“I remember Susan Butler, Accenture’s first female senior executive,” began Jorge Benitez, Managing Director, North America and Chief Executive, United States at Accenture. “To be the first at something – that’s huge.”

In fact, Benitez himself has been an advocate for and a role model of diversity at the company since he joined it thirty years ago. He explained, “There weren’t a lot of people who looked like me when you looked around. We’ve made huge strides since then. And it’s important as we become leaders to pass that onto the next generation.”

“It’s night and day versus 30 years ago – diversity is part of our fabric now. Of course, we can always find room for improvement,” he said.

Leadership as Stewardship

Benitez, who was born in Cuba and came to the United States at the age of ten, attended college at the University of Florida and joined Accenture after graduating. “And I celebrated my 30th anniversary one month ago. It has gone by quickly,” he said.

Most recently, he served as COO of the company’s Products operating group which includes Automotive; Air, Freight & Travel Services; Consumer Goods & Services; Industrial Equipment; Infrastructure & Transportation Services; Life Sciences; and Retail.

On the first of this month, Benitez assumed the role of Managing Director of North America and Chief Executive for the United States. “I am excited to lead our practice in North America and look forward to growing our business. We are seeing significant demand for new capabilities such as analytics, mobility, and digital marketing,” said Benitez. “I believe Accenture is well-positioned to continue offering our people satisfying careers and help them take advantage of our internal marketplace of opportunities to leverage their talents and aspirations.”

Benitez has seen many changes throughout his three decades at Accenture. “It was a very white, male Anglo Saxon kind of picture – it’s much more diverse today, in terms of global, gender, and ethnic dimensions.”

He continued, “I’ve seen the partnership days and I’ve seen the public company days.” In fact, Benitez said one of his proudest achievements was his work generating consensus around the new compensation structure when the company’s structure changed to a public company in 2001.

“We were going from a tenure to a performance based model. The partners had to vote two-thirds in favor. The vote passed and we were able to change the company for the benefit of everyone,” Benitez continued.

“To put high performers in the leadership of the company – that’s stewardship.”

Importance of Gender Diversity

Benitez said his interest in diversity comes from his own experience. “From an ethnicity context, it’s something I’ve always been aware of. I believe that being aware of my ethnicity helps me better understand gender issues as well.”

He continued, “Once a client told me, ‘it’s very hard to climb the corporate ladder in high heels.’ It’s clear to me that we don’t necessarily think in ways we should. It’s about making people self-aware.”

“Gender diversity is a critical part of a broader diversity and inclusion program we’ve had at Accenture for some time,” he continued. “Our clients want to have people help them who represent their own workforce – we need to be relevant to our clients. This is a fundamental business issue, not just something done to fill a quota.”

And increasingly, he said, Accenture’s clients are becoming more diverse as the company strengthens relationships in local markets. He explained, “I’m helping our North America practice do more in our local markets. We have more than thirty locations in the US and Canada, and we’re revitalizing our efforts to build local relationships.”

He continued, “We’ve had the opportunity to present to new clients, and if we show up with all white men, we come across very differently from what Accenture really looks like.”

For women in particular, he said, family responsibilities can make a high performing career seem out of reach. “This career demands a great deal. We’ve got to make sure we have women leaders who are successful professionally and able to have a family and fulfill other responsibilities.”

Another challenge with building diversity in a global company like Accenture, he said, is that diversity means different things around the world. He continued, “It’s different in Japan, the UK, and the US. But even though we are on different journeys in different countries, the needs are the same. They really are.”

Benitez said Accenture does a lot in terms of diversity and inclusion, but one of the factors he’s most proud of is the hands-on approach that he and other senior leaders take toward diversity. “Every quarter, we get on the phone with people leading diversity in their groups and look at attrition and advancement numbers. We’re very focused on trying to understand where we take folks from the start.”

He continued, “It doesn’t mean we’re trying to fill quotas – but making sure our diverse individuals have the opportunity to show they are ready for advancement. This means making sure they have the right assignments, coaching, and attention.”

Effective Leadership

“I started working right after college. I finished Friday and started on Saturday.” Benitez said. “I had read all the business books, but I didn’t realize how important leadership was.” He explained, “Effective leadership makes a huge difference, when it comes to people, clients, and frankly, running our business.”

“I would have done better than I expected if I had known the meaning of leadership.”

Benitez also highlighted his involvement in a new leadership development program at Accenture, for which he serves as a sponsor. “We bring together senior managers from all over the world – there are five teams of five people each, and they work on solving a real business problem.”

He explained that he attended a strategy meeting the day before the team was presenting a proposal to one of the company’s largest clients. “I saw that the three people who had the most impact had been in the leadership development program. I just felt so good – they had been senior managers just a year ago.”

He added, “Part of me just rejoiced that this program had helped position our people and the company for success.”

In His Personal Time

Outside work, Benitez enjoys spending time with his family and time on the water – boating and fishing. “We do a lot of traveling,” he said. “My wife and her family are from Greece so we go there every year.”

Additionally, he sits on the national board of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. “Both my mom and dad passed away from forms of blood cancer. It’s a way I can contribute skills, capabilities, and frankly, some funds to give back.”

Studies and statistics consistently point towards company benefits and increased profit margins when women are encouraged and emerge as leaders in the workplace. Consequently, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of identifying and developing female executives. This movement parallels the success women feel when male senior executives become sponsors, mentors and champions of professional gender equality.

However, for those male senior executives who have not yet become involved with this effort, the question remains: how can we encourage and persuade them to invest in women’s initiatives? Here are 5 tips to consider.

