Recent years have come with an increased focus on gender gaps in the workplace. While there have been improvements at lower levels of organizations, there is still a significant gap at the C-suite level, which increases even more when considering other demographics beyond gender.
It is well understood that a gender-balanced company is more innovative and more profitable, and today there are many talented and aspiring women in the workplace striving to progress their careers into the C-suite. However, not all are able to realize their dream due to “glass ceilings” and “broken rungs”. But what can organizations, and learning and development (L&D), do to support these women to reach the C-suite? It starts with understanding the barriers.
What’s Holding Women Back?
Women encounter many barriers to progression at work. On a personal level, women, alongside men, can exhibit signs of imposter syndrome — where they don’t believe they deserve the role or opportunity they have and often believe it’s just luck.
A KPMG study found that 75% of senior female leaders had experienced imposter syndrome in their career. Imposter syndrome can inhibit a person’s confidence and reduce their likelihood of applying for promotion or opportunities to stretch their capabilities due to the perceived risk of failure. Often in corporate environments, there is a perception that there is no coming back from failure.
There may also be cultural issues in the workplace that are holding women back. For example, microaggressions and disrespectful behaviors exhibited by co-workers can seriously hinder a woman’s career progression. Women who are regularly delegated administrative tasks such as note-taking or booking meeting rooms, where it is not their core role, can often be only seen in that capacity, and not one who is relied on for delivering important, core work scopes. The result is limited opportunities to showcase their true talents. Without the reputation or track record of performance, when it comes to promotion or organizational changes, it is unlikely they will be placed into a role trusted to deliver critical work, which will also limit their development opportunities.
What Can Be Done?
There are many strategies that can be employed to help address the gender balance in organizations, which in turn can lead to an increase in women in the C-suite. It starts with micro-interactions — the exchanges women have with their co-workers on an everyday basis. These are important as they are directly related to an individual’s engagement and trust in the organization. These interactions should be positive, such as a check-in on how someone is doing, recognition for a recent piece of work, or providing constructive feedback on how to get even better. The result is increased confidence in their abilities to perform.
From an organizational perspective, several initiatives can be put in place:
- Mentorship programs.
- Inclusive leadership training.
- Sponsorship for visibility.
Mentorship Programs
Having a suite of mentors can be very effective when navigating challenges in the workplace. Different mentors with different experiences and skill sets can provide unique insights and advice for different situations, which would not be possible with only one mentor. Where an individual requests a mentor, an organization can create a program to match mentors and mentees based on experience, skill set and the overall goal of the relationship. This could include competency in a technical skill, improving or augmenting behaviors, building leadership skills or for growing their network. It is important that there is trust between the mentor and mentee, and that their conversations are kept confidential.
Inclusive Leadership Training
We all know people who have been promoted into leadership positions due to their technical capability, but not all have the leadership skills needed to be successful. Leadership can make or break an organization’s culture and is the key to creating workplaces where no one wants to leave.
Leadership training should be mandatory for new or future leaders. It can help them recognize and improve interactions with their co-workers and subordinates, and specifically help them to recognize and address any biases when interacting with female employees.
Above all, the training should emphasize the need and impact of leading with empathy to create a culture of trust and collaboration. This may feel uncomfortable for some leaders, but it leads to higher employee engagement and accelerated development.
Sponsorship for Visibility
To ensure women are not only seen for their administrative skills, especially when not their core role, they need opportunities to showcase their capabilities. Organizational leaders are pivotal in making this happen and there are many ways they can approach this.
They can:
- Put women forward for high-profile initiatives or projects that include presenting updates at senior leadership meetings.
- Create shadow opportunities where women can join them in meetings, make new senior connections, share insights on working at a different level, and identify development areas to focus on to move upwards.
- Advocate for women when a senior role or promotion is discussed. It is important that a woman has sponsors and advocates when opportunities for her are discussed behind closed doors, otherwise her career progression will be hindered for an unknown period of time.
Gaining visibility can open doors for career advancement, helping women reach their professional goals.
Supportive Networks
When women are in the minority, support networks are another enabler for success. Employee resource groups (ERGs) can be very effective in sharing experiences and tips for addressing a variety of issues women face in the workplace. It can also be a way to build strong connections with other like-minded individuals to help each other when times are challenging.
Organizations can create these networks if they do not already exist and can encourage all employees to take part — not just those who match the demographic. This approach enables many more connections to be made that could be extremely beneficial at later times.
Conclusion
For organizations to operate at peak performance, we need diversity at all levels — including women in C-level roles.
To enable women to succeed in the C-suite, workplaces must have inclusive cultures promoting positive micro-interactions at all levels, as well as inclusive leadership training. Actions can be taken to engage and enable women to build their confidence, boost their visibility and credibility, and unlock their potential to reach the C-suite.
