Wake Up: We Need to Fix the Business Case for Women in Leadership

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iStock_000011687553XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Fifteen percent. That’s how many women make up executive committees of American’s top companies. In Europe it’s only 7%. And in Asia – only 3%. That’s what 20-First revealed in this year’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey.

And while these are all more than… say… zero percent, it’s nowhere near the 30% critical mass so many female leaders have called for, nor the company-specific gender balance approach advocated for by 20-First’s Founder and CEO Avivah Wittenberg-Cox.

What can we do to correct the imbalance? Wittenberg-Cox says it comes down to the framing of the issue. “When women consider themselves ‘diverse’ they are keeping themselves in the minority.” In actuality, women are not in the minority at all. For example, she continued, women make up 60% of Europe’s university graduates and 80% of consumers – both of which are clearly majority percentages. “Until women understand this, we will not convince the guys that gender is a strategic business issue,” she said.

Similarly, a recent survey of board directors [PDF] showed that the business case for women in corporate leadership is failing.

The study, by Heidrick and Struggles, WomenCorporateDirectors, and Dr. Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School, showed that “More women directors than men felt that three ore more women on a board made it more effective (51% vs. 12%) and that women brought unique attributes to the board (90% vs. 56%).”

The 20-First analysis of Executive Committee gender balance and the Heidrick and Struggles study on board directors show one thing – we’re not getting anywhere fast when it comes to achieving gender parity at the highest levels.

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Voice of Experience: Theresa S. Wilson, CIO/Operations and EVP Technical Services, Wells Fargo

Theresa WilsonBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Make sure you’re in front of the right leadership, that you’re sharing about the type of work you do,” advised Theresa S. Wilson, CIO of Operations and EVP of Technical Services at Wells Fargo. She continued, “You have to be vocal.”

Wilson, who has been with her company for 34 years, through several mergers and acquisitions, emphasized the importance of portraying one’s skills. She said, “It’s always good to step outside [your area] and help another group, so you can show your leadership style to others and build a wide breadth of your network.”

She continued, “Volunteer to do extra work. Demonstrate your leadership.”

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Eliminating Unconscious Bias, for a More Productive Workplace

salmaContributed by Salma Shah, Founder of Beyond, an HR talent consultancy.

Is unconscious bias impacting business performance? The UK consultancy Beyond’s recent Unconscious Bias survey results reveal 1 in 3 believe consciously or unconsciously that a woman’s place is at home and not work.

67% of those surveyed have a low or no bias at all. At first glance this appears to be good news. On close scrutiny 1 in 4 of this group when placed under pressure emotionally or cognitively and their biases too will surface. The same applies to the 26% with a moderate bias. We’ve all been there, unrealistic deadlines, last minute requests in the inbox, difficult colleagues, meetings that are time wasting, unachievable targets, budgets being squeezed, clients delaying decisions and on and on.

Everyone has pre-existing concepts surrounding particular groups. These concepts can form at an early age from personal experiences, what we see in the media and moral guidelines for example parental influence and education. The internal perceptions we have of certain groups lead to prejudgements that take place automatically, at high velocity, and are not privy to conscious manipulation. Through bringing the concept of unconscious bias into individual awareness, we begin a process that can regulate the resulting behaviours and eventually effect the beliefs that exist.

Is unconscious bias impacting your business performance? Are there challenges in attracting, retaining and developing top female and diverse talent?

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Boardroom Diversity is Public Issue – Here’s Why

Asian businesswoman conversing with co-workers in office boardroBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

When you bring up the need to get more women in the boardroom, you’re bound to encounter some push-back. You might hear, “Why should companies be told what the gender-makeup of their boardroom should be? Since companies are in the business of making money, won’t they automatically choose the right person for the job, regardless of gender, to maximize their revenues?”

No matter how many studies come out that say leadership diversity is good for business, most people, in the US at least, are still opposed to companies being required to fill a certain percentage of board seats with women. Most people feel it’s just none of our business, really, or the government’s, to meddle in the affairs of our largest corporations.

But, the people running our largest corporations are subject to public, cultural assumptions – which are preventing women from achieving their highest potential. The shareholders of these corporations – the public – are too. If the public is convinced that boardroom diversity is good for business, won’t shareholders influence companies to hire more women for their boardrooms?

But are shareholders convinced that women business leaders make just as good decisions as men? A new study says no. And that certainly is the public’s business.

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Voice of Experience: Camille Mirshokrai, Senior Executive and Director of Global Leadership Development, Accenture

camilleBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“We all have different definitions of success,” said Camille Mirshokrai, Director of Global Leadership Development at Accenture. She continued, “The only way we can define it so to truly know ourselves.”

After almost 17 years at Accenture, the majority of them working in leadership development and succession planning, Mirshokrai has helped design the fabric of the company’s leadership culture. She said, “We have to manage our career instead of the organization managing our career. Be in control of your destiny.”

Mirshokrai said, “It’s important to me, [when working with] groups of women, to urge them to be supportive networks to each other. We have to help the women in generations that come after us. Someone helped us climb the ladder, and we have to help them climb the ladder.

She continued, “The best way to retain women is to take on roles with responsibility for the next generation.”

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Corporate Philanthropy: Touching Lives and Filling the Career Pipeline Too

iStock_000007302251XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

On The Glass Hammer, we’ve covered a number of corporate philanthropy and development programs. Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about the importance of making sure those programs are sustainable in the long term, and measuring success over time.

