you learn the most and can improve. It’s been a hallmark of my career.”
Part IV: Conclusion
Building a confidence mindset takes a lot of work. It’s not easy. But then again, this newsletter is not for the coasters in life.
Mary, Daisy, and Hannah all took different approaches to building self-confidence. Mary challenges us to acknowledge that we have a lot of “imposter syndrome” energy as women and that we need to spend time (and maybe even get professional help) to build intentionality around goals. Daisy helps us think about the power of pausing to build conviction in one’s path forward. Hannah’s story encourages the evaluation of the “what if''s. Consciously considering alternative paths can remove the nagging “naysayer” voice in your head.
All three have built personal confidence through internal reflection and purpose setting. Two observations I had from listening to these women: First, each woman vocalized vulnerability to gain confidence in who she truly is. We should embrace being vulnerable with ourselves and with others to gain confidence in our potential. Second, not one of them mentioned how they “looked” externally. These women gained success because of the work they did internally. Once we do the work on who we are and gain clarity on that, then we unlock the potential to be authentic and move courageously throughout the greater external world.
