On January 28, 2016, the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) hosted a panel on the changing workplace.  Ellen Mendelsohn, ULI’s Washington, D.C. based director of leadership revealed the survey results of the current state of women in real estate and land use industry.  Ellen highlighted the following:

• Women remain under represented at every level with the greatest disparity at senior level with leakage at the middle level management.
• 25% of ULI members are women while only 14% of those women are C level.
• 92% of Female CEO’s are running small firms with less than 100 employees.
• 70% of women fell on target or ahead of pace in their careers.

The survey has some great information take time to review the full executive summary and learn more about actions most organizations can take to promote more women to positions of greater seniority and visibility at www.womenincre.uli.org

Following Ellen’s kick off members heard from a panelist on the changing workplace.  The panel was moderated by David Howard.  The panelist featured were Ellen Rogers of Bank of America, Richard Petersheim of LandDesign, Andrea Howard of JLL and Marcie Williams of Rivergate.  They all shared their perspectives.

Highlights from the session:

• 20% of Fortune 500 companies have women in board seats.
• Women need more Women role models, so they can visualize their growth.
• When looking at opportunities in your career there is always sacrifices no matter what your gender is – you have to have trade-offs and to you best to honor your commitments and make decisions based on your priorities.
• Changes she has seen as women enter the workforce at a higher rate is the importance and the focus on benefits and company culture.
• Flexibility the key – hold people accountable to get their work done but don’t dictate when and how they get it done.
• Food for thought: Men dominating senior spots because many of the large firms were originated before a large number of women were in the workforce.
• JLL has focused on diversity and has a director of diversity and inclusion. Their internal studies showed on 22,000 deals they know diversity gets the deals done:
  • 38% had diverse teams
  • The top 100 deals- 55% had diverse teams
• Really take time to know your strengths and use them versus feeling you are different and worrying about being different
• Be patient, you will be working for a long time. You have a long time to get where you want to be, it may not happen tomorrow but it will happen.
• What advice would you give your younger self:
  • Network- put yourself out there and raise your hand
  • Build relationships- you excel through the relationships you build- follow up with the people you meet.
  • Take time to understand the company not just the job or tasks before you- dive into the inner workings of the corporation.
  • Continue to learn- never stop learning- do not be afraid and if you are do it anyway.

Resources:

See highlights on Twitter at #ULICLT.

Coverage by the Charlotte Observer – Breaking down the ‘good old boys’ club in real estate

Coverage by the Charlotte Business Journal – ULI explains how women can get ahead in the real estate industry

Notes provided by Tami Fosum, Blue Ridge Companies, Charlotte, NC.