Bring Back The Women

Irene Ortiz-GlassLeadership Advisory Group

A True Story……..

The Current Reality…

• The number of women age 20 and older not in the labor pool according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics has soared from 40 million in 2000 to nearly 49 million today; another 350,000 left last month.

• When it comes to staying in the workforce beyond the 10-year point, a woman is five times more likely to leave the workforce. (American International Journal of Social Science, 2013)

What Women Tell Us…

When we asked highly ambitious women and men of Harvard Business School what they valued and hoped for in their lives, they responded with career-related factors as early definitions of success: job titles, job levels and professional achievements (HBR, December, 2014)

A woman stated “For me, at age 25, success was defined by career success. Now I think of success much differently: Raising happy, productive children, contributing to the world around me, and pursuing work that is meaningful to me.” (HBR December, 2014)

Bottom Line: Women Want Meaning and Purpose

• Employees who derive meaning from their work are more than three times as likely to stay with their organizations-the highest single impact of any other survey variable tested. By this account, meaning trumps items related to learning and growth, connection to a company’s mission, and even work-life balance.

(Fast Company)

External & Internal Pressures

Doing Role

Being Role

Alignment

Female Wiring Differentiates

• Female brains utilize nearly ten times more white matter than men• White matter is the networking, social connecting, and gives women

the ability to multi-task• Women take in more information from all five senses• Female brains have verbal centers on both sides of the brain

compared to men who have one• Female brain is wired for relationship building emotional connection

and collaboration

Some Absolutes:

• If women are going to invest in having a long term career, they want to know that the trade off is worth it

• They want to see female leaders represented in the organization

• Harvard study of 25,000 graduates found that women who have children choose to leave the workforce “as a last resort, because the find themselves in unfulfilling roles with dim prospects for advancement.”

Valid Research

Decision Dynamics Assessment:

• Measures the amount of information people take in and how many solutions they come up with.

• Maximizers and Satisficers• Measures leadership style, thinking, emotional EQ, and career

motives• 1 million people in the database showed very distinct patterns

for what made people successful along the way• Proved that behavioral competency had to change for true

success

Action-Focused

***

Flexible * Complex *** Creative-1.00-0.500.000.501.00 OPERATING STYLES

Men (n = 1239) Women (n = 122)DECISIVE * FLEXIBLE *** HIERARCHIC INTEGRATIVE***

Ambiguity Tolerance

***

Composure **

Empathy *** Energy *** Humility Confidence ***

-1.00

-0.50

0.00

0.50

1.00 EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES

Men (n = 1239) Women (n = 122)

DECISIVE FLEXIBLE HIERARCHIC INTEGRATIVE

GENDER PROFILESU.S. Executives

Directors, VPs, C-Suite Execs

Task-Focused ** Social *** Intellectual Participative ***

-1.00

-0.50

0.00

0.50

1.00 INTERPERSONAL ROLE STYLES

Men (n = 1239) Women (n = 122)

So What’s a Recruiter to Do?

Unconscious Bias: Without This All Else Fails (Harvard Project Implicit)

• Recognize that bias is real and was originally part of a survival instinct• A stereotype is an exaggerated belief, image or distorted truth about

a person or group of people. It’s a generalization that allows for little or no differentiation

• A prejudice is an opinion, pre judgment about a group or individual members

• Once learned, prejudice and stereotypes resist change. We actually begin to seek out support for our beliefs.

• Train, get informed, and make a movement to educate• There is data to support that bias and prejudice are linked to

behavior

Sourcing Strategy: Oh The Places You Should Go!

• Women are connected, therefore we love to connect others to opportunities. Find the end of the string and work your way to the talent.

• We volunteer and give of ourselves, its our nature. Where are women making a difference?

• We lead conferences and speak at events, are you attending? You can tell a lot by someone from how they present themselves and engage people.

• Diversity groups are filled with smart and passionate women looking to make a difference.

Value Proposition is Key:

• You have a critical role as chief story teller for your organization• What you share and invite women to become a part of is either

compelling or its like every other conversation, non differentiated • If its not really who you are, don’t fake it, women will always find out• You have a responsibility to work with your colleagues across HR and

Talent Management to identify the brand and explore how it serves both internal and external talent

Interviewing

• Companies generally fire people for poor behavior not skill, so what are you actually interviewing for?

• Very good A players are not always good at the “We” stuff, so find out if collaboration and team building are in someone’s DNA.

• Women are more than just a sum of their “doing” they have natural abilities to engage and create connections that foster a larger movement.

• Remember the data and interview for the things that differentiate and matter to women ( We are also interviewing you!)

• Prepare your hiring managers

Fix The Leaky Bucket