More Women in Senior Leadership: New Research Report Details What Women and Corporate Leaders Must Do
PRESS RELEASE:
NEW REPORT REVEALS STEPS WOMEN MUST TAKE TO ATTAIN MORE SENIOR LEVEL POSITIONS
Researchers Also Detail What Corporations Must Do
To Be Part of The Solution
A new report, WOMEN AND THE PARADOX OF POWER, based on research by Dr. Anne Perschel of Germane Consulting and Jane Perdue of Braithwaite Innovation Group finds that corporations are leaving money on the table and forgoing future success by failing to place more women in senior leadership roles. Perschel and Perdue also claim that businesswomen must prepare themselves to take on these executive roles by understanding and using power more effectively.
In their study, which involved hundreds of senior level businesswomen, Perdue and Perschel find that many women relate to power in ways that prevent them from attaining senior level positions, be it lack of confidence; cultural conditioning; or simply not understanding what power is. In comparison, interviews with women in senor leadership roles at the highest levels of corporations, reveal that they have a different understanding of power and use different approaches to gain more of it. They then use their power and influence to make important changes to the culture and to leadership practices.
Reshaping a male-dominated business culture, changing the ratio of women to men, and thereby improving bottom line results, requires a very specific set of actions by those currently in leadership positions as well as by women themselves. Perschel and Perdue identify the key issues and solutions:
5 Actions for Women
- Know power and be powerful: Perschel and Perdue define power as the capacity to get things done and bring about change. Not so for many of the research participants who think of power as “being in control at all times,” or “deciding and announcing,” among other misconceptions. Sixty-one percent of survey participants hold mistaken views about how to advance their power (and themselves). The authors emphasize that women must study power, understand power, and use their power to change the culture of business.
- Ditch Cinderella: Over sixty percent of the participants preferred passive approaches to gaining power, opting to be granted access, rather than actively taking it. Unlike Cinderella, women cannot passively wait on the business sidelines, hoping business culture will change and hand them the most powerful decision making positions. Instead, they must seek power, advancing both the change agenda and their careers. As one executive vice-president who heads a $300 million dollar business advised, “The success police will not come and find you.”
- Show up. Stand Up. Voice Up: Fifty-two percent of the barriers to power that participants identified are personal and internal, e.g., “what I need is a constant drip-feed of confidence.” With women comprising nearly forty-seven percent of the entire workforce, holding forty percent of all management jobs, and earning sixty-one percent of all master’s degrees, they are uniquely positioned to work together and with interested men to dismantle legacy organizational barriers and stereotypes.
- Forge strategic connections: Relationships are the currency of the workplace, yet sixty-seven percent of the women in Braithwaite & Germane’s study are not taking charge of building their networks. To fill more than the three percent of the Fortune 500 CEO positions they currently hold, women must become masters of strategic networking as well as building alliances and coalitions.
- Unstick their thinking: Thirty-eight percent of participants opted for being well-liked rather than powerful. Perschel and Perdue contend this is an area where some women need to re-order their preferences and adopt both/and thinking. Based on research conducted at Stanford University, women are uniquely capable of moving beyond an either/or mindset, about power and other issues. Leaders, both male and female, too often limit solutions by framing problems as a choice between two mutually exclusive options. More women in senior leadership roles with a both/and approach will help all leaders think about decisions differently and more effectively.
3 Actions for Corporate Leaders
- Make gender balance real: Having more women in senior leadership roles is correlated with a substantial increase in total return to shareholders, a performance metric for most CEOs. Why, then, do so many company executives fail to hire, develop, and promote women for clout positions on senior leadership teams? Leaders at the highest levels must move beyond positioning gender balance as politically correct and giving it perfunctory lip service on the corporate agenda. If they are serious about gender balance, they must position it alongside the top business imperatives.
- Re-make Leadership: Despite decades of efforts to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles, the needle on this corporate metric has barely moved. Gender bias is prevalent in the very way leadership is defined – a take charge, have all the answers, aggressive style. Corporate leaders must change both the definitions and practices of leadership. Women will help them do so.
- Walk the talk. Develop women leaders: Seventy-one percent of firms responding to a survey conducted by Mercer, the world’s largest human resource consultancy, do not have a clearly defined strategy or philosophy to develop women for leadership roles. As some of the approaches that work for men do not work as well for women, corporate leaders must invest in modifying these programs to develop women and then follow up with promotional opportunities.
