Title and Description Writing Quiz

well I'd like to present you all with a

question here is my question

against the backdrop of the current

economic crisis in Europe combined with

the debate the ongoing debate of

legislation tied to quota legislation

for women on boards plus all of the

assertions that are now being made in

the press that women represent the

critical engine for global economic

growth does this represent the perfect

Corporate advancement storm are we finally at a point where

considerations of women's legitimate

leadership potential is recognized and

interpreted in terms of corporate

advancement

it's complicated question and I often

think back to one of my first

experiences roughly 20 years ago and

that is in some sense my informal metric

and let me explain to you what happened

I was invited to join an evaluation

committee in New York I didn't know

really what to expect and I went to a

rather elaborate ballroom for this

meeting and I opened the door and there

was a sea of white men and suddenly this

man came running up to me and he said oh

I'm the black you must be the woman

he was right so where does that leave us

and are we in fact making progress

because certainly if you consider

statistical evidence currently it

doesn't look particularly positive so

let me just examine some statistics in

Europe currently 3% of the top 50

companies in Europe are led by women

women are 1.5 relative to 10 men on

corporate boards and globally women MBAs

are hired at a lower level fewer

promotions less opportunity in terms of

equitable compensation even controlling

for location geography function industry

parental status years of work before and

after the MBA so what is going on

Gender stereotypes research seems to suggest that the

challenge is a rather interesting one

and that is the perpetuation of

gender-based stereotypes and unconscious

bias so what does that mean and I

remember once speaking to a dual career

couple and they gave me the perfect

example that I think manifests why this

is so challenging this particular couple

it's this of an individual he is a an

economist a law professor published

author she is a pediatric surgeon and a

hospital administrator and they have a

young son and they have a reasonably

good working arrangement whereby she

typically drops off their son in the

morning and her partner picks up the Sun

in the afternoon and this particular day

this was not going to work because she

had a very early surgery scheduled that

morning so he took the son to the kinder

pen and just as he was handing the son

over the son threw up all over him so he

was covered with vomit quickly grabbed a

towel wiped it off went running to the

classroom and his student said there's

something going on with the jacket and

he said yes yes I apologize you know I

had to drop off my son oh he was not

even able to finish the

the his comment the students oh my word

tenured professor author juggling all of

this and you take your son and he

thought this was fantastic

so when he went home he shared with his

wife here's the feedback she said stop

right there let me tell you the other

version of this story I come to the

hospital with vomit on my jacket

here's what is not said oh I don't know

that she can multitask she can't handle

the stress she wasn't able to change her

jacket so same behavior different be the

same behavior different interpretations

Research so we did a very interesting study in

2006 where we took 953 managers across

Europe we said we have a very

interesting question to ask you we have

identified the 14 key leadership

attributes and we would like to find out

from you do you more typically associate

this attribute with a man or woman so

for example team-building influencing

upwards problem-solving what was

remarkable was almost without exception

all of the attributes that were deemed

to be taking charge behaviors men by

virtue of simply being men were

perceived to be more competent at that

behavior and women simply by virtue

being women were perceived to be more

competent at taking care now what does

that mean it does not mean that it is

good or bad to take charge or take care

Challenges it simply means that irrespective of

assessments of performance even before

someone has performed there is an

inclination to believe that you will see

this attribute in someone so clearly

there are default perceptions we think

the word leader we think man we think

the word diversity we think women and

there's also a very real danger that

what we underestimate we underutilized

and the third challenge is that we are

gauging potential around performance

leadership ambition based on physically

apparent differences alone and let me

share an example that I think challenges

this a company has a number of different

networks where they're trying to really

identify how to build an inclusive work

environment and this particular company

had a Women's Network had an LGBT

network had a people of color network

and they had a commuter network the

commuter network was for employees who

traveled in excess of one and a half

hours to get to work so this particular

day they were celebrating all of the

networks and the vice-chairman came and

opened the door to that network the

commuters network and in that room were

eight men and one woman and he turned

the woman said why are you here why are

you in the Women's Network and she said

because my issue is my commute my issue

is not my gender and he suddenly

realized that he had made the very

mistake that he had hoped these networks

would address which was the inclination

to come to very precipitous assessments

of talent interests commitments and so

forth based on physically apparent

differences so what do we do about this

Solutions what are the solutions

I think the solutions are fundamentally

being aware of fundamental challenges

tied to these issues one mindsets matter

perceptions stereotypes and so forth

dictate what we tend to look for and

what we expect to find the other

interesting challenge and research

confirms this ironically enough and this

is very surprising there are actually

more differences among women and among

men than between men and women and yet

we tend to think that women are

monolithic group and men are model of

the group and it's simply not the case

and I think too that in this day and age

and we want to really celebrate the

potential and the opportunities for

talent we have to be very very careful

not to be predisposed to expect to see

talent in a certain form so what is a

very practical intervention that has

great potential I often call it the

power of discernment the ability to

notice difference and I had a very

interesting personal experience a couple

of years ago that absolutely confirmed

that I was suffering from a total lack

of discernment this particular day I was

working in Japan and I was driving a car

that had no sideview mirror and no

rearview mirror and I was driving with a

Japanese colleague so I was completely

dependent on this colleague to help me

navigate and we were driving along

accessing a highway and I said Yamato

son is there a car coming and he said no

so of course I proceeded to accelerate

he said it's a large truck and we were

within about four inches of a close

encounter with a stone wall and I just

thought oh my word but he was absolutely

right and I think this is the message

that I wish to leave with you we have to

get to a point where we can discern

difference where we can celebrate and

develop workplaces that actually

leverage these differences not that we

expect confirmation and compilation of

stereotypes that frankly are getting in

the way of accurate assessments and

advancement of talent and I believe we

are on the cusp of a whole new brave new

workplace where the possibilities of

working virtually where people's gender

is not the relevant determinant of the

capacity to lend contributions that will

certainly contribute to the economic and

social well-being of our society thank

you very much

What is the current representation of women on corporate boards in Europe and what is the ratio of men to women?

What challenges hinder the advancement of women's leadership potential and what is the impact of gender-based stereotypes and unconscious bias?

What is the importance of celebrating and leveraging diverse perspectives in creating inclusive and effective workplaces and what potential solutions may lead to a new, more equitable workplace?