Germane Insights

ON LEADING AND BE-ING HUMAN

Dear CEO: Why You Shouldn’t Have Women on the Board – Not Even One

Anne Perschel

Once upon a time, there was a mid-size company run by men. It was called The Company. The entire executive team and all board directors at The Company was comprised of men. That seemed just fine, until... One day, for reasons still unknown, but about which I speculate later, the CEO invited a woman onto the board.

Zero Women on the Board

Once upon a time, there was a mid-size company, called The Company, run by men. The entire executive team and all board directors at The Company were men. That seemed just fine, until…

One day, for reasons still unknown, but about which I speculate later, the CEO invited a woman onto the board. And that..

Women Board Directors — Women on the Board

…is when the trouble began. Soon thereafter, another woman board member joined. This meant there were two women on the board, if my math is correct. And then, wouldn’t you just know it? There were rumblings from the board about the need for more diversity in The Company – at all levels. Gee-sh.

Two Women on the Board

At first, the CEO ignored The Rumblings, but they got louder, and the board put pressure on the CEO. After two years, the noise was so loud and the pressure so great, that the CEO responded. How? Well, wouldn’t you just know it. He turned the pressure of The Rumblings to his executive team, which now included one woman, who probably started all the trouble by whispering to the CEO about including women on the board. He told the executives that he was holding each and every one of them accountable for setting and achieving diversity goals. It got worse. The CEO went on to say that innovation was critical to The Company’s future, and that diversity, would spark innovation.

Some of The Executives took actions that started to change things at The Company. The Actions included matching executive sponsors with high potential women leaders and holding The Sponsor, in part, accountable for her success. They also sponsored a Mini-Mentoring event. There was more, but I will spare you the gory details.

The Affects started to trickle down, or up, as the case may be. A woman who heads up business development of a Different Company attended the Mini-Mentoring event. While there, she met an executive from Third Company. They met again several weeks later and Third Company decided to buy equipment from The Different Company to improve Third Company’s product reliability. The Company refers to this type of situation as a Win-Win. But really it’s a Win-Win-Win, when you think about advancing women in business.

There’s more. Two days after the event, the Mini-Mentoring host introduced one of the mentors, a woman board member, to another woman board member who couldn’t attend because she was at a board meeting in Sweden. The two women board members have since been conspiring to refer each other to company boards, upon request from said companies. Oy! Look what The Women are doing.

This is all creating much trouble for more companies who think women on the board is a good idea. Little do they know.

Not the End of the Story – Women on the Board

This is not the end of the story, because there are still women on the board of The Company, but now there are more women is management roles as well. They are all still causing trouble, bringing greater innovation by way of diversity, and changing things at The Company. Oy Vey! Will it never end?

But this is where my telling of the story ends, and I hope that I’ve made it clear why you should not have women on your board, ever.