Working with senior leaders to build and

sustain gender balanced leadership teams

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Facing the Challenge is a program developed by the 100% Project to assist senior leaders of Australian

organisations to take successful action on the issue of gender balanced leadership.

The purpose of Facing the Challenge is to provide senior leaders and CEOs with an opportunity to test

their own attitudes and assumptions, gain new insights, exchange ideas and develop action strategies

that will lead to real change in the quest to achieving increased gender diversity in Australian

organisations.

Program outcomes

Through a series of deeply personal experiences, rich conversations with other senior leaders and

challenging facilitation, outcomes for participants will include:

Greater awareness about blind spots / rationalisations around gender diversity and strategies

to overcome them in self and others

Insight into the kind of leadership required in order to be successful as a champion of gender

diversity

Access to ongoing support, research and strategy development with the 100% Project and a

senior peer group

Program themes

Facing the Challenge is an evidence based program. Research sponsored by the 100% project sought to

identify the latest and most relevant evidence on roadblocks to achieving gender goals as well as

strategies for overcoming them. The research methodology included original research via fourteen in-

depth senior leader interviews as well as a comprehensive literature and case study reviews. Six core

research findings were identified that form the basis for the Facing the Challenge program:

1. Women and men do not have innately different leadership capabilities

A broad range of leadership capabilities and styles exists across the population and should be

utilised

Men and women are equally as likely to possess different leadership characteristics

Stereotypes of male and female leadership capabilities limit women's progression into executive

leadership roles

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2. Inaction may lead to a higher cost of talent for organisations

Companies who ‘do gender diversity well’ gain greater financial performance

The demographic crisis may lead to increased competition for talent, directly impacting the cost of

talent

Failure to act may impact recruitment and retention competitiveness and risk loss of both female

and male talent to competitors/other sectors

3. Senior leadership is critical to catalysing change in organisations

All successful culture change initiatives have required sustained senior leadership focus and

resilience

Buy-in from stakeholders is required through all levels of the organisation

Behavioural modelling from the top is essential

4. Successful and rapid behavioural change is possible

Evidence from safety case studies

Evidence from gender case studies

5. Unconscious bias is a primary driver of discrimination

Implicit assumptions affect most of us: we are products of our culture

Unconscious bias can be transformed through awareness and action

6. Engaging men in gender change initiatives is critical to success

Men must be part of the solution

Male champions share a strong sense of fair play

Strategies can be deployed for engaging men

In the following pages the core research findings are reviewed in more detail, with case studies of

successful culture change programs profiled and extensive references provided.

Additional resources and program pre-reading are included in a resources pack provided to participants

of the Facing the Challenge program.

The 100% Project - July 2011

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Research summaries and case studies

1. Women and men do not have innately different leadership capabilities

One of the most important constraints to moving forward on gender equality and empowerment

of women to higher leadership positions in organisations includes deeply innate negative attitudes

and stereotypes of how men and women are expected to act, which are institutionalised in society

and reflected in organisations.

What differentiates men and women in their perceived leadership capabilities and subsequent

performance in leadership roles are the social stereotypes which cloud our judgment of true

capabilities, and a lack of opportunity for women to develop and showcase their leadership

capabilities, not only in the workforce, but also in society. Gender stereotypes are embedded in

our society and shape the way males and females have been socialised, and therefore how they

may behave and view each-other based on gender norms.

Leadership has always been seen as a male dominated field and leadership still continues to be

measured by masculine gender norms making it difficult for women’s capabilities to be

recognised. Pervasive gender stereotypes include:

Men are viewed as being more dominating in terms of having attributes like aggressiveness,

ambition, self-confidence, and dominance

Women, on the other hand, are generally viewed as being friendly, kind, sympathetic, and

affectionate

However, a review of the research has lead the 100% Project to conclude that there is a lack of

scientifically proven evidence to support claims of differences between male and female leadership

capabilities. Rather, evidence suggests that a broad range of leadership capabilities and styles exists

across the population and should be utilised. Becoming aware of our own implicit assumptions around

gender stereotypes can lead to changes in attitude and behaviour, making way for women to be given

an equal chance of attaining executive leadership roles.

