Women In Leadership

On Monday, March 24, 2008 the International Herald Tribune published an article with the title ‘Women take their place on corporate boards’. The article reports on the success of a law enacted in Norway in 2003, which required companies to have forty percent women on their corporate boards by 2008. This target has been met – an impressive achievement considering the fact that in 2002 only six percent of corporate board members in Norway were women. The article quotes Krister Svensson, director of a mentoring programme for senior executives, who says: “The general consensus today is that diversity is very good. […] If you have 12 gray-haired men, average age 65, on a board, they tend to think about business prospects and strategy from the same perspective. But if you put a 45-year old from a hot company and a woman and an international representative on the board, the quality of the debate will deepen.”

In the second module of the Women in Leadership Programme – the leadership development course I am running for the UCT Graduate School of Business- Dr Karen Stephenson presented the case of a global financial institution, which had achieved a balance in the number of men and women at middle management level. An accomplishment of note, or so it seemed. When Dr Stephenson looked at the organisational reality behind the numbers she found that the gender imbalance was still there. She applied a social network analysis, which showed that while work ties between men, and between men and women were generally strong, relationships between women were relatively weak. In other words, men and women experienced different levels of connectedness with the organisational network.

With Dr Stephenson’s case in mind, we look once more to Norway. The story told by the numbers is straightforward – with forty percent women on corporate boards Norwegian business is coming very close to gender equality at the highest organisational level. However, what do the networks look like? Are women as connected to other women as men are to their male counterparts? How trusted are the relationships between women in the boardroom compared to those between women and men, and between men? These are questions that deserve an answer; that is, if we want to understand the true meaning of gender equality in the workplace.

I would like to thank Dr Kurt April and Dave Duarte for their reference to the developments in Norway.

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All too often, leadership appears to be concerned with grand visions and strategies.

However, true leaders should also keep in mind the seemingly smaller-scale skills that are central to an organisation’s day-to-day functioning. According to Dr Marjolijn Dijksterhuis of the UCT Graduate School of Business, the dichotomies between these skills are encapsulated in the argument surrounding leadership versus management.

“Leadership is often considered a facet of management; one which defines the relationship between the manager and her employees,” Dijksterhuis says. “The skills that help address logistics are generally associated with the more administrative aspects of management, such as organisation, planning, staffing and controlling.”

With this in mind, Dijksterhuis says the five key qualities that ensure leaders meet their practical responsibilities, instead of focusing solely on strategic matters, are:

DELEGATING: “This is important because it stimulates learning experiences for your employees,” Dijksterhuis says.

COACHING: This not onlyfacilitates learning for your employees, but also provides a window for them to reflect on their work and recognise opportunities for development. A number of training programmes are available to help you hone your coaching skills. In the meantime, put your skills to use in one-on-one and group coaching sessions.

TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION: Openness is the foundation of a culture of trust and honest feedback. As a leader, you need to embody these traits. Talk to your employees, find out what drives them and be open to critical feedback while striving to ensure your own is constructive.

BEHAVING CONSISTENTLY: Integrity shows people you’re reliable and helps contribute to an atmosphere of trust, says Dijksterhuis. “Be aware of your actions, words and non-verbal communications: do they truly come from you, or are they a reflection of what you believe others want to see and hear? Lead from the inside out, not the outside in.”

APPRECIATE DIVERSITY: The ability to capitalise on diversity is a major asset in an increasingly interconnected world. Dijksterhuis points out that “being able to appreciate and employ diverse perspectives and approaches is critical to success”

A lot has been written about the challenges women face in the workplace. This is why the article How Female Stars Succeed in New Jobs published on the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge website is worth sharing: it talks about the opportunities that emerge from some of these challenges.

In ‘How Female Stars Succeed in New Jobs’, Boris Groysberg, a professor at Harvard Business School, reports that uneasy in-house relationships, poor mentorship, neglect by colleagues, and vulnerability in the labour market encourage female star performers to invest more in external relationships than their male counterparts – which leads to them being more successful when changing companies.

Better research on potential employers is mentioned as a second reason for women’s success. In the male-dominated industry in which the research took place (investment banking), women were found to do far more due diligence when they received a job offer than men. Finding out about a prospective employer’s receptivity to women, management support, flexibility and performance measures helped these women to make good strategic decisions.