But by maintaining a large-scale, institutional focus (as important as it may be for strategic planning and benchmarking success), it can be easy to lose sight of the individuals whose lives are touched by volunteers and scholarship programs every day.

Recently we had the opportunity to speak with a remarkable young woman, Sophie Kirby, who is one of those people. After growing up in California’s foster care system, Kirby, who was married and a new mom at 21, and then divorced and single mother 4 years ago, is working to finish college and enter the financial services industry. She’s faced down lifelong challenges, and with the help of mentors and sponsors, and a scholarship from Mass Mutual‘s general agency, Sapient Financial Group, she is well on her way to entering the leadership pipeline. Here is her story.

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Voice of Experience: Anne Erni, Head of Leadership, Learning and Diversity, Bloomberg LP

anne_erniBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“As my career on the trading floor progressed, I began noticing women disappearing all around me,” said Anne Erni, head of diversity at Bloomberg. Before moving to Bloomberg, Erni was one of the founders of WILL, Lehman Brothers‘ women’s network. After founding WILL, she said, “I really began to understand the importance of sisterhood in the workplace.”

Erni, who described her career as “non-linear,” began her career on the trading floor, eventually becoming SVP, Prime Brokerage at Lehman, before taking on the Chief Diversity Officer role there.

“I want to drive people to contribute their very best, so they can make the most of their careers,” she explained. “I am passionate about people feeling passionate about coming to work.”

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Nordic Countries Top Gender Equality List: What Are They Doing Right?

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Confident business woman with other employee's at the backBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

The World Economic Forum has just released its Global Gender Gap Report [PDF] for 2010. And for the second year in a row, Iceland topped the list as having the smallest gender gap. The report ranks countries based on gender balance related to economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

The report showed that across most countries, the gender gaps in heath and education are nearly closed, but parity is a long way off for economic and political attainment. The report says:

“However, the gap between women and men on economic participation and political empowerment remains wide: only 59% of the economic outcomes gap and only 18% of the political outcomes gap has been closed.”

The continued gap in these areas is a serious problem. When women across the globe are not considered as valuable as men economically or politically, we are ignoring half of our best and brightest individuals. It follows that companies and countries are only performing at half capacity. Vineet Nayar, Chief Executive Officer, HCL Technologies, said:

“The Global Gender Gap Report highlights serious gender inequities that need to be rectified. But just as important, it shines a light on the squandered resources that result from our failure to leverage female human capital. The report’s message is one that businesses must heed — not just out of fairness but because companies are wasting talents and skills that can generate significant competitive advantage.”

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35 Under 35: Sara Grillo, CFA, Principal, Diamond Oak Capital Advisors

Sara_picture-1By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Lead with your heart and don’t be afraid of who you are,” said Sara Grillo, Principal at Diamond Oak Capital Advisors and Adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan College.

She continued, “If you’re a leader, a role model, a mentor, you have to live it. You have to breathe it.”

Grillo takes her duty as a leader seriously, working to mentor or teach as many women as possible that they can succeed if they believe in themselves. Why? Grillo says she is on a crusade to increase the number of female CFA Charter holders to 50% – currently only 19%.

While she serves as a mentor within the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA), Harvard, and the NYU Stern School of Business, Grillo explained, “Mentors are more in need for women who aren’t in programs – like the woman who gets picked on by her boss or who doesn’t quite fit in with the other girls at school.” From the subway to the schoolroom, Grillo does her best to inspire women to reach higher.

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What Does “Board Ready” Really Mean?

iStock_000003482002XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Based on the latest Catalyst figures, women constitute only 11 percent of U.S. Fortune 1000 company board seats and 25 percent of Fortune 1000 companies still have no women on their boards. Numbers are similar in Europe, where women account for just 9.7 percent of board members in the top 300 European companies. When discussing why it is that women are still so underrepresented on boards in the U.S. and abroad, there are differing opinions. Some strongly believe there is a glass ceiling in place that hinders women from moving up the ranks, while others believe it’s a matter of too few qualified women being in the pipeline. According to new research released by the three-year-old London-based company Bird & Co Board & Executive Mentoring, the glass ceiling is a distraction and the real problem is clearly a lack of “board ready” women in the pipeline.

In 2008, the company undertook a research project to identify what will help get more women into board positions – and what resulted was their Glass Ladder Report [PDF]. According to Kathleen O’Donovan, founding partner of the company, their aim with the report was not just to identify barriers, but to seek opportunities for positive change and to find out what would help more women get to the top.

“Our research confirmed there is widespread recognition that a board’s performance can be enhanced by the addition of one or more women and indeed, there’s much enthusiasm for programs to increase the number of women in senior management positions,” O’Donovan said. “Our research also made clear that this is a supply-side issue. Increasing female representation on boards is simply not going to be feasible without a significant increase in the pool of women who have the experience and preparation to be classed as genuinely board ready.”

By being board ready, O’Donovan means having a real sense of what is expected of board directors and how to deliver; understanding that a non-executive directorship is not merely an extension of the executive role – it is another job with its own requirements and responsibilities; being clear about what they bring to the board and what experiences they have that will be of value to that board; and understanding the process of board search and nomination committees and being prepared for interviews and board panels.

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