Utilizing this research and her related corporate experience, Dr. Anne Perschel leads and advances aspiring professional women through coaching, development programs, mentoring and sponsorships. By identifying key obstacles such as those uncovered in WOMEN AND THE PARADOX OF POWER, she helps women and organization leaders identify and address issues that help ensure women reach the highest pinnacles of success.
To receive your copy of the full report click the download report button at the top of this page, right hand column.
Face the Ogre
You must jump through the hoop of Fire, and
Skate to the middle of the Pond
to face the Ogre
So fear
Will no longer hold you back
From anything
It will not disappear
But it will not stand in the way
Anymore
A client, who is an executive coach, confronts the ogre who stopped him, as a child, from skating to the middle of the pond. This was sent to him, because regardless of the concrete outcome, he will realize a critical and long lasting achievement…the more important outcome.
I am One Thin Line and a State Law from George Zimmerman
I once heard Maya Angelou say that we are all capable of each and every act, no matter how grand or horrid, that any other human being commits. Profound. It stuck like velcro, and emerged the other day as I discovered the thin line of difference between me and George Zimmerman, the man who has been charged with murdering Trayvon Martin.
It happened in the most simple way. I saw something on the news about George Zimmerman’s wife. His WIFE? The words took me by surprise. Why? The fact that a man is married is not typically shocking.
But I had unconsciously made George Zimmerman into something other than what most humans would be or what they would do. My lack of awareness of what I had done, was dangerous. Why? How could I ever challenge beliefs I don’t know I have? Zimmerman was, unknowingly in my mind, a man no one would marry, or perhaps a man who would not want to marry. Maybe he wasn’t interested in love at all. He was a loner, less human and clearly different from me.
But then suddenly he wasn’t. He had a wife. He is a man who loves someone, and that someone loves him back.
So there I was looking into the mirror of my own unconscious. While examining the image, I saw the very thing that allowed George Zimmerman to go after Trayvor Martin. The making of another into something not quite as human as I am. BINGO! UGLY, but nevertheless there, real, and staring back at me.
I don’t own a gun. I am not violent, although I have no doubt I could be, and I don’t live in state that has a Stand Your Ground law, but I am in other ways not so different from George Zimmerman.
Why is this important?
If all we do as a social system is project our own disavowed stereotypes onto George Zimmerman, or any one else, we will have learned nothing. We will simply have created an object of our own unconscious, another victim of stereotyping in some ways. Justice should, and hopefully will, apply to George Zimmerman, but the rest of us have something more personal to learn, and if we don’t, if our own minds go unexamined, there will be yet another Trayvon Martin and another George Zimmerman.
We can do better than that, can’t we?
Leadership: Small Actions Big Results
Recently I heard two different leaders commit two different small actions BIG RESULTS. Let me explain.
Two senior executives, Eric and Matt, are leading a three year initiative called Innovation through Diversity. I’ve been working with them to craft the plan for this change and as a subject matter expert who “pushes the boundaries of [their] thinking.”
Eric and Matt convened the virtual meetings to invite critical players onto the team that champions, guides, directs and executes plans to achieve the Innovation through Diversity vision. We didn’t want to pressure the eight participants into saying “Yes” on the spot, so we asked them to email their responses to me, within two weeks. Attendees were from New England, California, England, France, Germany, Japan and China. Two meetings would accommodate the range of time zones. Eric led one and Matt led the other. The content and slide sets were identical.
Why You Are Here
As Eric led the first session, he interrupted his formal presentation to address why each participant had been chosen. His statements were personal, specific, and inspiring, in that quiet sort of way. “Craig, you’ve hired the most diverse team in the U.S. The rest of us need to know why and how you do this.” When the call ended, Craig’s email popped onto my screen immediately, “I’m in.”
Why I Am Here
Matt led the second session. He too, interrupted the formal presentation, for a different reason. Matt talked about “the most profound conversation I’ve ever had with my fourteen year old daughter,” who was attending school in Europe. She told her Dad how much she and her views had changed as a result of having classmates from 40 different countries. She compared this experience to the lackluster sameness in her neighborhood school back in the states. We heard the delight, pride and respect in Matt’s voice and understood his commitment to diversity was real and personal.
When Matt’s call ended, every person emailed “I’m in” within the hour.
Tips for Leading Change (or anything else)
Reach out.
Touch people.
Tell them why they matter.
Make it personal.