While an external focus makes female star performers more mobile, Groysberg does point out that it is likely to hamper their progress within their own organisation: “you need a solid internal network and good political capital to get things done in organisations. Anyone who focuses mostly on external relationships will not have that.”

The research on star performers has some interesting insights to offer on talent management. Deliberate attempts by organisations to create a female-friendly environment seem to pay off. For example, Lehman Brothers was able to develop a comfortable environment for women, which helped the company to attract and retain female and male talent. At the same time, the study shows that if these efforts are driven by a few individuals rather than infused into the organisational culture, their impact may be short-lived.

More information about Boris Groyberg’s research on female star performers can be found at Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

We want the Women in Leadership blog to be a place where you find interesting and thought provoking ideas and insights. To this end, we regularly invite thought leaders in the field of Women in Leadership to share their latest work. This time, it is Dr Karen Stephenson who speaks, one of only three women included in Random House’s 2007 Guide to the Management Gurus. In ‘Women in Leadership: More than meets the eye’ posted on May 7, we spoke about the importance of looking beyond numbers when assessing gender equality in organisations. Karen draws from her research to elaborate on that idea.

In any organisation there are two parallel universes. First, there is the world of corporate authority from which unfolds formal rules and bureaucratic procedures. The second is the world of trusted networks which research has shown to undergird productivity and innovation. The former is characterised by the organogram; the latter is not. Executives and managers understand the former and endorse it, reasoning that if the organogram was good enough for them, then why bother with networks?

But networks are enormously important. Who can make a project succeed? Who stays and who is transferred? Who’s really next in line? How can we achieve parity AND diversity of thought. The rub is that managers are much less likely to see networks because networks are based in trust and trust is unrecorded and unrecognised. I’ve spent years researching this topic and have learned that if one can measure these trusted network patterns, then one can discover as I did that we have been fooled by randomness. People just don’t get together because they are working together – they form cliques based on shared interests and this can sometimes lead to exclusion. No where is this more apparent than gender politics at the top.

In a study conducted at JP Morgan in 2001, I discovered an anomaly in their European division. The region’s 3000 Managing Directors in Europe was evenly divided among males and females, the culmination of the Executive Director’s vision of achieving diversity and gender equity.

In mapping the informal work networks, I discovered a precipitous drop in female to female communication, making up only a scant 10% of total communications among the 3000. It was puzzling given the fact that there were 50% women and 50% men and the fact that both sexes were at the same level in the hierarchy, dispersed throughout Western Europe. So why was the frequency of communication so unexpectedly low among the female population? To tease this out, I interviewed the most tenured female Managing Directors about their initial experiences on first coming to the firm. In their heyday, there were few women at the top, so these executives had been assigned to strong male mentors who helped them get ahead. When I interviewed the less tenured female Managing Directors who had been promoted more recently, their story was the same. In fact, they conscientiously followed in the footsteps of their more experienced colleagues and set about obtaining strong male mentors who could guide and support them. Over a decade, this behavior culminated in producing stronger female to male collaboration that female to female collaboration.

Ironically, what had been a winning strategy for female executives when they were in a statistical minority had devolved into an ineffective strategy when statistical parity had been achieved. Neither the men nor the women were cognizant of this behavior until they saw their network maps and “did the math.” That’s when the penny dropped. The more recently promoted female Managing Directors were mimicking the behavior of the most senior women. Although the more tenured female generation had only men to choose from to be their mentor, the rule did not hold once gender parity had been achieved. What started out as a strategic mechanism for rising in the ranks as a minority player was still being propagated when the need no longer existed. And what’s worse, it was hurting the firm, slowing down communication at the senior level and preventing good female-female collaboration. On announcing the findings to a packed auditorium of JP Morgan Managing Directors, there was silence. In a blinding flash, they saw what was happening. From that day forward, their behaviors shifted and productivity improved.

Let’s face it; female leadership may have come a long way but until these leaders lock arms and seriously collaborate as colleagues, true gender equity will still be unrealized despite what the numbers say.

