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SHAMBAUGH Leadership 2007 Survey of Executive Women Summary

What Holds Executive Women Back and What Can Their Organizations Do to Help Them?

March 12, 2008
SHAMBAUGH Leadership

A great deal of attention is paid to the number of women in the upper ranks of corporate America (or lack thereof). The concern about those numbers and the desire to create change are real. Also genuine is the confusion about both the cause and the solution.

SHAMBAUGH Leadership, which has been developing women leaders for more than a decade, set out to test a hypothesis based on the hundreds of women who have participated in executive development and coaching programs – are the barriers to the advancement of women self-imposed rather than cultural or environmental? And if the barriers are more self-imposed, do women then have the ability to take greater control over their own advancement?

The 2007 SHAMBAUGH Leadership Survey of Executive Women
Traditional cultural barriers and existing stereotypes continue to be obstacles for women advancing to senior levels of leadership, but as our survey points out, there are a number of factors, within the control of the women themselves, that have limited their advancement.

Please note that the objective and results of the survey are not intended to diminish women’s capacity, contributions and intellect as leaders. Rather, the objective is to provide a greater awareness for women leaders, male mentors and companies who wish to develop and retain high-potential women about the potential barriers that have not been discussed or integrated into overall learning and development programs for women.

What follows is a summary of the survey results.

Overview
In the summer of 2007, SHAMBAUGH conducted interviews with business leaders around the country and across industries to discover their answers to these three key questions pertaining to women entering the senior executive ranks of major organizations:
 • What are the beliefs, assumptions or behaviors that you see in women that are obstacles to their advancement?
• If you were to put together the ideal training program for women leaders who want to advance to the senior executive ranks, what topics would you include and what would the training look like?
• What things, other than training, can women leaders do to advance in their careers?

A total of 50 business leaders, including CEOs, COOs, CFOs, SVPs, VPs and individuals responsible for providing Leadership Development Programs for women leaders in Fortune 500 organizations, participated in this survey. Those interviewed included women, men and working mothers.

Women’s Self-Limiting Beliefs, Assumptions or Behaviors
The results were both interesting and sometimes unexpected. Throughout the survey, a clear pattern emerged: while the “glass ceiling” still exists to some extent in organizations, in many cases, women are their own worst enemy. This phenomenon, translated as self-limiting beliefs, assumptions or behaviors, that women sometimes unknowingly demonstrated, actually played out as a big factor on why they were not able to advance in their careers or achieve their “whole life” goals.

The Top Five Limiting Behaviors or Sticky Floors as SHAMBAUGH has dubbed them:

1. The Need for a Greater Sense of Self Awareness
2. Better Work/Life Balance
3. Not Building Strategic Relationships
4. Not Making Your Words Count
5. Lack of Political Savvy

Self Awareness
Across the board, the survey respondents indicated that an important factor for women to achieve success in their careers and fulfillment in their lives is having a greater sense of Self Awareness. The participants believe this awareness plays a key role in several aspects of career advancement including engaging in career planning, taking career-related risks, knowing important strengths as well as areas for further development, and demonstrating a sense of self confidence, authority and authenticity. A general theme emerged around women operating more on a day-to-day basis juggling a number of balls and not taking time to identify and act on long-term goals for themselves. This behavior was described as operating in a tactical mode, and not looking at the bigger, more strategic picture in terms of their individual careers. In many cases, women failed to know and/or play to their real strengths and leverage those in their day-to-day work and career advancement.

Work/Life Balance
Work/Life Balance was viewed as a self-limiting career obstacle, both in terms of perception and reality. The perception element was identified as the view women (and some men) have that as you move higher on the leadership ladder in an organization, you need to put more time into the job in order to do it well and to be viewed as a committed team player. While some organizations are trying to dispel this as a myth, it is still a prevalent concern for women who are facing the demands of young children, teenagers and aging parents.

The reality element was identified as the need for flexibility in the job to meet the demands of personal lives, while still feeling that they are making a valuable contribution to their organization. Troubling to the survey participants was the fact that few women working a truly flexible schedule today are on the “fast track.”

This survey indicated that women tend to try to tackle it all and fail to ask for help – both at work and home. This stems from women feeling the need to please or not wanting to let others down. Additionally women sometimes fail to delegate certain tasks due to self imposed standards that others can’t meet. We call this the “perfectionist syndrome.”

