More women in leadership roles

How to increase the percentage of women women in leadership and corporate boards

Some analysis, opinions and recommendations

Why there are so many more men than women in in senior leadership and on a corporate boards? analyze the possible causes determine what causes have more weight prioritize the solutions to the most impactful causes

To answer this question, we should:

internal causes (employer's reasons) external causes (women's reasons) +

(we are going to consider only the most controllable causes)

We are going to analyse some causes that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive

promotion rate

Why there are more men than women in in senior leadership and boards? criteria to avoid

internal causes (employer's reasons) external causes (women's reasons)

departure rate

for the promotions poaching

who are the decision makers for the recruitement resignments

visually more plesant higher hierarchical level distance Queen Bee Syndrome real

recruitment funnel personal conflicts of interest reasons to join and to stay reasons to leave perception of brand/purpose niveau de rémunération possibilité de progression

% of women at each level target

less reasosn to quit more reasons to join and stay

responsabilites of care of others time away from family

employment satisfaction working lifestyle required energies work environment (hostile? harassment?)

The most important causes

internal causes (employer's reasons) external causes (women's reasons) recruitment funnel 1. 2. personal conflicts of interest reasons to join and to stay reasons to leave

promotion rate departure rate

for the promotions poaching

who are the decision makers for the recruitement resignments

criteria to avoid

visually more plesant higher hierarchical level distance Queen Bee Syndrome

less reasosn to quit more reasons to join and stay

perception of brand/purpose niveau de rémunération possibilité de progression

responsabilites of care of others time away from family

3. employment satisfaction working lifestyle required energies work environment (hostile? harassment?) % of women at each level target

a. The recruitment funnel: career stages and corporate hierarchy 1.

Role

Function

interns, junior graduates, non-manager workers

analyst, PMO, associate (*) associate sollicitor analyst consultant (junior, senior, manager) senior associate sollicitor associate and senior associate consultant at director level counsel department head business unit director equity partner, associate partner, senior partner partner, senior partner vice-president, president executive board members managing director, partner CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, CMO

partner track

operational managers, team leaders partners, board

middle management directors

decision making

technical support, enablement administration, proj. management implementing decisions of others giving and following recommendations sourcing and managing technical work too learning and development of self and others taking proctive initiatives, leading a team clients engagement and deals mediation control and allocation of resources supervision and evaluation business negotiations

finding new clients / partners / equity and debt investors responsible for the company's development and results decision making at entreprise level and beyond independent management of working time top strategy and management decisions ( * = the roles of analyst, PMO and other admin can be careers in themselves, up to director level, by growing in complexity and budget) (grey: consulting, black: law; blue: EB, VC, PE and most other careers)

1.b. L' entonnoir de recrutement: les dynamiques de progression et évolution

Promotion rate Departure rate

poaching (hired by the competition)

resigned forced to leave professional reconversion within the same company (admin functions and other back office roles, without direct contact with the clients)

interns non managers

operational managers

every year most corporations hire a large intake of entry level employees (plus some more at higher level, to "top up" the number of required headcounts per year)

middle managment

The hiring of new entry level

retirement

partners, board

retirement

cohorts put pressure on more senior employees, because once the juniors acquire the same skills, those above them can be replaced (and so they must either promote or leave, depending only on sales and

All promotions are based on what most valuable for a company: sales. There are incrementally higher sales-KPI at each level

Source of data for this exemple: 2020 MBB casebook Peter K, page 18

x = number of women to hire at entry level to arrive to 4 more women at the highest leadership levels, through external recruitment

x*(-10%)*6% = 4

x= 74 -----> it takes 5 years to hire 74 women at entry level, 8/year (there are 2 new employees per year in the higher management, because there are 20 in total and the departure rate is 5%, therefore 2 leave every year)

2.a Dynamics of personal interest in recruiting : the risk or gratification choices

business trip

from a wealthy influent family = more chances to sell B2B to her network of business/gov families young and goolooking = more persuasive in sale pitches, more on demand by clients

gratification risk

she cannot take my role for a few years not very young, average looking various university qualifications several years of experience F1 F2

she can do my work: can take my role

born in the UK or commonwealth, or married to a native of those = higher status, autority, respect

graduated in England = interest in hiring from local universities to rise ranking by higher employment rate

weak moral principles: can compromise her soul and do 'whatever it takes' (even immoraly) to gain for hersef and her firm

(the carrers of the employees at the headquarter have priority, not necessarly independently from nationality)

2.b

Dynamics of personal interest on decisions for developement and promotions

assignements that offer visibilty in to the higher leadership, which helps to promote employee's perks and privileges, to create a "employee's succes story" for marketing pressured by mentors to lead collegues (sometimes also more experienced ones) has the lightest and most pleasant share of work, with the highest impact

F1

"ambassador" employee

prior function: intern or entry level graduate, or has 1 or 2 years of work experience after her studies

pression surles f e semm

F1

buffer level

/20

has

F2

F2

business trips together with collegues in the highest managemet roles presentations of work (done by others) at corporate business events participation to business summits where to meet prospective clients has to do the tasks with the highest strategic and financial value for the company and for her own promotion, and with the lowest required effort

prior function: director in waiting or director of a small company, 10+ years of postgraduate work experience

"hard working" employee

work that is invisible to the higher management attribution of merits for her work to others tasks with no value for her promotion (production of presentation material for others, business development material, white papers) time intensive and unpleasant share of work

to do the tasks that have the least value for the company, but that helps other collegues to promote

80

2.c Consequences of the personal interest dynamics in recruitment and promotion

F1

"ambassador" employee "hard working" employee

Double standards in her favor in applying rules and regulations, turning a blind eye to violations of company policies or of the law

She learns to manage others: by putting them down, or by publicly ridiculing or making fun of her less privileged and lower status/age colleagues, aiming to lower their reputation and "use them"; by delegating all the work that has no value to promote; by committing offenses and blaming others; by ordering to commit offenses, then asking HR to discipline

inequality, injustice management styles

F2

Double standards in her disfavour and grave consequences for unintended errors (e.g. error in communication style, such as "too direct", or not reverent)

She is driven to: develop others and herself; to ensure that all thrive together, and that the delivered value to the clients is higher, thanks to a collaborative team's synergies. She continuously learns and shares resources, recognizes the merits of the work or contributes of others, congratulating and praising, helping to progress (thanks to constructive comments and encouragement)

3. Recommendations to have more women in senior management and boards

1. manage conflicts of interest that interfere with this purpose

If the company does not put in place procedures to block the self-interest of its employees above the interest of the company - especially the personal interest of decision makers in recruitment and promotion - all the other initiatives to increase the percentage of female leaders in the highest ranks are useless, as they will be boycotted by conflicts of interest.

2.

external recruitment of women in middle management roles

Recruiting externally and promoting women from middle management roles (directors) into senior management (Partners, CEO, COO, CFO, CTO etc) takes less time and risk than promoting female graduates internally over the years. Where can a company find women at middle management level, without poaching them from one own competitors?

-> In the pools of women who leave management and strategy consulting firms: in fact, the level of the beginners in this professional field is of operational managers; after 2-5 years, they can be middle managers for clients's businesses Or among directors of theirs or other companies, who have left their jobs for a few years (for example, to be carers).

3. more attention to women's

employee sactisfaction surveys

Employers should continue to invest on initiatives for giving women more reasons to join and stay with their company, and less reasons to leave (taking into consideration their needs: remuneration, career progress, time and location of work flexibility (in consideration of care responsibilities too, without hindering their return to work after a long unpaid leave)