Collaborative Confidence

We’ve all heard the term “the glass ceiling” and associate it with the difficulties women face reaching the highest levels of leadership. However, long before a woman even gets a glimpse of the glass ceiling, she faces a difficult hurdle—“the broken rung.” As described by McKinsey in their 2022 Women in the Workplace report, “Women continue to face a ‘broken rung’ at the first step up to manager: for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 86 women are promoted. As a result, men significantly outnumber women at the manager level, which means there are far fewer women promoted to higher levels.” The broken rung is a persistent problem McKinsey first described in 2016, saying that it “makes it nearly impossible for companies to lay a foundation for sustained progress at more senior levels.” Added to that, research by the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) paints a picture of how organizations risk losing top talent, especially women of color, when female leaders are overlooked. Their 2021 Women in Leadership report reveals that 21 percent of women leaders of color have quit a job after being overlooked for a new leadership role.

There are some glimmers of hope. According to McKinsey’s report, women’s representation across most of the corporate landscape has improved: “This year, for the first time, women of color were promoted to manager at about the same rate as women overall: 85 women of color were promoted for every 100 men.” Additionally, a 2019 report by the IBM Institute for Business Value titled Women, Leadership, and the Priority Paradox identifies a small set of organizations they refer to as “First Movers.” These companies work diligently to shift their corporate cultures by making the advancement of women leaders a formal business priority. The report speaks to the traction that is gained by deliberately weaving women’s leadership initiatives into the strategic fabric of an organization. A majority of First Movers report higher performance than their competition in profitability, revenue growth, innovation, and employee satisfaction: “While First Movers haven’t achieved fully gender-balanced leadership yet they are further along than others. This is solid evidence that the solution is in plain sight—if organizations are willing to address the issue with urgency and rigor.” Despite such impressive outcomes, the report finds that most companies do not prioritize the advancement of women, at least not formally: 67 percent of respondents encourage promoting more women into leadership positions but fall short of making it a business priority, and 12 percent admit that advancing women “isn’t on their radar.” While respondents say they are interested in promoting more women into leadership positions and may have well-intentioned programs, the report contends that “unless the advancement of women is elevated to a formal business priority, our findings indicate that the likelihood of companies seeing a marked improvement is negligible.”

To  create environments where women leaders can thrive and the broken rung is fixed, the horsepower of America’s corporations is needed. If more companies start taking intentional, bold actions to shift corporate cultures and advance more women into all levels of leadership, positive change is accelerated. As McKinsey said in their Women in the Workplace report, “When women are respected and their contributions are valued, they are more likely to be happy in their jobs and to feel connected to their coworkers.” So far, we have explored strategies women can use to activate their self-awareness and amplify their authentic talents. Now, we are turning the page and shifting our attention to explore the responsibility organizations hold to foster female leadership. It’s a two-way street. To  create sustained change, organizations must embrace their responsibility and commit to systemic and sustained action. In this chapter, we’ll explore avenues that help women leaders thrive through sponsorship, flexible work environments, and inclusive workplaces.