This survey also confirmed that women sometimes failed to set priorities and then communicate boundaries of what they can and cannot do – all contributing to creating an imbalance in living and fulfilling their important work and life goals.

Strategic Relationships
Not Building Strategic Relationships was identified as a critical challenge and obstacle for women as this area, if not done well, prevents them from being acknowledged across the organization for their value and unique contributions, and it limits their access to valuable information about other career opportunities. While it was generally agreed that women are great at building friendships in their organizations, they are not seen as building relationships for the purpose of expanding their career opportunities or for establishing their personal brand within their organizations. Men are perceived as much more likely to establish a “mutually beneficial alliance” than are women.

Not Making Your Words Count
The fourth obstacle cited was Not Making Your Words Count. This was described as having several different dimensions. One aspect is related to speaking up in critical situations and making clear, concise and persuasive points when it counts. Another is in knowing how to time a message so it has the greatest impact. A third aspect is about building a coalition of support prior to presenting ideas and opinions, and being able to influence others on a particular position, view or course of action. And, the last relates to balancing inquiry and advocacy correctly in meetings to make points effectively. These are not the traditional things we see in communication modules in Leadership Development Programs, but they certainly resonated in terms of being critical skills for women to have in order to be viewed as good prospects for senior leadership roles.

Political Savvy
The final obstacle for women, cited in the top five, was their lack of Political Savvy – not having either the situational awareness or organizational insights to avoid surprises and influence decisions before they are announced. Women tend to be less inclined to focus on being politically savvy, perhaps because they view political savvy as a bad thing –underhanded, self-serving, or manipulative in some way. As we move up the ranks, being politically savvy becomes necessary to understanding the informal versus formal structures of an organization as well as helping us to recognize the informal influence patterns or connections that can impact you. Thus, political savvy, is learning who needs to know what and who needs to know you. It is also having a broader business perspective so you can bring value to situations rather than hoping that information will just come to you.

Most Important Topics for Training
The second question in the survey related to the most important topics that should be included in a training program for women leaders who wanted to advance to senior ranks. Interestingly, while two of the most significant barriers – Making Your Words Count and Building Strategic Relationships were identified as the two most critical topics in an executive training program, Work/Life Balance just barely made the top ten list. An assumption might be that while many business leaders recognize this as a critical issue, they consider it a personal issue and not something that is addressed in a learning environment.

Another general theme expressed by the majority of those interviewed was that women need to be well versed in business acumen, industry expertise and finance (as the language of business) in order to be considered for the senior positions. However, these areas were not seen as training topics but rather as long term areas of study, such as in an MBA program, or acquired through the right work experiences.

The following top ten topics for training were prioritized in terms of importance – several are related to the issues experienced by women as discussed previously, while two are generic to leadership programs in general (Strategic Thinking and Leadership Styles). However, the caveat regarding these two topics is that those interviewed felt that it was important for women to not only be strategic business thinkers, but also to “show up” that way asking the strategic questions, sharing their strategic view, and providing advice and authority in this area as well.

The top ten topics for leadership training for women as identified by survey participants (in order of importance with 1 being most important):

1. Communication (Making Your Words Count)
2. Strategic Networking
3. Strategic Thinking
4. Self-Awareness
5. Influence/Negotiating
6. Executive Presence
7. How to Find & On-board Mentors
8. Political Savvy
9. Leadership Styles
10. Work/Life Balance (in terms of Career Planning)

In terms of the format for training, the overwhelming consensus was that having external coaching as part of a leadership development program was the most critical success factor and the key differentiator for women leaders to successfully address the topics mentioned above.

Other Recommended Experiences
The third and final area covered in these interviews solicited ideas on things other than training that women leaders should do to advance in their careers. The resounding response was… get a mentor! Even better… get many mentors!

Along with mentors, interviewees recommended having short-term, external Executive Coaches for gaining greater self-awareness, overcoming specific obstacles, and for addressing difficult situations at work.

Get the Full Report
The 2007 SHAMBAUGH Leadership Survey of Executive Women includes more detail on the self-limiting behaviors, beliefs, and assumptions of executive women and includes quotes and personal insights from participants along with SHAMBAUGH recommendations for overcoming these obstacles.

To learn more about how to receive this report, contact: eblevins@shambaughleadership.com

The purpose of the survey and recommendations is to provide some answers to those who want to help women leaders advance in their careers. It is our hope that this report provides a framework for innovative ways to support and further the development of high potential women leaders.