I often have an opportunity to meet with executives across many organizations in any given month. The topics vary but the same underlining goal resides for many organizations: Increase the number of women leaders in the executive ranks.
There is no lack of press or research on the numerous benefits of diverse and inclusive teams, yet many organizations struggle to appropriately address key areas which often result in homogenous executive organizational charts and undesired retention issues.
So why is this so difficult for so many companies?
Actually, it is much more complicated and is often weaved into the fabric of the organization, making it difficult to address with just a top-down mandate.
Frustrating results
In efforts to compile to executive and board diversity expectations, I often see many companies implement enablement and leadership programs or ship high potential female talent to off-site seminars or conferences. Many revisit mentorship programs to align relationships that have been known to be ineffective.
With all the dollars spent on enablement and mentorship, many of these efforts still create incomplete results since these high-potential women return back to the same company culture, manager and organizational structures that have more of a direct impact on the effectiveness of their inclusion strategy.
Although I have seen, met and followed some pretty effective women, I am not certain there is a talent and leadership gap among women.
The reality, is that society has a large impact on what we associate as leadership characteristics — and guess what? We often align leadership traits to those of men. This has been stated in numerous ways, but was most recently reiterated in a Forbes article by Hester Lacey. In “Having a baby doesn’t block the path to the boardroom: What affects women’s route to the top, ”Lacey states “leadership today looks male.” She goes on to state, however, “in our research we found that women bring in broadly the same leadership skills as men.”
Overcoming perceptions
So how does an organization overcome society perceptions when chasing the improved financial performance and greater innovation benefitsof an inclusive executive team? That’s exactly whatThe Anita Borg Institute is trying to document. Take it’s “Innovation by Design: The Case for Investing Women” report where they link an increase in a diverse workforce with an increase in innovation, improved financial performance and more.
There is also research that looks at the topic of leadership, inclusion, conscience biases and why women persist. For exapmle, Case Western Reserve’s Kathleen Buse, Ph.D., shows that there are four key areas of focus to enhance inclusion within an organization:
- Culture: Most organizational cultures struggle with unspoken biases that show up in all areas of the organization.
- Organizational: The process and procedures can be known to drive diverse talent right out the door.
- Relational: The relationships and their awareness and effectiveness in and around the organization are critical and often overlooked as a direct impact to the desired result.
- Individual: The person’s characteristics and the organization’s ability to effectively align and enable career paths.
With the talent shortage and market demands, there are true market benefits in inclusion efforts but it takes an executive-led vision and strategic plan to manifest desired results through measureable goals.