1. Create authentic professional relationships across gender.

Friendships at work are not only emotionally healthy, they provide us the chance to connect with colleagues on various levels, and support a sharing of different perspectives. A Randstad Work Watch survey cited by Forbes magazine in April 2010 reveals that American workers seem to be happier at their jobs because of the friendships they cultivate with co-workers. However, the top responses from the survey aligned more to workplace culture: a more creative and friendly workplace (70%); increases teamwork (69%); increases morale (59%); and increases knowledge sharing and open communication (50%).

Seemingly, these workplace friendships can also give women a personalized platform to voice both successes and challenges to male colleagues. By developing these authentic, professional relationships (especially with those in power to develop initiatives) women potentially create powerful change agents and professional allies.

2. Cite statistics, profitability & the issue of talent retention.

In a well-known study conducted by Roy Adler and various scholars at Pepperdine University, teams identified firms that were most aggressive in promoting women to high levels and compared their profit performance to the median performance of Fortune 500 firms in the same industries. For 2001, the 25 best firms for women outperformed the industry medians, with overall profits 34 percent higher when calculated for revenue, 18 percent higher in terms of assets and 69 percent higher in regard to equity.

The results were confirmed in subsequent studies in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. In every one of those years, the companies identified as being the best at promoting women outperformed the industry median on all three profitability measures. What does this mean for employers? Promoting women is not only the right thing to do, it retains a talented and committed workforce, and it’s a fiscally responsible decision as well.

3. Highlight employer trends, and leverage peer pressure.

The focus on women’s initiatives is a long awaited personnel shift that has gained more traction than ever before, and a change that many employers are finding hard to ignore.

As many organizations are beginning to go public with company practices they consider outdated and antiquated one particular organization, 2020 Women on Boards stands out by highlighting what they deem both suitable and primitive gender practices. They currently publish a list of “winning” companies comprised of public and private companies that have 20% or more women on their boards of directors. Similarly, they are building a list of “Zero companies,” known as Z companies, who do not have any women on their boards of directors. This Z-company database will be published on their website in 2012, encouraging an active push to change the current makeup of the average corporate board.

In addition, sites like glassdoor.com and similar online professional hubs allow for secrets of workplace culture to be shared on a much larger scale. Any businesses seeking to appear progressive and fair, who also strive to attract top talent, do not want to find themselves on the receiving end of scornful employee reviews and online forums. This type of pressure can be leveraged to create change in the professional realm. In the age of such rapid global change, even late adopters can’t afford to be left behind.

4. Appeal to empathetic male colleagues – seek men out with working spouses.

According to Dana E. Friedman’s article in The Future of Children (a collaboration between Princeton University and the Brookings Institution) the portion of households with two employed parents has doubled since 1950, making dual-earner couples the largest group of families in the workplace. Men with working spouses are typically all too familiar with the challenge of juggling home and work life. These men have wives who are often in the same position as their female colleagues: struggling to navigate a male-dominated workplace with rules and parameters that don’t accurate reflect their needs as employees and parents. By appealing to their empathetic male colleagues, creating authentic relationships and exploring opportunities for change within a company, creating initiatives becomes less about a female focused agenda, and more about a family-friendly, employee-friendly environment.

5. Be diligent about your goals and quest for change.

The term “glass ceiling” was created over 20 years ago, and continues to have a comfortable and established presence in today’s workplace. Women and their male allies are working hard to actively change a predominate culture that has dictated our success for generations. While the glass ceiling persists, our continued focus and determination has led to massive changes on the professional front, making way for new opportunities. With our eyes on the prize of advancement and progress, the pace of change isn’t slowing. Despite the discomfort that accompanies changing the status quo and challenging superiors and bosses who may not agree with our stance, there is no other option. Stay diligent and focused in your quest for gender equality in the workplace. We are building off the momentum of the executives who have gone before us, and paved the way for our success.

Many women today worry about what it takes to reach the top. They want to know what they can do to become better leaders.

The old paradigm said that they should adopt a traditionally “masculine” style or set of traits. Very few experts believe that now. In fact, when it comes to important leadership attributes, recent research shows that women have a natural advantage. Where they still suffer (like men) is in trying to understand the source of this power. Now as much as ever, both genders need help with their leadership development efforts.

Just as important – albeit less discussed – is knowing how to choose better leaders. In a way, not having the answer to this question produces the same effect as not knowing how to leverage one’s personal abilities. After all, when we do a poor job of selecting leaders, it stunts our own careers. When a board of directors hires the wrong CEO to run an organization, and that individual fails, it reflects negatively on everyone. When a division president picks a less-than-stellar candidate to manage one of her teams, she will be held to account for that group’s subsequent lack of performance.

Yet, most people don’t focus on this side of the issue. As a result, even today’s best organizations commit some serious errors when it comes to important leadership selection decisions.

The first mistake stems from not knowing what qualities to seek in potential leaders. For decades we have been told that a magnetic personality, or Ivy-League education, or certain style, make all the difference. They don’t. None of these factors is a reliable predictor of leadership success.

Other times we focus on qualities that do matter, but we don’t go far enough to seek a healthy balance. For example, we gravitate toward individuals who possess enormous passion and vision, but who are lacking in good judgment. Or we promote individuals with enormous cognitive skills, but who lack enough empathy to handle sticky social situations.

The second big mistake we make when trying to judge leadership potential is the use of insufficient assessment techniques. In other words, even when we know what to look for, we don’t know how to look. We rely on backward-looking interview questions, or inappropriate personality tests, or letters of reference from those who simply cannot predict how a person will perform in a fundamentally new position. Even the perennial favorite among promotion criteria – prior performance – is not a good indicator of future leadership success. At best, it tells only half the story. A solid manager with ten years of experience in marketing, for example, might be poorly suited for a generalist role that will require her to lead an entire division.

