Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman* say women score higher than men in most leadership skills, so managers need to take a hard look at what gets in the way of their promotion.
Image: Gerd Altmann
For the first time in history, a major political party in the US has several women who have declared their candidacy to be their party’s presidential nominee.
But TV pundits have been questioning whether, despite the progress indicated by the huge influx of women elected into the US Congress, the US is ever going to elect a woman to the country’s highest leadership position.
This is baffling to us, especially in light of what we see in our corporate research.
We have previously discussed findings from our analysis of 360-degree reviews that women in leadership positions were perceived as being every bit as effective as men.
In fact, while the differences were not huge, women scored at a statistically significantly higher level than men on the majority of leadership competencies we measured.
Still, the disturbing fact is that the percentage of women in senior leadership roles in businesses has remained relatively steady since we conducted our original research in 2012.
There are of course many factors that contribute to this dearth of women at senior levels.
For centuries, there have been broad, cultural biases against women and stereotypes die slowly.
People have long believed that many women elect not to aspire to the highest ranks of the organisation and take themselves out of the running (though recent research disputes that).
Lots of research has shown that unconscious bias places a significant role in hiring and promotion decisions.
Our current data presents even more compelling evidence that this bias is incorrect and unwarranted.
Women are perceived by their managers — particularly their male managers — to be slightly more effective than men at every hierarchical level and in virtually every functional area.
That includes the traditional male bastions of IT, operations, and legal.
Women were rated as excelling in taking initiative, acting with resilience, practising self-development, driving for results, and displaying high integrity and honesty.
In fact, they were thought to be more effective in 84 per cent of the competencies that we most frequently measure.
According to our updated data, men were rated as being better on two capabilities — “develops strategic perspective” and “technical or professional expertise”.
Interestingly, our data shows that when women are asked to assess themselves, they are not as generous in their ratings.
When we compare confidence ratings for men and women, we see a large difference in those under 25.
It’s highly probable that those women are far more competent than they think they are, while the male leaders are overconfident and assuming they are more competent than they are.
At age 40, the confidence ratings merge.
As people age, their confidence generally increases; surprisingly, over the age of 60 we see male confidence decline, while female confidence increases.
These findings dovetail with other research that shows women are less likely to apply for jobs unless they are confident they meet most of the listed qualifications.
It’s possible that lower levels of confidence at younger ages could motivate women to take more initiative, be more resilient, and to be more receptive to feedback from others, which in turn makes them more effective leaders in the long run.
We see a similar trend in women’s perceptions of their overall leadership effectiveness, with their rating rising as they get older.
Again, women at younger ages rate themselves significantly lower than men but their ratings climb — and eventually supersede those of men — as they get older.
This data continues to reinforce our observations from our previous research — women make highly competent leaders, according to those who work most closely with them — and what’s holding them back is not lack of capability but a dearth of opportunity.
When given those opportunities, women are just as likely to succeed in higher level positions as men.
Leaders need to take a hard look at what gets in the way of promoting women in their organisations.
Clearly, the unconscious bias that women don’t belong in senior level positions plays a big role.
It’s imperative that organisations change the way they make hiring and promotion decisions and ensure that eligible women are given serious consideration.
Those making those decisions need to pause and ask, “Are we succumbing to unconscious bias?”
“Are we automatically giving the nod to a man when there’s an equally competent woman?”
And, as our data on confidence shows, there’s a need for organisations to give more encouragement to women.
Leaders can assure them of their competence and encourage them to seek promotions earlier in their careers.
* Jack Zenger is the CEO of leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman. He tweets at @jhzenger.Joseph Folkman is the President of Zenger/Folkman. He tweets at @joefolkman.
This article first appeared at hbr.org.
