to gather information from them, and to develop the ability to influence them. With peers, it is important to be able to utilize them for information. Finally, with bosses, there is a benefit to being close, having an ability to influence them, and being willing to initiate contact with them. Overall, these results lead to the following advice: • • •
Get to know your team. Don't be afraid to develop close professional relationships with them and be sure to give heed to their thoughts and opinions Look to other managers at your same level for information about what is going on in your company. This increased awareness may prove valuable to your decision-making. Plan to have something of value to say should you have a chance encounter with the boss. Your ability to initiate meaningful conversations will help you enhance perceptions of your value. At some level, our findings are intuitive – managers are often evaluated on the performance of tasks, many of which are actually performed by subordinates. Still it is interesting to note the direct impact on pay. Indeed, in our research, managers underestimated the role subordinates play in career success and tended to over emphasize the relationship with the boss. This is not to say relationships with the boss aren't important, however. Developing the type of relationship in which you have an influence and where you are able to initiate contact matters greatly. To be clear, we are not advocating gratuitous and insincere behavior – we do find that managers who are able to wiled upward influence and who are more proactive with their boss achieve better career results. The danger we detected in the research was that an overemphasis on the boss tended to be coupled with less attention and regard for subordinates and this was clearly a mistake many managers were making. In summary, we again emphasize our belief that discrimination persists in our society. While we believe more effective relationship management provides an opportunity for women to lessen the gap, we do not believe it will erase it completely. Still, we are hopeful women managers can find our study helpful on an individual basis as they work to develop their networks for career success.
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2010 Media Report Villanova School of Business