Women workingThis Week’s Tip Is….

Addressing your skill blindspots.

Many people who I coach talk to me about gaps in their professional development ( either their firm doesn’t provide it or there is something specific that they want to develop that isn’t necessarily easy to learn in a course).

Make a list of the tasks or areas that you feel you need to be better at. Writing it down ( identifying it) is the first step to making a plan.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com is you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work.

Sallie KrawcheckSallie Krawcheck, for those who don’t know, is now the CEO of Ellevate – a women’s professional network, with its tens of thousands of women members around the world formerly known as 85 Broads. She seems almost archetypal as she tells her story, in a wood-paneled room at Barnard College earlier this year (February 2015), where she is speaking to a group of young would-be entrepreneurs. Confident, laid-back and very funny, she describes her dramatic trajectory in the world of finance. For those of you who don’t know Sallie’s journey; she graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, and got a job on wall street, did an MBA at Columbia and before long was Institutional Investor magazine’s top-ranked equity analyst.

Integrity has always been important to her and her guidance to the firm of which she had become CEO, Sanford C Bernstein, was cited as a major reason why this firm withdrew from the underwriting business. This was one of the decisions that caused Fortune to identify her in 2002 as “The Last Honest Analyst.”

Chutes and Ladders

From there she began her swift ascent. Krawcheck seemed for years after to have a golden career. She was tapped for top leadership at the major banks: from Smith Barney to Merrill Lynch to US Trust. Others followed: In 2005, Forbes named Krawcheck as number seven on its list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Most recently, Krawcheck was named #9 on Fast Company’s list of the 100 most creative people of 2014.

But it was not all a clear flight path. When a commentator at a recent lecture of hers, at which she shared her insights for younger women who wish to learn from her journey, pointed out that Krawcheck “rose faster and higher than any woman on Wall Street,” Krawcheck replied, with disarming candor, “and fell.”“I rose swiftly and I fell….It isn’t all a straight line. And you will fall – get back up. I just refused to go away.” Krawcheck expanded further on the idea of resilience as a necessary quality for women in leadership. But often women don’t, her questioner pointed out– they might take a setback or professional rejection personally, or feel demotivated. Krawcheck conceded: “It hurts. I ran Smith Barney – I was fired from that. I’m the only woman who has been fired on the front page of the Wall Street Journal two times. It hurts.” Krawcheck continued, “To me you live one life,” she went on, pushing back gently, in a way that felt quite inspiring. “You get one opportunity. You grab it with both hands – the worst thing that can happen is that you fail. To me that is not such a bad alternative.”

She notes that her worst day is better than the days of 99% of the rest of the world. “When you have that lens,” she concludes, “it is not “poor me.” It gives you perspective when you keep in mind where the rest of the world is compared to our good fortune.”

Best Advice

Krawcheck shared three insights, in addition to work your tail off.

Number 1: “Network, network, network.”

She points out that young women say, `“I don’t want to use a connection – I just want to be recognized for myself.”’ The assumption, “”If I just keep my head down and do good work I will be recognized” is, Krawcheck warns, a common myth among women. “There is no HR fairy godmother”,” she declared to roars of laughter and applause. “Who you know is what you know,” she emphasized. “The guys know a lot of people. We need to know a lot of people.” She presents fascinating data that reveal that women don’t see the power of networking until their 30s – by which time the men have moved ahead.

Number 2: “Keep Learning”

The number of women her age, she says, who proclaim, “Oh I don’t get Facebook!” “Well, Facebook is not going anywhere,” she remarked drily, to more laughter. Or “I’m not on LinkedIn” – to which she retorted, “Why? You don’t want anyone to find you?” She pointed out that her ability to find and acquire Ellevate depended on a chain of ten connections.

Number 3: “Avoid Groupthink”

The third insight that she shared that day, is that groupthink is bad for the bottom line, and that in her opinion diversity helps cure groupthink. Bankers, she says, did not see the bubble coming because they were all invested in the groupthink about the sector.