This article has been adapted from the forthcoming book The Quantum Theory of Trust: The Secret Life of Organizations by Karen Stephenson published by Financial Times, 2008. Dr. Stephenson is CEO of NetForm, Inc and Adjunct Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

On Monday, March 24, 2008 the International Herald Tribune published an article with the title ‘Women take their place on corporate boards’. The article reports on the success of a law enacted in Norway in 2003, which required companies to have forty percent women on their corporate boards by 2008. This target has been met – an impressive achievement considering the fact that in 2002 only six percent of corporate board members in Norway were women. The article quotes Krister Svensson, director of a mentoring programme for senior executives, who says: “The general consensus today is that diversity is very good. […] If you have 12 gray-haired men, average age 65, on a board, they tend to think about business prospects and strategy from the same perspective. But if you put a 45-year old from a hot company and a woman and an international representative on the board, the quality of the debate will deepen.”

In the second module of the Women in Leadership Programme – the leadership development course I am running for the UCT Graduate School of Business- Dr Karen Stephenson presented the case of a global financial institution, which had achieved a balance in the number of men and women at middle management level. An accomplishment of note, or so it seemed. When Dr Stephenson looked at the organisational reality behind the numbers she found that the gender imbalance was still there. She applied a social network analysis, which showed that while work ties between men, and between men and women were generally strong, relationships between women were relatively weak. In other words, men and women experienced different levels of connectedness with the organisational network.

With Dr Stephenson’s case in mind, we look once more to Norway. The story told by the numbers is straightforward – with forty percent women on corporate boards Norwegian business is coming very close to gender equality at the highest organisational level. However, what do the networks look like? Are women as connected to other women as men are to their male counterparts? How trusted are the relationships between women in the boardroom compared to those between women and men, and between men? These are questions that deserve an answer; that is, if we want to understand the true meaning of gender equality in the workplace.

I would like to thank Dr Kurt April and Dave Duarte for their reference to the developments in Norway.

“How far have women actually come as leaders? Do stereotypes and prejudices still limit women’s opportunities? Do people resist women’s leadership more than men’s? And, do organizations create obstacles to women who would be leaders?”

<< Click through to episode 61 from Harvard’s podcast series, Ideacast for an interview with one of the authors of Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders (HBS 2007 Alice H. Eagly, Linda L. Carli) who raise these questions in examining the progress of women in leadership beyond the “glass ceiling”

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Thanks to Joshin Raghubar (fellow of the respected African Leadership Initiative among a host of other global leadership programs) for discovering this one for us.

Global conversations about best practices in transformational and enlightened leadership through organisations like the Aspen Institute (of which the African Leadership Initiative is a part), are ensuring that many different approaches to leadership are both acknowledged and examined.

Developing leaders along one prescriptive format curriculum is wearing out its efficacy in a rapidly globalising economy with rich diverse cultural convergence, and playing havoc with “the way things have always been done around here” traditionalists.
Defining new structures of power more aligned to shared values and open dialogue will go a long way to ensuring that women leave behind the metaphors of the glass ceiling, sticky floor or labyrinth associated with competing for positions of authority.

If you live in Cape Town, you’ve probably seen the red & yellow Monkeybiz cars zooming around. (<< Founder Barbara Jackson (left) with Monkeybiz partner Mathapelo Ngaka). Like the outrageously successful Streetwires this is a team-based business, buliding an empire on beads*.

If you haven’t discovered Monkeybiz, it’s about time to get a direct shot of inspiration [go check out their Bigger Than Barbie film]. Garnering the support of Desmond Tutu and Donna Karan, this is a company with sexy factor well balanced with the business of doing good. Good business that is.

In celebration of success unexpected, and paying attention to how women lead, I did a post on SA Rocks on Networking Genius (on leaders who use the collaborative model to achieve, not only their own success, but that of a whole community en route).

Women sync in beautifully with leadership roles in a flatter, broader world.

It’s not the form of leadership we’re taught at university, and rare are the case studies we see surfacing in the media; but nonetheless it is emerging and flourishing as a groundswell within the online world, its counterintuitive success feeding back into the world of work, causing fine cracks in large siloed hierarchies. Collaborative co.operatives and decentralised power will never replace the focused strength of the hierarchy, but it can certainly provide a profitable, more human-scale alternative.

