Transcriber: Maysoon Abbas Reviewer: Morton Bast
Women represent 50 percent
of middle management and professional positions
but the percentages of women at the top of organizations,
like Kathleen Murphy,
whom you've heard, and Gail Goodman who's speaking later,
represent not even a third of that number.
So some people hear that statistic
and they ask, why do we have so few women leaders?
But I look at that statistic
and if you, like me, believe that leadership manifests at every level,
you would see that there's a tremendous,
awesome resource of leaders
who are leading in middle management, which raises a different question:
"Why are there so many women mired in the middle,
and what has to happen to take them to the top?"
So some of you might be some of those women
who are in middle management
and seeking to move up in your organization.
Well, Tonya is a great example of one of these women.
I met her two years ago.
She was a vice president in a Fortune 50 company.
And she said to me with a sense of deep frustration,
"I've worked really hard to improve my confidence
and my assertiveness and develop a great brand.
I get terrific performance evals from my boss.
My 360s in the organization let me know that my teams love working for me.
I've taken every management course that I can here.
I'm working with a terrific mentor and yet
I've been passed over twice for advancement opportunities,
even when my manager knows
that I'm committed to moving up and even interested in an international assignment.
I don't understand why I'm being passed over."
So what Tonya doesn't realize
is that there's a missing 33 percent of the career success
equation for women,
and it's understanding what this missing 33 percent is
that's required to close the gender gap at the top.
So if you have listened to Sheryl Sandberg's TED Talk,
get ready for women in leadership 2.0.
In order to move up in organizations,
you have to be known for your leadership skills.
And this would apply to any of you, women or men.
It means that you have to be recognized for using the greatness in you
to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes
by engaging the greatness in others.
Put in other language,
it means you have to use your skills and talents and abilities
to help the organization achieve its strategic financial goals
and do that by working effectively with others,
inside of the organization and outside.
And although all three of these elements of leadership
are important when it comes to moving up in organizations,
they aren't equally important.
So pay attention to the green box as I move forward.
In seeking and identifying employees with high potential,
the potential to go to the top of organizations,
the skills and competencies that relate to that green box
are rated twice as heavily as those in the other two elements of leadership.
These skills and competencies
can be summarized as business, strategic and financial acumen.
In other words, this skill set has to do
with understanding where the organization is going,
what its strategy is, what financial targets it has in place,
and understand your role in moving the organization forward.
This is that missing 33 percent of the career success equation for women.
Not because it's missing in our capabilities or abilities,
but because it's missing in the advice that we're given.
Someone's affirming that that's been their experience.
Here's what I mean by that.
Five years ago, I was asked to moderate a panel of executives,
and the topic for the evening was
"What do you look for in high-potential employees?"
So think about the three elements of leadership
as I summarize for you what they told me.
They said,
"We look for people who are smart and hardworking and committed
and trustworthy and resilient."
So which element of leadership does that relate to?
Personal greatness.
They said, "We look for employees who are great with our customers,
who empower their teams, who negotiate effectively,
who are able to manage conflict well and are overall great communicators."
Which element of leadership does that equate to?
Engaging the greatness in others.
And then they pretty much stopped.
So I asked, "Well, what about people who understand your business,
where it's going, and their role in taking it there?
And what about people who are able to scan the external environment,
identify risks and opportunities,
make strategy or make strategic recommendations?
And what about people who are able
to look at the financials of your business,
understand the story that the financials tell,
and either take appropriate action or make appropriate recommendations?"
And to a man, they said, "That's a given."
So I turned to the audience of a 150 women
and I asked, "How many of you have ever been told
that the door-opener for career advancement is your business, strategic
and financial acumen,
and that all the other important stuff is what differentiates you
in the talent pool?"
Three women raised their hand.
And I've asked this question of women all around the globe
in the five years since
and the percentage is never much different.
So this is obvious, right?
But how can it be?
Well, there are primarily three reasons that there's this missing 33 percent
in the career success advice given to women.
First of all,
when organizations direct women toward resources
that focus on the conventional advice
that we've been hearing for over 40 years,
there's a notable absence of advice
that relates to business, strategic and financial acumen.
Much of the advice is emphasizing personal actions
that we need to take, like become more assertive,
become more confident, develop your personal brand.
Things that Tonya has been working on.