Krawcheck states “Diverse teams lead to higher return on capital, lower risk and greater long term focus. Diverse teams outperform smarter teams. “

Number 4: “Share Information”

Finally she shared the insight that Ellevate’s research shows that women seek different rewards from work than men do. “Meaning and purpose” is number one for women – money is number four. So she suggests that a goal of companies that want to retain and promote women should be to bring “meaning and purpose” into their mission. She comments, “If these institutions were about meaning and purpose, not just money, It could change everything. We are not finding it [these values] in existing companies so we are creating them, and they are amazing.”

She believes that women also need community and companies need women to be in community, and she concluded that when women are in networks such as Ellevate, in which they can share information and knowledge. Sallie quoted a reduced attrition rate for these women compared to that of their peers due to network participation.

Now Krawcheck, who has been at the head of many of these traditional models of a business, is running a 21st century disruptive model, that seeks to combine revenue generation with a transformational mission of identifying and boosting women’s ventures. She is now putting these “Aha!” insights into real time practice; and this kind of project and message, as it moves ahead alongside that of other women pioneers with aligned insights – indeed“could change everything”.

By Guest Contributor Naomi Wolf on behalf of the Athena Leadership Center, a partner of theglasshammer.com

women salesGuest contributed by Wendy Wallbridge

There’s no question that women have achieved success in today’s business world. More than half the work force now is female. The familiar “Rosie the Riveter” poster, created in 1942 to help America visualize women in the work force, is an historical artifact now. There is no need to create an image. All we have to do is open our eyes.

But while women have succeeded in numbers, we still do not attain the higher rungs of the success ladder. Few of us climb higher than middle management. As Sheryl Sandberg aptly points out, “Women are not making it to the top of any profession in the world.”

It would be easy to lay the blame on external causes. Systemic sexism persists; we know that. But without making it about “them,” what, first of all, can we women do to understand the challenges that we face, and secondly, what can we do to create change for ourselves and in the system as well?

While there may be external forces at work, if we’re honest, we must acknowledge an internal monologue that holds us back. Somehow we believe we need to continue to prove we have earned the success we have achieved. Even when we succeed, even when we have the coveted job, we seem to think we still need to apply for it. We tend to think there is someone more well-suited for the opportunity, we dismiss our value-add, we opt out, we wait and see.

Not just our mind, but our wiring—our neuro-circuitry—works against us in this regard. Ironically, while women generally have better memories than men, helping us to multi-task, we also tend to hold on to past failures and ruminate to our own disadvantage. We “stew” in the soup of our imagined shortcomings. As neuropsychologist Rick Hanson says, human brains “are Velcro to bad experiences and Teflon to good experiences.” Unfortunately, that is especially true of women.

It turns out, it takes concerted effort to make positive experiences “stick.” Hanson encourages his clients to “marinate” in positive thoughts by consciously dwelling on the good stuff: happy experiences, satisfaction, joy, for ten to twelve seconds. Evolving neuroscience shows that a practice of this sort (mental activity which stimulates reward neurotransmitters dopamine and natural opioids) stimulates a general “brightening” of the mind. As Hanson says, “neurons that fire together, wire together.” By changing mental activity, by working at making the positive sink in, we can change our neural circuitry, and in turn change the way we think.

The solution for women in the workplace is to target that technique on work experience: Women need to learn how to internalize the successes they have. Re-story their narrative. Re-engineer their mental and emotional wiring. Lay down new neuro-circuitry.

Here are some ways to do that:
  • Keep a Kudos File

Record the progress you make, first in your own words, in a file, along with any acknowledgement you receive from others of your “wins,” whether big or teensy. Archive all emails like: “Hey you killed it at that meeting!” “Great presentation!” “Your execution on that project was flawless.”

  • Stage a Mental Intervention

When you catch yourself speaking to yourself in ways that make you feel small, have a mantra handy that reminds you of who you really are. Say, “I am gracious, magnanimous, a wise leader!” Pause and allow those words to percolate through your mind.

