THE IMPACT OF WOMEN LEADERS DIGITAL ZINE

THE IMPACT OF WOMEN LEADERS DIGITAL ZINE

More than ever organizations need strong individuals in key leadership positions. Great leaders help their organization maximize productivity, achieve business goals, and prepare for the future. Yet it is interesting to note that even though women comprise more than half of the workforce, they remain underrepresented in top positions. Vik Malhotra, a senior partner at McKinsey and Co., said, For women, the corporate talent pipeline is leaky and blocked. We present five profound reasons why organizations need to repair their talent pipelines and take advantage of this largely untapped and unrecognized resource for leadership women.

IF MORE WOMEN ARE IN LEADERSHIP ROLES, WE LL STOP ASSUMING THEY SHOULDN T BE. Sheryl Sandberg

1 WOMEN LEADERS ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE In a dataset of over 60,000 leaders, we found that women outperform men in 13 of the 16 most differentiating leadership competencies. In fact, they outperformed their male counterparts in overall effectiveness with every rater group, i.e. peers, direct reports, manager. The largest effectiveness ratings gap occurred in feedback from the leaders managers on average, women outperformed men by almost five percent! The data is clear that ability is not the issue. Women can, and often do, perform well in leadership positions.

2 WOMEN SEEK SELF-DEVELOPMENT Most women choose to continue to learn and develop as their careers progress, resulting in higher overall effectiveness. Early in their careers there is no significant difference between men and women s overall leadership effectiveness. As their careers progressed, however, men s average scores declined significantly more than women s. The takeaway is not about men versus women, but rather the impact that ongoing development and continuous improvement can have on leaders overall effectiveness, and that women are more inclined to engage in developmental activities.

3 WOMEN ARE BOLDER THAN MEN Assessing 75,000 leaders using the boldness index seven leadership behaviors that include challenging standard approaches to creating an atmosphere of continual improvement women were consistently rated higher. On average, women rank in the 52nd percentile of the boldness index, while their male counterparts rank in the 49th percentile. And in maledominated professions, women rank in the 62nd percentile.

4 WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP ARE VIEWED MORE POSITIVELY As women move up the ladder in an organization, they are more positively perceived. For executive management, women rank in the 57th percentile five points above men in the same position. Women in senior management outrank men by six percentile points.

5 ORGANIZATIONS BENEFIT FROM A MIXED GENDER WORKPLACE Studies have shown that mixed-gender teams are more productive and creative. The difference in revenue between an all-male or all-female office to one that was evenly split was as much as 41 percent. Greater diversity meant a broader spread of experience, a deeper collective knowledge, and a greater encouragement of new ideas, which helped the team perform more effectively. ( Workplace Diversity Can Help the Bottom Line, MIT 2014.) Studies have also shown that having women in leadership positions created three times the probability that other women would be placed in fast-track opportunities. ( Getting to Equal 2018, Accenture.) Diversity cultivates diversity, which generates organizational results.

IMPACT OF WOMEN LEADERS: BY THE NUMBERS Men Women 1 Overall Leadership Effectiveness by Level (Percentile Scores) 48.3 Manager 53.0 Peers Direct Report 50.0 51.0 53.1 53.1 2 Self-Development Throughout Career Percentile 75 55 35 Up to 25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 Age Group 3 Boldness Index Ratings (Percentile) Men 49 Women 52 4 Positive Perception Within the Organization Executive Management 52 57 Senior Manager 50 56 Middle Manager 51 55 5 Revenue Increase Based on Demographics All Male / All Female Office Evenly Split Office +41%

Any leader can be extraordinary. While one gender is not inherently better than another, organizations will benefit greatly by putting emphasis on fixing talent pipelines through identifying high-potential women and providing them with more opportunities to positively impact the organization in leadership roles.