Effective strategies for achieving gender balance at the top, starts with correct diagnosis
As they strive to get more women into senior positions, how many business leaders can confidently answer a simple question: What, exactly, is the nature of our problem?
Despite the concerted efforts of so many business leaders, HR and DE&I professionals, why is it, so many organisations are failing to get more women into senior positions in their organisations? There could be a variety of factors.
Confusing the symptom with the cause
Perhaps it’s confusion between the symptom - a lack of women at the top - with the cause.
If we believe the problem is not enough women at the top, it’s quite possible to throw resources at the situation and embark on various initiatives, simply to demonstrate a commitment to solving the problem and hope that something will work. However the lack of women is usually a symptom of a much deeper problem.
More haste, less speed
Perhaps in our hurry to make an impact and fast, we might create a new D&I function and urge them to do something eye-catching as quickly (and preferably as inexpensively) as possible, before really getting to the bottom of the underlying issues.
“Assumptions are made, and most assumptions are wrong.”
Perhaps, more simply, there’s an assumption about the nature of the problem, and therefore it’s not adequately investigated.
It’s not you, it’s me
A more sensitive and nuanced possibility is that some senior leadership teams - either consciously or unconsciously - are perhaps afraid of what a comprehensive analysis will reveal. What if the problem is them? Perhaps there’s an accompanying fear that any changes might have a negative impact on them. As human beings, we typically view change with unease.
Solve the correct problem
Whatever the reason for a frustrating lack of progress towards gender balance at the top, it is often due to a lack of alignment between the solution and the problem. If resources aren’t being focused where they’re needed most, initiatives to address the issue, however well intended, can be un-strategic, fragmented and ineffective.
“A brilliant solution to the wrong problem, can be worse than no solution at all: solve the correct problem.”
Reliable appraisal
Many business leaders are coming under a growing amount of pressure to demonstrate results where gender parity is concerned, and to direct limited resources to where they can have the greatest impact. If businesses leaders are truly serious about retaining and progressing female talent into the top positions (who stay and grow with the business) they need a sensitively conducted, impartial and reliable appraisal of the true nature of the problem. But how?
At Encompass Equality, we needed a mechanism for helping these organisations - our clients - determine just that. Which is why we’ve put a considerable amount of effort into creating a new diagnostic tool.
Gender Parity Diagnostic Tool
Our gender parity diagnostic tool helps our members to find a better, faster, and more cost-effective route towards gender parity by concentrating resources where they’ll have maximum impact. Rooted in research and our experience of working with many of the UK’s leading companies, it takes the form of a survey that’s divided into two parts:
The first part seeks to understand the nature of the problem members are facing as a critical pre-cursor to any work that’s undertaken to address it.
The second part assesses where resources are currently being directed.
By bringing these two parts together, we reveal the level of alignment between problem and solution, helping members see where they are under- or over-investing and where best to channel resources in future.
Gender-parity initiatives - like those in the wider D&I space - are coming under a growing amount of scrutiny, much of which is to be welcomed. If it results in a sharper focus and a more strategic approach, rooted in an effective diagnosis, then this phase in the evolution of the story will have served us all well.
To find out more about membership and how to access our Gender Parity Diagnostic Tool, visit our membership page or get in touch.