How many female managers have you had? Me? Well, maybe it’s because I work in the creative industries but most of my managers have been female.
I’m a man, by the way. Maybe I should’ve mentioned that earlier!
Below are the three things that I’ve learned from my bosses across the years. Partly this is based on my own thoughts and what I’ve tried to learn.
But I’m also informed by the time I was lucky enough to spend speaking to Rachel Short, which I found incredibly eye-opening.
If you’re a manager, or about to be, you might find something useful. If you want to encourage female executives within your business then again I hope you might find it enlightening.
#1. Women aren’t men
Okay, so this is obvious. But what I actually mean here is that women don’t operate like men in the workplace—and nor should they feel they feel they need to.
Rachel Short made reference to the “b-word” when talking of an earlier generation of female managers who attempted to play the man’s game—and who suffered sometimes vitriolic consequences.
These types of managers are a cliche within modern life. American sitcoms spent a whole decade poking fun at them! While we can be thankful to them for cutting that initial path that proved women can exist within senior positions, we also have to acknowledge the world has changed.
As Rachel explains, in a modern workplace, women tend to build teams, rather than treat their working environment as a series of stepping stones to fast achievement. They tend to stick with a team for longer, too.
This leads to very different CVs for women compared to men, and means they sometimes don’t come well out of traditional measuring. You know the metrics I mean —the ones that are created by men to measure male performance…?
Hmmm…!
#2. Familial teams
Do female managers tend to create more familial teams?
I’m conscious here of treading on the toes of some stereotypes. And I certainly don’t intend this to be prescriptive. But I’d certainly like to raise a topic of discussion.
My current boss? She calls herself “content mom” for our content marketing team (no, I won’t name who she is!).
Like within any family, she looks our for our best interests. Yes, she also knows that our team has to deliver within a corporate environment. But discussions with her are illuminated by a more friendly, considerate tone than certain male managers I’ve worked with.
With some other female managers I’ve had more of a light-hearted sibling-esque relationship. But informality has been a key characteristic.
I’ve also worked with some very formal female managers, of course, and that’s great too. Again, I’m not being prescriptive.
But there’s a reason I discuss this here, which is that there needs to be space for mangers like this to operate (and here I drop any distinction between male and female managers—both can and perhaps even should create teams where welfare of their direct reports is paramount).
Again, we’re drawn back to the question of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). Is your business even able to measure this?
A very simple measure might be a question such as, “Do you believe your manager has your best interests at heart?”
Or you might borrow from the stock Net Promoter Score methodology: “Would you recommend your manager to a new recruit?”
#3: It made me recognise my privilege
I’m a white, male, middle-class, able-bodied, middle-aged man.
It’s awesome.
Everybody listens to what I say. I can go wherever I want, and say whatever I want.
I am superman! Nothing holds me back!
Okay, so hopefully you realise that I’m being humorous here. But none of this is very far from being the actual truth within so many organisations I’ve worked within.
Progressing as a man within a business is, quite frankly, easy. It’s almost accepted. De rigueur. Often it’s just a matter of time.
Progressing as a woman? Well, it requires effort.
Many people have attempted to create metaphors to help male colleagues to explain this, because it blindsides many. The one I like is as follows.
Have you ever played a computer game? Almost certainly. No doubt you played it on the “Normal” skill setting initially. Maybe you played through to the end. If it was a great game you might’ve decided to play it through again, this time on the difficult setting.
Well, the key thing for a woman (or indeed people from any diverse background) is that they HAVE to play that game on the “Hard” skill setting. They don’t have the “Normal” or “Easy” options.
In the workplace there are all kinds of blocks to the progression of women. As we become enlightened we’re starting to remove some of the obvious ones, but there are so many invisible blockers. These rest within the attitudes of the incumbent management. They rest within the ways businesses work. The rest within the way society is organised.
What do I do in response? Well, I try to recognise achievements in colleagues—both men and women.
I watch for my own unconscious biases because, I promise you, I have lots of them. I know of some. There are others I haven’t even spotted yet.
Ultimately, if I’ve been in a position where I’m recruiting or deciding on promotions I’m very conscious to bear in mind the points Rachel Short raised about how female executive CVs can look different.
This doesn’t mean men can’t progress, But I challenge myself to ensure that any female candidates are rejected for sound reasons that can face scrutiny.
The way forward for female executives
There’s no revelation in the fact that it continues to be a difficult path for women who want to progress within business. I’ve outlined just three reasons here but there are many others.
The first step towards creating a solution is less about realising my perhaps obvious points above, and more about realising that significant effort needs to be consistently invested to change the situation.
There are traps businesses can fall into along the way. For example, discussion is healthy, but ultimately there needs to be actions as well.
Where can you start to learn more? I advise reading my interview with Rachel Short. It was illuminating for me to speak to her, and I hope to have reflected that.
There are trade organisations out there too that promote not just equal opportunities but actively promote female executives. Just hit Google.
Diversity in business 