Results at the Top. Annis Barbara
will be of high interest to women as well, for by speaking to men and making known their thoughts and the reasons for their behaviors, we reveal to women how to best communicate and interact with men in the workplace, and in many other aspects of life.
We're embarking on a new level of achievement in the pursuit of women in leadership, and this book is recognition of that achievement and points directly to the successes gained.
Our title, Results at the Top, speaks to that success and the intersection of the three transformational events happening in countries across the globe that are bringing about that acknowledgment and success. These events are culminating in the rise of companies' Gender Intelligence quotient, shareholder value, and the broader measures of superior corporate performance.
• The ascent of neuroscience and our expanding awareness of the distinct yet complementary natures of men and women
• The ascent of women in dominating education and moving into positions of leadership
• The ascent of men in their recognition of and advocacy for women in leadership
This book fixes its sights on these three elements, with particular focus on the ascent of men, and spotlights trends in their attitudes and behaviors as well as their successes in advancing women in the organizations that they lead. It's also a book in which men can discover more about themselves, how they tick, and why. Unlike so many books and articles written about men, we are not here to place blame, but to understand men's strengths and contributions and how they differ from those of women.
Nor do we address issues such as how women should conduct themselves to be most effective in today's companies. Previous books on this and related topics are plentiful and are usually addressed only to women, or to some vague blend of men and women.
Today, women equal or outnumber men in universities, law schools, and medical schools, and for the first time in the United States, in 2009 women received a greater percentage of doctorate degrees. They've represented nearly half the workforce since the 1980s and influence almost 80 percent of consumer purchases globally. They are joining the ranks of business entrepreneurs in increasing numbers – on average, running more financially successful small businesses than their male entrepreneur counterparts.
But there is one outpost where women are a distinct minority, and not by their own choice – in the senior leadership teams and boards of public corporations. Despite the acclaim given to a few high‐profile female CEOs, around 90 percent of companies today are still led by men.
The discrepancy has not gone unnoticed. Gender diversity is one of the hottest topics in business today. Why are women not advancing at the pace they would like? Why do regulators feel it necessary to mandate gender diversity in public companies? Why, after forty years of mandates, are women still only one out of five on executive teams and one out of ten as CEOs?
Results at the Top brings to business leaders – male leaders – a “dollars and cents” rationale and proven reasons to change their attitudes. Our book delivers proof of a virtually universal relationship between the presence of women on boards and in senior management teams and improved corporate performance. And it proposes a series of concrete steps that corporations can and should take to promote greater gender diversity at each stage of the career ladder.
We offer groundbreaking insights into what will motivate companies to hire more women into senior management and appoint them to more board positions. We examine the relationship between the number of women on a board of a company and the number of women on the top management team of that company, advancing a new method of evaluating diversity in a company's leadership called the Gender Propensity Index©, or GPI©.
Do a company's policies and leadership behaviors indicate the likelihood of new women being added to management and boards? Will this lead to superior performance? Many stakeholders want to know the answers to these questions, from the companies themselves to their employees, their new hires, and their shareholders. It will also be of interest to regulators and other government agencies.
Results at the Top discusses how men should respond to these challenges and how men and women can work together to achieve the common goal of running better organizations. We address the importance of measurement and action to realize enhanced performance through gender diversity and how organizations should rid their “plumbing” of bias as a first and most critical step.
We're on the crest of this tidal wave and beginning to see the effects of gender‐balanced leadership on the productivity and financial performance of companies. In time, this wave will carry over onto the global economy and into governments around the world.
Countries are beginning to realize and embrace, as equals, their greatest undervalued and underdeveloped economic resource – the female half of the population. We believe the engagement of women in developing countries for their balanced voice in business and government will be one of the greatest breakthroughs for humankind in the twenty‐first century.
The solution right under our noses is in bringing the best brains of both men and women together to create a better, more stable world – both economically and socially. Imagine how different our world would be right now if women had been at the table just in the last fifty years.
Our hope is that, with our book, we can encourage and influence just 10 percent of the male leadership in companies around the world and accelerate the progress that's already been made. Our hope is that Results at the Top will be a wake‐up call for more men to get on board and give rise to an even more powerful movement forward.
We believe that if we can get this right, we could achieve real progress in a single generation.
Chapter 1
YOUR WAKE‐UP CALL
Let's put it on the table right at the onset. We believe – and what's more, we believe we can prove – that if you want your business to perform at its peak, you must hire and promote women alongside men into management and elect them to your board of directors.
How we can possibly be doing the best for our businesses if we hire and promote from only one‐half of the population? This question has been out there forever, including back when women were not even considered full citizens. Asking this question has not led to the experience that most women and many men want, which is a full place for women alongside men in management and on boards. Other authors have tried to argue that women have superior skills (at least in certain areas) and this is the reason they should succeed in business. How is that argument working for change? Not so well.
We need to make a case that is provable based on evidence from an overwhelming number of experts in the field – a case that matters to those in positions of power. Who are they? Why – men, of course. This is the challenge that many who have tried to create change have been unable to resolve.
For over twenty years, a growing body of research has demonstrated that companies that embrace diversity in general – and gender diversity at the highest company levels in particular – enjoy superior corporate performance. The evidence is globally relevant. It applies as much to China as to the United States and as much to Canada as to the United Kingdom or any other country.
Acting to achieve optimal corporate performance, or as some statutes require, “acting in the best interests of the corporation,” requires boards and management to adjust the balance in their firm to achieve the right mix of men and women in leadership roles.
However, some believe progress by corporations in this area has stalled of late. Despite the acclaim given to a few high‐profile female CEOs, progress in promoting women to senior management roles has slowed in mature economies. Writing recently in The New York Times, Philip N. Cohen noted that, “The movement toward equality stopped [in 1994] and it hasn't changed much since.”1
Men still dominate senior management and boards, with women representing a little more than a token presence. There is no question that women feel “left out” and frustrated, as is suggested by the title
Philip Cohen, “How Can We Jump‐Start the Struggle for Gender Equality?”