Tell your story.
And Why it matters to you.
Small Actions Big Results
The Letter I Wish IBM CEO, Virginia Rometty, Had Written
Dear Billy:
With the smell of spring in the air and the Augusta National just around the corner, I am enjoying the prospect of watching this year’s competition in person. Perhaps we might spend a few minutes catching up as well. You will find me near front and center wearing a pink jacket.
In my role as CEO of IBM, I regret to inform you that we are reducing our sponsorship by 50.8 percent. This is, not coincidentally, the percentage of women in the country’s population, according to the 2010 census.
Some members of the board and the executive team pushed very hard for a complete withdrawal of sponsorship now. Out of respect for our longstanding relationship with Augusta, I decided that was too drastic a measure to take all at once and with such short notice. But it is only fair to let you IBM will most likely not be a sponsor of next year’s tournament. I trust this gives you enough time to find other sponsors. If, however, the club adopts a policy of including women members, as CEO I commit that IBM will increase our support by 101.6%, double the percentage of women in the population, and I will do so with great pleasure.
Should you find yourself in a position to answer questions about IBM’s decision, please feel free to reference the following:
Augusta exemplifies world class competition at it’s finest and it is an opportunity for IBM to associate itself with values that form the fiber of our company. Innovation is also critical to IBM. Innovation, simply put, combines existing ideas in new and unusual ways. To foster innovation at IBM we bring together people who think differently and who see the world in different ways. For these reasons, diversity and inclusion is one of IBM’S key strategic imperatives. We have increased the number of women in senior roles by over 500% since the 1990s. We are proud of and benefit greatly from these endeavors. So, supporting an exclusive club, particularly on such a grand and visible scale as Augusta provides, is inconsistent with who we are as a company and how we choose to be seen.
As you know, I personally have no issue with you or the other members and support your right to be in the company of men only on occasion. Believe me, there are certainly times when I relish letting my hair down, so to speak, with the girls.
I hope this year’s tournament brings great weather and glory to the club. I look forward to seeing you there.
Respectfully,
Virginia Rometty,
Chief Executive Officer, International Business Machines
P.S.
Just before signing this letter I saw reference to you “lamenting the games stagnant growth” in the New York Times. Perhaps you might consider including women as a way to seed the expansion you’d like to see. If so, call me, I’d be happy to help.
From the author:
I still hold out hope that IBM’s CEO, its Board of Directors, and other Augusta members who lead corporations that wave the diversity and inclusion banner, will stand together and walk their talk.
When Not to Downsize Your Ego
Ego
gets a bad rap.
Ego
is necessary.
Ego
draws a boundary between the “you” in you and the “them” in them.
Ego
only creates problems when it is too BIG or too HUNGRY.
Like nerve endings in the toes, ego reports back, rather loudly, when psychological toes (or fingers) have been stepped upon.
CUT TO THE FOLLOWING SCENE:
You are in a shoe store.
You point to the red shoes in the window and ask the clerk for a size 7.
You put them on and immediately feel your toes being pinched.
“Too small,” you tell the clerk.
You Move On.
CUT TO THE FOLLOWING SCENE:
But first, you might want to start nodding your head now, because this will sound all too familiar.
You are talking to a colleague about a project in which you are both involved.
You feel as if you have to shrink your body into a small box.
Is the box too small or are you too big?
You do not shine.
You cannot enjoy your brilliance, your humor, your ability to play, or whatever form your talents take.
This is not the first time.
You’ve discussed the dynamic before, more than once.
She persists in pressing you into the box.
MOVE ON
I promise you will be and feel liberated.
You will be able to breathe again.
You will not find her sitting on your shoulder, demanding that you do this, or not do that.
MOVE ON
Be your brilliant self.
N-Joy
The End!
P.S. A friend or colleague who requires you to be less so they can be more, is not a friend at all.
Move on.
You will lose nothing and gain everything.
You will not be alone.
You will have the “you” in you once more.
Toot Your Own Horn 101 – The Reframe
You are a woman (or a man) who finds it hard to toot your own horn.
Women are not alone in finding the breath required for horn tooting, but they do seem to suffer this condition in greater numbers than men.
Many, even those who have risen to the highest levels of professional success, find it difficult and uncomfortable to talk about their accomplishments.
Some say, “It feels egotistical.” Others don’t like to be the focus of attention.
