Stuck in mid-level

‘Why can’t a woman be more like a man?’ demands Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. If she was, perhaps she would have more chance of getting onto the corporate board. There is a cartoon pinned up in my office. It shows five men (middle-aged, suited) and a woman (stereotype old-fashioned secretary) sitting round a boardroom table. The chairman (male) is saying: “That’s an excellent suggestion Miss Triggs. Perhaps one of the men would like to make it.”

Peninah Thomson, a partner in executive coaches Praesta Partners, believes women often lack competitive toughness. “My client, a very able female consultant, found in pitching for assignments her male colleagues were very assertive and competitive. It was a macho culture and she won fewer assignments than the men which put her professional reputation at risk.” 

Thomson, author of A Woman’s Place is on the Board, also argues that women are sometimes their own worst enemies because they are too diffident about their skills and talents. She calls it the ‘tiara effect’. “Men are very good at selling themselves, while women believe their worth will automatically be recognised. They think a tiara will descend from above and crown them with success.”

Lack of confidence accounts for women’s failure to have their talent recognised according to Simon Mitchell, a director at business leadership consultancy DDI. He says: “In DDI’s report Leaders in Transition, confidence did not feature in the men’s list of essentials for success, but it was top for women. On promotion, people have to face a whole new scenario of office politics and networking and women claim they are not good at dealing with this. Twice as many women in the report said that promotion had a negative effect on their lives – possibly because of their childcare responsibilities.”

In the 21st century the greatest barrier to career progress for women is still that they have children. Just at the stage when their careers are about to take off, they take off – to start a family. Business school intakes reflect this.  However hard they try to attract women applicants, only 22 per cent of full-time MBA students in the UK (whose average age is 29) are female. And an MBA is a prime route to the board.

Norma Jarboe concedes there is an increasing number of women in the leadership pipeline but, she says: “The pipeline is leaking. Women are opting out before getting to the more senior positions, or not returning after a career break.” Jarboe is director of Opportunity Now, an organisation ‘for employers committed to creating an inclusive workplace for women’.

Despite all the talk about flexible working, it is rarely an option for women aiming at the top, says Jarboe. “They are simply not taken seriously. If they work flexibly, they are stereotyped about having less commitment and are not offered senior posts. Senior male managers do not work flexibly and can’t believe that jobs can be done any other way.” Jarboe argues that work-life balance needs a radical re-think. “It shouldn’t be a gender issue, but a broader one about humanising work, reducing stress and re-
designing working practices around environmental
concerns. Meantime, more women are becoming entrepreneurs because they are impatient at not getting to the top quickly and do not like the long hours.”

Thankfully, there are companies tackling the issues that will enable women to fulfil their potential. Part of the problem is women do not have the same networking circles as men. Men tend to play golf and other sports together – an opportunity to feel part of a ‘club’, concurrently excluding female colleagues from possible opportunities and discussions. Jack Welch when chairman of GE was concerned by how few women were at senior level. In 1997, he provided funding and management support to establish a women’s network. Isabel Fernandez, managing director for enterprise clients at GE calls it, “an integral part of the organisation which has contributed to the increase of female managers to 14 per cent.”

The network organises 500 events globally each year to 10,000 members, running workshops on presentation, career choices and mentoring.  Fernandez says: “Networking helps you get to know people who might help with your career. Women have skill, dedication and passion but they don’t speak up about their ambitions.”

It could be argued that women do not want to be part of the talent pool. Perhaps their ambition is more limited than is widely accepted. Four years ago there were no women on the executive team at the Post Office, though 58 per cent of staff were female. A staff survey asked why they were not applying for top jobs. Alwen Lyons, head of mails and retail marketing, reports: “Some said they had achieved a sensible work-home balance and didn’t want to progress further; others saw that the top people were middle-aged men and weren’t inspired.”

The Post Office took steps to encourage women to confront their ambition. The company set up SWAN, a women’s network that organised 60
senior and 60 junior women in a mentoring scheme. Two years later the first generation, including Michelle Graves, are ready to mentor in their turn. She explains “I had been in the organisation for 20 years and never considered myself as ambitious. The head of industrial relations became my mentor and we talked over coffee or on the phone about things I found difficult to discuss with my line manager. She helped to widen my horizons.”

Reuters runs an innovative scheme where senior managers are mentored by subordinates. Senior vice president Susan O’Connor saw reverse mentoring as: “A unique opportunity to influence decision-making. I had just returned from maternity leave and was struggling to balance work and home life. I wondered about coaching someone who was my senior but with Christopher (who was less senior) the barriers came down immediately. We discussed working women from his perspective and my experiences including juggling late meetings and childcare demands. There is two-way learning and the benefits to this programme cantrickle down throughout the organisation.”

Talent development
AstraZenica is a company that recognises the business argument for having women at the top – in the US, 75 per cent of family healthcare decisions are made by women. Lyn Tetrault, executive vice-president of human resources is the only women on the main board, but there are three female non-executive directors, and 40 per cent of the direct reports to the executive team are female.

Tetrault, a trained lawyer, argues that women need individual development and coaching to grow into new roles – and must be flexible. She relocated her family from the US, and moved from the legal department to HR and corporate affairs. “But leaders must also take risks, and encourage women into new areas,” she says.

Clearly, enlightened companies are supporting women to develop their potential. But if their employers, like Professor Higgins, want them to conform to the male stereotype, then perhaps they should show more entrepreneurial spirit than Eliza Doolittle when she did not make good her threat to open up her own flower shop. Because if you can’t join ‘em, you better beat ‘em.