Communication: Top Tool of World’s Greatest Bosses

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Businesswoman Giving Thumbs Up - IsolatedBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new study by Seattle-based leadership training group, Fierce Inc., communication is the cornerstone of a good boss-employee relationship. The study, which polled over 1,700 corporate executives and employees, set out to find what qualities make a good boss, what reciprocal qualities make a good employee, and how they can work together to be most effective.

Four out of five respondents (80 percent) said the most important thing a boss can do is ask for feedback from their employees. A smaller but significant group (37 percent) said it was important for a supervisor to provide constructive feedback to his or her direct reports.

Since today is National Boss’s Day here in the United States, it may be a great opportunity to examine your own managerial communication style. How are you conveying your own leadership in the way you communicate?

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Three Ways Executive Search Firms Can Boost Women on Boards

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iStock_000006262297XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new report by executive search firm Egon Zehnder International, increasing the number of women on boards may become more difficult in the near future. While the spotlight on hiring more female directors has shone more brightly in recent years, the percentage of women in those seats has stagnated.

Not only that, new research shows, the pool of women traditionally considered for these jobs may be shrinking. The report says:

“Over the past five years, the number of women reaching senior executive roles has decreased by 12 percent, shrinking the talent pool from which most female directors are likely to be drawn. Despite some recent high-profile appointments, only 4percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and – as any board search professional can attest – boards still almost reflexively seek sitting or retired CEOs to fill board seats.”

Based on EEOC labor statistics, the number of women reaching the C-suite has decreased by 12 percent between 2000 and 2010. And because fewer women seem to be making it to senior management, it may become harder in the coming years for companies to diversify their boards.

As Claudia Pici-Morris, co-author of the report and US Head of Research for Egon Zehnder, explained, “It is surprising to see the number of women making up the future pool shrinking, and shrinking steadily.”

There’s clearly a disconnect between boards’ desire to increase their percentage of female directors (as well as the dialogue and debate around the issue of female leadership within the general public) and the groundwork being laid to prepare women for the director role.

Fortunately, Pici-Morris explained, more can be done to prepare and locate women for board positions – and executive search firms, companies, and women with their eyes on a board seat all have a role to play.

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Why We Need to Keep Celebrating Powerful Women

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Earlier this week, American Banker published its lists of the Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance, and Women to Watch. For a decade now, the magazine has celebrated the achievements of top women in the industry.

But as Heidi Miller, retired president of JP Morgan’s international business, suggests in her blistering article accompanying American Banker’s list, gender parity hasn’t come nearly as far in that decade as she’d hoped. She writes, “The value of an initiative like this one is that it creates visibility around an issue that still, after all these years, needs every bit of attention it can get.”

Miller points out that even though there are some women in senior management at financial services companies, there aren’t many of them. So many believe the industry to be a paragon of meritocracy – yet, she continues, simply taking a look at who’s in the c-suite should be enough to show anyone that it’s not.

Heather Landy, Editor in Chief of American Banker, agreed. “You would think – even hope – that ten years on, we would no longer need it. Women absolutely remain the exception to the rule when it comes to senior leadership in many industries, including financial services. Because of that, we absolutely do need to continue to publish rankings.”

Drawing attention to the few senior women who have made it to the top reminds us of the systemic challenges in getting there. It pushes us all to work to topple these barriers, and encourages senior women reach out a hand to younger generations climbing the ladder as well. Finally, it expands the vision of what a leader can look like for both women and men.

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Executive Acceleration: Learning from Industry Leaders

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iStock_000008629094XSmallBy Robin Madell, San Francisco

The number of women making $100,000 or more has grown at a faster pace than it has for men in the United States according to The Washington Post, and Pew research has shown that women are the higher-income spouse in 1 of 5 marriages. Six percent of women earn at least $100,000, and as of 2011, the Catalyst Census showed that women account for 7.5 percent of executive officer top earners in the Fortune 500 companies.

But even though the gap is narrowing incrementally, it’s no news that women still lag behind men in holding top positions in these same companies, and are still paid less than their male counterparts. The perennial questions remain: how can executive women continue to break through these barriers and position themselves to change these statistics? And what can those who aspire to continue their leadership climb learn from other women leaders?

Sharon Hadary and Laura Henderson have attempted to tackle these difficult conundrums in their new book just released this month: How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know. Hadary and Henderson, who have served on advisory boards for companies like Wells Fargo, KeyBank, and IBM, shared their advice for how women can get ahead—particularly women execs in financial services and tech industries.

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Sharing Global Best Practices for Boardroom Gender Parity

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iStock_000016970853XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

By now, you probably know about Norway’s 40% gender quota for corporate boards. You probably also know that a number of countries in Europe are following suit, and that the UK is looking for ways to increase the representation of women in the boardroom. You may also know about the SEC’s rule in the US for public companies to disclose how diversity is considered in filling board seats.

But what do you know about efforts on behalf of countries like Argentina, Brazil, Morocco, or the Philippines to increase the percentage of women directors? In an increasingly global business environment, knowledge about local efforts toward gender equality can be incredibly useful for women in the corporate space.

That’s one reason the law firm Paul Hastings has just released its second gender parity report, Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women in the Boardroom. Tara Giunta, Litigation Partner at Paul Hastings and co-editor of the report, explained, “In the Second Edition of the report, we focused on corporate governance codes and listing rules, and found that, in a number of countries, diversity was being included. I found it very encouraging as offering a potentially useful strategy and tool to increase diversity on the boards of US companies.”

She continued, “We were hoping that as a law firm, we could contribute to the discussion on gender parity by examining what are the strategies being deployed by different jurisdictions, and identifying the tools and approaches and best practices that can be shared across jurisdictions.”

She added, “As a global law firm we have the ability to bring that to a discussion on a global basis.”

