The Paula Principle:Getting Women to the Top Table Using iWAM

Dr. Sally Vanson

Peter and Paula• In 1969, a book called The Peter Principle was

published, and became something of a classic in management texts. Its central premise was that employees are eventually promoted to jobs at which they prove incompetent.

• Now we have the Paula Principle and it argues that most women get promoted to a level below their competence. Far from rising to a position their talents don't deserve, they languish below what they could easily manage.

The StatisticsIn the last six months of 2012 the percentage of female directors appointed to FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards slipped to 26% and 29% (Cranfield International Centre for Women Leaders).

This is also a marked slowdown on rates seen for the preceding six months – 44% and 36% for FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies respectively.

Women now hold 17.3% of FTSE 100 directorships, but just 5.8% of executive roles, and 21.8% of non-executive posts. The same picture arises across Europe and appears to be due to both discrimination and also self-sabotage.

Our project• The European Commission are keen to be perceived

as a model employer for diversity and equality issues.

• The European Central Bank has implemented a mentoring scheme to help women move up through the organisation.

• We are now in our second year of running a tailored mentoring scheme where we have designed the mentoring framework and train both mentors and mentees to implement the framework.

iWAM makes a huge contribution• Mentors and mentees use iWAM as part of the

matching and contracting process. They complete individual and pairs reports.

• They get individual feedback and are then encouraged to make the pairs report a core component of the contracting session so they can plan how they will work together.