  • Track Your Gains and Appoint an Ally

Identify one valued workplace behavior you want to increase, like speaking up more in meetings, and make note in a document file every time you do it. Then ask a trusted co-worker to point out your progress and also to let you know when you do “that thing” you’re trying to change: being defensive, trying to prove yourself, speaking pessimistically, whatever it may be.

  • Create Community

Form a professional women’s circle of four to six colleagues to support one another in your development and provide honest feedback and encouragement for each other. We need to be heard and hear that we’re not alone in our challenges. Give that meeting a regular slot in your schedule, and stand by it.

  • Embody it

As your head hits the pillow mentally scroll through your day, intentionally focusing on anything you are proud of that happened that day, whether big or small, and allow yourself to really feel the success in your body.

If these suggestions seem simple, good! Just know that they are not simply “helpful hints” but are potentially powerful tools, based on brain science. By changing the way we frame our experience in word and thought, we affect our wiring. We can change the way we think. And if workplace mindset really plays a part in holding women back, the good news is, we can change that.

Guest contributor’s advice and opinions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

Wendy Wallbridge is a strategic advisor and pioneer in the coaching field. As the founder and principal of On Your Mark Corporate Coaching, Wallbridge works with Fortune 100 leaders and teams at organizations such as Intel, Apple, Wells-Fargo and Hewlett-Packard, among others. A popular Tedx speaker and producer of both the TEDxSandHillRdWomen conference and the Women’s Evolutionary Leadership Forum, Wallbridge has earned a reputation for establishing breakthrough conversations that enhance the way women work, live, play, and contribute.She regularly presents to organizations such as UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, the Professional Business Women’s Conference, The Commonwealth Club, Women in Technology International, The Women’s Leadership Forum and the 3% Conference, and also teaches an annual “Leading with Power & Grace” six-month group coaching series for women. For more information, please visit www.wendywallbridge.com.

women salesThis Week’s Tip Is…..

All jobs have tasks that we prefer over other tasks. Be honest with yourself, how strategically important are the tasks that you are avoiding? If they rank highly either for your current role or as a development skill, then consider setting time aside formally in your calendar to undertake them on a regular basis as habit can be a great way to embrace them.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Sad businesswomanGuest Contribution by Luisa Zhou

Successful high achievers (like you and me) have a huge disadvantage when it comes to advancing our careers.

It’s the fear of not being perfect.

If you’re constantly scrambling to fix “just one more thing,” if your social life no longer exists because you’re always working, or if you worry perpetually about others’ opinions, then you know what I’m talking about.

And while it’s gotten you to where you are today, you know that if you keep on working like this, you’ll burn out long before you get that coveted “C” title.

So what’s an ambitious professional to do?

Below are the top 3 signs your perfectionism is hurting instead of helping, and what to do instead.

1. You live by an all-or-nothing mentality. Every project you oversee has to be as flawless as the Hope Diamond.

Do any of the following sound familiar?

This is still not good enough!

I need to push the deadline back because this isn’t just right…

How can I face that client after that mistake?!

If so, you need to: Get comfortable with good enough, and leverage the 80/20 rule – the principle that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

The key is figuring out which 20%. Is it really that important that your presentation’s footer isn’t perfectly centered? Or are you the only one who will even notice? And is it really necessary to chew yourself out for that small mishap your client has already forgotten?

Place yourself in the other party’s shoes (your audience, your boss, or your client) and ask yourself what they care about. Then focus on those areas and let go of the little things they don’t care about.

2. You take rejection personally.

Does the thought of making a mistake keep you up at night? Did you not speak up during that meeting because you were afraid of sounding stupid? And have you not asked for that bonus you deserve because you’re afraid your boss will say no?

If you said yes to any of those, here’s what to do: Think through the worst case scenario. Will you get fired? Will you be physically harmed? Will your colleagues secretly judge you and whisper that you’re incompetent?

Once I realized that rejection is not something to be feared and has no real consequences (aside from some bruised feelings), I learned to actually embrace taking on situations with rejection potential. Not because I’m a masochist, but because I realized they were actually win-win situations for me.

Worst case scenario, I would learn something new (oh, this didn’t work). Or, best case scenario, I would get what I wanted. When you think about it that way, doesn’t it seem a waste not to put yourself out there?

