Women in Leadership

'Women at the workplace’ has been the subject of debate and discussion for many years now. Over time, women have evolved to play an increasingly important role in the corporate world and in the overall professional workspace. However, at leadership positions and senior management levels, they remain a minority.

Is this driven purely by perception around women and their personal and professional aspirations or is it actually a reality for women and their careers as they balance that with the other priorities in their life.

Women traditionally have been perceived as ‘spenders’ and not creators of wealth – is there merit then in reviewing this situation now in the context of the corporate world and is there statistics to prove it? The above was the theme of the 5^th Annual WILL Forum Conference held recently in Mumbai which I attended. This forum has been set up to promote balanced leadership in the corporate sector and the key theme of this conference was also to review if indeed there is a business case for the same. It also emphasises the need to move away from anecdotal evidence of the value that women bring to business to a more compelling business argument backed up by statistical and economic data.  The WILL forum in coordination with KPMG conducted recently a study to this effect which threw up some interesting statistics and findings:

• It was found that of the senior business leaders surveyed, while 80% of them agree that investing in women is critical to improving revenues and bottom line, less than 5% of the employee development budgets are actually invested in women in the organization.
• Typically gender specific attributes identified (in the WILL KPMG report) as being characteristic of the leadership style of women include among others, empathetic listening, trust based relationships, inclusive behavior, transparency and rational decision making. These attributes potentially deliver value in specific business functions like, among others:
  Ø Strategy and Planning
  Ø Brand Management
  Ø Talent Development
  Ø Finance
• To be able to leverage these attributes, the investment that companies make in their women employees can be broadly categorized into:
  · Intellectual – Enhancing skills and knowledge
  · Experiential – Improving overall experience
  · Sustenance – Prolonging tenure in the organization
  · Physical – Tangible benefits and steps

It was also found that typically companies focus on sustenance and physical investments while the 1^st two require more focus especially to increase women in leadership positions

The benefits of investing in women are also known to improve company loyalty, reduce attrition, enhance project and people management skills and eventually improve brand image– which is critical in today’s competitive marketplace.

 

According to the World Bank, investing in women is ‘smart economics’ – yet women account for only 1% of the world’s repository of wealth, 10% of global income and 14% of the leadership positions in both the private and public sectors. Certainly the landscape is changing. But it is probably time for pro-active interventions than simply affirmative action.