I used to find it difficult to list accomplishments on my resume without the qualifier “as part of a 5 person team,” or some-such, until I was told, “Everyone knows most people don’t work alone these days, so you don’t need to keep pointing it out.” Done.
A New Frame
Reframing a problem often leads to changes in behavior, and the reframe pictured below, of toot your own horn, has made that difference for a number of men and women to whom I’ve passed it along.
It came to me by way of a senior executive who runs a 300 million dollar business unit for a well-known software company. She believes her role extends far beyond the success of her business. She holds herself accountable for spreading the word about how success is achieved. She refers to this as creating “epiphanies of scale.” I like it. And I believe it goes to the heart of the matter for those who see talking about their accomplishments as self-centered. With this reframe, you are sharing the wealth, in the form of knowledge, wisdom and lessons learned. Better yet, it is your obligation to do so.
Your turn. Toot your own horn here, for the purpose of paying it forward and creating epiphanies of scale.
Debunking the Myth that Women Lack Vision
DO WOMEN LACK VISION?
Do women lack vision?
This question was raised, yet one more time, at a recent event featuring a panel of senior executive women at The Boston Club, an organization that advocates for women directors and helps companies place women on boards.
The panel included Laura Sen, CEO, BJ’s wholesale club; Willow Shire, Board Director, TJX; and Gunjan Kedia, Executive Vice President State Street Bank. In response to the question about whether women lack vision, panel moderator, Deborah Kolb, PhD, Simmons College, School of Management, pointed out potential flaws in research on this topic.
In Women and the Vision Thing (Harvard Business Review) Herminia Ibarra concludes,
“Women scored lower on “envisioning”—the ability to recognize new opportunities and trends in the environment and develop a new strategic direction for an enterprise.”
This conclusion was based on 360 ratings by peers of the female research subjects. Why is this important? Peer ratings tend to be lower than those of other rater groups, including managers and direct reports. For this reason, the Emotional Competence Inventory, a well-validated 360 assessment, adjusts the weight of peer group scores. To conclude that women lack vision, based solely on evidence from peer group ratings, seems a bit on the light side, in my not so humble opinion.
In addition, questions about women lacking vision and strategic thinking, may grow from a limited perspective about what vision and strategy look like and how they are expressed. Other Boston Club panelists pointed out how challenging it is for some to hold the notion that women (or any person) can be good with details and strategy simultaneously, or even sequentially. A discussion of gender based brain differences explains why and how women do both, later in this post.
A Different Perspective on Vision
For now, let’s take a leap to Pinterest, where ideas are expressed in pictures, and explore a different way of viewing whether women lack vision. In a recent post at 3Plus International, Vicki Daly wrote that women make up 70 – 80% of Pinterest’s users.
Pinterest is a visual expression of how and what users are thinking. And if a vision isn’t a picture, what is it?
Google+ enables ideas to be expressed in words, and over there, men account for two-thirds of the 90 million users.
Men are for words? Women are for pictures?
As Pinterest grows by leaps and bounds, people are asking whether it is just a fad or a serious player in the social ehter-spehre. Time will tell. And while time takes its time, I wonder whether women are pinning, in part, because it allows us to express our ideas in both words and visions, which is more aligned with how we think.
The evidence for this?
Picture Her Brain
According to Ellen F. Weber, PhD, Director of MITA International Brain Based Center, there are structural differences between men’s and women’s brains. These differences are such that women access and integrate more areas of the brain to solve problems – which is the brain’s highest level function. Men, on the other hand, tend to use a logical step by step analysis. Women solve problems by way of logical analysis, pictures, metaphors, emotions and more. Each of these methods taps a different intelligence and a different area of the brain.
I often think in pictures. It happened the other day when Charlotte was talking about a new man in her life. Into my brain flew an image of Charlotte swimming deep underwater. I shared the image and wondered with Charlotte why this particular image might be coming to mind? She responded that the relationship is taking her places she has long been afraid to go – her fear of deeply intimate relationships – well below the surface.
More Myth Busters
Moving away from Pinterest, the brain, and back to the business world, here are a few examples of women with vision.
Spanx, The Pampered Chef and Rubber Sidewalks are three successful companies started by women who saw needs that others did not notice. Then we have Judy Faulkner, founder of e-health company EPIC Systems, dubbed “Health Care’s Low Key Billionaire” in Forbes. For additional examples dubunking the myth that women lack vision see How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success by Margaret Heffernan.
