(Full Text Version) The Leadership Machine: All the Research about Women's Career Advancement Summed Up in One Usable Diagram

Understand the system, make a strategyWomen in Leadership

January 2016

Janice Fraser Director, People Pivotal

Keep in touch!

@clevergirl

I’ve been in business for a long time.

Janice Fraser, 2016 @clevergirl

We’ve come a long way since the day my business partners tried to deny my maternity leave retroactively because in their view parenthood was a “lifestyle choice”.


Even so, women don’t advance into leadership proportionately.

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

IC Manager Director VP SVP C-Suite

Source: Women in the Workplace 2016, McKinsey22

This study comprised 132 companies that employ collectively 4.6 million people.

% Men

% Women


But why? It doesn’t make sense.


What’s true in the world?

Literature review.

Synthesize findings & map out a system model

Make explicit strategies to support the advancement of women.

My plan.


1. Stanford Study: Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for Mid-Level women in Technology, Clayman Institute for Gender Research 2009 2. McKinsey Study: Unlocking the full potential of women at work, 2012 3. Catalyst Study: Good Intentions, Imperfect Execution? Women get fewer Game Changing Leadership Roles, 2011 4. Anita Borg Institute: Barriers to the advancement of technical women. A review of the literature, 2007 5. HBR: To Close the Gender Gap, Focus on Assignments, 2012 6. HBR: Why Men Still Get More Promotions than Women, 2010 7. HBR: Women in Management, Delusions of Progress, 2010 8. Bersin: What Exactly Are Talent Calibration Sessions Versus Talent Reviews?, 2008 9. Fortune: The abrasiveness trap: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews, 2015 10. HBR Press: Through the Labyrinth, 2007 11. Catalyst Study: The Double-Bind DIlemma, 2007 12. HBR Study: Women Get Fewer Game-Changing Leadership Roles, 2012 13. Clayman Institute: Senior Leadership Summit for Women (WT2 Conference), Feb 2016 14. Forbes: The 'Glass Cliff' Phenomenon That Senior Female Leaders Face Today And How To Avoid It, 2015 15. PWC/Strategy& Study: The 2013 Chief Executive Study, 2013 16. Google, Search result definition. March 2015 17. Journal of Advances in Gender Research: Gendered Networks: Professional Connections of Science and Engineering Faculty 18. UC Hastings: Double Jeopardy? Gender Bias Against Women of Color in Science 19. HBR: Prove Yourself ... Again: Why Women Get Overlooked for Management Positions 20. Slate Study: How to Get Ahead as a Woman in Tech: Interrupt Men 21. Catalyst Study: The Double Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do Doomed if You Don’t 22. McKinsey Study: Women in the Workplace, 2016 (Just published this week)

The studies.


• Senior women get fewer key opportunities than men.12, 14

• Self-reinforcing factors bias leadership pipelines against women.1, 2

• Research from leading institutions has identified a small number of causal patterns.2, 13

• This situation can be reversed over time through sustained effort rooted in belief about the problem.1, 2

What I found.


Stanford researchers have identified 3 causal factors that significantly hinder women’s ascent to top leadership roles.13

Good news. Sourcing & Screening

Interviewing & Selecting

Power & Team Dynamics

Performance Reviews

Talent Reviews & Calibration

Assignments & Promotions

Compensation


Women’s Leadership Pipeline Inputs and Outcomes

Sponsorship

Networks & Social Capital

TalentReviews

Stretch Assignments

Senior Leadership

OPT OUT

Staff Role

Laterals

Sidelines

70%

Mentorship Glass Cliff

20%

Performance Evals


Women’s Leadership Pipeline Inputs and Outcomes

Sponsorship


TalentReviews

Stretch Assignments

Senior Leadership

OPT OUT

Staff Role

Laterals

Sidelines

70%


20%

Performance Evals

WE’RE GOING TO START HERE, with the outcomes

AND WORK LEFT, toward the inputs


Stretch Assignments

Senior Leadership

70%

Stretch Assignments

• 70% of leadership development comes from “stretch assignments.” 5

• A “Stretch Assignment” is a project that is beyond a person’s current knowledge or skill in order to “stretch” them developmentally, often in preparation for greater leadership opportunity. 5,