In our book Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders? the two of us answer these crucial “what” and “how” questions. Based on more than fifteen years of experience working with premiere executive education programs and some of the best organizations in the world, we explain how to identify the very best leaders. Here are some highlights that will help your company do a better job in this area…

Focus on the Qualities that Count. There are seven essential attributes of leadership success—integrity, empathy, emotional intelligence, vision, judgment, courage and passion. Take away just one, and a person who is called upon to lead will eventually fail.

For example, when Carly Fiorina was brought in as CEO of struggling Hewlett-Packard in 1999, she was seen as a corporate savior – a bright, passionate leader who could turn the company around. She impressed everyone with her energy and brains. Yet, her tenure was marred by friction, and she was eventually fired. Several company veterans thought that she possessed a deaf ear when it came to the tradition of humility and camaraderie that characterized HP’s culture. They thought she was out of touch, aloof, intimidating. In short, Fiorina’s leadership was undone due to issues of empathy.

Contrast her case with that of Anne Mulcahy, who was hired as CEO of Xerox in 2001 when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Seven years later, after leading Xerox through a painful but highly successful turnaround, Mulcahy was selected as CEO of the Year by Chief Executive magazine. Colleagues and competitors alike applauded her strong passion, judgment, vision and empathy. Her impressive performance at Xerox reflected a healthy balance of leadership traits — the kind of person who could give tough love and simultaneously listen.

Use the Right Assessment Techniques. Even when companies know what to look for, they rely on some rather misguided assessment techniques. Not too long ago, we met with a human resources manager who was reeling from a poor hiring decision. Just six months after filling a key position, the company had to terminate its new hire and start a search all over again.

When we asked the president how she and her team chose the person who was originally selected, she said: “He [the candidate who was hired] had great experience in the industry, a track record, and already had relationships with several of our largest customers.” In addition, the company hired a search firm that conducted extensive background referencing, and all signs were positive. The candidate was results-oriented, friendly, well liked, and driven.

While these findings sounded good, further investigation on our part revealed that the HR manager fell into some classic assessment traps. The most serious mistake she made was relying on an evaluation process that was essentially backward looking. She spent large amounts of time going over the candidate’s résumé and credentials: she asked about prior successes and failures, she asked others how the candidate performed, and so on. But this backward-looking investigation has limited predictive value when trying to determine a candidate’s likely success in a fundamentally new position.

In our assessment practice, we overcome this obstacle by using a variety of different techniques, including simulations and case studies, direct observation in group settings, and specially created hypothetical scenarios that test a candidate’s leadership potential. This last technique is critical because it is forward-looking. Unlike a typical interview question that asks candidates to discuss what happened in the past, these hypothetical situations present candidates with unfamiliar and challenging leadership situations. No amount of preparation or interview savvy will enable a candidate to fudge his answer or game the interview process.

For more information on how the best companies in the world choose first-rate leaders, including how to purchase Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders? Visit www.pickingbetterleaders.com or email the authors directly at jcohn@liag-advisors.com and jmoran@liag-advisors.com.

“There is a lot of research that shows, and we believe, that diverse teams create better solutions to client problems than homogeneous teams,” explained Jim Wall, Global Chief Diversity Officer for Deloitte.

Wall said he appreciates the firm’s organization’s commitment to diversity – not only because it’s strategically important, but because it has enabled him to do work that is meaningful to him for almost three decades.

“When you go to work, you don’t leave your value system at the door. In my 27 years at Deloitte, I’ve been allowed to do my best work from my value base. And I hope I’ve made an impact,” he said.

An Equal Chance

“I come from a family with very strong values,” Wall began. “My mother and grandmothers were very strong women who all had careers inside and outside the home.”

“I think because of that I was always committed to social justice – I’ve always believed that everyone deserved an equal chance, in this country and in all parts of the world,” he said, pointing out the events going on in the Middle East.

Wall said he has been enthusiastic about civil rights his entire life. “I was very involved in the civil rights movement as a student. And I’m married to a very capable, successful woman. I have a daughter, and I want to be sure she has every opportunity to be successful.”

“The whole notion of ‘to whom much has been given, much is expected’ has been important to me. If you have the opportunity, you have the responsibility to help others,” he added.

Building a Career in Diversity

Wall said that for the first ten years of his career, he was working in higher education (and loving it), when his wife, who was a senior executive at Hyatt, had the chance to advance her career – but they would have to relocate to Boston for the new role. Wall, who had been working at Michigan State, said he agreed to the move. “There were 85 colleges and universities in Boston – I thought I should be able to find a job,” he said.

Wall was offered a role, at an institution in Boston, but he had also applied for a job in recruiting for Touche Ross. “I thought, “I can do this,” he recalled. He ended up talking on the phone to Touche Ross for an hour, and after going in to meet the team, he took the job.

He said, “Among the Big 8 in Boston, I was the first person to hold the recruiting spot who was not an accountant.” Eventually Wall moved into HR, and then worked on mergers and acquisitions for the firm. Several years after Touche Ross merged with Deloitte, the managing partner asked Wall to take on the Chief Human Resources Officer role in the US. After twelve years, in 2004, the firm’s Global CEO, Bill Parrett, asked him to move into a global role, and Wall became the global Chief Human Resources Officer. In 2007, Wall said, the organization made a strategic push for diversity.

“I’m really in a career of helping people become what they want to become,” Wall explained.

“One of my biggest professional achievements is the quiet satisfaction I get when I see the people I’ve worked with become successful – however they define success – whether that means becoming partner, or in their daily work, or if that means they are more effectively able to balance their commitments.”

