Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Talent Management

Read our blogs in this category for stories and best practices from real clients and real research on Talent Management.

  • 4 Reasons for the Gap in Women Leaders and 4 Things to do to Address It

    4 Reasons for the Gap in Women Leaders and 4 Things to do to Address It

    “You mean there has never been a girl President?” my almost ten-year-old son asks.   

    “No.”  I say. 

    “And there has never been a girl Vice President?” he inquires.  “Until now?” 

    “Yes.”  I say.

    “Well, Paigey could be either one day.”  

    And he turns his attention to something else.

    His matter-of-fact way of stating that his sister- or any girl for that matter- could be President or Vice President of the United States just makes sense to him.  In his frame of reference, there never having been one is what doesn’t.  

    But the realization that something just doesn’t make good sense, is different from understanding what causes it. And understanding causes and how they are all interrelated may begin to chart a different path forward. 

    I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, due to some work we are doing, delving into the research as to why there aren’t more women in leadership roles.  Some of it may make total sense and some of it may surprise you: 

    1. Cultural norms about gender roles:  From what a male and female’s role is inside and outside of the home, cultural norms play a role in explaining why women are not as prevalent in leadership roles.  This includes what research cites as a “masculine construction of management”, a trend of backlash in women working outside the home and parenting trends (see Celeste Headlee’s book Do Nothing for a fascinating summary on this), and norms on what fields of study are appropriate for women are all encompassed in this reason. Also related is the changing, yet still very real fact that in general, women spend more time than their husbands caregiving and on household chores. Part of these mindsets stem from very real biological differences and part of it is just learned norms, plain and simple. 

    In addition, there is a significant amount of research published relating to the norm or standards for how a woman, particularly a female leader, should behave.  Women have to walk a fine line of not being seen as too feminine or too masculine when it comes to leading, much more so than men.  

    2. Discrimination against women:  The fact that women leaders have to tread a finer line in standards or norms of behavior than men can extend into a hostile environment where women constantly have to prove themselves more than men do. Research in this arena also shows that in some cases, women are viewed as less competent than males simply because they are female, leading this to fall into the category of discrimination.  Issues with harassment lie in this category.  Sometimes this behavior is overt and sometimes it isn’t.  It is becoming less so. 

    3. Systematic issues:  Most noted in this category in the research literature is the fact that less developmental and fewer mentoring opportunities are given to women.  Many top leadership roles require, and rightly so, experience with what the research calls “line” roles, meaning operational roles where there is responsibility for P&L.  Women are less present in these types of roles.  Women are more prevalent in roles that are not line roles and in fields that do not track towards these types of roles or leading in them. 

    4. Women not having a desire to lead.  I have heard this one a lot.  I hear it more from men than I do women.  The research evidence points to the fact that the barriers or issues listed in the first three here are probably more of a cause in women not having a desire to lead and this is the effect.  Whether it is women experiencing more stressors in balancing the demands inside or outside the home, what they’ve been “taught” are roles that are acceptable or not acceptable, or constantly having to deal with the stress of proving themselves, women opt out of pursuing leadership roles. 

    Knowing some key issues may help us address them.  What can or should be done?:

    1. Modeling different norms.  My son seeming it bizarre that no woman has ever led the country he lives in may be because he sees girls leading all around him.  And seeing more men assume caregiving and household responsibilities impacts this as well.  Maybe his world view, and that of the peers of his generation- particularly of boys- finding it strange that there aren’t as many girls as boys in leadership roles, politics or otherwise, may be a leading factor in changing the trajectory of women in leadership.   You’ve got to see it to believe it is probably very true in this case. 

    2. Calling out double standard behavior and expectations.  Since most of the discrimination issues cited in research literature stem from women being treated differently than men based on behavioral expectations, the awareness of this will hopefully allow people to champion consistent expectations while recognizing the unique talents and skills, and personality that each person (regardless of gender) brings to the table.  When comments or decisions aren’t made in reflection of this awareness and recognition, then the behavior or decision should be called into question.  

    3. Providing focused and specific developmental and mentorship opportunities.  Specifically, women need to be put in roles where there is P&L responsibility and mentored by people who have these responsibilities. Companies that have clear plans and avenues for women to track into these opportunities will help breakdown systematic barriers by giving women the exposure and the experience needed for senior leadership. 