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2. Inaction may lead to a higher cost of talent for organisations

Greater gender diversity is becoming an economic phenomenon shown to have many positive

outcomes for businesses and organisational performance. Retaining talent is vital for an

organisation’s success. An organisation should utilise its total labour pool as widely as possible to

maintain a competitive advantage.

As Australian organisations focus on long term strategies to increase profits and maximise

performance in response to the chronic skills shortage associated with our ageing workforce, there

is increasing support for initiatives to boost the retention of women in the workforce. Research

conducted by McKinsey & Company has found that companies with more women in their top

management are reported to have 10% higher return on equity, 36% higher stock price growth

and nearly double earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) growth compared to the average.

Organisations that identify and promote female talent into leadership roles have cultures that

enable them to recognise talent in any form and make good use of it. Importantly, rather than

focussing on the question of whether women and men bring innately differing leadership

capabilities to organisations, research suggests that the superior financial performance of

companies with more gender diversity is linked to a culture of diversity which allows for a greater

range of leadership styles to be exercised, whether by men or women. Differing leadership

abilities and styles are not assumed to belong exclusively to one sex or the other, rather they are

treated equally, utilised and embraced. Losing talent to companies that are already on the mission

of creating gender diversity and pushing for female involvement in leadership positions is

becoming an important determinant of an organisation’s competitive advantage.

3. Senior leadership is critical to catalysing change in an organisation

Any substantial change program is only successful when senior leaders are visibly committed to the

process over the long term and able to galvanise support within the organisation, particularly from

middle management.

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Keys to successful change

Getting the vision right: having a clear vision and plan for what you are trying to achieve (three to

five year plan)

Senior leadership resilience: being willing to challenge others, to risk unpopularity, to learn and

recover from failures and to stay the course over the long haul

Getting buy-in; senior leadership input as well as other key stakeholders, educating, clarifying and

informing through examples and case studies, letting people know what is possible and effective

through coaching

Research and communications. There needs to be an unrelenting communications program

including success stories and research results to enhance the results of coaching

Executive and senior leaders drive change by clearly articulating their expectations, values and

assumptions as they relate to the organisation. They must support the alignment of both the

mechanical (structural) and dynamic (cultural/people) components. Understanding and committing to

the change includes providing resources, skills, knowledge, experience and support to the change

program as well as understanding the organisation's readiness for change and identifying and acting on

potential roadblocks. Declaring their willingness to change by visibly altering their current behaviours is

a powerful symbol of commitment and expectation.

The high level of commitment shown by senior leaders and executive management to progress to equal

access to leadership opportunities should be reflected in workplace policies and plans. If the proposed

targets for increasing the opportunities for women are enforced (either voluntarily or government

imposed), these strategies need to be embedded into core business practices and mission of the

organisation, including recruitment and hiring, training, promotion and remuneration (Chief Executive

Women, 2009). With solid commitment from leaders and the embedding of diversity into everyday

business activities, organisations need to hold their managers at all levels accountable for implementing

gender inclusive work practices.

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4. Successful and rapid behavioural change is possible

Understanding each organisation and matching the unique program to an organisation’s needs is the

first step in making a change program successful. Beyond that, organisations must recognise that

bringing about organisational change is essentially about changing people’s behaviour, and breaking

habits. Leadership and management skills, such as visioning, dealing with ambiguity, prioritising,

planning, providing feedback and rewarding success, are key factors in any successful change initiative.

Much can be learned from successful culture change case studies in the area of safety, where rapid,

successful and sustained behaviour change has been achieved. The success of safety programs

demonstrates that organisations can effectively challenge and change established paradigms, initially by

giving people permission to behave differently and then by reinforcing and supporting expectations of

new ways of behaving.

Safety case study 1 JFE Mechanical Company (Japan): Embracing change as a platform for operating excellence JFE Mechanical is the leading integrated engineering and steel company in Japan, currently employing

over 3000 staff and a further 7000 contract workers. Employees are constantly surrounded by heavy

machinery and infrastructure. To reduce the risk to employees the senior leadership team created a

shared vision about the direction of the company, including operating culture and taking their safety

culture to the next level to ensure safety performance and business success.

