LeadHERship: Getting There, Not Yet Arrived

Men fight for power, women fight for purpose

 
I originally come from India, a country with a history of women leaders who’ve made a global impact in their chosen fields. The areas these Indian women excelled in are as diverse as politics, music, law, medicine, and social endeavors, to name a few. I was blessed with a father whose progressive views, saw geography or gender as minor hurdles to his children pursuing their dreams; no matter where in the world this would take them.

This explains why the singular focus of my work today, is how to catalyze radical change for a better world, through transforming both inner and outer worlds. Nowhere is there more need for this, than in the area of women in leadership, gender parity, empowerment, and equality of opportunity. Areas where change is coming, slowly. Blame it on the winter of my discontent. Or on the statistics that confirm this reality.
 

A March 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) feature on women in leadership roles says: ‘The overall number of women in top business roles is still painfully low – only 5% of CEOs of major corporations in the US are women – but there are reasons for optimism. Since 2015, the number of women in senior leadership has grown, particularly in the C-suite where the representation of women has increased from 17% to 21%. Today, 44% of companies have three or more women in their C-suite, up from 29% of companies in 2015. Could this be because of the perception that having women in leadership doesn’t make sound business sense? The reality proves the contrary.

Beyond moral and social benefits, the impact of diversity on the bottom line is dramatic, say Harvard Business School researchers Paul Gompers and Silpa Kovvali: “…the more similar the investment partners, the lower their investments’ performance.” Venture capital firms that increased their proportion of female partner hires by 10% saw, on average, a 1.5% spike in overall fund returns each year and had 9.7% more profitable exits.

Lest we get diverted striving for incremental numbers, this WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2020 provides a grounding reality byte: “None of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children. That’s the sobering finding which reveals that gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years.” 

Putting First Things First

Whether it’s striving for more women in boardroom positions, or empowering immigrant and low-income women from inner cities to launch sustainable fashion careers, it’s important that those of us pressing for change take cognizance of an important principle: ‘The Law of First and Second Things.’ This law simply states: ‘You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.’ Stated another way, it goes thus: ’Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things.’ 

Striving for incrementing numbers that measure women’s success is what I consider ‘second things.’ They’re simply fruit, not root issues. The list of ‘first things’ that require priority of pursuit includes more women in leadership, gender parity, empowerment, equality of opportunity, and the barriers thereto. Let’s now look at some of these show stoppers.

Tokenism - It Harms More than Heals

One of the best definitions of tokenism at work that I’ve hitherto read is: ‘…the exploitation of someone’s identity in order to check a diversity box.’ Despite the adverse effects this creates, organizations continue hiring diverse talent of a single-gender or race in desperation to appear inclusive; without giving the people they hire any real power.

Besides it being a band-aid solution to a systemic issue, tokenism isolates the person, increases organizational focus on the person’s actions, and perpetuates the stereotype rather than eliminates it. In essence, what tokenism actually does is:
 

• Imply that women don’t really deserve their positions and are placed there to appear politically correct
• Set up token women to subconsciously compete amongst themselves
• Keep other women out of top jobs, as sometimes having a token woman on a top management team makes it less likely that there will be other women on that team.  

The Insecurity of the C-Suite

The pandemic has clearly demonstrated that women leaders outperform men, especially during a crisis. Countries led by women have had nearly half the Covid-19 deaths as those led by men, says a 2020 study by researchers Supriya Garikipati, University of Liverpool and Uma Kambhampati, University of Reading. A more recent study shows that American states that were run by women governors, lost fewer of their people to Covid.

In the private sector, published data clearly links bottom-line financial results to more gender-balanced leadership teams. A reality that caused asset managers like Blackrock, AXA and others worth a combined US$13 trillion, to publicly state that they won’t invest in companies that aren’t gender-balanced.

So what are the barriers with the allegedly result-driven private sector? The bro-culture malaise seems to have overtaken even the progressively perceived tech giants, who once were at the leading edge of gender balance. Gender parity seems to have slipped off the beam even within the male-dominated financial world; despite the poster girls thereof. 

An oft-ignored insight into what drives the genders could well be the key to understanding the issue, before strategizing about it. Men fight for power, women fight for a purpose. No wonder there’s a proliferation of men running the private sector, while women run the public and non-profit sectors. 