And one that could change the corrupt face of African leadership, and the fate of a continent overwhelmed with foreign aid, but not nearly enough sustainable trade.

* the irony is that many an empire was initially founded on a trade in beads between colonising empire builders and the native tribes in various parts of the world. Maybe there’s a little more returning back in the transaction this time.

Delicious Isabel Allende, author of books whose magic realism envelops the senses and awakens the exhausted mind, has a talk on TED that had me both laughing uproariously and with a lump in my throat alternately. She is an extraordinary storyteller, and THIS skill is something that no true leader should be without.

She did what any good artist does, and changed my perspective (on feminism), but she also did what a leader does, and she inspired action*.

Stories help guide a vision that will bolster our communities, teams, companies or countries through the rough and riotous patches. The ability to speak to minds AND hearts is where the great ones across time have been able to gather forces beyond themselves to achieve unprecedented success.

[youtube E11cDEr272Y]

(please remember for optimal viewing: press play, then pause to allow the video to load, when the line is all red you’re ready to watch. enjoy)

* I’ve never supported the “women’s groups” for the sole reason that I believe that when we segment ourselves we only feed into the idea of divided power and different rules and different treatment whether by gender, race, creed, nation, age, species.
But perhaps strengthening the oft.times forgotten aspects of our in.born advantages is the best way to celebrate the diversity that life has arrayed. Humans aren’t an homogeneous blob, and how boring it would be if we were. So an hour after watching this video, in defiance of the old view, collaboratively began something new.
Watch it & see if it doesn’t tickle your imagination to do something – if it does, PLEASE come share.

There is one issue that not even earning a Harvard MBA seems to solve with regard to women at work: women aren’t inherently orientated to negotiate.

Fiercely smart Khanyi Dhlomo returned back to our shores with her Harvard MBA and noted the issue in the February editorial of her new Destiny mag:

Studies on negotiation carried out by Harvard Business School professors showed that female MBA students (who include some of the most capable and most competitive women from across the globe) performed, on average, 30 percent worse than men when negotiating. Women’s comparatively poor performance was primarily due to the fact that we are more pessimistic about what we can gain from a negotiation and therefore walk away from it with far less than we deserve.

Negotiation is a specific challenge to women’s leadership, and worth us paying attention to, because this weakness WILL actually cost us money. It has NOTHING to do with our qualifications.

Quotes from the book “Women Don’t Ask”

• Marcela, nuclear engineer: “I would never ask for [a bonus]. If it wasn’t freely given, I wouldn’t ask for it. I might gripe about it at home, but that would be the extent of it.”
• Ellen, senior partner at a law firm:“[My father told me], ‘Honey, you know you can’t act like a tiger. You have to act like a kitten.’”
• Becky, a journalist: “When I go into a negotiation . . . I think about maintaining that relationship before I think about my own [needs] really.”
• Gabriela, symphony orchestra general manger: “I just said thank you [for a raise]. . . . [The board members] are probably wondering-how good can she be at negotiating [for the orchestra] if she can’t even negotiate for herself.”
• Susannah, political strategist: “I just feel so guilty. I worry that I’m putting them in a difficult situation, especially if I’m asking for something that I think will be hard for them to give to me.”
• Eleanor, literature professor and biographer: “When it came down to it, I backed down because I didn’t want [my editor] to hate me.”
• Lindsey, research chemist: “I get so nervous in negotiating that I capitulate very quickly.”
• Helena, advertising executive: “I’m better at asking for other people, and I can be really direct . . . but not so much for myself.”
• Stephanie, administrative assistant: “I tend to think people are pretty fair, so maybe I’m too trusting and expect that I’m getting what I deserve in that I work really hard.”
• Christine, investment banker: “I think it’s up to the people that you work for . . . to identify [superior work] and keep current with what’s in the industry.”

It’s a great idea to invest in strengthening this business and life skill, whether you’re joining the Women in Leadership Programme or doing your own research as part of your lifelong learning.

Resources:
Harvard Business Review – Nice Girls Don’t Ask Women negotiate less than men, and everyone pays the price

The authors of Women Don’t Ask have a great site to dive into.

Controversially, check out the Art of Manliness – How to Ask For & Get a Raise Like a Man