Study: Good Intentions, Imperfect Execution (Catalyst, 2014)
Finding: Women get fewer of the high visibility, mission-critical roles and international experiences—the so-called “hot jobs”—that are key to getting ahead at global companies.
InPower Insight: To get into leadership you’ve got to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Summary:
It turns out that on-the-job experiences account for 70 percent of the most valuable career development tools for employees, compared to networking and mentoring (20%) and formal programs (10%). These on-the-job experiences include stretch assignments, or challenging projects in which an employee must develop new skills and improve their capabilities in order to be successful. According to Catalyst’s report, unequal access to those hot jobs may be an underlying cause of the persistent gender gap at senior levels.
Men are more likely to land the high-profile assignments than women, were staffed with three times as many employees as women, on projects with budgets twice the size of women’s project budgets.
Sponsorship is a key factor in securing stretch assignments. Lack of sponsorship is a crucial factor that could be preventing women from attaining high-profile assignments, and ultimately advancing to executive board positions, which stems from a societal fear of rumor and scandal.
Career Coaching Tip: To really position yourself to reach your full potential in a corporate environment you need to strategically direct your career path, including taking on harder assignments and cultivating sponsors to help you gain visibility in the organization.
Keywords: women leaders, assertiveness, leadership style, confidence, communication style, mentor, sponsor
Guide to Women in Leadership
Organizations with women in their executive suites regularly out-perform others. Yet rising female executives (and their mentors) are frustrated at how hard it is to break through the glass ceiling. In this extensive guide, Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel into higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
