The Snitch

“The higher up the ranks you look, the fewer female leaders you will see.”

These are the words of Dr. Ann Howard, chief scientist at DDI. While it may seem less apparent these days, a global forecast report has shown that there are in fact half as many women in executive-level positions than in first-level management. Men make up larger proportions of high-potential leaders, and organisations provide increasingly less support for women as they climb up the management ladder. How can organisations strike balance in this gender scale? In Female Leaders: A Rocky Climb to the Top, Howard suggests ways organisations can close the gender gap in executive leadership roles.

Formalise succession planning

Succession planning should begin at the bottom of the hierarchy, where high-potential individuals are identified to accelerate their talent. Organisations with a formal succession plan usually put in efforts to evaluate leaders’ capabilities objectively and work on development needs. Organisations without a plan rely on individual managers’ recommendations, which may fall victim to favoritism.

Recognise performance equally

Organisations should set up objective performance management methods and use them to help determine recognition, rewards, and advancement. Salary programmes should also be carefully monitored for unwarranted gender differences. If organisations want to keep talented women, they need to ensure their methods are objective and no gender is overlooked.

Democratise development

When an organisation’s approach to development is more strategic and programmatic, the opportunity to make sure that men and women are treated equally is greater. Organisations need to assure that high-potential women have equal access to accelerated development experiences, making them equally qualified (in terms of experiences) for promotions that arise.

Provide women with mentors

Men more often have better access to mentors. Mentoring can help encourage women to be more proactive about seeking new positions.

Equalise and enhance transition support

Organisations should provide more support for leadership transitions for both men and women. Though this is crucially important to leaders in general, women are more likely to be left in the lurch and thus have more difficulty with transitions.