3. You can’t remember the last time you savored a career win – you were already on to your next big goal.

Do you ever feel a little dizzy when you think about your achievements and what you have to do next? And when was the last time you took a few to congratulate yourself on all you’ve accomplished?

If you can’t remember, here’s what to do: Look inside yourself and examine what motivates you. For perfectionists, it’s often a fear of failure and of not being good enough.

Before realizing this, I was incredibly fearful. I was afraid of not getting that promotion, of not advancing quickly enough, and most of all, I was afraid that if I didn’t stop being afraid, I would lose my steam. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was let go of that fear, and honestly it was a long and difficult process.

But once I did, I realized that it’s even more powerful to be motivated by positive forces – by passion, service, and love. Letting go of my perfectionism didn’t hinder me as I’d once feared, but instead allowed me to succeed more than ever before. Specifically, within the space of one year, I got a new job, a 32% raise, and a promotion, and launched a successful side business.

Now it’s your turn. What new levels of greatness will you achieve once you get out of your own way?

Luisa Zhou is a business coach for aspiring entrepreneurs. Join Luisa’s newsletter for coaching opportunities and bi-weekly tips for starting your side business.

Guest advice and opinions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

Women workingThis Week’s Tip Is…

Do you have so many meetings in your calendar that you don’t have the time to do the actual work?

In a world of constant contact of live and virtual meetings and a flurry of emails to answer, it is hard to find time to do uninterrupted work sometimes.

Schedule time in your calendar every day to not be disturbed and resist the temptation to check your email during that time. Let people such as team members or managers know that you are working on a project and will get back to them later that day. Manage expectations and stay focused on productivity in this time.

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work.

woman typing on a laptopWhen it comes to women in top executive positions, nothing causes more upheaval than the threat of quotas that could push more women in. But the real threat is the quota that is already in place and not talked about – the quota that allows one woman in but is locking women in general out.

A new study by Cristian Dezső from the Robert H. Smith School of Business and two co-authors David Gaddis Ross and Jose Uribe from Columbia Business School found evidence of a hidden quota at work at the top inside of companies:

If a woman holds one of the top five executive positions at a company, the chances of a second woman joining the top executive ranks falls by 51%.

The culprit behind this hidden quota? The study, to be published in the Strategic Management Journal, could not discern whether this was conscious discrimination or unconscious bias at play. What’s clear however, is the outcome.

Lone Woman Up a Ladder

The researchers looked at the top five executive roles by compensation across 1,500 S&P firms over twenty years from 1991 to 2011, where top management positions held by women rose from 1.6% in 1992 to 5.8% in 2000 to a slower yet incline of 8.7% in 2011.

The authors found that when one woman had been promoted to the top executive ranks, she was not a key opening up executive offices for more women but more like a lock on the door.

The report states that “women in top management face an implicit quota, whereby a firm’s leadership makes an effort to have a small number of women on the top management team but makes less effort to have, or even resists having, larger numbers of women.”

The study conducted a simulated distribution analysis and compared it to actual distribution of top company executives. If one female executive opened the path for more, there would be lots of clustering. If she had no impact on other female appointments, there would be random distribution. Nope, neither were true.

What the researchers found was a “negative spillover” – the actual distribution of female top executives was isolated, repelling one another. In other words, most companies had only one, resulting in a fragmented female executive population.

As co-author Ross shared with The Huffington Post, “It’s like someone really carefully went around and put one woman on one top management team, and another woman on another, and another woman on another.”

Dezső implies that one woman leads to a pat on the back and now let’s all move on. “Once they had appointed one woman, the men seem to have said, ‘We have done our job.’”

Left of Power Center

The research also implies that the quota seems to not only to limit numbers of women, but their influence – because many companies satisfy the hidden quota by promoting a woman to a professional position, such as head of human resources, rather than (or to keep them out of) a line position. 47% of first-time CEOS came from a line position in the survey, whereas only 4% came from a professional position.

