Women-owned businesses offer blueprint to get more women into corporate leadership roles

The report, When Women Lead, Businesses do Better, identifies business environments, often perceived as hierarchical, transactional and inflexible, as a principal barrier to women’s progression into senior roles in many corporates. It recommends the use of technology to enable women’s voices and ideas to be heard, consideration of part-time leadership roles and putting in place processes to reward collaborative working as key ways to make company cultures more attractive to women

Global career expert Right Management has today launched a report which investigates the contrast between the success-stories of women-owned businesses and the lack of progress of women in senior leadership positions within established organisations.

With more than 20 practical recommendations for established businesses, Right Management’s report sets out a blueprint that helps businesses better facilitate women’s progress into leadership positions.

The report, When Women Lead, Businesses do Better, identifies business environments, often perceived as hierarchical, transactional and inflexible, as a principal barrier to women’s progression into senior roles in many corporates. It recommends the use of technology to enable women’s voices and ideas to be heard, consideration of part-time leadership roles and putting in place processes to reward collaborative working as key ways to make company cultures more attractive to women. It also highlights the need to ensure that the women already in senior positions aren’t just role models but real models, who are honest about the challenges they have faced and whose success can be understood and replicated.

Right Management MD Ian Symes said: “Women are still under-represented in senior leadership positions in the corporate world, despite the benefits of having women in board-level positions being widely known. Meanwhile, women-led SMEs are thriving, providing £50bn of UK economic output between 2006 and 2010 and predicted to create one in three new jobs in the US by 2018. We were curious to understand why women are seeing such success in their own companies but not in established businesses and how organisations can better accommodate their evident creative and entrepreneurial zeal.

“We spoke at length with women in senior roles, in both established organisations and women-owned businesses. We found the same things being said again and again – the corporate environment is the principal barrier to women fulfilling their ambition to lead.

“It’s time established organisations look to their women-owned counterparts to understand where they could and should be doing things better. If they don’t, then today’s colleagues could all too easily become tomorrow’s competitors as unsatisfied women leave to start and grow new businesses.”

Right Management’s blueprint challenges existing leadership development models to develop new ways of thinking about factors such as exposure, education and experience, underpinned by insights into the importance of creating the right environment and building women’s esteem.

“The organisational environment must change. Since the industrial revolution, businesses have been built with men in mind, and the changes that have occurred have been led by men. With that in mind, we shouldn’t be surprised that women often find it difficult to fulfil their potential within these structures and so forge a path of their own. We should also recognise that women may look at established organisations and not be attracted to the idea of leading them,” Symes added.

“Our report lays out a blueprint for change, including a series of practical recommendations stretching across businesses. These include harnessing technology to allow flexibility from the top of the organisation to the bottom, reciprocal mentoring to allow the leaders of today to learn from the leaders of tomorrow, and the creation of ‘innovation positions’ which exploit women’s creative traits.”

 

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