The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work by Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnshon is another excellent resource for understanding what and how women see differently, and why businesses benefit when leaders open their eyes to this difference.
Are you, or do you know, a woman with vision?
Please share your story here, and my apologies that the comment section does not allow you to post a picture. Perhaps a woman should design an app that does.
Short Red Skirt and High Heeled Shoes: The Woman Advantage
The Woman Advantage
I was driving…
and barely listening to the radio, when this came through the speakers.
” … just a thousand dollars to start you business. Where did that money come from?”
“I slept with my boyfriend and he gave me a thousand dollars. But let me tell ya, I woulda slept with him anyway. He was so handsome, 10 years older than me, so sexy. He didn’t have to give me the money, but once it was there, boy I grabbed it.”
Well, that got my attention.
Barbara Corcoran turned that thousand dollars into a six billion dollar real estate empire. I was listening to her interview on American Public Media radio. Barbara is probably more well-known for her role as a judge on Shark Tank, a reality TV show in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas.
I’ve never watched the show, but I do pay attention to all things women and business. So I listened intently as this brazen woman continued to share her perception of the not-so-secret secrets to her success. She is a savvy business woman, who interestingly cannot read a financial statement, but has much to say that is worth a listen, for men and women alike, but
Here’s what really intrigued me
Barbara Corcoran does not whine, moan, or complain about being the only female at the table. She turns it into the woman advantage instead. That’s different. I like different. I like it when people’s ideas challenge my underlying assumptions about the world. So I was having my thoughts turned all upside down and sideways, while driving.
Barbara talked about the woman advantage of being the only female in the network of old boys who control New York City’s real estate. This onlyness meant she could also differentiate herself by wearing a skirt, and so she did. She chose to make it a short skirt, a red one, a power skirt, with high heels adorning her very shapely legs. Why?
It was the woman
“advantage. They didn’t even have to know my name; I was just the “woman” or the “girl” or the “one in the short skirt.” Who cares? As long as I was noticed. I already got my undue attention that those guys in the most expensive $5,000 suits could never get.”
So, I’m rethinking…
adjusting my mind, changing the frame, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll play the game a little differently the next time I’m the only.
Care to join the fun?
Why I Cannot Serve on the Facebook Board
Dear Mark:
I am honored by your invitation to serve on the Facebook board.
Before responding, I’d like to offer my congratulations and sincere respect to you for creating a company that is built on social value and helps people around the globe connect to make a tremendous positive difference. I also want to acknowledge you for bringing on Sheryl Sandberg as COO. Please tell Sheryl I applaud her valued contributions at Facebook and her strong commanding voice for women.
At this time, however, I cannot accept the nomination.
“Why?” you ask.
I’m pleased that you want to know. My response follows.
Since all the brewhaha over the lack of women on the Facebook board, your competitors have been very active. Because Facebook is a trend setting company, many others in the social media space attempted to “crystal ball” your response to the outcry. The phones of savvy women have been ringing off the hook. Women on boards are suddenly a “must have.” Again, I want to thank you for making this difference.
But I have not accepted any other invitations either.
Again you ask “Why?”
Your curiosity bodes well for the future, as It will allow you and your company to transform, continuously.
The reason is based on my commitment to The Rule of 3, which indicates that for the non-majority (those not in power) voice to be heard, 3 members of said groups must participate in conversations. In fact, they play a role in determining which conversations are critical for the group. Until the Facebook board includes 3 or more women, it is likely that too much pressure will be put on what’s been deemed important in the past – short term bottom line results. This means you may well lose the real social and economic value of what you have built.
Did I hear you correctly Mr. Z? You WILL consider adding another woman to the board?
I thought that’s what you said. Two is not three, but it is a beginning.
Here are a few organizations that can help.
and may I also recommend Gabriella Sannino, founder and head social mediologist at Level343. Her actions seamlessly weave social, business and economic value. She would indeed be a valued voice at the table.
Trapeze Artist and Change Master
The artist lets go the
change trapeze.
A leap of faith
grounded in years of practice,
Intense focus on what lies ahead
and
a safety net below.
Change master
Never looks back.
Learn from her.
Build supports
Envision
future.
Know
next move.
Feel Fear.
Never
Look Back.
Focus
Timing
Let go
Leap
Mid-air
No where
Focus
Next Move
Stretch
Grab
Breathe
Relief
Ease
Swing
Repeat
The Change Trapeze
Leap of Faith