The researchers noted, “The strongest spillovers are associated with professional positions, which are generally more supporting, lower in status, and less integral to a firm’s operations than line officer or CEO positions. We argue that a firm’s managers have greater latitude to use professional positions to satisfy an implicit quota on women in top management.”

Lower Return on Gender Equality Investment?

The study found that efforts to promote women into executive roles after one woman was in place become lower or even in opposition. Getting the second women promoted into the top ranks is a far more challenging feat than the first.

Observing company dynamics, Ross told Business Insider that after one appointment, “They orient their efforts away from promoting women, perhaps to the point of resistance.”

The authors speculate that this could be down to “diminishing returns” for companies on the gender equality scoreboard. While companies gain legitimacy, media, and a representative “face” for change when one woman is hired into a top executive position – and even hold an advantage to peer companieswho have zero -the marginal “value” declines with additional hires, while the cost to the status quo becomes higher.

One woman is enough to stave off internal and external pressure for gender equality but not enough for real change. Stopping at hiring one woman into a top executive position is kind of like crossing the starting line, but then prematurely taking a break to rest securely upon your laurels.

No, It’s Not Queen Bee Syndrome

Maybe those queen bee women are keeping other women out, protecting their coveted positions of power by pushing other women down? No.

The researchers found that the lowest negative spillovers actually occurred in companies with a woman CEO – a female CEO went some way towards mitigating the implicit quota. If a woman CEO was in place, there was a greater chance of further female top executive presence.

Maybe it’s about time that we stop suspecting the lone woman on the ladder in the crowd of men as the one that’s rigging the rungs.

Protected Territory At the Top

Many studies have shown that women create a positive spill-over for each other, such as decreased discrimination and increased pay, at other management levels.

“However,” the researchers state, “we obtained qualitatively different results among top managers, perhaps because men’s willingness to work towards the betterment of women within their organizations is lower in top management, where each job is so valuable both to the individual who holds it and to the dominant male coalition inside the organization.”

At the top it would seem, male managers are protecting the most valuable turf.

We Must Disassociate “One” With Progress

Gender diversity isn’t about show. It’s about change and influence – and as long as changes are made to show gender diversity, they won’t really be made for gender diversity.

It’s well-documented that women in top management bring serious benefits to organizations. It’s well-documented that real progress happens when gender diversity goes beyond tokenism to meet a critical mass.

Whether a board member, an investor, or any champion for diversity within a company, Dezső advises that when you see one woman at the top, it’s best to “keep up the pressure or even apply more pressure” to avoid a plateau.

Today women in top executive positions remain an isolated and fragmented minority. One women among top executives is not a sign of real progress at a systemic level. She’s a sign of more work to be done, and if not recognized as such, a decoy for the changes that aren’t being made.

Real progress doesn’t have a face. It has so many that no one person becomes exemplary of it.

By Aimee Hansen

businesswomen-meetingGuest Contribution by Dianna Booher

People resist being persuaded. They fast-forward through commercials. They say, “No, thank you; I’m just looking” when the sale associate asks if they need help to buy—even if two minutes later they ask for help.

The vast majority of people (88 percent) report that they break their New Year’s resolutions before the end of January. And those resolutions are changes that people themselves decide to make––to get physically fit, get out of debt, get organized.

Clearly, your clients and coworkers are wary of spin. So when you MUST break through that protective barrier to persuade someone to change their mind or behavior, you have to communicate with intention.

My book What MORE Can I Say? Why Communication Fails and What to Do About It outlines nine laws to move people to action. The law of “Specificity Versus Generalization” is foundational when it comes to persuasion.

Be Concrete

Your clients, your staff, and your peers consider random communication coming to them an intrusion. Daily messages on social media, network news, and email blasts by their very nature have to be generic. Result: People skim, scan, or tune out altogether.

Both of the following comments have one thing in common: They are used in multiple scenarios––with varied meanings.

“It’s our policy. That’s the best I can do.” In the midst of supplier negotiations, this ultimatum typically brings the situation to a halt––unless the other party really has no other options. And rarely is that the case.