Looking forward, Wall said while he will be formally retired in a few years (Deloitte has a mandatory retirement age of 62 for partners), he sees himself going back to teaching or working in the non-profit sector. “Probably a portfolio of stuff,” he said. One of the issues he has become passionate about recently, and hopes to get more involved with, is the work of getting veterans back into the workforce.

He said, “Veterans need and want to get back into the mainstream of society and to have a career. They deserve every opportunity to succeed and live a productive life.”

Diversity Coming into Its Own

Wall said he has seen diversity become a leading factor in making a firm a great place to work. He said, “I’m very proud of being part of a team that helped put Deloitte on the map in terms of being a progressive place to have a career.”

He explained, “We’re in the business of solving client problems and protecting the capital markets. We do that with the intellectual capital of our people.”

“Our largest expense is salaries. We have the very best people in the world, and we keep a broad sense of diversity around us.”

Wall pointed out that there is a growing body of research showing that diversity is good for business, from academics like Martha Maznevski at the IMD Business School in Switzerland and Scott Page at the University of Michigan, as well as the recent Deloitte report, The Gender Dividend, which explores the business case for investing in women.

“The whole area of diversity is coming into its own – not just at Deloitte, but in general,” he added.

While Wall says he has been energized by his current work on generational diversity, he is also consistently involved in Deloitte’s global efforts toward gender diversity with its member firms. He mentioned working to implement the firm’s Mass Career Customization platform in a number of countries, working with women on assertiveness and negotiation training in Japan, and helping women build career resiliency skills in Australia, to name a few.

“What we do a lot of is surfacing best practices and sharing them with our member firms for implementation,” he explained. “No one has to start with a blank piece of paper.”

“Diversity can mean different things in different parts of the world,” he added. “It is integral to our strategy.”

Learning to Learn

“After a career spanning 37 years, I’ve learned a lot,” Wall said. “But I had no idea that it would be as much fun as it has been.”

He continued, “I’ve realized that the longer I’m alive and working, the the less I know. It’s a bit of a paradox and that’s okay. It’s about learning how to learn and being humble.”

He said that one of the most important lessons he’s learned in his career is the importance of occasionally being silent, and listening. He said, “One of my mentors, Ed Kangas, said ‘God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.’ In many situations it’s more important to listen than to speak. It means truly understanding what the person is saying, rather than preparing your response while they’re talking.”

Wall continued, “I rely on that advice every single day. I think it’s one of the downsides of technology – the whole issue of multitasking. One of the casualties is the notion of undivided attention.”

In His Spare Time

Wall says that while he spends a lot of time traveling for work, what he really loves is the outdoors. “I was born in Boston and I grew up on the water,” he explained.

“A lot of people don’t know this about me, but I play the saxophone. It’s a great stress reliever,” he said. “I play a little bit of golf, although my wife is really the one who’s the golfer.”

Wall’s two children, adopted from South Korea, are now attending college.

Mark Chamberlain, Head of Diversity for the Americas at Deutsche Bank, said the best piece of advice he received actually came from his grandmother. He explained, “In the early part of the 20th century, women weren’t supposed to go on to higher education, play sports or work outside the home – and she did all that. She said, ‘Only you can make your life interesting. Go out and do it.’”

He continued, “You have to take charge of your life.”

Chamberlain, whose interest in diversity issues started during his time with the Peace Corps working in Mali, now leads Deutsche Bank’s efforts in the Americas to attract and retain diverse talent. The other piece of advice Chamberlain said has impacted his life came from his father. He said, “He told both my sister and me, ‘No matter what you do, do it well.’”

Making an Interesting Career Path

Chamberlain studied business at the University of New Hampshire and took his first job at Fidelity Investments in Boston. “It was a two year program – it provided great exposure to careers in finance, and I learned a ton. I knew I definitely wanted to do something in the financial services field.”

But after two years, knowing he could always go back to a career in finance, he wanted a different kind of experience – and joined the Peace Corps. “I worked in small business development in Mali. It was amazing. I was there for three years.”

Chamberlain said it was in Mali that he developed an understanding of what it’s like to be in the minority. He explained, “I grew up in New Hampshire, and as great as it is, it’s not a very diverse state. I had not really been exposed to demographic differences until I was in Mali, where there were, at the time, approximately seven million Africans there, and only about 1,000 Caucasians, with me being one of them. It was a very interesting experience to suddenly be living in a place where I was in the minority. .”

He continued, “It was an eye opening experience and helped me understand the importance of diversity and inclusion.”

After his time in Mali, Chamberlain enrolled in a graduate program at Yale, studying finance. Then he joined a corporate finance program at JPMorgan Chase.

“I worked in banking for seven years, working in leveraged finance and lease financing, and then I transitioned into a program manager role within the investment bank on the HR side.” He explained, “I loved my job and the energy of working in investment banking, , but I wanted more time for family and friends and a little more predictability, and less travel. The program manager role gave me the perfect blend of staying in financial services and some work-life balance.”

He continued, “It was an easy transition – the bank was very supportive of my needs. I moved into diversity recruiting after that role, and in 2007, I moved to Deutsche Bank. In 2008 I became Head of Diversity for the Americas.”

Aside from his time spent in the Peace Corps, Chamberlain said he is most proud of his work with Deutsche Bank’s MBA Fellows program, which recruits women and diverse talent with new MBAs. He explained, “The idea existed before I took on the role at Deutsche Bank, but it was up to me to execute it and get it off the ground. It has been very well received.”

Building a Web of Connections

Chamberlain said that over the course of his career he’s learned many important lessons, but one that really stands out is a concept called web thinking. He explained, “It’s the ability to connect the people you meet, the things they do and the things you do.