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What Are You Doing on 12/12/12? Mark Your Calendar to Help Women on Boards

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businesspeople talking in meeting room and woman smilingBy Robin Madell (San Francisco)

As most of us know by now, companies with a strong proportion of women on their Boards of Directors perform better—it’s just that simple. But right now, according to August 2012 statistics from Catalyst, the percentage of board seats at Fortune 500 Companies held by women is only 16.1 percent in the United States. Among the organizations working to change this is 2020 Women on Boards (WOB), which has set a goal of increasing the percentage of women on corporate boards to at least 20 percent by 2020.

To this end, one of WOB’s initiatives is called simply “12/12/12.” That’s the date—December 12, 2012—that the organization plans to host a national conversation on gender diversity in U.S. corporate boardrooms. To understand more about this event and the organization behind it, The Glass Hammer spoke with Malli Gero, WOB’s Executive Director and Co-Founder.

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Why Female Bosses Matter

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A Happy business woman with other colleagues in the backgroundBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

We all know that having a role model to look up to can help us grow and advance in our careers. Being able to see “someone like you” thrive at the top is an inspiring privilege that the first generation of women to enter the workforce in large numbers did not have for themselves.

Even today, there are few women leading corporations or law firms, and that means it can be difficult to envision your own self becoming a leader when no one in executive leadership resembles you or knows from experience the kind of challenges you’ve faced. But fortunately, as more and more women are finding ways to make it work, more junior female professionals are able to climb to the next rung of the ladder.

And in fact, one new study out of Wharton and Harvard Business School, shows that the number of female supervisors has a direct impact on the promotion of women in up-or-out professions.

But – the study is complicated. While female bosses do help women climb the ladder a little easier in up-or-out jobs, people are more likely to leave a firm when there is a higher proportion of peers of the same gender. In clearer terms, more women on a team means more women will leave the company. Similarly, more men on a team means more men will leave that company.

The researchers, Katherine L. Milkman and Kathleen L. McGinn, believe the root cause of this is the intersection of “social cohesion” and “social comparison,” in the particular context of a competitive up-or-out environment. Fortunately, there is a solution, and leaders who can crack the challenge here have a better chance of increasing the number of women making it to the top in the future.

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Authentic Words from Authentic Women

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Nicki HeadshotBy Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of The Glass Hammer

This year, our theme has been “exploring identity at work,” and we have hosted two panels exploring what it means to be a woman and LGBT in financial services in New York and in London. Recently whilst attending and speaking at Out & Equal’s Global Conference in London, I was fortunate enough to attend a breakout session called “Being a Senior Executive Woman” moderated by the skilled Jean Balfour. The panel consisted of Liz Bingham from Ernst & Young, Claudia Brind-Woody from IBM, and Alexandra van der Tuin from Accenture (Netherlands).

The panelists discussed being an authentic leader, breaking the glass ceiling, and how sponsorship has a big role to play in increasing the number of women in senior management.

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The Three Revolutionary Traits of Today’s Leaders

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iStock_000016760701XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

This year, the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) is seeking to recognize change agents who have flown under the radar in the past. With the first ever CUP Catalysts: Change Agents 2012 awards, CUP will honor women and people of color who hold significant leadership positions in their organizations, and have given back to their communities in a big way as well.

Chloe Drew, Executive Director of CUP, explained, “We are committed every day to bringing more diversity to the business table. Considering the shifting demographics of the United States, we’re in the business of preparing the succession plan for the next generation of leaders.”

The award will recognize people between the ages of 35 and 50, who have met with “extraordinary professional success” and demonstrated a “commitment to community leadership.” Three individuals in financial services, law, and media & entertainment will be recognized.

Drew believes the character of leadership is changing. Here are her “big three” traits embodied by today’s leading change agents.

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Women in the Boardroom: Moving Critical Mass Forward

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Business People Applauding In a MeetingBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

The first time I heard the phrase “critical mass,” it had nothing to do with boardroom gender equality. I was a student at the College of William and Mary, and Critical Mass was an event where cyclists would attempt to clog the streets of my tiny college town to kindly encourage automobile drivers to share the road. While I generally supported my two-wheeled classmates, I wasn’t altogether clear on their event’s apparent link to nuclear physics. I later learned they were inspired by much larger demonstrations in San Francisco, which, in turn, were inspired by a 1992 documentary on bicycle transportation around the world.

In an interview in the film, American bicycle designer George Bliss describes his observations of traffic in China, where cyclists had an unspoken method of crossing busy intersections, which often had no traffic signals. More and more cyclists would collect along one side of the intersection, until their group reached a certain understood size (“critical mass”) when it was safe to cross the road together, as automobile traffic would have to stop and wait for the cyclists to pass.

We can draw inspiration from the critical mass metaphor for gender diversity as well. As the number of women in boardrooms and on executive committees increases, there reaches a point where women feel safe to speak up, get enthusiastic, take risks, and make waves – without being seen as a threat to the status quo, as overemotional, as a risky hire, or as a token place holder. Critical mass is the notion of safety in numbers.

And “safety in numbers” means better business. Recent research by Catalyst suggests that companies with three or more women directors outperform those with all-male boards. “When you reach a certain critical mass, the board starts to behave differently,” said Joe Keefe, President and CEO of PAX World Mutual Funds and a founder of the Thirty Percent Coalition. “Conversations are richer, decisions improve, women bring different perspectives to the table, and performance improves.”

Indeed, a new Credit Suisse study of almost 2,400 companies suggests that boardroom diversity improves corporate performance. In fact, companies with more than one woman on their board performed 26% better over the past 6 years than those with no female directors.

Imagine the impact on gender diversity if the conversation around critical mass were one that appealed to both women and companies? The Thirty Percent Coalition intends to do just that.

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