Press Releases

For Immediate Release
Contact: Molly D. Shepard
610.660.6684

Leader's Edge Research Finds Dramatic Behavioral Shift as Executive Women Climb the Corporate Ladder

Philadelphia.

The Leader's Edge Research™ recently conducted a nationwide study of Fortune 500 and other executives in order to develop a profile of senior executive women. The purpose of the research was to determine the styles and strategies of the most successful women in business and see how they contrast with senior executive men, as well as more junior executives.

"What emerged from the study was a compelling portrait which reveals striking behavioral differences with male counterparts and more junior women in a number of key areas including networking, self-promotion and communication style," according to Molly D. Shepard, Founder and Principal of The Leader's Edge™. "The research shows that the senior executive women are less assertive, more formal, and more risk averse than their male counterparts and more junior executives. They network less, are more dependent on promotion from within their company; and underutilize their mentors, using them for protection rather than for obtaining top assignments. " The sample consisted of 341 executives with salaries of $100,000 and above. Key findings include:

The research indicates that senior executive women do not make effective use of networking to advance their careers. While networking skills increase in importance for males, they decrease for women as they move up the ladder, with only 65.9% of senior executive woman versus 75.3% of senior executive men rating networking skills as important.

Although self-promotion skills are reported as important factors by 72.6% of the less senior females, they decrease significantly to 50% for women at the highest levels, suggesting that women may not be taking advantage of self-promotion as they rise in an organization.

While women at all levels have a less assertive communication style in meetings than men, women are dramatically less confrontational at the highest levels. Only 69.4% of senior women versus 82.4% of senior men responded that they "like to challenge thinking." Women may feel "at risk" and therefore temper assertiveness as they are promoted.

The importance of reputation increases for senior executive women and is significantly higher than for their male counterparts. Over 95% of the most senior women cite reputation as an important factor in reaching their current position, which would indicate that they are less likely to take risks which may prove damaging.

A large percentage (79.4%) of women at the highest level utilized mentors as protective allies, rather than actively using them for help in obtaining assignments and gaining visibility. This implies a possible underutilization of mentors by high level women.

Recognition is consistently more important for women than for men and the importance of this factor increases to 81.4% in the highest level women, suggesting that career success is gauged less by money and promotion and more by how they are perceived.

As they rise in the organization, women become increasingly reliant on formal meetings for influencing senior management (15.3% for more junior women versus 28.4%), indicating that they rely on scheduled meetings with superiors, rather than informal interactions on or off the job.

Women at all levels were much more dependent on promotion from within the company than are men, with the largest contrast between top men (35.1%) and top women (51.8%). This tendency for some women to stay with their current companies in order to get ahead correlates with their less active use of networking and mentoring.

"The research uncovers a number of provocative issues about why women change some of the important behaviors which got them to their present positions," said Ms. Shepard. "Alternatively, companies may need to explore how they can encourage women at the top to continue to be entrepreneurial, risk-taking and self-confident."

The Leader's Edge works to enhance executive women's effectiveness as senior leaders and to help them take on greater roles in their organizations. The Leader's Edge Research division has fully analyzed the data for this study and has compiled a summary report as well as a respondent profile. Additional information is available by contacting The Leader's Edge at 610.660.6684.