He continued, “You take these seemingly one-off events, and find how they are actually all related somehow. It helps you make better decisions and do better in your career. You have to be open to thinking more broadly. Of everything I’ve learned in the past five years, it’s changed the way I approach work.”

“People think that if you keep your head down and work, you’ll be rewarded. Yes, do your work – but keep your head down less often. Notice how things fit in together.”

Today’s Biggest Challenge: Generational Diversity

Currently, Chamberlain said his most interesting work revolves around building better work relationships between different generations. He explained, “Right now the baby boomers are approaching retirement. And they have this incredible knowledge in the organization. On the other end, we have these really smart young folks coming in. We want to make a smooth knowledge transfer.”

Deutsche Bank’s NextGen Network is a cross generational platform for transferring this knowledge and wisdom. “The purpose is to ensure the generations better understand and work with one another, so they can leverage their differences, rather than resisting those differences.”

He continued, “It’s a different aspect of diversity – folks haven’t thought about it as much. No other company that I know of is doing as much work as we are on generational diversity. The NextGen Network already has over 600 members,” he said, noting the group has had a presence on the bank’s web portal for only about six months – and just officially launched in early February.

Women at Deutsche Bank

Chamberlain said that he is proud of the bank’s work to build networks of women – for example Deutsche Bank’s annual Women on Wall Street event which draws together thousands of women in the financial services to network and share advice for success in New York. Deutsche Bank is sponsoring similar programs in Frankfurt in March, London in June, and, for the first time, will host an event in Asia this year as well.

But one of the bank’s new programs is an especially high note for Chamberlain, in that it focused on building business for its members and for the bank. He said, “Our corporate investment banking women’s network is really business focused. We have career development events, but we also have events that focus on female clients..”

“It’s great from a diversity standpoint and from a business focus standpoint – and it’s great to combine the two,” he added.

Chamberlain also mentioned the bank’s ATLAS (Accomplished Top Leaders Advancement Strategy) program, a global initiative to raise up managing director level women. “They’ve already made it to the top levels, and now they are looking at executive committee or executive board roles. It’s designed to enable accomplished, senior women to become even more senior.”

For women at the director level, the bank offers the Women’s Global Leaders program which brings women from across the organization together at France’s INSEAD business school. “It’s a way for them to prepare for the next level, Managing Director – it’s been very successful,” he noted.

And regionally, he said, the bank offers coaching programs for female vice presidents.

In His Spare Time

Outside the office, Chamberlain said he enjoys exercising and the outdoors. He explained, “What I find most rewarding is physical exercise – running, swimming, hiking, rollerblading. That endorphin rush is a big motivator for me and get’s me going the most.”

He also mentioned that he enjoyed traveling, having visited Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Since publishing Unwritten Rules: What Women Need To Know About Leading In Today’s Organizations, I’ve worked with others to try to get more women in positions of senior leadership.

Basically all change efforts boil down to the same thing – can we get people to behave differently.

In this case, can we get shareholders to appoint more women to their boards?

Can we get CEO’s to create gender-balanced teams to lead their organizations?

Can we get professional services firms to operate differently so that more women stay and make partner?

Can we get political parties to field equal numbers of men and women candidates, and then get journalists and voters to give women a fair chance?

So far, the answer in all cases has been “no” or “rarely.” Women achieving senior levels of leadership still make the news.

Along with countless other women, I will continue to bang my head against these particular brick walls, trying to convince men who hold most of the power at the top of organizations and governments to accept the business case that gender-balanced teams are better for business and governance.

But the uncomfortable reality is that no matter how many studies indicate that companies with more female senior leaders outperform those with the least in return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital, the guys at the top aren’t buying it.

No matter how often we state the case that women and men working together are likely to make better and less risky governance decisions, we still see predominantly male governments and boards.

In 2011, let’s plan to take a different approach in our quest for gender-balanced leadership.

Bright Spots

In their book, Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath talk about the importance of finding and using “bright spots” to bring about change.

A “bright spot” is where the change you want is already working. If we want to effect change it makes sense to search out the bright spots, find out why they are successful, spread the good news and attract others to want to join it or clone it.

It’s about creating or highlighting positive results that others then want to be a part of.

Men Who Get It

So where are our bright spots in gender-balanced leadership?

There are men who don’t just talk about believing in women – they challenge their own gender stereotypes by taking action to support, advocate for, and promote women.

They are the new role models for 21st century men and we would do well to engage them in our conversations about how to achieve gender-balance in our organizations and governments.

In finding and highlighting these bright spots we might be able to attract other men to be curious and perhaps even to join them.

So how do you spot a “man who gets it”?

“Men who get it” share some of the following characteristics and actions:

1. They are full life partners, playing an equal role in parenting and the home.
2. They speak out against sexism.
3. They are aware of gender stereotypes and are not constrained by them.
4. They mentor and advocate for women.
5. They promote women to join men in leadership positions because they know it makes good business sense.
6. They intentionally create gender-balanced teams and workplaces for better performance.
7. They find creative ways to keep and promote women who take career breaks.
8. They are prepared to step off the career ladder and take the lead in parenting.
9. They want to be included in the conversation about gender equity.
10. They are cool, 21st century men who want women to be themselves and bring something additive and different to the table.

The “Men Who Get It” Project

In 2011 I will identify and interview “men who get it” to find out how and why they support and advocate for women, both inside and outside the workplace – in fact, I have already started.

I’ve interviewed Anders Karlstrom, a senior leader in the pharmaceutical industry in Sweden, who sees maternity leave as no barrier to recruiting and retaining the talented women he needs. He develops long-term working relationships with his women leaders and works with them to plan their career breaks and their re-entry.