“We will get back to you when we have a resolution to the problem.” When leaders toss this promise to a crowd during a crisis, they react, “We want to know now what you’re doing to find the resolution.”

Such statements anger people, cause them to dig in their heels, and stall action. For a more positive response, use concrete, straightforward language. Acknowledge specific issues or difficulties to be resolved. Explain specifically what you’re doing to investigate behind the scenes. State specific action steps you plan to take or that you want others to take.

Drop the Doublespeak

People distrust what they don’t understand. Much of what is written today in corporate America and by governmental agencies is not intended to inform people. It is written to protect the organization providing the information.

Take pharmaceutical studies for example. Strip the disclosures and doublespeak, and what they say is, “We are not sure how and why this new medicine works for some individuals. We don’t know what the implications and complications may be in the future. Take it at your own risk. We are not responsible for what may happen to you.” But if they made that statement so clearly and boldly, nobody would use the medicine without further testing.

Double-speak persists as a protective shield. But gobbledygook also limits your personal influence and power in a distinctive way: distrust.

Avoid Making the Effort Look Harder Than It Is

That’s not the same as making things look easy. Promise people that changing will be easy, and they will think you’re either a liar, incompetent, or crazy. When you’re trying to influence people to make a change, they need to consider a specific request and make the commitment. Otherwise, you’ll have a “yes” answer and a “no” on the follow-through.
But that said, some things really are easy. Why make them unnecessarily difficult simply by the way you communicate them?

Whether creating an image for your LinkedIn group, sending email, drafting a client proposal, or soliciting gifts from donors, break the action you want down into clear, doable steps. Provide the necessary details to take the action without the other person having to play detective and make unnecessary calls and send extra emails.
If it’s easy, say so. Pay attention to physical layout on the page or screen: Make things look easy:

  • Use a simple font.
  • Make subject lines useful, specific, concrete.
  • Provide informative headlines for easy scanning within a document.
  • Use lists where appropriate.
  • Emphasize details by using blank space, bolding, and color for later reference and recall.

Imagine how time-consuming and difficult the task of reading this blog would have seemed had there been no headings, no list, and only a few long paragraphs.

Persuading someone to change their mind or behavior in and of itself is difficult. To be influential, make your message relevant and your action specific.

Dianna Booher is the bestselling author of 46 books, published in 26 languages, with nearly 4 million copies sold. She works with organizational leaders to increase their effectiveness through clear communication and executive presence. He latest books include “What More Can I Say?: Why Communication Fails and What to Do About It”; “Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader”; and “Communicate with Confidence”. For more information, please visit www.booherresearch.com and www.whatmorecanisaythebook.com.

women salesHow much of your time should be spent managing others?

The answer to this question depends on how you are rewarded at your firm and in your role. Look back at your job description and see if what you are doing lines up with what you are supposed to be doing!

If you are tasked with an individual contributor role yet find yourself heavily involved with managing others so that you can do your job well, then it is worth examining the barriers that are stopping you from having a clear path at work to succeed. Are the barriers systemic and part of the culture of ‘how we do things around here?’

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work.

female leaderIt’s not just because women hold less formal power at the top (only 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women and 1% in finance) that they can’t shoulder gender diversity alone. Even when they arrive at executive level, disadvantages in informal power and legitimacy are at odds against women’s efficacy in gender championship.

According to qualitative research on champions of gender equality by Jennifer Anne de Vries, University of Melbourne, one thing remains unavoidable: “Executive level champions are part of the organizational gendering processes they seek to change.”

De Vries’ qualitative research on gender diversity champions in a university and a police force highlights that the champion role is intertwined with sex, gender, and (gendered) power, all at play within a (gendered) organization. Women are inherently disadvantaged as champions of gender diversity in a male-dominated culture. Even at equal rank, a male and female executive stand on a “very different launching pad for their champion behavior.”

Consider this conundrum: Is it possible that when it comes to leading corporate change initiatives correlated with strong business advantages, anything a male leader can do a female leader could do too – except lead the game change on gender diversity?

