Diversity Executive - September 2008 - (Page 54)

Approaches to Achieving Gender Balance 21st-Century Approaches • Start by getting the executive committee and CEO to understand the issue. • Position it a business issue, not a women’s issue. • Get top management to design/approve an action plan. • Appoint a high-profile senior man to run the gender initiative. • Position gender outside of diversity, preferably outside of HR. • Think of women as a majority. • Train men (and women) how to manage “bilingually” across genders. Traditional Approaches • Position gender as a part of wider diversity initiatives. • Call gender initiatives “Women in Leadership,” clearly positioning it as a women’s issue, not a business issue. • Think of women as a minority. • Appoint a woman to run the gender issue. • Create a women’s network as the key initiative. • Ask women for proposals to improve gender balance. • Promote women, as long as they behave as much like men as possible. conferences, create women’s networks, offer women leadership training and coaching, get them to work extra hard — usually in their spare time — to prepare recommendations on how to improve the situation. It’s Gender 101 in most American companies, and the class is increasingly being exported internationally. In this ﬁx-the-women approach, the underlying — if unexpressed — assumption is women are not making it to the top of the corporate world because they can’t, don’t have what it takes or don’t want to. Consider a quote from Olivier Marchal, managing director of Bain & Co. in France: “In improving gender balance women may hold the keys, but men still control the locks.” Men have been uninvolved in the gender conversation for too long. Without them, progress on rebalancing gender will be stalled for many more years. Men have been uninvolved in the gender conversation for too long. Without them, progress on rebalancing gender will be stalled for many more years. unaware of the impressive statistics on women’s economic power as employees and customers. And when they are aware, these numbers are not always presented in a convincing way — despite the different degrees of potential impact on the bottom line — or they have been part of more global brieﬁngs on diversity that drowns the message. The (usually male) executive committee members rarely have been asked to debate or analyze the issue, and unless there is some form of experiential buy-in at this level, little progress will be made. Spend a half or a full day with these teams in sessions that can then be rolled out to their direct reports and key executive and managerial populations. Only companies willing to invest in building gender bilingualism among their leaders are in a realistic position to implement the change-management mentality around gender as a business issue that is required to make real, sustainable progress. The CEO should be involved and challenge group members to air their views honestly. Political correctness can be the death of the gender dialogue. They will chew through the numbers, review their internal realities and debate the issue and its strategic relevance for their organizations. They should get expert input into gender differences and how to manage them. Then craft the action plan, complete with deﬁned objectives, timetables and accountability, and commit to it. If they don’t have the time, or decide it’s not a priority, don’t bother. Nonstrategic gender initiatives do as much harm as good. Sessions can include men and women but currently are dominated by men in most corporate leadership positions. REBALANCING GENDER continued on page 65 Where We’re Going: ‘Fix the Managers’ To impact gender balance, diversity leaders must ask the right people the right questions. Rather than ask women why they are not being promoted, ask the people doing the promoting. Rather than get women to devise strategies to improve gender balance, why not get both genders involved in the analysis and implementation of action plans? Rather than expect women to adopt the current pyramidal business model to move up, why not question the relevance of the model in today’s business landscape and get women to help redesign it for a 21st-century world? That requires starting at the top, usually by spending a day with the executive committee. Most executive committees are neither convinced nor aligned around a business case for gender balance. They are largely 54 Diversity Executive | www.diversity-executive.com | September/October 2008 http://www.diversity-executive.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Diversity Executive - September 2008

Diversity Executive - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Leadership Connections Guest Editorial Diversity Executive Online 2042: A New Business Era Begins The Rules of Attraction Where to Look for Diverse Talent Like Minds Think Great Culture Teams Target Business Opportunities at Luxottica Retail Special Section Rebalancing Gender At ING Americas, the Color of Diversity Is Orange Profile Business Intelligence Case Study Strategies Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources

Diversity Executive - September 2008

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