When Gender Advocacy Stops Short

Nowhere is gender bias so blatantly seen as in the relationship between track and field athletes and their corporate sponsors. In these sports, athletes get a large portion of their income from sponsorship deals with apparel companies. These deals enable the athlete to support their families, while they pursue excellence in their chosen sport. It’s common knowledge that these sponsorship deals consider professional athletes like independent contractors, rather than salaried employees. The contract terms often grant athletes paid time off when they are injured, but hem and haw while giving female athletes paid pregnancy and maternity leave.

As recently as 2019, the contract of a leading sports brand granted the company the ability to reduce an athlete’s pay if they didn’t meet a specific performance threshold, with no exceptions for childbirth, pregnancy, or maternity. Female athletes are known to have fulfilled their contract performance terms even while pregnant and soon after giving birth.

The irony of the issue is that the corporate sponsor ran ads inspiring girls and women to pursue their dreams and challenge limits. Choosing to have children is clearly not considered a great dream to have.

The Way Forward - a Marathon and a Sprint

The pandemic has revealed rather than caused the inequalities and inequities in our world. Marginalized people globally feel this pain more acutely. C-suite executives and leaders have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink their legacy and wield their immense power in the service of social justice, inclusion, and collective well-being. There are some areas that call for a marathon-like approach; while at other times a spirit is more appropriate. Here are some thoughts that need to be considered while pursuing a path forward:

Find Purpose, Destiny will Follow

The move towards more women in leadership, gender parity, empowerment, and equality of opportunity, calls for leaders that are clear about their corporate purpose and can inspire others to follow. It’s about discovering the why, not the how-to. It’s about creating a movement, not about erecting monuments. Putting purpose in the driver’s seat sets the direction towards which organizations should be headed.

Pipelines Lead to Progress

I’ve found that creating managing and monitoring the women-in-leadership pipeline, creates the conditions for more women to be groomed for future roles, even as they grow. People behave differently when they know someone’s rooting for them on a day-to-day basis. The journey is as important as the destination.

Stop Fixing, Start Celebrating

The time has come for organizations to stop ‘fixing’ women, by making them behave more like men. Besides losing the leadership qualities that women bring to the table, they also fan the power struggle amongst men, who may then view women as competitors. Fostering a culture of collaboration rather than competition works wonders for workplace morale, as well as the bottom line. Stop blaming men for bias. If we want to build back better, we need to be balanced, bigger and bolder. Intentionally appreciating and celebrating the good work done by women, builds team culture and fosters an environment of support.

Break Down the ‘Bro’ Barriers

An effective way to move beyond gender bias and break down the ‘bro culture,’ is to have more qualified women on larger projects. Studies show that women are less likely to be assigned to bigger projects with larger budgets. Actively working to put women in key roles enables them to discover what they excel at, what they love doing, or demonstrate their leadership potential. Women also need to be encouraged to press for these opportunities, rather than complain about the lack of them.

Sponsorship, Advocacy, Mentorship

Sponsorship and advocacy are proactive words. Actively working to promote, recommend and sponsor women for leadership or front-end roles, is an indirect form of mentorship. It enables women to emulate these practices in the future and groom other women on similar lines.

Institutionalize Equality and Empowerment

Men are more transactional. Women are more relational. Men will be driven purely by a focus on goals and results. Putting women in roles that are empowered to handle equality and empowerment, can produce great changes in these areas. Human Resource Departments can be powerful agents of communicating the vision, fostering change and accelerating empowerment.

As we’ve all discovered, the longest way around is the shortest way home. Shortcuts have consequences. In my interactions with global leaders, the movement for more women in leadership, gender parity, empowerment, and equality of opportunity is gaining ground. 

A professor, researcher, tech entrepreneur, Fulbright Fellow, and thought leader on Management and Social Justice, Dr. Latha Poonamallee is Associate Professor, Chair of the Faculty of Management, and University Fellow at The New School in New York City. She is Co-Founder and CEO of In-Med Prognostics Inc., the first company to provide ethnicity-specific neuro assessment reports, biomarkers and surrogate endpoints relevant to all people, everywhere, and is the author of Expansive Leadership: Cultivating Mindfulness to Lead Self and Others in a Changing World: A 28 day Program.  Connect Dr. Latha Poonamallee