HR: Favorite Column 2022

Happy Holidays, Everyone! It’s been quite an honor writing my HR column for you over this past year, and my favorite article—hands down—was the March issue about women in leadership. All of us—women and men alike—are responsible for carrying this flag forward of supporting women to reach higher levels of career success. Gender pay parity still remains a challenge, and the glass ceiling is real. But let’s make it our New Year’s resolution to support any and all efforts to create opportunities for career growth and professional development for female leaders. Therein lies America’s “secret superpower” in continuing our quest for greater creativity and innovation. Enjoy the season!

Women-in-Leadership Employee Resource Groups

By Paul Falcone

March is National Women’s History Month, which gives us a special opportunity to highlight Women in Leadership employee resource groups (ERG). ERGs are voluntary, employee-led groups that typically share a common characteristic and that form to foster a more diverse and inclusive workplace aligned with their members’ values. For example, ERGs may form around veterans in the workplace, working or single parents, ethnicity, religious or faith-based affiliations, and people with disabilities, among others. There is often no better way to lobby for your interests—whether they be corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, military-to-veteran transition, or a more diverse workplace—than in partnership with friends and peers. All it takes is some dedication and time on your part to form and lead such a group, although you’ll typically want to gain senior management’s buy in (often with the help of the organization’s human resources department). The results can be amazing and exceptionally self-fulfilling. Companies that sponsor ERGs demonstrate exceptional emotional intelligence and benefit from competitive advantage for being in tune with the times; those that don’t currently offer ERGs will likely adopt the idea if someone sponsors and shepherds the program for a particular cohort or cause.

The Challenges

The women-in-leadership ERG is especially promising. Here are some significant facts: • There are more women than men in medical school and law school today. • Women are running for office and getting elected in unprecedented numbers. • Nearly 40% of U.S. businesses are started by women. Yet, despite real and substantial progress gained over recent decades, the dreaded “80% rule” continues to hold tight and resist change: • 80% of CEOs are men. • Corporate boards are more than 80% male. • Women earn about $.80 for every dollar that a man makes.

Further, while women may start 40% of U.S. businesses, women-owned businesses typically get only around 2% of venture capital, with the remaining 98% going to male-led enterprises. What can a women-inleadership ERG do to strengthen female influence and create equality of opportunity in terms of career and professional development?

The Opportunities

First, it’s important to acknowledge what we all intuitively know: unfairness shows itself in different ways. Women tend to experience a harder time getting hired and promoted. They suffer from lower pay and a more cynical review of their work. (For example, male Supreme Court justices interrupt female justices three times more often than they interrupt other male justices). And needless to say, the effects of micro and macro aggressions at work, from interruptions, talking over female coworkers, or appearing to steal their ideas to outright bullying, harassment, and discrimination wear on women’s sense of self-esteem and belonging. Recognizing these challenges is a first step in furthering change.

Second, women naturally place tremendous pressure on themselves to outperform and master what lies within their areas of responsibility. Case in point: Males tend to apply for jobs and promotions when they believe they possess 60% of the qualifications required for the role; women tend to apply for jobs and promotions when they believe they possess greater than 90% of the qualifications required. Add to the mix that males tend to get promoted based on their “potential,” while females tend to get evaluated based on their “performance,” and you can see why an

accumulation of disadvantage can manifest itself over time: a slightly lower starting salary and a slower promotion rate can create significant disparities over the decades. Add to this the fact the resistance to change is baked into our psyches, and you can quickly see why change may appear to be slow and frustrating.

THE PAUL FALCONE

LEADERSHIP SERIES

A Way Forward

But fret not. Organic change is happening before our very eyes. The fact that female doctors and lawyers are graduating at a more rapid clip will realign our society quite naturally. But we don’t necessarily want to wait for organic evolution to fix these challenges for us: it sometimes helps to “push the river” and be the driver of healthy change yourself. Women in leadership ERGs often raise awareness about female negotiation strategies, developing a stronger collaboration mindset by expanding the winners’ pool (“It’s all about we”), and avoiding administrative chores that may be appreciated but do little to advance careers. Learning how to say no, politely but forcefully, is an important skill that can be developed in the safe environment of a women-in-leadership ERG. And most of all, professional networking can thrive and help to cancel out the guilt that so many female leaders place upon themselves when trying to balance career and personal lives (especially if they are mothers).

Looking at this on a larger scale, women are still relatively new to the workplace. When actress Betty White was born on January 17, 1922, women had only gotten the right to vote 18 months earlier. (The 19th Amendment was passed on August 18, 1920.) The U.S. remains the innovation capital of the world, and the labor participation rate of its female population is one of the prime reasons why. Yet resistance to change and inertia constantly hold us back as a society: Once the challenge is recognized and embraced, each woman can then customize a solution—individually and collectively—to strengthen her positioning and pay it forward in a spirit of selfless leadership. Considering joining or starting an ERG is a healthy first step; making yourself part of the real and sustainable progress, hard won by generations of pioneering women who preceded you, is a constructive way forward that enhances both genders in the workplace and our society as a whole.

You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn at

www.linkedin.com/in/paulfalcone1

Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is a human resources executive and bestselling author on hiring, performance management, and leadership development.

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