Why The World Needs More Women Leaders (And Men Willing To Work With Them)

Zada Cooper SymposiumMay 5, 2018

What K-C Had to Change

• Talk needed to become action

• Accountability

• Hiring and promotion processes had to change

• Men had to take responsibility

• Companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians

• Companies in the bottom quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are less likely to have financial returns below their national industry medians

McKinsey 2015*

*366 public companies across a range of industries in Canada, Latin America, the UK and the US

97% of US companies fail to reflect the diversity of the country’s labor force (and consumer market).

McKinsey 2015

• a wider range of experience • a variety of viewpoints • avoidance of group-think• improved decision making

and problem solving• more effective cross-border

teams• increased ability to recruit

talent

Financial Times, May 15, 2014: Diverse teams offer…

• Korn Ferry, 2013▫ Almost all the global executives polled believe

diversity and inclusion can boost results• Catalyst and McKinsey, 2007▫ Gender diversity at senior levels is positively

correlated with higher returns on equity• Center for Talent Innovation, 2014▫ Publically traded companies with higher diversity were

45% more likely to have expanded market share in the previous year and 70% more likely to capture a new market

• Deloitte, 2012▫ 80% improvement in business performance

when levels of diversity and inclusion were high

The Business Case for Leadership Diversity

Venus and MarsRead Louann Brizendine, “The Male Brain” and “The Female Brain”

Nature…

Nurture…

Men are naturally superior at…

• Risk taking• Being decisive• Asking for what

they need• Negotiations• Competition

The Good News The Case for More Female Leaders!

Women As Leaders –from Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine

• We bring people together.

• We empower through interactive collaborative (rather than top down autonomy)

• We are comfortable sharing information and redistributing power

Women As Leaders (Cont.) • We favor multi-

dimensional feedback and accept ambiguity

• We equally value ▫ technical and interpersonal

skills;▫ individual and group, ▫ intuition and rationality

• We are inherently flexible

• We appreciate cultural diversity

A study on executive leadership and gender found that women rank higher (v. men) in almost every category of leadership except “having and communicating a vision.”

Forbes.com/2009/04/01, Jenna Goudreau

So, women should be (equally) rocking the working world!

And yet……

Women in the Workforce*

Fortune 500 Executives14.3%

Fortune 500 Board Seats 16.6%

Women in Management/Professional51.5%

*Catalyst Data 2012

Change is Complicated

Women'sPiece

Supporting Families - “The Second Job”

Big Policy Issues for USA

Health careMinimum Wage and Wage EqualityAccess to Quality Day CarePaid Family Leave

Closing this gap would require women to work an additional 12 years beyond men.

Women Underestimate Our Value

Women’s Discomfort with “Leadership”

Women don’t want “power over.”They want “power to.”

Diversity is about differences. Inclusion is about leveraging those differences.

• Women need to lean in.

• Men need to step up.

Discussion