    4. Taking the focus off gender (or any other characteristics that separates for that matter).  This may seem surprising to see in a post that thus far has been all about gender differences in perceptions, reality, and outcomes, but at the end of the day, people need to be leaders because they are leaders.  Focusing on promoting individuals that have both the skill and will to lead, regardless of gender, by providing equal opportunities to gain the skills needed, and the removal of barriers limiting the desire to lead is imperative for all of us.  I owe this to my daughter, but I also equally owe it to my sons.  What should build up one needn’t need to tear down or penalize the other. Doing so penalizes us all in the long run.  

    For more information and further reading on this topic, including citations for various research summarized here, you might want to check out: 

    Women, Employment and Organizations

    Do Nothing

    Women and Men in Organizations: Sex and Gender Issues at Work 

    The Women’s Leadership Gap

    Like this post?  You may also like: 

    7 Things to Consider in Wage Fairness
    All the Hype on Equal Pay. My Short Opinion.
    Women, Stay in the Room!
    Are There Differences in What Women and Men State as Career Needs and Goals?

     

  • 3 Things Business Leaders Can (and Should) Do to Help Marginalized People

    3 Things Business Leaders Can (and Should) Do to Help Marginalized People

    This year, I have the opportunity to take part in Leadership Greater Hunstville. This program focuses on educating and equipping business leaders to also be community leaders through intense exposure to all facets of the community.

     “Human Services Day” took place this week.  It focuses on understanding the needs of the community and the not-for-profits that help meet these needs, many of which focus on helping marginalized people. The day began with a poverty simulation (CAPS), and we spent most of the afternoon hearing from a variety of not-for-profit entities in the community.  One of the not-for-profit leaders participating said that there are estimated to be between 1600-2000 not-for-profit organizations serving the community in just Madison County which currently has a population of around 375,000 people. 

    I was shocked by this number. I was also shocked at how little was said about business leaders/employers doing what employers should do best- employing people- to combat the systematic issues in the community that many of the not-for-profits we heard from sought to address.  It seemed like that focus was on the business community giving the nonprofits money and possibly volunteer hours.  What about providing meaningful employment and living wages? 

    I think business leaders can make one of the biggest impacts on marginalized individuals by focusing on employment and employability.  This should create a sustainable and far-reaching impact.  

    Here are three things to consider in doing so as seen through quotes of leaders that have spoken to us throughout the Leadership Huntsville experience: 

    1. “Get in the arena.” First, hire people on the margins. Whether it be someone with a physical or mental disability, someone with a criminal record, the single mom that has been living in generational poverty, or the veteran, etc. make an active effort to connect with these individuals and meet them where they are to offer employment. 
    2. “Breaking down barriers is the role of a leader”.  There are multiple barriers that prohibit marginalized people from getting employment and sustaining it.  The poverty simulation we participated in placed a large emphasis on the barriers of transportation and childcare.  My role in the poverty simulation was that of a 20-year-old mother of a one-year-old trying to go to college and work part-time.  Due to the fact that childcare for a week cost more than I could make part-time in a week, I was “forced” to leave my one-year-old with my nine-year-old brother in order to go to work and not have to pay for childcare.  In a world where I actually have a one-year-old son and nine-year-old son, I would never leave my nine-year-old to have to keep my one-year-old while I worked, but I don’t have to worry about earning enough money to feed them both.  What would you do? As business leaders, we need to think long and hard about how we can address these barriers and examine what role providing living wages plays in this. 
    3. “Think to ask. You need to know the story to lead.” Breaking down these barriers requires a knowledge of the barriers and understanding that, yes, sometimes poor choices have created those barriers, but also many barriers go well beyond issues of choice and behavior.  Provide compassion and empathy to those you employ and seek to employ by asking what challenges they face and why. Then help connect and provide resources to address the issues.   Sometimes the help to address the issues is simply an understanding of the issue.  I’d encourage all business leaders to find a way to connect with someone who is a part of the marginalized population and spend regular (weekly) time with them one-on-one.  You’ll learn a lot and grow a lot as a leader. 

    As the founder of Manna House told us to kick off the day, “God didn’t ask me to quit this to do that,” speaking of her experience to continue to work full-time as a government contractor and open Manna House to help address food vulnerability in the community.   Her story was impactful.  My hope is business leaders realize they don’t have to quit their day job to impact the most pressing issues in our community.  In fact, their day job is probably the best way to address them through an effort to hire and retain people on the margins, providing meaningful work and living wages.   I would dare to say we’d need a lot fewer non-profits and a lot less government programs if we all did this. 

     

    How are you making an impact through your business leadership? 

  • Tails and Tales of Remote Work

    Tails and Tales of Remote Work

    “I’m sorry, I’m working from home and my dog is barking.” How many times have you said or heard this lately? I have a mini schnauzer with a not-so-mini personality, so I’m an experienced “I’m sorry my dog is barking” professional. So is the HR leader who said that exact sentence on our call this morning. 

