Minority Report
Without any kind of deliberation, in fact more by coincidence; or by accident, I all too frequently seem to find myself in the minority – the (very) odd one out: The Woman.
Take my first motorbike; it just seemed like a good idea, when I was 17, after a helpful friend kindly directed me where to put the petrol and oil in . . . oh-and-how-do-you-stop the thing? A rather useful skill, as it turned out later. I reduced my student debt by racing around the streets of Bristol and London – a modern day Pony Express – being called “mate” by lorry drivers who could be forgiven for not being able to tell the difference under the helmet, layers of thermals and a citysoot face.
I remained a minority, throughout my student years; Design and Technology in the old industrial heartland of Sheffield and a Master of Design at the Royal College of Art in London. One fond memory as I prepared to teach an all boys class – in Luton, north of London – how to use a milling machine, the silence was palpable until broken by a boy asking in disbelief if I really knew how to work the machine. That was 20 years ago and I have to wonder how much has really changed since then.
Throughout my career I have more often than not found myself to be the only woman in the room so was not surprised to come across a McKinsey report ‘Women Matter’ highlighting the under-representation of women in European companies, especially in management and decision making positions. Of particular interest was how they demonstrated that companies with more women in their management teams were doing better, on average, on their organizational performance criteria than companies with no women in senior positions. (McKinsey 2007). A critical mass of at least three out of ten female board members was apparently found to increase the performance gap significantly; a comfortable minority perhaps?
And so I found myself in September this year, once again in the minority, as I embarked on the Global Executive OneMBA at RSM. After completing a truly inspirational course on Global Leadership and Management it was interesting to reflect on McKinseys 2008 elaboration of their earlier research; going on to highlight the differences in the frequency with which men and women use different leadership behaviours. “…certain behaviors have become critical to meet future global challenges and yet they are in short supply in today’s organizations. Of the four most critical behaviors, three are more often demonstrated by women.”(McKinsey 2008)
Women Matter: Gender Diversity, a Corporate Performance Driver, McKinsey & Company, 2007
Women Matter 2, McKinsey & Company, Inc. 2008
Posted by RSM | January 3rd, 2012 | No Comments
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