Leader's Edge Research™ 2000

Leader's Edge Research™ conducted a nationwide study consisting of extensive interviews with executives representing a wide range of industries. Seventy-five percent of the interviews conducted were with executive women. The study focused on the rarely considered cultural factors that influence the *glass ceiling* issue. It also sought the executives' opinions on the following topics:

Do men and women face different prerequisites for successful leadership?
What are the reasons for the low number of women in top positions?
Are there factors that determine a women's success?
What changes are required to assure greater representation of women among senior executives?

Leader's Edge Research™ has just finished conducting a major survey of over 2000 women executives nationwide to follow up on some of the areas explored in the initial research. The results yielded information that has important implications for corporations. Here is what we discovered:

Corporate Culture
It appears that the survey respondents have achieved professionally and developed a sense of self-confidence in spite of a corporate culture that supports men more than women. In fact, the majority says this is the most significant barrier to women achieving top executive positions. They tell us that the corporate culture excludes them from the higher echelons of power. The longer they have been in the workforce - and thus the more they have come up against the Boardroom Barrier - the more they recognize this phenomenon. The need to balance work and family, on the other hand, is not thought to be the main roadblock to professional success.

Communication
Women consistently identify features of corporate America that reward typically male patterns of behavior while failing to reward women's communication styles. For example, respondents say that listening well makes women appear indecisive, though it is a valuable skill that women tend to exercise better than do men. We also learned that men tend to get credit for good ideas generated at meetings even when women offer the same ideas. And half of these successful women have been told that their communication style was "too aggressive for a woman." A catch-22 situation emerges: being a listener appears indecisive and being a communicator appears too aggressive. Once again, women newer to the workforce are less likely to recognize the communication barrier, as they have less cumulative experience with it.

Mentoring
Given that relative inexperience in the corporate culture can soften women's views on bias against women in the high-powered workplace, The Leader's Edge came away from this research concerned that younger women are unprepared for the roadblocks they are likely to face. Yet, because of their relative naivete, younger executive women may not be prepared to hear that they need support - such as leadership training - to negotiate a male-dominated work environment. Unfortunately, our research also reveals that mentoring relationships, as they currently exist, will not offer a solution. Women report having both networks and mentors, but it appears that they serve men better than women. While over three-quarters of respondents have mentors, for an overwhelming 81% their mentors are male. All respondents agree that mentors are important, but that there are too few high-level women to serve as mentors. Male mentors do not differentiate the advice they give to women and men, and are unlikely to advise women about the barriers to advancement that they will face as women. Given this, we find that it is especially important that more experienced executive women and men who may mentor younger women become more aware of training and development opportunities they can make available to women to help them negotiate their corporate environments

Balance
As mentioned above, work/family balance is in no way the key barrier to advancement that women identify. In fact, executive women are overwhelmingly choosing to work (45% because they enjoy working and 34% because they value the financial independence), not grudgingly balancing work with other obligations. Only a quarter of the women say they must work in order to support their families. Nonetheless, these positively motivated professionals do balance a great deal. The vast majority bears responsibility for their household's childcare and housecleaning arrangements, financial management and meal preparation. Nearly half also take charge of home repairs. Corporations would do well to consider seriously the disproportionate level of responsibilities that fall to this group of committed executives and find ways to make it easier for them to keep their duties in balance - and thus keep this valuable human resource in their organizations.

Self-Promotion
Women responding to the survey exhibit more professional self-confidence than they describe the majority of women possessing. Most believe that their own talent and ability have led to their achievements and they say they are comfortable communicating their success to others in their organizations. Yet, when describing the confidence level of women in general in the workplace, these professionals agree that women tend to have less confidence than their male counterparts. They say that men are better than women at promoting their abilities and accomplishments at work.

Conclusion
The statistics and facts derived from our research may be of interest to Senior Level Management of your company. These findings will enable an organization to formulate more supportive training and development processes as well as policies to help attract and retain highly talented women executives. Please contact The Leader's Edge at 610-660-6684 if you would like more information.

Please take the time to review our other research:

The Leader's Edge Research™ 2005
The Leader's Edge Research™ 2004
The Leader's Edge Research™ 2002
The Leader's Edge Research™ 2001