    By now, many of us have been working remotely for months. Some for years. We’ve adopted new methods, like wearing pajama shorts under that sharp shirt and blazer because no one really ever sees below our shoulders. We’ve found a new rhythm. We work when the kids are doing homework or the baby (and/or dog) is napping. We’ve got this. 

    But are we engaged? Are we growing? Do we feel connected to our colleagues, our leaders, our organizational and personal purpose? We’re working longer hours and producing great work, but we don’t know if it’s sustainable. The events of 2020 are taking a collective toll on our mental health. If you are an HR leader or a manager of people, consider some best practices for supporting remote workers. 

    1. Offer options. Remember that employees have different learning styles, different engagement preferences, and different abilities. We have more options to accommodate differences when we can be in person in an office setting and use technology. Our options shrink when we’re forced to rely exclusively on technology. However, shrunk isn’t nothing. There is really great HR tech out there. There are free online tools. We’re not stuck. We can still offer different options for communication, learning, and engagement. Employee wellbeing is negatively impacted when they’re boxed into a corner. Give them some wiggle room.  
    2. If it ain’t broke, don’t break it. If you had systems in place prior to the disruption that still work in a remote environment, leave them be. For example, if you used to send an email or pick up the phone and call when you had a question, but now you’re defaulting to a video call, take a step back and ask yourself why. Do you feel required to use video calling because it’s “more engaging” than phone calls? Video calls certainly add value to a remote work environment, but they should be limited to scheduled group meetings that you would normally have in person, just like scheduling a conference room. Video fatigue is real, and our mental health slides when we feel forced into unnecessary camera time. If the good ol’ telephone ain’t broke, don’t break it.  
    3. Seek feedback. I know you know this one. Are you doing it? Openly, regularly, meaningfully? The only source that can tell you if employees are feeling energized or overwhelmed, engaged, or burned out (or Zoomed out) is…drum roll…employees. Talk to them. Remember #1 and offer options to talk to them by email, phone, video, anonymous survey, etc. Pay attention to the options they choose; that’s immediate feedback. The employee who always uses video calls may be signaling that they need social interaction. The employee who emails at midnight may be navigating a schedule with a newborn baby. Next time you’re in a virtual meeting with everyone, use a polling feature or link to a 3-question survey in the chat feature to ask for anonymous feedback about wellbeing and engagement. Here are some tips for effectively using pulse surveys. 

    We all have barking dogs and laughing children who are equal parts of our remote work environment, and with the right support and good leadership from HR, we can find high work engagement and general and mental wellbeing in this new worklife. We’ve got this. 

  • Our Schedules Communicate Priorities

    Our Schedules Communicate Priorities

    On a Sunday morning about 7 AM, I was in the middle of a run. It was a quiet, beautiful fall morning until I looped back around and through the sports and water park complex near my house.  Cars started driving by and turning into the parking lot by the tennis center. I could hear an abundance of tennis balls popping off rackets as, what seemed to be, many people warming up.

    I’ve run by on other Sunday mornings about that time to see what couldn’t be older than five and six-year-olds warming up for soccer matches. The minivans and SUVS of their parents had to have filled the parking lots with license plates from other counties and even other states before the sun even woke up.

    On a Sunday.

    Call me old fashioned, but this early morning quest for getting more travel soccer, or travel tennis, or travel whatever sport in for young kids just blows my mind, even if it is driving in tons of revenue for my hometown as people come and put heads in beds with their entire family for an elementary school kid to play sports all weekend.

    What is the reasoning behind what has seemed to largely be held by society as a day of rest a day to get in more sports, Sunday after Sunday? Maybe it is the mindset of practice makes perfect as I wrote about last week, but whatever it is, it’s communicating that the sport, whatever it may be, is the priority. Our schedule communicates our priorities. On the weekend, family time isn’t the priority, or church or even time for a kid to rest a little and enjoy a free day to just be a kid.

    I’ve had several discussions revolving around this idea of how priorities are being communicated to kids. One mom whose little girl isn’t even six months old mentioned her concern with her family growing “overscheduled” as kids’ activities develop. Another expressed concern over an hour worth of homework for her daughter on a night when she had church and dance.  My own mother even expressed her observation about how kids don’t have time to just be kids anymore.