The preliminary safety culture assessment revealed:

Senior managers were aligned on the need for change and agreed current practices were not

acceptable

It was necessary to change the organisational mind-set from “safety is number 1 priority” to “safety

is a core operating value”

Communication across the organisation needed to be interactive and a two way process (not top

down).

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Change management The senior leadership group started detailed discussion and a change management program from a view

point of safety, gaining input from across their business groups. The discussion resulted in JFE

Mechanical deciding to include safety as one of their core values. As a result a world-class vision, safety

policies and principles were developed to change the organisation's mind-set and behaviour; having a

shared vision and value of safety acted as a common platform to bring employees together.

Cascading the vision JFE Mechanical started their “Safety Culture Creation Activities”, whereby their new vision and core

values were implemented across the entire organisation. A corporate steering committee was

established to govern and monitor progress as well as provide guidance. Sub committees were created

to manage specific issues; such as training committees, a progress committee and a rules and

procedures committee. These committees were chaired by senior managers who took ownership to

identify the related activities and implementations were driven by the line manager. At the same time a

new and detailed training program was implemented to build the required competencies to drive the

organisation to its desired level of safety. The training was customised to fit different roles and

responsibilities, where leaders learned how to apply new skills in a practical manner.

Delivering a new reality

The new and improved culture shift became obvious quickly. The new vision became embedded in the

organisation and both managers and employees were clearly committed to the unwavering safety

demonstrations. The managers were impressed with the employees’ willingness to embrace change and

regard safety as a core value. “We have seen a direct impact on our organisational effectiveness as a

result of our safety achievements”; Takusho Nakada, Executive Vice President.

Safety case study 2

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL): Leading corporate culture transformation through behaviour safety

HUL had grown substantially over the past few decades. The HUL management team recognised that the

organisation could gain a competitive edge by having a world-class safety record and performance.

However HUL leadership realised that their organisational vision and mission statement did not reflect

this. In 2002 HUL laid down specific organisational objectives for improving their safety performance

9

which included a cultural transformation within 3-5 years. The three specific areas of improvement

(deliverables) included:

Reducing fatalities and serious injuries by 300%.

Reviewing internal safety systems and process to be aligned with their transformation

Achieving sustained safety culture transformation

The solution

In order to determine the current HUL safety baseline DuPont carried out a comprehensive management

system evaluation and recommended the following:

Demonstrate visible “felt leadership”

Articulate and implement safety procedures

Integrate safety into all business processes

Establish safety as a line management responsibility Linking safety business to performance

Leaders needed to understand and embrace the new safety culture and see it as part of sustainable

growth. An executive leadership program helped HUL’s senior management recognise they must believe

and adopt the new safety values. The new visible leadership built trust and faith within the organisation

and this in turn flowed through to personal responsibilities.

Once the executive and leadership teams were educated DuPont moved onto the employees. Over five

years DuPont changed the culture of 15,000 employees by making them involved (which leads to

ownership) through their behaviour safety journey which included:

SHE (Safety, Health an Environment) organisation goals

Engagement and accountability of line managers

Safety principles

Visible “felt leadership”

Behavioural auditing

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Use of leading indicators vs. lagging indicators

Safety linkage to performance

Periodic checks to maintain targeted improvement scores

Sustaining a safety culture

To ensure sustained change HUL introduced a Central Safety, Health and Environment Committee

(CSHEC) headed by the CEO of HUL. All executive directors are members of the CSHEC.

Gender case study 1

McDonald’s Corporation: Freedom within a framework - Global Women’s Initiative

The initiative, which started in 2006, is designed to benefit both men and women who work in

McDonald’s restaurants worldwide. Targeting all levels of the company from restaurant staff to senior

leaders, it aims to empower and continually develop and improve employees. The outcomes of the

initiative are to advance women and their leadership capabilities throughout the world.

