Nobody is gender neutral say 30% Club leaders, as research shows managers give more specific career feedback to men
The lack of senior females in the executive pipeline could be linked to how they are line-managed, particularly at the mid-career stage, new research from the 30% Club suggests.
Men were much more likely to get advice from managers on specific opportunities, with a view to deepening their skillset and getting the experience they need for promotions, such as MBAs or secondments, the research found. Women, on the other hand, were encouraged to adapt their approach and broaden their professional experience to open up a range of career options.
Employees of both genders suffered from declining contact with their managers as they reached more senior levels. Junior managers worked closely with their reports, spending around 29 per cent of their time with women and 24 per cent with men. But this dropped to 5 per cent for both genders among senior managers and executives.
Pavita Cooper, founder of More Difference and 30% Club steering committee member – who co-led the Just about managing research– said senior managers were not actively readying their direct reports for the next level of seniority.
“Couple that with the fact that it is men who get better preparation for specific roles by their managers, and we’re faced with a group of women left lacking both the managerial support and the concrete know-how to step into senior executive roles,” said Cooper. She said women needed to be pulled through for promotion much earlier on, to establish a better pipeline of female executive talent.
Rachel Short, director of Why Women Work and 30% Club steering committee member – who also co-led the research – said with Brexit on the horizon, there couldn’t be a more topical time to think about how organisations are going to achieve greater productivity and agility.
Discussing the findings at the launch of the report on Tuesday (14 March), Short said it was important for managers to consider how much time they spend with their direct reports, because the research suggested that this correlated strongly with how positively or negatively reports of both genders reports viewed their managers.
Short said the message needed to get out that “nobody is gender neutral”. Many of the managers interviewed were not actually aware they were treating male and female reports differently until they actually considered their approaches, she said. “Don’t tackle it as a gender issue, tackle it as a management and development issue,” added Short.
Helena Morrissey, founder of the 30% Club, said employers needed to create a mutually agreeable climate that women can also thrive in. “We need different perspectives. Not just in the boardroom, but from all decision-making groups.”