    Even the Today Show had a segment addressing the increase in homework kids have to complete these days, with one teacher expressing it is not the amount of homework but the amount of extracurricular things on kids’ calendars today that results in what should take 15 minutes of homework “double and triple” that amount of time because, by the time the student actually sits down to do the homework, they have already had so much packed into their day that they are just DONE (fast forward to 2:15 of the clip to hear this comment).

    Traveling and playing soccer all day every weekend for a season to me, brings on the sense of DONE before the week even starts.  Especially for a six-year-old.

    But if I’m honest with myself, I worry that I’ll be sucked into the travel soccer or tennis or baseball or dance craze with my own son and daughter (who will arrive in March) and they are only two and not even born yet.   When everyone is doing it, aren’t you just supposed to follow suit?

    What does this have to do with leadership?

    Whether we are the leader of our households or the leader of a team or company, or even the leader of our own lives, realizing that we are communicating priorities to our people and ourselves by how we prioritize time is important.

    Do you occupy your own time or your team’s with multiple meetings? I had one professional in leadership class tell me most of his weeks are composed of 30 hours on average of meetings.   By the time he was able to get to the work that he was supposed to do as a result of all these meetings, he was just DONE, not being able to contribute meaningfully to his purpose, and therefore his ability to produce value, for the organization.

    Maybe as a parent, we do want sports or other extracurricular activities or homework to be the priority for our children. But my challenge would be, if one thing takes the priority, by the time they get to everything else are they just DONE? And is it even what they want? Is what we schedule helping them express who they are and how they can contribute to the family and to society in a meaningful way or is the schedule communicating something else entirely?

    As a leader, help people define how they contribute meaningfully and then avoid overschedule them with things that don’t help them see this through.  

    Where are you, your team, or your family overscheduled with things that don’t truly matter?

  • Don’t Hoard Your Organization’s Wealth

    Don’t Hoard Your Organization’s Wealth

    “Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.” – Robert Boyce

    Organizations contain a wealth of knowledge. Some organizations spread that wealth, and some hoard it. Those that share the wealth of knowledge maximize their potential success. 

    I’m currently reading The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli and even though my brother and sister-in-law are both former partners (that’s what Starbucks calls their employees), I had no idea just how strong of an emphasis Starbucks places on knowledge at all levels of the organization. From formal training and incentives for completion, requiring partners to sample all core products twice per year, providing every partner with one bag of coffee each week so that they stay familiar with products, and encouraging partners to share their knowledge with customers to help educate them on products, Starbucks understands the value knowledge adds to their business, the partner experience, and the customer experience. 

    Starbucks has over 11,000 locations worldwide, and a level of financial resources for training that most organizations don’t have. So how can smaller organizations help employees share the wealth of knowledge? 

    • Encourage a learning and teaching environment. Studies show that up to 90% of what we learn is through informal training. But most organizations focus their attention on formal training such as classes or certifications, with limited funds to support these efforts. When I chose a career in HR I knew very little about it. I was fortunate to work for a company that encouraged a learning and teaching environment. While I was encouraged to get certified, most of what I learned about HR I learned through those that I worked with. When client issues arose that I didn’t know how to handle, I was encouraged to seek the help of senior team members. As I advanced in the organization, I became that senior team member that others sought out for help. Ask yourself “what is one thing I taught someone this week?” and “what is one thing I learned from someone this week?” 
    • Cross-train and up-train staff. Giving employees insight into other areas of the business has many benefits. One way to do this is through cross-training, giving employees the opportunity to walk in other’s shoes so to speak. It helps create an understanding of the various departments and positions within the organization, encourages communication and collaboration, and increases employee engagement. In addition to cross-training, organizations need to plan for their future and up-training is a great way to prepare employees for advancement. As the saying goes, a leader’s job is to help develop their staff to one day take their place. Too often organizations create a succession plan but fail to prepare employees for advancement. 
    • Utilize internal resources. Training doesn’t have to be costly. A great way to reduce training costs is to use the resources you have within your organization. By providing internal training, an organization ensures that the training is relevant to the organization’s business and employees are better able to relate to the training. A great way to provide internal training is to have employees lead lunch and learn sessions. Employees are given the opportunity to share a glimpse of what they really do and share their expertise with their peers. It’s also a great way to help employees understand how the work of an individual or a department contributes to the overall goals of the organization. 

    While the return on investment may not be measurable using metrics, the sharing of knowledge has many benefits for employees, organizations, and their customers. The sharing of knowledge creates a culture of collaboration, improves employee morale, increases productivity, and contributes to organizational growth. Organizations see an improvement in problem-solving, decision-making abilities, customer delivery, and reduction in the loss of know-how due to turnover. 

    Does your organization share its wealth of knowledge or hoard it?