The Global Women’s Initiative takes a broad and varied approach to avoid problematic elements which

are relevant to both local and international markets. The Women’s Leadership Network (WLN), which is

part of the initiative, is the primary program for managing global change through regional steering

committees. The steering committees share knowledge and ideas about best practices, communication

mechanisms and business plans. The WLN is supported by regional line leaders which create a ‘super-

network’ which aims to develop new training skills. The WLN holds global and regional conferences

which aim to empower men and women at all levels, and diversity workshops are tailored to each

region’s need. McDonald’s also ensures that it develops its internal talent through ‘high potential

programs’ of which women make up at least 40% of attendees.

The results of the initiative have been notable worldwide. Women are now better represented as

restaurant managers, which is an essential stepping-stone when working up to a senior leadership

position. From the inception of the program in 2006 to 2009 female senior leadership grew by 8% (from

27% to 35%) in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and African regions, while in Europe it grew by 7% (45% to 52%)

and in the USA a 2% increase was noted. Female managing directors grew from 0% to 36% in the Asia-

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Pacific, Middle East and African region; 4% in Europe; and from 13% to 36% in the USA. Female board

representation has also increased from 14% to 23%.

Gender case study 2

Time Warner Incorporated

After a merger with AOL in 2000, the Time Warner (TW) organisation was faced with decreasing

employee morale and low levels of trust. To rebuild after the merger the senior leadership team

embarked on an initiative to unify and rebuild the company. Using a comprehensive ‘market-oriented’

business case, which involved specific focus on diversity and inclusion, TW implemented a strategic

process to build a new ‘cohesive culture’ across all business divisions. The new initiative formalised

development policies for employees, accelerating the development of leaders with a focus on women.

This resulted in a critical mass of women in senior positions.

The initiative aims to provide a stepping stone for women to develop, share and connect with other

leaders within TW’s consumer base. Employees were also given the opportunity for networking and

exposure across different divisions. TW implemented two successful programs: Chairman’s Leadership,

which consisted of high potential employees (male and female) for cross divisional management

development; Breakthrough Leadership, which specifically targeted women at a vice president level or

higher. The program had 1.6% voluntary turnover versus 4.5% of women at a similar level who didn’t

participate. Since 2005, TW have implemented more than 30 employee driven resources groups, which

specifically focus on the needs and support of women across the entire organisation.

TW broadened its diversity message from within the organisation to the outside world by ensuring that

all media products and services showed positive images of women. These were aided by a ‘diversity

audit’ which assesses how customers, viewers, users, etc., view TW. Accountably for internal programs

was driven by the CEO who reports ‘Diversity Action Plans’ at annual meetings, with incentives for other

senior leaders to follow. This resulted in TW's senior leadership and executive team female

representation increasing by 5% between 2003 and 2009, while the number of women in waiting (vice

president roles, etc.,) increased from 37% to 42% and employee retention also increased to 90% across

all genders and ethnic groups.

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Despite the obstacles, there are many positive examples of change programs which have made serious

efforts to involve and benefit both females and males. As the case studies demonstrate with solid

leadership and a well-executed change program, it is clear that positive and sustained gender equality

change can be achieved to the benefit of everyone.

5. Unconscious bias is a primary driver for discrimination

The term unconscious bias (also referred to as implicit assumptions) has been used to explain the way

stereotypes influence how people process information in relation to other people. An implicit

assumption occurs when a person or usually a group of people have a preference for one sort of person

over another. When people make these preferences it is usually done without conscious awareness,

hence the notion, unconscious or implicit bias and assumption.

In organisations there is a tendency to prefer males in leadership positions over females, as there are

implicit assumptions about the inability of women to fulfil such roles as well as a man. This becomes

problematic and has adverse effects in an organisational setting as people tend to recruit and promote

people who are like themselves, or who are a part of the social majority, rather than recruiting and

promoting people based on pure merit. As men are usually the ones who have the “higher ranks” and

hold executive leadership positions in organisations, they too make the important decisions about

women’s advancement in leadership. The preconceptions about women’s incompetence or

inexperience in leadership capabilities may also become a self-fulfilling prophecy for women, hindering

their own advancement into executive leadership roles. This is because many women believe that they

cannot hold executive leadership positions because they have been socialised to believe they cannot.

