In a world where every ounce of competitive advantage counts, greater diversity at board level could be the secret ingredient all companies are looking for as evidence mounts that women executives have a positive
effect on the bottom line.
The economic reasons for progressing women through the talent pipeline into senior management positions are compelling.
Research, such as that by Columbia University and the University of Maryland business schools on data from 1 500 US companies, shows a strong positive association between return on assets and return on equity
on the one hand, and the participation of women in top roles on the other.
Another recent study by McKinsey demonstrated that among companies for which gender information was available, those with three or more women on their senior management teams scored higher on nine
organisational criteria of success than did companies with no senior-level women.
“It stands to reason that organisations that are able to find ways to increase the diversity at senior levels have a significant opportunity to hone their competitive advantage,” says Liz de Wet, course director of the
Women in Leadership programme at UCT’s Graduate School of Business (GSB).
And given that women are still underrepresented in most organisations and governments around the world, there is plenty of scope for forward thinking organisations to capitalise on this, she adds. According to the
latest Businesswoman Association corporate census – just 28% of senior management positions in South Africa are held by women.
De Wet says tha,t while old models of business may have worked in the past 150 years, the business landscape has shifted dramatically in the past decade, requiring far greater engagement, collaboration, innovation,
and diversity of thinking for success.
As Eddie Obeng, creator of the “World After Midnight” concept says, it is important that organistions adapt to a more human-centric way of operating, that allows people and organisations the opportunity to thrive in an
increasingly complex, ambiguous and fast-changing world.
According to Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project and author of Be Excellent at Anything, women are particularly well adapted to this task.
Writing in the Harvard Business Review he notes: “An effective modern leader requires a blend of intellectual qualities – the ability to think analytically, strategically and creatively – and emotional ones, including self-
awareness, empathy and humility. Great leadership begins with being a whole human being and I meet far more women with this blend of qualities than I do men.”
Gender does not, he says, ensure or preclude specific qualities and he has hired men who are just as self-aware, authentic and capable of connection as women. Just as he has encountered senior women executives
who have modeled themselves after male leaders, perhaps feeling they must do this to survive, and are just as narrow and emotionally limited as their worst male counterparts.
“But for the most part,” Schwartz says, “women bring to leadership a more complete range of the qualities modern leaders need.”
Schwartz is backed up by a study published in the Harvard Business Review in which 7300 leaders were rated by their peers, supervisors and direct reports. Women scored higher in 12 of 16 key skills – not just
developing others, building relationships, collaborating and practicing self-development, but also taking initiative, driving for results and solving problems and analysing issues.
To shift corporate culture so that it can reap the benefits of a greater representation of women at the top, Schwarz says more courage is needed – from both men and women. Male leaders need the courage to stand down and comfortably acknowledge their shortcomings and women need the courage to step up, fully own their strengths, and lead with confidence and resolve.