Most Likely to Succeed: What matters most when you are trying to get ahead
Choosing the right company is important for everyone, but in today’s job market, it is tempting and more acceptable to move around from one company to the next. Although this kind of job-hopping may not carry the same stigma it used to, according to a new study from the Harvard Business Review, How Female CEO’s Actually Get to the Top, the most common path of the Fortune 500’s female CEO’s is one of long-term employment at one company, moving ahead from within.
The median long stint for these women CEOs is 23 years spent at a single company before becoming the CEO, compared to only 15 years for men. This means that for women, the long climb is over 50% longer than for their male peers. In addition, 71% of the female CEOs were promoted as long-term insiders versus only 48% of the male CEOs.
This means that it is especially important for women in the middle of their careers to find the best possible fit when looking to advance their career at their company or someplace new.
Finding the right company to go the distance with
Sharon Hadary who co-authors with Laura Henderson the book How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know believes that the importance of finding a company whose values match your own is key. In order to understand just what your values are—beyond the friendly HR language—she suggested women “look for the factual evidence that companies are supportive of women and that it’s not just words”. This means finding out how many women are in senior positions, hold positions on boards, and are involved in company supported networking groups. Hadary is not without cynicism however as it is really important to see how the rubber meets the road beyond programmatic solutions and comments,
“I always worry about women in programs, lots of companies will talk about their programs they have for women, but do they really put it into practice?”
Bonnie Marcus, author of The Politics of Promotion, echoes Hadary’s concerns. We asked her how women can really tell the difference between companies who are paying lip-service to diversity and those that truly support women. In addition to Hadary’s points, Marcus suggests noting whether or not women have P&L responsibility.
“Many companies will boast that they have promoted women to assume leadership roles, but when you take a good look at the organizational chart you may discover that these positions do not come with any fiscal responsibility. In other words, the company may have gendered roles even at the senior level.”
This is closely linked to her next suggestion, which is to make sure you have an understanding of women’s power and influence in the overall operations and strategy of the company. She suggests finding out the role women play in the overall operations and strategy of the company.
“Do they have any involvement in setting the direction of the company? Do women at all levels sit on committees that have a voice with senior management?”
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, this second point is one of the primary reasons there aren’t more women at the tippy top of the corporate ladder—they are not in operational positions that will give them the necessary experience for making the kinds of decisions that impact the company’s bottom line. Instead, they tend to rise to the top of functional departments, like human resources or finance. In fact, their numbers show 55% of the women in senior positions of the S&P’s 500 head these kinds of functional departments. When paired with the fact that 94% of these same companies’ CEO’s were in senior management positions of operations—like the development of product lines—immediately before making that final leap to the top, it seems especially important to find a company that already has women in these senior roles.
Recently, the Glass Hammer reported on how women can best make the transition back to work after taking a break. Business Insider reports that the unconscious bias associated with women who have children—that their commitment to their children will outweigh their commitment to their work—remains a large factor in their overall career progress. So, if you are planning to have a family one day, you may also want to note how many of the senior female executives have children and get a sense of their overall experience. The conversation about working mothers tends to revolve around work-life balance, but there is more to it than just finding time for car pool and illness. It’s about giving mothers the responsibility of projects that have a direct impact on the bottom line.
Finally, Marcus suggests finding out whether or not their programs and networks meant to support women actually have a budget.
“Many of these programs lack any financial support which most likely indicates the company is paying lip service to supporting the advancement of women. Very little can be accomplished without money or executive sponsorship.”
There is no telling the future, and there is no sure fire road to the top. And yes, you may do everything right, follow the rules, be assertive, engage men, find a mentor and take every other piece of advice given, and still not make it. Sometimes, the numbers are just that tough and the intentions that hard to decipher. These hard facts are all the more reason to be focused, be smart and do your research when looking for that next job—it is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make. And even though it can be fun to hop around, and even a good idea early in your career, but eventually, your best chances of getting ahead will be found when you commit to a company that is equally committed to you.
By Rebecca S. Caum