I met with Carl Otto, a highly respected, international senior leader in financial services who has consistently recruited and promoted talented women in a traditionally male dominated industry. He also developed a measurement tool that, amongst other things, shows how and why women often make better investment decisions.

And I spoke with Josh Reiman, a graduate student at George Washington University, who firmly believes that both women and men would gain from increased collaboration. In his article, “The Women’s Movement Needs Men” he writes, “Unfortunately, the women’s movement remains continuously unwilling to bring men into the fold; such concerted effort would transform their cause from one that is largely by and for women into an all-inclusive social movement.”

These are three examples of “men who get it”, and there are many more out there, which is where you come in, if you’d like to get involved.

Get Involved – Find the Bright Spots

Do you know any “men who get it” – men who live some of the ten characteristics listed above? If so, please send them this article and ask if they are willing to be interviewed. If you have a good candidate who is willing to tell me his story, please e-mail me at lynnharris@harriscoach.com.

I’m convinced we can make great strides to achieve gender-balanced leadership, and I think we’ll achieve it much faster if we include rather than exclude men who are already our allies.

After all, isn’t a collaborative approach one of our great strengths as women? Let’s use this strength to accelerate the changes we want. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Pax World is very focused on the notion of gender equality as an investment concept,” said Joe Keefe, President and CEO of Pax World, the first US mutual fund to focus on environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) in investment analysis and decision making.

“Our women’s empowerment platform includes applying a gender lens to all of our funds, while our Global Women’s Equality Fund is the only mutual fund in America focused on investing in companies that are global leaders in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. Additionally, our proxy voting policy is straightforward: if the slate of directors is all male, we withhold support and send a letter to the company explaining why and encouraging them to embrace gender diversity.”

He continued, “And it goes beyond putting more women in the boardroom or senior management. Investing in women and girls is a critical strategy for promoting sustainable development and alleviating global poverty.”

A Solid Reputation in SRI

Keefe has been with Pax World for five years and was the driver behind the company’s recent growth. He explained, “Before, it was a much smaller, less professionally managed company. In fact, my first order of business was steering the company through a regulatory investigation by and settlement with the SEC. What we focused on during my first few years as CEO was professionalizing the company – improved legal, compliance, operational and fund management.”

He continued, “We’ve built a very strong organization, and once we got the basics right, we were able to grow – we have launched nine new funds over the past three years. But we had to go back to business basics at first.”

Before joining Pax, Keefe was Executive Vice President and General Council of New Circle Communications, a consultancy in the Social Responsible Investment (SRI) space. Before that, he worked for Citizens Funds, and prior to that he practiced law for 16 years.

Looking forward, Keefe said, “In the future, I still see myself here – I love the people and the mission of improving the social and environmental impact of companies and markets.”

Advice for Leaders

Keefe said, “The best advice I ever got was when I was in high school. I was running for president of the student council and my room mate and best friend was running against me – and he was really popular. I was worried I wasn’t going to win. And my uncle said, ‘don’t capitulate’.”

He continued, “That still speaks to me 40 years later. Perseverance, being resilient. If you want to accomplish something, be prepared to be in it for the long term.”

His other piece of advice? “The older you get, the more you realize that attitude is everything.”

He explained, “You’re always encountering crises and you can’t let fear get the better of you. It’s a matter of courage and acceptance over fear and anxiety. It’s a Buddhist-like attitude – it can help you be a good leader.”

A few months ago Deloitte’s Ann Weisberg shared an anecdote with The Glass Hammer that struck a chord with many of us. She relayed the story of a Deloitte senior male partner who spoke on a panel about the issue of gender diversity. He asked the audience, “Would you want your daughters working here? If the answer is no, then you should own part of the solution.” It got us wondering: Could the simple question “Would you want your daughters working here?” change the way companies treat gender diversity?

A Powerful Question

Barbara Adachi is the National Managing Principal for Deloitte’s award-winning Women’s Initiative and yet another believer in the power of the question, “Would you want your daughters working here?” Not only does she believe that considering the question would help senior men see the work environment and culture from a very different and personal perspective, but she’s seen the power of the question at work.

“When we launched the Women’s Initiative in 1993, our CEO Mike Cook had two daughters who were entering the workforce. He personally recognized the importance of women having equal opportunities to advance and he applied this to our culture,” Adachi said. “In a Harvard Business Review article about the Women’s Initiative, [Deloitte Consulting CEO] Doug McCracken cited that the light bulb went on for a male partner when asked, ‘Your daughter is graduating from college. Would you want her to work for a company that has lower expectations for women?’ Suddenly, he got it.”

If a company sincerely wants to improve their efforts when it comes to gender diversity, Adachi recommends treating the women’s initiative as a business imperative, with the foundation being grounded in the business case for gender diversity. “One of our key lessons learned is that our Women’s Initiative is embedded in our culture and in the way that we do business- it is not viewed as an HR initiative or program. It impacts how careers are built, how we develop talent, build communities, and hold ourselves accountable for results.”

This is something that’s been echoed by Camille Alexander, Chartered Financial Analyst and Institutional Consulting Director for Graystone Consulting and one of the White House Project’s Young Women Leaders, who believes that empowering women impacts the entire community.

When Alexander took her CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam certification in the early 1990’s with 80 others, she was one of just a few women and when she moved into her first role as a portfolio manager in the mutual fund industry, she was the sole woman in a group of more than 40 working on the Equity Team.

Despite always being aware of the gender imbalance, Alexander never felt that her gender held her back from succeeding. As a matter of fact, she gives ample credit to “male colleagues of a generation more open to working alongside women as peers, encouraging them, and supporting them” for opening doors to many opportunities in her career.