16

• Women are less likely to get access to stretch assignments.12


Stretch Assignments

Senior Leadership

70%

Glass Cliff

Glass Cliff

• The Glass Cliff is the phenomenon whereby female executives are likelier than males to be put in leadership roles during periods of crisis or downturn, when the chance of failure is highest. (e.g., Marissa Mayer) 16

• Women are mentioned more frequently than men with regard to Glass Cliff situations. 16

• When stretch assignments are given to women, they are often “Glass Cliff” assignments, which have a greater chance of failure. 14


Stretch Assignments

Senior Leadership

70%

Glass Cliff

Staff Roles

• A “staff role” supports the organization with specialized advisory and support functions. A "line role" directly advances an organization in its core work.16

• As women advance, they migrate to “staff” roles, whereas men retain their “line” roles. 2

• People in staff roles are not considered for the most influential assignments and positions. 2

Staff Role


OPT OUT

Sidelines

Stretch Assignments

Senior Leadership

70%

Sidelines and Laterals

• Women are forced out of their leadership roles 35% more often than men.15

• Women are promoted only after having demonstrated their capabilities (“prove it again”), while men are often promoted on their potential for future performance (“Prove it again bias”). 18,

21

As a result, “stretch assignments” are less available to women, and lateral moves are inevitable.

Ultimately, women leave the leadership workforce in greater numbers than men.

Glass Cliff

Staff Role

Laterals


In summary, there are 5 outcomes for women that preclude senior leadership. Senior

Leadership

OPT OUT

Staff Role

Laterals

Sidelines

Glass Cliff


Talent Reviews

Talent reviews are the formal or informal situations in which senior leaders discuss the leadership potential of team members, often in a context of assignments and succession planning.16

• Women are scrutinized more often than men in talent reviews, particularly about whether they are “strategic”.13

• Women get judged more precisely against predetermined criteria, while men receive more leniency. 19

• Women’s mistakes tend to be remembered for longer than men’s. 19

• Women’s successes are attributed to circumstance or luck, whereas men’s are attributed to skill. 19

TalentReviews

Stretch Assignments

OPT OUT

Staff Role

Laterals

Sidelines

70%

Glass Cliff


Sponsorship


TalentReviews

Stretch Assignments

Staff Role

Laterals

Sidelines


20%

Performance Evals

What happens at the talent review depends on the INPUTS


Sponsorship

Sponsors are senior managers with influence. They prepare their proteges for advancement, protect them from negative situations, decode the company system, and advocate for them in circles of power. 6

• Sponsorship accounts for 20% of all professional development and advancement. 5

• Having senior mentors who are in a position to provide sponsorship leads to advancement. 12

• More-senior sponsors yield faster advancement. 6

• Women are sponsored less frequently and by more-junior sponsors than their male peers. 6

TalentReviewsSponsorship

20%



Senior managers with more social capital (in the form of network ties that bridge different groups) are more likely to get promoted. 2

People are most comfortable networking with others who are most like themselves [men network with men, women with women].1, 17

Senior women are therefore largely excluded from the networks of power where decisions about assignments are made.2

Sponsorship


TalentReviews

20%


Power & Team Dynamics: An overlay that hinders women’s promotion potential at all levels

“Prove It Again” names a category of bias behaviors in which women have to provide more evidence of competence than men in order to be seen as equally competent. For example:

• Women are more likely to have their ideas overlooked in meetings. When a man states the same idea later, he receives acknowledgement and praise. 19

• Women are likely to be the target of interruption more often than men, at a rate of 3:1. 18, 20

“The Double Bind” names an interconnected set of biases that create a very narrow band of acceptable personality and comportment norms for women.

• “Taking-charge” skills and stereotypically masculine behaviors, such as assertiveness and competition, are often seen as prerequisites for top-level positions. 21

• When women act in ways that are stereotypically masculine, they’re considered “too tough” or “unlikeable”. 21

• When women act in ways that are consistent with female gender stereotypes, they are viewed as less competent leaders.21

• Women are perceived as “likeable” or “competent”, but not both. 21


Explicit Strategies For Managing Career Advancement

Sponsorship


Stretch Assignments

Staff Role

Laterals

Sidelines

Glass Cliff

CULTIVATE relationships across “type”

BE ONE FIND ONE Remember this is a quid pro quo relationship

CAUTION

CAUTION

SEEK

Thank you!

Business

(Full Text Version) The Leadership Machine: All the Research about Women's Career Advancement Summed Up in One Usable Diagram