What’s the worst that can happen? Actually, you should try to find out

This is Working Together, a weekly series and live show on the changing face of U.S. business. If you like what you’re reading, send to friends, and have them subscribe using the button above and share using #WorkingTogether. We’re off next week for Thanksgiving, but will be back with more trends impacting how we work in December. 

In Cate Luzio’s first job after graduating from college, the CEO came to her with a seemingly bizarre question: “Do you have a passport?” 

Just 24 at the time, Luzio was working at a tech startup called WebPerfect and her manager wanted her to go to China. It was 1999 — the height of the Internet boom — and the company’s chief technology officer was setting up some joint ventures abroad. Luzio didn’t even know what a joint venture was. She also had very little experience in technology. 

But she still said yes to the opportunity. 

“You have to take a step back and say, ‘What's the worst thing that can happen?’” Luzio, the founder of female-focused networking startup Luminary told me recently on Working Together Live. “You get a whole new level of skills, you get a whole new network and if it doesn't work and you fail, you learn from that.” 

Studies show that women are less likely than their male peers to raise their hands for new opportunities at work and are more likely to keep their heads down and hope to be recognized based on their work. Yet Luzio found that it was when she took a risk on a new opportunity — regardless if it succeeded or not — that she gained the most. 

Her story offers up a compelling counter-narrative for how to assess risk at work. 

“Focus on the positives, and then, if the negative happens, then you figure it out,” she said. “Doing the same thing over and over for me is never going to get me out of bed. I've got to do new things.” 

There are compelling reasons why many female leaders are more risk averse at work than Luzio. Women tend to be promoted to positions of power or given new opportunities during times of crisis when failure is more likely. This phenomenon — known as the glass cliff — happens because organizations are more likely to look for a change in management when things are going poorly. 

In Luzio’s case, most of the leadership positions she was offered in her career were within businesses that were struggling. And while she acknowledges that the glass cliff is “very real,” she thinks more women need to take on risky opportunities. Rather than focus on what would happen if the business fails, she said, think about what you will gain as a result. 

“You learn so much when you're in those situations that you might not have if… everything's great and we're doing well,” she said. “Were all of the businesses that I ran or led or worked in fantastic successes? No, but it helped me tremendously, builds on my skills.” 

I want to hear from you: When’s the last time you took a big risk in your career? Did it pay off? What did you learn? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether 

What’s Working

Benefits for the modern workplace. Tammy Sun, the co-founder and CEO of Carrot Fertility, joined us on Working Together Live. Carrot partners with companies to offer employees access to egg freezing, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility care. We talked about the evolving dynamics at work that are changing the benefits that employers are offering.

Good on Goldman. The investment firm reported that 29% of new managing directors were female this year, a record-number. This news came shortly after Goldman announced it would offer both women and men 20 weeks of paid parental leave, another record for the banking industry. [WSJ]

The end of ‘manels?’ Retail conference Shoptalk announced on LinkedIn that it would only have female speakers at an upcoming event. The more than 60 male panelists that were already confirmed were asked to identify women at their companies that could take over their role. “We have always worked hard to do the right thing, no matter how difficult or inconvenient that might be,” Shoptalk’s chief content officer wrote on LinkedIn. [LinkedIn] 

Searching for allies. Last week, I spoke on a panel at Reuters on the future of women at work with Dress for Success CEO Joi Gordon, PwC's Joe Atkinson and more. We discussed everything from the promotion gap to caregiving to equal pay, but my major takeaway is that we won’t get far on any of these topics until we bring more men into the discussion. 

What Needs Work

Latina Equal Pay Day. Is today, marking the almost full year it takes Latina women to earn as much as their male peers in the workplace. Latina women in the U.S. earn 53 cents on the dollar compared to white men, a figure that has worsened since last year. [Fortune]

No data on pay. While it has become somewhat common practice for tech companies to disclose the gender pay gap within their firms, Oracle is refusing to share compensation data. Despite an abundance of research that proves pay transparency is one of the few ways to close the gap, founder Larry Ellison does not believe making the data public will lead to any progress. [Bloomberg]

Hiding your age. By 2026, 30% of workers 65- to 74-year-olds will be employed full or part time, according to the BLS. Yet despite the growing cohort of more experienced workers across corporate America, many are doing everything they can to hide their age due to rampant ageism. [LinkedIn Editors] 

Floored by bias. While investment banks are making concerted efforts towards gender equality, women are leaving the trading floor and make up as little as 11% of director and managing director roles in finance. A recent study cites a lack of female role models and microaggressions against women at work as top reasons why they are leaving. [LinkedIn Editors]

Who’s Pushing Us Forward

What topics do you want to discuss next week? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether