Why Do We Need a Business Case for Equality Anyway?

Confident young business woman in black suit against whiteBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

How many times have you heard a business leader announcing the oft-repeated refrain: “Diversity isn’t just the right thing to do – it means good business”?

In a recent study by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, Mindy Storrie, Director of Leadership Development, discusses the business imperative for gender equality. She writes:

“Women are not only increasingly the primary breadwinners, they are also the world’s largest group in terms of purchasing decisions; studies show that women comprise between 80 and 85 percent of the U.S. consumer market. Combine this with the knowledge that companies with higher percentages of female senior-level managers tend to outperform their competitors, it comes as no surprise that those organizations failing to target women in recruiting, development and retention strategies may miss their bottom-line goals.”

Storrie provides references to several studies showing the business case for gender equality:

  • A Thomson Reuters report suggesting that companies with greater gender diversity perform better, especially in harsh market conditions.
  • McKinsey’s 2007 research showing that companies with more women in senior management had higher growth in stock prices.
  • Another McKinsey report showing that the addition of women to the workforce since the ‘70s has increased the US economy by 25%.

And she also references research on the benefits of female leaders:

  • A recent Zenger Folkman report showing women perform better when it comes to leadership competencies.
  • A Korn/Ferry study showing that women executives perform higher than their male peers in all leadership characteristics except confidence.

And let’s not forget the slew of research done by organizations like Catalyst, as well as consultancies like Deloitte, and many academic studies by universities on the business advantages associated with an increased percentage of women in leadership.

Sure, the business case is widely available and accepted. We’ve discussed it many times on The Glass Hammer. And yet.

As Storrie explains, women are still a significant minority the senior levels of the business, management, and financial space. In addition to that, she continues, women in the C-suite make 13-25% less than their male counterparts. Why isn’t the business case convincing companies to work harder to ensure their women are being treated equally?

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Networking with Women

Discussion between two female executivesBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In a Forbes piece last month, Stacey Gordon, Managing Principal of The Gordon Group and former President of the National Association of Women MBAs asked why women need women-only networks.

After all, if the majority of powerful people at this point are men, wouldn’t it be wise to network with them? Of course. But there’s good cause to build relationships in a women-focused environment as well. Gordon’s answer is simple and powerful.

Women’s networks are the one place where women don’t face questions about whether they belong, based solely from their gender. She writes, “When we’re not being judged by our actions, our speech, our tone of voice or our discussion of families and babies in business setting, we are able to put those perceived (and in many cases, actual) condemnations aside and get down to business.”

When gender differences are removed from the equation, questions of legitimacy are based solely on your credentials.

“We are judged all the time and we’d like to occasionally be in a place where we are judged less. Or at least judged on criteria that pertains to our jobs rather than to our gender,” she adds.

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Professional Duos Make Dual Careers Work at PwC

iStock_000019460231XSmallBy Robin Madell, San Francisco

Dual-career couples represent a large and growing segment of the international workforce. A 2011 study by the SPE Talent Council, which reported results from 93 countries, suggests that dual-career couples comprise about half of the workforce globally.

According to a 2012 Catalyst study, nearly 60 percent of married couples with children in the United States were dual-career couples in 2011. A recent article published by the American Counseling Association (ACA) reports that the number within major U.S. corporations may be as high as 70 percent, and notes that earlier research has predicted that the percentage may climb to 80 percent in the next decade.

In addition to these percentages reported for heterosexual married couples, there are also many gay and lesbian working couples in the mix. The ACA article noted that the number of gay and lesbian dual-career couples is expected to increase along with straight couples. The article also pointed out that gay and lesbian dual-career couples “share common relationship and career experiences with dual-career heterosexual couples, such as time management, multiple roles, and division of labor.”

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Voice of Experience: PJ Johnson, Managing Director and Global Head for Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Compliance, Citi

pjjohnsonBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

To Pamela (PJ) Johnson, Managing Director and Global Head for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions Compliance at Citi, mentoring and developing individuals is a chief source of satisfaction.

“I’ve worked on pieces of important legislation, including the USA PATRIOT Act, and a number of significant money laundering cases. But, as I turn 50, what I’m most proud of is my role in creating a community of AML professionals.”

“Whether it is people with whom I have worked or others who have worked for me, it is satisfying to see people develop and move up the ranks to larger and more challenging positions.”

She continued, “As I look at my team in particular, I’m very humbled to be surrounded by such experienced and dedicated professionals. I’d be delighted to think that I may have contributed in some positive way either through mentoring or educating people about AML.”

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Got Fear? Five Practices to go from Fears to Fierce

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

Does this situation sound familiar? You want to really go for that promotion but you don’t think you’re quite ready so you don’t raise your hand. You’ve been thinking about pursuing an entrepreneurial venture but are afraid of losing the steady paycheck so you don’t take the next step toward your dream. Your company offers you a challenging global assignment, but you’re not sure how you’ll navigate that so you say “No.” You want to really go after a big client but are afraid to ask for the business.

Our fears stop us from stepping outside our comfort zone, yet all growth toward our own highest potential lies outside of our comfort zone. What to do? Face your fears.

I got to know fear pretty well as I faced the prospect of giving up a 20-year career and steady paycheck to start my own business at the height of the recession. I can honestly say that a year and half into my business, I still have my fears (including moments of utter panic). Here are some leadership practices I pursue so that I can still have my fears but they no longer have me!

Here are the five leadership practices you can try:

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How the Perception Gap Slows Gender Equality

iStock_000009913938XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new study out of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, men and women view the gap between genders at the workplace very differently.

For example, based on a study of 925 professionals involved in talent development at top companies in the US, 57% of men said the number of women in senior management had increased in the past five years – compared with only 36% of women. Similarly, 53% of men said their companies were “extremely” or “moderately” effective at recruiting women, compared with only 33% of women.

When it came to retention of women, 73% of men said their organizations were “extremely” or “moderately” effective, and only 52% of women said the same.

In each case men were roughly 20% more positive than women regarding their firm’s efforts toward promoting, recruiting, and retaining female employees. This gap in perception reveals one way that men and women experience corporate life differently – and, it could be slowing women’s movement to the top.

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Get in Line: Negotiate for P&L Experience Now

Female leaderBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to McKinsey’s latest report on advancing women in US companies, “Unlocking the Full Potential of Women at Work,” one of the most impactful career moves women can make is to move into a line role. You don’t have to stay there forever, but getting profit and loss experience throughout your career helps you showcase your competence and appetite for leadership – characteristics that will propel you to the top.

Based on a review of 60 large US corporations, hundreds of interviews, and thousands of surveys, the consulting firm sought to determine the top practices by which companies can retain women and promote them to the c-suite. Much of the work that will enable women to advance in greater numbers is institutional – gender supportive leadership, managerial accountability, carefully monitored metrics at every level. But there is room for individual strategy and growth as well.

Lareina Yee, co-author of the report with Joanna Barsh, explained, “One of the things we did was to interview 200 successful individual women, and distill their shared characteristics of success. One of them was line experience.”

How successful? According to Yee, “79% of women who were very successful and reached the upper echelons had line experience as a big part of her portfolio.”

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Sponsors See a $25K Pay Boost

iStock_000009318986XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to the latest research from Catalyst, sponsoring high potential employees comes along with significant benefits. In addition to developing key allies and demonstrating your own leadership capabilities, sponsoring a protégé is correlated with compensation growth.

How much? Catalyst says that during the 2008 to 2010 time period, sponsors received an additional $25,075.

Christine Silva, co-author of the report along with Sarah Dinolfo and Nancy M. Carter, explained, “We were really pleased that we had hard numbers showing that sponsorship is a win-win. When you pay it forward and develop others, you also get ahead further and faster.”

She added, “Not only that, but there’s a benefit to the organization when people help develop the next generation of leaders. So sponsorship really is a triple win.”

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Handling Direct Challenges to Your Authority

tanvigautamContributed by Tanvi Gautam, PhD

It was a quiet afternoon, as almost the entire team was out for an offsite retreat. It had been three months into my new job and I was left holding the fort. Then the phone rang. The CEO’s office wanted some analysis in an hour. Someone had to go and present the data. That someone had to be me!

But while the query was routine, the database was managed by an IT guy who had issues with female authority figures. Other women had warned me about him.

I requested the report from him and explained the urgency the best I could. The simple report should have taken ten minutes. Yet, after anxiously waiting for forty-five minutes and despite an email reminder, I still did not get it. Finally, I walked up to him and asked him to “please hurry it up as the meeting starts in fifteen minutes.” That’s when all Hell broke loose.

He yelled on top of his voice “You better wait. I will give it to you when it is done. You are not the boss, so stop behaving like one. I don’t care if it is urgent.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Everyone stopped to stare at me.

My stomach was in a knot, my mouth was dry, but I knew I could not let it go. Then with every ounce of courage I could muster, I amazed myself by telling him, “ Mr. Johnson, no one has, no one will and certainly not you, will ever talk to me like that.”

Then I walked out of the room trying not to reveal my shaken up demeanor. I somehow regained my composure in the restroom recognizing the timing of the presentation at hand. On my return, the room was still silent but the report was on my desk.

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Nature or Nurture: Diversity in the Financial Services

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Business ProfessionalsBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In a New York Times opinion piece this weekend, Cambridge research fellow John Coates describes with compelling detail the way hormones influence the behavior of (male) traders. He writes, “[Testosterone] produced by men (and, in lesser quantities, by women) primes the trader for the challenge ahead, just as it does athletes preparing to compete and male animals to fight. Rising levels increase confidence and, crucially, appetite for risk.”

Considering the awe with which Coates narrates the effects of the chemical trio testosterone, adrenaline, and cortisol, you’d think he was channeling Sir David Attenborough. “Finally… the trader leans into his screen, pupils dilated, breathing rhythmic, muscles coiled, body and brain fused for impending action.”

Coates suggests that this biological interplay is so pronounced in younger men that it can drive markets to soar or crash.

His solution? More women. “Women and older men have a fraction of the testosterone of young men, so if more of them managed money, we could perhaps stabilize the markets,” he writes.

In Coates’ bleak description of the (male) trading mechanism, he envisions women as the brakes for a contraption spinning out of control. Calls for diversity are, of course, appreciated. But using women as a tool to gum up the works, rather than overhauling a system that overrewards risky behavior, seems more like a quick fix than a long-term solution. More seriously, it reduces individual humans to purposefully ill-fitting cogs in a corporate machine.

Would you want to work for a company that only hired you because it believes your biological construction is inherently ill-suited for the way its top performers make money?

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