Obviously, the question of “Would you want your daughters working here?” can be a powerful motivator for more senior men with families and the power to sway how the company conducts its business, but what about younger men just entering the workforce. How can they be part of the solution?

Adachi contends that young men today are facing similar challenges as women and the need for workplace flexibility has crossed the gender borders. “A recent study by the Families & Work Institute indicated that men are struggling more than women with balancing work and life,” Adachi said. “This is why it’s so important for companies to create cultures where people can dial down to meet their personal and family needs, enabling them to pull their weight at home while having a successful career.”

Measuring Your True Culture

For Bob Horst, the founding partner and director of recruiting at Nelson Levine deLuca & Horst, LLC, the answer is a resounding yes. Sixteen years ago the 43-year-old father of three had his first child, a daughter, and though his wife had made him aware of the necessity of equal opportunity, it wasn’t until his daughter was born that it really sunk in.

“I currently have a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old daughter and since they were born, I have become particularly attuned to the dire need for equal opportunity between the genders,” Horst said. “There’s no need to change the playing field, so long as it’s level. Before my children were born, this was not part of my conscious thinking.”

Horst doesn’t want to see his daughters or his seven-year-old son given opportunities simply because of their gender; rather, he’d like to see them thrive in a challenging business environment where their gender is simply a non-issue. Some might argue that this is wishful thinking, but it’s Horst’s belief that the simple act of having a child changes a person’s perspective, even as it pertains to business. Horst wanted to see his children afforded every opportunity possible and as a result, he changed the way he approached people and he has used the question, “Would I want my daughters working here?” as a litmus test for his firm for the past ten years.

In the right hands, this question can be powerful and even life changing for those working at a company with a leader brave enough to ask whether their business practices would be good enough for their daughters. Horst even believes that such a question could be the ultimate telltale sign as to whether or not employees are happy with their place of employment.

“There are multiple benchmarks available to professional service firms that measure performance, profitability, etc.,” Horst said. “If a question were added to an employee survey intended to measure whether or not an employee believes that their child would thrive there, it would provide another very meaningful way to measure employee satisfaction and the true culture within that firm.”

Recently, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the gathering of 2,500 CEOs,heads of state, and visionaries from the arts. At Davos, I saw Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, met Miss Universe, and participated with the “titans of social media” — as the founders of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn squared off. Heady stuff. But mid week, I went to a session that eclipsed them all. It was innocuously entitled The Power of the Purse.

Davos is an economic forum and I went for economic interests. But I went to this session for different reasons. At work I’m a CEO, but at home I’m a widow. When my wife died of cancer three years ago I took on a new, foreign role — mom, and so I attended this session with my 7-year-old daughter Ruby in mind. I thought this session might give me some insight into the world as she will encounter it.

But as I took my seat, I felt out of place. There I was, one of a handful of men with 60 of the most accomplished women in the world. I felt like I had mistakenly slipped behind enemy lines, then been cordially invited to an intimate power lunch in the general’s tent. The panel included Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, author Margaret Atwood, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, former chair of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors.

The two-hour session was like an intellectual popcorn popper; one profound observation shot up after another, and I frantically took notes. The conversation ricocheted between social, sexual, business, and emotional topics. So rather than present them as one thought, I thought I’d list the tastiest kernels:

Women, if viewed as an emerging market, are bigger than China and India combined. The economic power of women is rising rapidly. By 2013, the worldwide income of women will rise by $5.1 trillion, which is greater than China’s expected growth of $3 trillion over the same time period. And their power is vast: women’s income, worldwide, is greater than the income of China and India combined.

80% of buying decisions in the world are made by women. At first I didn’t believe this statistic. Later, I met the VP of Nissan Motors for Asia. Now I figured of any purchase, that cars would be a male-dominated decision. Wrong. He told me that 70% of the decisions to buy a Nissan are made by women.

Men spend money on women and whiskey; women spend money on the family. Margaret Atwood observed that this is why 94% of the borrowers from the renowned Grameen Bank are women, each of whom is playing a key role in allowing millions of individuals to work their way out of poverty with increased independence. And historically, this is probably why in Native North American communities the job of dividing up the kill was given to older women — they knew which families needed more.

The board of directors gap is still too wide. The woman CEO sitting next to me told me a story about a woman friend of hers who recently got a call from a recruiter who had been tasked to find a woman for the board of a venerable company that had sold exclusively to women for over 20 years. The board had never included a woman; she would be the first one. Amazed, she declined the interview.

Hire women executives, raise profits. When I observed that I had worked in precious few technology companies that had women executives, the woman next to me said: “Well you are leaving money on the table. Studies show that companies with women executives have a healthier top and bottom line.” After this session, I believe her.

The more powerful the woman is, the happier the marriage is. I have to admit that I struggled to find research to support the claim that the probability of divorce decreases as a women’s income increases; in fact I found the opposite. But this group felt strongly that professionally balanced marriages are happier marriages and this instinctively made sense to me.

A call for balance, not quotas. Surprisingly, this panel of women seemed undisturbed with the natural bias that men — or indeed any group — have to work with people they’re comfortable with. The call to action for male CEOs and boards was for an increased but balanced presence of women leaders, not a coup d’etat.

Vocation is just as important as raising kids. The prevailing sentiment among these successful women is that they feel their jobs are as important as their role as a mom. Not more, not less.

The way the women interacted was different and in many ways, better. As I was listening, I realized that this Davos session was different than all of the others. Like all the sessions, the speakers were intelligent and passionate. But if the sessions were like a musical performance, the male-dominated ones were like a series of screaming solo acts. By contrast, The Power of the Purse session was more like a skilled jazz improvisation — the speakers were good, built on one another, and the sum of the observations was greater than the individual points. Any business could use more of this type of discourse.