Women are Outsiders to the Culture, Insiders to the Cause

A woman that holds a position of senior power in a highly male-dominated management culture becomes a symbol of gender diversity by default. Her journey was likely different to her male counterparts. She holds the potential (and pressure) to be a role model as a woman leader within the organization.

But in the champion role (which she’s likely expected to take up), that same dynamic of being an outsider in a male-dominated management culture, but perceived as an insider to gender-equality, spells out lower informal power and lower legitimacy.

De Vries found that senior male executives expressed women can be accused of “self-serving” when championing gender diversity – “looking after the sisterhood – women looking after women.”

And research out of the University of Colorado studying 362 senior executives demonstrated that diversity efforts on behalf of women (and minority) leaders can be negatively viewed as self-serving their own social group. “Nonwhite and women leaders who engage in diversity-increasing behaviors in the highest organizational ranks are systematically penalized with lower performance ratings for doing so,” the researchers wrote.

Specifically, women, held to higher standards of warmth than men, who engage in diversity-increasing behavior “will tend to be viewed as less warm and receive lower performance ratings than their equally diversity-valuing male leader counterparts.”

In fact, diversity-valuing behavior negatively impacted evaluations only for female and minority leaders – “leaders who are thought to have the greatest potential to dismantle the glass ceiling.”

Co-author Hekman noted, “executives who are women or ethnic minorities are penalized every day for doing what everyone says they ought to be doing – helping other members of their groups fulfill their management potential. It is a revealing sign that the supposed death of longstanding biases has been greatly exaggerated.”

In regards to informal power, De Vries research also noted that women in highly masculine contexts may also not have the same security in relationships at a senior level, are likely under more scrutiny in “proving” themselves as a leader (highly engaged in “gender work” of their own), and may not be taken seriously when they “position gender equity as a strategic issue.”

In other words, while their leadership challenges the status quo, senior executive women may not be as well positioned to overtly drive a mindset change among men in the organization.

Men are Insiders to the Culture, Outsiders to the Cause

Men are in the opposite position. Being an insider to the male-dominated management culture but perceived as an outsider to the gender-equality cause, gives male champions more informal power and more legitimacy.

De Vries notes, “Men’s power to challenge the status quo derives from their membership of, and acceptance within, the male establishment.”

Men in a senior executive role don’t have to do “gender work” as leaders (they represent the default stereotype in their environment), likely have more secure relationships as part of the insider club, and are more legitimate in championing gender diversity as a strategic issue because there’s no perceived component of self-interest – although they can actually benefit from it.

The University of Colorado researchers found that when it came to senior white male executives, “valuing diversity gave a significant boost to ratings for warmth and performance” by their bosses. De Vries also found that it led to strong appreciation within the company. And Bainhas found that (mostly male) CEO led gender diversity-increasing action and behaviors converts more employees to company “promoters”.

Indeed, not all male champions are equally effective. De Vries found a male champion is powerful when he’s perceived as really choosing to practice and visibly and consistently embody the role through his actions, not just preach. And resistant, low visibility CEO male championing can actually be ultimately damaging.

Another gender advantage is that a top executive male perceived as having chosen to personally own the gender equality initiative can give it a sense of importance, gravitas, and credibility. Whereas with a female executive, expectations seem to diminish the bonus points in credibility.

Championship – Can We Get More Men to Step Up?

There may be no escaping what De Vries calls a “clearly gendered nature of leadership when championing a gender cause.”

Despite the strong business case for gender equality as a corporate initiative, senior women are too often expected to carry the torch on gender diversity (often predominantly), marginalizing the issue and absolving senior men from being highly involved despite the importance of their power and agency.

We need more men actively onboard at the top senior levels genuinely daring to challenge the system that has benefited them. Should women leaders bow out and just let men take the reins? No. Men and women have the potential to complement each other in bringing change forward. Gender equity requires bravery and business sense on behalf of both men and women in senior executive roles.

Maybe it’s time we saw that there’s more than one way for a woman to be a role model for gender diversity. And equally, it’s about time we saw more top male leaders displaying bravery, rather than delegating it to women, when it comes to leading the charge on making gender diversity change a corporate priority.

By Aimee Hansen