And advice about working with other people,
things like learn to self-promote, get a mentor, enhance your network.
And virtually nothing said
about the importance of business, strategic and financial acumen.
This doesn't mean that this advice is unimportant.
What it means is that this is advice that's absolutely essential
for breaking through
from career start to middle management.
But it's not the advice that gets women to break through
from the middle, where we're 50 percent, to senior and executive positions.
And this is why conventional advice to women
in 40 years hasn't closed the gender gap at the top
and won't close it.
Now, the second reason relates to Tonya's comments
about having had excellent performance evals,
great feedback from her teams,
and having taken every management training program
she can lay her hands on.
So you would think that she's getting messages from her organization
through the talent development systems
and performance management systems that let her know how important it is
to develop business, strategic and financial acumen.
But here again that green square is quite small.
On average, talent and performance management systems in the organizations
that I've worked with
focus three to one on the other two elements of leadership
compared to the importance of business, strategic and financial acumen,
which is why typical talent and performance systems
haven't closed and won't close the gender gap at the top.
Now, Tonya also talked about working with a mentor,
and this is really important to talk about
because if organizations' talent and performance systems aren't giving
people in general information about the importance
of business, strategic and financial acumen, how are men getting to the top?
Well, there are primarily two ways.
One is because of the positions they're guided into,
and the other is because of informal mentoring and sponsorship.
So, what's women's experience as it relates to mentoring?
Well, this comment from an executive that I worked with recently
illustrates that experience.
He was very proud of the fact that last year he had two protégés,
a man and a woman.
And he said, "I helped the woman build confidence,
I helped the man learn the business,
and I didn't realize that I was treating them any differently."
And he was sincere about that.
So what this illustrates is that as managers,
whether we're women or men,
we have mindsets about women and men, about careers in leadership,
and these unexamined mindsets won't close the gender gap at the top.
So how do we take this idea of the missing 33 percent
and turn it into action?
Well, for women the answer is obvious.
We have to begin to focus more on developing and demonstrating
the skills we have that show
that we're people who understand our businesses, where they're headed,
and our role in taking it there.
That's what enables that breakthrough from middle management to leadership
at the top.
But you don't have to be a middle manager to do this.
One young scientist that works in a biotech firm
used her insight about the missing 33 percent
to weave financial impact data
into a project update she did and got tremendous positive feedback
from the managers in the room.
So we don't want to put 100 percent of the responsibility
on women's shoulders,
nor would it be wise to do so, and here's why.
In order for companies to achieve their strategic financial goals,
executives understand that they have to have everyone
pulling in the same direction.
In other words, the term we use in business is
we have to have strategic alignment.
And executives know this very well, and yet only 37 percent,
according to a recent Conference Board report,
believe that they have that strategic alignment in place.
So for 63 percent of organizations,
achieving their strategic financial goals is questionable.
And if you think about what I've just shared,
that you have situations where
at least 50 percent of your middle managers
haven't received clear messaging that they have to become
focused on the business, where it's headed,
and their role in taking it there,
it's not surprising that that percentage of executives
who are confident about alignment is so low.
Which is why
there are other people who have a role to play in this.
So, it's important
for directors on boards to expect from their executives
proportional pools of women when they sit down once a year
for their succession discussions.
Why? Because if they aren't seeing that,
it could be an indicator or a red flag
that their organization isn't as aligned as it could potentially be.
It's important for CEOs to also expect these proportional pools,
and if they hear comments like,
"Well, she doesn't have enough business experience,"
ask the question, "What are we going to do about that?"
It's important for H.R. executives to make sure
that the missing 33 percent is appropriately emphasized
and it's important for women and men who are in management positions
to examine the mindsets we hold about women and men,
about careers and success,
to make sure we're creating a level playing field for everybody.
So let me close with the latest chapter in Tonya's story.
Tonya emailed me two months ago and she said that she had been interviewed
for a new position, and during the interview they probed
about her business acumen
and her strategic insights into the industry.
And she said that she was so happy to report that now she has a new position
reporting directly to the chief information officer at her company.
So for some of you, the missing 33 percent is an idea for you to put into action,
and I hope that for all of you, you will see it as an idea worth spreading
in order to help organizations be more effective,
to help women create careers that soar,
and to help close the gender gap at the top.
Thank you.