What Drives Male Diversity Champions

By Melissa J. Anderson

Even today in 2014, the vast majority of leadership in industries like the physical sciences or financial services is made up of men, which, can create a self-fulfilling prophecy of “think leader, think male” since men and also women hold firm stereotypes around which gender assigned traits make good leadership traits.

Leaders, in many cases, are viewed as “decisive” or “aggressive” or a number of other traits often associated with men. Leaders are not usually described as “inclusive” or “nurturing” or other traits generally associated with women.

Last week Morgan Stanley hosted the Women’s Executive Circle of New York (WECNY)’s annual panel that discussed what male senior executives can do to help champion women leaders in male dominated industries.

Katina Sawyer, an assistant professor at Villanova University whose work focuses on diversity and leadership, at the event commented,

“The stereotypes we have about leaders are the same stereotypes we have about males and not the stereotypes we have about women. As a result, coaching and leadership development programs aimed at women generally focus on simply training them to act more like men.”

This approach is destined to fail at developing diversity, though, because it simply reinforces the dominant, exclusive culture at the top, and inevitably drives out a lot of women who’d rather be themselves at work than put on a “man” costume before heading into the office every day.

Men Talking Fairness
WECNY gathered three men identified by their colleagues as being champions for diversity. The panel, moderated by Anna Marie Valerio, an executive coaching and leadership development consultant, included: Nicholas Donofrio, retired EVP of innovation and technology at IBM and a director on the boards of several companies; Gerald Ferrante, financial advisor and complex manager at Morgan Stanley; and Greg Fleming, president of wealth management and president of investment management at Morgan Stanley.

According to Sawyer, research shows that many men want to be more involved in diversity, but face barriers like the fear of other men’s disapproval. Others don’t get involved because of apathy or ignorance. Those who do make it past these hurdles generally have a strong sense of fair play, they have had female mentors, or they have faced their own personal organizational barriers. Interestingly, all three men seemed to approach diversity from different angles.

Donofrio said his interest in diversity was influenced by the philosophy of IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, who, over 100 years ago felt that there were not enough women in business and tried to increase the number of women at the company.

“I needed to know what IBM stands for and if it was what I stood for,” he said, adding that working toward diversity just makes sense.

“If you’re going to be an innovative society, an innovative culture, you’ve got to be inclusive. You’ve got to have everybody’s input,” he continued. “It’s not logical that you’re going to come up with the best solutions if you’re saying to every other person ‘we don’t need you.’”

Fleming said he grew up as an athlete and always saw the value of fair play. “On Wall Street, frankly, there hasn’t been,” he said.

As a leader, he continued, he wants to use the bully pulpit to make an impact in diversity. “This could be a legacy I could help lead,” he said. “Let’s change it.”

Ferrante said he never thought of himself as a diversity champion until he had been asked to speak on the panel, but said he had always been interested in fairness and diversity.

He shared that when his first wife passed away he was left caring for two young daughters, and often saw that he was treated differently from the women in his office who were also caring for children. He set out to change it.

He recalled how a woman on his team was late to work one day because her nanny hadn’t shown up in the morning, and the male manager screamed at her. “When I was late, no one said anything,” he said. “I said, ‘How dare you — things like this happen and you wouldn’t say anything to me [if I were in the same situation].’”

Actually, all three men noted that they were influenced by their children.

“I want my daughters to not have the same hurdles as the women in this business, and there is still that extra hurdle,” Fleming said. Hopefully, as more men join the ranks of diversity champions, the next generation won’t have those extra hurdles.

We will need men within the current leadership ranks who are willing to stick their necks out for diversity at the top, middle and bottom to see real change.

Look out for theglasshammer.com’s Engaging Men series in early 2015 which will include profiles from “Men Who Get It.”