A question for CEOs to ask: would you want your daughter to work at your company? Laura Liswood, senior advisor at Goldman Sachs and author of The Loudest Duck, posed this question. She spoke of the framework for understanding the dynamics of diversity in the workplace.

Women are just plain better at some leadership roles. I’ve been involved in 15 corporate mergers and acquisitions, and one of the toughest things to do well is posttransaction integration. The women in this session quoted findings that women who lead acquisitions are more successful than their male counterparts. This one resonated on my own logic scale.

Are men ready to be displaced? The men my 7-year-old daughter will encounter 20 years from now will be radically different than today’s men. The women at Davos forecast a near-term crisis of self-esteem for men and a re-adjustment of our selfimages. That’s an exciting — and scary — thought. What are the implications of a dramatic shift in self-image and power for men? For women? For business? For society? Will men be introspective enough to aid and abet this subtle yet dramatic shift to a more feminine view of power and leadership? This seemed like the deepest of topics that was dealt just a glancing blow, and it’s one that continues to ruminate in my mind.

Women work not from choice, but from necessity. Margaret Atwood graciously emphasized this point for me. Many women — worldwide — work not from choice but from necessity. They do it to earn money to feed their kids. It has never been the case that all men worked and all women stayed home. That was a middle-class Victorian ideal, but it was true for only a few women then. The rest were factory workers, farm workers, domestic help, and prostitutes. In fact, huge numbers of “women workers” were prostitutes then, many of them children.

Call to action for male CEOs: start an affirmative search for women leaders. When the topic of quotas came up, most women rejected the idea. Laura D’Andrea Tyson advocated the idea of an affirmative search: for men to leave our comfort zone and search for more women leaders, more women as board members, and more women in political office. Profits will go up, decisions will be better, and society will be a
better place.

Whenever I leave a thought-provoking event like the World Economic Forum, I ask myself: “With everything I learned, what’s the one thing I’ll do differently?” From the 2010 Davos Forum, the answer was simple — I’ll heed Laura Tyson’s call for an affirmative search to include more women on my leadership teams and encourage other men to do the same. And if you’re still not convinced to do it for your business, do it for your daughters.

When I began researching glass ceilings there were questions as to why a man was tackling the issue of in the first place. After all, this is a women’s issue, isn’t it?

My personal reason for supporting women breaking glass ceilings is very simple. My mom was part of the first all-women insurance sales team in Iowa for American Mutual Life in the early 1960s. Her career aspirations were thwarted due to factors related to the glass ceiling. Mom is 82 now and the question “what might have been” often comes to mind when I think of how far my mom’s career could have gone if not for the artificial barriers that held her back.

Now, as I look at my step-daughter, nieces, and great-nieces, I don’t want to have to look at their careers and ask, “What might have been?” But that’s me. Why, then, should other men take up the cause? Quite simply, it is in the best interests of our economy and our society to do so.

Half of the Talent

Talentship is a prime concern for many industries. In this economy every company needs to make sure its best and brightest people are contributing to the organization’s long-term growth and success. Will that really happen when we’re voluntarily choosing to keep half of our best talent on the bench? 73% of male CEOs believe that the glass ceiling is no longer a problem for women, while 71% of women trying to break through the glass ceiling said it is.

We, as men, need to get other men – particularly executives – to wake up and realize that just because some women have made it through the glass ceiling doesn’t mean there is currently an equal opportunity for all women to break through.

It is foolish to think that men have a monopoly on the solutions to the critical challenges facing our businesses not only during a recession but also competing in a global economy. According to a recent Washington Post article, accounting giant Ernst & Young argued that companies with more women in senior management roles make more money. Reporters Katty Kay and Claire Shipman write, “Pepperdine found that Fortune 500 firms with the best records of putting women at the top were 18 to 69% more profitable than the median companies in their industries.” At least a half dozen studies document a clear relationship between women in senior management and corporate financial success.

Are you getting the message, gentlemen?

Social Change: Equality of Opportunities

Social change requires the disadvantaged group and a core faction of the advantaged group form coalitions to bring an end to inequality and injustice. Women’s suffrage, civil rights, and Apartheid are just three examples of this dynamic. However, in all aspects of our society, men should not be seen as the standard against which women are to be measured for equal justice. The standard for measurement should be what is moral, just, and within the letter and spirit of our laws.

Equality does not mean equality of outcomes; it means equality of opportunities. Women currently aren’t on a level playing field with men for those opportunities. There needs to be a core group of us to decide we’re not putting up with women’s inequality any longer. We need to partner with women and change history. Look at where we stand at this moment in time: The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University reported that eight women served as governors in 2009; same as 2008. 24 percent of women served in statewide elective office in 2009, down from 28 percent in 2000. The U.S. Senate has 17 female members. There are ten female House members. The class of 2008 includes less than half the number of women who first won office in 1992 – the so-called “year of the woman.” A record number of women are serving in Congress, but still only 17 percent of its members are female. This puts America on the same level of representation women have achieved in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. A United Nations tracking group estimates it will take women 40 years to reach parity with men.

In 2050, my step-daughter will be 59, my nieces will be 70 and 65, and my great-nieces will be 48, 43, and 41. The prospect of looking at them and thinking “what might have been” is one I’m not willing to tolerate.

We as men need to examine how we benefit when both men and women compete in the marketplace of ideas at the highest levels of our businesses and society. It is important to recognize that no good comes from leaving half of our best talent and minds on the sidelines. We must become champions and advocates for our best and brightest, regardless of gender. Men benefit from the excellent support women have historically given us. Men, it’s time to step up and support women.