An awareness of unconscious bias requires us to rethink the way we feel about the issue of gender

diversity. Our knowledge of unconscious bias makes several things clear: the limiting patterns of

unconscious behaviour are not restricted to any one group; all of us have them, including

diversity professionals who must focus on their own assumptions and biases in order to have the moral

authority to guide others in acknowledging and confronting theirs.

In order to empower staff to move towards gender diversity in the workplace, and seek to divest the

core of implicit assumptions, organisations and their executive leaders must create norms and values

relating to gender diversity understanding. The norms of an organisation include things like attitudes,

13

beliefs and values that are particular to that company. When the norms begin to change, that is when

we will see real workplace cultural change occurring. Changing and reframing these unconscious

stereotypes and biases is the first step in endeavouring to create a culture that reassesses the

importance of women’s roles in organisations and promoting them to senior positions based on merit.

6. Engaging men in gender change initiatives is critical to success

Men can be especially strong ambassadors for change and play a vital role in getting other men on

board with gender equity goals and missions for change. Women cannot change the status quo by

themselves and therefore it is vital that men are educated about how to drive the change. The USA

based Catalyst organisation believes that to advance the change, organisations need to enlist both

males and females to change organisational norms.

How men come to recognise gender bias

According to Catalyst, for individuals to first support a change program, they must be convinced that

there is something wrong or something worth changing. In relation to gender initiatives, men need to

be convinced that there is gender bias in their organisation.

Significantly, one consistent factor predicts men becoming champions of gender diversity: this factor is

a strong sense of fair play. Catalyst suggests that one way to achieve this is to get men to think critically

about gender norms and the impact they have in their lives. Providing men with opportunities to

discuss these issues around gender with other men (only men) is important, and providing men with

cross gender mentoring is critical in promoting men to think critically about gender issues. Exposing

men to the costs of gender bias, both from a male and a female perspective will aid in gaining men’s

commitment to gender initiatives.

Once convinced that inequality exists, men with a strong sense of fair play tend to have the motivation

and the courage to challenge gender norms and other men on this issue.

Crafting a vision of different partnerships

The first step towards engaging men as equal opportunity (EO) partners is to determine your

organisation’s vision of the different EO partnerships with men that could potentially be achieved.

14

According to EOWA, one way to examine whether the partnerships are patronising or genuine is to

question the diversity of gender and age within the EEO Committee, Diversity Council, or Equity

Strategic Group within your organisation. Most men included in EO partnerships, being older and more

experienced, are often engaged in a structural rather than an emotional or strategic way. Partnering

with men representative of a diverse age group could mitigate this issue.

The business case for establishing EO partnerships with men

The thing to do here is to position gender diversity initiatives in a way that shows all employees, both

male and female, how they result in improved policies and practices that tackle the needs of all

employees. This is critical to obtaining support from men and for ensuring sustainable changes in

organisations will positively impact gender equity outcomes.

Further, the high percentage of buy-in from men for flexible work hours indicates that a focus on work-

life balance could be the key driver of achieving EO outcomes for women. Deloitte and Touche in the

United States observed that addressing work-life issues for both their male and female employees was

a key enabler of culture change and, in turn, improved outcomes for women (McCraken, 2000, as cited

in EOWA, 2003).

Actively involving men in being a solution to the gender inequity problem will ensure their contribution

and in turn ensure desired outcomes such as (1) greater commitment to the goal of reaching gender

equality, (2) integration of employment issues for women into core business activities, (3) changes in

systems e.g., recruitment processes, pay equity, training opportunities, and (4) changes in work

practices and expectations e.g., greater flexibility. Younger, highly talented women and men are

especially at risk of leaving an organisation if they believe that there is an unfair application of policies

and practices in their workplace. This is one more reason to focus on the risks and opportunities for

both men and women when designing and promoting workplace systems and policies.

Conclusion

The six themes reviewed in this summary paper represent a sample of the most current research into

the barriers, opportunities and strategies involved in achieving gender equity in organisations.

15

Through its research arm, the 100% Project will continue to commission original research, as well as

review and provide access to the most up to date literature via its resources hub. For additional

information please go to www.the100percentproject.com.au.

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women-leaders

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