If You Lead, They Will Follow

Addressing an audience of senior executives from all over Europe at the second annual “Women in Leadership” conference held this year in Geneva on 17 and 18 June, Niall Fitzgerald, KBE, Chairman of Unilever and Vice-Chairman of The Conference Board, referred to a study completed 25 years ago which listed several feminine qualities that served as “barriers” to women’s advancement. “These are the same qualities we need to transform today’s organisations”, she said. “For Unilever, it is clear that women are essential for the cultural change that we need on our path to growth.” Mr. Fitzgerald’s belief is supported by a pan-European study completed last year by The Conference Board and Catalyst, that found that although few senior managers openly deride women’s corporate ambitions, many, either consciously or unconsciously, undermine them.
IBM and ING were two companies cited at the conference for their leadership in trying to improve the perception of women. What did these companies do? IBM set up a worldwide task force to focus on advancement of women which proposed a global women’s leadership council to promote initiatives to advance women which, in turn, led to the formation of a network of regional and country-based councils. But at the beginning of 2000, when one of the women’s leadership councils raised the issue of a managerial mindset within IBM of managers lacking true commitment to advancement of women, IBM set up workshops in Europe, each led by a senior European executive, in which men and women discussed their perceptions, their experiences and their problems in the workplace. In 2000, Ewald Kist’s first move as ING’s Chairman was a proposal to set up a diversity council to advise and support ING’s leaders in meeting diversity objectives. Despite facing resistance at the outset, the council was formed and consists of senior leaders (not HR people) from diverse backgrounds and has been responsible for implementing many Diversity initiatives. Among the most far-reaching is a requirement for all ING’s business units to include concrete Diversity plans – incorporating both qualitative and quantitative targets – in their medium term strategic plans. What’s more, the success of these diversity plans is reflected in managers’ compensation and in the company’s new leadership award scheme. In Europe, 25-30% female general managers in three years is ING’s rough target.
Source: Changing Perceptions, The Conference Board

Empirie / Forschung Gender Sprache Englisch